We had a SPECTACULAR sunset on Friday evening. The phone camera tends to oversaturate things, but it was actually like that.

Why? This was caused by the outer reaches of former cyclone Vaianu. Satellite weather forecasts trump folk wisdom in this case. The nursery rhyme (red sky at night, sailor’s delight) works on the assumption that if there’s stuff in the air to make a red sunset, it’ll be gone by morning so sailors can go out safely. But in this case the storm was so huge that we got a red sunset fully 36 hours before the storm came by.

We were thoroughly warned about ol’ Miss Vaianu. Life-threatening winds, lots of rain, tidal surges. Some parts of NZ got hit fairly hard, but Auckland just had a rainy, windy day.

Of course I’m glad we didn’t get bashed. But. I had to call off a pétanque tournament that I had a good shot at winning. And it’s always a let-down when you’re all geared up for a hurricane and then it moves off to sea. I mean, I loved all the patio furniture, and for what???

We recently watched the Jacinda Ardern documentary about her time in office and the struggles she faced. Things got so bad over her pandemic policies that she resigned and she’s left NZ for the long term (so has her predecessor John Key). You prepare, you keep people safe, you rocket to the top of the charts, and then a bunch of ya-hoos hang you in effigy because they feel aggrieved. Sheesh.