Something Thoughful

   Nicholas Reid reflects in essay form on general matters and ideas related to literature, history, popular culture and the arts, or just life in general. You are free to agree or disagree with him.  

                                                            IT KEEPS HITTING US

 A fortnight ago I wrote a column on this blog about the rain called Weather Makes for Moods, wherein I bemoaned the way that lots of rain makes me housebound. Back in July 2025 I wrote a column called Indubitably Pluvial, which stated that New Zealand is a very rainy country in Autumn and Winter. And of course I often think about the great Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023.  Tiresome person that I am, I am now once again writing about the weather. Why so? Because once again the rain has injured us.

This time we were given clear warning. We knew that another cyclone was coming and it was a big one so we were well prepared. We put our rubbish-bins into the garage so that they would not slide away in the wind as they did back in 2023. We made sure the trampoline was firmly pegged down. We brought inside loose pot-plants and doubly checked the windows. So we waited and waited. Along came a day of rain, annoying all day long and continuing into some of the night, but not being a deluge, just the ordinary Autumn downpour. The road did not overflow. And the following day, Auckland had a bright sunny day. But we knew this was only a prelude, for on the third day it really and relentlessly bucketed down, with the road almost – but not quite - overflowing. But once again there was no real damage.

But please note, I am an Aucklander and there is an odd geographical thing about Auckland. It is built on an isthmus and rain can move across it more quickly over the isthmus than over wider parts of New Zealand. Yes, in the West part of Auckland, there was much damage in the Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023, with some houses having to be demolished. But that was an anomaly. Meanwhile, both in the  Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 and in the cyclone that has just passed us, Northland, the Coromandel Peninsula and further South were bashed cruelly by the storm – not as destructive as Cyclone Gabrielle but still causing much damage, making some people homeless and roads flooded.

What is the best that can be said about this? We should be grateful that there were clearly repeated warnings put out by the government and on radio and television. We should be grateful for the meteorologists who explained the situation. We should be grateful for the men and women who had helped people out when roads had been blocked or bridges had become impassable. We should be grateful that there were people who looked after others who had lost their homes. But most of all, we should never be smug because our part the New Zealand missed the deluge. We are always in it.