Being a weather forecaster has become a very tricky business with New Zealand's weather seemingly becoming more and more unpredictable.
In recent years so-called weather "bombs" have become more common, as have rogue twisters and flooding. In some parts of the country this past weekend people were hunkered down asgale-force winds lashed their properties, taking roofing and trees with them. It sounded like Saturday was a wild day in some parts but as often seems to happen, Rotorua and surrounding areas were spared much of the stormy weather.
However, the winds did force some events to be cancelled and our region's biggest annual event, the New Zealand Ironman in Taupo, had to be rescheduled and shortened. Choppy waters and vicious winds would have seen carnage had the event been held as planned on Saturday.
Fortunately for us, the region wasn't as hard-hit as was initially anticipated and the big winds passed fairly quickly with little rain falling although temperatures dropped to wintry levels.
Which only added to the feeling that we've been a little ripped off given the few weeks that were summer for us.
It's autumn already - well, it seems like already.
And it seems like only a couple of weeks ago that summer actually began after a rather damp few months which had parents at home with children on school holidays, tearing their hair out as cabin fever struck.
