Not a great deal has been going on lately. It is nearing the end of February, the second month of the year....almost one sixth of our way through 2010! As a teenager I heard a lot of older people keep talking about how time flies as you get older, as well as the classic ‘Where has the year gone?’ comment, but I never really understood these points of view, so I never really believed them. After all, time can go no faster now that I am 40 than it did when I was 20, right? But somehow, with the magic of experience and wisdom in hand, it does. So when I say ‘Not a great deal has been going on lately", it makes me wonder where has the time gone and why don't I have anything to report? Time does really does fly....
If I break it down though, of course I have been busy and not wasting precious time. The daily routines of life in New Zealand have been circling me and creating a whirlpool of energy and events which remain important yet unremarkable at the same time.
One big event that was remarkable was a recent visit from my mother and my oldest niece, Chelsea. They came over to NZ for a week and we went sightseeing and exploring and just spending time together. Another interesting addition to my weekly routine is I have taken up Spanish again, as part of an advanced group for conversation practice. I have been talking to myself in Spanish for years, hoping to retain some of the years of University study sweat, but it is nice to be able to speak to others again.
What does the future hold? In less than two weeks time we will be submitting ourselves to yet another tranquil tropical isle. This time we are off to Niue for a week. Niue is a tiny island with one flight a week, relatively undeveloped and ignored as far as tourism goes - no plush resorts, noisy scenic flights, roaring jet boats, big markets or the western crowds which blight most of the other marketed pacific islands. After our time in Niue, we have a few weeks back at work and then I am heading back to Australia for a 3 day residential school as part of a course I am studying this year. Coincidently it will be at my old work place, Adelaide Zoo.
So, that’s the report so far for 2010. Time really is flying…….

Our cows!

25 things you may not have known about New Zealand

1 - Cook's cure - Captain James Cook, the man who navigated New Zealand, is said to have discovered a cure for scurvy, a disease that results from Vitamin C deficiency, when he played around with medicines.
2 - More births- New Zealand births exceeded deaths by 29,890 in the September 2005 year.

3 - Older brides - New Zealanders are getting married older. The latest statistics show that the median ages of men and women marrying for the first time is 29.9 and 28.1 years. These brides and grooms married, on average, nine years older than their parents did.
4 - Big on butter - For each person who lives here, New Zealand produces 100kg of butter and 65kg of cheese each year.
5 - Clever Kiwis - A New Zealander invented the tear-back velcro strip, the pop-lid on a self-sealing paint tin, the child-proof pill bottle and the crinkle in hair-pins so that they don't fall out.
6 - Olympic gold - New Zealand has won more Olympic gold medals a head than any other country.
7 - Sheep dip - In the early 1980s, New Zealand was home to more than 70 million sheep, but now has 40 million, or about 10 sheep to one person. This decline hasn't stopped New Zealand from bringing in 50 per cent of all international trade in sheepmeat.
8 - Golf swings
Measured by club memberships, golf is the most popular sport in New Zealand, followed by netball.
9 - Curious Kea - The kea, native to New Zealand, likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows.
10 - Quick work - The shortest interval between separate births in the world is 208 days. New Zealander Jayne Bleackley gave birth to Joseph Robert on September 3, 1999, and Annie Jessica Joyce on March 30, 2000.
11 - Why bother? - Two Massey University students broke a Guinness World Record in December for the world's largest tape ball. The ball, which weighs 53kg and has a circumference of more than 2.5m, was made by winding Scotch tape continually around itself.
12 - Spelling test - The longest place name in the world still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuakitanatahu… a hill in Porangahau in the Hawkes Bay. The Maori name translates to "the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as Landeater, played his flute to his loved one."
13 - Middle age - The median age of New Zealanders is growing. In 1901 it was 23. By 1991 it was 31 and in 2001 it was 35. By 2021 it is expected to be 40.
14 - Rising prices - In 1984, $43 in New Zealand would buy approximately the same as $100 today.
15 - Blacked out - The longest blackout in the world was on February 19, 1998, when the four main power cables supplying Auckland city, broke down. The disruption, which lasted 66 days, affected 7500 business and residential customers and cost businesses an estimated $300 million.
16 - The sea, the sea - No part of New Zealand is more than 128km from the sea.
17 - Lost in space
In the scene of Star Trek: First Contact, when Picard shows Lilly she is orbiting Earth, Australia and Papa New Guinea are clearly visible but New Zealand is missing.
18 - Bottom line - No capital city in the world is further south than Wellington.
19 - Animal farm - Less than 5 per cent of the population of New Zealand is human - the rest are animals. This is one of the highest ratios of animals to humans in the world.
20 - Pipebands galore - There are more Scottish pipe bands per head of population in New Zealand than in Scotland.
21 - Big readers - New Zealand has more book-shops per head of population than any other country; one for every 7500 people.
22 - Bad behaviour - New Zealand has the third highest rate of deaths in the developed world from maltreatment among under-15-year-olds; third to Mexico and the US.
23 - Freshwater spring - More fresh water flows up from cracks in the limestone at Waikoropupu, near Takaka, than from any other freshwater spring in the world - more than 2100 million litres every 24 hours.
24 - Trout heaven - More rainbow trout in the 2kg to 3kg category are caught annually in New Zealand than in the rest of the world put together.
25 - World-beaters - New Zealand is home to the world's smallest dolphin, the Hectors Dolphin, the rarest sea lion, the Hookers Sea Lion, the largest flightless parrot, the kakapo, the oldest reptile, the tuatara, the heaviest insect, a weta, the biggest earth-worms, the smallest bats, some of the oldest trees, and many of the rarest birds, insects, and plants in the world.

Ngarunui Beach

I have been remiss, haven’t I? So long without writing to you may have made you feel that I had lost interest or forgotten about you. I apologise for the delay between posts, but life has just been too full and enjoyable to catch a moment to sit down and write.

What’s been pulling me along so fast? I hear you ask. To that question, there is no definitive answer except a series of enjoyable events, with brief periods of recovery in between. Let’s start from late November when our dear Dutch friend Rina, paid us a visit here in New Zealand. Her yearly jaunt to Australia has been switched to a New Zealand adventure. Soon after Rina left us, Phil and I headed off to Christchurch on the South Island. A few days rambling around the city and its surrounding hills kept the energy levels depleted. Upon our return was the 40^th birthday event, which turned in to a week of eating nice food with excuses such as pre-birthday and post-birthday celebrations. And now, it is the Christmas/New Year period and I have just worked 2 and half weeks with 2 days off! The New Year will see my mum and niece, Chelsea, visit here in New Zealand, followed by a trip for Phil and I in March to Niue. In April, I am back to Australia for a few days as part of a course I am studying. So, I had better get to it………..XXXX

We are what we repeatedly do. (Aristotle 384 BC – 322 BC)