Out of Time

I think I might have to admit that I was wrong. I know, shocking. Having now been given a fresh perspective, and fresh being the key word here, perhaps The Gold Coast does has its charms after all.

We arrived back into Auckland in the early hours of yesterday morning, never a good time to arrive anywhere it has to be said, with the temperature barely above ten degrees. Or to give it its correct meteorological term, Bloody Freezing. How can that be? In a short space of time, a relatively quick three hour flight, we went from the balmy evening weather of The Gold Coast to a city where autumn was in full swing. Our attire of shorts, t-shirts and sandals seemed incongruous with our surroundings. Still it was the middle of the night so the cool weather was to be expected I suppose, and there wasn’t anyone around to wonder why we so poorly dressed. Tomorrow would be better.....

We learned, from a knowledgeble taxi driver on the way from the airport, that Auckland had recently been hit by an unexpected storm. Lashed with heavy rain and winds in excess of 100kph the city had taken a real battering. Trees were down, windows smashed, traffic lights at intersections off causing misery for weary commuters and over 150,000 homes were without power - a far cry from the late summer weather that we had left behind just shy of two weeks ago. 

Although the storm had now officially passed through the next day wasn’t much better, our moods no doubt further dampened by being back in work and ever so slightly jetted-lagged. Whilst the day was reasonably without incident, leaving the office was a real shock. Who turned out the lights? Ahh, of course, daylight savings. Whilst we had been happily travelling around Australia, New Zealand had taken the time-honoured step of taking an hour off the clocks and in doing so, plunged the city into near darkness for the commute home. At least the farmers in Scotland will be happy.

Throughout my journey home, people scurried from bus shelter to shops, their coats wrapped tightly against the still present wind and bouts of rain. Shop frontages reflected hazily in puddles of water on the pavement, enticing commuters into their premises to buy that last minute bargain. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was mid-April, one could be easily tricked into thinking we were on the approach to Christmas!

It has to be noted, however, that this weather is unseasonably cold due to a southerly wind bringing cold air up from the Antarctic but knowing that didn’t make it any warmer. Equally, whilst temperatures in Auckland struggled to stay above 15 degrees yesterday, there were part of the South Island that were enjoying their first bout of snow. Again, knowing that didn’t make it any warmer for us Aucklanders. 

Stepping off the plane yesterday really does feel like we stepped into another world. The modern-day equivalent of stepping through a wardrobe into Narnia. Thankfully it isn’t expected to last and in a few days the fast moving system will have cleared and temperatures will be returned to their seasonal levels, daily highs of 20 degrees with evening lows around 15, so it’s not quite time to put away the shorts just yet.  Frankly it couldn’t come soon enough. In the meantime, I’ve got photographs from The Gold Coast to keep me warm....well those and a fleece jumper and woolly socks!