As most holiday-goers in Otago battled with grey and dreary summer days this year, the question on many people's minds was: Why do we have summer holidays in late December and January?
Statistically, they are the two wettest months of summer, and history tells us February is the most settled month.
As soon as the school bell rings to drag children back to the classroom, the weather invariably comes right.
So the question begging is: Why don't we just change our school holidays to February when the weather is better?
The idea draws mixed reactions from Dunedin schools.
Balaclava School principal Sally Direen said it was a ''brilliant'' idea because it meant children could have the benefit of being outside rather than cooped up inside driving their parents mad.
Kavanagh College principal Tracy O'Brien said on a personal level he too would like to see the holidays changed to coincide with warmer and drier weather.
But like many other principals, he believed it would create more trouble than it was worth for the operations of schools.
Macandrew Bay School principal Bernadette Newlands agreed and said she preferred the status quo.
''Some years it's good and some years it's bad. You take what you get,'' Mrs Newlands said.
''I guess if we went in February, we would have to work through until February, which would leave children pretty tired by the end of the year.
''The parents are also working, so it wouldn't just be schools that would change. There are significant issues for working families with children, and if the whole family can be on holiday at the same time, it's so much better.''
While other principals are also sceptical about whether it is even possible to change the school summer holiday dates, Mrs Direen believed it was.
She said schools could still take statutory holidays such as Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
''If they can change the school holidays to fit the Rugby World Cup in, then they could change the summer holidays.''
Balmacewen Intermediate principal Andrew Hunter said he did not believe the weather was any different in February than it was in December or January.
''The weather has only really come right in the last week. I don't think you could say the weather has been considerably better in the last two weeks than it was prior to that,'' he said.
''If it was so different that it was like a different season, maybe. But I think our weather is changeable full-stop at this time of year.
''I can't see two weeks being the difference between people being happy on holidays and seeing some sunshine, personally.
''You could talk to five people and get five different answers about this.''
Ministry of Education sector enablement and support head Katrina Casey said different approaches to the timing of term dates had been considered over the years, and the present approach gained wide support following consultation with sector groups and others in 2006.
She said the timing of school terms and holidays had implications beyond just the education sector.
She believed there would be considerable disruption to the lives of working parents if school holidays were to be rescheduled without reference to normal workforce custom and practice.
The present summer holiday period was aligned with when most businesses closed.
She said the ministry would be open to discussing changing the holiday dates to February or March, but only if all schools, parents and the majority of New Zealand businesses and organisations wanted holidays to be officially moved.
''We have had no indication there is support for such a move.''
