White North American girls across Wellington have joined to form a “Spring Solidarity” support group, to cope with missing autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. The group meets in Starbucks every Tuesday afternoon to sip pumpkin spice lattes and flip through Instagram photos of their antipodal friends.
“#decorativegourd, #fallenleaves, #octobervibes…I’m missing out on all of that,” said Taylor Webb, from Ontario, oblivious to the blossoms around her. “It’s a trying time.”
“Kiwis treat pumpkin like it’s a savory vegetable. It’s not right,” said Caroline Methods, who is from Wisconsin. She has tried to decorate her room with leaves dehydrated in hole-in-the-ozone-layer sun, but “it’s just not the same”.
The group agrees that the pumpkin spice lattes in New Zealand aren’t the same, but “together we can get through this”, according to the convener Abigail Freeman. By bonding with people who know that October is for falling leaves, not water glittering in sunlight, these girls are able to pine a little less for their place of origin. “And don’t get me started on Halloween,” said Freeman.