defrosting the car

It 7 degrees below, white as snow and foggy. Yes, its definitely a winter morning. I am getting into the habit of early rises. Its hard the first morning, but after that, its easy (ish). But what is a killer, it defrosting the snowy white car at dawn.

Its not like home, with a kettle full of cold water, bingo car sorted. It takes me 10 minutes of persistence to get the car defrosted and at that its not, but I can see through a gap in the window. As I pour the water onto the car, it froze in the bottle onto the edges. Its an art, trying to get the water temperature right. It needs to be warm enough not to freeze and cold enough not to crack the windscreen (not that I have ever seen that happen).

Today, in parts of Central Ottago (the general area or province around Wanaka) it actually dropped to 17 degrees below. That was a lot further south, but still it gives you a feeling. The frost only thaws in places during the day, and shady parts remain frozen all day long.

For the greater part of most days, we wake up to the inversion layer. A low lying system of clouds that cover Wanaka and Albert town. The sun sometimes burns this off but for a lot of it, the village does not see sunshine. However, up on the ski fields, the weather tends to be glorious, as they rise above the inversion layer.