Southland’s summer has turned out to be fantastic. Of course I wouldn’t have expected anything less than beautiful blue skies. I had to laugh at the comment made by one of my young relatives when I mentioned my satisfaction at sharing Southland’s glorious summer with the world. In all seriousness she told me, “Don’t say too much, we don’t need too many more people shifting down here.” What an intuitive young lady she is.

We have been so very fortunate with the weather as we’ve travelled. While some mornings showed signs of night time rain, we missed it every time. There was a short spell of rain in Westport and enough to turn the car wipers on as we passed through Haast Pass. Otherwise we have experienced no precipitation at all. Over six weeks, that’s pretty impressive. Especially when much of New Zealand has experienced quite severe conditions.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day dawned hot but with a thick fog blanketing western Southland. My drive into Invercargill to pick up my two sons – our youngest had sneaked down from Auckland to surprise his brother – proved slower than I’d hoped. By the time I’d turned around the fog had gone and heat began building. We sneaked into church in Winton well after the service had begun. Most disappointingly, our Southern son was still unwell and decided sharing the day with relatives and seeing food he would have loved to eat was not conducive with his current state of health.

It was lovely to spend Christmas Day with relatives we don’t see too often. But the one person we had wanted to share this special day with was lying in his bed in Invercargill. This put a dampener on the day. Thankfully, he edged back to normal by the time we had to say goodbye to him.