2013 New Zealand winter storm [20 June] it moved across Cook Strait to create a new low just east of Kaikoura... that was the real kick in pants that caused a clockwise circle of wind." -Associate Professor James Renwick at the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University has researched how polar conditions affect our weather. "To get an event like this, which is pretty extreme, we need the westerly wind that normally blows across New Zealand and the southern oceans to slow down and to buckle into a series of big meanders, north-south waves around the hemisphere." The air was so
Dog Island (New Zealand) Dog Island (New Zealand) Dog Island (Motu Piu in Māori) is located in Foveaux Strait some from Bluff, New Zealand. It holds New Zealand's tallest lighthouse and since the maritime structure was fully automated in 1989, the island has been uninhabited. The name of the island is thought to be descriptive, with the shape of the island appearing like a dog, and the reef on the north-west corner of the island being locally known as the Dog's Tongue. The Māori name ("motu": island, and "piu": to swing) refers to Māori legend of a large pounamu turning into this island. Dog