The meteorological imbalance caused by a lack of rain seems to be affecting the region's inhabitants.
Perhaps the misty rain in yesterday's early morning darkness was the final, frustrating straw for some. Because the rain, along with the region's hopes of some long term respite,evaporated as the day's light arrived.
Blame the drought, then, for the behaviour of a man near Waipu, south of Whangarei, who disrobed, his nakedness an unwanted distraction for motorists.
Blame the drought, too, for the behaviour of a steer, at the other end of the district at Kauri Sales Yards, which escaped its enclosure and ran off. Unwisely, it charged a policeman, but was rounded up alive.
And certainly, blame the drought for the potential disaster a fire threatened out west in the dry paddocks of Tangiteroria, before it was doused by firefighters. Dead grass throughout Northland is now ominous tinder, ready to burst into fiery life.
All this, within an hour or two on a warm Northland afternoon.
Elsewhere though, a slower-paced drama was unfolding - the Northern Advocate's futile pursuit of a supersonic car on 90 Mile Beach yesterday. Because having gone to the correct destination at the arranged time, nothing. Before we embarked on our Top Gear journey, we knew the perils of trying to find someone on 90 Mile Beach, where one mile looks like the next and humans in the distance vanish in the sand.
