Editorial: Blooming good chance of drought

Kiwi folklore will have you believe that when our stunning cabbage trees are flowering prolifically then we're in for a dry summer. Photo / David Waltham

Kiwi folklore will have you believe that when our stunning cabbage trees are flowering prolifically then we're in for a dry summer.

Whether there's any botanical merit in this is anyone's guess.

But as I write there are plenty of these trees, stems laden with fluffy, cream-coloured, highly scented bouquets.

The native specimen is no stranger to heat. Its trunk is so fire resistant that early settlers used it to make chimneys for their huts - which is in stark contrast to their leaves which, dried, are highly-flammable firestarters.

Just yesterday Hastings District Council brought in a restricted fire season, citing wind and low rainfall.

Apparently there's been just 9mm of rain in Hastings in the past three weeks, while the year's rainfall in the district and through Northern Hawke's Bay is expected to be at least 20 per cent below average in most areas.

Maybe the cabbage trees' flowering is some sort of portent. Maybe we should take heed.

If my back lawn is anything to go by, there's something awry this season. My grass feels foreign, with never-before-seen weeds; there are dead or dying patches and a strange mix of dry and lush.

The New Zealand Tourism Guide's website states the following: "New Zealand has mild temperatures, moderately high rainfall and many hours of sunshine throughout most of the country."

It reminds us that two of our biggest industries, agriculture and tourism, have contrasting requests of summer's weatherman. The tourism folks will be holding out for bird-chirping highs to attract the masses, while the men and women of the land will be hoping cabbage tree folklore remains folklore.