Erosional effects of recent and past cloudbursts in the Godley Valley, Lake Tekapo

[First paragraphs...]
Each year a cloudburst somewhere in New Zealand makes the headlines. This report describes the ecological effects of a recent cloudburst in the South Island high country and gives evidence of similar cloudbursts in the past.
On 26 December 1957 a cloudburst occurred in the headwaters of the, Tasman and Godley Rivers, with the Hermitage recording an all-time maximum of 19 inches of rain in a day. This rain was from a northwest air flow and a change to the southwest early on the 27th probably resulted in little additional rain (Meteorological Office -pers. comm.).