The first day of the Wellington summer

I gather that in South Africa, Australia and even other parts of New Zealand, it’s been hot as hell for a couple of months. But not in Wellington…

In Wellington, it has rained. And blown. Then rained and blown together. Then rained some more. Then blown a gale for a week at a time. Then just for change it rained. And no, I am NOT exaggerating.

Occasionally (like, maybe, on three occasions) there has been a nice day. And we’ve got all excited, and thought summer had arrived. But then the next day, it rained. Or blew. Or both.

But yesterday, for the first time, we had a fine day followed by an evening where it was warm enough to be outside without a jacket.

And today, it was hot. We could hear the cicadas. When you can hear cicadas, you know it’s finally summer. We turned our clunky old air conditioner on and opened all the windows.

We’ve been working our arses off for the past three weeks, which is why we haven’t been posting. But tonight, at 7.30pm, we stopped working and walked down to the beach. Without jackets.

I love Lyall Bay beach. It’s not exactly warm; there’s nothing but sea between there and Antarctica. But even in the middle of winter, there are always plenty of dogs to watch playing. And tonight, even at 8pm, there were people everywhere, paddling and swimming. And dogs.

Big, hairy, lollopy dogs. Little, enthusiastic dogs wanting desperately to play with the big boys. Dogs that love to chase balls into the sea and dogs that chicken out as soon as their toes get wet. Border collies trying to herd their owners. A greyhound, freezing its butt off in winter, but happy as can be today.

I took off my shoes and paddled in the sea all the way down the beach. @sift666 kept his shoes on and sat on the seawall taking photos of me paddling down the beach, surrounded by dogs, children, swimmers and fellow paddlers all the way.