Wet and wild water play

A combination of T-shirt-warm weather and a sudden downpour that flooded drains last night provided the perfect playground for Otematata holidaymakers (from left) Max (11) and Ella Gomez (7), of Dunedin, Grace (8) and William McCone (11), of Christchurch and Jed (6) and Zach Gimblett (9), of Christchurch.

Tony Gomez said the Gomez, McCone and Gimblett families were holidaying together in their Buller Crescent holiday home.

The unexpected heavy downpour, which had lasted for about 30 minutes and was accompanied by thunder and lightning, resulted in the perfect "shower" for the children, Mr Gomez reckoned.

Otematata's automatic weather station recorded the greatest rainfall rate yesterday as 81mm per hour at 6.51pm. As at 8.45pm last night a total of 20mm of rain had fallen since midnight on Wednesday.