It seems that one of the most common ways to start a letter to a loved one is to tell them about the weather. Heaven forbid that we might discuss something meaningful…
Anyway, the weather here is meaningful. Actually, it’s quite pleasant, compared with the heat wave that we experienced in Madison and are not now missing. When we performed our research on Invercargill, we knew that we’d be arriving in winter, and that the weather here is generally cooler and wetter than our Midwestern weather. However, I have been very pleasantly surprised with the weather!
If we were in winter in Wisconsin, then “now” would be about mid-February weather – cold, likely a foot or so of snow on the ground, ice all over and about three grey, gloomy days for every sunny day (or, am I being generous?). The temp would likely be below freezing most, if not all, of the time. The trees would be bare and brownish-grey. The Wisconsin winter world is generally a mixture of white & grayish-brown. Oh, and there’s “snirt” everywhere – you know, that dirty snow mixture.
In our week in Invercargill, the weather has been very pleasant! Everything is relative of course – the Invercargillians/Invercargillites/locals may not agree. The grass and bushes are generally green. Spring flowers are coming up! I’ve seen daffodils! Trees are starting to bud. We’ve had a couple of rainy, sorta gloomy days, but we’ve also had at least three mostly sunny days. When it is cloudy, it seems that there are patches of thick, grey clouds interspersed with blue sky – not the sullen, grey blanket that covers Wisconsin so much of winter. The temps are in the 40F-55F (3C-11C) range, and the humidity is high. We’ve only had frost a couple of times and it’s “soft.”
And, people here dress “appropriately” for the weather, if you will. You can see people all bundled up in their woolies and down, while someone else walking down the street might be in shorts, flip-flops and even barefoot! Personally, we tend to be a bit over-prepared for the weather, wearing several layers and adding/subtracting as needed.