Pretty neat stuff. In fact, for a spell, there was a brilliant double rainbow. But that's cliche now so no sharing of that!
But what did it mean?
After coming off major fronts of rain every 18 to 36 hrs the past 10 days, I hate to admit some frustration and jaded spirit to the brilliant morning rainbow, but as I photographed it, I was more than a little grumbly. Not good at all. It was fascinating to look at and to comprehend though.
Look closely at the photo. It was morning. The sun rises in the east. Weather moves in from the west. I'm looking west. When was the last time you saw blue sky above a rainbow on the leading edge of weather that far in front of it? Here's what's happening in the photo. A major low pressure front is sitting on the alps, 40km west dumping heavy rain. A wicked Nor'wester (wind warnings for 150kmh winds just north of us) is howling down the valley. The sun is rising. The heavy wind is pushing sheets of rain horizontally 20 to 30 km east of the edge of the front like a giant sprinkler. Hence, we're treated to a what would normally be a beautiful rainbow scene with blue sky, knowing that as we set out for our drive we can't fish east due to wind, we can't fish west due to rain, but we can go for a drive. And here's what it looked like all day as we drove west looking for clear water.
We found 500m of a spring cr that hadn't blown out about 2.5 hrs away and had a few good moments with 5 fish in it. The we drove back and saw every single creek, stream, and river oozing mud.
So, sorry folks, the morning rainbow wasn't too spiritual. Sorry for being a downer! :)
Hey, on the upside it's a beautiful morning!
The downside is this glorious sunny day can't be fished as the rivers are cranked... and a major 2 day front is moving in for tomorrow - Tuesday. Just 200+mm a day for 2 days...
:) we're in it now.
3 comments:
That rainbow is amazing but the weather is horrendous Dave and Amelia. I cannot believe the intense weather that has hit the South Island. Not much you can do for a few days. When the rivers get back into shape, the browns are going to be hungry.
Karen and I were talking about visitors that came to NZ for two weeks to fly fish. If their timing was off, they would not get much fly fishing in with sustained weather like you are experiencing.
Karen is offering to return and bring the blue sky back with her. A Christmas day warm up is upon us here in Red Deer.
Exactly. That's why we want to do a dvd that tells the real fly fishing in NZ experience. There will be some great stuff about the fly fishing, but folks need to know the rest of the story. And the new forecast here is the worst yet.
Oh, and I wanted to follow up by saying there are definite places to fish still, you just have to move around a lot and be very flexible. It's not the end of the world, unless you have to be at one accommodation location. Then the driving kms add up.
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