Kate Hawkesby: The buzz of summer has begun

How good is a long weekend?   

And is Labour weekend not one of the best? It’s the downhill slide to Christmas, which by the way is just nine Fridays away now.  

It’s heading into summer, it’s just a vibe. I notice people had an extra spring in their step – the sun was shining, the AB’s won a place in the final, we had two good games of rugby to watch in fact, there just seemed a real buzz over the weekend. I’m sure great weather helps, especially after the winter we’ve had.  

But I always think Labour weekend signals just how crazy busy the summer season may get if you live anywhere near a tourist hotspot. Where we live rurally is near a thriving wee summer hotspot which attracts huge crowds of people – particularly at weekends, but even more so at public holiday weekends. And it’s a catch 22 for locals.  

On the one hand you’re thrilled for your local pub and shops and village to get such great business, but on the other hand you can’t even get through the traffic to get a Pub lunch. So, happy for the Pub, sad for us.  

I bet locals in places like Waiheke, or the Wairarapa, or Raglan, or Kaikoura, or Northland, etc, feel the same way. But it does make me wonder how much small communities are prepared for the summer surges, how much infrastructure is in place to cope with the sudden influx?  

It would be nice to have some way of expanding facilities or road access at times like this, but the fact it’s so seasonal makes that a bit tricky, doesn’t it? You can’t build a bigger Four Square and have extra through roads, if in reality they’re going to sit empty for the rest of the year.  

But how good to see business back buzzing and tourists in town. Beaches filling up, surfboards on roofs, boats being towed, cafes overflowing. Even if it means you can’t get lunch at your local Pub because it’s so chocka. We are lucky to have such beautiful surrounds in this country – and especially at a time like this with so much volatility going on around the world, it makes you feel grateful to live in a haven like New Zealand.  

Yes, there’s a lot wrong in this country right now but we still have free access to beautiful beaches, parks, and hikes. We can get in a car and drive to spectacular scenic vistas that people from other countries would pay big bucks to be able to do.  

When the world feels tumultuous, somehow our distance from it all, makes us feel safer. Or at least lucky to be so far away. Doesn’t make chaos in other parts of the world any less hard to watch, but it does make us grateful for what we have I reckon. And in rural areas in particular it does feel a million miles away from chaos.  

But the gateway to the summer season always starts to unlock the crowds, which definitely happened this weekend. It’s not just rurally though, cities are about to be flooded with people too. The cruise ship business says it's preparing for a huge influx of cruisers arriving soon. Which makes you wonder how ready our CBDs are for that too actually.  

So this weekend was maybe the calm before the real surge starts to pump. How good though, especially if the sun was shining where you were. I reckon sun, an AB’s win, and a change of direction for the country, is a great combo that’s got us all on a bit of a buzz after a long wet tedious winter. 

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