Enjoying Greymouth

At the end of my last post we were at the railway station awaiting the shuttle through to Christchurch. The train is a once a day trip - Christchurch to Greymouth and back about an hour later. And far too expensive for us ordinary folk. So we caught the shuttle bus and it was comfortable enough with very congenial company. People chatted and shared food and one man loaned a blanket to someone who was not dressed warmly enough. 

But before we left there were things to do and places to see.

I went back to the school gates and took a photo and a close up of the poppies that had been crafted and attached to the gates on ANZAC Day.

On ANZAC Day Sis and I met up with our cousin and after lunch we went up to the cemetery at Karoro and put flowers on our grandparents grave and a poppy on Grandad's war plaque. It was nice to see the gravesite looking so good especially with there being no family living there now.

    

From the cemetery we took a short trip to the Karoro beach, it is a stony beach, no sand, and the stones polish up beautifully. We went fossicking - looking for greenstone or pounamu and we found some stones with a green tinge but I doubt it was the pure stuff. We did pick up some pebbles for the Aussies to take home though. Some are such pretty colours.

Karoro beach, you can see the Southern Alps in the far distance and on a good day can pick out Aorangi Mount Cook.

Lorraine and Peter fossicking. There was a lady and her children fossicking as well, she had a hammer and chisel to break stones open, we just spat on ours to see the colour :)

Another day Peter invited Lorraine and I to go to the Mawhera Pa with him. The pa is built on the site of the original Maori settlement, which surprised me as I had always thought it was about a half mile further up the river. So after lunch at one of the local cafes we went on an immersive learning adventure. It was well worth the money and time spent, a world class attraction I would think. I was really impressed with the quality of the exhibits. Below is a collage of some of the interior, small individual storytelling pods, small theatres showing movies/animations of life on the pa and the environs and a larger than life model of a Maori chief. Just some of the delights in this amazing cultural centre.

I think it was that same day that we went to the railway station and bought tee shirts for the kids, well I bought tee shirts I don't know what anyone else bought. And then i told the other two to follow me. They indulged me and were pleased they did as I was showing them the pounamu boulder at the end of the platform. It's enormous and one of several scattered around the town. 

 Another night we had dinner at the hotel next to the motel. It was nice to go and have a proper meal after cooking scrap meals at the motel and we spent a very pleasant hour or so just chatting about our respective families and having a proper catchup.

Occasionally Lorraine and I did our own thing when Peter was away touristing :) One day we took a bit of a walk along the flood wall of the Grey River but although it looks like a nice sunny day a cold wind blows down the valley and it wasn't very pleasant. You can see looking upriver that there were grey clouds and although it didn't rain it was cold. 

Then we went and had brunch at a little place just up from the quay. 

We had to wait until after 11am as Sis wanted whitebait, so whitebait we had. $16 each for a very big patty sandwiched between fresh white bread. It was delicious :)

That was pretty much it in Greymouth. It was great to visit our old home town. We went and looked for the houses we lived in but neither of them were there anymore. Even the hospital where we both worked and the nurses home we lived in have been knocked over and rebuilt - I suppose that's what happens after a major earthquake or two.

When we arrived in Christchurch I had about six hours before my flight down to Dunedin so we met up with our Christchurch cousins. Six girls, we sat and chatted for a couple of hours before the cafe closed. That was half the girl cousins, another six are scattered throughout Australia and New Zealand.

That's me at the back on the left. Look at all that white hair, lots of wisdom in that group :)

And now I think I should stop. I don't talk a lot but I seem to forget to stop when I'm writing. 

So, until next time, 

keep well and keep safe.

Diana 

ANZAC DAY 2025

LEST WE FORGET

A prayer for ANZAC Day

 We thank you for the peace and security that you have gifted our great nation. We thank you Lord, for the courage and sacrifice of the ANZACS over 100 years ago. As we remember those who have fallen in battle, we give thanks to you, gracious God, for their great sacrifices in conflict and in captivity.

God of nations, At Thy feet, 

In the bonds of love we meet!

Hear our voices we entreat,

God defend our free land.

ANZAC DAY 2019

A digger with his rations.

A nurse reading mail from home.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

we will remember them.

ANZAC Day 2018

Lest we forget

Lest we forget

Anzac Day 2016

Two boys on Anzac Day

Saturday was April 25th, Anzac Day.

The day New Zealanders and Australians around the world remember those
of our countrymen and women who have taken part in conflicts around the world since WW1.

This year our youngest grandson was taking part in a small parade

with his cub pack so of course we went out to watch him.

His big brother and a mate came to watch as well.

Jack

Being a boy with ants in his pants he couldn't just stand 

on the footpath but had to find a better vantage point. 

Good on him.

His father did stop him from getting up on the roof of the bank though,

 we didn't want him being hauled off by the local bobby, haha.

Anyway we didn't have to wait too long before we heard the bagpipes 

and the little parade came down the street led by the army cadets.

our cubs

There weren't many people there watching 

but we discovered later that the main parade was after the church service

 when they marched down to the war memorial and laid wreaths.

We didn't wait around for that but later went out to the cemetery 

for the service there and see the cubs put poppies on the soldiers graves.

Danny

Looking for a place to put his final poppy.

It was a big day for some of the younger boys 

because they had met at the Scout hall at 9:30am 

paraded down the street twice, had a church parade, 

bussed out to the cemetery and back again.

I went with his mother to pick Danny up just after 1pm.

joining with:

roses of inspiration

Wake up Wednesday

I hope you're all having a good week,

it's wet and miserable here today, 

so I'm inside doing 'inside stuff'.

Have a good week,

Diana

Winter is a'coming...

Autumn is here and in the last week 

the temps have dropped considerably.

There has been a lot of this happening today,

in fact this was when it had begun to clear a bit towards evening.

I'm hoping that it will be nice at the weekend when we commemorate ANZAC Day,

and 100 years since the Anzac troops landed at Gallipolli

with such awful loss of life on both sides.

I'm hoping to go into the city for the Dawn Service

and I think it will be pretty crowded.

Granddad and Granma 

I love these photos of my grandparents 

and this is hanging up in my lounge all the time.

They were so young. Grandad came back from the war 

 and they lived to a good age, 

bringing up six kids as well as having various grandkids 

living in their home over the years.

My youngest brother looks very much like my grandfather.

Mack

My granddaughter's wee dog, Mack. 

He is a sweetie and a real little guard dog..

but at the moment he is not well.

He has lost control of his back legs and also his bowel and bladder.

After having x-rays it seems he has a slipped disk 

which has calcified and now it is pinching the nerves to that part of his body.

He's had a couple of nights at the vet and is now home in a little cage,

on bed rest. He has to have a harness on when he comes

 out to do his business and needs help standing as well. 

Currently he is at my daughters home 

because there is someone home with him there all the time.

They hope to know this week whether he will improve or not.

I hope so for granddaughters' sake.

Winter time means jigsaw time to a lot of people, me included.

I have suggested that we start a jigsaw library at church this winter

and up above is the pile Mum gave me to sort out, name and mend to go in it.

So that is what I have been doing this evening 

- it didn't take long though, most of the boxs are in pretty good nick.

Mine are already down at the church and one other lady is putting some in as well.

I think we'll have about 50 to start us off. 

Just to finish off here is a teacup I gave my mother in law for Christmas one year.

When she died it came back to me and is in the china cabinet with my other teacups.

It is a Regency English Bone China trio.

I thought it was very pretty when I bought it and I haven't changed my mind.

joining with:

Martha's favorites

Roses of Inspiration

That's it for this week,

see you next time. keep well,

Diana

World War One commemorated.

On this day when we are commemorating the beginning of  the First World War, 100 hundred years ago, I would like to honour all those men and women who went to war and fought in such dreadful circumstances. So many never came back, so many young men lost and who never really had a chance to live.

My Grandfather did come home, he told Granma he would be back, before he left, and he kept his promise. He sailed on T.S.S. Aparima on Feb. 16th, 1917, with the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces. He was a volunteer, he could have stayed home and waited for his call up papers because he was a married man with a family - but he didn't. I admire him and others like him so much. He fought in the trenches of the Somme, at Passchendale. They suffered unimaginable hardship that we can't really comprehend in this day and age. 

This was supposedly the 'war to end all wars', little did they know that in just over 20 years the world would once again be plunged into another devastating conflict.

 I honour them. 

Corporal H.B. Gifkins
before embarkation

ANZAC Day, April 25th

In honour of all those men and women 

who have fought and died in foreign places 

to secure our freedom and our way of life.

The Ode of Remembrance

 taken from Laurence Binyon's poem, "For the Fallen"

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.

Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

 We will remember them.

LEST WE FORGET

In Flanders Field

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields. 

John McCrae

In memory of the thousands of ANZAC servicemen and women who have died in foreign lands.

ANZAC Day 

April 25th