Our current joke

The graphic above is making the rounds in social media, shared by Kiwis from all over New Zealand. It’s because the one thing we all have in common this year is that this summer has been crap so far. As the old saying goes, you have to laugh, or you’d cry.

Our summer here in our part of Auckland has been cooler and wetter than usual—more like late autumn or early spring than summer. Sure, we’ve had a few warm, though not particularly hot, days, and some have been very sunny, but overall they’ve been neither.

In fact, in Central Otago—normally very hot and dry this time of year—a cold snap brought snow—SNOW! I can remember other cold snaps in summer before (I’ve had two decades of NZ summers, after all…), but they’re as uncommon as you’d expect.

This weather has some implications, and not just for entertaining kids on their “summer” holiday form school, nor does it only affect families away for a summer holiday somewhere (I sympathises especially with people who go camping this time of year). There are numerous outside projects I want to finish up, but the weather has just been too unpredictable, and too awful too often, to get those projects done.

On the other hand, with those projects put on continuous hold, it’s given me a fairly decent excuse to just relax instead. Last year was both a busy and trying year, so a bit of rest and relaxation is probably a good thing in itself. But I’d still like a little decent weather, too.

So, we joke about our lack of summer, not the least because so many of us thought—or, at least, hoped—that the weather would have improved by now. I suppose that since we can’t do anything about the weather, joking about it is as positive a response as can be expected. Some days, it’s all the sunshine we get.

I have no idea who created the graphic up above, so I can’t give proper credit. I could have made my own version, I suppose, but I’m too relaxed to do that at the moment. Hm, maybe this weather has some benefits after all!