Weather Watch: Smells like summer

Throw sausages on the barbie and smoke them in the brilliant sun for your own smells of summer. Photo / Thinkstock

Ahhh the smells of summer are in the air already. I'm not talking about Spring either. Not the smell of daffodils or the strong scent from citrus trees. Nor am I talking about the smell of freshly cut wet grass. Instead the smells that are distinctly summer.

It's amazing how smells can bring back memories and feelings more than words can.

I noticed a lovely smell on the way to work this morning. Being an almost cloudless day in Auckland (it's never 100% cloud free) I was driving towards the TV studios in Albany with the windows down. The smell from the Manuka trees - a hint of honey - came through the car and instantly reminded me of the camp sites I've stayed at in Northland and Coromandel in the height of summer.

Over the week, at my parents place in Te Aroha, I helped clear a walking track they have through some native bush. The grass in the paddock leading up to the bush was dry and long and had that early summer-like smell. Under the trees it wasn't wet like winter, instead it had that damp summer smell that only the NZ native bush has.

Another smell of summer I noticed recently was hot tar on the road. This is a smell you only get on a hot day when the tar starts to melt. There was no rain shower about to give it that "hot wet road" smell that is uniquely summer but the smell made me instantly feel like I was a kid walking to the dairy with bare feet to get an ice cream ... crossing the road going "ouch oh oh ouch ouch" as melted tar stuck to my feet, along with the odd stone.

The inside of my house had a different smell this weekend ... the wooden floors were warm and I could smell the corrugated iron roof as the hot sun finally warmed the entire house up - first time since early Autumn.

Then there's the smell of dry lawns being mown. Despite the wet winter, and start to spring, conditions this month have been much drier. My lawn is already starting to show signs of drying out. Now when lawns are mown there is a lovely dry, summery, odour in the air.

While I didn't smell it this weekend, as I was mostly in the shade, another summer smell is, of course, sun tan lotion. One hint of that can export you to a hot beach instantly.

Finally - BBQ's. Sausages and steak cooking on a hot BBQ in the long lasting evening sun.

You can't help but feel summer is on our door step ... a great time of the year to be positive and look forward to sun, warmth and being lazy.