Spring Snow

For friends and family not connected to Facebook, here are a couple of pictures taken on 18 September 2010 - beautiful snow flakes drifting down. The photos were taken from the upstairs bedroom window at home. It is quite common here in New Zealand to have lots of snow and very cold weather in spring, and every year the farmers lose hundreds of lambs in the cold snap. I heard this moring that the current estimate is 500,000 lambs lost in the South Island. It makes me wonder why the farmers do not provide shelter for the animals? It could be as simple as planting some hedgerows!

Looking South.

Looking West

Purakanui

Our friends Nathan and Janet rented this restored 130 yr old fisherman's cottage on the very edge of the sheltered Purakaunui inlet near Dunedin for the weekend and invited us to a late lunch this Saturday.

This amazing bach is still faithful to it's historic roots but is comfortable with a small modern kitchen and bathroom. There is electric heating but the open fire and coal range is in good working order and adds wonderful charm to the place. Even though it was an unseasonably warm day for mid-winter, the moment the sun went over the horizon we were happy for the warmth and atmosphere of the fire.

The cluster of four little buidings has been known as "As You Like It" since the 1930's and sits right on the water's edge.

You can just sit on the deck and watch the fish just a metre away, or watch the sunset over the water, dig for cockles, fish off the deck or the rocks, walk along the ocean beach or row or canoe around the inlet.

It's a great bird watchers spot and we saw shags, oystercatchers, and kingfishers while we sat chatting on the deck. We were there at low tide, but at full tide the entire bay is full of water.