Happy Birthday Barley Marley - 6 today.


It's 0832, Murray's gone to work & left me home alone - where are those matches ?

I plan to take his mountain bike (it's ok, I asked) & head up the Teal Valley
with the stumpy one to see what we can find.

This evening, we plan to do the Sundowner horse ride at Stonehurst Farm,
I'm hoping the weather will be clear, if so, expect sunset shots on CoffeeWaffle.

I was too tired to Blog last night when Murray had downloaded his shots the
conversation went ;

M ; Ok, the photos are done, if you want to use them for your Blog.

B ; No, you Blog.

M ; No, you Blog.

B ; No, you etc etc

In the end he compromised by posting the pics on his site & providing the
world's shortest commentary, not even captioning the photos. 7 hours of
walking, talking & seeing, squeezed into 5 photos & 3 lines of text.
I could never manage it.

If you haven't gone back over Q4A in the last couple of days, may I invite you
to do so now ? I will be inserting Welly pics & more random ones from the last
3 days, so go take a look, see what you missed 1st time around.

Whilst I'm on that subject, if you get time, go check out the pics of Alice
horse-riding again & see if you can see what prompted me to laugh out loud
last night. That'll never make it past the firewall at work.

Yesterday, we had the world's laziest Sunday morning, which lasted until
almost 1500 then headed off to Abel Tasman Park, which I missed 1st
time around. The beginning of the walk was heaving with tourists or
'loopies' as Murray refers to them, partly cos they loop the country &
partly the insanity bit.

There's a local joke which goes ...

'What should you do if you fall & break a leg in Abel Tasman ?'
'Nothing, there'll be a German doctor along in a minute'


We set off to walk the track to a point a couple of hours away, then made
our way down to the beach & rock-hopped the much more interesting route
back along the coast.

I love looking in rock pools, the unpredictability of what you may turn
up makes for great suspense. Yesterday, I found a huge crab who was calmly & methodically breaking his way into a mussel. I called Murray over to get
some shots & the crab disregarded the flash completely & carried on with
his task. As Murray re-positioned himself for a shot, the crab seemed to
awake from his reverie and scurried under a rock sulking until we moved away.

'Come out & fight like a crab '

The beach was ripe with shellfish, which in turn sustain a huge seabird
population and we spotted terns, gulls, herons, pied shags and oystercatchers.
Some of the less likely beach-dwellers were swallows, mallard, quail & some
little lost guy who had fledged but was calling for mum whilst perched
on a rock. We weren't entirely sure but think he was a very young thrush.

Deciding we might die of starvation before reaching home, we stopped out of
town at the unlikely-sounding 'Hot Mama's Cafe'. I had some concerns about
the type of venue Murray was taking me to, but my fears proved groundless
as it was closed for a staff party. Luckily, the fish & chip shop across
the road, had no such fancy notions of letting their staff enjoy themselves
& served us a very commendable fish & chips.

Bloo & I ate fish & chips pretty regularly in the Coromandel & decided then
that the 15 minute wait you always have for them to be cooked is well worth it.
I have yet to have a bad fish & chip dinner here, something I wish I could say
of the UK. Everyone who knows me will know that I complain vociferously
that 'our fish smells of pee.'
It's true.
Unless it's Harry Ramsden's.
They're from Yorkshire.
Obviously.

'Are you safe to drive?'

It was pitch dark by the time we finished supper & the lights were illuminating
Nelson as we drove along the waterfront. I felt so relaxed & at home that it was
with a tremendous jolt that I realised NZ isn't my home.

'I can't believe I don't live here' I told Murray and I rapidly pushed the thought
of next Wednesday to the back of my festering brain.

We talked about NZ & how Murray feels no need to travel elsewhere just yet
when there is so much of NZ he hasn't seen. As someone who doesn't enjoy
travel & fears change I am afraid I did nothing to disuade him from leaving
NZ to look at other things.

Having re-read this post, it feels a bit flat & I think it's because until yesterday
I had completely over-looked the fact that I don't live here. As usual, I'm not
changing anything, but will let you judge. Perhaps I just need another cup of tea ?

Downloading photos will keep my brain busy.

Btw, if any of you have sent txs which have not been replied to it's because
there's no signal here. No tv signal either - what a shame.

Cx