Would be happy not to relive yesterday again!

 Oh my goodness, yesterday was NOT good.  I thought I had sleeping sickness.  I just could NOT stay awake.  I slept for an hour in the morning (having woken up for good at 5 a.m.), another after lunch, then at 5 I fell asleep sitting upright, managed to have curry for a meal, and then fell asleep on the sofa again and didn't wake up until 8.50 p.m.  I took myself off to bed then.  I slept until 2 ish, came downstairs for a cuppa and to read, then after a couple of hours, went back to bed and slept on until just before 6 a.m.  My body was clearly wiped out. I feel just a tad more with it today.

Penguin display at the Antarctic Centre, where Rosie took me on the Monday before I flew back.  It was a guided tour, and very good.  I passed on going into the cold room, where they gave you an arctic jacket and turned the temperatures right down for 5 mins or so.  Rosie had 3/4 length trousers on so her calves and ankles felt that bitter cold!

A couple of the real penguins.  These are all rescues - one has a damaged tongue so could never hunt as they use their tongues to get the fish turned around and down their throats; and another had lost a leg. 

Two of the huskies on display. They were really relaxed!  We saw two different varieties of huskies outside. One, the Malamute, was very heavy boned and as the guide explained, pretty thick in the head!!

We went round the Haaglund course - these are the tracked vehicles used in the Antarctic which cope really well with snow hills, slopes, slabs of broken ice, crevices etc.  I was elected co-Pilot, which meant I had to tell the driver when the road was clear so he could do the circuit and I sat in the front.

The crevice we went over.

I took a video, but am being told it is too big so will have to wait until Tam is here at the weekend, and she can talk me through it.

I found this lovely little puffin in a charity shop this week and of course it came home with me.  When Rosie was over here last (in 2004), we all went to Skomer Island, off the beautiful Pembrokeshire coast.  There the Puffins are so unbothered by people, they would walk around your feet.  When I saw this, I was instantly taken back to our visit.

This morning I was determined to try and avoid a morning nap, so went off to Brecon, over the Epynts (as the other road in town is closed for roadworks at the moment.)  I got cat food and Christmas place mats from B&M Bargains, and then went to Morrisons for a couple of things, including a Steak and Kidney pie for my tea tonight.  I had a wander round the town and got stamps for the first lot of Christmas cards, and another two packs of C/Cards from the Red Cross charity shop (they were on a half price special).  Another stop at the Tenovus charity shop, where I found a good quality navy cotton mix jumper by the Crew Clothing Company.  £7.99.  Price new is £49.

This afternoon I have been relaxing watching Ruth Mott's Country Christmas (1995) and JUST up my street.  Then The British Christmas Desserts No-One Makes Any More.  Well, I have never even heard of anyone eating Sticky Toffee Pudding prior to the year 2000 although apparently it was a "thing" from the 1970s onwards.  NOT in 1950s Britain at Christmas though.  No more was something called Tunis Cake.  As for Blancmange (he pronounced the C, for heaven's sake!), that was a Sunday teatime thing, rather than a Christmas treat and Queen of Puddings was something we had at School.  Ah well, the screen didn't mind me shouting at it.

I am now hoping to stay awake till gone 9 p.m. before taking myself off to bed.  Let's hope I am over the worst of the jetlag now.

Well, I wasn't expecting THAT to happen!

 My body clock is still messed up - NOT helped by Alfie, who yowls to go out in the wee small hours, by which time I have had several hours sleep and in consequence, am wide awake by the time I've come downstairs in the cold and let him out.  He has taken to sitting beside my computer, just as dear old Ghengis used to do.

These beautiful Kiwis were in a tourist shop in :

I didn't dare look at the prices, but told myself they would break on the way home . . .  I am trying to have LESS in the house, not more.

This Maori carving was the result of many hours work.

From the Trans-Alpine express.  I don't know if this was a single fall of scree or an accumulation over many years.

When we took the Lighthouse Road out of Akaroa, and found we were heading the wrong way.  It was worth it for the views. My goodness it was STEEP though, and Rosie's little car really struggled.  We had to park it up for half an hour later to let it cool down!

Such a cheerful picture mid-winter here.  No frosts, so nothing to stop the Geraniums just growing and growing.

Yesterday I was woken around 3 a.m. again - thanks Alfie - and having pottered, and tried to sleep after a couple of hours (no luck), I came down and made Apple Gingerbread and put a half and half white/granary loaf in the bread maker.  I am trying to avoid spending money on boughten bread now and home-made is much nicer.  I rose it to dough, put it in one of my big heavy bread tins, brushed it with milk and sprinkled it with big chunky seeds.  Yum.  I hope my friend Rosie is enjoying using the Panasonic bread maker she was given, as it does make a good loaf (and hers has a better dark crust than mine, which is why I generally cook them in the oven.)

I blew the dust off my old housekeeping books (home made things for the home).  The bottom one, the Carla Emery book, I will probably sell as it deals with all aspects of small holding and living off grid, so not so useful for me in my dotage!  She is VERY thorough and every aspect of Country Living is covered. Shout out if you are interested.  It's £15 plus postage.

White-headed heron by our motel in Akaroa.

I have finally unpacked the huge suitcase I took (half the stuff never got worn so went away clean, and we had washed as we went at Rosie's).  She mixes her own washing liquid and I found that the irritated skin round my shoulders/neckline went away.  Obviously my changing to a cheaper Bio washing powder had been a poor executive decision. I used to make my own washing powder at Ynyswen, and will do the same again now.  I have several part used bars of good soap I can grate up, and have ordered some Borax online, and need to source some Washing Crystals.  Neither Tesco or Co-op have them, so I shall try the little oddbits shop in town as they are the sort of place old-fashioned enough to stock them.  I will share the recipe when I make it up.

On the way to Akaroa.

Anyway, I was happily watching Broadchurch last night when I suddenly had a zigzag light in my left eye.  I've only had that once before, many many years ago when put on a contraceptive pill which didn't agree with me.  I texted Tam and she came back saying it was an Ocular Migraine.  Probably from where I am SO out of kilter with my sleep patterns and definitely not helped by watching a tv barely a foot from my eyes on the plane (I had to use my reading glasses).  I had to just listen to The 2nd-best Marigold Hotel rather than watch it as my eyes were hurting, so I clearly upset my eyes then.  I will try not to do too much on the computer.  I went straight to bed but by the time I got upstairs, the zigzag lights had faded, but today my eye feels a bit "sore" so I will book in at the Optician's tomorrow and get it checked out.  My blood pressure seems a bit high, so I need to get walking again, having rested a couple of days at home.

We passed this lovely camper home on our way out of Christchurch.  On the side, engraved in the glass, was a dove, and a late middle-aged couple were driving off for a nice weekend somewhere.   It reminded me of a motorised shepherd's hut.

Well, today is a sit down and write Christmas cards/letters sort of day.  It's 5 a.m. so I will see if I can sleep again.  I picked up a copy of Jilly Cooper's Rivals on the Charity Table in Co-op so that's nice light reading to get me off to sleep.  S J Parris's Heresy, whilst truly excellent, not so restful.

Some more NZ thoughts, artwork and wild birds

 

This picture of Umbellifers was in one of the small galleries we visited on our travels.  I thought it was lovely.  One of the sad things about whizzing along on the bus was that there were areas I would have loved to stop at to photograph.  Especially a river with about an acre or more of colourful Lupins in bloom.  They are everywhere (but being eradicated from the National Parks) but to see them in such huge quantities was mindblowing.  I have made a note that any plantings here in future will be en masse for impact.  I have grown a few Lupins from seed this summer, so will plant some more to get started in the greenhouse once we have seen January out.

Here is somewhere our bus driver did stop for photo opportunities.  He kindly took my pic.  This was within half an hour or so of leaving Franz Josef, heading for Greymouth.

The light in these little paintings was amazing and the red dots showed them all sold - probably all together Rosie thought.  Aren't they beautiful?  They really capture the wonderful light on the mountains. They could well be Akaroa.

This wonderful painting of Olive orchards is in Rosie's house and painted by a talented friend of hers.  I absolutely loved it although this photo does not do it justice.

Where there were hoardings - and because of the 2011 earthquake there were still many and buildings needed to be rebuilt - local artists had been asked to go and decorate them.  Lots of NZ birds.  The Pukeko left was probably the most-squashed bird on the NZ roads.  They seemed to have absolutely no road sense whatsoever and were a very common breed especially in the fields around Christchurch and Rangiora.  The pretty Tomtit on the right I was lucky to see in the trees at Mirror Lake on the way to Milford Sound.  I noted 50 bird species that I encountered on my travels and treated myself to a little book to help identify them.  Some British birds were introduced when colonisation began - Blackbirds (v. successful), Thrushes, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Starlings, Rock Pigeons, Goldfinches, Dunnocks, lots of Yellowhammers, and Redpolls (the latter I was lucky to spot on my first day - they seem relatively uncommon in my part of the UK). Sparrows are probably the commonest bird imported - saw them in Jordan too, so they get everywhere!

Guess who forgot the bino's ?!!  This is Rosie's local beach and estuary.  Lovely there.

The yellow Lupins are the default colour and grow wild in many places.

Wild Sweet Peas.

A weird cloud formation . . .

I was trying to capture the immensely tall "hedges" around the Canterbury area.  They are windbreaks and much needed when the winds come calling.  Every afternoon there was half a gale in the Christchurch area - winds of about 30 mph with gusts.  Just before I had arrived there had been a terrific storm with winds reaching up to more than 150 mph in the high areas.  That just seems incredible, but you can understand why 20 foot "hedges" are necessary, if only to catch the sheep as they fly past!!

A nice pic of my friend Rosie.  Missing you already my dear.  Thank heavens for technology so we can have video calls rather than relying on snail mail . . .

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig

 

It is 1.25 a.m.  on Friday morning.  I was sleeping well until a certain Alfie started yowling to go out.  By the time I'd got dressing gown and slippers on and done so, I couldn't get back to sleep.  My body is all out of kilter from the travelling.  My 1.05 a.m. flight on Wednesday was delayed and we weren't taking off until 2.20 a.m. plus .  I am rarely up beyond 10 p.m. at home, so you can imagine it was a real challenge to stay awake and alert, although various small children helped with that cause. What a nightmare it must be for mothers to travel with small infants, toddlers and over-excited under 6's.  Once on the plane, everyone seemed to carry on as if it were daytime, watching films on tv, lights were on, and meals being served.  I just wanted some kip and it was a couple of hours before they dimmed the lights and I fell into a fitful doze.  10 hours later I managed to negotiate my way across Singapore airport and onto my home flight.  Another 14 hours.  I was fortunate to have a row of three seats to myself so was able to stretch out and get some REM sleep.  I also watched the new Downton Abbey film, which I can recommend and then Singing in the Rain which I never tire of.  My eyes began to tire of being SO close to the screen and I had to "watch" The Second-Best Marigold Hotel with eyes shut a lot of the time, though I did look out of the window (damn that wing) at the scenery as we moved from India to Turkmanistan and the border with Iran.  I fully intend NEVER to do a long flight ever again.  Gabs and I plotting a long weekend in Denmark though, to go to museums and see the Bog Bodies I studied at Uni and always found fascinating.

Yesterday morning Gabby left, full of cold (thanks to wee Rosie, who is ever generous with her germs) to spend the day in bed back at home.  I had a bath and washed my hair and felt with it enough to go to Llandod and restock the fridge.  I was amazed at how cheap Tesco groceries were in comparison to NZ, where there don't seem to be any cheap option.  I bought a lovely Mango for 79p.  In NZ they were $5 each and manky looking.  A NZ dollar is worth 43p.  I bought two 250g punnets of reduced Blueberries for £1.35 each.  One went straight into the freezer - the other is for breakfasts this week.  Rosie paid $6 I think it was for a tiny punnet of about 125g. Just in case you are interested, HERE is a link to NZ food and cost of living prices.

I bought lovely gammon steaks on special offer which saved me £2.40.  One lot has gone straight in the freezer and the other will be an evening meal and half of one into a pan of Minestrone soup today.  I will freeze the other half for another pan in the future.  Lots of lovely fresh vegetables came home with me, and some stir fry sauces, though I need a break from Chinese-style meals having eaten them for breakfast and main meal on the flight. Three cooked meals in one day.

I bought some Worcestershire Hop cheese (one of my favourites) in the Health Food shop.  Some of the softer cheeses (Wenslydale etc) in Tescos quickly go mouldy, so it is more cost efficient to buy good cheese elsewhere.

I struck lucky with this (and another good hardback destined as a family member Christmas present) at the Tesco donated books stand.  Someone had donated a whole trolley full of books!  This one is just up my street.

I also struck lucky with the charity shops, and in the Red Cross the same lady who is my size donated some more Seasalt tops, and I got two lovely blouses at £8 each - one brand new and still had the tag on it (£45.95 originally).  I love Seasalt products but can't afford to buy new.  I also found two easy-park drive into spaces in Llandod and Builth and reckoned my luck must still be in so I bought two Lottery tickets.  You never know. 

My cats were SO pleased to have me home and I had the girls, one either side of me when I went to bed on Wednesday night.  I slept SUCH a deep sleep for 7 hrs but then woke at 5 a.m. and am still out of kilter.  I rested up watching archaeology programmes all afternoon and evening and really hit a brick wall by teatime and had to sleep again, then fell asleep sitting up an hour later and by 8p.m. I had HAD IT. If I so much as shut my eyes, I was asleep!

There will be lots more photos from NZ, as a shame not to share some more. Back to bed in the hope I can sleep . . .

Update: Nah, didn't work.  Twenty to five and I am still on NZ time and drinking a couple of glasses of white wine to try and push myself off the sleep cliff into sleep on the sofa with Timeteam on in the background . .. .

Just W.O.W. again

Rosie  and I had a lovely weekend away at Akaroa, where French settlers originally had a small town. The French road names still exist. However it had been the British who reached there before them and stuck their flag in NZ (well, Maori) soil and laid claim to it.  

Moi outside one if the original settler's cottages, which had the most amazing garden.

Rosie by the same cottage. Wriggly tin (and it's more modern counterpart, flatter tin!) is what is largely used for roofing here.

Geraniums growing like you've never seen them grow before. It's a frost-free area I believe, so they just keep on growing.

Modern wriggly tin houses.

The line of blue buildings are the wharf where we boarded the catamaran for our two hour wildlife cruise on Saturday morning. 

The lighthouse.

When the first Maori settlers saw these Palms, they hoped for nutrition but this type aren't productive.

Rosie in the sunshine. We were so lucky with the weather and and to go out of the bay onto the Pacific and round to Scenery Nook.

Fur seal .

Scenery Nook.

If I remember rightly, this was a volcanic blow hold many million years ago. The entire bay around Akaroa is a vast caldera.

Another fur seal hauled out.

More great geology.

These are Hector's Dolphins, and aren't very big. There are Swimming with Dolphins boats which go out and if you are lucky the dolphins will approach.

I have dozens more photos just on my phone, and loads more plus videos which will have to wait until I am home.

I fly back at an ungodly hour tonight - well, tomorrow really as it's 1.05 a.m. Back in the UK mid afternoon.