It's officially flipping cold

This is Stratford this morning, taken by one of our staff. Stratford is 30mins round the mountain and 300m above sea level, that's officially not much. They haven't seen snow like this for a serious number of years. It also snowed in Hawera in South Taranaki which is right on the coast and hasn't had snow in forever. Closer to home there was snow in Inglewood, 20mins away and at the top of Carrington Rd on the far outskirts of town.

Three layers of merino and woolen socks. Sorted.

Discovering a non-secret

Just down the hill from where I live is a Mineral Spa. In 1909, while drilling for oil someone found hot mineral water instead. In 1914 someone else had the bright idea of actually doing something with all that water and built a bath house including a public pool and private baths. It closed in the 1960s but was opened again in 1999 and has been going ever since.

It's not a secret, everybody knows about it. I know about it, I've driven past the sign many times. Yesterday I finally went and soaked myself in hot mineral water - it was wonderful. Definitley not the last time they get a visit from me.

I live a crazy but balanced life

It's Arts Festival time again and I have tickets to chamber music, theatre and comedy amongst other things. To balance that out I have my season ticket for home rugby games. That on top of a massive August with work functions. Who needs to sleep when all this is going on!

My brush with fame

I've just got back from the i-Site (tourist information) conference in Wellington. Basically I only saw the airport and the inside of the hotel but still...

we got to walk the red carpet at a Wellywood dinner...I got my name on the walk of fame...and heard from Phil Gifford; sports journo, biographer, fabulous storyteller and self confessed rugby tragic. Oh and the other guy is the prime minister.