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Welcome to my blog. Thanks for dropping by. Hope you'll stay and enjoy reading about where I've been and what I've been doing!

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Saturday 28 June 2008

Golden Bay

Well, that's the end of another week!

I caught a young shoplifter at work on Monday night, a kid we know quite well and have suspected for some time. It was sheer luck that I spotted him on the CCTV screen while I was on my break! Of course he was devastated to have been caught and tried to wheedle his way out of being searched, pretending that it was only his phone he was hiding under his jacket. However I finally got him to the office and made him turn out his pockets, and there we got him!!! It was Joyce, as supervisor, though who dealt with the situation from then on, threatening to call the police but finally calling his parents. Being assured that they would deal with him when he got home -he wasn't looking forward to his dad's reaction - he was also banned from returning to the shop. I do hope it taught him a lesson. I know when I was a little kid I stole money from my mother's purse, and was threatened with the police when she found out! I never ever did anything like that again! It frightened the living daylights out of me!


School ended for the summer today so we had lots of noisy teenagers in the shop tonight buying drinks (Coca Cola etc.)and sweets for celebratory parties! Linda, my oldest friend - since nursery school 55 years ago - retired from teaching today too, so I hope she got through the day without too many tears! It's something she has looked forward to, but it must still be sad to be leaving a school where she has been for so many years. Good luck Linda! See you this weekend to hear all about your last week!

Well, another few photos from New Zealand to finish off today's blog! My cousin Maureen took me on a drive on each of the two full days I spent with her. The first day was to Farewell Spit, the long sandbar that curves out like a finger into the Marlborough Sounds.


This picture doesn't really give a good impression of the Spit, more of the sand flats when the tide was out. The Spit is on the horizon.











On route to the Spit we passed through Takaka, a pretty town with beautiful hanging baskets and quaint buildings.....















.....an attractive modern church......















..........and beautiful painted murals. This one shows an old map of Golden Bay and the Spit, with local birds, including a whte heron, and a pohutukawa tree - dubbed the New Zaland Christmas tree.















Then we came to Waikoropupu Springs, commonly called Pupu Springs.



On the way along the river to Pupu Springs










Along the path there were quite a number of woven flowers on clumps of flax still growing. This is a sacred Maori place which maybe explains the flowers?











This is the main spring. It bubbles up from the floor of the lake, some 14000 litres a second, so little wonder it looks like the water is boiling!









Coming back to Motueka we took a turning to Bainham to visit an old shop. The old lady is said to be retiring soon, so I should imagine the shop will close. It's a wooden building that would have been the general store at one time for a fairly large rural community well spread out on farms round Golden Bay. It is now on the edge of a long distance walking track - the Heaphy Track - so I reckon must get a lot of business from walkers, as it's not really the type of place one just passes by.










On the second day the sun was shining and it was a glorious day with new snow on the distant hills!














Mapua Wharf.





There were several rather lovely shops to explore at Mapua. My favourite was the arts and crafts gallery where I saw this alered art piece!
It seems a trend these days to take an object and alter it, with sometimes stunning results! I loved this guitar!















At Kaiteretere beach





and along at Little Kaiteretere beach












Some of the houses here are large and rather ostentatious!
This one features the Inglis family crest! Wonder if we are related?

Well. I started this on Friday night, last night, and now it is Saturday afternoon! Thanks to all of you for dropping in, and also for your encouraging emails!
Talk again soon!

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