Southern Exposure

When I was younger I used to really enjoy a series based, I think in Alaska, named Northern Exposure. I also spent a summer on a J1 in Hyannis Port in Cape Cod in America.

How is this relevant to Auckland you might ask? Well there’s something about the timber frame houses, the wide commercial streets with overhanging awnings, the mail boxes on the edge of drives and the lack of fences that remind me of America and in turn Northern Exposure for that matter.

Don’t get me wrong I am not saying New Zealand is like America, it’s just that it is more like America than any other part of the world that I know. Or maybe to its credit America is more like New Zealand than anywhere else in the world, although I doubt it. I suspect it is also very like Canada although I have never been so I’ll take someone else’s opinion on that one. Perhaps it’s just the amount of space and therefore the density of development that is similar.

We went around an area called Ponsonby just outside the centre of Auckland and although I do not have any pictures of the area it was very like small town America. I took some photos of Devonport and although it is not quite as “American” as Ponsonby I think you can get quite a good impression of what I am writing about.

Speaking of southern exposure the South winds in NZ are the equivalent of the North Easterly’s in Ireland but given our proximity to the Antarctic it makes the North Easterly winds feel tame by comparison. Especially here in Wellington which is known for the winds that blow through the Cook Strait.

If I find a moose I'll let you know!

Cathal