VIDEO: Sandstorm at Owahanga Station

“The winds were strong and the gusts were even stronger. Each time I felt the full power of one in the face, I wished I'd never ventured out that day. Each blast picked up bucketloads of loose sand and launched it with the force of an angry toddler straight at my face. My camera case took a beating too - the sand leaving hundreds of tiny pits in the lens cover. I thought back to my experiences as a young person: all those night hikes, bike rides, rock climbs, abseils, cave trips, bivouacs. How could not one of them have prepared me for this, today? Well, this is New Zealand - that was southeast London.”