KEY POINTS:
When I talk to most North Islanders about moving to Invercargill, the most common response is "no way, it's far too cold for me"! Okay, so I admit the weather can be invigorating at times, but personally I find the cold less oppressive than the muggy, high humidity of Auckland. Our temperatures may seem low on TV weather, but often it's a clear sunny, windless day.
There are also some advantages to living in a cooler climate. There are virtually no flies in our city and I can't recall ever seeing an ant in the 14 years I have been living here. Because it's cold, global warming is far less of a threat. A cool climate means less people which means we have no traffic jams and absolutely no homeless people; cheaper housing and long summer nights. You can go surfing in broad daylight at 10.00 pm in February. The North Sea is cold, but it contains billions of barrels of oil and I have no doubt that the Great South Sea Basin will prove equally as energy rich. A cooler climate also produces a rich harvest of seafood. Bluff oysters are our most famous delicacy, but the southern ocean is alive with blue cod, kina, paua and crayfish.
We seldom have smog or droughts and the long sunlight hours of summer makes the colour of our flowers so much richer and more vibrant. Our bees don't have Varroa and there are many other nasty bugs and viruses that can't survive down here because of our climate.
In terms of recreation we are only two hours' drive to four major skifields around Queenstown and it's only 40 minutes to an Olympic sized ice skating rink in Gore.
As a response to our climate, many Southlanders bought holiday homes on the Gold Coast during the 1960's when our city was booming. Those families have enjoyed huge capital gains.
A cooler climate means you don't spend so much time sunbathing at the beach at the risk of getting melanoma. We spend more time in sheds and workshops, and as a result there are many inventive home engineers, the most famous was Burt Munro.
In so many ways our weather is our wealth.
COMMENTS
Cold in Invercargill I think Tim's rose tinted glasses have finally frozen over. Every time I look out of my window it's raining, hailing and blowing a gail. When the sun's out you're guaranteed to choke on the smoke from all the coal burners that evening. I've lived in Invers for three years and I never had so many colds and coughs! Tim's right, you also have to get in your car to go some where for fun like Queenstown! As for the oysters, who can afford 25 bucks for a dozen more than once a season? I'm out of here . . .
Lou, Christchurch
I lived in Invercargill for 40 years and enjoyed a successful business career. The move to Christchurch five years ago was to help a business associate and at the end of the contract, now retired, I decided to stay. Invercargill has more facilities than any other city of 50,000 in the southern hemisphere. An indoor velodrome, the envy of the cycling fraternity, an Olympic swimming pool, an indoor sports stadium any other city would kill for and Teretonga the motor racing circuit that celebrates it's 50th birthday in November. Sea food of all kinds and as Mayor Tim Shadbolt says only a couple of hours from mountains and ski fields. It's a bit chilly in the winter but you dress for the climate. None of Auckland's stinking humidity, flies or bugs. Houses are still affordable for a one income family and it only takes 10 minutes to get to work from the most distant suburb. Zero fees at SIT, a wealthy licensing trust that puts the profit back into the community not some beer barons pocket off shore. Don't believe me go and have a look for yourself.
Alan Wilkinson
As a kid growing up in Christchurch one of the great historical mysteries to me was why the Scots would travel halfway around the world to settle in Dunedin and Invercargill.
Sorry Tim, but you haven't solved that one for me. I could never get used to watching the cricket at Carisbrook in an overcoat or needing a wetsuit for a mid-summer swim.
That said, there are a lot of thoroughly nice people down there with a tenacious resilience that would put many northern city-dwellers to shame. And Stewart Island is a jewel too many Kiwis have never seen.
RW
Plenty of amusement here. I lived in Invercargill over a period of 17 years and have studied NZ climates for about 50 years. The answer is not to live around either the great Awk. or In'gill, but to pick a climatically-favoured town in a more central zone. Nelson, Blenheim and Napier/Hastings are both miles ahead of these two for pleasant weather.
Paul Wadsworth Ohio USA
Speaking as a Yank who just happens to look at your newspaper on occasion, South Island seems delightful. We have warm summers, cold winters and I am home from work, 30 miles (48km) away, in 30 minutes. Seems a lot like South Island, doesn't it? On the other hand, if you like heat, humidity & bugs, North Island & Florida seem quite similar. South Island, northern US, both more comfortable.
Cold feet
Shhhhhhh. Don't tell the world about the joys of living in the South. As an ex-Dunedinite (now freezing her butt off in uninsulated Sydney town), I long for the friendly warmth & olde worlde manners of southern folk & properly heated homes. 2+ hours a day on average getting to & from work is not a joyful event either. Keep it stum OK!
JAFA in Dunners
Oh how I long for wet winters and humid summers, the frequent "bang" as someone rearends another car on the motorways, the everlasting "artwork" on every available empty space, and actually having to lock the doors and set the alarm - even when I'm home. How the thought of lying on top of my bed at night sweating my backside off invigorates me. Of being able to spend 3 hours each day with the constant companion that is the car stereo in order to just get home to watch the sunset in the middle of summer. Of having to spend a easy million to buy into decile 7 with it's 45 kids per teacher. Oh how I miss Auckland... Anyone wanna join me for a latte in the Octagon? - I'll be there in a couple minutes, just over the other side of town at the moment..... :)
Anne from Hawthorndale
Hi Tim,
My haven't you become a good keen Southern Man? Love your enthusiasm for my old home town...but one big, huge, drawback is the cost of flights to and from the "giggle". Hard to encourage friends to visit when you can go to Sydney for 5 days, plus accommodation, for less than a flight from Auckland to Invercargill.
West
The weather isn't better in Southland, it's just different. I like short Auckland winters and long Indian summers that last through autumn and into June. In the middle of July in my Auckland garden there are monarch butterflies and bumble bees and the grey warbler is still singing his distinctive song. The house is full of the heady scent of 'early cheer' and jasmine. I had no need for a jacket during my lunchtime stroll in the sun and drove home with the windows down in a calm, clear evening.There is a beautiful crescent moon and a single brilliant star hovering over the Waitakeres and not a whiff of smoke from wood fires to pollute the velvet night.
Bondy
That must be one of the funniest articles I have read in recent memory! All the reasons given are due to the fact that basically no one lives there. I would rather live in a vibrant city of opportunity with nice temperate weather than spend my time surfing in freezing waters at 10pm cause I have nothing better to do.Has anyone out there ever considered moving to the end of the earth because of a few flies and ants? Well done though, it did put a smile on my face.
Madeleine
I do not wish to cover up all my lovely clothes with a bulky jersey, jacket and scarf, almost every day of the year. I want my summers to actually feel like summers, and remain warm through the night. I cannot abide seeing the condensation of my exhalation as early as March. So I moved North. One of the compensatory factors for the much higher rental prices I have faced has been a comparatively lower power bill, so it is with dismay that I read that the government may compensate people for choosing to live in the frigid south. Brrrr, no thanks.
