Letter From New Zealand 7*

*With continued apologies to Alistair Cooke

Kia Ora, folks. A little late…. sorry, it’s been quite busy here. Here we are again, don’t know where the time goes.

Well, what’s been happening, (apart form the Psycho Kitties from hell getting bigger and wreaking havoc around the house, more later). In fact, this is what we have to contend with now:

The 'Max' sign was eaten 30 seconds later!

One of the reasons this update is a tad late is that I was away for a week flying round the country on business. I stupidly asked for the emergency exit seats (for the legroom): this was met with laughter, ‘We don’t have emergency exits’ was the response - planes too small. At least they had two propellers! Also, no such thing as a life jacket; apparently, you take your seat cushion with you…..I collected half a dozen just in case….. ah, the joys of internal travel.

We had a little earthquake about an hour ago 12.37 Sunday afternoon, here), the house and contents shook a bit, cats didn’t bat an eyelid (New Zealand bred).

A quick visit to the ‘earthquake’ site will confirm… http://www.geonet.org.nz/x2599831g_l.html

The weather, whilst on par with a cool summer’s day back home today, has been pretty wicked at times (in New Zealand terms). Wellington actually had a slight peppering of snow the other day which caused some interest, as this is a rare occurrence. Plenty of snow up in the mountains but none normally down at our level. The ‘bad’ weather included a land slip that dumped the side of a hill on to the motorway, some poor bloke's house losing the ground from under it and now in the process of sliding down the mountain (on to a number of other houses…) and gale force winds and sleet… Ah the joys of an oceanic temperate climate.

I took these pics a few Sundays ago with the intention of showing winter in Whitby, however we’ve also taken a bit of a battering weather-wise. Although yesterday and today are on par with the photos.

The Lemon (Gin & Tonic) bush at the bottom of the garden

The tri-nations rugby is on at the moment, so the place is buzzing as usual: last night the All Blacks played the Springboks here in Wellington, the All Blacks won, however not quite the push-over that was expected…. We had friends over for dinner and then to watch the game with a few drinks, so it was good fun.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (This is Cleo’s contribution, achieved by holding a paw on the shift and Z key until I notice!)

On the subject of cats.. They have now claimed the whole house as their territory (except for the bedrooms that we use). They have bonded with us. Max loves Liz and follows her everywhere and Cleo thinks my beard is her mother!. I’ve added some new pictures to the Link to Psycho Kitties from Hell web page.. Remember: Just press the Back button to get back to this page.

Well folks, even shorter and sweeter this month. Hope all of you in the northern hemisphere enjoy your heat wave, remember it’s mid winter down here.