Clear, unmistakable evidence.

'The world continues to warm' say both the Southland Times and the Otago Daily Times, with a shared article that doesn't beat around the bush over climate change - Atmospheric CO2 rising fast says the ST, with the ODT titling their version: Temperatures rise as gases in climate mount. Will anyone take any notice of an article that clearly states that 'The world's climate is not only continuing to warm, it is also adding heat-trappng greenhouse gases even faster than in the past.'?
It's difficult to believe that this report will move many, if any of us to action or even acceptance of the looming disaster.
'The indicators show unequivocally....'
'There is a clear and unmistakable signal...'
Does this move you? Perhaps you're suffering from climate change fatigue, or maybe you believe the science 'isn't in yet', or maybe you believe at all to be a conspiracy by some secret cabal/sect/uber-rich organization to fool us all and bleed us dry, whatever the reason, I don't think that most of us would be able to recognise and respond to a clear truth if it was presented to us in the simplest way - as this warning has been. I haven't heard this message disrupting or disturbing the social networks I operate in and I've got some very intelligent and aware friends and acquaintances.
It's disturbed me though and I'm doing something about it.

Kiwifruit down south

Can you grow kiwifruit out of doors in the deep south?

Kenneth can. Boxes and boxes of them.

Two views of Mataura

Highs and lows

I'd wondered if the the recent publicity for this blog through the Southland Times and Southland Express might have had an effect of readership - I imagined it might have a beneficial effect but there was no way of knowing whether it would boost or kill off my readership, so I took a look behind the scenes at the 'stats' facility that Blogger provides for its bloggers and found that it's climbing strongly. That's very pleasing and I know what to do if at some stage it begins to dip - wind up my fellow councillors to such an extent that they throw me into the spotlight again! It won't be difficult - they're getting very tetchy about my expressed interest in Solid Energy's plans for mining Mataura, even though I assure them, quite genuinely, that our role as councillors is to unearth (sorry for the pun) all of the facts from all sides of the argument, before making any decisions. Hasn't placated some of them though and they continue to simmer :-)

2 mystery men

Who could these two blokes be (and what do they have in common)?

Hey India!

Lesh deepen our defensh relashinship!

Dump MMP!

Says this man, Peter Shirtcliffe.
His youthful enthusiasm to steal your chance to be represented by the politician you want is charming in a refreshing, boyish kind of way.
You'll probably want to do as he insists.

On a farm, on a heap of rock...

...someone has placed this simple figure.

Kickin' Nick

Best stop-him-in-his-tracks question at tonight's 'Meet Mr Smith Meet' went to the lovely lady from Lumsden, who asked the Minister (who had just described how important the Government felt it was to follow Best Practice with all mining and drilling projects in NZ, based on overseas models),

"Minister, can you tell us, where is the world's best practice example of lignite mining?"

A stunned and awkward silence enveloped the Minister before he claimed that he 'wasn't willing to say'.

The complimentary bag of dirty ol' lignite goes to Chris Henderson for both the quality of the question, and the timing!

From the Right

Many Right-wingers are having difficulty accepting Hone Harawira's win at the weekend and are expressing themselves on Right-wing blogs in a manner that is revealing of the depth of their inability to see beyond their own narrow world of priveledge.
This comment, from someone who calls himself Tinman, posting at Keeping Stock on a thread the author calling himself Inventory2 has named 'Hone Muldoon' spells out clearly the frustration and anger many Right-wingers feel at Hone's victory in Te Tai Tokerau. It's not comfortable reading, for those of you who regard the world in a reasonable manner, but instructive to read nevertheless. Tinman says that Hone:

"is doing exactly what is expected - just what mummy tells him to.

Mummy, of course, is one of the lowest forms of life to be found in this universe.
The racist scum that elected this pair to parliament should be immediately rounded up and shot (slowly)."

Keeping Stock btw, advertises itself as:

"An eclectic mix of some of the finer things in life - politics, sport, music, humour and God."

- which begs the question, does the author condone comments such as those of Tinman? There's no indication from the bloggers response that he's uncomfortable with the kinds of things said therein.

Nanny State

Such is the liking by our Government for authoritarian measures to control our behaviour, Invercargill streets, and those of other New Zealand centres where rugby games are to be played in the up-coming, royalty-free tournament, will be patrolled by 'ad police'. Enforcement Officers from the Ministry of Economic Development (sound dark to you? Perhaps grey and steely?) will be slinking around Invercargill streets searching for un-authorised advertising. We ought to be grateful I suppose, as such advertising is a serious threat to our well-being and the cost of these '3 or 4' Advertising Agents is a trifle compared to potential Southland lives saved.  My only hope is that some enterprising business-terrorist doesn't take advantage of the Cup Fever that will grip us all over the 6 days of games here, and bang up a life-threatening hoarding that might provoke a shut-down of the city and potential loss of game-time.

Raymond Huber - bee commentator

"Nicotine Bees

The home garden supplier, Yates, advertises a handy spray-can of pesticide as ‘low toxic to beneficial insects’ and ‘soft on beneficial insects’. Lies. The pesticide is extremely toxic to the world’s most beneficial insect, the honey bee – a nerve poison 7000 times more lethal than DDT. The pesticide (Confidor) contains nicotine-based poisons which are now banned in France, Italy, Germany, and Slovenia, because of links to massive bee deaths."

Read the article from Raymond Huber here.

In the Kacktus

Blogger Cactus Kate's entry into politics as an ACT Party candidate has provoked some very interesting questions around those of us who have a blogging history.
It has been made clear by many of Cathy Ogers' (Cactus Kate) peers, that posts and comments she's made over the years will torpedo her credibility and will be used to ridicule her efforts to gain popular support. Many of her claims and statements have been odious in my view.
I'll be watching very closely to see how she fares. Her supporters are big-noting her as a gun-slinger who will clean up 'the socialists' in a hail of ideological bullets , fired from the lip but I think she'll be burned at the stake by the  popular media.
I expect that we'll soon see Kate neck-deep in the cactus.

Neutered

Why on earth would the Department of Conservation be 'refraining' from submitting on the proposed open cast coal mine in one of our national parks?
It seems entirely ludicrous.
Surely that's one of DoC's central purposes; the protection of our nations treasured parks, but in this case at Denniston on the West Coast of the South Island there's a resounding silence from the Department.
What reason could there be for this refusal to engage in this battle to protect our national park from mining?
This development STINKS to the high heavens!

Quote of the moment

On the weekend's Te Tai Tokerau result, in which Hone Harawira won the by-election, Prime Minister John Key said:

"It's not really that Hone Harawira can claim victory."

It's not?

Rilly?

Surprise package

I got a parcel in the mail. I wasn't expecting it and didn't know what was inside.
When I opened it I found: dozens of huge walnuts, an ear of coloured popping corn and another of red, a golden elder seedling in a pot, a loofah, a Port Albert cucumber and other delights all sent to me unbidden from Heather and Lisa whom I met at the Ellerslie Flower Show and who operate the Mapua Country Trading Co.
I had hoped to call in while I was up in Nelson last time but was too rushed to take up their offer of the use of a kayak to explore the Mapua estuary from.
They're kind folk those two! They also gave me the shiitake mushroom kit (instructions included) that will supply me with goodness knows how many shiitake over the next few years.
Here are the two cobs.

Picture, thousand words etc

The excellent Mr Slane

Result

Life's a beach

Photo - Wayne of the Hill

Blue trees

Our friend Carol from the States emailed this cryptic comment and picture this morning.


It's amazing how many people claim to have dead trees in their landscape needing to be painted BLUE! (And even more interesting to read suggestions on how to kill my own tree!)

Live on Live

I've a brief spot on RadioLive at 9 this morning, discussing the unseasonally warm winter.
What's there to say? It's unseasonably warm. Queenstown has no snow, making their Winter Festival somewhat sand-paperish where usually it's swish and leaving gardeners throughout the south saying, 'We need a good frost to kill the bugs'. I've never really subscribed to the theory that the chill clears the decks of bugs, either those that creep and crawl in the garden or those that cause the misery of colds and flu but it seems we might know by the spring, if this warm weather continues.
I'll say that climate change is responsible and that no new coal mines should be created and that behind it all, John Key is to blame. That should fire up a couple of listeners at least :-)

Prickly orientals

Chinese hawthorns are trees with pretty wicked spikes. They also have large haws that make great haw-leather. If you are determined to harvest every haw, you have to be prepared to get scratched and spiked on your hands, arms, neck, face and especially, scalp. The spiking will hurt but if you want those haws you'll just keep pushing through, ignoring the pricks the way a bear ignores the stings of the bees when he's raiding nests.
Here are the haws I collected today.

Sunset - red window

The western end of our veranda is closed in with a window of coloured glass.
If you look through the red glass square in the corner as the sun is setting, you can see the world differently.

National forces DoC to cut jobs

That'll help us to maintain our cough 100% cough Pure NZ image cough!!!
Well done Mr Key. Well done National.
That's the way to ruin the place.
Next, they're be proposing the establishment of an Environmental Protection Authority to take over the role of an 'ineffective' Department of Conservation.

Hang on...

Keeping Stock

Alas, oh dear!

Alasdair Thompson really made a hash of it, didn't he, with his comments about menstruation and productivity. He ought to have seen red when his comments weren't met with wild cheers from his radio interviewer and should perhaps have put down his righteous spade and stopped digging when Mihingarangi Forbes arrived to do the final despatch. It made great viewing though and produced this funny-and-sharp piece from the Queen of Thorns, guesting on The Standard.
The comments are well worth reading, unless you're Alasdair.

*Robert Winter uses the elegant term "simple, trouser-driven prejudice" to describe where it it Mr Thompson is coming from - priceless!
He also joins the chorus of New Zealanders calling for dear ol' Al's head, after his bulling behaviour toward the CampbellLive interviewer.

On transparency

Southland Express Opinion writer Phil McCarthy has followed up on the 'should councillors blog' story from last week, with his column in today's weekly rag. He's titled his piece Information free flow

The old saying that "what goes on tour, stays on tour", should not apply to our public institutions.
  This is especially when it comes to decisions on how to spend our money, whether it is taxes, rates or any other publically-funded matter.
  We live in an age of decisions being made behind closed doors and one in which the free flow of information seems to be frowned upon.
  My students often shake their heads at how difficult it is to get people to make comment for stories.
  Simple comments for straight-forward stories often need to be put through a sanitation process (known as "public relations") before being approved for public consumption.
  I wonder if people fear scrutiny, and construct walls around themselves and their institutions to shield themselves from interested eyes.

No one wants to be seen as saying anything. And yet most people - politicians and sportspeople in particular it would seem - freely express their views on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

  The media picked up on this and for a brief period of time there were some honest opinions floating around the headlines. But now the sportspeople are banned and we've lost interest in the politicians.
  Last week it was announced the All Blacks would be banned from tweeting during the Rugby World Cup.
  Even our local body politicians have been in the gun. Regional councillor and blogger Robert Guyton was reminded of his responsibilities after being a little too effective in his public communications last month.
  He got told off because his blog allegedly strayed into discussion of a public excluded council matter.
  Councillors should know the rules and know what they can and can't say in public. The end result of the private meeting should be made in public if it's in the public interest - which it usually is with councils.
  The public excluded provisions is used way too often - much like people saying something is "private" when they have little or no understanding of the Privacy Act.
  My favourite example of the former was when a council tried to go into public excluded to approve a public advertisement of a job.
  Common sense prevailed and the ad got the tick. And the sun still came up the next day.

Tonight's photos

These tiny mushrooms pop up every year in this same lawn, sometimes in their hundreds. This year there are only a few. Perhaps it's the oddly warm winter we are experiencing.

The setting sun lit up the window of Muriel's Homeobotanics clinic.

And I found another giant squid - they're everywhere!

Endangered bird

While sharp-eyed Bureaucrat birds circle overhead, our heroic wee feathered friend peeks out in the hope that someone will come to his aid, before it's too late.

The Natural Wold of Australia - Bowerbirds preening

Absolute proof Mr Hubber!

This chart, now showing at The Standard with accompanying commentary, makes me laugh (in a good way).

Decoy

One of these birds isn't a real bird.
Can you guess which one?

 

Was that mine safe?

At the time of the Pike River Mine explosions, any questioning of the safety of the mine was met with derision and stonewalling - how dare anyone ask such un-patriotic things at a time like this, we read in our newspapers, heard on our radios and saw on our televisions. John Key would have none of that dirty talk....until just recently while on his Australian trip, when he announced that the mine wasn't safe. What was it about being in Australia that made him gainsay on this issue? Back home and he's reneging already, backed by his Minister who says the mine and others around the country are safe as houses. Perhaps she's thinking of Christchurch.
It's all very dodgy, these conflicting statements from the Government about Pike River.

Fog

This morning was thick with it. This street light lit my murky way as I walked to meet my ride into town.

And along the road I saw the newest figure to grace our local landscape.

Exodus of people to Australia at the highest level for 32 years

We're leaving in droves according to reports, and it's damaging our economy.
I remember at the last election how the National Party and it's trumpeters made great fanfare of the Labour Government's record for losing New Zealanders to Australia. Their own efforts, or lack thereof, have made the situation worse! It's being called a ' kangaroo-kick to the economy'.
I wonder how Bill English and John Key will spin the news that Kiwis are leaving in droves?
'Making room for an expanding economy' perhaps?

Whale chides English

Bill English gets a serve from friend Cameron Slater for feathering his mate's nest, with our money!
"New Zealand on Air gave $50,000 to sub­sidise an album by Annabel Fay, daugh­ter of rich-lister Sir Michael Fay."
Good on ya Whale, for pointing at Bill English's double-standards.
Aren't we rejecting the 'nice to haves' Bill?
Daddy Fay will be pleased though. Daughters can be expensive creatures and he has barely a penny to rub together.

What others think

Some of my fellow bloggers (those of Right Wing extraction) say I'm too harsh on their favourite boys in blue; John, Bill, Gerry and the rest of the flinty crew, but my views are rose-petals strewn at their feet, compared with many others around the internet. This guy, calling himself nznative, doesn't like them much:

"National's plans for the country seems to be coal and cow shit.
They are dirty authoritarian con artists.
And they are bad for the country on so many levels ….."

Cripes!
Imagine if he had a blog!

2nd cloaked figure

Remember this?

She appeared when I cut the branch from a tree here in my garden, then spent a little time on Trade Me and now has a new home to go to (and a very kind-if-risk-taking owner!)
While I was freeing the figure from the parent tree, I discovered another form, further down the branch - this time, a darker creature, clad in cloak.

I like this one and will keep her.

Cupcakes!

From last night's daughter-party. Made by Ruby.

Non-compliant bird

This is hard to believe.
The driftwood art of Wayne Hill has fallen foul of authority, as you may have read, and requires consents before it can be erected out on the bed of the Jacob's River estuary at Riverton. Not such a hurdle, you might think, despite the substantial cost involved, but do-able were it not for the flint-eyed objectors, whose relentless complaining to the Southland Regional Council has pushed the projected costs for hearings and other bureaucratic business up toward the $5000 mark!
The Riverton Estuary Care Society Inc. had what it considered a great idea - why not offer to host Wayne's driftwood art on their privately owned wetland reserve at the edge of town? It has ponds, created for the whitebait from the estuary to mature in and those would suit Wayne's artistic purposes perfectly. His art is best seen reflected in water, and the ponds are full of that good stuff.
We chose a spot, Wayne dug-in his latest work, a small 'bird' set on a nest of 3 small stone 'eggs'. The Southland Times, always interested in Wayne's work and his battle with bureaucracy, came out to photograph the modest artwork and interview the artist and a representative from the Riverton Estuary Care Society (me).
All seemed to be well, until... the reporter, checking with the District Council before publishing the story, discovered that they were not happy! The structure, they said, requires a consent!

Here's the offending artwork, in situ. See what you think. While you're doing that, I'll be on the phone to the council :-)

Solid comment on lignite

By Rebecca Macfie | Published on February 12, 2011 | Issue 3692

Are Solid Energy's lignite plans a significant step down the wrong energy path?

Lignite is just a geological notch up from peat. It’s brown coal, low in energy and about 45% water. It’s such an inefficient form of energy that the minute it’s transported any distance, it becomes uneconomic.
Southland has masses of the stuff. Ever since the days of the Liquid Fuels Trust Board, set up to look for alternative fuel sources in the wake of the 1970s oil shocks, the southern lignite fields have been recognised as a world-class energy resource. When the price of oil dropped, lignite dropped off the radar. But over recent years the state coal-mining company, Solid Energy, has been developing plans to exploit it, as has mining company L&M.
Solid Energy is already mining lignite at its New Vale open-cast mine near Gore, most of which is consumed by Fonterra’s nearby Edendale milk factory. But it has ambitions to use lignite as the feedstock for three new industries: industrial fuel pellets called briquettes, urea fertiliser and diesel.
Last week it made the first substantive step towards large-scale lignite exploitation, announcing it would spend $23-25 million on a briquetting plant at Mataura, using new technology developed by North Dakota company GTL Energy. GTLE’s method involves crushing the lignite, squeezing the embedded water to the surface, drying it at a low heat and then reconstituting it into pellets. Solid Energy’s Brett Gamble says the process upgrades low-grade lignite to a sub-bituminous coal.
The briquettes will be sold to New Zealand industrial users and trialled in export markets. If successful, Solid Energy is likely to push ahead with an export-scale plant.
Of the three possible uses for lignite, the domestic briquetting project is the least controversial, given the users of the product are already burning coal and the carbon emissions produced in the process are minor. Gamble even talks of trialling “green coal” – briquettes made from wood and lignite, producing lower emissions than if made purely from coal.

But the briquetting plant will be seen by many as a significant step down the wrong energy path for New Zealand: the thin end of a dirty carbon-intensive wedge that will lock New Zealand into a deeper dependence on fossil fuels instead of focusing on developing new forms of clean energy.
Solid Energy expects to take another step forward on its lignite-to-urea project later this year. Working with fertiliser company Ravensdown, it is looking at a plant that could produce up to 1.2 million tonnes of urea – enough to supply all New Zealand’s needs and allow for exports.
The lignite-to-diesel option is a more distant prospect, but Gamble likens it to an insurance policy for New Zealand. When Kiwis are paying $3.50 or $4 a litre for petrol, New Zealand needs to have “the ability to press the button”, he says.
Solid Energy has long talked of capturing the carbon produced in lignite projects and storing it in geological formations underground (carbon capture and storage, or CCS). But big questions still hang over the feasibility and efficiency of this process, and although Solid Energy is involved in international CCS research, it tends to talk more these days about conventional carbon-offsetting techniques like planting trees.
Prime Minister John Key’s announcement of plans to partially privatise Solid Energy arguably makes all three of Solid Energy’s lignite work-streams more achievable. Chairman John Palmer – who last year called for a partial sell-down to enable the company to meet future capital requirements – has already raised the possibility that the lignite reserves, which will require enormous investment to develop, could be spun off and listed separately on the stock exchange.
But the company’s plans have come under the critical scrutiny of Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright. She has worked out the emissions from lignite-conversion projects, and concluded coal-to-diesel production creates twice as much CO2 as conventional diesel production, and coal-to-urea generates about two-thirds more CO2 than that produced from natural gas.
Moreover, under the Emissions Trading Scheme, industrial processes to turn lignite into fuel and fertiliser could be up for free emissions credits – in other words, taxpayer handouts from the very scheme supposed to be steering the New Zealand economy in a low-carbon direction.
Solid Energy objects to Wright’s analysis, saying it has never banked on getting free credits and will “take responsibility” for its emissions. But Wright has raised a question that demands an answer before the SOE commits millions – and possibly billions – of dollars to its lignite strategy: does it make sense for “clean green” New Zealand, which has promised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 10-20% below 1990 levels by 2020, and which on current performance will miss that target by a massive margin, to launch a new carbon-intensive industry that will make our emissions profile substantially worse?

That's just offal

It's the weakest pun ever, but when it comes to offal puns...
The story is...our offal export market is booming. Demand for our meat 'co-products' (not by-products any more - offal has had a status-change!) has ramped-up world-wide, especially in Asian countries where hearts, kidneys, tongues and testicles have been on the menu forever. Now, they're getting them from us! It's good for business and maybe good for the environment here, with less 'co-product' going down the chute and into some water body or other but one of the offal-bits had me puzzled (careful punners!) - tendons! Who eats tendons and how on earth do you do it??
Tendons are tough, I've always thought. Didn't Robin Hood make his merry men's bow-strings from them?
How could you chew through those stringy babies?

Most trusted New Zealanders

And at the tail of the field of 100 we have the Smiling Assassin John Key in 90th place!
Brilliant!
(No Greens down there at the bottom I notice.)

Terrorist sighting

Is this a terrorist or what!!?
(By 'what', I mean 'paint splot')

Hone to win

There's considerable debate across the blogosphere as to who will win the TTT (Te Tai Tokerau ) by-election this weekend.
Most people outside of that rarified and infolded world however, don't care a jot. For myself, I'm backing Hone. I met him here in Invercargill and we talked for a while. I found him to be generous, genuine and strong-minded.
I hope he wins at the weekend.

*Sookie over at The Standard summed up one aspect of Hone's appeal by saying

'he drives right wing rednecks mental'

I really hope he wins! :-)

New Zealand unable to manage its own health

Prime Minister John Key believes we need the Australians to manage our medicines for us and will sign away our ability to make our own decisions on how we look after our health. Why Key believes Australian decision-makers can decide on our behalf is unclear and the benefit to giving away our rights here is murky indeed. The Greens, ever vigilant to this sort of erosion of our ability to remain independent, have strongly criticised Key for this arrangement, announced during his address to the Australian parliament today.
National, under Key, are making agreements like this one willy-nilly, secure in their belief that 'free trade' is the answer to all of our ills and the 'market' will nurture us in a better way than any we might devise for ourselves.
Not a theory that I subscribe to at all.
Today's key announcement seems unhealthy indeed.

Key insults Aussie hosts

Good grief. John Key, dining at the pleasure of his Australian hosts, PM Julia Gillard and her fellow MPs, described his dessert as 'sub-standard'.
There are those who find him amusing.

Zen moment

I'm struck by how enjoyable it is to carry firewood back to the house in my arms, rather than use the wheelbarrow.

Mine the National Park!

It's the Great Lumbering Ghost of Gerry Brownlee all over again!
Surely Brownlee and Key got the message from the people of New Zealand when they were told, in no uncertain terms, NO to the mining of our national parks?
Seems not. They're at it again. Bathurst Resources (sounds very British doesn't it), supported by Chinese Money wants to open-cast large areas of conservation land near Denniston on the West Coast of the South Island.
The Minister has to give his consent or otherwise and so here we are looking at the same issue that was so soundly dealt with not so very long ago.
I'm following this latest attack on our national park treasures with great interest and will post as I learn more.
Seems Brownlee is still finding that coal to be very, very sexy.

Letter lifted from the Listener

As someone who works in agricultural research, I am only too aware of problems related to farm intensification and of environmental consequences to water especially, as are many of my colleagues.
Although there are technological tools and management practices that can improve environmental performance, each region of rural New Zealand has an intrinsic set of characteristics, soils, climate, topography, etc that will make "fixes" more or less successful, yet in the farm-intensification debate there is seemingly little regard paid to what a catchment can reasonably support by way of intensification and the inevitable nutrient losses that will occur off-farm.
   So a catchment on the South Island's West Coast will have to contend with warmer and much higher rainfall than one in Canterbury , but this doesn't seem to be taken into consideration when people roll up to develop yet another dairy farm when all they have to show is that their neighbour did it, so they can, too.
   Where is the overview of what a catchment can realistically support by means of intensive farming without irrevocably degrading the environment and natural capital of these regions.? Once lakes are contaminated by nutrients and degraded by eutrophication, they will be difficult to reclaim.
   This is why ther recent weak response and abrogation of duty by the Government to setting water-quality standards is so galling, especially when the farming industries themselves so they have some surety of direction and because they know trading on our "clean, green" image earns us a premium on the international market.
   Unfortunately, this is rapidly what it is becoming, an image; our long-term economy will be endangered in the rush for short-term gains. It is time to take stock and allow some central government control on degrading water quality and what needs to be done about it.

Peter Carey M APP SOIL SCI (1ST HONS)
Soil scientist, Land Research Services
(LINCOLN)

Giant squid

Well, reminiscent of one and certainly marine, washed up on the beach at Oban.

Perhaps this ribcage is more convincing. I'm thinking merman?

No? A blue house in a clearing in the bush then. Quite plausible.

 Lastly, and my favourite pic from the trip - a foveaux banana, very rare indeed!

On the beach

We've walked a few of the Stewart Island beaches despite the season. This cave at Butterfields Beach is appealing and you can see Robyn's footprints if you look closely enough.

These two carapaces had the sandy look I was after.

I watched two sacks floating in the tide beside the town and got a photo of them at the point they made the map of New Zealand but thought it wasn't very flattering for the island so am keeping that shot to myself.
We're heading home this afternoon on the cat and the tide looks a little heavey. Robyn's cracking out the SeaLegs already but I'll go cold stone sober and keep my eye on the horizon. Might get some good photos though!