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My big South Island Road Trip


My friend and her husband have arrived from Auckland to house-sit whilst I am away on My Big South Island Road Trip.  She intends to be out gallivanting every day soaking up the cultural delights of Wellington.  He says he's going to blob out in front of the tv eating scorched almonds and napping!  And me?  I will be stressing out from Nelson through to the Abel Tasman National Park through to Queenstown, then Mt Cook and Lake Tekapo, and ending up in  Christchurch.

Tomorrow, I'm off on my jaunt, so you probably won't hear from me for about two and a half weeks though I may find a stray computer somewhere on which I can write my blog.  I'm not taking my tablet with me, I want to enjoy being "off the grid".

Wish me luck on those South Island roads...

Posted by retired and loving it at 5:18 AM No comments: Labels: Abel Tasman National Park, Lake Tekapo, Queenstown


Weta Cave


Weta Cave/Workshop in Miramar, Wellington has had a facelift.  Now, the visitor walks through a Hobbit hole entrance.   I often  power walk past the building and there seems to be more and more  visitors by the day.  Buses, cars, tourists....  Such a busy little empire.

I have read some reviews of the Weta Cave where the reviewer is totally upset.  I have a feeling some people expect Weta to be like a Universal Studios Theme Park.  The cave is a shop selling Weta film models and stuff, there's a little movie detailing Weta successes,  and a year ago a Workshop tour started up.. Bus No 2 from the city will drop a visitor off prettymuch near the workshop.

Posted by retired and loving it at 2:44 AM No comments: Labels: Hobbit, Weta Cave, Weta Workshop


JELLYFISH, sigh...


Posted by retired and loving it at 11:40 PM No comments: Labels: Hataitai Beach, jellyfish


Cashless Society


Yesterday, in a shop, I  paid for a purchase with real honest-to-goodness money.  I handed over a $20 bill.   A guy, leaning on the counter and chatting to the assistant loudly announced, "I didn't think there was anybody left in the world who paid cash."

This wounded me, especially after reading an article just the day before that stated if one is saving up, that cash is the way to go.  I am, of course, saving up for My Big South Island Road Trip.

But aside from the saving-up angle, I felt this guy, this stranger, had no right to comment on my behaviour. I could have retaliated by saying he had a big nose (he didn't), or snootily declare that i could afford to pay cash. But I didn't say anything.  I walked out of the shop.

I suppose he upset me because maybe ... perhaps ... he was right, insinuating I was a dinosaur in this almost cashless society that we live in?   I'll have to give this subject a great deal of thinking ..

Posted by retired and loving it at 12:48 PM No comments: Labels: Paying with cash




There's that song that I saw once done brilliantly in the stage musical "Side by Side by Sondheim", the one with the title, " I'm Still Here" ..

So, 2016 is done and dusted.  And I did make it.  And I'm still here.  Lots of my heroes from the nineteen fifties, sixties and seventies didn't make it though.  It reminds me just what a minefield life is to negotiate.

My swiming friend J and I have a swimming rule (well, we have many swimming rules) that tells us that come what may, storms, snow, earthquakes, tsunamis (well, maybe not tsunamis) we have to swim on New Year's Day.

It was an awful weather morning.  Rain, cold, mist.  Still, The Young One, J, and myself, we did it!    Let's hope we can manage the rest of the year as easily.

New Year's Day, Hataitai Beach: Posted by retired and loving it at 2:37 PM No comments: Labels: follies, Hataitai Beach, I'm Still Here, New Year's Day, side by side by Sondheim
