Built for speed

NZ is a land built for speed - as it relates to dealing with rain. Some 200 to 400 mm of rain can fall in a day and while this would devastate rivers and flood towns back home, its almost a weekly occurrence here, and the drama unfolds quickly. The coastal valleys are of rock and sturdy beech forests, which drain the rain quickly. the chart below is from a local river that had a good deluge earlier this week, going from 1.5m of water depth to 3.6m of depth at the reporting station in a few hours. A 7 vertical foot increase would amaze us in Alberta, but a day or so after the front is over here, the flows return to normal, lest there be another front - which there often is.
It`s an amazing place for handling the rain. Just make sure you have an out if you fish a river before knowing the weather forecast...