Wellington Water Bombing

I'm sure that most places in the world discourage such pursuits as water bombing in a public place such as a harbour inlet in the city centre. Not New Zealand. Not Wellington. The city has actually constructed special platforms to enable it to happen. And people have lots of fun taking advantage of it and watching too.

 

Six Quick Weeks

It is just over six weeks since I left Scotland. It's been six strange weeks. Very little has gone to plan: Pauline and I didn't have our planned safari and other visits I'd planned for last week were cancelled because I ended up in the Emergency Ward about 10 days ago with an infection and some other odds and ends I won't bore you with. The last week has had its ups and downs but I'm now feeling okay and the doc has pronounced me fit to fly. In a few hours I will leave Napier and by 2100 hours I should be in the air on the way back to Scotland via Dubai and a short stop in Australia. I arrive back in Scotland on Thursday (UK time) and on Lewis on Tuesday the 22nd.

Please don't think I've not had an great time. I have. It's just not been the time I intended. Instead I fell back into my usual life here. It has been good. I've cemented some friendships and, because I've been staying with The Family, my time with them has been wonderful.

I had intended to do almost daily blog posts but, despite masses of material, that just hasn't happened and I seem to have spent very little time in Blogland. Ironically last week when I cancelled travel plans and therefore had more time to blog, the infection and the cure (which of the two was worse I'm not sure) left me nauseous and lethargic.

So you may be getting posts about New Zealand for a while to come.

In the meantime I'll leave you with Max Patte's Solace in the Wind on the Wellington waterfront. Somehow that wasn't the title I had in mind (the significance of 'wind' by the way is, I assume, because Wellington is known as The Windy City).

An Unusual Museum

Most museums are devoted to informing people of things to be remembered or conserved. Opossum World in Napier is probably the only Museum in the world currently devoted to the extermination of a living creature: in this case the Opossum.

Its slogan is: Save a New Zealand tree. Buy Opossum fur products.

The imported Australian Opossum which was estimated (in 2008 when I last posted on the subject) to number 70 million in New Zealand eats an estimated 21 tonnes of foliage (mainly the young branch shoots of trees) each night - New Zealand's ecological nightmare.

A Visit To Kate

On Thursday I arrived at Kate's in Tauranga. I can't remember when exactly we first met and became friends although I could look it up because it's well documented on my other blog. It was some years ago anyway and since then there have been Aftermases and her son James has visited me on Lewis. 

We went to McLaren Falls Park on Thursday afternoon.

 

Yesterday I wanted to walk round the base of Mount Maunganui which is an extinct volcanic cone that rises above the town. I have tried on many occasions before but whenever I've been here the walk has been closed at some point because of landslips or ongoing path works. Now it is a complete path and is even wheelchair accessible. So that was another item of my bucket list (or rather it would be if I had a bucket list).

Mount Maunganui was absolutely alive with thousands of schoolchildren who had converged on the town from all over New Zealand adding to the general tourist population.