So on Friday the news was all about this massive storm which was due to hit the North Island… Apparently the biggest in 10 years. Hmmm. Seemed pretty unbelieveable with the lovely day we had on Fri, and after working about 60 hours in five days, the last thing I wanted to do was head to the shops to stock up on candles etc (we are in the middle of making our way through the last season of the Sopranos…it’s important to have goals).

Saturday came and we kept an eye on the weather. It was raining very heavily (but we DO live in Auckland) and the wind got pretty high but by 2pm we were still pretty skeptical of the news reports. Then, at 4:30pm – when I’d finally knuckled down to do some work, the lights and computer in the study went off. Yup, the powercut had begun.

We were supposed to be heading across town to meet some friends to check out the new Batman film but decided to flag given there were trees falling on the road left, right and centre and there were roads closed etc. But we did jump in the car for a mission down the road to stock up on candles… We have a few but didn’t know if they’d last the distance.

We drove out of our neighbourhood and not much to be seen – shops shut, cafes closing, and I saw the classic sight of a girl standing outside the hairdressers with foils in…. Oh-oh, I’m guessing her hair’s a bit blonder than she’d bargained on today!

We had to drive through a few neighbourhoods before we found one with power, and the first shop we went to had completely sold out of candles. The second one had some left but was all out of batteries and pretty low on torches… So we stocked up on candles and headed home for a night around the dining table playing Trivial Pursuit by candlelight and listening to the wireless.

Anyway, I suppose the point of this long winded story was to talk about being prepared. I’ve never been much of a boy scout – seems a bit nerdy and pessimistic. In the finish, our power was down for a total of about 15 hours, so not long enough for frozen stuff to go off or insulin to go bad. However I think next time I’ll try to be a bit more diligent and get out the chilly bin or Frio pouches for my insulin and stockpile some glucose tablets.