Part 8 - Mother Nature is MAD!

I must update you on the VHS situation - since we have moved into the city we seem to have also moved into a new era as we now have a DVD shop. Alas it's called 'United Video' but rest assured it is full to the rafters with DVDs for hire :o) So that's good news :o) Not so good news however was reading in the paper this week that a woman was wandering around the streets of Invercargill brandishing a machete and threatening motorists - until the police caught up with her. See? You can never escape mentally unstable people, no matter where you go.

One thing that is different in Invercargill to the rest of NZ (some other cities here may do this too but not to my limited knowledge so far) is that you can't buy alcohol in supermarkets here; you have to go to a liquor store. The reason they do this is because they take a percentage of the money made from alcohol sales and put it back into the community. What a lovely idea?! Don't get me wrong it can be a little inconvenient as you have to do your shopping and then go to Liquor Land or similar for a bottle of wine but I think it's a very good idea indeed. Wales' community funds would be minted if they took it on board.

Well on Thursday morning we awoke to news that a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the Kermadec Islands at 7.03am, raising a tsunami warning for NZ and Tonga. The news stated that IF there was a tsunami then it would strike North Island at around 9am and as such people should 'stay away from the beach'. To me this seems like a laughable piece of advice - the nature of a tsunami is that you don't have to be on a beach to be affected by it. However, having spoken to a few New Zealanders that morning in work they said that when a tsunami warning was issued it was not uncommon for people to flock to the beaches in order to see the big wave come in!! Turns out it's not such a ludicrous warning after all. No one seemed to know if a tsunami had been generated or not and the only news was to 'wait and see' - it turns out the tsunami alert was cancelled at 9am - when it should have hit. This reinforced my belief that no one actually knew whether it was going to happen or not until it did / didn't happen. Amazing given all of the technology we have today that no one could say if there was going to be a BIG wave as a result of the quake.

The weather has changed dramatically here this week. Last weekend we were basking in the cold but very sunny, clear skies of Queenstown. Since Thursday the winds have picked up and they are bitterly cold that freezes your fingertips. The rain doesn't seem to be drizzly here like in Wales - it's either torrential or not raining. Suits me as I quite like torrential rain and I love no rain at all. The winds howl down the side of the house at night and the rain really is vicious - it actually woke me up on Saturday morning (although not for long!). I have come to the conclusion that mother nature is extremely angry at the moment - or possibly going through some mad PMT as we often have very light, bright sunny periods too (no pun intended).

This morning (Sunday) we actually had some snow but not enough for it to stick to the ground, I still have my fingers crossed for some on the ground soon. The great news is that ski resorts finally have decent snowfall and can officially start ski season. In spite of the weather we went for a walk yesterday for over an hour - it rained in part and was dry in part but all in all it was lovely. I'm trying to be able to find my way around but it just doesn't seem to be sinking in. I blame the length of the streets. In Wales we don't tend to have streets that have house number 500 on it but it's part and parcel of life here. Each house is detached (more often than not) or semi detached (less common). Every single house is different too - that's the joy of controlling your own build I guess. Whereas in the UK the houses are largely built by housing companies and you decide whether you like it or not and you buy it or you continue your search. Here people build their own homes so you might have 500 houses along one BIG street and no 2 houses will look the same. It is quite striking when you look at it through stranger's eyes. We walked into Windsor town - a nice part of Invercargill - and through the park back to the house. When we got back I had a card in the mail from my best mate in Wales (she actually lives in England these days but we don't talk about that ;-)) which provoked both laughter and tears so last night consisted of a cheese and wine evening at home and a film.

This afternoon's plan is to go for another walk but going the other way - into the main town - and hopefully I'll be able to figure out where I work without the OH (Other Half) having to take me there each morning and pick me up each evening. It is literally ten minutes away walking so I really need to get to grips with it.

Friday night we decided to make the delicious Jamie O recipe that we loved in Wales - it consists of tandoori salmon on naan bread with a natural yogurt / chilli / cucumber / lemon dressing. It is simply divine - if you haven't tried it then look online for the recipe as it's simply amazing. However, while searching for the ingredients in the supermarket the OH said "maybe Jamie Oliver should come to New Zealand and try to make this dish!" Trying to find the ingredients was not the easiest task in the world. Our first obstacle was chillies - we couldn't find any in the 1st supermarket so off we went to the other one. Finally we got chillies and then searched for cucumbers. Well they must be seasonal prices because even though these cucumbers were grown in NZ they were $5.69 EACH! That's about £2.85 to you people at home. Insane huh?! We made it nonetheless and it was as amazing as I remember it.

Naan breads are different out here too though - we had to buy pita breads or panini breads in order to get what we know as naan breads back home. The naans over here are actually more like tortilla wraps.

The Rugby World Cup tickets went on sale here this week. We've been looking into going to watch Wales play, however the Wales games are in Wellington and Hamilton. The tickets are reasonably priced but the naughty airlines have sky rocketed their prices and a return ticket from Invers would cost around £300 each per return. I haven't even looked at the cost of hotels. So it looks like watching a Wales game is off the cards unfortunately :o( There are games here in Invercargill. Scotland are playing 2 games and Argentina vs Romania is here. We could go just to be part of the RWC but it won't be any rugby we'd generally go out of our way to watch in person (no offence intended!) We may make our way up to Dunedin (2 hours drive) to watch the Ireland vs Italy game but not sure yet as it's at 8:30pm on a Sunday. The tickets are nowhere near sold out for any of the games we're considering so we have time to decide.

I hope all is well in Wales and your summer is going strong. I've heard mixed reports of sunshine and it being too hot to sleep mixed with people saying there is no summer as yet. I'll cross my fingers for decent sunshine for you guys and you cross yours for decent snowfall for us...deal?