Queen’s Birthday Weekend in New Zealand
by Queen’s Birthday Weekend in New Zealand is the start of winter. A long weekend seems an appropriate way to prepare to face the months ahead.
As I sit here this cold, wet winter Tuesday evening in down under New Zealand, I can’t help reflecting on the weekend that has been. It wasn’t any ordinary weekend, it was Queen’s Birthday Weekend, a three day weekend. Not that it was really Queen Elizabeth’s birthday, that is on 21 April. In New Zealand, a Commonwealth country, we celebrate the Queen’s birthday publicly on the first Monday in June. About the most reference Queen Elizabeth gets on the day is the release of the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Image via Wikipedia
For most people the long weekend signifies the beginning of winter. People take the opportunity to have a few days away, enjoying a short break from the daily humdrum of life. Traffic hits the roads early Friday, many taking that day as an extra holiday. A steady stream of traffic can be seen returning to cities late on Monday afternoon.
There’s usually an interest in the holiday road toll as the weekend comes to a close. Sadly, with so much traffic on the road and so many people wanting to fit everything they can into the weekend, sensible driving is abandoned and fatalities occur. Too many people try to go too far in too short a time. This year it was different. In spite of appalling weather, we’ve just had the lowest Queen’s Birthday Weekend road toll since 1956, when records were first kept. At the time of writing, 5pm Tuesday 8 June, the road toll stood at an unbelievable one. Last year it was ten. That is an incredible reduction. The positive results are attributed to the police launching a low tolerance campaign prior to the weekend. What a pity we can’t have a low tolerance campaign all year round.
The weather was typical of a winter holiday weekend, wet and cold. In the part of the country I live, the rain hardly let up all weekend. But that didn’t matter. It gave opportunities to get indoors things done. An old box of belongings, not used in a long time, was pulled out, with much of the contents making its way to the Recycling Station nearby. Unexpected visitors arrived from the far north and hours of food, stories and laughter were shared. We took a day trip to the capital city of Wellington to spend time with our son.
Long weekends are important in our lives. They give an opportunity to catch up on things that sometimes get ignored. Not all New Zealanders care whether it was the Queen’s real birthday or not. But, I’m sure all appreciated the chance to have an extra non-working day, to spend as they pleased. Even if the weather was wet and cold.
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Post Commentronthoughts
On June 8, 2010 at 5:02 am
Very well written. Liked!
Guy Hogan
On June 8, 2010 at 8:00 am
I enjoyed this article. It was well written and it gave a nice little insight into life down under.
PR Mace
On June 8, 2010 at 11:30 am
I forget you have winter while we are in the heat of summer already. Nice article. I loved the picture of the Queen in her bright yellow suit. You roadway death toll is like ours for the 4th of July or Labor Day Weekend. It is sad when death occurs on what should be a nice holiday but it is usually because people are careless.
wendym
On June 8, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Interesting article. It’ll be a good day when people stop using three day weekends as an excuse for drinking and reckless driving.
giftarist
On June 8, 2010 at 5:44 pm
I enjoyed the read. I never knew you’re in winter holiday these days.
Lord Banks
On June 9, 2010 at 8:50 am
I was not aware of this holiday and good luck to you all. Nice article. LB
Tina Cassello
On June 9, 2010 at 9:42 am
Like the comment, it seems strange to hear June as being the beginning of winter when to us it is, or should be summery. Chicago only was in the 60’s yesterday, but it is supposed to be 90 by the weekend. When does your summer start? We have our day that is supposed to honor presidents, originally only Washington’s Birthday, but now it is called President’s Day. We but do not celebrate the current president’s birthday, but since we have our first Black president I am sure they will declare a day for him when he is out of office and name some public building or more than one after him.
Shirley Shuler
On June 9, 2010 at 1:48 pm
I enjoyed this post very much, Val.
lovelights
On June 10, 2010 at 2:06 am
Well-written. Great article.