Today was a beautiful day – that’s it in the photo above.  The weather was stunning – warm enough in the sun to sunbath. No wind and, once the sun went down, cool but not chilly.

So here’s my problem.  I always figured that Italy was much closer to the equator than New Zealand and that’s what determined the hot, hot summers and milder winters when compared to home. I always thought that Positano must be on a similar latitude to, say, Brisbane in Australia. It made sense to me.

But then I checked the facts.

The latitude of Positano is 40° 37′ N. The latitude of Wellington is 41° 19′ S. That’s almost identical. In fact Paekakariki is 40° 37′ S which is identical. (For non-kiwi readers Paekakariki – pronounced Pie-car-car-reeky – is a very small coastal community about 40kms north of our home town Wellington.)

In theory Positano in November and December should have the same weather as Paekakariki in May and June. Now, I’m not wanting to upset the lovely people of Paekakariki but this isn’t the case.

Thoughts?