"I'LL HUFF AND I'LL PUFF AND I'LL BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN"

 

Welcome to Wellington!

We thought that we'd left storm problems back in Whangarei - how naive was that? 

Last night, close to record breaking winds 'huffed and puffed' and nearly blew our house down ... or so it seemed. Being in a 'new' house we don't know how stable it is yet. Thankfully it stood up to everything that mean old Wellington the wolf threw at us. We could hear the wind screaming around the neighbourhood and the sounds of tree branches, rubbish bins, cats and dogs and sundry rubbish being blown about. I couldn't sleep very well and, at 3AM when I heard a continuous banging from downstairs I got up and investigated. It turned out that the wind had ripped open the electricity meter box and was hell-bent on smashing the thing by banging the cover door against the side of the house. The hinges and locking catch are now munted. In the rain and howling wind I managed to tape up the box with some masking tape - lots of it - which thankfully stayed in place. I went and bought some strong and waterproof tape this morning to do repairs when the rain stops. This will have to suffice until I can get the meter box replaced.

An hour later an almighty noise sent me downstairs again to discover this time that the wind had torn off the gas meter cover and was trying to send it over the fence and on to the road. For Robert's god's sake! I retrieved the cover and put it in the garage. I'll see about refitting it today when the wind drops.

Next an almighty crash and scraping sounds indicated that the storm hadn't finished with us. A very large and heavy real estate sign had been ripped off a fence and deposited on the road. Downstairs I went again and, lifting up the heavy and nail studded sign I demonstrated windsurfing as I laboriously manoeuvred the sign to a safer place than the road. Sheesh! Sheesh! Sheesh!

I did mention some of this in a comment on Richard's blog but as hardly anyone reads that I thought that I'd share the experience here. No need to thank me.