For a solid year and a half, or so, I played scrabble with Katrina. I went so far as dictating the 2 letter words into an mp3 so I could study while biking around ;) Did help, but not enough… I was mercilessly thrashed week in week out. Anyway, she moved away to Melbourne, mostly to be closer to family (why would anyone want to do that ;) ehehheheeh. ehem. kidding Mum) and she ended up meeting a most excellent Kiwi (Aaron), and this weekend they got married.

It was a lovely ceremony, and then great food and dancing. (un)Fortunately no time for scrabble.. I’m completely out of practice it would have been murder.

Anyway, a hearty congratulations to Katrina & Aaron :)

For the long weekend Steve & Michelle were heading away to Lake Tennyson and I went along with them (because, someone, who shall remain nameless, is working super hard on a course and doesn’t come out to play ;) heh,

Aaaanyway, it was a lovely weekend away. The highlights were: being somewhat lazy on the Saturday and reading lots of Hornblower (excellent books, highly recommend), and then going for a walk up to “Princess Bath”, a very nice corrie. Personally I think the princess could have chosen a warmer bath, but there you go.

This blob here is actually a mass of bees:

We had left a couple of beer bottles at the camp and when we came back, the (dark!) beer bottle had about 2cm of bees at the bottom of it. Steve, being the kind entomologist he is, warmed them up by the fire (but not too close) until they could fly away.

All in all a very nice Easter. Thanks Michelle & Steve :)

There is an island in the middle of Lyttleton harbour called Quail Island.

View Larger Topographic Map

There was a trip organised to go there by the local royal society, and I happen to be on their mailing list – so off I went. Had a nice day walking around, seeing the various efforts at pest eradication (reasonably successful, though one of the party were pretty sure they saw a rabbit – which they thought they’d cleared off)

Also heard about the leper colony which was there. Here you can see one of the dwellings and also the crockery etc. which was recently discovered down on the beach. It had all been dumped there when the colony was destroyed.

Then a wander around the rest of the island, seeing the various plants which had been brought back, even a native mistletoe carefully grafted.

Oh, you can also see the remains of the kennels and the wharf where Captain Scott got ready for his trips to Antarctica (1901 and 1910).

Had a nice trip off to the West Coast for a relax after the previous festivities. Stayed in quite a nice bach just outside of HariHari. Walks along the beach, lots of lazing, reading, very nice, quite needed!

There was the remains of a beach art festival at Hokitika which looked pretty fun.

Where we went for a walk, there was a monument to the first (mad) lad who made the flight from Oz to NZ. He didn’t tell anyone about it (as he knew it’d be denied) and just off he went. Crashed into a swamp just outside of HariHari. Good on him!

Finally, a picture quite a large honey extractor. For dad (who’s a beekeeper). I may have to learn the skillz someday, there’s little better than an unlimited supply of fresh honey. That said, I’m not partial to the stings.