We were heading away for a holiday to visit family, so we had to do some last minute checking of our vege patch. I do love getting a meal out of the garden. Three pictures of just some parts of our garden.
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| A potato patch |
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| Various veges, beans, turnips, silver beet etc. |
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| Love these healthy leaf vegetables |
We took a couple of days to drive the 360 Kilometres to the City of Christchurch, where we spent time visiting with our son and his family. After a weekend of enjoying them we drove the next 308k to Blenheim to stop for a couple of nights. That trip was hindered often by having to stop for massive road works. They had a devastating earthquake which ruined roads and rail in the area a couple of years ago. Vast hillsides slid down, and big areas of the sea bed shunted up. From Blenheim we caught the ferry across Cook Strait to Wellington, NZ's capital city. (a three hour cruise) There we spent time with my oldest son, his wife and two children. On the Sunday we drove North over the Rimitaka Hill to the Wairarapa plains. My son has moved a house on to a block of land in the country and on a very hot day he and I fixed up the spouting (guttering) on the house.
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| My old van caked in sea salt because it ended up out on the deck of the ferry for the three hour crossing. |
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| I walked up a big hill behind my son's house. This is looking down on the suburb of Island Bay. |
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| There is this rock statue on top of the hill I climbed. To prove I made it I had to take a photo. |
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| The house on the block in Wairarapa has been moved on to the flat paddock. It requires lots of work, so I was pleased to help my son for a day. It was hot though and I increasingly find I cant work at the pace I used to. I am in the bright overalls. |
On the Monday we caught the ferry back to the south island. We had taken some stuff up to my son, but while in Wellington we visited the shop at the rubbish tip and a favourite secondhand book shop. At the rubbish tip I spied this vanity unit which was better than we had in our bathroom at home. We purchased it and it fitted in our trusty van.
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| Going to the South Island the ferry sails through the beautiful Marlborough Sounds. It is a fascinating area of our beautiful country. |
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Today we installed the vanity unit in our bathroom. It cost us only $15. Tidied up and self installed it was pretty cheap all around. I love beating the consumer system and recycling old stuff as much as possible.
My wife was not that keen, but we drove the distance from Blenheim to home in one day. It is only 663 Kilometres, but on NZ roads that is quite a distance. My van is an old 1996 Nissan Diesel which when I bought it years ago, only cost $1500. People often give me cheek about it. I do a lot of my own mechanical work, but it has more than paid for itself in the trips we have done and the loads we have carried. I enjoy driving and was so pleased with the way the old beast handled our break away. It was great to spend time with the two families. While we were travelling our son's wife in Edinburgh had a new baby girl. They now have three children, two boys and a daughter. Since being home we have met our new granddaughter via Skype. Life is good. The busyness of 2019 starts for me on Monday. A big part of me has enjoyed the life of freedom over these last few of weeks and I feel a bit reluctant to pick up my responsibilities again.
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