Summer comes to Wellington Harbour / Te Whanganui-a-Tara in Aotearoa
So this is how summer comes to Wellington Harbour / Te Whanganui-a-Tara in Aotearoa: in spurts and spasms, with meteorological enthusiasm and metaphorical sarcasm.
Two days ago, on Saturday 7 December, brilliant sunshine and perfect weather for cyclists…
The pohutukawa are blooming! Surely that means summer has arrived?
Then there was yesterday. It started grey. Along came sunshine punctuated by a few bursts of heavy rain. A wild NW wind arrived and it thumped and whipped our city and roared like a freight train all night, with gusts up to 113 KM per hour. Classic Wellington summer.
I’m intensely aware that this wind event did little or no damage, unlike other unprecedented, devastating weather events this year in Aotearoa. The climate crisis is breaking our weather patterns as well as some people’s hearts.
I’ve got cognitive dissonance at work in my brain. Yes, I worry about our dear planet. And I also delight in the predictable unpredictability of late spring in my beloved city. I think there’s an added delight, for that very reason. I’m full of wonder and gratitude for the teasing, changing and charming weather here in Wellington city.
A wonder of nature. It’s getting colder here while you’re awating summer.
Still takes me by surprise sometimes
Yes, same here
Kia ora, Rachel. Love the summery pics with the blue sky, sunshine and our flowering (yes they are early) pohutakawa trees. But, last night’s winds were really something. Swirling, gusty and scary. A friend in Rongotai had her bedroom window blown in and shattered just as she was going to sleep … I was keeping an eye on the large macrocarpa tree at the top of our driveway before I went to bed. I like you, love our unpredictable and sometimes wild weather but I think the Nor’wester caused havoc with flights etc and it has seemed a tad meaner and more violent and gusty in the past year. Mind you, this year, the tuis have been so jolly loud (or is it just me thinking this) – I feel certain they have been louder (early mornings) and during the day, than ever I have heard them before.
Maybe the tuis are yelling to compete with the sound of the wind?