I don’t consider myself a brave person. I’m not someone who thinks feel the fear and do it anyway, more feel the fear and not bother, sit down with a cup of tea. There’s another one: do something that scares you every day. No thanks. When it comes to fight or flight I’m up for […]
Alps to Ocean: Part Three
Day five of the Alps to Ocean and we open the curtains to cloud. The forecast is for ‘possible’ rain but the hills beneath the dark mass glow orange so I’m hopeful it will stay fine. What has arrived is a fierce wind, which makes crossing Benmore Dam challenging – even Neil is nearly blown […]
Alps to Ocean: Part Two
I wake on the third day of the Alps to Ocean with my stomach in knots. Today we cross the highpoint of the trail and it is rated grade 3 rather than the grade 2 of the previous sections. Words like rockier and rougher, coupled with exposed to mountain weather and sustained climb, jump out […]
Alps to Ocean: Part One
As we went to bed on our last night in Akaroa the wind hit the side of the house with such a loud roar I thought a plane had landed on the deck. It lasted all night, the gale accompanied by rain and we woke to, as Neil said: ‘A fire hose aimed at the […]
L’Akaroa
The lowering sun blinds us as we walk to dinner on our first evening in Akaroa, the small town on Banks Peninsula in the South Island originally settled by the French and retaining their influence. The rough-pebbled beach is dark, the sea brown and murky, not inviting a swim. On our return the light from […]
Evie: Mk II
When we were looking to replace my stolen bike in 2020 Neil mentioned doing so with an e-bike. I was aghast – did he think I could no longer pedal a ‘proper’ bike? Probably he was just fed up of having to wait for me at the top of even the slightest incline, let alone […]
Goodbye 2024
A lot of people are glad to see the back of 2024, with a feeling that 2025 can only be better. I don’t want to bring the mood down but I remember similar comments at the end of 2020; I hope this optimism is better rewarded. I had to pause to think about my own […]
Green-Fingered
My mum always said that her fingers were as green as they looked. Despite her best efforts (and the chivvying of her husband and children to do the same) our family garden looked, at best, tidy, at worst overgrown and weedy. Her gardening DNA strand runs through me like a buttercup root runs through a […]
Who Da Man!
My husband is a problem solver. I don’t mean puzzles – he’s not really into those, although he has become obsessed with Wordle lately – but tell him there’s an issue with something, or a device won’t work, and he pauses only to whip off his underpants and put them on top of his trousers […]
The Mills
Travel anywhere in New Zealand and you’ll see evidence of our primary industries. Cows graze in fields and amble along purpose-built tracks, through tunnels under roads towards milking sheds; sheep dot hillsides and crowd into farmyards, awaiting a haircut (if you’re lucky you’ll catch them between the two). On the roads trucks carrying towering piles […]
Tracy Annenberg 