Playing in the gutters

Tuesday 19th May: Overnight there was heavy rain and the back garden was soggy in places and underwater in others. In Kurow and Omarama there had been heavy flooding with land- and roadslips, and other places nearer Christchurch had flooded homes and the railway line.
By the time breakfast was over the skies had cleared but it was bitterly cold outside. We rang another homeschool family who are also having this week off and arranged to go for a local history walk up one end of town.
We walked to the Maori cemetery where Chief Huruhuru is buried. This site is where the Maoris lived when a white surveyor arrived in 1844 and when the first European arrived to settle here in 1854. Waimate was a seasonal camp for the Maoris, who hunted birds and captured eels while here. Chief Huruhuru welcomed Michael Studholme (from Cumberland) in peace after he had taken 6 weeks to walk here from Christchurch, and signed over land to him. Michael farmed it with his two brothers and maintained a good relationship with the Maoris here. From there we walked through Victoria Park and the WW2 Memorial Gate. This walk took just over an hour.

After lunch we popped down to town but the heavy rains suddenly returned and we ran to the library for cover. They gave the boys some balloons from an event they ran yesterday. When we got home the boys wanted to float their balloons in the gutters. The roads here are very wide and the gutters are deep and wide and continue for ages, not disappearing down grates like they do in England. Each driveway has a little bridge over the gutter to get to the road. As it is autumn here many of the channels under the numerous little bridges are blocked with leaves. This means the water in the channels runs fast in places and backs up and floods in others. A family we know spotted us playing on their way home from school and came in to play.
Tea was the second half of the topside of beef. I was out at a Gym Club meeting in the evening. The weather became stormy with more rain and gusty winds, with snow due overnight.
The photos are of the boys playing in the gutters!