Surfin'

Some days are just made for surfing (is that the Beach Boys I hear in the background?). I'm sure you can figure out that none of the days pictured are, but let me just point out that Gidget there in the middle is actually at a very NZ bar on the beach and that's as close to surfing as she's going to get. However, ya know - it's the thought that counts. The boys in the wet suits are in front of our beach bach, and the lower photo is the scene looking out toward Kapiti Island from our garden. Speaking of looking........tough to do these days since our windows are so crusted over with salt that it looks as though we're in the midst of a heavy fog on the coast. That's why people who live in glass houses should own a good power sprayer.

I may have mentioned that it's spring down under on the other side of the world, and it's warmer most days, windier some days, and incredibly hot when the sun is shining (something to do with that hole in the ozone layer, I think). Anyhow, today we saw the kids outside during recess at a local school, and they were all wearing sun hats. Can you imagine? Every single one of them - no rebels. We were told that the world's smartest grandson must wear one when he attends play center (think pre-school) and that there are requirements about the width of the brim. Whew! I guess they have to take global warming seriously here. However, at the moment, the world's coolest is sporting a bicycle helmet because he just acquired a bike with training wheels (aren't grandparents the greatest?!), and it took him one day to master it - the pedals and the steering. His mother says that he has been wanting one for over a year, and he has definitely been paying attention to the bikers.......when he dismounts, he takes off his helmet and either hangs it from the handlebars or leaves it on the seat. "You can't have it, Nanah."

Courage

It's a walk in the park with the world's cutest grandson. The little guy is fearless and it takes at least three adults to keep up with him. He's never met a slide he didn't want to try. On this particular day on this particular slide he discovered the joy of lying on his back and rocketing down at warp speed.

And speaking of speed - there was a head-on collision in front of the restaurant a short distance from us on Highway 1. A lovely young woman was seriously wounded, requiring a large number of stitches to her face. The sun glasses she was wearing probably saved her eyes. There was an article in the paper yesterday detailing her journey from beauty queen to Frankenstein. One sentence caught my eye. "A man selling fruit and vegetables at a roadside stall ran to her car and held her hand till emergency services arrived." Emergency services was the life flight helicopter. We buy fruits and vegetables from that man, and now I regard him with great admiration. How many of us could look past the blood and gore and flaps of hanging skin and comfort a total stranger who might be dying? How many could hold that hand and reassure her during the long wait for the rescue copter? Nobody else evidently ...... but this man did. Maybe his actions were not overt heroism, but, in my eyes, he is a very big man.

Another Day

Ahoy mates! It's spring on the islands (north and south) so we are being subjected to the windiness and whimsiness of the season. In fact, some days we experience all four seasons in one day. It is so difficult to capture all of these phenomena on our digital camera from the last century. Isn't that the way it is? One minute you're on the cutting edge, and the next, you're lumped in with the clueless. Anyhow, whoever it was who insisted that a picture was worth a thousand words was so totally wrong. A picture in your mind maybe, but technology just hasn't been able to capture true reality - a reasonable facsimile perhaps, but there is just no photo that can reproduce all the magic that exists in even an ordinary sunset.

The wind has been whistling at our windows, the rain has been drumming on our roof, and the ocean has been thundering at our feet. In fact, the wind has been hurling the sea against our windows, and the glass becomes so covered with salt that we cannot see outside until the next shower washes them clean. We drove down the parade yesterday and huge sheets of salt water assaulted our windshield and we couldn't tell whether we were on the road or in the sea. I exclaimed, "Oh, what are those white, fluffy things blowing up from the beach? Seed pods? Trash from the bins?" Nope. They were big blobs of foam flying off the waves and foating through the air like soap bubbles on speed. Now. You can't see that in the photos, can you?

All Done

Yep. It's kind of hard to see because it's so windy, but that's the All Blacks' flag flying at half mast because the team came home today without bringing the World Cup with them. The whole country is stunned, and the mood is most definitely all black.

Wind Farm

Coming over the mountains and catching a glimpse of these monsters gives one quite a start. They are huge, and as you wind around on the roads, you see them from different angles and simply cannot take your eyes off them - even to look at the little lambkins frolicking in the fields. The day these photos were taken was not very windy, but on a day like today, they would certainly be spinning like crazy giant pinwheels. What a great idea for a country blessed (cursed?) with excessive winds.....an inexhaustible source of power. Some complain that they are a blight on the landscape, but I think that they are extremely graceful and majestic although not quite so beautiful as those nuclear power plants.

Weather Forecast

We have to set our clocks ahead an hour after the All Blacks' game tonight so sunset will be an hour later tomorrow. Daylight Savings - it's everywhere. The weather has been a bit whimsical lately. There was the full moon sailing across the heavens, turning a bright pink and dropping into the sea in the same spot where the sun had gone down the evening before. A few showers, a few rainbows.........then, bright sunshine. And just to keep us on our toes, the winds kicked up.

Earlier in the week Mount Ruapehu erupted, which, while unexpected, is not all that unusual.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7013587.stm

The volcano is up in the Lake Taupo area (about 200 miles away) where we were at the beginning of the month.

http://www.taupo.ws/

It is amazing how one small island nation can crowd such diverse terrain and weather patterns into such a small area.

Up and Down

Is life just too much fun when you're young?

Notice the firm directing hand of both Nanah and the world's most athletic grandson. Hey! We know how the teeter is supposed to totter.

The world's greatest track star then ran four or five very fast laps around the box (complete with choo-choo train noises), let his mommy carry him home, and promptly took a nap. Nanah had to walk. Life is easier when you're two.