Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was.

It is officially summer. And it is officially hot. Typically, I love the first few days of summer, when the chill in the wind turns into a pleasant breeze. But there’s been a sad and necessary evolution in my feelings about long summer days lately.

As a kid, summer was my favourite season by far. It meant school holidays, Christmas, warm weather (though growing up in Wellington it never felt genuinely hot) and lots of sun. Moving to Auckland and getting older, the last few years have brought with them a bleak and opposite reaction. Summer means all those other things still, but now it also means sweating 100% of the time, feeling lethargic and being hit with the scary reality that every year it is hotter earlier and what that might mean for everyone in 10, 20, 30 years time.

And on top of it all: sunburn.

I have worn sunscreen my whole life. At first, it was reluctantly. I played cricket and loved biking and being outside, and was always being told by the responsible adults to put on sunscreen. I never railed against it, it was just an annoying thing to have to do when I was trying to run into the ocean. Which means, like most New Zealanders, I have experienced some really bad sunburn. That deep heat that feels like you could burn someone else with it. Then the peeling (so gross) and the eventual return to a healthy skin layer with the promise to not forget your back again when applying sunscreen.

It’s been years since I’ve experienced such sunburn and if I can help it, I never will again. Now, I wear sunscreen on my face virtually every day of the year (it should be literally every day but on rainy winter days I often lapse). As soon as it’s sunny and I’m getting my pins out, I do the full body lotion. When my partner looks like she’s about to go swimming without putting on sunscreen, I nag her about it in the same way the people in drink driving ads nag their mates about doing the right thing.

It’s 2024 and we live in New Zealand where the sun is particularly harsh, surely everyone knows now that sunscreen is a non-negotiable. Surely? Apparently not. When it was pitched in our editorial meeting this week that someone should write a PSA about wearing sunscreen this summer, about half of my colleagues started talking about the best ways to get a tan. They were all young – not much younger than me but in this conversation I felt suddenly ancient and crotchety.

I didn’t have the stats on hand to yell at them but here they are:

• New Zealand has the highest rate of melanoma death in the world
• Our sun is particularly dangerous due to low pollution, positioning to the sun and a lovely ozone hole
• It can take only a few minutes of sun exposure to cause damage to your skin in summer

The damage is both long-term and superficial. Skin damage can lead to all sorts of future complications, the most obvious being skin cancer. And for the vain (which is all of us, let’s not lie), it speeds up the development of fine lines, wrinkles and blemishes. There’s just no reason to not wear sunscreen. And the fact that we live in one of the most dangerous country in the world when it comes to sun makes it all the more concerning that so many of us, especially the young, still rush towards the dangers of the sun. Sure, we all are young and foolish and learn lessons the hard way (as Alex Casey frighteningly detailed in her feature on teenagers tanning this week) but if you’re an adult and still opt out of wearing sunscreen in a New Zealand summer, what are you doing?!

The most common excuse is that if feels and smells yuck. This is true, but that’s why there’s a whole billion-dollar beauty industry out there vying for your attention. Shop around and find the ones that don’t. They’ll be more expensive but they could also be saving your life so consider it an investment.

This week it has suddenly become summer. Like, don’t even consider wearing long pants kind of weather. So as you rearrange your wardrobe and prepare to bask in the hot sun, please spare a thought for your largest organ and wear sunscreen. And if you see me buying a $130 designer sunhat this weekend, don’t say a word. It has a wide brim and a drawstring and fits my huge head and is an investment in my health, thank you very much.

This week on Behind the Story:

Last month, senior writer at The Spinoff Anna Rawhiti-Connell was joined on stage at the Hannah Playhouse by Wellington editor Joel MacManus and special guests RNZ’s Charlotte Cook and Billy T nominee Maria Williams to review the year.

They jumped backwards into the year’s headlines, political dramas, and some of the best Spinoff yarns. Listen to the recording of this Spinoff Live event for a smattering of karaoke, a Ray Gun reveal, a vote on whether Wellington was “brat”, predictions for next year, and some spicy takes about the year’s big moments.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Join us for the Auckland Year in Review, live at Q Theatre, on Wednesday, December 11, with Anna Rawhiti-Connell, Dr Emma Wehipeihana and Hayden Donnell.

Book your tickets now.