Our recent poll asked New Zealand which of the four end dates to winter do they personally adopt – seeing as none are official and being two large islands in the South Pacific our weather can be varied and not quite so predictable.

The winning result by a clear majority was quite simply: Mother Nature. When New Zealanders start feeling warmth creeping back, seeing newborn new season animals, buds, flowers and leaves beginning to bloom, no calendar or other advice will convince this 40% group that this isn’t spring!

Second biggest voting block goes to the Astronomical date with 30% of the vote. This is the earth’s rotation around the sun and therefore mathematically and physically there is a lot of sense around basing season start and end dates around our longest and shortest days. 

In third place comes the “meteorological” date – 25% prefer to celebrate the change of seasons when news outlets welcome in the first of the month.

And in last place… by a mile…5% say winter ends at the end of the ‘solar winter’ (the 3 months with the least amount of available sunlight). This was back in the start of August.

Next poll out on Monday! Thanks for voting!