Travels in New Zealand and beyond, going back to 2003!
Twinkling in the winter sky just before dawn, Matariki (the Pleiades) signals the Maori New Year. Traditionally, it was a time for remembering the dead, and celebrating new life. In the 21st century, observing Matariki has become popular again. Heaven-bound kites, hot-air balloons and fireworks help mark the occasion. Credit: Full story by Paul Meredith…
Last weekend we spent in one of my favourite places, Martinborough in the Wairarapa. It’s a favourite because of its accessibility from Wellington. Only an hour or so to get there (give and take the traffic and driving conditions on the Rimutaka Hill). It’s a place where I feel light and free to unwind, with…
The bold waves – Rolling in like drums; a crashing symphony. The conductor awash, on a horizon without form. Each new set of waves a contrast, of crescendos and diminuendos. Pounding ashore, breaking all defences, taking everything boldly for a ride, dumping it on the final crash. Spectators watch on, with anticipation and awe, captivated at…
The seagulls flock together at dusk, thankful for a calm evening, after a torrid week of storms. On the high hills, of the greater Wellington region, the wind catches on the cliff edge, strong enough to lean into and imagine one could fly. In the Botanical Garden of the capital city the deciduous trees beckon…
It’s been scorching in Wellington this past week (and after acclimatising to warmer temperatures in our year and a bit living in southern California) hubby and I have been LOVING it! This was my view the other day (from the shelter of a beach tent – weighted down with driftwood) of my hubby and youngest…
Summer, I love you, as does my bare skin… and here follows a poem on the simplicity of summer and how it makes me feel so good, with its long daylight hours and salty sea kisses… Linking up with…
The ‘Me’ I am today, in 2015, as a forty year old parent to three daughters, is a very different ‘Me’ to who I was eleven year’s ago, before I became a parent. I wouldn’t have hesitated to head out the door then – for a run, a kayak, a night out, a weekend away –…
As the sun set on 2014, after an inclement day of weather in Wellington, New Zealand, we gathered at one of our neighbour’s homes, along with other lovely folk in the community that we are blessed to have in our lives, sharing this parenting journey. Pizza and puddings was the perfect combination, with fireworks at…
Between Christmas and New Year we’ve had some perfect days; the kind that leave a person feeling completely content at day’s end and very grateful to have a loving, healthy family, living in a peaceful pocket of the world. As I write, on New Year’s Eve in New Zealand, on the last day of 2014, the…
The colour of summer is blooming in the coastal sand dunes around New Zealand. This hardy, introduced Ice Plant, the Hottentot Fig, blooms along the coastline in startling beauty. Its colour stands defiantly bright, on even the wildest spring days in Wellington; scattered along walkways and through coastal dunes, as the wind bustles on through….
Halloween last year was as it should be – in the northern hemisphere, in autumn (albeit living in Santa Barbara, California, wasn’t quite the northern hemisphere type of Halloween I remembered from my apple bobbing youth growing up in England, UK). It was lovely to be living somewhere where pumpkins were plentiful (as we experienced…
It’s normally at this time of year, in New Zealand, that I’m rugged up with a Pinot Noir, glaring at a flickering candle and wishing I was somewhere warmer. There’s a certain romanticism of tucking up and hunkering down for winter – but it wears off pretty quickly (unless of course there’s a ton of…
This is my first experience of spring in Southern California. I’ve spent the past decade or so seeing in spring in New Zealand, whilst the northern hemisphere starts getting their autumn / winter fashions out and decking the halls with holly. This will be the first time in several years that I’ll see Easter in…