Freezing

Winter is well and truly underway. So far we have had lots of hard frosts, more than we have seen before. Locals would say this has been the coldest winter they can remember. A friend has recorded his lowest temperature at his house of -5C. I have seen our thermometer at -4C on a few mornings. The upside of these temperatures are the sunny days. Nelson was the warmest day in New Zealand yesterday, recording 12C. The records were also broken a week ago when all recordings for the south island where negative overnight. Loads of snow elsewhere in the country, with ski fields having a great start to their season.

Frost on the ground and another sunny winter's day

 

 

Neil from Chocolate Dog photography took this from a vineyard beside our house.

 

We are enjoying the winter. The wheelie admin work continues and some bike hire. We are waiting for building work to start at the wharf. As our shed was sitting on the site of the new building, we had to move. This was quite easy, as Lift n shift moved us all of 20 metres, in a matter of minutes.

Shed moving

Lisa has a few quieter days in the restaurant, so sometimes the coffee is served with 'latte art'

A flat white bear

I have also been on a few geography field trips, this winter. One of the trips went to Wellington and we took the chance to go to the new Gallipoli exhibition in Te Papa. It really brought the tragedy and horrible conditions of that campaign to 'life'. There are large (4 metre high) life like models of several people who served there and whose stories they tell.

Every detail life-like and very large

Next term starts in a weeks time. I am going to teach a class of Business Studies for 8 weeks. That should shorten the winter and before I know it we will be back into the tourist season.





 

 

4 year anniversary

I can’t believe we have been here 4 years. I still see differences in things and comparisons still happen. There are things I notice because they are different, these are

·         TV adverts, there are too many of them and they use humour far more often.

·         The amount of older people who do a lot of exercise. Today for example a lady who comes to our outdoor circuit class, has her 89 year old dad visiting, so she told me he would probably come along too.

·         Local communities are pro-active about getting facilities etc. The local council works with local communities to bring about change. Everyone has the opportunity to say their piece to council. You can make a written submission about an issue and then get 10minutes to go to the council chamber and say your bit.

·         The amount of female cyclists you see out on road race bikes. One day Lisa and I went cycling and we met about 12 other cyclists along the route. They were all female.

       ·         Lovely weather to live work and play in. I hope I never take for granted the great weather we enjoy in all four seasons.

The seasons are all different and we get 4 in a year. This year summer has been the best so far. Weeks and weeks of sunny weather. Autumn has been beautiful, once summer gave way to it. It continues to be quite mild and the only sign that winter is on its way, is the daylight getting less. Four weeks to the shortest day!!

An autumn bike ride. Sometimes the colours in the vineyards, make you stop and take a photo

          I have had a think about some of the things I have stopped noticing (mostly) after 4 years:

·         The number of cars with bike racks on the back (with or without bikes).

·         People cycling to or from work

·         Very few traffic queues

·         Meeting other cyclists while out cycling

·         People walking about with bare feet

·         School uniforms with boys wearing shorts and long socks.

·         Teachers dressed more casually

·         The large number of people who go to cafes and drink coffee

·         The positive ‘can do’ attitude of most people.

Happy New Year

Christmas (morning) went something like this.....
jump into the estuary, incoming tide drifts us down to Grossi Point, we sit around for an hour or so and have coffee etc.

New Year continues to bring day after day of sunshine. Drought conditions can't be too far off. The garden is in summer colour, especially the silk trees.

 

It wouldn't be summer without a new born, in fact 2 crias were born just before Christmas. The herd has got too big so 5 are going off to the owner and we will keep 4.

 



Work is busier than ever. Our wharf business was crazy busy and our tour side of the business is getting busier as Feb and march approach. We bought a couple of beach bikes for the wharf and they are catching a lot of people's eyes. We even ended up on the front of the local paper because of the 'Rabbit Racers'.

Lisa at the wharf on one of the Rabbit Racers