Summer is here!

Well, it's getting to be summer again.  It was 40C [which is 104F for my yankee friends] today. I do love the warm much more than I despise the cold and hubby has promised that we will move someplace much warmer when the kids are a bit older.    Until then, the summer pjs that I brought with me from Kansas will, most likely, stay in the drawer, since the nights are quite chilly under the mountain and I've only worn them one night since I've been here.

This, my friends, is some of the best surfing in the world--or so I am told.  This is in the southern part of Taranaki.  Personally, I will just take someone else's word for it because I have no intentions of taking up the sport.  Maybe the biggest reason is that I have never really lived close to an ocean, so I feel very insignificant when I stand on the shore and I'm pretty sure that the water wouldn't be upset if it swept me out to my doom.

There is an interesting story behind this rock.  Keeping in mind the aforementioned fact that the surfing is great here, apparently at the end of this road is one of the best places for it.  Locals, however, are reluctant to share the tides and beach with those pesky visitors that want to surf, so they would tear down the street signs to Stent Road. They did it so many times that the local sign-putter-uppers got tired of replacing the signs and just painted the name of the road on the rock.  No more worry about signs--however, the do have to repaint the name occasionally when it gets whitewashed. 

At Waverley [also in southern Taranaki], we were greeted one day with red seaweed littering the sands.  That was so very cool to see.  It seems that it is a bit rare but it has commercial potential.  Find out more by clicking here.

For those who are keeping up with the duckling situation, the total to date is 12 broods with over 70 ducklings! A brood of 7 showed up the day after Christmas and a Mom with a lone baby appeared today.  Yes, I still think they are adorable especially now that most of the others have found somewhere else to call home but we are still going to net the pond.  I'm sure the grass won't grow half as well without duck poo everywhere, but cleaning it up....