So now it's winter cold.

I’m watching the news now and there is a giant story on snow in Christchurch. PEOPLE, IT’S SNOW, not some strange substance that should require you to go into lockdown. Now, I know I come from a place that closes schools at the slightest hint of white stuff gently floating down from the sky, but it doesn’t make the national news. Granted, New Zealand is a small country and thus more local events are bound to make the national news, but still. Apparently it doesn’t snow much here, which seems odd given the latitude, especially in the South Island. Queenstown and Wanaka and even Ruapehu have ski places open during the winter, but people aren’t used to seeing snow around in most places of the country not on a mountain. I saw the footage and the most amount of snow they were just marveling over was just a few inches, no more than 4 or 5.
Today was the coldest day ever in Wellington. What? It was cold, but not that cold. The highest it got was 6°C, and it was the wind that really made it so damn cold. Hopefully it’s supposed to be warmer tomorrow.
Also learning on the news there was a Kohanga reo protest outside of Parliament about Maori language preschool. There wasn’t much explanation, but it would have really interesting to have known about that and walked over the Parliament to check it out today. I think it was something about preschools somewhere not meeting the standards because/partially due to teachings through Maori techniques and language. Rather unclear reporting…
Hey, Tea Party, please stop screwing with our country. Can we not default on our debts, that would be cool, kay thanks. “President Obama and his opponents should be locked in a room with out air conditioning until they can agree…” It is odd to think that things are so hot at home – I video chatted with my parents earlier today (last night for them) and they were sporting tank tops and tee shirts while I had my collar turned up against the wind and random precipitation. I hadn’t worn my big jacket since the last time I had video chatted, giving the impression that I have been bundled up the whole time. This is not so – I have comfortably been wearing my sailing jacket around, and sometimes going jacketless when it’s super sunny. Scandalous, I know.
1 day elapses
Another girl Katelyn is leaving tomorrow to go travel the South Island. She is more or less doing the same loop I did four years ago, except she is flying into Christchurch (well, maybe not ‘cause of snow…) and then taking TranzAlpine train to Greymouth then starting the Magic Bus. That should be fun. We are having a nice dinner of burgers and drinks to send her off tonight.
More on whales later. I’ve been busy today – also today was free noodle day at wagamama’s. They have a wagamama’s here. Now I have to go find all the books I just found reference numbers for in Te Aka Matua.