Winter blues and holidays.

This has been one hell of a term, to put it mildly. At one point I was not entirely convinced we would all survive until the holiday. We have had bouts of flu, falling trees, power cuts, exams and assessments to mark, work trips and many many soccer matches. It just feels like we have all been clinging onto the treadmill in desperation to reach the end of this never ending term.

Okay, that's a touch dramatic. But I am rather tired. It is probably something to do with the weather. Wintry weather in Wellington never gets as cold as it does in southern England but we have had a lot of wet and windy days and maybe the fact that we missed out on the Kiwi summer (we visited a very snowy UK over Christmas) has meant that we are all missing the sun and a good dose of vitamin D.

It does feel like the depths of winter here at the moment. We are all tucked up at home again this Sunday as Wellington is experiencing another storm. I am rather nervously watching the trees in our back garden again and hoping that they all remain standing this time. The Aborist seemed fairly convinced that the large one (over 25ft tall) by our back door would not fall on our house. I am sitting here watching it move at the base and preparing to duck under the table if it decides to go!

This picture was taken in our road. The tree was originally covering the whole road but the council cut it in two so that at least one car could get past.

This post is turning into one long moan. I clearly need a holiday. Well one great thing about being a teacher is that I do get good holidays that coincide with the kids. So I will post later in the week in a much more cheerful tone describing all the fun things we intend to do this week.

A bit of advice for surviving Kiwi winters

• Get outside on the sunny days. Miserable weather rarely lasts for more than one day so get out and enjoy the sunny ones when they occur.
• Wear layers of clothing and always something waterproof. Weather changes rapidly and is unpredictable.
• Tie down anything that is likely to blow away in your back garden. It gets windy in Wellington!
• Buy marshmallows. Hot chocolate and marshmallows is a must in wintry weather.
• Pre-order plenty of dry wood for the stove (something we failed to do!). The lack of central heating and no or very little insulation means houses cool down quickly when the southerly hits.
• Do not go on holiday to a northern hemisphere country and miss the Kiwi summer!

Just to prove that we do actually have plenty of sunny weather in winter, here are some pics taken this week during the sunny cold days.

We have had some great weather for windsurfers.