[Timbo]

Winter's icy fingers touch Christchurch


MetService warns of severe gales along Kaikoura Coast moving to east of Nth Island later today



24 April 2005

Forecasters are warning that winter is well on the way.

Christchurch has been pounded by marble-sized hail overnight and the Port Hills are draped in snow. Snow has also blanketed the Central Plateau's Desert Road.

MetService says up to five centimetres of snow is likely to fall on the Milford and Lindis Pass Roads.

Severe wind warnings are in place for Southland and coastal areas of the South Island and will move east of the North Island later today.

Forecaster Mark Pascoe says the cold wintry blast will last until at least tomorrow afternoon. He says it will be an unpleasant weekend in a lot of places.

[robothamma]

I bet those Log Cabins are lovely and warm though Timbo! :laugh :nice1 The Log cabins I have stayed in have been warmer than a house :nice1 Forget burning the logs lets have some of those Log Cabins I think they look great ( on a xmas card anyway with deep snow all around, open fire crackling sheepskin on the floor etc etc... I have great rose coloured glasses :laugh )

And so I'll be off back outside now in my Tee-shirt! :laugh :laugh :laugh

[Moorf]

It certainly is icy here in Chch. Have had fire going from the minute we get up and then keeping it going thru the night :eek quite lovely last night though curled up on cushions in front of fire watching a good horror film :nice1

Our macrocarpa supply turned up last Monday THANK GOD!!! It's sooo much better than the crap pine we were using before (bags from garage cost approx $9 for c. 10 logs), the macro burns really well down to like coal - a lovely glowing mass of embers... *pause to warm hands by fire before they seize up*....

If you haven't already got your firewood orders in then you must do it quicky - the best woods are already running out and they are charging more now than they did when we ordered a couple of months ago (we paid $368 for 4.5m of macro plus 1.5m pine offcuts). City Firewoods now have a 4-6 week delivery lead time too :eek If you have a tow bar, however, you can borrow a trailer from them and take home a good few weeks supply to tide you over.

Plus, hire a stacker! It took 2 stackers 2.5hrs to stack up our wood shed :eek and the cost of having them? A mere $40! They charge $20 per 3m of ordered wood and it is WELL worth it. It would have taken Woz and I alot longer than 2 hours to stack it and no way could be have done it as professionally (or without much moaning and wailing from me!! :laugh :laugh ) or, indeed, the chiropractor cost of fixing our backs afterwards :laugh :laugh :laugh

[dave k]

I'm really feeling for you South Island guys at the moment...it's cold enough here in Welly. Mind you, we do live in an unheated house with just one portable gas heater for the whole place :wah

Went to The Warehouse & stocked up on slippers & thermal underwear today.

Still, it'll probably be scorchingly hot again in a few days. It's very weird like that, eh?

[sarahw]

Ha Dave! We were in the Warehouse doing the slipper thing too!!!

Luckily we have central heating (sorry try not to sound too happy about that!) but I'm only saving it for extreme emergencies!

[jocalla]

Warehouse is busy!!!!! Thats where we were today aswell getting the slippers :laugh

We are in a new place too and have heating BUT I am worried about running up my electric bill :eek :eek

I saw these oil filled heaters in Warehouse, anyone know whether they are economical :?
Or any other sugestions would be great :nice1


Joanne :cheers

[dave k]

Funny you should mention the heaters. I was glancing at them too :)

My only experience of buying an electrical product at The Warehouse, though, was a lamp I got a couple of months ago. It blew up and melted half the bulb to the plastic fitting the other day. :laugh

Needless to say, it didn't fill me with confidence in their largely Chinese-made consumer products. I also heard about a friend tonight who had bought one of those mini oil heaters in the past....had no end of trouble with it, took it back to be replaced twice...then gave up & got his money back.

Slippers & t-shirts are good though!

:mrgreen:


AND.....I saw some wooden-handled, cast iron skillets in there today at $25 - , about 12" base & a good 2" deep. Nothing fancy, but SOLID as...and you can't really muck up cast iron can you?

Have to grab one of them next week .

[jocalla]

AND.....I saw some wooden-handled, cast iron skillets in there today at $25 - , about 12" base & a good 2" deep. Nothing fancy, but SOLID as...and you can't really muck up cast iron can you?

Have to grab one of them next week .

Silly question sorry, but what are skillets :oops:

Joanne :cheers

[robothamma]

It's a posh frying pan! isn't it? :oops: :laugh

[dave k]

It's a proper frying pan ;)

Certainly not posh....it's $25!! We're not talking Le Creuset here.

Just a big, heavy wooden-handled pan.

And if the handle falls off after a few years, you use it as an oven dish.

Bargain! :clap

[jo b]

AND.....I saw some wooden-handled, cast iron skillets in there today at $25 - , about 12" base & a good 2" deep. Nothing fancy, but SOLID as...and you can't really muck up cast iron can you?

Have to grab one of them next week .

Aw Dave you have some faith :laugh

[Moorf]

Won't be buying any electrical goods from Warehouse again after the plastic on the toaster we bought there melted :roll:

It's prob a bit late now but best time to buy your heaters is in the summer (funny that eh!) we got 2 big oil heaters from Bond & Bond for $80-something last year. :nice1

If anyone coming, or already in, Chch wants to borrow them give me a shout, our woodburner is all we need at this place.

[jocalla]

we got 2 big oil heaters from Bond & Bond for $80-something last year. :nice1



Were they pricey to run Moorf ??

[Moorf]

I really don't know!! :oops: I guess the cost of running them was less important than frost-bite at the time! I suspect they are expensive to run, although they do have thermostats, our rental was open plan so they just kept belting out heat - they just about took the chill off unless, like me, you were virtually SAT on them... for a small room, i.e. a bedroom, they'd be ideal....

[jocalla]

Thanks :nice1