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
New Zealand State Highway 71 New Zealand State Highway 71 State Highway 71 (SH 71) is a New Zealand state highway connecting Kaiapoi/Christchurch with Rangiora. The highway was declared in 1992 after State Highway 72, the highway which serviced inland parts of Canterbury, was revoked (along with a number of other highways). SH 71 provided a southern connection to Rangiora from SH 1 in contrast to SH 72, which connected Rangiora to SH 1 from the east. SH 71 can be accessed via offramps coming off SH 1 (as the Christchurch Northern Motorway). Smith Street, coming from Kaiapoi, also flows onto SH 71. Initially a