Off to Rugby tonight - Manu Samoa vs. Scotland. A typical Wellington day - a bit rainy, overcast, with wind gusts to 130 kph (74 miles per hour.) One of my compatriots heard a nasty rumor that the game would be cancelled. Since I have two rambunctious kids attending the scrum-viewing with me, I thought I'd better check. I called the ticket company, and in true Kiwi fashion (aka laid-back), he said, "but it's too late to tell people if it's cancelled." ?!? So, what - everyone has to schlep downtown to get a personal no? He went on - "anyway, the weather would have to be really, really bad for us to cancel a rugby game." As he says this, I'm watching small children blow across the street, schoolbags ballooning like umbrellas ahead of them, wet hair smacking across their face, only to be halted in their dangerous trajectory by lamposts, large buildings or moving cars. Good thing the weather isn't bad. But I suppose when you're in Wellington, bad weather is a 7 point earthquake and, compared to that, storm force winds are a small price to pay. As architect Ian Athfield said "it's good that Wellington's so windy and difficult a lot of the time because if it was any better than all those shits that live in Auckland would move down here."
As I give a tongue-in-cheek assessment of this beautiful city's weather, I should mention that the mayor of Auckland, NZ's largest city by far, with all of the attendant problems that that implies, stated that Auckland was the engine of the country, and Wellington was merely "a port town at the bottom of the country." (Um, OK, yes, and?) adding that "Wellington needs Auckland. We don't need the capital." Last time I checked, most countries actually do need the capital, and I'm sure that, at its heart, Auckland is happy to be politican/Parliament free. But as the Mayor noted: "Margaret Thatcher once told me it's not important to be liked. It's only important to be respected." And Maggie would know....
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