Another infamous Wellington southerly hitting the coast close to the airport... it don’t stop them flying but it makes takeoff and landing time much more interesting! It’s official. This has got to be the crappiest winter on record.
Heard on the news earlier this week, during an almost unprecedented break in the weather, that if our bodies are telling us that winter is nearly over, normally that would be right – it’s been about three months. Unfortunately as winter came in a month earlier than normal this year the reality is that, based on the seasonal norms, we are actually only half way through winter. So the word from the boys at the Met office is, hunker down and expect more of the same!
And what a winter it’s been! Even HRH Queen Elizabeth is aware that her loyal subjects in Godzone are not having the best of weather. My personal experience has been that I’ve only had to mow the lawns once in three months (and that was really just a quick tidy up, they could have done another two months at least as most of them are still under water) and the dogs have taken to swimming out to do their business before coming in with hypothermia. We’ve had a succession of gale-force southerlies blowing straight off the South Pole and it’s been icy cold for months.
Even the Government’s got in on the act. Apparently the problem is that when we all first colonised the place we made the mistake of thinking that this was a ‘temperate’ climate (European settlers weren’t the first – the Maoris, and the Morioris before them obviously thought the same thing or they wouldn’t have stopped here. I wonder how they coped without polypropylene?). Anyway, the story is that’s why we built all these quaint little wooden houses with absolutely no insulation qualities. Seriously, in Petone (which is where some of the first European settlers landed) the wind blows in straight off the South Pole and the average house is colder inside than outside. So what we need to do, and John Key and his mates in the Beehive are going to help us out here, is insulate all our houses to 1st World standards.
The story is, if your house is over 10 years old the Government will give you money towards under-floor insulation, ceiling insulation, wall insulation, heat pumps, you name it! And they’ll help you out with finance for the rest. Which is not only good news for the average house owner, it’s also great for those people who want to get into the insulation retrofitting and heat pump installation industry! It’s even got residential property investors smiling, they can increase the value of their housing portfolio and get a Government handout. All in all, in these recessionary times, it’s a great thing.
Our house doesn’t qualify however, because it was built after Y2K (remember Y2K?). Which normally wouldn't have worried me. You see, our house meets modern insulation standards. Since we moved in here we’ve always said that it’s a warm house. Sure, it’s made of wood, not brick or concrete or stone. It doesn’t have double glazing. But it’s well insulated. And it’s well designed for this location. It takes full advantage of passive solar heating. It has a large, north facing roof what heats up like you wouldn’t believe when then sun’s out. Any little ray of sunshine warms the cavernous roofspace and is then pumped down and circulated through the house. We’ve had quite a few winters here and never found it that cold.
Except for the last three months we’ve had bugger-all sun.
So bring on your global warming. I can’t wait!
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