Typical NZ weather

Well thankfully the snow has basically disappeared, and as sometimes happens over here, we've gone from single digit temperatures to about 16 degC, with an 18 predicted for today.  Always good when the North Westerly wind blows after a snow, as that means it thaws quickly and doesn't lie for weeks as it can if it turns frosty. 

Our animals are outside all through the winter, but they actually cope with it really well, and it does keep them hardy and healthy.  The only time I wish we could put them inside is lambing and calving time when a horrible storm hits.  So long as they have enough to eat they are fine, as they have been bred for generations to cope.  Problem is even with shelter the ewes tend to lamb out in the middle of the paddocks as they still have plenty of wool on.  We did try to put a little East Friesian through the sheep at one stage a few years after we shifted to this farm, but it wasn't successful.  The lambs born were only 1/4 EF, but they died in the storms we had, whereas the more traditional breed we had, that had been bred many generations in NZ survived better.  We were farming Romneys then, and when we did shift to the hardy Perendale we added an instant 10% to the lambing survival rate.

The local skifield had an interesting 24 hours when the wind came up from the Nor'West though!   The weather forecast was for NW, but severe frosts, which would have meant the wind would've died down!  Hah!!  - did they get that wrong!
The snow was very dry and blew everywhere, so the access road was blocked and the avalanche risk became extreme.  And the wind kept blowing.  This happened during the afternoon, soooo for the first time in 23 years on that skifield they had people staying overnight in their day lodge.  250 PEOPLE.  So pleased it wasn't me, as the Lodge is not that big, and they weren't sure how long they'd be trapped, (as the gale kept coming) so they turned the generator off at 11pm until 5pm - would've been freezing (and it was apparently) even with all those bodies.  However, they were lucky and got them down middle of the next afternoon.  The cafe did have plenty of food for the night, and snow groomers did manage to get enough up the next morning for the following day. 
Everyone seemed happy and just grateful they didn't have an avalanche fall on top of them.