Springtime in November

And hello, my friends! This is your B.C. correspondent, Bella Bella. I was thinking fondly of you all as I sat on a beach near Wellington, the beautiful capital city of New Zealand, surrounded by springtime flowers. On November 8th.

Now how, any self-respecting North American student might well ask, can that be possible? Spring flowers in November?

Well, any self-respecting New Zealander will gladly tell you that of course it's springtime in November. Just so long as you're south of Earth's equator!

As Maurice le Rocket describes in the previous story, several of we Travelling Teddy Bears visited New Zealand during a November convention of the Society of American Travel Writers. A "convention," by the way, is a big series of meetings where people (and sometimes bears) get together to catch up on business and news.

Here are a bunch of us bears at the convention in Wellington.

Now, do you know why it would be springtime south of the equator when it's autumn in Canada?

Let me show you with my trusty world globe. Hey, I'm sitting on top of the world!

 

Our planet, the Earth, spins once every 24 hours on its "axis." The "axis" is an imaginary line through the middle of the Earth, with the North Pole at one end, and the South Pole (in Antarctica) at the other end. The Earth rotates around this axis like a spinning top, once every 24 hours or so.

Our planet's axis isn't straight up-and-down: it's tilted at an angle. And this is why we have seasons.

Here, I'll show you. This globe shows the tilt of Earth's axis, which is about 23 and a half degrees.

 

Our Earth travels around the Sun once every 365 (OK, once every 365 and about one-quarter) days.

When the North Pole is tilting toward the Sun, the days are longer north of the equator, it's warmer, and we have summer in Canada. The North Pole tilts most toward the Sun around June 21st.

Six months later, on December 21st, the Earth has travelled half-way around the Sun, so the North Pole is now pointing away from the Sun. And you're right: the days are shorter in Canada, it gets colder, and we have winter.

But think: when Earth's North Pole is tilting away from the Sun, the South Pole is pointing toward it! So the seasons in countries south of the equator are reversed compared to ours: December 21st marks the start of summer for them, just like in gorgeous, green New Zealand.

 

And that is why, in early November, I found this eggshell: a tiny bird had just hatched to greet the springtime world.

My travelling buddies, Suzanne and Dave, took me to some places in New Zealand different from the ones Maurice visited with Lise and Jean. So between all of us, we'll give you a tour all over this amazing country!

 

Photos and story © S. Clouthier