Is this the end or just the beginning

Nice view over Pandora ponds on the outskirts of Napier. If you look very closely you can see an orange buoy in the distance. Just in front of the orange buoy is a white buoy. That is the first part of the course I swam today. And yes the water was as freezey cold as it looks.
There I am waiting to start, with my feet getting used to the water. I should have got the rest of me used to the cold water too, it was a hell of a shock to the system when I did plunge in.
I am the one in the water behind the girl still standing in the gray and black top. At first it was chaos. There were people everywhere going in all directions swimming in various styles. Would you believe that some people did the whole course back stroke. For the last two years I have been teaching myself to swim front crawl or freestyle as they call it here.
Unfortunately the shock of the cold water and the fact that I can not swim in a straight line meant all that training was a waste of time. I ended up doing 80% of the course breast stroke.
There is a bit of satisfaction being able to keep up with and pass other swimmers who were able to do freestyle.
Above is me rounding the last buoy. This is one of the better pictures there were some hilarious ones of me grimacing and attempting to breath at the same time, but I will keep those to myself.
Even thought I was exhausted and staggering out of the water, I still seem to have time to make sure my swim top was pulled down so my bum was not showing! Thanks Peter for snapping all these shots. And can I just point out all those other swimmers in the background who started at the same time as me still with a long way to go.
And there I am triumphant at the end, very glad that I have finished. Oh and by the way my eyes look that wrinkled because of the goggles, honest.
But this triathlon was not all about me, really! I had two other team members, Linda walking and Vicki cycling. They both did a brilliant job. Above is Linda fixing the timing tag to Vicki's leg and below Vicki looks really happy to be finished.
I don't know where we came, I only know we did not come last. Which is what we were aiming for. I will update you when I find out. Would I do it again, hmmm I am not sure. It was tough, but the actual sense of achievement was incredible. I have also learnt next time start slow, don't get panicked into a rush and have fun.

Its about time

For a daisy reaching up for the sun.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Winter

The last daisies of summer are still flowering happily in the garden, despite the fact that March has roared in with a full winter blast.
The lower part of the North Island was hit by a weather bomb yesterday. We got off very easily with just one broken branch on the Acacia tree at the bottom of the garden. I heard it crack as it broke but could not spot the damage at first. I am hoping that March will creep out like a lamb and somewhere around the corner there is an Indian Summer just waiting to heat us all up again.

Rod Stewart - In a Broken Dream

And the answer is YES. Tomorrow is Rod Stewart day, he is this year's Mission Concert artist. He is said to be the best ever performer so far at the Mission. I hope he lives up to the expectations. I will enjoy it anyway. This is my most favourite Rod Stewart song ever, I don't think he will be singing it tomorrow. But I will. I am such a 70's babe. And I have no idea why I am talking in such short and snappy sentences. What is your favourite Rod Stewart song, and please do not say Sailing.

Sunsets

Sunny Napier

This summer has been quite miserable. So when the sun came out I took the chance to have a stroll through Clive Square Gardens in Napier. It was lovely, all the flower borders were full of a riot of colour and there were a couple of doves flitting around. The dove in the pic above sat on the bell harpy thing while it played its tune and only took off when the music finished.

I felt like a bit of a tourist taking pics of the water lilies.

The Doobie Bros and others

A couple of weekends ago we had a quick trip up to Taupo to see The Dobbie Bros in concert. I wondered if the people in the car in front of us were off to the same concert.
When we arrived at the venue it was packed, really, really packed. And still they kept flooding in.
We squashed ourselves down to enjoy the afternoon. The weather was brilliant, the music was brilliant, we had a great time joining in with all the old rockers.
You can tell they are all old rockers - the concert finished at 6:30pm and we all trundled off home. Not quite Rock and Roll is it.

I love a good Op shop day

I was having coffee with Keriann from Sweet Mary the other morning and she suggested we could go visit a couple of op shops. The couple of shops then turned into quite a few. A well worth few shops. I found lots of things I like all for $5 or less. I love a bargain. And I also found lots of fabric to use over at Coulter & Coulter. The best fabric bargain was 6m of pale blue cotton that I found hiding at the bottom of a basket. The best item found does not look like much, in fact I did not see it, Keriann pointed it out. And I could not believe that I found this item.
When we moved over here I brought with me a light fixture from Ikea that I really, really liked. Unfortunately after it traveling all the way over here, it got broken being moved from one box to another when we were unpacking. There are no Ikea stores in New Zealand, the light fitting had been discontinued. I even found two little lamp shades for $2 last week that on looking at I thought wouldn't they have gone really well with that Ikea light. I had no hope of ever finding one. Until Keriann pointed it out to me, hidden at the back of the junk shop in dusty cardboard box. Yay, synchronicity. I have no idea where I will put it, but I will take special care of it until it is hanging up somewhere in my home.

Back to travels of a redundant mum - day three

I know that it has been a long time but if you cast your mind way, way back to here - the story continues with a road trip from Taupo down to Wellington. Before we left the shores of lake Taupo we had to visit some bubbling mud pools, they were on Sheena's "Things to see in New Zealand" list. We took a little detour off the road to Wellington through Turangi to the village of Tokaanu.
Next to the hot pools in Tokaanu, which are well worth a visit, is a little walk full of native flowers and wildlife and bubbling mud pools.

and steaming pools and beautiful vistas.

The little creek that runs past the hot pools was teeming with fish. I have never seen so many fish, just basking in the hot water and sun shine.
It felt like you could just reach forward and pick them up. It was good to see that the creek was designated as a spawning ground and fishing was prohibited.

Back on the road again we were off down the desert road heading for Wellington. I have never driven down the desert road before and was really looking forward to the trip.

It is such a fantastic drive with stunning views. It is so high up and so beautiful, right on top of the world. I was driving so not to many pics taken by me. We did stop for a quick couple of snaps though.

Hopefully it will not take as long to post the next two days of our travels, a day in Wellington and the drive home.

More goodies from the garden

It seems to be a good year for plums in our garden. The first tree to ripen has been covered in yummy, succulent plums, lots of which I have stuffed in the freezer. I have given away a few tubs and I have eaten lots and lots. And left a few for the birds.
The other plum tree is weighed down with a lot of fruit. The branches are touching the ground.
I am looking forward to them ripening. Lots of plum crumble and plum cake to come.
Plums aren't the only fruit ripening in our garden. The figs that have been hanging on the tree for months have decided to ripen right now.
One of the pair of fig trees has never produced any edible fruit, until this year and one enormous fig has grown and grown.
I thought it would never ever ripen. But it has and it was as scrummy as it looks. Now there are a lot of little figs on the tree ready to ripen.

After the rain there's got to be a ...........

a little bit of sunshine.

Wet and Windy Wild Sunday

Today it rained and it poured and the wind howled. My poor little fig tree was almost touching the ground with the big blasts, thankfully it survived.

No sitting out in the sun today. More like cowering on the veranda playing with my new camera (still).

Purple Snow

Purple snow in a very wet Napier.

And the culprit is the amazing Jacaranda trees with its incredible purple flowers.