Snow, like a lot in nature, can be a blessing and a curse. The curse, this morning in Ohakune, is that all roads out of the town are closed. The main road on one side is blocked by a couple of jack-knifed lorries and has been so since early morning; the other side we don’t […]
Waitonga Falls – Revisited
I miss snow. Growing up in Stocksbridge, Yorkshire, there were few winters we didn’t get a couple of good dumps and snowy streets were a regular sight. It was normal that cars would sit unused for part of the season, a thick layer of white frozen onto them. One year it was over three feet […]
New Zealand’s Mountain Town
Ohakune: with a permanent population of 1100 it would be a village in most parts of the world; in NZ it’s a small town. It’s typical of most in this country, the main street on a state highway and smaller streets of homes running off it. There are a few shops, servicing the homes within […]
Covid: The Return
If that sounds like a sad sequel to a bad B movie be assured that that is what it feels like. After 24 days of no new cases, a week of no active cases and an end to restrictions, we were all silently hoping our covid story was over. The words elimination and eradication were […]
On The Mountain: Waitonga Falls
I love walking in the open where I can see for miles. Despite the incredible vistas to be found here there’s not a lot of this type of walking in New Zealand, where the natural state of the landscape is mainly bush or lowland forest. There are, of course, some exceptions, but to get above […]
To The Mountain
The road to Ohakune is a familiar one. The motorway skirts Wellington’s harbour, matrix signs that might warn of queues in a few hours urging us to Play it Safe. Stay Calm. Be Kind. It swings away from the water over the hills that surround the city, through its outer suburbs. It passes the expanse […]
Normal?
After seven weeks of being unable to do it, getting in the car and driving up the highway feels strange. Only it doesn’t; it feels normal. That’s because it is. All these things we are slipping back into the practice of are the things that were part of our daily lives until recently. It is […]
Wet, Wet, Wet
A return to last year and our return to Sheffield (via Northumberland) in November 2019. Northumberland is one of my favourite places: open countryside for miles, historic towns – Alnwick, a charming old market town, grey-stoned, with its huge castle dominating – and a wild coast that varies between wide sandy beaches and rocky outcrops. […]
Level 2: Reasons to be Cheerful: Part One
(With all due credit to Ian Dury) I did a few things today that I haven’t done in a while. I put on proper clothes, rather than ‘something comfortable’. I drove the car. I wore jewellery. And I met a friend for coffee, this latter the reason for the former few. Clothes I found easy, […]
Lockdown: Day 49
After my post yesterday a friend sent me a picture of the results of her efforts to cut her husband’s hair. Taken from the back, it shows a narrow band within thick dark hair of shaven head going up a few inches from his neck. It made us howl with laughter and Neil comment: ‘that’s […]
Tracy Annenberg 