Heat Wave

It is HOT. It's hot as... well, let's just say it's probably best not to repeat the ways my students were completing that sentence. For the past few days it's been in the 90's, even up in San Francisco, the city that has no summer. So of course the kids reactions are completely over the top. I could do without N. and S. throwing wet washcloths at each other, but mostly it's just a lot of whining. O. came into my room on Thursday morning complaining that it was way too hot to do anything. I just couldn't feel sorry for him when (1) it was 8am and probably still in the 70s and (2) he was wearing black jeans, a black sweatshirt, and a black knit cap. Finally he took off his sweatshirt and quit whining, but I couldn't help but point out his ridiculousness when halfway through class he put his sweatshirt back on, complaining that he was too cold.

Long Ago and Far Away

It was one thing when February was blazingly hot and I was living in Australia or New Zealand. The heat felt weird in the middle of what should have been winter, but at least I could attribute my confusion to living in the opposite hemisphere.

Now it's February once again and Michigan is below freezing and covered in snow. I'm sitting outside sunning myself in 65 degree weather. Considering that I'm back in the northern hemisphere, all I can seem to attribute it to is that I've picked a better place to live.

Waitangi Day

Unfortunately, it seems that when I want to be in a particular location on a particular day (i.e. Gisborne for New Year’s Eve), New Zealand likes to make things difficult for me. Waitangi Day was on Tuesday, and ever since my boss Geneva offered to take me up to Waitangi for the day I’d been super excited about it. However, an overload at work coupled with some seriously bad weather devolved our plan from a fun little overnight trip into a three day solitary excursion to Kaitaia in a massive rainstorm (about 5 hours north of Auckland, as opposed to only 3 to Waitangi), with only about 2 hours actually spent at Waitangi.

Rather than give you background on Waitangi Day, I recommend reading the Wikipedia entry. Long story short, Waitangi Day celebrates/commemorates (depending on who you ask) the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, which established joint rule of New Zealand by the Maori and England back in 1840. From what I could gather, the events at Waitangi (where the treaty was signed) are a cross between a carnival (lots of activities and food stalls), a jamboree (people camp out for a couple nights), a government spectacle (lots photo op appearances and patriotic speeches by politicians) and protest demonstration (see if you can find footage of when Queen Elizabeth visited and got stuff thrown at her). So obviously I wanted to go.

I was fortunate enough to go to Waitangi not really as a tourist, or at least as a tourist in disguise. Instead of just braving the activities myself, as I saw other tourists doing, I was fortunate to have an insider edge. My friend William, who is very involved in and well-connected to the Maori community, took me around and provided access to people and places that most tourists would not be able to approach.

A few entries ago, I wrote about how my race creates a different experience for me over here than if I were, for example, white. Like a lot of situations, both here and in the States, things would be easier if I were white. However, at all the Waitangi Day events, I couldn’t help but think about how being a person of colour was actually very much to my benefit. Not that William or any of the people I met would exclude a white person, but I was able to more easily slip in and out of interactions because I did not immediately stick out. I was introduced to some people as being an American, but people who I just said “kia ora” to and shook hands with may have been completely unaware just how much of an outsider I really was. Granted, my 6+ months of working in Maori health has taught me a lot of general protocol, but a white person who knows Maori protocol still sticks out more than a brown one.

There’s not that much to say about Waitangi Day, since the rain washed out a lot of the festivities and we didn’t stay for that long. Attendance was low, most of the tents/stalls closed down early, and the sea was so rough they had to cancel the wakas and the Navy salute. Fortunately, I still managed get some pictures of all the Tino Rangatiratanga flags.

Bad Weather

I know I have written about Wellington's crappy weather before, but at the time I thought it was a passing thing. One cannot expect winter weather to be good, because bad weather is what definies winter. But now it is spring, and since the nice days in Wellington are really nice, I was hoping it would improve.

Not so. Since I got back a week ago, it's been storming almost nonstop. And this is not your average wind and rain, either. I seriously considered going to hide in our window-less hallway the other day for fear that the glass was going to blow in. Then my flatmates and I had a discussion about what they call hurricanes here (typhoons? cyclones? There was no conclusion), and if they get them (yes).

Then yesterday there were TWO earthquakes.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/17/asia/AS_GEN_New_Zealand_Quake.php

I'm leaving for Auckland tomorrow.

Old Man Winter Vacations in NZ

Okay, I know it’s a little cliché and potentially boring to write about the weather, but with US newspapers talking about the heat wave and NZ papers talking about our weather situation here, I figure I’m entitled to at least one blog entry about it. (This of course is ignoring the fact that I complain about the weather in pretty much every email I send home).

The awesome thing about coming to the Southern Hemisphere in February was that I left Michigan’s cold and stepped out into the Australian summer. But now, in August, the weather reversal is not working in my favour. People, it is COLD down here. I know, I know—as a Michigander, I should know how to deal with it by now, especially when I admit that the thermometer here is actually hovering in the low 40s (that’s Fahrenheit) and is therefore nowhere near the bitter temperatures I grew up with. But I would like to point out a few things in defense of my complaining:

1. This is not the same wind we have in Michigan. The weather forecast regularly discusses “southerlies”—winds blowing up from Antarctica. Remember in “March of the Penguins” the scenes where the penguins all have to huddle together to shield themselves from the cold and lots of them die? Those are the same winds that make their way up here. Also, while the rest of the country is shielded by friendly mountain ranges, Wellington’s position on the Cook Strait, right at the bottom of the North Island, means that we get no protection. The weatherpeople are not kidding around when they talk about “gale force” winds.

2. Winter in Michigan is dry and snowy. Winter in Wellington is wet and rainy. Although I’m happy not to save money by not buying a humidifier, I’m not so happy with the constant rain and with being soaked by the time I get home from work. And it’s not like being soaked from playing in the snow, because there’s no warm, dry place to come back to. On the upside for people who live here permanently, this is supposed to be the wettest winter on record, so they don’t usually have to deal with all this. On the downside, it’s causing a lot of problems with flooding and houses sliding down mountains.

3. There are severe differences in the heating systems here i.e. a severe lack of heating systems. My flat (which is highly representative of other homes) has little insulation, thin windows, and no central heating. When it gets down to the 40s in Michigan, everyone has the heat on. Not an option here.

Yes, maybe I should be a little tougher after living in the cold for my entire life. But even though I am used to harsh Michigan winters, I don’t like them. I’m still cold every single February. For that matter, I’m still cold when it’s in the 60s in May, and I still sleep with a blanket in the middle of July. My low core body temperature prefers the low 80s. The reports of America’s current heat wave don’t sound so horrible to me. Although it’s hard to imagine what at 110 heat index feels like when I’m wearing a sweater. I guess you always want what you can't have. But somehow I doubt I'll be jealous of the States when I'm lying on the beach in the middle of January.

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Here is a completely unrepresentative sample of winter days in Wellington:

Taken in mid June:


Taken in late May:


Taken in early June:

Larry

Cyclone Larry hit the Australia east coast yesterday morning--scary stuff. Fortunately for me, I am in Sydney, which is very, very far away from where it hit. It hit up in the north, closer to Cairns and Townsville. Below is a map to give you help you out:


Another way to think about it is that the drive from Sydney to Townsville is about 24 hours. That's like driving from Ann Arbor to Orlando, Florida. Australia is a big country, no?

The bad news for me is that the area that was hit hardest was the area where I was planning to go in April. I was hoping to spend some time sailing on the Whitsunday Islands and then work on a banana farm for a few weeks before heading to Cairns. But really the possibility that I might have to change my travel plans is not really something I am too concerned about when compared to the fact that the cyclone has done some pretty major destruction to people's homes and businesses.