“You know, I once heard that your life is defined by what you do when presented with the need for a Plan-B.” As said to my blogging buddy, Dan, by his driver. If my father was a ghost this is where he’d hang out. It’s the Napier Soundshell […]
Here in New Zealand, the sap has risen – trees everywhere are bursting in to leaf . The short, grey days of July are consigned to memory – until next year. The blue skies and warm winds of spring invite skiving off. One day last week we did just […]
New Zealand went to the polls on Saturday. For those of you who may have missed this internationally significant event it breaks my heart to tell you the other side won. Faced with defeat and despair a girl needs a survival strategy. This is it. Declare 24 hours of […]
Reunions of one sort or another have been on my mind. Our globe-trotting Bangkokians are back in the country, some writing friends are meeting again soon for the first time in years, my occasional series on life as an AFS exchange student has got me thinking about old friends. […]
I and several others are partial to a drive in the country and a pub lunch. Last Sunday spring was in the air. (That didn’t last. It’s 7C, the wind even sounds cold, and I’m told the snow is low on the surrounding hills – I’m not going […]
An hour’s drive south of Napier, past the tiny settlement of Otane, the small town of Waipawa (Misty River, in English) nestles between the hills and the Waipawa river. It’s purportedly one of the oldest inland towns in New Zealand. And it is small, even by […]
“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”* While I was reading One Hundred Years of Solitude (a book, you may remember, I decided to read after coming across another blogger‘s eulogy to Marquez) Maya Angelou died. So, I thought, what […]
My Dear Dream Reader, You may remember a post from our road trip, all about Mount Taranaki. After days of waiting he finally revealed his true glory. And I showed my appreciation by clicking hundreds of photos on my phone. From each new vantage point I snapped […]
Begin at the beginning they say but for this post I’m beginning at the end. We were home, the first load of washing in the machine, our dog still running about the place with excitement and a dash of relief at our return, and I had a cup […]
Completing our Loop the Loop of the Central North Island It was a cracker day for the last of our holiday. A slight frost, steam rising from the hillsides as the sun warmed the paddocks, not a breath of wind – Joni Mitchell on the playlist, the road […]
Jill's Scene 
The korero