I've been following the weather with interest this week. First of all, I was very glad when the wind and rain disappeared late last weekend. We were at a wedding in Whakatane on Saturday afternoon/evening, and boy, did it rain. With the wedding in a garden in something that was a bit more substantial than a marquee (think marquee with hard walls and floor), with a portaloo outside, and a four minute walk up a long, dark, mud and puddle infested driveway in a storm separating you from the car, it was certainly a memorable wedding reception.
Now, with beautiful clear skies, light winds, and frosty mornings, you'd be forgiven for thinking there's a big fat high pressure system sitting over us. But there isn't. For the last few days, we (by which I mean at this end of the country) have been in or around a saddle-point, in terms of pressure. There have been lows to the north and south, highs to the east and west, and somewhere in the middle over us. I note today that things have rotated a bit, so the lows now lie east and west, with a high to the north and another approximately south. Here's a picture I've stolen from the metservice website this morning (www.metservice.com, 18 July 2014, 11am); it's the forecaset for noon today. Note how NZ is sandwiched between two lows, but isn't really covered by either.