It's been raining all day.

Hard.

Tauranga has had 25% of it's annual rainfall in just the past 24 hours. And it shows.

We drove through this lot this afternoon on Fraser Street;



and we drove past this lot down Courtney Road this afternoon;



and then we stopped at the bottom of our hill at the rugby park so that Heather could do this;



The greater Tauranga area tonight has over 60 people evacuated, houses sliding down hillsides, slips galore, homes flooded with waist-deep water contaminated with sewage, floating cars, ruined roads and another 100mm of rain is forecast before tomorrow morning.

And if we do indeed get that rain, then tomorrow our backyard park will likely look like this, which is what it looked like on May 3 2001 when the picture was taken. That time, the sewage washed down the river from the septic tanks upstream rendered the park unsafe and unusable for over 6 months.

So far, this evening, it only looked like this;



Tonight, some people are homeless, some have been evacuated temporarily to Baycourt theatre, some face financial ruin if they have no insurance, some are having their evacuated homes looted. Some are driving into holes in the road because brainless wankers are moving the warning signs and cones from where they have been placed.

Roads are washed out, people are stranded, pets are lost and we have boards, plastic and soil across our driveway to stop the neighbours water cascading down from their lawn and flooding my house for the fourth fucking time in 6 years.

Just another day (and night) in Paradise. Thank you God.

Thanks a lot.