Weekly Geeks

It's summertime Weekly Geeks … somewhere. Not here, obviously. Here it's been cold, and wet and cloudy and dark most of the time. Having said that … the sun is shining and the sky is blue today. Which is a nice change from yesterday, which was so cold, wet and miserable it was practically a cliché.
Our summer is December-February, so Christmas time falls smack in the middle of that. And I didn't think that pine trees, tinsel, fake snow and Santas in red suits were incongruous when I was a kid. Our Christmas traditions pretty much came with the British settlers, so that's what we're used to.
So turkey dinners are common; as are barbecues for some. Some head away – mostly to beaches and run-down cribs (or baches, if you live further North) – basically small, rundown houses. Although that's changed now and some “cribs” go for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The grand Kiwi summer holiday tradition is endless hot days near water, if possible. For me, as a kid, we spent most of our holidays in a tiny little spot called Garston, in a free, rundown farmhouse on the land of a farmer my Dad worked for after coming back from World War 2. He was the kindest, most generous man ever. I don't even know what we did, really. Picked peas, and mushrooms, and gooseberries. Hung out at the dried out creek bed.
On Saturday nights, when my parents would go to the pub, they'd take me sometimes, and the barman would make me Shirley Temples.
We'd travel up the road a bit some days to a rest stop at Lake Wakatipu, not far past Kingston. We had our favourite spot _ a large rock with a natural slide. Or we'd travel to Queenstown, at the head of the lake.
The lake's freezing, and the beach is pretty much rocks, and small stones. But it was our spot. We'd stick our Coke bottles in the shallows and just … I don't know how to describe it.
I'm the youngest by six years in my family, so I felt like an only child a lot of the time, even on holiday. I did have a holiday-friend _ the youngest son of the aforementioned farmer was a year older than me and we sort-of almost became real world friends until I totally lost contact, which I kind of regret.
The hottest month is always February, and I have never got used to that. I was always the kid my parents tried to make go outside on nice days. The heat down here where I live is usually a dry kind of heat, which I find easier to deal with than humidity _ it was one of my least favourite things about living in Auckland.
I've gone off-course, again, I think. But my Kiwi summer experience is fairly typical. Take one (1) rundown crib, add sunshine and water, sit back, relax, and enjoy.

That's a not-very-good pic of the spot at the top there. :)
Live long, and prosper Weekly Geeks. :)