Lazy crazy daze of summer

Late December and January are a weird time in New Zealand. After four Christmases here, I'm pretty much used to the whole "Christmas in summertime" thing, and we had a gorgeous holiday weekend to boot, with much eating outdoors, hiking on sand dunes, a bit of swimming (water's still a little chilly though) and more. I even got attacked by a crab which got tangled in my swim shorts perilously close to a place you don't really want a crab with pinchy claws going, if you get what I mean.

The entire country sort of settles into a weird torpor till about mid-January or so, the "silly season" as it's called. Many people take some of their four weeks' guaranteed annual holiday time in Christmas, and the kids go on their "summer holiday" break from school -- about six weeks off. It's far more of a holiday than it is in the US, where Christmas falls in winter and students generally only get a couple weeks off. Don't try to hit the roads going out of town or find a quiet campground in NZ in January -- everyone else has the same idea. Rather than taking a big holiday time here I've been taking several 2- or 3-day breaks here and there and combining them with weekends, it's worked out very nice so I haven't had a full 'regular' week of work in a month or so, and got to spend a lot of time with my parents while they were visiting.

Stores close down (my favorite comics shop doesn't reopen til January 9 - sob!), businesses roll down the hours and the Auckland traffic is suddenly deserted. Also a really bad time if you need to get a contractor or lawyer or other service. It's actually kind of a nice time to be living in this city of 1.5 million people if you do have to work, really. Besides, when there's several fine beaches within a 10-minute drive of our house I don't get fussed about trying to leave town this time of year, I'd rather do it when the rest of the country isn't on the roads too.

It's not the heat, it's the humanity

Yes, it's winter in half the world, but hot and sticky summer in the other half. So it's only about the equivalent of the mid-80sF here but apparently we've hit 100% humidity at points in the last few days. Frankly, I didn't know such things could be done. I thought 100% humidity means we're underwater. Which is kind of what it feels like. My sweats are sweating. You go swimming to feel less damp. I realize now I could never survive a really humid place like Southeast Asia (and I lived through Mississippi summers for seven years, by gum!).

And the heat can be far worse -- it's very sad to see of the tragic wildfires across the pond in Australia; the at least 200 death toll and photos we've been seeing are truly horrific. I've long feared California having something similar happen; fires are a dime a dozen in the Golden State but (knock on wood) they've not quite gotten to this holocaust point.

But I do have to wonder if it's just a matter of time; as places dry up and people fill in all the space, firestorms like this surely will happen more. When we lived up in California's Lake Tahoe 7-8 years ago, we had several wildfire scares there; the Tahoe basin basically is a giant funnel with only a handful of roads in and out. I thought about what would happen if a giant blaze took hold there, and how quickly roads would jam, and what might happen next. The storms in Oz might not happen like that in the US (one of the terrible aggravating factors there is how incredibly flammable eucalyptus trees are). But it's a sober warning for pretty much everyone who lives in a fire-prone zone.

Donate to help Australia's wildfire victims here.

The Rough Guide to (some of) Auckland's Beaches

'Tis summer here, and that means one thing -- beach time. New Zealand is home to more than 15,000 km (9500 miles) of coastline, which is a lot. There's no spot in the country more than 80 miles or so from the sea.

So during summer, we spend a good bit of our free time at the beach. Auckland is surrounded by water on most sides and there's probably 50 beaches within a short drive from our house. But the interesting thing is that NZ beaches all have a different character -- you've got placid sandy, stormy epic, secluded rocky and so forth. Within the immediate perimeter of our house, there are basically three kinds of beaches.

Auckland beaches: The beaches closest to downtown Auckland are busier, less isolated than the ones you'll find elsewhere, but perfect for a quick dip before dinner. We often spend time at ones like St. Helier's and Mission Bay, which are on our side of Auckland and have a gorgeous view of dormant volcano Rangitoto Island which dominates Auckland's harbour. They're not so great at low tide, though, as the sea bottom is rather mucky and weedy. But at high tide, you've got gentle surf, an excellent panoramic view of the downtown, islands and flash beachside housing is to be had, along with assorted parasailers, boaters and wakeboarders. And turn around and cross the road, and you've got ice cream and coffee!

West coast beaches: Raw and wild -- if you've seen the opening of "The Piano," then you've seen Karekare, which is about 40 minutes west of Auckland and where our family bach is. These are awe-inspiring beaches like Karekare, Piha and Muriwai that go along the North Island's western coast (facing Australia about 1400 miles west). Perfect for long walks, with giant rocky cliffs, dense bush and amazing colours and views, these beaches are huge with surfers. They're also highly dangerous, which is the downside -- you don't swim at Karekare so much as you get bashed about in the surf for a few minutes. People drown all the time out here (a noted rugby league player did just a few weeks ago), often because they take the water's power for granted. But as long as you keep that in mind, the west coast is a great place to see "classic" unspoiled New Zealand.

North Shore beaches: Just across the Harbour Bridge you've got a whole other series of beaches, facing east toward the Hauraki Gulf that includes Auckland. The North Shore is more "Californian" in feeling than the rest of Auckland to me, and the beaches that stretch from Takapuna on up north towards Whangarei are very nice indeed. They're long, relatively calm and great for kids, with excellent views of the Harbour islands and Auckland's downtown in the distance. When we feel like a bit longer drive, we go across the bridge to Milford or one of the beaches up here for a picnic and swim. Some of these beaches do tend to get pretty crowded, but New Zealand crowded isn't really crowded by most people's standards.

There are many more kinds of beaches, of course, and these are just the immediate Auckland ones, but these are the ones we see the most. And now if you'll excuse me, I need to wash the sand and sunblock off!

Greetings from the first country to be in 2009

...Wish you were here. This whole summer-in-January thing ain't so bad, really.

(Regular posting to resume soon; between brief zippy holiday getaways and a traumatic works schedule that has me doing a lot of 4.30am [aarrggh] starts in recent weeks, I haven't had much time for blogging. Posts on my favorite books of 2008, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and more to come sooner or later.)