The Sun
Wednesday April 5, 2017
11
Wet month drops town ranking By Cathie Bell Blenheim is above Richmond in the sunshine stakes, but behind Tekapo and Whakatane. Weather data collected from the monitoring station at the Grovetown Business Park and collated by Plant and Food scientist Rob Agnew shows sunshine hours in March were 91 per cent of the long-term average, with 200.7 hours recorded. Total sunshine for the first three months of 2017 is 729.0 hours; 98.8 per cent of the long-term average recorded from 1930 to 2016 of 720.1 hours. That is not as sunny as the same period last year. Richmond has been above Blenheim in the sunshine hours rankings, but has dropped this month, Rob says, with the rankings for sunshine totals for the first three months of 2017 being Tekapo, Whakatane, Blenheim, and then Richmond. Soil moisture is higher this March than it was last year, Rob says, reflecting the more regular rain throughout the month. Last month, there was 47.0mm of rain, 108 per cent of the long term average for March of 43.4mm. Rainfall was recorded on 11 days during March, Rob says,
Social media star Lester Chan in Marlborough.
Sunsets ‘so awesome’ Rob Agnew
but six of those days recorded 1.0 mm or less. The highest one day rainfall was 26.0 mm recorded on 11 March. “Although March 2016 and March 2017 recorded almost identical rainfall totals, Marlborough is much less dry at the beginning of April 2017 than it was at the beginning of April 2016. Almost all of the March 2016 rainfall fell on 23 March, which meant that the rest of the month was very dry, whereas in March 2017 the rainfall was spread across a number of days during the month.”
By Cathie Bell Anyone with an interest in the outdoors and the good life should make their way to Blenheim, social media star Lester Chan says. Lester, known as @mrlesterchan with 8500 followers on social media, was in Marlborough last weekend as part of the Choice Hotels chain’s ‘TravelGrammer’ competition, charged with capturing and sharing their assigned region’s most exhilarating experiences, stunning landscapes and ‘Insta-worthy’ gastronomic escapades with their social media followers, in order to build a unique content series that encourages other Kiwis to explore the land of the long white cloud. After tours that included visiting a
vineyard and winery and kayaking on the Wairau Lagoons at sunset, Lester says it’s hard to describe just how ‘awesome and amazing’ Marlborough is. “I had an amazing time out there.” His favourite is ‘definitely the sunsets’, he says, delighted with the image he captured of a kakayer under a fiery sky. “They’re just lovely, the sunsets… I had such a great time, I could barely contain myself.” Born and raised in Singapore, Lester says that since he came to New Zealand three years ago, he has become ‘outdoorsy’ and wants to tell everyone about getting closer to nature in New Zealand’s beautiful places.
Choice Hotels general manager, marketing Matt Taylor says Instagram is a vital part of the company’s marketing strategy, and the campaign will not only help lift the profile of Choice Hotels, but New Zealand tourism in general. The winner of the Choice Hotels NZ TravelGrammer 2017 campaign will be announced mid-April. Any person who follows the @ Choice_Hotels_NZ Instagram page from 24 March 2017 to 18 April 2017 will be entered into the ‘Followers Competition’ and will go in the draw to win one of two short breaks at a Choice Hotels property within New Zealand.
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