Hey Mister, can we please have our sun back?

There is nothing quite like the 21 June to really hammer home the difference between living in the UK and NZ. Well that and the fact that one nation defines itself far too much by sporting prowess and the other has an over eager appetite for meat-filled pastry products. I'll let you decide which.

Anyway I would've thought that, after a couple of goes at this Mid-Winter-In-June lark, I would have been better prepared. Nope. Not at all.

No amount of chilled Sauvignon Blanc is going to trick my subconscious into believing it's summer. I should know - I've certainly tried! And just as wine-related relief doesn't work, neither does reading stories of a heat wave in the UK. In fact, if I'm being honest, it goes right against the grain it does. The very nerve.

Yes, seeing images of people laying spread-eagled in parks and on beaches whilst we're languishing in near-permanent darkness just doesn't seem right. In June? There should be a law against that. What makes it worse is that, rather than celebrating the arrival of warm weather (which let's face it doesn't happen that often in the UK) the papers are full of dire warnings about heat stoke, poor air quality or sunburn. Sheesh, there's no pleasing some people. It's summer so suck a Solero!

I can though totally emphasise with heat wave issues. Just as the cold is hard to bear, it's not nice being too hot. At least with the cold you can always put on another layer, when you're down to your undies there really is nowhere else decent to go.....

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the globe, winter in New Zealand seems like it goes on for an absolute age. Other than Matariki* there is nothing to break up the monotony of three months of dark and cold weather. But thankfully, after today, we're on the up. Time to get our ball back. 

But that is at least another two months away. Before then, we have to get through the absolute miserableness of July and August, both of which are full months. At least in the UK one of the winter months has the decency to be short. Yes I'm looking t you February. You may be bone-chilling cold but at least you're short!

I afraid there's nothing alternative but to escape to some winter sun for as long as possible. Which is why this year we're heading to Northern Australia. Yes there is a chance we'll be bitten by spiders, attacked by wild dogs or chomped by crocodiles but at least we won't be cold! Drastic times call for drastic measures.

It can't come soon enough. In the meantime I'll have to revert to my alcohol based solution. Yes I know I've already said that it doesn't work, but no one ever gets criticised for trying too hard do they!

 

*In the Māori language Matariki is both the name of the Pleiades star cluster and also of the season of its first rising in late May or early June. This is a marker of the beginning of the new year. 

In Your Eyes

It seems incredible that we're approaching our third anniversary in Aotearora. Which is, incidentally, what we are now obliged to call our adopted home. Either that or we're being overly pretentious. I'll let you choose. 

Anyway, after three years on these islands it's not unreasonable to expect that some of the more dramatic aspects of this stunning country have faded into the background as the mundane seeps into everyday life.

I suppose it's inevitable. There are, after all, bills to be paid, insurance policies to be arranged, cars to be serviced and work to be ...well worked. Heads down and just getting on with it.

Of course every now and then something will drag you by the lapels back to fact that your are in the Southern Hemisphere and so very fortunate to be here. But it's easy to forget as you go through the weekly routine.

That is, however, until you host a visitor from another far flung place. Of course it's all relative, just as to some the thought of standing on top of an active volcano field whilst sipping Sauvignon Blanc sounds exotic, there are those who yearn to see a building that was built before 1860 and marvel at the sheer audacity of it all. 

So, speaking of relatives (see what I did there!), we've had the great fortune to welcome our nephew to this fascinating country. If there was any doubt that New...sorry Aotearora... was a long way from the UK you just had to witness the sheer look of bewilderment and confusion on his face as he stepped into the arrival lounge. "Where am I?", "What day is it?" and "What's that smell?" all rolled into one strange expression. Well, not to beat about the bush and for the record;

1/. Auckland, New Zealand

2/. Friday evening

3/. You

Ahem, so where was I? Oh yes, visitors.

Flashback to when we first arrived at our new employer and I was asked if anyone had promised to visit. "Sure," I said.

"Well, and I hope they do, but you'll be sick-to-death of seeing the same things over and over again by the time you've done it several times," came the rather jaded response. An opinion I hadn't asked for nor welcomed. Of course they were British.... or more accurately from Yorkshire.

Was it true? Would we really start to resent doing the same thing over and over? Would that be our destiny - to go through the motions for visitors who have bothered to travel 12,000 miles to see us and the most southern country of the Commonwealth? Surely not?

Well I can categorically state what a load of chuff, to use a phrase the miserable Yorkshireman would understand. It couldn't be further from the truth.

Firstly, living this far from family and friends is not easy, so it's really appreciated when they make the effort to travel this far. It's really great to have visitors, and not just for their smuggled tea bags and Galaxy chocolate, although that does help....

And secondly, we're only too happy to show visitors the things that caught our imagination. 

If I could bottle the reaction on visitors faces when they see for the first time Rangitoto, Auckland's very own volcanic guardian, steam and bubbling mud in the local park in Rotorua, the sheer vastness of Great Lake Taupo when they're told it's the the crater of an active volcano or the majestic beauty of the snow capped Southern Alps I'd be a very fortunate person. 

Seeing their reaction reminds us what it was that made us come to live here, momentarily lifting the veil of the daily routine. 

It's really a privilege to share what we've experienced with loved ones, and we get a real thrill when they see what we saw. Through their eyes if you like. It really is a win-win situation. They get the thrill of the adventure and we get satisfaction in the knowledge that we weren't truly bonkers to throw it all up in the air and travel to the other side of the world. Well not as bonkers as we feared anyway.

And if that sounds all too serious for a Friday evening then I apologise. Right, it looks like we're starting our descent into Queenstown so I'll say tara for a bit....somewhere down there there's a pint with my name on it and a nephew who is desperate for a race on the mountain luge. He just doesn't know it yet!