Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

 The highlight of this week was not the pumpkin pie that I made on Wednesday, but our day trip to Wellington on Friday. Maria, an Auckland friend, was going to the World of Wearable Art with a friend of hers (Kathy) and suggested we meet for lunch. We hadn’t driven to Wellington from Whanganui before, so thought it would be a good idea to find out what it was like, and to also visit The Hanlon’s. Lucy and Charlie were also able to come over. The drive turned out to be very straight forward. We stopped at Viv’s Kitchen in Sansom to buy a range of cream horns. Next stop was Levin for toilets and a range of fruit slices and doughnuts. Using GoogleMaps we easily found the car park which had been recommended by Krystyna (down the road). We met Maria and Kathy in the foyer at Te Papa… Aotearoa’s national museum. We had a very nice lunch in the café and a very good chat. It was great to see Maria again. Before leaving the museum we had a quick look at the marae, its carvings and stained g...

 We woke on Friday morning to discover the bland brick wall opposite our driveway had gained some “artwork”, though some may also call it graffiti. While it isn’t quite what I would have liked to see on the wall, it is lively and brightens the wall somewhat: This week has also been the conclusion of us watching the second series of The Twelve. We enjoyed it as much as the first series. Wednesday evening was a new experience for us at the quiz. It was just Nicky, Mike and I. John had taken Danny down to Wellington for an eye operation, so we were without our two prime members. However, we came 14th with 89 points. I’m not sure how we managed that as by my reckoning we only got 77, but maybe the quiz master took sympathy on us and just awarded some extra points here and there. We were stunned to score 7 out of 10 on the Sport round as the questions just fell right for Mike and I. On the Music round we scored 2, which was 2 more than we expected, since it usually questions very recent...

 Yesterday, Saturday, was significant in a number of ways. It was 17 years since we arrived in Aotearoa. To celebrate we opened a bottle of dessert wine and had a glass each before toddling off to bed. It was my first public sailing of the season on the paddle steamer. We only had 37 passengers and as the trip progressed, the gentle spring rain got steadily heavier. There are many changes in routines and procedures, but we completed the trip safely. The organiser of our quiz team and his family completed their move to a much larger and nicer rental property in Aramoho yesterday. We took them and their volunteer house moving assistants fish and chips for dinner. Nicky also made a lovely banana cake and it all went down very well, if a little chaotically. They hadn’t had chance to do much unpacking. Tuesday was also busy. It was training day on the paddle steamer for me. This is basically to check that we (the crew) can remember which end of the boat is the pointy bit, and to check t...

 Our health has improved this week. While not completely recovered from the virus to which we succumbed to at the beginning of last month, we are both improved from where we were a week ago. We haven’t managed all our usual activities. Nicky didn’t make it to Home Group on Tuesday afternoon, I didn’t make it to the Wednesday Quiz (with Nicky’s help they came 4th with 97 points), and neither of us made it to the Community Kai at the marae on Thursday evening. Speaking of which, there was a very well attended tangi there this week. Initially I though it was for the Maori king, and for our new Maori queen’s coronation in Ngarawahia, but Nicky’s enquiries discovered that it was a tangi for someone else who was held in very high esteem. The attendees cars were parked on both sides of the road all the way from the marae to the Whanganui River Holiday Park, probably about a kilometre distance. After church cleaning on Monday with Dale, Nicky visited the hairdresser and did some shopping i...

 Today is meteorologically the first day of spring, and the weather has got the memo. Blossom is in abundance all over Whanganui. Birdsong has changed to courting calls. Yesterday was warm (22º) and sunny, and while today has also been sunny it has been cooler due to the southerly breeze. In-between, we had a major thunder storm over night with many buckets of rain and quite a bit of lightning. Nicky’s health has sufficiently improved this week for her to return to most of her regular duties. She is still not right but her coughing is much less and her energy levels are improving. On Wednesday she joined John and Danny to make a three person quiz team coming 5th with 95 points. My recovery is lagging behind Nicky’s, as was my deterioration. My congestion is easing but my energy level are still variable. I have only been for a couple of amble’s this week and didn’t go to the quiz because I just didn’t feel well enough. I had a blood test on Monday to check my PSA level and a consult...