I was reminded of this the other morning, driving to work.<\/p>\n
Now, in the North Island, the morning would be described as freezing. <\/p>\n
In Christchurch, we\u2019d call it \u201ccrisp\u201d and in Southland, they\u2019d describe it as \u201cbalmy\u201d and change into a singlet. But the issue wasn\u2019t the temperature. The issue was my car.<\/p>\n
More specifically, the rear side window on my soon-to-be-classic Volkswagen Golf, which, like a teenager on a Sunday morning, has no interest in getting up.<\/p>\n
Now technically, I could take it to a mechanic and get it fixed properly. Or I could attempt fixing it myself. <\/p>\n
But precision German engineering and Glenn-guesswork have historically not worked well together. <\/p>\n
German cars are designed by people with mathematics degrees and tiny screwdrivers. <\/p>\n
I, on the other hand, require a calculator for the simplest mathematical equations, and my screwdriver set is missing some pretty key players.<\/p>\n
So instead, in true Kiwi \u201cshe\u2019ll be right\u201d fashion, I came up with a solution.<\/p>\n
I bought a door stop.<\/p>\n
Not an automotive part. Not a temporary window brace, if that is even a thing. An actual door stop, jammed into the frame to stop the window from sliding down. <\/p>\n
And for a while, it worked beautifully. Unfortunately, that was summer. <\/p>\n
You see, the engineering flaw in this almost-Nasa-level solution is that there\u2019s now a small gap at the top of the window, which winter takes advantage of.<\/p>\n
Because on really cold mornings, the slight gap allows just enough freezing South Island air to sneak in and collide with the warmer air trapped inside the car. <\/p>\n
And when cold air meets moisture and a windscreen, it creates condensation, which then freezes onto the inside of the glass, forming what I call \u201cinside ice\u201d.<\/p>\n
And this inside ice turns my Volkswagen Golf into a blue, underperforming freezer.<\/p>\n
Despite all of this, in winter I get in, scrape the inside of the windscreen like an Antarctic explorer, and think to myself, \u201cShe\u2019ll be right\u201d.<\/p>\n
Which got me thinking that this phrase might actually be one of the most Kiwi things about us.<\/p>\n
Because \u201cshe\u2019ll be right\u201d isn\u2019t just a saying. It\u2019s a philosophy. And to be fair, sometimes it\u2019s brilliant. Sometimes, it works.<\/p>\n
Half the country was probably built by someone standing back from a problem, squinting slightly, and saying, \u201cShe\u2019ll be right\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even some of our greatest achievements have a bit of \u201cshe\u2019ll be right\u201d in them.<\/p>\n
Sir Edmund Hillary literally took modified Ferguson farm tractors to Antarctica and drove them to the South Pole. <\/p>\n
While the British expedition had custom-built snow vehicles and specialised machinery designed specifically for polar exploration, Hillary essentially looked at a Massey Ferguson tractor, slapped some tracks on it, pointed it towards Antarctica, and thought, \u201cYeah \u2026 she\u2019ll be right\u201d.<\/p>\n
And somehow, against all logic, it absolutely was.<\/p>\n
Burt Munro looked at an old Indian motorbike, added a collection of homemade parts that would\u2019ve had most engineers saying, \u201cThat won\u2019t work\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Burt said, \u201cShe\u2019ll be right\u201d, took that bike to Bonneville, and set a land speed record of more than 180m\/h (290km\/h) on a machine that was already nearly 50 years old \u2013 a record in its class that still stands today.<\/p>\n
And every farmer in New Zealand has, at some point, repaired machinery using fencing wire, some old baling twine, and what some might call blind optimism. And somehow, a lot of the time, it works.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s something admirable in that kind of thinking. <\/p>\n
A willingness to have a crack, back yourself, and solve problems without overcomplicating them. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of the reason Kiwis have built such a reputation for ingenuity. <\/p>\n
Give us a problem, half a toolbox, and an unreasonable amount of confidence, and there\u2019s a good chance we\u2019ll at least attempt to solve it.<\/p>\n
But if we\u2019re being honest, the \u201cshe\u2019ll be right\u201d attitude doesn\u2019t always end in world records or legendary pole-crossing stories.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it ends with someone standing ankle-deep in laundry floodwater at 7am, staring at a washing machine hose that\u2019s been held together for the last six months with a clothes peg, a snap-lock bag, and that \u201cshe\u2019ll be right\u201d attitude.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it\u2019s watching a mattress slide down the windscreen from the roof rack after Dad brakes suddenly for \u201csome idiot who has no bloody idea how to drive\u201d.<\/p>\n
Which is ironic coming from the same man who tied that mattress on with a bungy cord, some old baling twine, half a roll of gaffa tape, and the confident declaration of, \u201cThat\u2019s not going anywhere \u2026 she\u2019ll be right”.<\/p>\n
I reckon every Kiwi has at least one memory involving a \u201cshe\u2019ll be right\u201d moment that wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
A chair that can only be sat on \u201ccarefully\u201d. <\/p>\n
A ranch slider that only opens if you throw your hip into it like you\u2019re trying to break into your own house. <\/p>\n
A passenger door that requires \u201ca bit of technique\u201d.<\/p>\n
And yes, even a car window that is technically up, just not all the way.<\/p>\n
And honestly, there\u2019s something kind of beautiful about that, too.<\/p>\n
Because underneath all the dodgy fixes and questionable engineering, \u201cshe\u2019ll be right\u201d usually comes from a good place. <\/p>\n
The belief that problems can be handled. That things will work out. That even if it\u2019s not perfect, we\u2019ll find a way through it.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it\u2019s held this country together.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it\u2019s held my car window up (note sometimes).<\/p>\n
And maybe that\u2019s why the phrase has lasted so long. Because deep down, being Kiwi has never really been about perfection. We\u2019re not polished. We\u2019re not always organised. We occasionally use household items for automotive repairs. We occasionally use automotive items for household repairs.<\/p>\n
But we back ourselves.<\/p>\n
Even when the solution is a door stop that has somehow become a window-upperer \u2013 I may have invented that term.<\/p>\n
So yes, maybe one day I\u2019ll get the Golf fixed properly. Maybe I\u2019ll finally take it to someone who understands German engineering and doesn\u2019t think \u201cthat looks about right\u201d.<\/p>\n
But until then, I\u2019ll keep scraping ice off the inside of the windscreen and pretending this is all part of the ownership experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was reminded of this the other morning, driving to work. Now, in the North Island, the morning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[95,5195,138,21935,21934,13610,35637,5511,194,32854,111,139,69,1118,9979,54681,544,223,6035,225914],"class_list":["post-442410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-and","tag-be","tag-business","tag-dwight","tag-glenn","tag-highs","tag-ingenuity","tag-just","tag-kiwi","tag-lows","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-right","tag-shell","tag-some","tag-the","tag-things","tag-unmistakeably"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}