Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Holiday Open Thread 1: Beach and Backyard

Ngaire BookieMonster

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:18:46 +1300

The Pussy Galore Cat Herding Dude Ranch and Petting Zoo?

I am so THERE.

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:24:59 +1300

Tabby, or not tabby...

I’m not a crazy old cat lady, I’m a cat farmer!

Welcome to the Pussy Galore Cat Herding
Dude Ranch and Petting Zoo!
(PurrPaws Built)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQaLhc-RJAg&feature=fvw

well it was either IKEA or EDS...

Geoff Lealand

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:18:15 +1300

Now that’s mighty expensive eating if you ask me.

But not if you get someone else to raise 'em, as Jonathon Swift suggested in A Modest Proposal

Jackie Clark

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:17:54 +1300

Hurray. I'll be up for that.

Steve Barnes

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:19:34 +1300

We could consider the cost of producing and raising a child to adulthood–I recall seeing a figure of around $250,000 per child

Now that’s mighty expensive eating if you ask me.
And Jackie, you get to appreciate the outside loo after a while. In fact it has been said you…

BenWilson

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:55:52 +1300

Cat poaching would be extremely easy. All you have to do is offer them food and they'll usually come straight to you. If they're on your land, surely that makes them fair game? Or you could make it sporting and shoot at them with something, but only if they're running.

Jackie Clark

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 09:58:27 +1300

One of my closest friends has had up to 9 cats living with her. She started with 1 who then had kittens and she kept them all, and then a couple came to live with her. They have all died now, so there are 2 relatively young cats, one of…

Ngaire BookieMonster

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 09:33:10 +1300

Ahh, hadn't thought about the farming angle, but that all makes lots of sense.

That does give me a good excuse for later years too. I'm not a crazy old cat lady, I'm a cat farmer!

Tamsin6

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 02:58:21 +1300

I'll add my sympathies too on behalf of my partner Vivian, who to her ongoing dismay seems to attract mosquitoes like some kind of lightning rod.

I'm not sure they were mossies – the usually make me swell up and itch like crazy. These were more like little midge-y type…

Kyle Matthews

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:03:06 +1300

Also, I have this feeling that carnivores are generally not great eating? Isn’t that part of the reason most eating animals are herbivores or largely omnivorous? Or am I wrong?

From the poitn of farming there's also a multiplier effect. To make cows you have to farm grass or grain…

Jackie Clark

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:07:59 +1300

@ the picnic, no, Jacqui. She's incontinent, and it can get a little messy! But some time, I hope you will. She's a lovely pup.

Jacqui Dunn

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 18:50:35 +1300

I hope I'll get to meet your lovely old dog.

Lucy Stewart

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:29:26 +1300

Also, I have this feeling that carnivores are generally not great eating? Isn’t that part of the reason most eating animals are herbivores or largely omnivorous? Or am I wrong?

Yep, for mammals and birds, anyway; true carnivores have much lower population densities, making them vastly inefficient to eat, and…

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:49:44 +1300

@Jackie. Still, you love her and that is what matters. We could consider the cost of producing and raising a child to adulthood--I recall seeing a figure of around $250,000 per child to feed, clothe, educate, medicate yer average child.

Jackie Clark

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:18:49 +1300

Oh, I look forward to coming up when you have an inside toilet. That is all, Sir. And @ Lucy, I wish I knew why vets were so expensive. We have the original $10,000 dog. (Probably more, actually). She used to get grass spurs in her ears that had to…

Jacqui Dunn

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:00:13 +1300

Chooks are omnivores out in the open – they eat all sorts of things – snails, bugs of varying sorts, and one's lettuces (I always wondered why my lettuces never grew – daily cropping!) If they're unfortunate enough to be raised in a factory farm, they'll eat the bodies of…

Ngaire BookieMonster

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:46:51 +1300

Personally, I couldn’t eat my cat (or a dog), and I’m entirely aware of the contradictions of separating “domestic non-eating” animals from “yummy eating” animals. Pretty sure if I ever befriended a farm animal I might have a hard time eating them too.

Also, I have this feeling that carnivores…

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:26:52 +1300

@ Cecelia; there other people better qualified than I to make such assessments...and I haven't been following events as closely as I should. But I worry about the state of America. At times, the bleak view of humanity shared by fundamentalist groups there seem only to be a shade of…

Jacqui Dunn

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:23:30 +1300

Are we really going to stew up Tiddles with a few onions and a clove of garlic

Known as "roof rabbits" in some places.

or boil up Rover with a few sprigs of rosemary

Also done in some other places. We just don't have a history of it – well,…

Jacqui Dunn

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:19:14 +1300

The giant huhu bugs, on the other hand, can be slightly annoying when you get them stuck in your hair and they crawl across your face

Aargggh!!

BenWilson

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:18:25 +1300

Is there any question that keeping a cat or a dog for food would be incredibly inefficient? Even keeping actual stock isn't that sensible, unless you're a farmer.

Hell, even fishing is inefficient, and you don't even have to grow the fish. Cats and dogs and fishing aren't about the…

Cecelia

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:12:51 +1300

Geoff, wrong thread, sorry ... a bit removed from puppy dogs and pussy cats ... I wondered what you thought of the media influence on the Tucson shooter. Just read Kiwipolitico and picked up a nice phrase: "right wing media frothers".

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 10:29:35 +1300

I might eat a dig but not a dog ;-)

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 10:27:47 +1300

As I recall, there did seem to be authority in their analyses--assessments of energy expenditure vs consumption. Still, they probably didn't account sufficiently for the contradictions and ambiguities of life. Are we really going to stew up Tiddles with a few onions and a clove of garlic, or boil up…

recordari

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 10:27:30 +1300

Time to eat the dig?

Are they now advocating hangi or umu?

The Christchurch City Council has published these useful guidelines.

[Pendant]

Lucy Stewart

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:48:30 +1300

I think it may be from the same source: a very provocative book by two academics who have a NZ connection: Brenda & Robert Vale, "Time to eat the dig? The real guide to sustainable living"

That sounds like what I was thinking of. How much of their research is accurate…

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:18:19 +1300

Apologies for the double banger--blame it on fat fingers and the contrary nature of my iPod Touch.
Nice to wake to soft, warm rain this morning.

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:10:17 +1300

I think it may be from the same source: a very provocative book by two academics who have a NZ connection: Brenda & Robert Vale, "Time to eat the dog? The real guide to sustainable living"

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:06:16 +1300

I think it may be from the same source: a very provocative book by two academics who have a NZ connection: Brenda & Robert Vale, "Time to eat the dig? The real guide to sustainable living"

Lucy Stewart

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 07:52:17 +1300

I love animals (dogs more than cats) but there is an economic and envuronmental cost.

Can't recall the details but I've seen at least one reference to a cat being the equivalent of owning a Volkswagen, in terms of effective carbon emission/lifetime, and a big dog being like owning a…

Geoff Lealand

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 07:46:20 +1300

Maybe we should start taxing them--especially all those cats who lie around all day doing sweet f/all.
Seriously though, the economics of pet ownership is an under-investigated topic. I recall reading about pets in Japan: if they stopped importing pet food, they would need to devote 70% of their farm…

Lucy Stewart

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:32:26 +1300

Just taken the cats to the vet, for jabs and pills. Cost $179. Why does animal treatment cost so much more than treatment of humans?

To be prosaic: because your taxes don't pay for it. Over here humans are much, much more expensive to treat. Not that animals are cheap,…

Steve Barnes

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:28:48 +1300

Well, I had no problem with sandflies. The giant huhu bugs, on the other hand, can be slightly annoying when you get them stuck in your hair and they crawl across your face but you get used to them after a few beers.

Steve Barnes

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:24:22 +1300

Yup, hate the smell of LPG in the mornings. Yeah, it was LPG not methane... ;-)

BenWilson

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:04:42 +1300

Heh, I heard you also demolished an outhouse, Steve :-) I've been accused of the same thing, but never literally!

Cecelia

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:40:38 +1300

Love the brand new outhouse.

My summer has been more poetic. I've rediscovered sea swimming since coming up north. At these beaches have I swum this summer:

Matapouri (with dolphins)
Whangaumu
Taiharuru
Onerahi (warm, muddy harbour)
Ngunguru
Opito (Kerikeri not Coromandel)
Ruakaka

Poetry in place names ...

Islander

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:01:27 +1300

Classic crib & dunny/shower -excellent!
Obviously no problem with sandflies there!

Steve Barnes

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:22:19 +1300

Lazy summer days? partying till you drop?
Nah, I built this... and This
:-D

Jacqui Dunn

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:23:25 +1300

Well, some people have two left feet!

Geoff Lealand

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:52:54 +1300

Yikes! Two left hands? Left and right, I think it should be.

Geoff Lealand

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:51:21 +1300

Mosquitos! Pah–small fry!! I was scratching around in a pile of mulch in December and disturbed a wasp nest. Five stings on the left hand and six on the left hand. Now, that hurt!

Just taken the cats to the vet, for jabs and pills. Cost $179. Why does animal…

Islander

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:42:41 +1300

I've encountered mosquitos over the hill but not our local thick swarms & sandflies – if they exist- are pathetic downhearted solitary creatures...hey, people go about with bare arms and legs on the East Coast!

Raymond A Francis

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:17:12 +1300

One of the other nice things about the east coast of the South Island, is we don't get flying biting things. Something my Taranaki born wife delights in, although a trip North next month has her hunting for the Dimp
I am sure Islander will back me up on this…

Jacqui Dunn

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:06:57 +1300

Oh-oh. Actually, I never did take B6 because I'd just read a book which outlined the danger of taking one B out of balance with the others, and I didn't have a problem with W(h)anganui's mozzies after that, because I went back to Wellington.

Islander

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:39:03 +1300

Jacqui D – we occaisionally meet loopies who have been encouraged to take lots of B6. We recognise them by their pink lumpy appearance & the happy crowd of flying predators haloing them...

(here we have sandflies & mosquitos & – I deeply suspect -noseeums. And the Whataroa virus, found in sandflies here,…

Jacqui Dunn

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:58:38 +1300

Midges?? I guess I've got a mindset about mosquitoes – never thought of those!

When I worked in Wanganui many years ago (before the "h") there was a particularly virulent little mozzie with striped legs that took a shine to me. Wherever I was bitten would swell up mightily, and…

Christopher Dempsey

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:47:28 +1300

I've taken to taking jeans/pants, shoes/socks, and a long sleeved shirt or jacket when going out to friends places in the evening and if I know there'll be some outside activity. Come dusk, I excuse myself and change, and avoid the midges... makes for a miles better event for me.…

Sam F

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:10:31 +1300

Sympathies abound. Those pesky little varmints would just love some tender Anglicized flesh.

I'll add my sympathies too on behalf of my partner Vivian, who to her ongoing dismay seems to attract mosquitoes like some kind of lightning rod.

Jacqui Dunn

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:36:49 +1300

bitten to bits the evening before we left NZ, sitting on the verandah of our friends house on the Te Atatu peninsula

Sympathies abound. Those pesky little varmints would just love some tender Anglicized flesh. We are forced to smother ourselves in BugOff and the like, even to water the…

Jackie Clark

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 11:31:27 +1300

You're never a stranger, Tamsin. It just takes a lot longer than a few weeks to get back into the stream of life wherever you are from. I would say it even takes a couple of years, or so. If, on the other hand, you have always felt a little…

Tamsin6

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 09:53:45 +1300

I'm back in the UK after my first trip home in 5 years. Was fantastic weather, had lovely Christmas with family together for the first time in 10 years, and had a chance to show my two girls a little bit of New Zealand life. Ngaio met 3 cousins she…

BenWilson

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 08:51:58 +1300

Might see you on the beach. Looks like a beautiful day for it.

Sam F

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 08:05:03 +1300

Made good use of Sunday morning by catching up with a cousin who works on Motat's military vehicle collection at their running day. Got to enjoy a spot of paddock bashing in their newly acquired British personnel carrier and a 1942-vintage jeep (both as a passenger, naturally), as well as…

Sacha

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 22:02:01 +1300

that's the plan

Geoff Lealand

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:38:19 +1300

Thanks, Sacha. See you at the picnic?

Islander

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:19:35 +1300

Thank you Sacha! – and Geoff-

Sacha

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:15:29 +1300

a piece I wrote on What We Did In the Holidays has just been posted on kiwiboomers.com

you *are* allowed to link to it :)

Islander

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:13:33 +1300

Do put it here Geoff – the boomers site doesnt work for this machine-

Geoff Lealand

Sat, 15 Jan 2011 20:58:43 +1300

I should have put it here but a piece I wrote on What We Did In the Holidays has just been posted on kiwiboomers.com

Islander

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:31:48 +1300

At last check (Dec30th) the precinct Fleur's was only open for coffee & nibbles.
The Moeraki one is still going strong-

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:23:54 +1300

..and hasn't Fleur just opened a new restaurant in the old Oamaru Stone precinct, as well?
Hope she still has the one at Moeraki also...

Islander

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:08:34 +1300

ANZ's best bookbinder has a shop in the precinct (think he still makes the diaries & notebooks.) The whisky shop has, aue! closed.

Christopher Dempsey

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:55:41 +1300

I loved Oamaru when I was there a few years ago travelling around with my partner... I really liked the old part. The best was discovering the gentleman who still makes marbled paper covered dairies by hand, and an interesting whiskey shop in another building, selling remnants of NZ made…

Islander

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:56:09 +1300

Joe, the Forrester has some bloody fascinating stuff – and their staff are both very knowledgable, approachable, and congenial folk-

Islander

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:54:50 +1300

I’ve been travelling to Oamaru since before I was born…my mother lives again in the house her parents built & extended*, and her garden blooms as her father’s bloomed (it is across the old trade trail incidentally, and permission had to be sought before the house was built – it helped…

Joe Wylie

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:47:43 +1300

There's an Edward Lear painting in the Oamaru art gallery. Don't know how it got there, possibly via 19th century Oamaru artist Emily Gillies, who was his great-niece.

Geoff Lealand

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:37:55 +1300

Slightly Foxed was closed but I found it in a store selling antique clothing in the Victorian Precinct. My daughter went gaga over the clothes. I think that Oamaru is one of the most interesting towns in NZ. The olde worldy stuff does get close to twee but those old…

Geoff Lealand

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:31:08 +1300

@Joe . Yes, the ghost of Janet does linger around Oamaru. An odd coincidence in discovering this book was that we had just the day before we had trekked across a paddock to see the grave where the drowned of NZ's biggest maritime disaster were buried (131 on the Tararua…

Islander

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:29:48 +1300

You were visiting “Slightly Foxed” Geoff?
Or the marvellous recycle centre?

I have heard rumours, for yonks, about a copy of Aubudon in Oamaru – and certainly have obtained a copy of G. F. Angas from there…there were erudite people of a number of races colonising Oamaru early, and not…

Joe Wylie

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:13:18 +1300

Congratulations on your find, wonder how it wound up in Oamaru? Must be some kind of literary lodestone deposit underlying Janet Frame’s kingdom by the sea.

Lawlor was once NZ correspondent for the Australian Bulletin. His two books on his childhood reminiscences of Wellington, published in the early 60s, were…

Geoff Lealand

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:04:30 +1300

Which means that there are treasures still to be found in NZ secondhand stores. Better than the Kaikoura bookshop owner who had never heard of Graham Greene!

Geoff Lealand

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:01:03 +1300

Amongst the things we picked up in our South Island travels (Oamaru) was a tiny book of William Falconer's "The Shipwreck and Other Poems", published in 1836 by Tilt and Bogue (great name, eh) of Fleet Street. Apparently Mr Tilt and Mr Bogue published the first graphic novel "The Adventures…

Andre

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:49:43 +1300

Poor old Whaleoil... even the wingnuts are disowning him. Like Palin without the good looks.

Sam F

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:00:01 +1300

I've also taken time out to be told off by Brian Edwards:

Bizarre...

Have to admit though, despite all else I laughed heartily at Whale's doomed attempt at grammar-based attack questioning.

Andre

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:24:05 +1300

We took 8 days at Matauri Bay camping on the beachfront in the "whanau only" zone before Xmas and enjoyed avoiding the New Year crowds. Fresh crays and scallops every day and I caught a few schnapper. The kids loved it but it's getting more difficult keeping them out of…

Marcus Turner

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:14:57 +1300

I remember that some small person would occasionally experiment with the telephone on a party line. Wobbly, uncertain rings and a tentative little voice saying "hello?". Used to taste the milk in the billies, too...

Islander

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 22:37:32 +1300

Yo Ross! I used to be 63 z on a party line that encompassed everyone south of Ross unto deepest darkest Okarito…we were always aware of one paticular person who picked up as soon as they heard handle turn…

I’m about to shower & go to bed after restacking and making…

Ross Mason

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:50:31 +1300

I especially loved the address: PO Box 1, Lake Okarito- yeeessss!

Heh. I can nearly match that. When we lived in Little River in the late 50s, the old man was the Peninsula Farmers Coop Stock Agent. He had the privilege of a single phone line. Ooohhh. In the days…

Whoops

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:20:19 +1300

I've been enjoying nearly a month at Lake Okareka, but yesterday's stupidity has put a chill over the lake.

What a waste.

Islander

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:19:43 +1300

I have a mother who was born with auburn hair, and a sister who is a redhead, and a nephew (her son) who started out whiteblond but is now 6'4"+ of ginga manhood...none of them explode easily.

But it's *really* interesting when the volcano finally blows-

In other news, it's…

Jacqui Dunn

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 18:32:06 +1300

Is anyone else watching the cricket?

DON'T DO IT!!!

giovanni tiso

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:55:37 +1300

OT, but almost the only thing I can recall from the "Italian Unification" unit of UE History is that Garibaldi was a ginge.

The fierce one was the missus though, and she wasn't red – at least not hairwise.

Is anyone else watching the cricket? Bloody depressing.

If we make…

Tony Parker

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:52:47 +1300

Is anyone else watching the cricket? Bloody depressing.

Russell Brown

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:47:38 +1300

They don't call redheads fiery for nothing.

Actually, they do.

OT, but almost the only thing I can recall from the "Italian Unification" unit of UE History is that Garibaldi was a ginge.

Russell Brown

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:40:27 +1300

Which pretty much proves that no-one really believes that irascible bloodnut stereotype.

My sainted mother falsifies the theory every day.

Joe Wylie

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:19:40 +1300

Its funny, no strange, that people feel free to say and do things to red heads that would be quite unpardonable about people of any other colour
Which pretty much proves that no-one really believes that irascible bloodnut stereotype. If they did they'd be extra cautious about winding them up.

sally jones

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 16:40:01 +1300

Ian's my husband, Sally.

Well I might have presumed; sorry about that, Jackie. Doubtless I have not been privy to PA dialogues for long enough.

I Like ZZTop; the green fingers are a bonus :)

Raymond A Francis

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 16:14:23 +1300

Its funny, no strange, that people feel free to say and do things to red heads that would be quite unpardonable about people of any other colour

No I am not a red head although I can grow a red beard,but I am married to one, have red headed sons…

giovanni tiso

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 14:58:11 +1300

They don't call redheads fiery for nothing.

Actually, they do.

Jackie Clark

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 14:18:56 +1300

Ian's my husband, Sally. He looks like he' s in ZZ Top – the ginga's edition – but really he isn't. Funny story – when he had leukemia, and was in hospital, toward the end of his year's treatment, one of the nurses was surprised to see that he had…

sally jones

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 13:52:26 +1300

Apologies for indulgently long previous post. It ran away on me. Hadn't known about the word limit til I tried to send it as one; oops ;)

Speaking of your garden, Sally, I have some fantastic photos to show you of Ian's cucumbers and tomatoes.

A very useful shape...thank you…

Geoff Lealand

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 08:24:31 +1300

@Islander. Oh dear--that was a major mind lapse. Still,, Westland has so many beautiful lakes and Okarito deserves something more resounding than a lagoon.

We went by St. James Church in Franz too but it was locked, so I just had to imagine the scene of past foolishness!

On the…

recordari

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 07:46:35 +1300

Undies, undies, Troggs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9DVJE_bhVU&playnext=1&list=PL8899E7A759B953C0&index=4

Islander

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:26:02 +1300

Wow, the fish-hook cukes! The amazing tomato shrubbery!

And I total agree – swimming naked is The Best Suit!

Islander

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 22:24:09 +1300

Kia ora Geoff- the most welcome packet of potential endame arrived yesterday, courtesy a neighbour of mine (with whom I will be sharing the seeds -she’s got a better garden than mine.)

I especially loved the address: PO Box 1, Lake Okarito- yeeessss!

It bloody near was!

I am keeping…

Jackie Clark

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:14:37 +1300

I disagree, Ben. The best garment for actual swimming is your birthday suit.

BenWilson

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 20:35:39 +1300

Speedos went out of fashion when people stopped even pretending to swim at the beach. They're still the best garment for actual swimming.

Jackie Clark

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:14:05 +1300

Speaking of your garden, Sally, I have some fantastic photos to show you of Ian's cucumbers and tomatoes....... right about here.

Jacqui Dunn

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:45:34 +1300

Happy New Year, Sally.

And how does your garden grow?

sally jones

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:08:10 +1300

Punakaiki on the West Coast was a revelation. The hostel was reminiscent of Titirangi and the coast of Muriwai beach in Auckland, only wilder, though we swept through and doubtless missed the southern subtleties. In the hostel we almost had an entire bush house to ourselves but for a Kiwi-Brit…

sally jones

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:07:45 +1300

Hello everyone, and a happy New Year to you all; if somewhat belated. I too am enjoying catching up with all the holiday news on PA.

A quick apology to those who may have felt that my last 'story' was insufficiently Christmassy and rather bah humbug. My timing has been…

Kumara Republic

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 13:40:17 +1300

I won't be seen in public in a lycra cock-sock because it's hideously embarrasing and uncomfortable to look like an over-filled mini-muffin cup. Roughan might be beyond caring about looking ridiculous, but I'm not.

In other words, laughed out of fashion. All the more so if, well, [[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=2197893|a guy's body betrays…

Craig Ranapia

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 13:23:05 +1300

Speaking of beaches, the Herald's John Roughan strikes a pose in defense of the budgie smuggler. Here's why he reckons they went out of fashion:

I have exclusive footage of Mr. Roughan's fashion sense:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD9wL0ffxqY

If anything, the popularity of the board short was a textbook example of how subcultures…

Lucy Stewart

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 13:01:26 +1300

Then why do today’s women wear G-strings?

Barely concealed masochism?

Kumara Republic

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 12:43:00 +1300

Sincerely hope he doesn't buy a Harley.

Which is why Phil Goff rides a Triumph instead.

Speaking of beaches, the Herald's John Roughan strikes a pose in defense of the budgie smuggler. Here's why he reckons they went out of fashion:
Then why do today's women wear G-strings? For fsck's sake…

Sacha

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 12:31:58 +1300

Revealing road trip asks who's really restricting access to Northland's beaches.

Jacqui Dunn

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 11:32:50 +1300

Sincerely hope he doesn’t buy a Harley

Oh so agree!

Sacha

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 11:04:29 +1300

Speaking of beaches, the Herald's John Roughan strikes a pose in defense of the budgie smuggler. Here's why he reckons they went out of fashion:

Yet by 1970 or soon after, boardies had taken over the beach. The hedonism of the sixties was giving way to the new moralisms of the…

recordari

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 10:24:36 +1300

I think that was just nerves.

Certainly. He doesn't strike me as the kind of person who seeks, or feeds off, excessive public exposure, and during the campaign he couldn't really avoid it. Much more comfortable getting things done, which is surely what we want in a mayor. Makes a…

Jacqui Dunn

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 10:07:45 +1300

Len Brown

Yes, he’s come a long way from his slap happy campaign in a relatively short period of time.

I think that was just nerves.

Geoff Lealand

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:53:15 +1300

@Islander. Thought of you, as we passed by Okarito in the rain. Hope you got the soya/edamame seeds I posted along the way--I mailed them to Okarito rather than Whataroa (had a minor mind l;apse--blame it on an excess of Blenheim cherries).

Now in Wellington, after a two week circumference…

BenWilson

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:47:57 +1300

Kahawai !!!!!!!!!!

Thar she blows!

Sounds like your fishing skills rival my own.

BenWilson

Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:45:24 +1300

We are going camping next week with our two pre-school children. May not be quite so relaxed by the time I return to work.

Heh, word to that. Just because you love it doesn't mean it won't shatter you.

Kris V

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:19:18 +1300

break time is almost over.... not that we went anywhere! Boxing Day was interesting, with in-laws and aftershocks arriving simultaneously. Not the best way to spend a day but never mind, we made it to the end of the visit & the shaking relatively unscathed.
Next week sees both research and…

ScottY

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:11:15 +1300

Beach holiday. 2 weeks. Kids, swimming, bike rides, reading all those books I never get time to read the rest of the year.

And have discovered mobile broadband, so can still spend far too much of my time online.

We are going camping next week with our two pre-school children.…

Gregor Ronald

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:06:38 +1300

Does collecting 4 trailer loads of driftwood from Lake Wanaka count? Love the mid summer northwest storms!

recordari

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:20:43 +1300

Nice photo , Ross. Love that place. A trip there 20 years ago, sitting under the light house at night while the beam tracked across the brooding sea has resonated ever since. Enough to make you believe in magic.

Len Brown
Yes, he's come a long way from his slap…

Ross Mason

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:47:03 +1300

Kahawai !!!!!!!!!!

Ross Mason

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 17:32:32 +1300

The trams will run clockwise on a 1.5km circuit of Wynyard Quarter – between Jellicoe, Halsey, Gaunt and Daldy Sts

This is the southern hemisphere. Anticlockwise!!!!! Don't they know it will disappear up the southern vortex?

Re Xmas. Wifey things family. 5 in the family. 14 kids amongst the 5.…

Russell Brown

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:43:20 +1300

Early daze, but credit where due, etc

I'm impressed with Len Brown's performance, and with the way council leadership is working. Apart from anything else, they haven't given their political opponents even the crumb of a headline. That suggests some real discipline.

The Labour Party should be laying out the…

Marcus Turner

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:31:23 +1300

Enjoying the return of familiar faces and posters.

Dunedin weather has been up and down today like an up and down thing, as it has for most of the break. We've had a tent drying in the garden since the Whare Flat Festival finished. It's actually been dry a few…

BenWilson

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:54:17 +1300

Suddenly, just walking past an open doorway was like walking past a pizza oven.

It gets scary hot there, I'd be running between doors outside, holding my breath because the air actually burned my throat. I think the lack of humidity made it worse.

Jacqui Dunn

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 12:00:44 +1300

When I finally got inside my home, I discovered my water bed had died, and the drawers underneath the thing were full of mulch (ana dead valuable-to-me t-shirts et al…
that year, 2005, was not a good one…

Many condolences.

@Ben Wilson.
Yes, I knew you had gone to Melbourne.…

Jackie Clark

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 10:19:51 +1300

I'd only been there once before, Ben. It was absolutely beautiful, and so tranquil. People, the few of them that there were, and there must have been a number cos the carpark was mostly full, were concentrated down the end where the Te Henga stream comes down to the surf.…

BenWilson

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 10:12:32 +1300

I guess Bethells is just that little bit further than, say, Piha or Karekare. Amazing place, though, especially the sand dunes.

recordari

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 09:47:30 +1300

"We want to gauge the public's appetite for this form of transport."

Oh, this could be good. This could be really, really good.

I keep hearing good things about some aspects of the new council, including local body chairpersons who consider the needs of 'residents' at least as equal to,…

Sam F

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 09:30:33 +1300

Re trams on the waterfront, I noticed this this morning.

As well as securing a lease of two heritage trams from a museum in Bendigo, Victoria, the Auckland Waterfront Development Agency also hopes to borrow an electric light-railcar for demonstration purposes during the Rugby World Cup.

The trams will run…

Jackie Clark

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:52:59 +1300

Re trams on the waterfront, I noticed this this morning.

Jackie Clark

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:44:18 +1300

And carrying on the beach theme, you just can't beat this. I have no idea why this beach isn't more crowded, but thank the goddesses for it.

Stephen Judd

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:58:40 +1300

Actually in fairness, here’s some good stuff about this period: for the 3rd xmas in a row, I cooked lunch at the Beloved’s parents’ house. Her mum hates cooking, and I love it, so atheist Jewbag or not it works out well. We survived the Boxing Day shock in Ch’chur,…

Craig Ranapia

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:21:35 +1300

Does anyone else actually clean their rubbish before binning it? I've made a habit of it, to keep smells down.

The recycling definitely — if you wouldn't handle something with food waste that's had days in a sweltering warehouse to get rancid, why the frig should you expect anyone else…

Stephen Judd

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 21:18:59 +1300

I would just like to complain.

This whole week I have been coughing and choking on viscous green chunks of purulent mucus. I am on annual leave damnit, with my visiting daughter, damnit, and all I can do is rub my aching cheekbones and grit my tingling teeth (yes, it’s…

Ben Austin

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:57:02 +1300

A white Christmas in Oxford then back to work. Cold as hell as well, but that goes with winter and snow right? London seems to have coped a bit better with the snow this year, although it seems Scotland not so much.

I think the problem is that I am…

Karen White

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:52:09 +1300

Christmas spent on the wonderful Matakana Island. Whanau everywhere, Fantastic weather, clear cool water. The only bummer was the midgees on the beach which feasted on my feet.

Dinah Dunavan

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:42:41 +1300

December and christmas then new year whizzed past. Thankfully the rain is still falling so we aren't worried about a drought, yet. It would be nice to be able to see across the driveway though.

New Years' Eve was bonzer. We went down the hill for a hangi. All local…

Islander

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:05:29 +1300

and Ben Wilson-
we have a very good recycling/rubbish pick-up system going here.
R & C pickup my bottles, newspapers, and limited number of rubbish bags once every 2-3 months. I pay them, they’re happy, & so is the local environment.

Because I rinse ALL my recyclable bottles (milk mainly), compost ALL…

Ray Gilbert

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:05:03 +1300

I had a friend at high school in the 80s whose parents were walking with another couple along a fairly deserted stretch of beach in the Coromandel. They came across a small dune which they walked over only to fall waist deep inside a rotting whale carcass which had been…

BenWilson

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:01:40 +1300

although if I remember rightly, Ben, you had an opportunity recently to do just that.

Close. I went to Melbourne, which is not as hot as Sydney, and much more dry. But during heatwaves the bins got pretty nasty.

Jacqui Dunn

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:37:25 +1300

I must have spent a couple of hours yesterday, cleaning (in hot water with detergent) the containers I'd removed from the freezer. So, yes, we're into keeping the recycling clean – we like to keep the rubbish bin clean too.

Thought this morning about the two young guys who began…

John Morrison

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:51:22 +1300

We have had the Aussie whanau over to catch up with the rest of the family. 30 sat down for Xmas dinner at Lake Hood, 10 of whom followed us down to Tarras. We were busy eating, drinking, cutting wood, eating, drinking ..... It was wonderful.
The weather is so…

BenWilson

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:42:31 +1300

Does anyone else actually clean their rubbish before binning it? I've made a habit of it, to keep smells down. My recycling is almost fit to reuse immediately.

Jacqui Dunn

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:29:45 +1300

We gave up on "Carols by Anything" several years ago when it was obvious that the mic-ed singers believed they had to overwhelm everyone else with their loud singing. Apart from the assault on the ears, it was the opposite of joyful community song. Horrible in fact.

What I used…

Jacqui Dunn

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:08:33 +1300

We have noticed that other people's rubbish out on the kerb for collection can often have us stumbling away aghast. We're (mostly) vegetarian, so don't have thrown-out bits of meat at any time. However, the poor little dead cat's chicken-and-steamed-pumpkin portions, carefully packed into containers in the probably now-defunct freezer…

Ray Gilbert

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:57:16 +1300

Not quite a holiday story, but I went to Carols by Glowsticks in Warkworth just before Xmas with friends and family. Lockwood Smith had flown all the way from a parliamentary sitting to host the show. By host I mean be lead singer on every song, doing a fine Michael…

Joe Wylie

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:00:57 +1300

the truly noisome carrion
call of the charnel channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCCZGCs2wDY
Carrion Screaming – like Dr. Who only worse than Dr. Who.

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:53:48 +1300

Anyone else had the horror of that stench?

after years of H.P. Lovecraft
I was still unprepared for the
full olfactorial horror of
the truly noisome carrion
call of the charnel channel

Big old house
off Allenby Steps
staring straight down
vertigoing into Boulcott st

Top floor verandah
last tenants…

BenWilson

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:50:53 +1300

Whoops, I mentioned sport...

That borders on mentioning the news. Naughty chair.

recordari

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:08:10 +1300

(I will not make you drool with what we had, but it did include wild pork & venison, 2 titi, and a freshly-caught searun trout -)

Yes, I am wondering how this constitutes 'not making as drool'?

Sam, sorry for your loss. Christmas often reminds me of the ones who are…

Russell Brown

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:25:51 +1300

I will not make you drool with what we had,

Well, it's a bit late for that! You had me with the pound of whitebait for Christmas breakfast ...

Megan Wegan

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 07:31:04 +1300

Well this year ain't been great. Our Mum died on the 25th December after being very sick for long time, it has been a harrowing 18 months.

I learned last year, that it doesn't matter how long someone has been sick for, it still seems sudden. I offer my condolences…

BenWilson

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 01:21:12 +1300

Very sad, Sam. I hope that the day she died will cause you to remember her fondly every year at the same time. My first love's father died on Christmas day, although tragically well before his time. She and her mother would always take a particular time on Christmas to…

Islander

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:40:35 +1300

Sam – commiserations. While none of my immediate whanau has been seriously ill,
friends have died, friends have been ill...&, what Jackie said-

Oamaru for Christmas morning (cooked a pound of 'bait, courtesy of my neighbour for my mother's & my breakfast.) Waimate for the great koha opening fest with my brother's…

Jackie Clark

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:22:35 +1300

I am so sorry, Sam. It doesn't matter how old someone is when they die, or how long they have been sick. It's hard saying goodbye, regardless.

Samthecat

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:03:39 +1300

Well this year ain't been great. Our Mum died on the 25th December after being very sick for long time, it has been a harrowing 18 months. We had been prepared to a degree and now, after the funeral we have dispersed to beaches near and far to just deal…

Geoff Lealand

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 19:22:14 +1300

On the homeward leg of a two week of the South Island (currently residing at the Camelot Motel in Chch), beginning in Collingwood and travelling south to Stewart Island. Along the way I have been seeking out independent /small cinemas (my 2011 research project is to set website devoted to…

Leigh Kennaway

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:41:54 +1300

No, but here's your money quote: "in time for next year’s Rugby World Cup"

I think you'll find it is this year's RWC.... fortunately it is just 360 days until we can refer to it as last year's RWC.

Anonymous Author

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:33:08 +1300

Beach and backyard is exactly right. Mostly day trips from the farm across the road to Mahurangi Harbour, particularly Sullivans Bay and Te Muri, plus a not-so-secret-spot known as Big Bay (accessible only via my wee leisure craft – The Little Brown Floater.) Late evenings are spent with friends and…

Ben Gracewood

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:54:57 +1300

Has hell frozen over?
No, but here's your money quote: "in time for next year’s Rugby World Cup"

Sigh.

Kumara Republic

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:18:16 +1300

Um, wow.

Has hell frozen over?

Sam F

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:16:02 +1300

A post with heaps of details is up at Auckland Trains (where else?).

Russell Brown

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 16:05:10 +1300

Well stow the croze!
Didn't someone here also suggest this very thing at some point last year?

Um, wow.

Craig Ranapia

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:49:14 +1300

I swung by Dressmart on my Boxing Day ride. Sheer bedlam.

Shit, yes — we were going to a party on Boxing Day evening, and in a fit of madness thought a wonder around Westfield Albany in the morning would be pleasant. Ended up having to park in the stadium…

giovanni tiso

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:47:05 +1300

I love audio books. I especially love classics in the public domain read by amateur volunteers – the good people at LibriVox, for instance. And the Internet is a trove of podcasts of all kinds – there really is no excuse for listening to Matinee Idle if it's not to…

recordari

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:37:46 +1300

http://www.bettertransport.org.nz/2010/06/trams-make-waterfront-comeback/

Well stow the croze!
Didn't someone here also suggest this very thing at some point last year?

ETA:
Because they sure as hell weren't going in.
Whimps.

Russell Brown

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:36:48 +1300

It plays pleasantly merry hell with your estimated travel times – we had a very nice day out last week in Onehunga. Best second-hand bookstore in town, DressMart and generally a rather nice part of town for aimless wandering and window shopping

I swung by Dressmart on my Boxing Day…

Jacqui Dunn

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:24:34 +1300

What about audio books, if the radio is letting you down? They're available from libraries. (I should confess that I produce and sell certain NZ-based ones, but audio books come from all points on the planet so I don't think I'm being too precious in suggesting them).

Craig Ranapia

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:23:22 +1300

I think quite a few tourists didn't get the memo about Auckland emptying out:

It plays pleasantly merry hell with your estimated travel times — we had a very nice day out last week in Onehunga. Best second-hand bookstore in town, DressMart and generally a rather nice part of town…

Glenn Pearce

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:20:29 +1300

Also: why are there tram tracks exposed at the corner of Halsey and Gaunt Streets?

http://www.bettertransport.org.nz/2010/06/trams-make-waterfront-comeback/

Russell Brown

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:14:58 +1300

I think quite a few tourists didn't get the memo about Auckland emptying out: the CBD is full of people with backpacks looking for something to do.

I rode in and picked up my Public Enemy tickets. How long has the Edge box office also been a rather pretty cafe…

Jacqui Dunn

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:12:52 +1300

Ooh, thank you Felix! Much appreciated. I'm not looking forward to this at all, though.... :(

Jackie Clark

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:47:49 +1300

The theme of my summer so far has been being with my mother, and taking the dog to the beach. Mostly Takapuna, but a friend and I are off to Bethells tomorrow. Swimming buggers her (the dog, not the mother) but it’s so good for her little tiny wasted back…

BenWilson

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:43:40 +1300

Auckland sea temps get to 20c at best – 25c would be sooooo nice.

Hell yes. Pt Erin was 23 and that was pretty nice, 25 would probably seem like a bath.

Russell Brown

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:39:45 +1300

I only discovered this week that Mrs Sonia Pottinger, the great reggae producer, died in November, after some years suffering with Alzheimer's.

She worked out of Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio, and produced many of the same artists, but I think her productions are sweeter than his — and, indeed,…

Tony Parker

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:25:00 +1300

Hawkes Bay weather brilliant, family around, lots of garden tending (great crop of tomatoes, beans and strawberries this year), planning trip to Canada in April, bike rides, read Keith's biography and coolest of all was a flight in a little Cesna yesterday around Napier with a friend who is a…

andrew r

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:21:19 +1300

Read Sam Harris – The Moral Landscape, really good in that Richard Dawkins kind of way. La Nina is good for surf on aucklands west coast beaches and they have not disappointed, lots of clean slightly overhead surf days, water fairly warm too – though alas never as warm as…

Rob S

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:16:18 +1300

House painting,
BFM,sunblock and cold beer at days end.
Rinse and repeat.

Rich of Observationz

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:57:53 +1300

I went away, but I'd have liked to have something other than two blokes prattling inanely and playing their cheese collection every afternoon. A lot of people must be doing roadtrips or just driving around and want to listen to the radio, right?

BenWilson

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:54:32 +1300

We put on family Christmas party this year, so the 3 days leading up to Christmas were spent hard at work in the garden, which got away on me over the year. Mowing, weeding, transplanting, cloning, mulching, composting, pruning, and some extended savagery with a reciprocating saw. The kids played…

poffa

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:37:52 +1300

hi tried vanilla.
I cruised the Whangaroa Harbour trying to imagine what it must have been like before we traded the trees. I didn't find the gold.

Matthew Poole

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:33:57 +1300

I've been loving cycling the last few days. There's no traffic worthy of the name (I've cycled to uni in morning peak, so I know the difference), and that makes it much easier for car drivers to be considerate.
Of course there are still the wankers, like the guy who…

Felix Marwick

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:29:45 +1300

Re the scabrous freezer. Baking soda is good for soaking up noxious vapours. I don't know why but it worked wonders for when we had a similar freezer issue a few years back

recordari

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:08:02 +1300

All our girls got bigger, geared, bikes this year, so have started taking them on rides around Sandringham, Mt Albert and planning routes through to Western Springs, Pt Chev and maybe Mangere Bridge later when they get more proficient, or I get fitter.

Monday night ventured to Mangawhai Tavern with…

Matthew Poole

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:58:32 +1300

Christmas Day morning with her family, then off to the ’tron late afternoon to mine. Went to Hamilton Zoo on Boxing Day for lunch, a stroll, and a “small primate encounter” which involved feeding various primates including a pair of Siamang gibbons – old (mid-30s) couple from Auckland, complete with…

Paul Campbell

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:49:09 +1300

Xmas in Dunedin, 2 days sleeping off the food then we went and spent a few days up at Hawea in the sun

Came back on the 1st and my eldest has moved out (his lease started on the 1st and he couldn't wait), they grow up so fast! He…

Ray Gilbert

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:29:05 +1300

(it seems you just can't get hoggets or two-tooths these days)

This might help

http://static.radionz.net.nz/assets/audio_item/0020/2402039/twu-20100911-1250-Lamb_vs_hogget-m048.asx

Jo Eggers

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:15:25 +1300

Long walks in the early morning sunshine along Wellington’s south coast was the way I started many of the days of my holiday. So relaxing and invigorating – with some great photos taken.

The four other holiday themes were:
Spring (summer?) cleaning / reorganisation of my flat – first chance…

Peter Darlington

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:14:08 +1300

Sounds good. If you need someone to gush over the finished nice new house bits I have just the person as well!

kiwi kat

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:05:18 +1300

Aye! Last summer we went away for a month. Being a careful citizen the hubster went around turning all the plugs off at the wall forgetting that the plug for the washing machine also had the standing freezer attached.

Gag-a-licious!!

Bye bye scallops and a tasty trout we'd been given…

Mikaere Curtis

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 11:04:47 +1300

Spent the last two weeks in Nelson at the parents-in-laws, where the weather has been fantastic. It's foodie-central here, so we've spent a fair amount of time creating some delicious meals.

Some of my whanau came down for Xmas this time, which was fun. We all went to the Abel…

Jacqui Dunn

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:53:12 +1300

We've had a pleasant time over the past few days, basically tidying up the garden, which had been thoroughly neglected due to work (my sister's) and inability (mine). However, today we must remove a whole freezer's worth of rotted food and put it out for the collection tomorrow. Heaven knows…

artig

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:51:16 +1300

Part of the break has been spent buying, downloading and reading ebooks. With a Kobo and a Kindle there is plenty of choice in reading matter, and it's easy to take a good selection of books wherever you go.

One interesting and informative read was "Merchants of Doubt: How a…

Russell Brown

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:36:02 +1300

One member of the whanau is looking for anything of a scifi, anime, manga or geek/tech stylee. Another is more into your mid century modern, scando design type hit. Me, I'll just be happy with a decent boozer or two :)

Oh, you know I think our families will have…

John Holley

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:29:08 +1300

Well over the New Year we put in new garden, moving 2 metres of garden mix from the front to the rear of the house by hand – the joys of old houses and no vehicle access to the rear!

So that meant a desire to stay…

kiwi kat

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:27:44 +1300

Intermittent sun in Dunedin courtesy of La Nina means we've had intermittent outside play with our two boys. Elder boy is on the 'puter' with Pajama Sam while the two year old is playing with soap suds and plastic containers at the bathroom sink. Their sister is the luckiest tween…

Peter Darlington

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:25:30 +1300

Hot sun, our raspberry plants had gone well mad so we had breakfasts and deserts sorted for about 6 weeks. Did a bit of kayaking on the edge of the Abel Tasman, and a quick beer tour around some of the craft breweries we have nearby. Not bad all in…

Raymond A Francis

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:18:08 +1300

Just as a query how many people do go away at this time?

I know that is the line pushed by the media ( as an excuse for crappy tv and brain dead news) but as someone who has till now always worked at this time just question that has…

Russell Brown

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 10:13:07 +1300

We're holidaying at home, because our newly-extended house is wonderful, and because making it that way has used up all our money.

I've been taking advantage of Auckland's relative emptiness to ride some different routes in the mornings: from the Chev to New North Road, Symonds Street, K Road, Ponsonby,…

Ngaire BookieMonster

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:54:58 +1300

Back garden – it's hot. And in our new location we have the best soil ever so my hopes for (newly planted) lettuce, potatoes and carrots are high. A little light rain would be good. Just a sprinkling over a reasonable period of time.

But the clear weather does make…

Ben Gracewood

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:47:02 +1300

Spent a week in Opononi. I haven't been to the Hokianga Harbour in living memory. It's gorgeous. Really interesting, historical corner of Northland, with stunning natural scenery to boot. All topped off with some awesome fun sliding down sand dunes into very refreshing water.

Tane Mahuta is just around the…

Megan Wegan

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:37:49 +1300

Let me begin with a Bah! Humbug!

What holiday?