Southern sojourn

It was our 49th wedding anniversary so my GKB and I decided to have a weekend away. We packed the car up and headed south to Invercargill. We left about mid morning and as it's only a 3-4 hour drive, depending on how many stops you make, we were there in good time. After we'd booked into our motel we decided to take a drive out to Bluff where we lived for a couple of years early on in our marriage. Our two youngest kids were born while we were living here.
 

Bluff Harbour from the lookout on Bluff Hill

 We only had a quick look around as there was a cold wind blowing, but we did go up to where we once owned a section to see whether it had been built on at all. We were interested to see that none of the sections available back then had houses on them. On our way back we called in to the new K Mart on the outskirts of the city. Twice the size of the one we have up here. There is a lot of building happening there just now, it'll be interesting to see what the cityscape looks like in a years time.

Across the road from our motels was a large water tower that was once the town water supply. It is quite an impressive building and looks even more impressive when lit up at night. 

Built in 1898 it provided the city with it's first pressurised water supply. Unfortunately you can't go inside because it needs to have work done to bring it up to earthquake standard.

The next day dawned cool and with quite a brisk wind, so we dressed up warmly and headed to the Transport Museum, one of the reasons we had gone down there. I won't write about it here as it deserves a post of it's own.
 

Part of one of the sheds

After lunch we decided to go to Riverton, a seaside fishing port. When we lived here I'd only been once and was surprised at how far it was out of town and it also struck me how much prettier this port was than Bluff. It was a pleasant drive through farming country and then around little bays on the coast. Although it was still overcast it had warmed up considerably, enough for people to be out swimming, surfing and boogie boarding.

 After a drive and look around we had a nice afternoon tea at a little 70's style cafe and headed back to town after an enjoyable day out.

And I'll finish there, 

so until next time, 

Diana

Scavenging again

For photos that is. Most of them are from the archives, some are new. We haven't been out and about much in the last few weeks what with my GKB being a bit under the weather and then the snow followed by floods. I hope you enjoy them anyway even if you have seen some of them before. 

1:  Crane

We had been to Nunobiki Herb Garden at the top of the Ropeway (cable car, gondola) overlooking the beautiful city of Kobe in Japan. Travelling back down and naturally taking photos of the view we spotted this building being constructed. The crane was in the centre of the building on a gantry and as the building pushed skyward the crane was also heading skyward. Three photos I'm afraid.

2:  Ring

A cinnamon roll (ring?) I had for lunch one day whilst out with my GKB. Technically not a ring but with a smidgen of imagination it could be - it's circular, sort of :)

3:  Set

My DIL was baking and when I went out to the kitchen this is what I saw. I have never seen a cake cooling like this before but apparently it stops the weight of the cake from flattening itself. Who would have thought? Not me. Anyway I thought this cake was well enough 'set' to put in this post. I hope you all agree :)

4:  Light

Light reflecting off the top of the display case containing antique pocket watches. We took this photo in the jewellers/watchmakers shop in Shantytown earlier in the year.

5:  Bow

The bow used to be the pointy bit of the boat and landlubbers like myself could tell one end from the other. But looking at these two ships I'm not sure which end is the bow and which is the stern but I believe the ship on the left is bow toward us. If not we can see both ends of the ship on the right so one end must be the bow. Mission accomplished! Phew.

6:  Spring

Out visiting the local vet one 'spring' day and this was 

what I saw over the fence. 'Spring' lambs and one

 of them is 'springing'. 

7:  Open

Only 'twasn't. In fact it had been shut for a couple of weeks and was due to reopen the following day. We took this while strolling around one of the city suburbs one lunchtime and thought number  one son and DIL might be interested in visiting Kamome for a meal sometime. 

8:  Grand

We certainly felt grand sitting in these throne like chairs when out for dinner one evening with friends while on holiday. If we had realised how grand the setting was going to be we might have taken some grander (cringe) gear to wear. Still everyone enjoyed the dinner and the company and that's what it was really all about.

9:  Park

A sign pointing to a car park in a national park. Jacksons is a small place in Arthur's Pass National Park in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. If you blink  passing through you could well miss it, literally. There's a pub and not much more. That is the car park on the left, the sign on the right and it is surrounded by beautiful national park. 

10:  My own choice

A Thrush singing his lungs out one grey day.

 Just enjoying being alive

Joining Hawthorn and friends over at 

  I live, I love, I craft, I am me  

Southland leftovers

While we were up on Bluff Hill a few weeks a few weeks ago I came across this old piece of broken down machinery. Apparently it is what is left of the radar that was used during WWII to keep watch on the South Coast for invaders. There is an information board about it but the photo I took isn't very good, and I can't read it :( 

It will soon be well overgrown I think as I had to clamber through undergrowth and climb on broken concrete to take these photos. 

A shame really. I hate seeing historic pieces disappear.

You may remember me saying how cold and windy it was on top of the hill and we decided to go and have a hot drink somewhere. We ended up back in the city and although it was still a bit blustery it wasn't quite as cold. We found a nice little coffee bar in a mall and had our lunch. We sat at a window table and the sun beamed in and warmed us up to the extent that we were soon taking layers off and sitting in our shirt sleeves.

I like this snap of my GKB as he didn't know I'd taken it

 and is quite relaxed and natural, checking out the sports pages.

I like looking at the architecture of bygone times and this building just down from our hotel caught my eye. I really like the detail on the outside of the building, so unusual to my eye. I would have liked to take more pics but was standing in the middle of a traffic island when I looked up and took this so thought perhaps I'd better move.

Wishing you all a happy week,

Diana

The south of the south

A while since I have been on and written anything, so here goes.

My GKB and I have been gadding about the countryside, first back over to the West Coast and then down around the Catlins area for a few days before heading to Invers (Invercargill to the uninitiated) and then on to Central Otago.

We took Mum up to her sisters 80th celebrations and met up with another sis who had flown in from Aussie the day before. We partied at a lovely restaurant on the Taramakau River, which was absolutely beautiful, but as evening fell the sandflies came out and those of us who had been sitting enjoying the view as well as the beverages were, on the whole, forced back inside. Another great reunion with all the cussies we had grown up with, and more nostalgic thoughts and homesickness from those of us who have moved away and made homes in other parts of the country.

Then it was home and dropping off the mother and the sis and the GKB and I took off for a well earned break without any family or whanau attached to us for a change. We had a great time even if the weather wasn't the kindest to us. Mind you we got sunburnt on the Coast while fossicking for gem stones on the beaches, now all we need is a drum to tumble them in! We saw the penquins at The Nuggets, and because of the heavy rain the Purekanui falls and the Mclean falls in the Catlins were lovely.

We stayed in motels in Invercargill and were shown real southern hospitality by the lovely Indian lady who was our hostess. She brought us freshly baked loaf to have with our coffee when we first arrived and couldn't have been more helpful. After a day looking around the city, H and J Smith's hasn't changed, it is still a great old store to go into, we headed for Central Otago via the Devils Staircase around the lake. Two days later there a was a major rock fall, so we were pleased we went when we did. The lake was a magnificent turquoise colour, hard to describe if you haven't seen it.

At the camping ground each evening we had a rabbit visit, this was the first time in about 20 years of going up there that I have seen rabbits in the camping ground - they must be pretty prolific for them to come in amongst us like that, they are usually extremely timid. We spent a day in Queenstown and then it was time to pack up and head for home.

So now we are back home and back into the workforce, planning for another trip to Japan sometime later in the year, hopefully.