Gale force winds, rain and snow battered parts of Otago,closing roads and disrupting power and transport services. Cold sou'westers averaged 107 km/h on the Otago Peninsula and a concrete hulled yacht was holed at a marina near Lyttelton.

Humans walk at about three miles an hour, and run at around five. It is the shape and musculature of the human body that determines this. We are nei...