Hello everyone! It is freezing down here in Auckland, New Zealand, although not as cold as our friends and family further down the line in Wellington or the South Island! Despite not having howling winds and knee-deep snow, it is still pretty cold here. So the fact that our curtains and blinds are not up in our living room in our new house is not ideal! They will be coming soon and then we will be much more snug in our lovely newly renovated house.  Not having curtains does allow us to look out the windows (all the time) and we are lucky to have a nice view across a valley to a small ridgeline where there is a large paddock for horses (we have to look over a lot of houses to see it, but still). It is slightly bizarre to see such a bucolic scene in the middle of Auckland city (with nearly 1.5million people, it’s not a small city) but we are used to it. In fact every day when I walk to the train station I get a sense of peace by looking at this farmland in the midst of the hustle of going to work.
But we are lucky in Auckland to have this space and greenery. It means that we can get the advantages of living in the city (jobs, entertainment, friends) without the unmitigated disadvantages of living in an urban area.  I’ve mentioned before the fact that urbanisation must impact upon how we view population growth, and this video (from the Population Research Institute) tends to reiterate the point. Enjoy!