The first day of the Wellington summer
I gather that in South Africa, Australia and even other parts of New Zealand, it’s been hot as hell for a couple of months. But not in Wellington…
In Wellington, it has rained. And blown. Then rained and blown together. Then rained some more. Then blown a gale for a week at a time. Then just for change it rained. And no, I am NOT exaggerating.
Occasionally (like, maybe, on three occasions) there has been a nice day. And we’ve got all excited, and thought summer had arrived. But then the next day, it rained. Or blew. Or both.
But yesterday, for the first time, we had a fine day followed by an evening where it was warm enough to be outside without a jacket.
And today, it was hot. We could hear the cicadas. When you can hear cicadas, you know it’s finally summer. We turned our clunky old air conditioner on and opened all the windows.
We’ve been working our arses off for the past three weeks, which is why we haven’t been posting. But tonight, at 7.30pm, we stopped working and walked down to the beach. Without jackets.
I love Lyall Bay beach. It’s not exactly warm; there’s nothing but sea between there and Antarctica. But even in the middle of winter, there are always plenty of dogs to watch playing. And tonight, even at 8pm, there were people everywhere, paddling and swimming. And dogs.
Big, hairy, lollopy dogs. Little, enthusiastic dogs wanting desperately to play with the big boys. Dogs that love to chase balls into the sea and dogs that chicken out as soon as their toes get wet. Border collies trying to herd their owners. A greyhound, freezing its butt off in winter, but happy as can be today.
I took off my shoes and paddled in the sea all the way down the beach. @sift666 kept his shoes on and sat on the seawall taking photos of me paddling down the beach, surrounded by dogs, children, swimmers and fellow paddlers all the way.
Thanks for reading and hopefully I’ll be back again soon!
Photos by @sift666
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Raining like we should build an Ark in Johannesburg
Not just us then!
Welcome back... good to see you posting again
Thanks :-) Good to be back, and hoping I can stay back, lol!
40 degrees celsius here yesterdy, only 16%usable water in our dams. Things going pear shaped here. Not a cloud in the sky and nothing forecast for the next 6 days.
Shit, that sounds dire.
From what your compatriots have said, elsewhere in RSA it's raining so much that they want to build arks. Looking at your weather map today, Cape Town seems to be the only dry place. Is there usually so much difference between the weather in different areas, or is this new? Do they ship water in from other parts of the country?
Although we're joking about our lack of summer in Wellington, we'd choose rain and cold temps over drought any day. So we're not complaining.
I hope they start doing something drastic soon. Like switching off the water supply for 12 hours a day, deploying thousands of inspectors to fine people abusing water supply what ever!! I had a run in with a colleague yesterday afternoon in the kitchen,. She was washing her coffee cup with the tap running full on while she was soaping and talking and soaping and talking... then she proceeded to rinse for about a full minute. 20 litres of water to wash a coffee cup.... grrrr, forget road rage... water rage coming to a town near you SOON !!
This is not usual, although summer is our dry season. We have a winter rainfall here in the Cape.
If that level of awareness (or lack of) is common, switching off the water for part of the day might be the only thing that will make it sink in. What we call a drought in Wellington is when we can only water our gardens with a hand held hose, and only every second day. This is just not on the same scale.
we got quite a bit of rain here in Singapore. BTW, what's the airplane doing there. is this beach next to an airport?
I had to look up seasons in Singapore to see if you were summer or winter, only to find out you only have two seasons - Wet, and Dry. I never knew that.
Yes, the doggy end of the beach is right across the road from the side of Wellington airport. Though we can't quite walk there, the entrance is round the other side.
We sort of call it rain or no rain. Then I call it hot or hotter.
Thanks for your reply
Hi Deb! Been raining here for 3 days straight. Think we should build an ark. 😂
Looking more closely at the South African weather, I see my assumptions were based on what @themagus is experiencing in Cape Town, but the rest of the country is quite different. It's the same here. I thought it was a shit summer here, but apparently it's been hot everywhere else. In Christchurch, they had out of control fires burning on the Port Hills for several days last week with no rain in sight. It was all in Wellington!
😂my backup laptop exploded yesterday. Only saw this comment now. It is still raining here....bought a new laptop yesterday so I can steem on again!😁
Pity you can't send it down to Cape Town!
Yup. Summer has arrived just in time for autumn :-)
Loving the warm weather ;-)
Now, now, Trev, no being a Debbie Downer ;-) I know technically autumn is only a week away, but usually it doesn't really start till April. Fingers crossed.
Looks like, apart from some drizzle Thursday morning, we've got fine weather for 10 days!
I second @themagus, and I hope you get to stay back too!
I'd forgotten that our seasons were opposite of yours, when does summer officially end for you? You'll be heading to fall while we begin the spring, I don't know why I find that concept so fascinating.
You'll probably see a few more blog style posts from me when the good weather comes. Lots of pretty outdoor sights around here when it's not grey and gloomy :)
Hi Deb, we had 2 summer days in a row, with tomorrow looking good as well. Dare I say summer? iis here n Marton.