Plenty of April sun in Taranaki
Rainfall in Taranaki during April was among the lowest ever recorded for the month.
Taranaki Regional Council weather data showed total rain- fall recorded in the region was well below normal, ranging between 28 and 77 per cent, with an average of 54 per cent for the month.
Pa¯ tea had its lowest April rainfall since 1994, with 32.8 millimetres – or 28 per cent of normal.
To date the South Taranaki town has had only 116mm, or
38 per cent of normal rainfall since January 1.
Rainfall was recorded on only seven days in April at the Pa¯ tea Bore 3 weather site, and six days at the Ngutuwera site at Waitotara.
Mangati at Bell Block and Waitotara coast weather sites both recorded the lowest minimum rainfall for April with
58.4mm and 32.6mm respectively. Rainfall levels on Mt Taranaki were also low with sites recording between 51 and 73 per cent normal monthly levels.
Overall rainfall for the region to date is 38 to 80 per cent of normal, resulting in river flows in the Waitara and Waingongoro Rivers being 35 per cent below mean flow levels.
Stratford took the honours for the highest regional temperature for the month at 23.8 degrees Celsius, nudging Inglewood (23.6C) into second spot, while Whareroa had the lowest temperature at 1.14C.
Stratford was the only site to record above its average April air temperature for the month with 13.6C, 0.07C warmer than the long-term monthly average for the site.
Okato, at Mangatete Rd, had the highest recorded temperature for April since 2015, with 23.2C.
Pohokura Saddle was the only site to record a soil moisture level higher than its monthly average, at 3.15 per cent. All other sites were between 0.21 and 11.7 per cent below normal.
Boxer Tarn ‘‘The Terminator’’ Reid doesn’t shy away from challenges so when a mate tagged her in the Goggins Challenge, she didn’t take a backward step.
The gruelling task, devised by retired US Navy Seal, triathlete, ultramarathon runner, and author David Goggins, involves running 6.5 kilometres every four hours for 48 hours – a total of 84.5km.
Reid, who made history by winning the Australian National Boxing Federation’s Australasian Lightweight title in November, said after doing a few quick calculations she decided to take up the challenge.
‘‘I knew that it would push me and I would be in a world of pain mentally and physically,’’ the 41-year-old said.
Reid recruited her manager Andrew Castles to take part, and they began their first leg at 8pm on Friday.
On the first leg, things felt all right and the pair knew to pace themselves but it wasn’t long before the enormity of the task hit them. ‘‘About run three, we were starting to think this is actually going to be quite hard. We weren’t even 12 hours in, and we still had a long way to go.’’
Torrential rain and strong winds on Sunday didn’t help and Reid admits there were some dark times.‘‘On the second to last leg, we didn’t speak to each other for the whole way.’’
As 48 hours ticked over, the duo began their last stint and with only six hours’ sleep they got a second wind and knocked out their fastest leg.
The pair ended up doing 85km because of a GPS malfunction.
Castles said he had been happy to help Reid, who he described as ‘‘one tough chick’’.