From the editor - lazy days of summer
Living in an idyllic spot like Taupō has a few obvious upsides but there is one thing that makes life just a little bit harder. As an early riser, I sometimes walk the 1km to our office on Tamamutu St in the morning.
I know this is unlikely to impress the triathletes, the across the lake swimmers or the cyclists, but it’s good for the circadian rhythms to catch some early light.
The alternative is to drive, park the car in the nearest all day parking and then walk 500 metres to the office. It takes about the same amount of time.
This gives me time to appreciate how peaceful and beautiful this place is and I often repeat the dose in the evening, walking down to the lake and taking in the sunset. It never gets old.
Weekends are much the same, enjoying one of the many events, soaking up the ambience of this place, popping down to the market on a Sunday, going for a swim.
I know I’m not the only one who appreciates where they live and I’m sure a fair chunk of the population moved here to enjoy the surroundings. The rest were brought up here and didn’t see the need to move anywhere else, stayed for friends and family or returned for all the same reasons.
In fact, once Christmas arrives, with the exception of tourism, hospitality and essential workers, the population slips into its board shorts and a seemingly endless holiday begins.
A lot of people take the days off in between the stats, maybe an extra week, while others shuffle half-heartedly back to their desks or workshops, trying to concentrate while a constant stream of holidaymakers swirl around the town.
There is of course the generous supply of public holidays, first Christmas and Boxing Day, followed by New Year Day and the day after New Year Day, because January the 2nd is a sacred day just for fun really.
Having sacred days for fun is a bit of a slippery slope. Before you know it the entire Waikato and Bay of Plenty is celebrating Auckland Anniversary.
For 364 days of the year we celebrate not living in Auckland and then we have a day off to celebrate the place. Quite weird really, but we do love a holiday.
Before you know it, Waitangi Weekend will be upon us and without a doubt every man, woman and child will be reflecting on the significance of that, while doing their favourite leisure activity.
Then, of course you have the weekend and after that, it’s a return to some kind of normality for many, with the exception of those who have worked through and chosen mid-February as a better time to take a break.
It’s essentially March before everyone is back to business in a major way and this three months of merriment has come in for some scrutiny by learned financial types, especially when we are trying to claw our way out of an economic slump.
Economists are a bit like the Grinch when it comes to raising the delicate subject of productivity, long breaks and half-arsed returns to work.
I’ve never paid much notice to this kind of buzz-kill stuff until this year. I’ve always thought, ‘well, we are a fairly wealthy country, and we can afford to lose a little income in order to enjoy our place in the world’. Otherwise what’s the point?
But now I run a business, I’ve become one of those mean economist types. Nobody is booking space for January, everyone is eying February and beyond. Without trade, the whole economy becomes, well, uneconomic.
Anyway, fun’s over people, it’s time to shake off the sand, swap the jandals for steel caps and bury ourselves in serious business and scholarly pursuits..
Of course, the lake is still there, the weekends are still available and there is still the constant throng of visitors who heard that February and March is actually the best time to visit.