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It's just a few weeks since much of the country was whipped by waves of wild westerlies.
The weather was unusually severe - even for spring - downing trees that had stood for over 100 years, tipping trucks on state highways like toys and causing one heck of a clean up.
The power of the wind is something best-selling author Simon Winchester knows a lot about.
He's investigated it in a thought-provoking book called The Breath of the Gods: The History and Future of the Wind.
It covers the science of wind dynamics, how humans have tried to harness the wind, a look at its destructive powers - including New Zealand's 1968 Wahine disaster - and how the world's winds may be affected by a changing climate.
Simon will be making his way to New Zealand as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts for a talk on March 8. He joins Kathryn to talk about the genesis of his new book.
