CATCH UP

Two days worth of images. Enjoy!

It is New Years Eve today and we are all back in town again. Wellington is blustery and not exactly warm but compared to the horrendous freezing cold weather they are experiencing in Illinois it is balmy. 

These are a few pictures from our drive back to the city.

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We popped in to a few wineries on the way.

Saw a few of the sights.

A beautiful old house.

We stopped at a river after surviving the Rimutakas – the most horrible windy road over the hills.  The hilly (some people would say mountainous)  roads in the North Island are taking a beating. This one has to close every time there is a slip or the winds are too high and the Manawatu Gorge road on the other side has recently closed for good, due to slips.  It is quite simply too dangerous to maintain and navigate anymore. These are artery roads in NZ.  I have driven through the Gorge (to and from Hawkes Bay where I was born) a million times. It is incredibly weird to have that closed. Alternative routes are VERY scenic (cough). Losing the Manawatu Gorge has also increased the traffic across the Rimutakas.

A river. The water is very low due to the dairy farming and the long periods between rainfalls lately.

And back to a beautiful day in Wellington. The first sunny day I have seen since arriving in New Zealand and I find it in Wellington.

So we wandered the waterfront for as long as the light wandered with us.

I hope you have a lovely day. We are getting ready to see the New Year in, all together at my fourth son’s house.

This morning is blustery and overcast again in Wellington, NZ.  The sun is gone. But Illinois is 9F/-12C at the moment with an overnight of -6F/-21C. Tomorrow their overnight drops to -14F/-25.  It is awful. The farm is never this cold over the Christmas break. It is my worst nightmare to be away from the farm in conditions like this leaving John struggling to manage the animals in that cold.

Wednesday the last of the fattening hogs are sold (I am making all the arrangements this morning) which frees up the rathouse,  and this means that I can get John to bring Molly into their warmer spot in the hut inside the rathouse later in the week. If all goes well I get home on the Sunday after that, thanks gods.

OK

Have a lovely day out there wherever you are and if you are in that cold be careful.

Love celi