I have been in New Zealand since 22 December and every day since then has been beautiful – a string of long summer days with plenty of sunshine, blue skies and high white cloud. I don’t remember when last we experienced such lovely weather, particularly over Christmas and New Year. In past summers newspapers and the TV news featured pictures of flooded camp-sites around the country, with stoic holiday-makers grinning from under the hoods of their raincoats. In contrast, a headline in today’s paper read “What a scorcher!” And the forecast is for more of the same tomorrow. We’ll soon be heading for water restrictions and farmers complaining of drought but for now, I for one am making the most of the golden weather.