A Midwinter's Night Quake

Huff and her mates Bailey and Elvis

Midwinter.  Typically winter is the furthest thing from my mind come mid July. But as the New Zealand winter creeps on, with its frosty dark mornings and grey rainy days, we find ourselves in the middle of the weirdest July we have ever encountered. Instead of basking in the sun and complaining about the heat, we are bundling up and searching for reasons to have drinks and company in front of the fire.

Winter solstice dancers at the Farmers Market

Mid winter is not just a seasonal marker in New Zealand, but also a sort of holiday to fill the place that is left void by traditional family style holidays that do not fall during June, July or August. The weather is cold, but there are no warm holidays such as Christmas or Thanksgiving to fill the gap and give the excuse for the warm and cozy merriment that one craves when it is cold outside. So instead there is midwinter; midwinter swims, midwinter parties, winter solstice. Midwinter has no true date, unless you want to specifically mark winter solstice,  and no specific traditions. It is simply the excuse to celebrate.




We were invited to our first midwinter celebration at the end of June. A midwinter swim. This is mild kiwi version of a polar bear swim, and having participated in both, was the far more enjoyable version. My boss Chris holds an annual midwinter swim at his home in Paraparaumu Beach and kindly invited us to jump in this year. The pool was a balmy six degrees Celsius, and it was a requirement to jump in the pool before you could have your glass of delicious mulled wine  and warm dinner. We were joined by about 25 other adults and kids and it was all around a really great time, and actually surprisingly refreshing.

We continued celebrating midwinter two weekends later with more wine, food, and good people. Our friends Kim and Andy organised a great feast of chicken, fish, veggies and tiramisu beside a warm and cosy fire. Joined by a second couple, Kate and Shaun,  and their son Finn, we ate, drank and celebrated well into the night. Minus the presents and tree, it felt just like it was Christmas, complete with a Boxing Day hang over, and was a great way to break through the midwinter blues we had  recently fallen victim to.


Trent and Andy

See..just like Christmas :) Kim celebrates with the local snowman

Not all of winter has grey or boring. On July 11th, we quietly celebrated our sixth month of living in New Zealand, and eighth month away from Canada. The past eight months have flown by in the blink of an eye. After many Australian adventures, immigration dramas, and a thousand beach walks later,  I still feel like I could wake up at any moment back in Canada and realise that we were dreaming it all.  Two weeks ago we woke up to a genuine New Zealand reality that confirmed that we were definitely not dreaming. There is something about waking up to  your entire house shaking and swaying that made life in New Zealand suddenly feel very real, as well as making us realise the new types of environmental threats we  are suddenly exposed to. This was not our fist earthquake, but it was certainly the largest. A 7.0 magnitude quake lasting 45 seconds makes you stop and take notice pretty quickly. Luckily for us, this earthquake was deep in the earth at a depth of 230km, so it left very little damage.  The deeper an earthquake occurs, the less severe the damage tends to be. For example, the earthquake that crippled Christchurch in February 2011 was a 6.3 magnitude, but existed only 5km underground. A year and a half  later the city of Christchurch is still trying to make sense of the rubble. Other than a few rattled nerves and one confused dog, we came out no worse for the wear, and no more prepared for a second 5.2 magnitude quake that occurred the following Saturday. Lucky for Mike and Eden, (my brother and his wife), we were able to share a piece of the second quake with a Canadian audience, who had the rare opportunity to experience the event via Skype.

Though the earth seems to be shaking below us, we are starting to feel a lot more grounded since Trent was able to land a full time position with Kiwibank Headquarters in Wellington. In June, Trent accepted a 6 month contract to work as a Business Continuity Manager the for the New Zealand owned bank. Trent now commutes to and from Wellington by train each day, about an hour each way, which makes for long days, and has changed our home routine quite significantly. While the days can be long, he is enjoying the job and being back in the working world after a bit of time away. Huff is still holding a grudge.

As we take stock of our experience over the past six months, midwinter seems like a suiting metaphor to describe our current life in New Zealand. We are no longer at the beginning of our experience, but we are far from the end. We can now stop and take a look back at where we have come from, the experiences that have brought us here and the hard work we have put in to make it all happen. We have finally reached the point where we no longer have a checklist of things to do to create our new life, but instead, are making new lists of adventures that will punctuate the life we have created. As winter's cloak of darkness begins to fade, we are now able to stand back, breathe in the smell of the ocean, and consider the possibilities that await us.

The ground hog's predictions look like a beautiful spring.

Our Lemon Tree!