Lots of travel

Last weekend I was in Christchurch and the weekend before I was back in Aus catching up with family and friends, racking up frequent flyer miles and getting familiar with airport upgrades. Both Christchurch and Sydney are being done up and it makes for some intersting architecture - temporary marque walkways to taxis and forests of supporting poles to be negotiated in order to find the security scanners.

I caught up with 2 friends from Melbourne in Christchurch and we headed to Akaroa which is on the Banks Peninsula about an hour and a half drive south (if you take the direct route). We had lots of fog on the way down but the next day it looked like this...

Which means of course that you have to have breakfast outside appreciating the view

Supporting the wool industry

I am a one woman walking sales pitch for Icebreaker. I now own 4 pieces and love them, love them, love them. Ask anyone I have spent more than 5mins talking to how much I love them and they will tell you.

What am I on about? Merino clothing. They make everything from undies to anoraks all out of pure v v v fine spun merino wool. They are warm, light, don't itch and don't pong, even after a long day when you forgot to put on your deoderant. But best of all you get to meet the sheep that made your item. Honestly the first piece I bought was mostly so I could get my hands on a Baacode. Nope, not kidding. My inner geek girl just had to have one. So go to www.icebreaker.com and in the box where you can put your Baacode type 43AD0EF04 (that's number 0 not letter o) and meet the sheep that made my hoodie.

Mountains

I spent Thursday and Friday in Taupo for the North Island Library Managers Meeting. It was great meeting librarians from all over and getting to know about some of the stuff that is happening. It was equally great being in a new part of the country.

Taupo sits at the top of a lake in the middle of the Nth Island and Mt Ruapehu sits at the bottom. As I mentioned before we are having a bit of a cold snap so there was lots of snow around and the wind coming off the lake went right through you, but it looked fantastic. The mountain is flatish because it has blown it's top (literally) several times, most recently in 1995.

Then yesterday I popped up the street to take of photo of our mountain looking nice a sparkly with a fresh coat of snow.

Proper weather

Last week it was cold, this week we have a heavy swell warning.

I don't know if you can read it but it says we are in for swells of 4.5 meters. Seeing as work is just over the road from crashing surf, it could be worth watching for a few photo ops. Safely, of course.

I told you it was cold

From the local paper today - http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/2405682/Ski-field-opens-early

ten

That's how many degrees it was yesterday, probably 5 with the wind chill. If it wasn't coming off the mountain it was coming off the water.

I don't think I've seen the sky darker than the ocean before.

We didn't have it really bad though, they were skiing on 10cm of hail on the beach at Tauranga.

Wasting water

On Saturday I had a bath (under instruction from my massage lady) and on Sunday I washed the car (because salt can eat your duco). I felt so guilty that it made me realise I've live with drought and/or water restrictions for most of the last 15 years. It's quite amazing how ingrained saving water becomes. In my defence I still have a 4 min shower, don't water the garden and only used 1/2 a bucket to wash the car.

Also today it rained and more is promised for the rest of the week.

And for those who have been waiting...here is the car, nice and clean.