Wonderful Southland Is A Great Place To Be

Don’t believe all you hear about a place, that’s my advice after I spent another visit to wonderful Southland waiting for the rain that was forecast almost every day. Instead I experienced great autumn weather, sunny skies, warm temperatures and a definite lack of rain, except for two days.

I was lucky to see a couple of amazing sunrises while I stayed in Winton, but this one was the most spectacular. I had slept with the drapes open and on seeing the eastern sky so visibly red when I awoke, I leapt into some clothes and rushed to the end of my mother’s driveway with camera in hand. Her home almost borders a rugby paddock so by standing on the road side I can get a view of the sky almost devoid of any real sign on human interference.

While I waited and took numerous photos as the sight before me changed, I wasn’t aware of any nip in the air, or what the ensuing day might bring weather wise.

It was only when that old adage “red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning” popped into my mind that I turned my head and looked at the sky around the other three directions. What looked like dark clouds filled the sky. Oh ho, a wet day approaches.

But as I write this ready to add to my web page on return to Auckland, the sky has now lightened I see the outcome doesn’t look so dreary. The sky might be  grey, but I doubt any rain will fall in the immediate future. I feel guilty as I almost slipped into that often heard attitude of expecting the worst because “it always rains in Southland”. I’ve been staying here for three weeks now and I think we have had three or four days when some showers fell. Not a bad percentage.

My son and I were watching on TV the rugby being played in Invercargill on Saturday night when I was astounded to hear three different commentators tell the listeners that the ground was going to be soft because it had “rained all week in Invercargill”. I wasn’t sure, as Winton weather is normally much milder than Invercargill so I queried this with Kurtis. According to him, the Invercargill he lives in over the last week had had two brilliant autumn days when the temperatures had reached the mid twenties, one morning of heavy rain, one day with some intermittent showers, otherwise had been fine. One and a half days out of seven – yeah that sounds like “all week” to me as well. I’m not sure where these television guys get their facts from, I guess in the big scheme of things it’s not important but I get so annoyed at hearing Southland maligned in such a way.

Okay, so I freely admit it, I’m very one eyed when it comes to my home province. Maybe its time to get over it but then why should I? I figure we all need to have pride in where we come from.

But if you’re set to visit anywhere, my advice would be to go prepared for whatever you might encounter, but ignore the scaremongers who’ll tell you an area is not worth visiting as it is so wet, so dry, so hot, so cold. Go visit anyway and enjoy whatever nature might throw your way. Go visit wonderful Southland and be amazed.