Drought!

It's official.  We're in a drought zone ...
Government declares drought in upper North Island

Drought-stricken farmers in Waikato and the Rodney, Papakura and Manukau districts are to get assistance from the Government.

Agriculture Minister David Carter today declared the areas as medium-level drought zones, triggering government relief measures. Drought was declared in Northland in late January.  The measures offered include tax assistance for farmers under the Income Equalisation Scheme, farm management advice, welfare support and funding for Rural Support Trusts to provide help.

Sadly as I'm not a farmer I won't benefit from any of the tax assistance measures on offer even though, as you can see, my garden is falling apart due to the same lack of water the farmers have been experiencing.
Apparently, according to NIWA,  it's been a record dry March for Auckland.  That probably explains the cracks in the ground you can see in the first image in this post.  Apparently we've had less than 50% of the usual rainfall for March this year so it's hardly surprising that many of the plants are suffering and turning yellow or brown.  Sometimes the colours are quite pleasing as you can see on the second image in this post.

Forecast for the weekend weather?  Hot and sunny of course!!