Wintry blast closes roads and airport
Conrad Smith who come in down the list with, respectively, $67,940 and $66,300 a month.
It seems veterans are valued in France too, with long-time Top 14 regulars Joe Rokocoko ($42,000), David Smith ($42,00) and Jason Eaton ($40,400) among the top tier of salaries. Little wonder they’re still running around on the French scene.
Predictably glamour clubs Toulon and Racing 92 dish out the highest salaries, with Racing just edging Toulon for top honours with an average monthly wage of $53,380. FORECASTERS have labelled the weekend’s plunging temperatures as ‘‘the first proper cold outbreak of the winter’’.
The deep south and Central Plateau were hit hardest yesterday as the first Antarctic blast of the year cancelled flights from Queenstown Airport and closed two state highways.
By last night, a freezing southerly flow sat over the country, but the worst of the snow had passed.
Flights in and out of Queenstown Airport were delayed and cancelled due to snow on the runway until 11.30am and State Highway 87, from Sutton to Outram, was closed.
The coldest part of the country was Swampy Summit in the hills of Otago at -3C.
In the North Island, snow sprinkled the hills surrounding Wellington and continued to fall on the Central Plateau, including Mt Ruapehu, into the evening.
The Desert Rd was closed, with several vehicles reportedly becoming stuck in snowy conditions.
‘‘Over the next 24 to 48 hours you’ll just see an improving trend, with the showers easing and the wind easing. It does mean there’s going to be clear skies, so we expect very cold temperatures overnight, with some possible severe frosts,’’ MetService meteorologist Sarah Haddon said.
South Islanders could expect clear skies and more freezing temperatures tonight, she said.
Today, showers were expected in Wairarapa, parts of the Wellington region, coastal areas of Hawkes Bay and Gisborne, Manawatu and Taihape.
‘‘Most of the rest of the North Island should be relatively fine, but again it’s still an improving trend tomorrow. So where there are showers, they should slowly be getting less and less and clearing into Monday,’’ Haddon said.