"An Antarctic blast of snow, hail and sleet ushered in the first day of winter, bringing snow to sea levels and the first flurries in downtown Wellington in 14 years." So read the report in the Dominion Post of Monday, June 1, 2009, referring to the previous day, Sunday, the last day of May. It continued: "Icy southerly gales packing gusts of up to 120kmh buffeted the capital yesterday ..."

We experienced these conditions in Tawa as well, with the first snow flurries I've seen in the 12-and-a-half years I've lived here. Snowflakes swirled around in the air but didn't settle. What did settle was the hail as seen in the photo above, looking outside from my lounge window.

It was one of the coldest days I can recall in my time here. The gas heater inside was turned to a higher level for a longer time than normal, especially considering it was still only the day before the 'official' start to winter. The car thermometer recorded the outside temperature in the middle of the day as only 6 degrees (not taking into account any wind chill factor). It's pretty rare for the daytime temperature in these parts to be under 8 or 9 degrees, even in the depths of winter. So all in all, it was a rather chilly day, with Queen's Birthday, the following day, somewhat better but still subject to a very cold wind. Never mind, another 3 months and spring will be here!

- Malcolm Sparrow