Last year at this time we were exploring the far north of NZ. One place named "Long Beach" is about 10 minutes out of Russell and it was a scorching hot day. This year we're facing a heatwave and the prospect of a drought - everything is so dry and it need of at least 2 days of rain. We have had to pre-order a water delivery for next week as sometimes there can be a 2 week wait. We were meant to have a large storm hit us yesterday but in the end all we got was 5 minutes of moisture and that was it. Other than that we have made plans to visit the West Coast of the South Island in 2 weekends time to check it out and see what we think. We will fly down to Nelson and the other half's sister who lives down that way has kindly offered us the use of her car so we don't have to hire one. And I started work last week, at the moment it's very part time like as in 2-3 days a week but it's better than nothing.