I know where a Taniwha lives

Taniwha (Tar-nee-far) are either monsters or protecting spirits depending on your point of view. They are generally associated with water and are basically pretty scary things not to be trifled with. We have one who lives in our basement, which is below river level, has a sump that collects and drains ground water. As part of the school holida programme the kids made scales for our Taniwha (underwater lighting care of the exhibitions crew) - he's pretty cool isn't he! He goes all the way around the pillar too.

Patience pays

One of the things I have not been able to find here is my favourite tea, Twinings Russian Caravan. I have been bringing it back with me from Aus and using it sparingly.

Imagine my pleasure when I scanned the tea shelves at the supermarket today and found not just my fave tea but loose leaf to boot!

One bag limit

The 24 hour book sale is on again, yeah!

I have a self imposed 1 bag limit but it's amazing what you can fit into one standard green shopping bag.

And just to prove it, here it is packed up. You can see that i even had a little room to spare - what will power.

Look what I found

It's hard to spot amongst all the overgrown fruit trees, calla lilies and rampant passionfruit vine but look carefully...

As of yesterday afternoon the side view now looks like this and you can better see what it is.

A little glass house. Hopefully with better weather and a little more motivation my attempts to get into the garden will prove more productive and I will show you what it looks like on the inside.

We won!

It was quiz night again and everyone was there.

Warriors and Rockers

The all blacks

And Te Stig (no that's not a typo, he's the Maori Stig)


But Flower Power prevailed and if you look carefully you can see Niall, the quiz trophy on the table. Actually in an unprecedented result and even after a tie breaker round we were declared joint winners with another team so we have shared custody of Niall for the next 12 months. We are studying up on our sports for 2011.

Almost too much weather

If you like weather then NZ is definitely the place to be. Earthquake and hundreds of after shocks; enough snow to collapse the Invercargill Sports Stadium (seriously); 300km/hr wind gusts (that was the highest, most of us just got 100-140km/hr breezes); driving rain and the attendant flooding and land slips. All up perfect rugby conditions really and Taranaki won against Canterbury in these perfect conditions on Saturday (Yeah!).

The earthquake woke me up but I slept through a storm at 2am this morning that tore up trees and took off roofs. This has lead to high seas and a very active Wind Wand which apparently will continue well into the weekend.

Bumblebees

Yup, real big fuzzy bumblebees. When we visited on holidays when we were little we thought they were fantastic but were never allowed to bring one home in a matchbox (customs would not be amused). Somehow this fellow got inside and was beyond help when I found him so I took the chance of a photo up with a bread tag to give you an idea of how big they are.

He proves that spring is definitely on the way!