A few days in Palmy

I spent most of this week at the annual library conference, this year in Palmerston North, generally know as Palmy.  The conference was held at the racecourse and we had regular views of training.  Very relaxing when your brain is in overload.

A Weekend in Nelson

I spent Friday and the weekend road tripping to and from Nelson, at the top of the South Island.  A group of about 40 of us, mostly kaumātua/elders travelled down to support the opening of an exhibition at the Nelson Museum about the Taranaki Land Wars, the one that we did here in 2010.  We took the ferry between Wellington and Picton and had a really smooth trip each way, by no means a sure thing even on a fine day.

 

We did however have wind. 

And this is the divvy up of the left overs on the way home. We stayed at Whakatū Marae, in true tradition we were fed better than well and gave us a whole heap of food for the trip home. We took over part of the lounge on the ferry and had a slap up lunch, salmon, ham sandwiches, mussels, kina - happy travellers.

Not much happening

It says a lot that the highlight of the last week and a bit has been the return of mini ginger crunches to the cafe at work.

Books and art

Spotted this last week - the rumours are true!

 

 and a slightly different view from the smokers balcony - new public art.

I'm a bit of a fan generally but this one I really like 

Demolition

This is how the area out the front of the library looked this week...

That used to be our ramp.  We also used to have stairs and a paved area and parking, all well and truely gone.  So far it has just been demolition mode but in the next few weeks we are expecting to see the beginnings of a new ramp and a much better space out the front.

Getting around

My friend Deb has been with me for the last 10 days, including 2 weekends.  In that time we have managed to:

• walk almost the entire length of the Coastal Walkway
• go up the mountain to both the Egmont Visitor's Centre and the Stratfort Mountain House
• go right round the mountain stopping at some scenic cliff top viewing spots
• go over Mt Messenger to Tongaparutu

All pretty darn scenic even if the weather hasn't always played along. 

Look what was passing by

Work has started out the front of the library and down the side street next to my office.  This week has seen a parade of diggers, each with their chaperon, going up and down.  A nice change from the buses and as you can see the guys are friendly too.