I haven't posted much over the last few months - mainly because I haven't had much to post about. I wrote about the week we spent in Australia in June and the weekend we spent in Queenstown in July, and that's about all the exciting news to come out of this winter.
Winter in Auckland is very different from winter in Chicago - it rarely drops below 40*F at night, and snow is a once-every-72-years Event. Instead of air so dry your lips crack, winters here are wet. Back in June/July it rained every day for three weeks, stopped for a few days, and then rained for another three weeks.
Winter here also means darkness - the sun rises after it's time to get up and sets before it's time to leave work. The combination of short days and gloomy weather means that although winter may not kill your soul, it can be very demotivating for adventures.
To complicate matters, the houses here are rubbish. I believe I've alluded to this before, but to be clear - our apartment does not have heat or any real insulation. And lest you think this is because we live in a crappy apartment, let me assure you - my friends who have shiny, new, custom-built, half-million dollar houses ALSO do not have heat. Those that do have either fireplaces or "heat pumps," which are kind of like A/C window units, but for heat. The rest of us bundle up (in my super awesome Hogwarts bath robe) around small space heaters that double the electricity bill.
Houses here are also very damp - in part because of the lack of heat. Every week there are new articles about houses making people sick (mainly due to mold). The same articles suggest cracking windows to alleviate the dampness, but that just makes everything colder. This dampness also makes drying clothes nearly impossible (we don't have a dryer), and we have started taking monthly trips to the laundromat.
I'm not looking for sympathy or trying to claim that Auckland winters are in the same class as the Polar Vortex, but navigating the cold, damp winter without the amenities we have always taken for granted has been one of the harder adjustments we've had to make here. Fortunately is hasn't dropped below freezing mold doesn't seem to be an issue in our apartment, so there's no threat to our health, but it's still been an exercise in adaptation.
Thankfully, winter here is much shorter than we are used to, and it's already starting to feel like spring. The days are getting longer and there are multi-day-spans without any rain. This weekend was sunny and warm, and there's a sense of excitement in the air - one that we definitely share!
This weekend marks the beginning of five months of fun, so hopefully we'll have more to share going forward. Next weekend we're heading to Napier for the first of six trips between now and mid-January, and that's just the beginning of summer!
Winter in Auckland is very different from winter in Chicago - it rarely drops below 40*F at night, and snow is a once-every-72-years Event. Instead of air so dry your lips crack, winters here are wet. Back in June/July it rained every day for three weeks, stopped for a few days, and then rained for another three weeks.
Winter here also means darkness - the sun rises after it's time to get up and sets before it's time to leave work. The combination of short days and gloomy weather means that although winter may not kill your soul, it can be very demotivating for adventures.
To complicate matters, the houses here are rubbish. I believe I've alluded to this before, but to be clear - our apartment does not have heat or any real insulation. And lest you think this is because we live in a crappy apartment, let me assure you - my friends who have shiny, new, custom-built, half-million dollar houses ALSO do not have heat. Those that do have either fireplaces or "heat pumps," which are kind of like A/C window units, but for heat. The rest of us bundle up (in my super awesome Hogwarts bath robe) around small space heaters that double the electricity bill.
Houses here are also very damp - in part because of the lack of heat. Every week there are new articles about houses making people sick (mainly due to mold). The same articles suggest cracking windows to alleviate the dampness, but that just makes everything colder. This dampness also makes drying clothes nearly impossible (we don't have a dryer), and we have started taking monthly trips to the laundromat.
I'm not looking for sympathy or trying to claim that Auckland winters are in the same class as the Polar Vortex, but navigating the cold, damp winter without the amenities we have always taken for granted has been one of the harder adjustments we've had to make here. Fortunately is hasn't dropped below freezing mold doesn't seem to be an issue in our apartment, so there's no threat to our health, but it's still been an exercise in adaptation.
Thankfully, winter here is much shorter than we are used to, and it's already starting to feel like spring. The days are getting longer and there are multi-day-spans without any rain. This weekend was sunny and warm, and there's a sense of excitement in the air - one that we definitely share!
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| Beach lunch earlier today before Doctor Who season 8 premier - summer is coming! |
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