Weather and Traffic Reports

After three weeks of balmy weather on Kapiti, I've been seduced into believing that the climate here rivals Northland's for comforting warmth. (Though not for rain- it's dry as a bone and I read the D word in the local paper yesterday- yes drought, at the end of winter no less.) Yesterday, walking past dark peaty onion fields it felt more like summer than spring. So good, in fact, is life on the Coast that I have taken the momentous decision to come and live here.

I think the deciding factor was when I suddenly realised I had managed a good night's sleep without putting in the earplugs. My first week or two of sleeping on the verge of State Highway One and the Main Trunk Line passed in a series of broken nights- every articulated truck and freight train roaring up the incline induced a startle reflex and a heart pounding adreneline rush. I would lie awake feeling as though the vehicles were actually driving through the bedroom. And this was with earplugs in! Then I bought more expensive earplugs and the traffic noise subsided to a dull rumble that barely broke into my dreams. And finally, one night last week I forgot to put the plugs in and woke up in the morning refreshed and empty-eared, and so it has continued.