This is an old one from the days when we lived in Tauranga. I don't know what this street is like now but I hear from old friends that there are quite a few shops closed. Seems to be a sign of the times. I don't know whether everyone is in the same boat as us but we have noticed the cost of everything has gone up, I don't know how families with young ones manage.
Linking up with Weekend Reflections and the Weekend Roundup.
Tonight in New Zealand it is a public holiday known as Matariki which means that it's the Maori new year. Matariki literally is the name for the cluster of stars known as the Pleiades and usually most people across the country can see them except it looks like we have a cloudy night ahead of us.
So instead of taking photos of the night sky we will be indoors no doubt with the fire on.
Linking up with Skywatch Friday and Little Things Thursday.
We went out to dinner for B's 60th birthday at one of the local restaurants. I ordered a Haloumi and Mushroom meal which was very tasty.
And we had 2 loads of firewood delivered which means we are fixed for the rest of Winter.
Linking up with Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.
Just about every city has one of these right? A local YMCA. It reminds me of that song by The Village People but this one has been around for literally years, in fact I remember my parents driving past it when I was growing up.
This one seems to be mainly a large fitness centre. The photo was taken last Spring when we were in Auckland City.
Linking up with All Seasons, My Sunday Snapshot, The Weekend Roundup and Weekend Reflections.
Apparently it was built in 1902 to serve the pioneers who first came here who travelled through the Alpine Pass.
Linking up with Skywatch Friday, Little Things Thursday and Tom's Signs.
A few months ago B and I drove out to Kumara to visit this little local piece named Londonderry Rock. You might be thinking what a funny sounding English name to give to something on the West Coast of New Zealand.
We walked for about 15 minutes through native bush along a little winding path to get there. Apparently as the history goes, in the gold mining days a group of miners were trying to make their fortune here when they came across a huge rock and as much as they tried they couldn't break it up. So the rock still sits there today.
The rock itself was actually alot bigger than we thought it was going to be and stands at 8 metres high and weighs nearly 4000 tonnes. In the end it was a nice short quiet bush walk.
Linking up with Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.
Alot of the time over Winter we get a really chilly dry cold wind so shops like this are very handy to browse in. This one in Hokitika from memory sells merino, wool and possum fur clothing but they are a bit pricey.
Yesterday we had a very cloudy chill day. I tried to convince my youngest to mow the lawn before our forecasted 3 days of drizzle but he had to work instead so we had the fire on most of the day as our "high" got to about 11 degrees. Thankfully today it's a bit wet and warmer (weird how that works).
Linking up with All Seasons, My Sunday Snapshot and Weekend Reflections.
Linking up with Skywatch Friday, Little Things Thursday and Tom's Signs.
So last week my sister flew down here from Auckland and we decided to visit the local heritage park/old goldmining town named "Shanty Town" which is a place full of old buildings that shows how many towns on the west coast of New Zealand would've looked like.
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While we were there we booked in to have some character photos taken in the old saloon. These are 2 of the photos. We were shown a side room full of old costumes that we could try on and in the end we decided on these ones to make us look like brothel madams. Such a funny experience that left us wheezing with laughter.
Linking up with Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.
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| Winter in Whangarei 4 years ago |
Winter in New Zealand is usually damp and dreary. Since we've lived in Greymouth for the last 2 years we've had mostly fine Winter days with blue skies but this year so far it's been the 2 D's - damp and dreary.
Linking up with Weekend Reflections and the Weekend Roundup.
So much has happened to us over the last 5 years. Different memories have been coming up on my Facebook page. I moved from Northland to Tauranga in 2015, then we moved to Kerikeri in 2018, then to Mangawhai in 2019, then back to Kerikeri in 2020. Covid and lockdown happened, I had no job, no money coming in, no nothing. Then 2 years ago we moved to Greymouth for the purpose of buying a house. Alot of changes have happened to us, hopefully we don't have to move again for quite some time.
Linking up with Skywatch Friday and Tom's Signs.
I am a big fan of Whittaker's Chocolate and a few weeks ago I tried this one which is Mango and Coconut flavoured but it was way too sweet for my liking. My cousin said she made a cheesecake out of it and it turned out quite well but I think I'll stick to my favourite flavours; Salted Caramel, Hazella, Coconut.
And we have a new member of the family. This is "Bug" and my daughter adopted her from the local SPCA 2 weeks ago. She's 8 months old and is a Staffy cross.
Linking up with Through my lens, Tuesday Treasures, My corner of the world and Wordless Wednesday.
The signs on the left seen in Westport last time we were there, I'm thinking the owners are tired of people squeezing and bruising their produce?
The place where I work has just started selling produce and it's my job to do a quality check on them twice a day. If there are any that have been over squished then I have to put a reduced price sticker on them. The chillies and capsicums in my garden have finally finished but we got quite a few off them over the Summer/Autumn season, now we will replant them in Spring.
Linking up with Weekend Reflections and the Weekend Roundup.
I spotted this sign at one of our local beaches where there was a coffee caravan among the campers and caravans that were parked there. A ...
