Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Nicky is getting a taste for the long weekend. She took Thursday and Friday off and will also be on leave tomorrow. Her motivation was a conference, NZ & Beyond, which ran Thurs/Fri/Sat. At the time of booking she didn’t know what the schedule was for the conference, but it turned out to be Thursday evening, all day Friday (09.00-22.30!) and Saturday morning. However, she made good use of her time during the day on Thursday by having coffee with Jancis (walking down to the Woodside café on Margan Ave) and hosting lunch for Tanya who she works with (it was her birthday). The conference, she tells me, was absolutely brilliant. Much singing and evangelising and she is really looking forward to going again next year. Unfortunately her Saturday morning session was a little truncated as she left early. I had texted a friend of Nicky’s to pass on a message that Paul had rung to say that Marjorie Love had died on Monday and today was the funeral. As ever, Paul was brilliant at ringing ...

Hopefully, some of it we can drink!  We returned from holiday last weekend to the last downpour and after effects of a major “rain bomb” which had been over Auckland for 3 or 4 days. There has been significant flooding in many areas, and in New Lynn (just down the road from us) a very bad flood left a large sink hole which is in a location that means the building next to it has been evacuated (all commercial) and may have to come down. The other after effect of the rain has been on the water treatments plants. Their intake volume has gone up 12 fold and is heavily laden with silt. This means that without major water conservation, “grey water” would have to be introduced into the supply which we would then have to boil. So, toilets are not been flushed, showers are being shortened, and dishwasher and washing machines are being used more judiciously. Some days, as a city, we hit the savings target and other days we don’t. So far we have not had to boil water, but it will be ...

… is what I have gained while we have been on holiday, which I don’t think is too bad considering the amount of cheese I have consumed. We flew down to Dunedin and had the weekend there, then drove to Otematata on the Monday calling in at the Whitestone Cheese factory while passing through Oamaru. We sampled their wares for our lunch and stocked up for our eleven days in Otematata. We didn’t quite eat it all so were able to bring some home with us yesterday. The cheese, and food in general has been the one of the highlights of our holiday. Oamaru Public Gardens Otematata was constructed in the 1960’s for the workers (and their families) building the dams in the Waitaki Valley, particularly the Benmore dam. I think the assumption was that it would be a temporary development, but the people who lived they put down roots and a number of them stayed after the dams had been completed. These days, half the township is local residents and the other half (where we stayed) is holiday hom...