Monday, January 14, 2013

William, the weether and a wobble


William

I forgot to mention that our first visit to Christchurch coincided with the visit of William Hague who was there to endorse a British sales push.

We came upon the assembled greats as we wondered past the art gallery which is closed to the public at present. The mission also launched a car rally from somewhere North to Christchurch. The rally, which will involve British Cars past and present,is planned to finish on February 22 2013 - exactly 2 years since the last devastating earthquake.

The 100 or so people were gathered around a dozen or so classic British cars complete with owners and WH was mingling and doing his bit. I decided to take a closer look while Carole, Cath and the girls lingered about 10m back. As the main party assembled around the microphones I edged a little further forward to take a photo (below). Just as the UK's High Commissioner was about to speak the sound of broken glass shattered the pre-speech quiet and everyone turned not knowing what to expect (a ham-fisted jihadist bottle juggler perhaps?) only to see Carole moving the girls away from the glass from a coke bottle which Hannah, who has a thing about keeping glass bottles from which she has just drank, had dropped on the pavement.

Order restored listened to WH speech (supportive of ChCh's efforts to rebuild - and don't forget British companies stand ready to help etc. etc......

We decided to head for the Museum but stopped to get ice-creams and drinks (more ammunition for Hannah)



The Weether

Apart from a few wash-outs, the weether has been really hot - as the forecaster said on TV last night " tonight will be a duvet-keeking tweenty with teemperatures tomorrow reeching tweenty nine" (A patheetic atteempt at nz phonetic speeek)

However you say it,the weether was brilliant for our two days in Akaroa. We spent the first day at C&P's friend's Bach located at Takamatua a mile or so from Akaroa. A Bach is a name now given to a holiday cottage or cabin - the name comes from Bachelor Pad as in the early days such small, rough buildings were used to house travelling male workers.

This Bach had all the comforts and equipment you would wish for being only 4m from the high water mark but lacked the TLC which the owner has been unable to give owing to illness.

It isn't a big place and Cath & Paul had to sleep in the rafters (posh people call it a mezzanine floor). We had the only bedroom with the kids sleeping on couches etc. in the main room. There was a small kitchen and one of those metal incinerator-loos that requires the insertion of a shaped paper bag before you make a deposit, close the seat and press the destruct button......




We had a nice time in the Bach; had a great barbeque on the first day, tried some fishless fishing and left on Day 2 with Paul & I thinking we had escaped without any midge bites!


The Wobble

About tea-time on the first day we all felt a slight shake - just as I write this (3pm Wed 23 January)in Sumner the Tsunami Alarm is sounding but after a walk outside I can still hear the sound of tradesmen working across the street so I trust it was a test famous last words - anyway it turns out it was a magnitude 4.6 which was felt really badly in Sumner. What luck!