Journal: Rain, Rain.

We have our rain at long last and our long standing drought is over. For 4 days now we have had rain at sometime during the day, mainly at night-time and a few showers during the day.

Many years ago when Gillian and Ian were small I cut a path on the steep slopes of our section going in a semi-circle below where we dumped our garden refuse. Over the many years the path became eroded by rain on the steep slope and a succession of pet goats we kept on a running line to keep the undergrowth in check. The biggest problem was the goat of the moment, stretching and pulling to reach that dainty, leafy morsel of just out of reach and scrabbling the soil down with its forefeet. Slowly the path I had cut disappeared.

Now that the rain has soaked into the parched soil I have cut a new path which was suprisingly easy. Most of the eroded soil was loose and was the remnants of our 39 years of garden waste.

The rain has not been kind to some people. On the east side of the lower Coromandel coast from Tauranga and further down the rain has caused a lot of damage to hillside homes, some being washed off their bases or moved off by mud and rock movement from the upper slopes. Some homes have been left teetering on the edge of veritable, newly formed cliffs.

The worst hit was the small town of Matata south of Tauranga. Many, many homes have been damaged and many have been condemned as irreparable. Houses, cars and larger vehicles swept away, then buried in the mud. The shots on the TV news was just like the tsunami shots of the recent earthquake.

The rain we got was minor in comparison. The storm came from the Pacific Tropics. It hasn't finished yet but the worst is probably over.