Winter in Wellington!

When we left the Falkland Islands in 2010, we genuinely believed that we would never live in a snowy environment again. Unless the remote chance of a fantastic job offer in Wanaka or Queenstown came up (because we’ve always said we’d jump at the chance of living there).

But yesterday a majorly cold weather front came into Wellington and we had real snow that actually settled all around us, not just on the mountain tops but properly on the ground.

This is a very unusual event in Wellington – people who’ve lived here for 30 or 40 years are saying they’ve never seen anything like it - and it’s being referred to by the local media as Wellington’s “once in a lifetime polar blast”. 

Unfortunately Wellington’s a very hilly city and not really set up for this weather. Last night, motorists were trapped, cars were sliding backwards down the steep roads, people were abandoning their vehicles and walking home.  It’s pretty chaotic out there!

When we lived with snow on a regular basis a couple of years ago, we became desensitized to how magical it is, and it often just seemed inconvenient - especially with two very small children who really needed fresh air and outside play.

But as the kids are a bit bigger now, it was different last night – different also because it is most definitely out of the normal weather range we’re all used to these days.

There was just huge excitement in the family when the snow started falling. We had a snowball fight and built a snowman, and the kids were still talking about it when they woke up in the morning today.

The snow is coming down fast and heavy again now, so I’m off to switch the heating on....brrrrr!