Beyond the Edge Beyond the Bar: 13.10 Te Awamutu & Hobbiton: A Great Drought & Great Expectations

Rains came to New Zealand this past Sunday (St Patrick’s Day), starting in the morning, at least where we were, in a small church in Pirongia. We’ve had rain again in the Waikato on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week. In New Zealand many have been talking about the weather because the North Island, the South Island, and (comparatively small) Stewart Island have been in a drought that began in the north in mid-January. It hung around and went further south, encompassing essentially all of mainland New Zealand. Whether the recent rains signal an end to the drought remains to be seen.

Rain or no rain, we have our expectations for the environment and for ourselves. Droughts, floods, windstorms, earthquakes, and other extreme sports of our home planet highlight the fact that while Earth is home, even a marvelous home, it isn’t paradise. We build nests against adversity; we clothe ourselves for the sake of protection; we build stores against ‘rainy days’ or dry years, and so forth.

Kiwis are no different than souls elsewhere on the home planet; they do the best they can with what they have, given what they expect. All homes and human ventures are framed by expectations, natural and moral, and constrained (as always) by the limited means of addressing those expectations.

New Zealand is bathed in what is often termed a ‘temperate maritime climate’. ‘Temperate’ in New Zealand’s context means the absence of temperature and precipitation extremes. The durability of pine and palms trees side by side and the gigantic size and rapid growth of trees, ferns, and other plants are telling indicators of New Zealand’s benign and beneficent climate. Hamilton, where we lived for our first month in New Zealand, had one reportable snowfall in 2011. The last preceding snowfall was apparently in 1939. Snow in New Zealand is generally constrained to the tops of the highest mountains in the North Island or in and around the Southern Alps (on the South Island). More generally throughout New Zealand ‘frosty conditions’ can tickle the plants and blight highways in winter.

Dry spells are a frequent, if spotty, occurrence in New Zealand, at least by most reports. Widespread droughts are a virtual certainty, occurring reportedly on average once every seven to ten years. Depending on your source, the current (or recent?) drought is the most severe in fifty years or seventy years. Drought or anything else a climate presents constrains what a national economy can achieve and shapes what a household economy must endure.

The most drought-affected sector of New Zealand’s economy is the agricultural sector, which is big business, accounting for 2/3rds of Kiwi export income. With New Zealand’s hard-earned wealth and technical sophistication, the agricultural sector has made long-term investments to better face the inevitable dry spells. One investment is irrigation. According to Irrigation New Zealand, in the 2002/03 crop year, 4% of Kiwi farmland was irrigated (producing 12% of agricultural GDP). In the 2011/12 year, 6% was under irrigation. No doubt, the recent drought will motivate more investment in irrigation across New Zealand.

Despite the predominance of agriculture in the economy, most Kiwis live in cities and towns. In fact 2/3rds of the population lives in New Zealand’s ten largest cities. Ipso facto, most Kiwis are not even in households involved in agriculture. A relatively small portion of the population, as in the US, supports the rather substantial Kiwi agricultural production, come rain or shine. Kiwi farms and stations (or 'ranches' in US lingo) must be efficient to compete in the world marketplace. They do so absolutely bereft of the subsidies, price supports, and other props so dear in other advanced economies. Kiwi agriculture will be hurt, but not devastated, by this year’s drought.

On the home front the Kiwis have some ground to make up. When Jean and I moved to Te Awamutu (TA), we were startled to learn that residential water meters were non-existent. I don’t know whether that is customary across New Zealand. I do know that the Waipa District (in which TA is located) has announced that it will be moving to universal water metering (at a cost of NZ$6.5 million). This week’s Tuesday edition of the Te Awamutu Courier reports a Waipa District manager as saying that a ‘number of other districts’ have used metering and have found it reduces peak demand. By 2016 universal water metering will be in effect in the Waipa District, if all goes according to plan. Perhaps with the drought, more New Zealand regions and districts will embrace metering.

The absence of home water metering may cause some readers to wonder about other features of Kiwi homes, obvious or not so obvious. The following remarks stem from what I’ve seen so far.

Kiwis prefer single-family dwellings. Outside the three largest cities—Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch—my guess is that very few Kiwis live in apartments. In Hamilton, New Zealand’s fourth largest city, apartment buildings are quite rare.

Most Kiwis live in single-story homes. Basements seem to be non-existent, albeit one sees ‘walk-out’ lower stories in homes set on hillsides.

Urban (including small town) home plots vary considerably in size. In urban areas it isn’t unusual to have ‘horizontal stacking’, as I’ll call it, with one home that’s streetside, then another behind it, and a third behind the second (often served by a common driveway).

Kiwi homes typically have wooden fences or metal or masonry walls enclosing much of their yards. Ever-thrifty Kiwis often engage in kitchen farming behind their yard enclosures. Shrubbery is profuse and flowers not uncommon around homes.

Kiwi homes tend not to be insulated, although the newly built homes incorporate and tout insulation (perhaps with government encouragement). Exterior doors don’t necessarily have weather-stripping, at least on the North Island. Thermopane or double windows, I would guess, are a rarity in homes.

Home heating systems on the North Island are comparable to the US South, if our Te Awamutu home is a fair measure. Our two bathrooms and one bedroom have electric space heaters. The living room has a gas-fired space heater. Air conditioning (unlike the US South) is via the open window (and New Zealand, no surprise, is graced with virtually constant breezes).

Kiwi homes have, if you will, ‘uncluttered’ fenestration. Insect screens are almost never found. Casement windows are the rule. I have yet to encounter a double-hung window. ‘Picture windows’, as they were called in the 1950s (when they were popular in the States), are still very much in fashion in New Zealand.

Kiwi homes have very sturdy roofs. Don’t come to New Zealand if your life’s most compelling desire is to see an asphalt-shingled roof. I’ve yet to see one here. Corrugated or ribbed metal roofs or tile roofs are the universal rule, even in the most modest of dwellings.

Kiwi homes have masonry, lumber, or stucco sidings. At least homes currently under construction employ the balloon framing customary in the USA (as opposed to building techniques at least once common in the UK).

Kiwi residential neighborhoods are almost invariably attractive. Often, but not always, electric and communication lines are buried. Homes are generally well kept and often festooned with trim shrubbery and flowers. The uncluttered fenestration makes for clean-looking façades. And the presence of sturdy roofs makes for the cap to an overall robust appearance. In sum the homes and neighborhoods, when they’ve put their best foot forward, reflect the best qualities one so often encounters in Kiwis—unpretentiousness, openness, robustness.

Home portraits like the portraits of people require permission, so I’ve not included photo shots of Kiwi homes with this post. But I have included (among others) photos of Hobbit ‘homes’ in Hobbiton, which is about an hour’s drive from Te Awamutu, near the town of Matamata. Hobbiton is the movie set for the Middle Earth scenes in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies.

Jean and I visited Hobbiton two weekends ago. I wasn’t eager to go, thinking that the drought would have made for brown grounds. As it turned out, the Hobbiton grounds were (mostly) irrigated. Middle Earth looked good enough, as perhaps the accompanying pictures suggest. For greener views, check out the Hobbiton website. In any event, rain or shine…

Warm regards,

Tim (& Jean)

P.S. On Saturday, we saw the recently released Great Expectations at the Regent in Te Awamutu and can recommend the movie.