Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Apologies for posting a day late, but we have been away for a long weekend visiting Bruce and Wendy in Mt Maunganui. Nicky took Friday and Monday off so that we could have two full days with them.  The drive down was warm as the weather was sunny. We had our picnic lunch by a roundabout and railway intersection, and then a few minutes further down the road found another picnic area - always the way. We stopped at the Sweet Painted Lady café in Waharoa for tea, coffee and pecan pie. Nicky also had hand made ice cream from a stall across the road which was very good. We got to Bruce and Wendy’s about 4 in the afternoon. They also had other friends, Robin and Kate, staying with them. After a dip in the sea, where the strong surf ripped the side seams of my togs, we had an excellent BBQ’ed pork dinner. View from the balcony Saturday dawned bright an sunny so we had a leisurely breakfast on the balcony. Nicky swam in the pool at the complex and did her pilates in the gym, w...

We have been on holiday for a couple of weeks. You won't have got a post card from me, I do this instead, but Nicky has done some so you never know your luck. We have been down south again to see Claire and Ryan and some more of the south island. As opposed to doing a chronological account of our two weeks, I will try and make a little more interesting with a question and answer format, as if, dear reader, we were having a conversation. How was the weather? The first week was sunny and shorts, we had four days with some rain in the second week, one of them torrential. As all the locals advised we used this day to go to Milford Sound. The waterfalls on the way were stunning, but when we got there we couldn't see a thing so had cups of tea instead. Who did you see? Well Claire and Ryan of course as we had our first three days in Dunedin. They joined us for most of our activities. In the "middle" weekend they came over to Te Anau and stayed the Satur...

It has been a very busy 4-day week. I have had three days mainly filled by work, and the schools have gone back so the library has returned to having it’s very busy periods. Nicky had a trip out with her boss on Thursday to the “From Guangdong to Aotearoa” exhibition in the Henderson library. This is an oral history exhibition to celebrate the Chinese New Year, and Nicky enjoyed it very much. Monday was a public holiday here with it being Auckland Anniversary day. It started off cloudy but got very warm in the afternoon. We packed up a picnic lunch, collected Jancis, and went of to the Botanic Gardens to have a look at this year’s sculpture exhibition. We had a good gentle stroll, picnicked in the shade, and enjoyed it much more than the busyness of being in town the day before. Nicky cut the grass when we got back. We hosted the “season opening social” of Nicky’s house group on Wednesday evening, with a BBQ and assorted goodies. It was good to see everybody again...