Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 The beginning of the week was very windy, and I was still feeling out of sorts with my cold. Both things improved as the week progressed, and Thursday and Friday were lovely sunny days and I started to get some things done. Our favourite outside tap developed a drip recently, so I assumed a replacement washer was required and that it was something that even I could do. After all, how hard could it be? I discovered that there was size converter on the tap so in order to get it off to find out what size washer was required, I would need two spanners. I only had one. Off to Mitre 10 I went to buy a washer and a spanner. Not knowing quite what size washer I would require, I sought the help of a member of staff and showed him a photo of the tap. He thought it looked like a 15mm (which it was) but said a packet of washers was around $6, and a new tap would only be $9.80. He suggested that this would be a better solution because to access the washer in the tap could result in sufficient ...

 It has been windy this week, and while the wind has brought some rain, much of the time it has been dry and sunny. Spring is now making its presence felt. We have arum lilies in flower: The blossom on the flowering cherries and damson tree has really developed: It has also been a quiet and routine week, with just a couple of notable events. For the first time in ages we came first at the quiz night. We tied for first place with 106 points but won the tiebreaker: “To the nearest year, when was Anne of Green Gables published.” Nicky, the team’s go-to on all things literary, guessed 1897. The other team guessed 1928. The correct answer was 1908. We also celebrated our 16th anniversary of moving to Aotearoa. Nicky was staffing the Community Library and I (unusually) had some MacOnSite worked booked in town. I suggested we had pies for lunch from Butcharts, a local baker who has won many pie awards over the years. We hadn’t known of them until spotting an advert in the local paper. I d...

 We have had some lovely weather again this during our routine week, with much sunshine and a warm northerly breeze. The temperatures have been 5-7ºC above average. Spring really seems to have sprung. I felt I had a busy Monday morning, cleaning the filters in the inverter (heat pump), and the range hood, while Nicky cleaned at church. I also vacuumed, cleaned the cook top, and dealt with quite a list of household admin. Even though the afternoon was cloudy the laundry dried well and while Nicky sewed and I did the ironing. The evening saw Nicky off to church again for Alpha kitchen duty. Nicky did some more laundry on Tuesday morning, while I was in town doing errands and shopping. She made a cheese soufflé as Suzanna was coming for lunch. After Nicky returned from home group we completed The Listener crossword with a pot of tea. Nicky ironed in the evening, whilst I prepared dinner before we vegged out in front of the telly. I had an early trip into town on Wednesday to take Luna...

 The Waimarie Paddle Steamer sailing season has begun again this week. On Wednesday we had our “training day”. This was just the crew taking the boat out for our standard two hour cruise to see if everything on the boat worked and the crew could remember what to do and when. On the whole it went well. The problem we had last year with the generator was diagnosed as being caused by a pump in the engine room drawing too much current. On Saturday we did two trips. In the morning it was a special for all the stakeholders in the boat - people who help fund and promote the boat. We received a Maori blessing and send off from the Putiki Marae canoe paddlers. Nicky came along too and had some interesting conversations with other passengers. In the afternoon we sailed a private charter. Today we had our first public sailing, billed as a Father’s Day special with today being Father’s Day. Dads got a free drink of their choice. The weather has been just gorgeous for all four sailings, as it h...