Beach Party

New Zealand has been in the grip of damn cold weather over this last week, with ice-cold winds coming up from the Antarctic, lots of rain and thunderstorms.
And then today...jeez!

A tornado in Warkworth, several waterspouts around the country, cows struck dead by lightning, and coastal Bay Of Plenty experienced such a heavy hailstorm that the beach was white. Yeup, the white stuff in the pic ain't sand - it's hail! Merrymakers were having snowball fights by the waves while some surfers were being towed along the beach behind cars, boogieboarding through the ice!

Now check out the waterspout: experts say that monster was sucking water about 10km up into the sky! And look at the depth of hail around the red car parked on the street: that's right up over the wheels!