Wellington is known, even notorious, for its powerful winds. But we also have beautiful calm interludes - sometimes a day or more, sometimes just an hour or so - while the wind changes. And then, as we like to say, there is nothing like Wellington on a good day.
A day or two ago it was one of these days - a sunny winter morning when all was calm. Looking across from Island Bay (the island is just out of sight) we can see Baring Head and soft clouds still hanging around the Orongorongos. The bright canary yellow sails of a little becalmed yacht caught my eye.
At Baring Head there is an atmospheric monitoring station. The air arriving there comes from the Southern Ocean and has not been over land for about a week, so measurements taken there are not skewed by nearby human activities. Since 1970 CO2 monitoring at Baring Head has provided the longest running continuous record in the Southern Hemisphere. Unfortunately it shows a steep rise in CO2 levels, in keeping with global trends.
So, not all is well. But I found this study in blue (with a dash of yellow) to be a very calming sight, and an invitation to be at peace with the environment around us.