I saw in the new year with friends Wendy and David in Sydney. We actually celebrated in style in our motel room watching the midnight fireworks on tv. David took a photo of me standing by the tv when the bridge fireworks went off!
We went into the city from Parramatta (where we were staying) in time for the 9.00pm fireworks. There were either queues miles long to get into parks or they were ticket only and even those had very long queues. We set ourselves up by a bar, much to David's delight and near to toilets which pleased Wendy and I. We are easily pleased!
We could see the bridge from our spot but weren't in the melee of people on the quay. About 8.30pm Wendy and I walked nearer and managed to get under the bridge. Unfortunately the fireworks were underwhelming and over in about 10 minutes. Cowes week is way better. However we didn't want to wait for the midnight fireworks which are spectacular.
We had a bit of difficulty getting back to where we'd left David as the police had put barriers along the road we'd come down and the long way round was about 1.5 miles!!
The police kept saying we'll open the barriers in15-20 minutes. A big backlog of people built up and to stop those of us at the front getting squashed they let us all through. Phew!!
They were trying to corral the people coming in for the midnight fireworks and trying to get the 9pm ones to leave a different way.
We were glad to leave in a relatively easy way at 10pm, although the trains were packed with lots of people standing. I dread to think what it was like at 1.00am.
It reminded me that I don't like crowds. Still, it was fun to be there and we went in next day by ferry and walked round by the opera house and circular quay.
I arrived in New Zealand on 2nd January after a 3 hour flight. I kept forgetting that I was in a different country and several times referred to being in Australia. Oops!! They really are very different. NZ is much more like the UK, a green and pleasant land. It's also a lot colder than Oz which I was grateful for, having left Sydney at 38C and arrived to 22C. I never thought I'd be glad to be cooler!!
I'm now wearing long trousers and sweat shirt and it's quite cosy. I bought a thicker pair of trousers from a charity shop and a pair of short wellies. Black with white dots. I'd like to take them home, so a few other things are going to have to go in order to not go overweight. Wendy gave me a huge suitcase to replace the broken handled one so having the room is not a problem but weight is!!
I stayed with Sue and Dave Bradley just north of Auckland and visited Penny Erikson's mum as she lives close by in Brown's Bay. Sue and Dave are in Torbay. We went on walks and went into the city. Swam in the sea and had a great time.
The bus to Katikati took 3 hours and I was met by Marion Titmuss a flute playing friend who I met at British Flute Society conventions many years ago. Until 2012 Marion was always there. Unfortunately this year she won't be. We'll miss her.
We busked outside the Katikati library the day before I left and the ladies in the library loved it and asked us to go back every day!! This was Marion's debut busking and by the end she was enjoying herself.
The bus trip to Wanganui was 6.5 hours and I wasn't looking forward to the long journey. It left Tauranga at 7.10am which meant I had to get up at 5.20 and leave at 6.20. I sat right at the front and had a great view. After an hour the bus filled up at Rotarua. I was very glad when a young girl sat next to me. The alternatives could have been a very large Maori or islander. When I say large, some of them need 2 seats to themselves and the bus driver had said the bus was going to be full.
The young Maori girl was lovely. She was 11yrs old and was travelling with her younger male cousin who was in the seat behind. I got her life history, that of her 4 brothers, her step mum, mum who lives in Australia, her nan who she was visiting in Palmerston North and others who were related in some vague way. She was very entertaining and the time whizzed by. She'd done the journey many times before and pointed out many landmarks and gave me a Maori pronunciation lesson.
She wasn't the only child travelling unaccompanied by an adult. There was a young boy of about 12 who got on and left mum, dad and older brother behind. Deliberately I think!
It's unbelievable that anyone at home would put an 11 yr old on a bus alone or in charge of a younger child for a 7hr journey. There were toilet stops on the way and a lunch break of half an hour at a cafe. She told me she was buying her lunch there. In fact she led a small group of us to the toilets because they were quite a walk from where the bus stopped and she knew where they were!
Her name was Aalia and one of her Nan's runs a seafood caravan in Christchurch. Not the one in the mall apparently but the one on the freeway. I'll look out for her!
Linda Low picked me up in Marton where I would have changed buses to come to Wanganui but there was a longish wait for the connection and only 20 mins by car.
I was on the farm alone for a couple of days while Linda went to hospital in Wellington for an angiogram. Unfortunately it didn't result in a quick fix stent which she'd hoped for as the blockage was in a small artery and wasn't easy to get at. There was a small earth tremor on Friday while I was there on my own. The windows rattled and the iron shook but it was over quickly. Then on Monday there was a big earthquake 6.2. Linda was home then. The whole house shook, mirrors and pictures jumped around for a couple of minutes and as we made for the door the floor was moving! Felt like being on a boat, even after the shaking and noise had stopped.
In Wanganui several things fell off the shelves. It was reported they lost a bottle of wine!! I wonder if it broke or was taken by a customer evacuating the shop!
There's no wifi or mobile signal here which is interesting and since the quake, no tv either. I went to look up Barbara Wilson's friend's number to find it was on my Facebook messages. Not connection, no messages!!
I can use the landline for calls in NZ so was able to speak to Ingrid Culliford and arranged to see her on Saturday afternoon. Ingrid was at the Royal Academy of music when I was in my first year there and is Patrick Gundry White's (French horn) sister in law. She was at the Academy with Ann Miller too. It was great playing duets with her and I'm going again on Thursday.
I've practised, been for a 2 hour walk on the farm with Jacky the Jack Russell, had a swim, read and now writing my blog listening to the Carpenters.
Gosh, is this what we did before Facebook?
Jacky the dog disappeared one day and as there were sheep shearers in the nearby shed I assumed she was round there. The loud reggae music coming from the shed from 6.45am obviously attracted her! By 10.30 I'd been calling her and gone up the hill to look for her so I popped into the shed to ask. The 4 feet high speakers were right by the door. A girl was standing almost next to them and I had to tap her on the arm and shout loudly. She'd seen the dog about 9.30. Eventually after going round the sheds a second time and calling her she appeared from nowhere at 11.30 and slunk back to the farmhouse.
It rained a lot after the quake so walking up the hill to get a 3G signal on my phone I had to haul myself up on the fence as it was so muddy and slippery. On the way down I had to come down backwards at one point, like abseiling.
We've lost the tv signal due to 'rain fade' I passed the sky van on my way into town so hopefully it will be fixed when I get back.
I'm in a shopping centre writing this and waiting to get my hair cut. Very mundane but better than he 'excitement' of earthquakes.
Help I'm British get me out of here!!
