four square guy
this is a kiwi classic. it’s a massive four square guy cut out of corrugated iron. an iconic figure cut out of a classic kiwi art material
new zealand
steamy
it’s starting to feel really cold here. in numerical terms it’s not that cold (it was around 11 degrees C in our bedroom this morning) but it feels really cold as there’s no where to warm up as everyone’s houses are so chilly (including ours). shame really. ho hum
nz – our home
just over seven months and all still going well.
ANZAC day
Anzac day is a public holiday here which means you get the day off. but only if it falls on a week day. so the bank holiday is effectively ‘lost’.
but it’s still a hugely important day for New Zealanders and Australians and we were proud to go to a service where Esther was involved through her school.
catering seemed to date back to the times of the great wars with giant sponge cakes and sandwiches with their crusts removed
draw where you live
this is an official electoral role form thing where if you don’t have a proper address for your house you can draw a nice picture of where to find it. just like you did at primary school.
i love this country so much !
some kiwi things
hi. this is a cross-post from my other blog which we do to keep friends/family who we know in the real world up to date on our family life in new zealand. i thought it might be of interest here too, so here it is as an extra bonus post !
i’ve been taking a few photos of natural kiwi type things over the last few weeks, so here’s a special bonus feature of some kiwi things. first up is a tree known as the ‘kiwi christmas tree’ as it blooms with these red flowers each year to coincide with christmas. It’s actualy called a pohutukawa tree. they really are dramatic, especially against a blue sky and seem to be everywhere. the one below is from a couple of weeks ago, and the one at the bottom from yesterday. read more here
next up is the new zealand fantail. this chap (or chapess) was flirting for a photo in a sculpture park we visited. There were a number of Tuis flapping round our heads in the same place, but they moved much too quickly for me to grab a photo unfortunately, but i’m sure i’ll get a photo eventually.
the trees above are Kauris. They played a huge part in New Zealand’s brief history – with the maoris using their timber for boat building, carving and housing, and the gum creating an industry in itself. At one time Kauri forests covered 1.2 million hectors, but now it’s reckoned to be nearer 80,000 hectares. they really are the daddies of the forest.
this is a cabbage tree which has been having a tricky time of late due to sudden illness.
and these two pictures are just of a huge amount of ‘bush’
inally, here are some pictures of a pukeko which is a funny little chicken like thing with a red beak and a blue belly.
these aren’t great pictures unfortunately as it was walking in long grass. i’ve no excuse really as these chaps are all over the place, including wandering along the sides of the main motorway
we even had one wander in to our tiny back garden in our temporary rental place.
so there you go, just a few of the natural things we’ve seen wandering or growing around and about. blah blah blah. no snow here.
UPDATE: My friend Andy left a comment on this, but comments are broken so it didn’t publish. but i wanted to share it with you, so here’s what he said:
great photos! a minor correction – Maori words eg Kauri do not suffer
an ‘s’ in the plural. The tree, a group of trees and the wood are all
‘Kauri’ – the s being a european consonant that does not exist in the
Maori alphabet. Lesson over. Still loving the photos: “ke te pai! ke
te pai!”
esther in the pacific
from back in easter, making this an old new zealand picture
the container arrives
woohoo. our container with all our stuff arrived from the UK last wednesday (when i was away for a night in Wellington)
i’ve finally got my desktop PC back.
and unpacking is a major task. and really noisy with all that paper rustling.
i still find it completely amazing that this metal box wobbled all the way across the oceans to get here. but now it’s here, and so are we. guess we’re serious about staying then !
across the bush
here’s a photo i took when we visited new zealand back in easter. it rained every day we were there (except one i think).
a new adventure
all being well, we’ve landed in new zealand today for our new adventure
new zealand house, london
this is new zealand house in london
it’s where you get your visas from. and is lovely.
windy wellington
i got the opportunity to go up one of the hills behind Wellington on my flying visit to see the view from the wind turbine up there.
that bit of water separates the north and south islands.
wind is in plentiful supply in wellington
sky tower
we went up the sky tower when we were in auckland back in april.
it gives you a great view of the bay and the city itself. look how empty those motorways are !
i walked slowly over the glass floor
whilst esther showed she was made of sterner stuff and initially danced on it
then sat and watched the world go by
auckland harbour boat trip
all this week’s NZ pictures are from our trip last easter. finally getting round to posting them !
