The difference is 18 degrees

18 Degrees was what it took to recapture my love of riding in the rain yesterday. Regular readers of this page (both of you) will be aware of my love of riding in the rain. It has actually reached the point where I hope for rain everytime I get on the bike, considering it preferable to when it's not raining. Incredibly, for all the wonderful rain rides I've had, it only took a few rides in freezing rain to give me some trepidation about it.

That love relationship was sorely tested in New Zealand* , or more specifically, Invercargill. So leaving aside the 90km/h winds that accompanied the rain in the city that claims to be the southern-most in the world (but isn't), what's the difference? 18 degrees. By a staggering coincidence (or an evil conspiracy if you're that way inclined), the temperature difference between Gold Coast rain yesterday and Invercargill rain on March 1 was 18 degrees Celcius (24 C here and 6 C over there). The difference between the latitudes of those respective cities is also 18 degrees (Invercargill being 46 degrees South, the Gold Coast being 28).

Yes, these are some of the crazy things I think of when I ride. Most of them I forget immediately, but occasionally something completely pointless will stick in my mind for a while. About the only other thing I remember about yesterday afternoon's downpour on the way home from work is that it was wonderful. Now I can look forward to it raining again.

* Note: I haven't added a link to my NZ tour to the sidebar yet because I'm still uploading pictures to it. There are currently 268 pictures uploaded from the first three weeks or so. The rest will follow when I find some time.