Dry

I’ve been asked a lot about the weather here. I feel that this is part of all Kiwi’s predisposition with the weather. We’re obsessed with it.

Your average kiwi news bulletin is an hour long, just remember to set 10 minutes aside for the weather. That’s assuming there weren’t already several stories about how hot or cold or wet or windy it was. Only the American news media with its gun violence and car chases panders to an audience like ours does.

On small isolated islands at the bottom of the world, weather is the most exciting thing that ever happens to us and we treat it very seriously. Rarely is the weather ever good in our eyes, if it’s not sunny, it’s too cold, if it is sunny, then it is too sunny.

Ask any New Zealander how the weather is and they will tell you it is too hot, too cold, too windy, too wet, too dry and then go on to describe tomorrows weather with a certain level of foreboding.

The bizarre part about these opinions is that New Zealand is incredibly mild, rarely plunging below zero and certainly not into the sustained ranges of -10 like some places. It’s also rarely too hot, the thermometer at its peak barely scraping 35 degrees. Our lush pastures and emerald forests are kept that way by regular sunshine and rain and we’ve been clever enough to harness the wind to power our lives. Though not clever enough to stop the government from selling our power companies off, spending time in oil rich Arabia really puts into perspective how stupid a move that really is.

So dear Kiwi’s let me put your obsession to rest, the weather here is dry. It is dry because we are in the desert. The sun shines all day every day and the tempreture here in winter is comparable to any New Zealand summer, hovering comfortably in the mid-20’s.

I heard tell it did rain here recently and everything flooded because they don’t have any drains.

I can hear gasping from halfway round the world right now as New Zealanders take that information in, but it’s true. They don’t need them. It is dusty and my guess is that has something to do with all the sand.

I suspect this city sparkles like a jewel on the odd occasion it does rain, washing down the towers of steel and glass which dominate the skyline. Shining desert sentinels rising up where the ocean meets the land.

I’d be curious to know if their combined surface area, covered in solar panels, would be enough to power the city. Now that would be clever use of the weather.