Cold morning

It was unusually cold in Auckland this morning. That’s enough to make the rest of New Zealand laugh and tell jokes at Auckland’s expense. Which is silly and pointless. You’d think they’d know that by now.

Last night was the coldest in May since 1976—nearly 40 years. It fell to 0.9 last night at Auckland Airport (about 33.62F). Other parts of Auckland recorded different temperatures, some a little higher and in some low-lying areas it could have reached -4 (24.8F).

This is unusually cold for this part of the country and, in fact, heavy frosts hit parts of the country north of Auckland, too—and we seldom get heavy frosts, let alone four days before the start of winter. It was wintry cold, not late autumn cold.

Other parts of the country get much colder, of course, which is kind of irrelevant: We don’t live there. One supposes (or hopes) that people in colder parts of the country are prepared for cold because it happens there every year. Aucklanders are not prepared for it because it rarely gets so cold here, and certainly not in May. Unlike other parts of the country, we’re not used to it, and have no reason to be.

It’s too bad that some people in other parts of the country take such great delight in ridiculing Aucklanders, and that they’re so quick to do so. But the joke’s really on them: We simply don’t care what they think or what they say, though we may sometimes think they’re being dickish.

I’m used to this. All of Illinois hates and mocks Chicago, but Chicago couldn’t possibly care less. Having lived in both camps, I have a different perspective than the partisans of either, something like indifference. This served me well when I moved to New Zealand and found a similar situation.

Because, really, what any of us thinks or says doesn’t matter: It was bloody cold last night. I can imagine what the actual winter will be like.