Which looks like this from the other side, but with one intriguing detail. If you look closely:
You'll see this:
I'm rather glad that changing house keys was one of the first things we did. Yes, it does match the original key we were given with the house. Given how long it would have been out there, it seems to be a better idea than hiding a key under the door mat.
And made this:
(okay, yes, some food colouring and essential oil was added). After carving, they look like this:
Can you guess which chicken laid which of the eggs? What I want to know now is how big an egg the smallest of our chickens is going to lay!
The tomatoes are starting to flower, but are still quite small compared to everything else. The exiting thing is the real cobs of corn! Curious to see how they turn out!
And here's a bunch of kangaroo paws from my folks. Yay!
And the "we're not quite sure of the name of it but apparently it's from New Zealand" tree attracts a lot of these noisy chaps which is rather nice:
And as for the vegie patch, looks like the pumpkins may yet take over the world. It hasn't been that long since they were seeds. All of these seeds were planted at the same time.
I hope the pumpkins are tasty, and I hope the chickens like the taste of the plant to keep it a bit under control!
There's a clear view of how much work needs to be done to the retaining wall:
For that, I'm thinking the wall needs to go and so do the palms causing it to collapse. Then they can be replaced with something more sensible and hedge shaped.
And a pink tulip up and coming:
Today there was also the creation of a chicken-free zone. This is the last time the chickens will be allowed to scratch up this patch of dirt.
Last but certainly not least, my parents gave us some orchids from the garden. They are still going strong 2 weeks later!
Followed by the Tea part of the High Tea!
In Able Tasman we had two lunches... this was lunch, part 2 at "The Anchorage". The delicious feast was purchased from a supermarket in Nelson, including Verker's salami, locally made cider and a cheesy bread roll with spectacular scenery while we waited for that ferry to turn up... it was a little late if I remember rightly.
Back at Kaiteri, we had dinner at what I think was called the blue whale. Or something. I'll correct that if I remember the name. Anyway, we were as close to be beach as we could be, and the food wasn't half bad despite the fact that we were almost the only people there (the locals apparently don't go out late at night on a Saturday before Anzac day). Despite all that, it was really quite good! They still cared. This is what my dessert looked like:
Lunch in Wanaka was a bit more disturbing. Wanaka is the slightly less touristy area where apparently you can do all the extreme sports but with less tourists. Still did seem very touristy. The road on the way after Haast gave us enough extreme driving, so it was time to eat some extreme food. Below is what was their pancake. We went to the pub as there seemed to be not much open, and what was open generally looked a bit wrong. We were also a little late. Anyway, after some trepidation I ordered the pancake. The bacon and banana pancake. I won't be doing that again. This is just proof that it was purchased. I did in fact eat it so I could say that yes I have done that once and won't be doing that again. I do not understand maple syrup on bacon and banana pancakes. I do not understand bacon in a sweet pancake.
Finally, some food that was art. In Christchurch, in a restaurant whose name escapes me entirely at the moment, we over indulged completely. This was one of the desserts.
And the dinner itself looked like this:
Sadly, we aren't as good at this as we should be because we forgot to use the splayds. There were heaps of other gifts, all very much appreciated. This is just what I managed to photograph this time around. I'm still happy that so many of you made the time to come celebrate with us!
This one is a view of Wellington from on top of Te Papa museum:
And this one is a panorama of Wellington from on top of Mount Victoria. We were very lucky with the weather on this one.
This is the main strip of Nelson:
This is Christchurch square from our Hotel room:
And a cute water wheel along the Avon River, which was apparently part of the early industry in Christchurch:
And here is part of the Arts Centre, near the Botanic gardens in Christchurch.
So... Christchurch is full of cute little parks and beautiful buildings, Nelson has a Cathedral (which gave it status as a City despite the lack of population) although the world of wearable art was also very cool, and Wellington is rather arty, vibrant and modern, with everything close by. I'd visit them all again.
