A New Year and Summer

I’ve often wondered how northerners deal with the end of the year, when the year doesn’t really end in December, and the New Year is just a continuation of the winter slog. Does it feel that way? I guess that’s why I love our seasons. We get a proper break and long holiday, everything including school starts again in January (well, except our tax year! lol), even summer doesn’t really start until late December (well, especially in the city where I live), and so it really feels like the start of a new year.

Each week in January it changes. I used to go back to work in the first week of January, because we rarely if ever travelled in January (too cold in the northern hemisphere, too busy in Asia, too hot in Australia, and too crowded in NZ. In January, people trickle back to work. For those of us who are not controlled by school schedules or work requirements, even though we’ve now had weeks of warm weather, now is when summer really begins. And begin it has. We’ve had day after day of fine weather and warm temperatures and, remarkably for Wellington, no winds. (Though I never complain if winds pick up overnight, and can cool our non-airconditioned suntrap-of-a-house down). Even yesterday, which was cooler with a southerly wind, our deck was sheltered and awash with the sun, and our house got very warm. One of these years we might actually get a heat pump/airconditioner unit! Still, our temperatures are moderate – they make summer pleasant, rather than unbearably hot.

The fine and warm weather is forecast to continue for another ten days. For those of you who live in more settled continental climates, this might seem unremarkable. But in New Zealand, an island in the Pacific Ocean, buffeted by winds coming up from Antarctica, wet tropical cyclones coming down from the South Pacific, weather is rarely settled. Parts of the country have had constant rain this summer. But here in Wellington, renowned for terrible weather, we’re having a lovely summer. So far. It could end at any time. It is unpredictable! Perhaps that’s why I like to talk about it more than most. Summer often feels fleeting, but it is beautiful. And I’m very grateful for it at the moment.

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