Second day in New Delhi

Well I  am not sure where to start. At the very beginning you say. A sound jet lagged sleep prepared us well for the day as did the little bananas and toast for breakfast. I am still a little unsure of quality of food but the evening meal of curries has had no ill effects so that is good. After much discussion we decided to take a tuktuk to the metro. After realizing the ticket machine only took 5 and 10 rupee notes we then needed to find coins for the ticket man. Battle over we discovered metros are the same world over except this one has a violet line. We managed the line change smoothly and ended up at connaught square. Safety in numbers as Judy from Vancouver joined us we followed a man to the hop on hop off bus office through a rather dubious door and a more dubious flight of stairs. No seats on the bus we were told would we like to spend 30000 rupees on a private taxi. A tad expensive so he gave in quickly and we settled on half the price. A good idea as we soon learnt negotiating our way around to see the sights would have been time consuming and I think rather stressful. Rupin our taxi driver negotiated the cars, bicycles, buses, dogs and pedestrians with local expertise. Max speed is 60 but you are lucky to get over 40 and usually it is snails pace. We saw dogs, cows, goats, pigs,  sleeping or wandering around as well as plenty of birds including eagles.  Colourful stalls lined the streets  (food, flowers,toys, carpets,  clothes) and at each intersection people attempted to sell us amything from selfie sticks to peanuts.  The streets were also lined with washing  (hotels contract it out but surprisingly the towels remain off white although a bit hard).  On many of the median barriers and trees cow pats  about 30 cm in diameter had been assembled to dry for fertiliser. We managed to fit in the red fort, Qutb monument with drive bys for the bahai temple lotus flower and Indian gate. Here's some photos to  wet the appetite. One thing is that the colors people wear are amazing.  I  can see that I won't be trying to avoid getting photos with people but they will be a feature. We are off to our tour meeting shortly then being taken out for tea with the ceo from the tour company presumably he is of the  Indian branch.

Travelling to New Delhi

The sun was setting behind the aeroplane wing as we were welcomed onto the plane. The longest night I have had for a while. 13 hours of darkness and little sleep intermingled with meals of chickpeas, tofu and veges with a stop over in Canberra. Now we are eating muffins and drinkimg tea and looking at Singapore airport carpet and Christmas decorations.

The most challenging thing that happened today was the untangling of the cord for the earpiece and finding something to watch as we whiled the hours away -a tall order for the tired brain. I flicked through a few movies, drowsed a bit and stood at the end of the plane doing lots of stretches much to the amusement of one little toddler.

We got through Customs in Delhi. Taking photos of fingers and thumbs from sweaty tired tourists seemed to take an inordinate amount of time with custom officers lazingly adding info into a very slow computer system and having to wipe the screens with used and not to clean tissues.

Our ride to the hotel was memorable. It started with a long walk  to the arranged transfer and nearly  being knocked over by a driver who thought he could squeeze between me and two cars. The lane markings didn't deter the local driver and two cars  from making extra lanes and certainly encouraged the motor cyclist to squeeze their motor into any little space. No photos of that drive as I tried to absorb our new environment examples include black and yellow lined gutters, long clay pots placed haphazardly along the median strips some of which included dusty and wilting plants, the new metro being built by a company with the logo "imagineering for the future", lots of stalls, dogs, pigeons and the air filled with dust and pollution.

After settling in (Alison had thoughtfully bought some teabags from NZ) we wandered down the main street. I took some photos but didn't want to appear too obvious and so some of the  sights will just be in words. The sentry boxes outside every home manned by a sentry (some with guns), the dogs oblivious to the hooting traffic. The drivers saying different messages depending on the  length and loudness of the  hoot eg "thanks", "I am here", "hurry up", "get out of my way", "I am really pissed off with what you have just done". Every shop had a guard as well some also with guns. Employment seems to be a priority - men sweep the paths with straw brooms. The great thing is that the shop owners smiled and said hi there was no pressure to buy.  Colours are great not all bawdy and bright but the subtle pastels creeping in.

We are off to the hotel restaurant for dinner tonight as the food stalls looked great (kumara, corn, roti, smoothies, nuts) but look like just the recipe foe Delhi belly.

More photos to come but here is one of our room and the view outside. We are keeping the curtains closed.

Back in Wellington

We came back on 2nd after a fun filled holiday of eating, cycling and walking. Yesterday I turned 60 and we celebrated with brunch at scorching bay and a barbecue at night with lots of friends and family. It was very special. The weather packed i about 90 minutes before the start and so we all crammed inside and harry and others barbequed in the porch. It seems when ever I plan an event the weather is likely to be wintry. So today was left overs and playing in the park.

Cycling around New Plymouth

It was our first day on the bikes.  Found a nice cycle route down a Valley onto the coastal path. New Plymouth put on a windy and cloudy day but it probably kept alot of sunny cyclers away.

Friday dawned sunny and warm. We couldn't resist a bike ride down the rest of the coastal path to a local cafe. One of the nicest vege brunch snacks had for a while. Stops at the playground and the little zoo were highlights before cycling back. We all dread the Cumberland road hill. Short and steep. Restful afternoon reading in the sunshine under a pink umbrella for shade. The height of decadence. Another cycle to the local chippie for dinner on the beach.

New years eve. We took Connie to the Tupare gardens, had a wander around the shops and len lye museum and went to the beach. Haz is still recovering from a cold.  nice walk back along the cycle path. Interesting fact most of the new houses up here are only one storey.

Te pouaki walk

We wandered up to the Te Pouaki hut some way up Mount Taranaki. Track isnt the typical walking through native bush but a continual path of wooden planks that led through lovely bush and sub alpine plants  to a great view of the city and coastline. Then we wandered down again. 4 and a half hours later we returned and haven't done much since except for looking for a beachside cafe to while the hours away which we didn't find, cook dinner and say hi to Mike, Becks and Connie.

It has been a busy few weeks building up to Christmas. Enjoyed seeing Mike  Becks and Connie  in the Wairarapa and having Connie to myself for a whole day.  We went to the park, decorated Christmas tree and put up our nativity scene.  Christmas  day was a lot of fun. Besides the family Nick, Carolyn and Martin came for brunch. Santa came too (with a hole in his trousers) but no one cared. Harry missed him for the second year in a row. Dinner was at Don and Judy's place. We are  now sitting in New Plymouth. Harry is making a cup of tea (well he put the jug on and then said he was off to have a shower). It is a bright sunny day for a change. The house looks over a wide expanse of bush that follows the river down to the sea which is a strip of blue just before the cloud hides the horizon. It was a long trip up yesterday. We crawled at snails pace up to Otaki, stopped for a few minutes to say hi to the Casey Cooper clan, had some lunch and then off to our holiday home. We got to our accommodation effortlessly and unpacked the car. After a cup of tea the first thing we looked for was wifi and who Place nicely positioned and quiet with deck though bbq is so filthy we won't use it and we need to suggest smoke alarms would be a good addition. To get over travel sluggishness we went for a long walk sort of following the river but not beside it. Now I will attempt for the first time to put some photos of on via phone.

Interesting weeks in Wellington

Recently, we went for a weekend fund raiser in the Wairarapa - a weekend of visiting other peoples places and viewing their Christmas decorations.  After a few houses we decided it was like one big open home.  Most of the houses were fairly minimalistic in their decorations, but we enjoyed seeing the houses and got some ideas if we ever want to build our own home.  We caught up with Nicky and Dave and their girls, and also Cheryl and Marty.  Not many photos taken as there was a 'no photo' policy during the visits.

Then a week later the earthquake hit Kaikoura and Wellington.  Wellington managed to come out of it reasonably unscathed (about four buildings on the demolition list which is likely to grow - a friend reckoned about 30 which would not suprise me) but the beautiful coastal route and the little town of Kaikoura have been hit really hard.  Very sad.

So, after a day off work we returned to our new building which we had just moved into to unpack.  Harry stayed at home for the next four days.  Tuesday - the floods hit with rail and bus links down and the city was again in a bit of turmoil.  Thankfully, we can say that no Wellingtonians were injured, but it could easily have been a different story if it had happened during the day.  It is great to see the help given to Kaikoura especially from all the naval ships come to NZ to celebrate 75 years.

Margot organised a degustation meal at Jano's in Wellington.  About 20 of us went and we had a great evening.  The vege meals were superb and often were the envy of those meat eaters (I didn't share much!!).

We've finished our gardens out the front (spend a few hours shovelling more sand and stones) and now I am busily encouraging the trees to grow as it looks quite bare.  We have some berries on the bushes.  A couple of weekends ago in the rain we went for a drive to Makara to find stones so that we could paint them.  We've also wrapped some in tin foil to scare off the birds (a trick we saw in Adelaide).  We also walked up a forest path in the rain to find some wood so Harry could make reindeer and a stable for Christmas.  Pictures to come later.

Mike arrived at midnight on Thursday.  We had a nice breakfast with him before we went to work and he took off for Olly's stag do in Rotorua.  Looking forward to next weekend when Connie and Becks are also over.

Tabby wants to go on holiday.

This Sunday we had a lazy start and then headed for a walk in Wilton Bush. You can guarantee a nice sheltered walk even when Wellington is at its windiest which it is today.  We parked in Chartwell and walked 2.5 hours up and down which was a lot of fun - some new found trails.  Also bumped into Phillipa so that was a welcome chat.