Getting into the New Year

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 While this week seems to have flown by, it feels like a long time since I took this picture of the sunrise on Monday morning:


The summer season has started at work, so we are now sailing six days a week. On Saturdays we do a second one-hour trip, and on Wednesdays in January we have a one hour stop over at Upokongaro:



Mooring here is a little different as we don’t have anybody on the wharf to help with the ropes. Most of the sailings have been in good weather, but Saturday afternoon was very wet.


On Monday evening I went across the road to help Lyn build some shelves for her new greenhouse, and sink a bottle of bubbles to celebrate the New Year. We didn’t do these things in the “right” order, so we made a few mistakes with the shelves.


I collected Nicky and Shani (daughter of Nicky’s niece Kim) from Ohakune. It had been a smaller gathering than previous years, and not everybody was there for the photo, but everybody appeared to have enjoyed themselves.



On our return I made a fourth batch of 12 mince pies - these ones for us!. We had an evening walk by the river to show Shani a little of Whanganui. Over the next couple of days Nicky and Shani toured the bookshops and op shops, visited the museum, patronised some cafés and checked out the Top 10 holiday park. We played some games, watched some telly, and had burgers for dinner at The Citadel on Thursday. Shani seems to have had a happy time. Nicky took her into town to catch the inter-city bus to Auckland on Friday morning.


We have had rain, some heavy, during the later part of the week, so Nicky has been drying the laundry under the car port and has had little opportunity to garden. She took the Christmas decorations down yesterday and cleaned the house. In addition, scones were produced and trousers were altered for a neighbour prior to a business trip to foreign shores.


Nicky enjoyed church today, and after a snooze I did some more work on the steps down into the garden. While watching the news this evening I was very pleased to see Sheffield Wednesday in the sports report - the first time I think I have seen them on NZ telly. However, this wasn’t because they beat Newcastle United 2-1 in the third round of the FA cup, but because the Newcastle striker who missed a sitter to equalise is a Kiwi. The boys did well.


Take care, Rick and Nicky.

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