We had a wonderful sunny weekend and I hear the summer is going to be drier than the last one (and the winter that followed).  New Zealand is a very lush country and everything grows wild. Nature is very good at reclaiming its territory when left alone. In the most unusal places you can find reminders of battles between settlers and nature. It must have been extremely difficult to get the huge machinery into the bush and when the pioneers finally gave up their plans they just left it there to slowly rust away.