As New Zealanders embrace their summer holidays, conversations will undoubtedly turn to the weather which has been - in no particular order - too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry and blustery.
Different parts of Otago either remain wet beyond recognition or are burning off, raising fears sheep and beef farmers without irrigation will be struggling for feed as a drought kicks in.
In Northland, farmers are concerned rising rivers will again flood their paddocks, rendering hectares of farmland unusable for stock.
On the East Coast, drought is taking hold.
The Government has been criticised for its apparent lackadaisical approach to climate change. Climate Change Minister Tim Groser travels the world attending conferences, praising this small country's efforts to bring some of the larger players to heel.
At the start of December, Mr Groser attended the climate change talks in Peru which are expected to pave the way to a binding climate-change agreement in Paris at the end of this year.
The minister was particularly pleased to see the commitments expressed by the United States and China - the world's two largest emitters.
Americans may just be getting climate change. Between power outages, deluges, flash floods, mudslides and record droughts, California is quickly becoming unrecognisable - all the bellwethers of an ecosystem out of whack.
Thanks to a rapidly changing climate making wet regions wetter and dry regions drier, 2014 was the hottest year on record and warnings are the Bay Area's recent large storm will become the norm if action is not taken.
The state is in the midst of its worst drought in 1200 years; the winter snow pack, which provides about one-third of the state's water supply is at record lows, despite the snow storms blasting their way across the northern part of the US; last winter's weather was the warmest in the past 119 years; and ocean surface temperatures off the coast of California are at record highs.
The wrath of a warming planet is being felt more powerfully than ever before.
Across the Tasman, Australian farmers are being warned of some of the driest conditions seen in generations. Scenes of dead stock alongside dry water holes are expected soon.
But what to do? As the Amazon rainforest is cut down for use in construction, as South East Asian rainforests disappear to be used as fuel, as China continues to breach emission rules every day because of its coal-fired factories and cheap oil encourages Americans, already used of fuel subsidies, to drive their cars further, there is much work to be done.
In November, the New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment released a report which Opposition parties leapt upon as a sign of Government inaction.
Claims and counter claims over whether the Government was or was not planning to raise New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions 50% in the next decade saw only the die-hard climate advocates not switch off.
Generally, people know the weather is changing but still cannot work out whether it is for better or worse.
Dairy farmers, who pump billions of dollars into the economy - even in a low payout year - bear the brunt of much criticism as cow numbers grow along with greenhouse emissions. New Zealand still has a coal industry of sorts, although falling prices means it is at risk.
No sudden shift in policy by the Government will stop the forces of nature. Mr Groser says New Zealand is taking a balanced approach to climate change and New Zealand is playing its part in avoiding imposing excessive costs on households and businesses.
In that sentence is the nub of the problem. The New Zealand economy is going against the trend seen in Australia, Japan and the euro zone with economic growth set to rise in the coming year. Imposing energy charges on households and businesses will slow growth and put jobs at risk.
Climate change is an important issue for communities facing previously unheard weather conditions but New Zealand being a lone voice on change is not the answer. A balanced approach is the best solution.
