It was a Tuesday morning in late November when Priya stepped off the plane in Sydney, her thick wool coat dripping with the last of a northern hemisphere autumn. She had packed scarves, boots, and a vague sense of dread about the "Australian winter."
Her first stop was Melbourne in (October to November). The guidebooks called it "unpredictable." Priya called it a personality disorder. She left her hostel under a brilliant blue sky, wearing shorts, only to be pelted by hailstones an hour later. She bought a puffer jacket, then stripped down to a t-shirt when the sun re-emerged, all before lunch. A local café owner shrugged. "If you don't like the weather, just wait ten minutes." She learned to dress in seven layers, like an onion, and to always, always carry a compact umbrella. australia weather seasons
By December, she was in Cairns for (December to February). Her first thought was that she had accidentally walked into a sauna. The air was a thick, wet blanket. The heat wasn't a dry crackle like she'd expected; it was a moist, breathing presence. And then, every afternoon at 3 PM sharp, the sky would turn the colour of a bruise. The rain didn't fall—it announced itself. Monsoonal downpours that turned gutters into rivers and sent giant tree frogs onto her balcony. She learned to love the 3 PM siesta, napping through the thunder, then emerging to a world washed clean and steaming. It was a Tuesday morning in late November
Her Uber driver, a sun-leathered man named Baz, laughed so hard he nearly missed the airport exit. "Love, it's almost summer here," he said, pointing to a billboard advertising Christmas barbecues. "You've got the seasons all back-to-front." She left her hostel under a brilliant blue
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