Friends at Invercargill revisited, and some nice seascapes

Sunday: My goodness, it's cold today! The sun has been shining but there's a cold east wind blowing - straight from Siberia I think! However, my little garden is a bit sheltered and it was quite warm in the sun, without the wind. I worked for a couple of hours at least, this afternoon after work, pulling out weeds and generally tidying up, till my back began to twinge, and I knew it was time to call a halt! It looks a lot better anyway! Quite a satisfactory achievement!!!

Are you ready for more photos? I hear your loud roar - but tough, you're getting them anyway!

First pics this time are more soft toys! In NZ the airport soft toys are kiwis, keas, and things to do with Maori and the All Blacks!

These are keas... destructive old birds! Don't park your car and go off for the day if there are likely to be keas around or you may come back to a scene of devastation at the beak of one or more. They are more than capable of ripping your windscreen wipers off, pulling off the rubber seals and/or ravaging the tyres!











These are altogether cuter... some comical kiwis

Coming down at Christchurch on route for Invercargill I wondered what the white dots were at the edges of the fields. They turned out to be bales - silage I expect, fodder for the cattle. There aren't as many cows as there are sheep in NZ but it's still a large dairy country. In the distance you can see the Southern Alps of which Mount Cook is the highest peak, though not in this pic! I was to drive up the coast on the other side of these mountains later on.

Next day was my birthday, and I found flowers awaiting me - from Eunice's daughter Rosemary and her family.

Here's my dear friend - and nearly cousin - Eunice at her computer, at home in Invercargill.

The next couple or so were taken at Riverton, on the south coast, that same day. I had planned to go to Stewart Island, NZ's third island, but despite this picture the weather was too bad, but instead I thoroughly enjoyed the day along the coast.

This is flax, the stuff the Maori people weave into baskets and mats, and those grass-like shirts they wear, from. It grows everywhere.

I love these! Go on! Give them a caption!

Put it with the comments below this blog. Instructions in the LH column up near the top!

These are paua shells - abalone - that I picked up on the beach at Riverton. In the shops they are sold all all cleaned up and polished for about $5 each, or are cut into shapes or used as inlays for ornaments and jewellery, but I wanted to take mine home! I knew I wouldn't be able to take them into Australia - strict rules about importing natural goods - so before I left NZ I parcelled them up and sent them to myself. They arrived home the day after me!

This is probably the most well-known of Maori symbols - the tiki, all about fertility, rebirth and new life. This one is made from paua shell.

It was Ken, Eunice's son, who noticed the signpost so I was photographed beneath it. It was pretty breezy at that moment and the rain not far away!

It wasn't the only time that day that I was to be photographed either! When we returned home there was a special birthday cake to be cut. What a lovely surprise from them all.

Next day was Eunice's birthday, so we had another day out... and another birthday cake!

Here's Eunice with husband Keith at the restaurant at Bluff where they, the family and I had lunch. Keith, you look very serious here!

After lunch Ken and I walked a little way along the coastline. It rained a fair bit.

This is Ken, Eunice and Keith's son.

Stewart Island is out there somewhere!

Looking back to Bluff

Hanging round a pole again! Bluff is the eqivalent of Land's End here in Britain. This is the signpost pointing out the direction of a few world cities.

The grandies helping to blow out the candles on Eunice's cake.

These are Rachel, Robbie and Jonathan

Rosemary, Eunice's daughter and her husband Geoff, parents of the three livewires!

So, it's Wednesday now! Yesterday I went to Dunfermline to meet up with Erwin, a close friend for many years of Leslie and Jim. He couldn't come over from Germany at the time of Leslie's funeral, so joined me yesterday in scattering Leslie's ashes in the grounds of the crematorium. Erwin hadn't encountered such a thing before and was maybe a little taken aback by the procedure. However he was pleased to be able to come to Leslie's home town to say his personal goodbye to a lady who along with her husband in 1958 had befriended the young student holidaying in Scotland, and whose friendship extended over 50years.

Today it is raining and is very dull - dreich, as we say here in Scots (pronounced dreech - with that special ch as in a Scottish loch!) - though it is not so cold. I think the east wind has changed direction. I used my Adelaide umbrella today! First good use it has had!

Anyway, all for today. I'll start work on the next group of pics shortly.

Talk again soon.