Anzac Day

Anzac Day today, a day to remember all those who have served in the armed forces in New Zealand and Australia from WW1 to the latest conflicts. A day off work for me, sort of (I am on call) and half a day for shops etc. I watched the memorial wreath laying service in Wellington on TV. It was very wet, and the service men and women were getting drenched. It was moving though, to think of those who've died, and their families, and also to think of the people serving in the NZ forces overseas in peacekeeping roles.
My eldest son Tim was in the army for just over a year- he injured his back and was medically discharged, but if he had continued, would have been sent to East Timor as a peacekeeper.

Rising fuel prices...

Well, our petrol prices have jumped about 15 cents in the last 3 weeks, in fact it went up 12 cents in one week!! Now we are waiting for the cost of everything to increase.

Already Air New Zealand has announced that airfares for domestic and international traffic are to rise by 10% from the beginning of May. That means it's going to be a lot harder to visit Phil in the South Island from now on. The flight from Wellington to Christchurch only takes half an hour, the alternative is the ferry across Cook Strait and then a looong drive- probably about 8 1/2 to 9 hours travel (not counting the time it takes to travel from my town to Wellington). And that costs way more money if you take your car on the ferry and drive yourself down! Ah well.

I am trying to save for a trip down South in January/February next year and had budgeted for $1700 for a 7-8 day trip - allowing for taking the car on the ferry, petrol, accommodation and food (and a bit for fun). Andrew said "mum it would be cheaper to go overseas for a week!" I would stay in backpackers and hopefully Phil and Magenta would come for part of that time. However with the petrol increasing like it is, I may not get enough money together in time. No matter how hard I try, I can't save more than about $30 a week unless I do a lot of extra work.

Never mind, if it doesn't come about at least I will have SOME extra money in my savings account aye!

Planes

Today while I was down at the airfield Kathryn and I were lucky enough to see a flight of 8 "Yaks" landing and the taking off again. They'd been performing at the big Warbirds over Wanaka airshow that's held every second year. Our airfiled is a convenient place for them to refuel on their way back to their home base. The Yaks did a low pass in formation over the airfield with smoke on before landing, and then after refuelling they took off in formation. It was quite a sight!

I think they are Russian air trainers from the late 1940s or 50s. We also saw a Beaver come in to land and refuel. Earlier in the day Alex from my work had taken me for a flight, he's practicing for his Commercial Pilot's Licence so he did maximum rate turns ( about 60 degrees, feels like you're standing on the wingtip) wingdrop stalls, low flying and a practice forced landing with out power- as well as crosswind circuits. It was so cool! He's really good and should have no trouble passing his flight test next week. It'll be my last flight in a long time, as I need to save up money now to go down and see Phil and Magenta in the South Island. So I'm glad that the flight was something a little different. I wonder just how long I CAN last before the urge to go flying again gets the better of me?

Walking at the beach

I'm still doing my street walks- but I also love walking on the beach, especially when it's getting on for sunset. This was taken a few days ago. Someone had placed these long pieces of driftwood in the sand.

So far this Easter I've managed two walks. On Easter Friday I finished the walk along the river bank (well the northern side of the river, I've still got the southern side, but that's not part of my town) and then back to the car along the streets, some of which I'd never been down before. One is called River Glade and it's lovely, lots of native bush surrounding the houses. Then yesterday I caught the train into Wellington and met Tim and Sarah and Yana, and we went walking along Oriental Parade- it's THE place in Wellington for people to go to for walking and jogging and cycling etc. Very pretty with the backdrop of the harbour. Today I've been visiting mum and then Kathryn. Hope your Easter is going well!

Catching up with family

My son Phil and his fiancee Magenta came to visit. They live in the South Island and it's the first time they've been here since February of last year.














I haven't seen him in 4 months myself. It was SUCH a short visit- they didn't arrive until 10pm Friday night and flew back 7pm Sunday. AND I had to work all day Saturday, be on call Saturday night and be on call Sunday! It was SOOO good to see him but sad that I wasn't able to switch my weekend work at all. The bosses didn't offer to have the books either. They only relented a little by letting me drop them off at 4 rather than 5 on the Sunday.

On the Saturday I let them borrow my car and they went to visit his brother who lives an hour away, so they were able to see baby Yana for the first time. And did I mention I couldn't go with them because I was WORKING?? I also had to look after the grandkids on the Saturday night as it was Tahi's 30th birthday and Kathryn and Tahi were having a huge party. I did get to go there first in the evening with Phil and Magenta and had hangi food there before we left with the girls. Phil and Magenta helped me look after them, as they wanted to spend time with the girls anyway. Sunday morning we took the girls to McDonalds for breakfast before dropping them back to Kathryn's. I was a little busy being on call and having to answer the pager and cellphone quite a lot. We had thunderstorms and rain so there were floods work had to go to.

Now Phil and Magenta are gone again and it will probably be 6 months at least until I see them again. Still it was SOOO good to see them- did I say that already?

Out and about

A couple of weekends ago Kathryn, Anahera and Kaya and I went to the seaside town of Eastbourne, where I used to live when I was a kid. It's on the other side of the harbour from Wellington. It was good to show them the places I remembered. Kaya is on the wharf here, we'd been looking a heaps of little fish in the water. I wish we'd had a fishing line with us. We also went looking for shells and rock climbing ( it was only a small rock!)
I discovered this mansion when I walking the streets of my town yesterday after work. It's huge by our town's standards! Apparently Peter Jackson used it in one of his early movies, "The Frighteners"
On another day I went walking down by the river and in the middle of nowhere found this little door hinged to a tree! Although you can't see it, it had little heart stickers on it. What do you suppose was behind the door?
Why, Tigger and Winnie the Pooh! Random aye!