I had been told that the source of the Waikato River was a spring at the Eastern foothills of the mountains of the Central Volcanic Plateau. When I arrived at the place, on the 20th December, summer, it’d been snowing. How odd that was for me the Southern Hemispherian. Soon enough I found the stream after trudging over the landscape from the Tukino Ski Field road entrance off State Highway One, I photographed in all directions, the shallow pebbly stream, the clear blue sky, and magical snowy wilderness. But I couldn’t get this anomalous snowfall off my mind. The year 2006 was one hell of a weather ride, says the Herald...and the December climate was extreme, says The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), being the coldest in 60 years. The month was characterized by frequent southerly episodes, in part related to a moderate to strong El Nino event that was in place for the second half of 2006. The El Nino Southern Oscillation is a seesaw of the ocean-atmosphere system that occurs in the tropical Pacific. Although it happens far, far away from New Zealand, it does have some impact here. Typically during El Nino phases we see more southerly flows than normal, and cooler air temperatures, over New Zealand. But December 2006 was really one for the record books. Temperature records were smashed between Taupo and Wellington, including the Central Plateau, Taupo monthly temperatures ran nearly 3 degrees Celsius below what is typical for this time of year; Chateau a chilling 2.5 degrees down on average. Because of the extremely low temperatures, and high frequency of southerly outbreaks, several snowfalls occurred during the month across the Plateau. This is a beautiful, if violent, reminder that New Zealand weather is highly variable. We straddle the mid-latitudes and so are prone to weather both from the tropics to the north, and the Southern Oceans to the south. Research Assistant Melanie Tollemache