Mind you, an early rise on Saturday allowed the pleasure of an hour-and-a-half wander down the far end of Papamoa Beach.
It was delightful. The sun was warm, my multiple layers negated the cool wind, and the sea was sparkling as it does on crisp winter mornings. In the distance, the islands appeared to float above the horizon and White Island was showing off with a large plume of steam standing out clearly against the blue sky.
If it had been 35C it would have been perfect in my view but, thankfully, spring is only a few chilly weeks away now.
Back at home and reading the Weekend Bay of Plenty Times over a steaming hot mug of home-made chicken soup, it struck me how little the big things change in this town.
The story that stood out for me has been an issue for as long as I have lived in Papamoa, which is coming up 11 years.
It is, of course, tsunami sirens and I smiled to myself at a resident's shock that sirens were not included in the Tauranga council's big plans to save us from a potential wall of water.
Why was this person shocked?
I have been raising this issue for at least seven years. It isn't new and we folk of the coastal belt just have to accept that if a major tsunami rolls in in the middle of the night we'll all die.
I have given up on being tsunami-safe as too few care enough to raise their voices over the issue, so I'll wave to you as I float off to either the top of the Papamoa Hills, or am sucked out to the warm climes of the Cook Islands.
The talk of the cost of tsunami protection got me thinking about what rates rise are we facing this year? It was decided while I was away but I know rates will be going up - they always do - even with a cost-conscious set of new councillors. Oh, a 3.4 per cent rise. That's on top of the introduced-last-year stormwater levy of about 3 per cent.
Phew. Thank goodness a free-spending council wasn't voted in or else we'd be looking at a much greater increase wouldn't we?
That, of course, triggered an interest to see how our city council was going in reducing Tauranga's debt. After all they had been voted in to cut debt levels that were "officially" around the mid-$300 million.
To my non-surprise, it seems that far from hauling our owings back into low $300 millions, those in charge of our chequebook will have us back to the extreme 2014 levels and then surpass it by $45 million in 2017.
By mid-2018, we - that is the ratepayers of this town - will owe $442 million.
This, according to reports, is 21 per cent higher than the debt the new councillors inherited - despite jettisoning Route K debt of $60 million.
Mmmmmm. Should I be worried?
Heck no, say those in charge, it's all sweet bro.
Cr John Robson said the rates-funded portion of debt was falling, from 72 per cent of debt in 2015-16 to 60 per cent in 2017-18.
That sounds good, but wouldn't that drop anyway if debt levels climb?
Just asking.
And when it comes down to debt, it doesn't really matter if it is rates funded or not, if this city can't pay its debts the buck stops with ratepayers who will have the total amount to pay off.
Mayor Stuart Crosby said one of the council's financial parameters was to not allow debt to exceed $500 million.
Umm, excuse me, when did that figure come into play?
I reckon our councillors need to take a frosty leaf out of Mother Nature's book and freeze their spending for a while.
-richard@richardmoore.com
Richard Moore is an award-winning Western Bay journalist and photographer
