Friday, February 17, 2006

The sea, the sea ...


The Pacific!
Originally uploaded by goforchris.
...the Pacific Ocean, to be precise. We were in Dunedin today, and this beach is on the outskirts of this city in which the street names seem all to come from Edinburgh - there's even a Spottiswoode Street! By the time we reached the beach, there was quite a breeze blowing from the South-West, which actually made it feel more like a summer day in Dunbar, and the sea itself was c-o-l-d. The surfers were all in full wetsuits and kept disappearing worryingly from view.

The journey to Dunedin took about two and a half hours and took us through an amazing variety of scenery - including Roxburgh, a township in an area which looked much more familiar than the barren, baked hills of Cromwell. We saw fields which had actually been improved by having open-cast gold mining carried out in them; by the time the mining was over and the land restored the old boggy fields were fertile and green.

I learned the other day that Cromwell is the furthest from the sea of any town in New Zealand. It was good to smell the salt today - but I'm glad we're here in this hot, dry corner. Chilly sea air can wait another two weeks, thanks!

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:53 PM

    Hello! Margo and I are sitting here on the Inservice day reading your blog.... how jealous we are!
    Sun is shining here (just) but that does not make it any better... roll on 2.55 (us part timers!)Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AHA! - noted that you were not working on the In-Service day.
    Me too......!

    Took some pictures of the new school and posted them on my blog site, having worked very hard earlier of course - delivering INSET to staff.

    ReplyDelete
  3. p.s. Chris.

    Would you stop enjoying your visit to New Zealand and post more blogs for us poor sods stuck back here in Dunoon ? I need a reason to get up in the morning! LOL ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think you should all be working on developing blogging as a tool for the further edification of th weans! But I'm doing my best - we're off to a barbie tomorrow....

    ReplyDelete