Feeling under the weather

THE streets were filled with people, the Art Deco guides were overwhelmed with camera and question-wielding building spotters and the roadside cafes were doing a sparkling trade.

But I felt terrible.

I also felt guilty and I tried not to glance at the faces of the tourist throngs as I felt sure I would receive a glance in reply ... a glance accusing me of being an accessory to fraud.

There was a mighty cruise liner docked at the port and a mighty lot of people, many no doubt enjoying their seafaring holiday of a lifetime, walking the streets of the Bay's seaside city in summer.

And the drizzle drifted down ... for the third day in a row.

Because another Kiwi summer holidaymaker had arrived in town.

An exotic-sounding visitor known simply as La Nina.

The sort of visitor we don't want because La Nina comes from the sub-tropical north-east and is, to put it purely and simply, a wet blanket.

Northeasterlies and easterlies are the bane of the lives of we upon the eastern side of the land, although it has to be said that so far this summer La Nina has spread her damp fingers across much of the land.

I looked at the tourists, many no doubt from Australia which is having a summer's summer, and felt terrible for them.

Here I was, a resident of this usually sparkling region, watching them wander by in their plastic coats and umbrellas ... as they stoically made the most of their brief (and I daresay in many cases only) visit to Napier.

I felt bad.

I felt like apologising.

Which I found myself doing a couple of days later while speaking to some visitors from Foxton Beach who had endured about six wet days and just two fine ones.

They took the wonderful Kiwi stance of "ah, she'll be right, these things happen" and declared they had already booked their holidays for next Christmas here in the Bay.

But I still felt bad.

Our tourism sector embraces the image of the blazing sun and the pennants and banners and posters all carry the sunshine message.

Yet here we are trying to get on with the summertime party only to have a gatecrasher called Nina turn up - and she has no intention of leaving, the boffins at MetService tell us.

Weather scientists are saying "don't put the rain brollies away just yet, there's more to come".

Indeed, this weekend's forecast isn't exactly one to make us break out the sunscreen.

I mowed the lawns yesterday and they were lush and green.

Three years ago, as January began to roll into its second week, they were literally browned off.

I think La's brother El was in town that summer.

So here we are, in a summer of uncertainty as rain and clouds from the north and east dominate the foreseeable horizon.

And the cruise liners and tourists, seeking the delights of "Sunny Napier", will continue to arrive of course, and I may just have to say something.

"Hey, you should have been here a couple of years ago."