Tonight's beautiful sunset.

I was inside at Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast and was concentrating on something, when I looked up and noticed this glorious soft dusky pink glow in the room.  I looked outside and the whole sky was lit up in rose, and peach and soft blues and greys and oranges, changing every second.  Even the beach far below looked rose.  Here are the photos

Aren't the colours wonderful?   The skies here seem so enormous somehow.   We really do get the most spectacular sunsets.   I realised that tomorrow is the longest day.  These photos were taken at around 9.15p.m tonight.   I just had to share them.  

Godley Head Reserve

I haven't had time to write here for a while because so much has been happening, but I wanted to mention our short trip from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast to the tip of Godley Head Reserve, which is the mouth of the huge bay and harbour for Lyttelton.

It was a brilliant sunny day and only takes 20 minutes max from here.  We kept on stopping as their are so many wonderful views.  At the very tip is an old military post from the WWII - to guard the harbour from the Japanese.  There were about 500 personnel there at the height of the war, but no guns were ever fired in anger, thank heavens.

Now it is an interesting place to go to, particularly if you are militarily minded, but I found the remains sad.  Obviously there is lots of concrete.  Having just seen the film 'The Guns of Navarone' again recently, the whole place reminded me of a miniature version of that.  Stunning views from there.

You can walk along paths which take you to the observation post, and behind that on the cliffs was long spring grass just waiting for us to sit and have a picnic lunch and look at this wonderful sight:  a yacht with three beautiful burgundy sails gently going by in a gentle breeze.   Gulls were wheeling, but not calling.   A special place.

computers again

Welllll!   It is now almost two weeks since my hard drive gave up the ghost.  my computer experts have been working very hard at it, but computers seem to have their own personalities.  They DEFINITELY sulk; they practise Go Slows; they are mischievous in their actions because you   t h i n k  they are mended and then something totally different and completely unexpected comes up and you cant work the gadget at all.  

I now realise that a computer is actually quite important in life at the moment!   but also am aware that it can dominate, so have to be careful not to let it!

I have put this lovely photo in just to restore the balance in life between machines and nature.  This is in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, and I go there a great deal from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast.

Computer crashing.

My computer crashed a week ago, here at Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast, which was not helpful.  I have been thinking during this time how essential or inessential a computer is.  Am I dominated by a machine?   The answer seems to be that in actual fact other than the emails, where I went to a dear kind neighbour, I did not miss it much.   I have to admit though that I had just finished all the most important projects I had been doing, or otherwise I think it would have mattered a great deal more.

I read an article recently which said that people are dominated by the web and their computers.  I do know one particular person who seems to zero in on the computer as often as possible, and relentlessly, to the detriment of human communication.   This has to be harmful to the human spirit eventually, because we are human and no matter how wonderful and helpful a computer is, we cannot allow ourselves to be dominated by them!

Cycling

We went down to Scarborough beach the other day from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast and saw these cyclists en route.   Cycling is really popular in this part of the world, and frequentley you can see them cycling up and down the hill tracks.  Whew!   I am not fit enough for that but am full of admiration for those who do.

Aren't these views of the bay around and beyond Lyttelton beautiful????   Spring in this area is breathtakingly beautiful.   We drove through the little town, and on round the wiggly road right round the bay, and ended up half way down the other side at Orton Bradley Park.  This was one of the early settler's homes, and has some huge old trees, including Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), and a huge Horse chestnut (Aesculum hippocastum) with giant 'candles' flowering.   There is a beautiful Rhodendron walk, which is in full bloom, and some of them have the most glorious perfume, so there we were ooohing and aaaahing and smelling every flower we could.  Some of the plants are very tall.  In between are lots of the Himalayan Mountain Lily, (Crinodendron giganteum) in various stages of growth.  They will look beautiful soon, when the Rhodies are mainly over.  

There are various buildings with farm related  items in them, and are museums, and if you are technically minded which we aren't, you would find it fascinating.  There were people in there lost in wonder at it all.

It is very hot today, and at Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast I am catching up on lots of paperwork, but had a lovely walk on the beach with a friend this morning.

We drove over to Lyttelton on Sunday from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast .   This view is only a ten minute drive from us, driving up Evans Pass Road, and wow what a view when you get to the top!   You look down into the ancient volcanic caldera.  On the left of both pictures is out to the open sea, and to the right this wonderful huge natural protected harbour, which is why Lyttelton is the Port for Christchurch. The second photo is looking at tiny little Diamond Harbour, and a ferry potters across all day long backwards and forwards from Lyttelton.  Sometimes you can see dolphins as you motor across,playing in the water.

It was such a glorious warm, sunny Spring day, and we spent the whole day looking at the views en route, and going for a picnic, and then to She, which is a great little restaurant in Governors Bay, which specialises in chocolate.  We are both chocoholics! 

On to the next job....

Sea and Sky at Sumner

The sun is shining, and it is a wonderful warm pleasant temperature here at Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast and I can hear the sound of the waves coming into the shore.  I LOVE that sound.  As a child I lived near the sea on various occasions, and perhaps that is why.   I also love looking at the sea, in all weathers.  Living here is so special because I am so near the sea, and all I have to do is look out of my sitting room window and out of my kitchen window and out of the bedroom windows to see it.  It can be comforting and daunting, peaceful or roaring, but it is always the most wonderful presence to be near.

This photo is actually of Scarborough beach at high tide.  Scarborough beach is one half of Sumner, and Sumner beach is the other half, with Cave Rock in the middle, and at the far end of Sumner beach, Shag Rock.  Pigeons nest there, and not Shags, or if there are, I have never noticed them.  The Shags are amazing as they fly into the Botanic Gardens and nest there!

lots of jobs to do so must go.

Royal Spoonbills

It was really exciting yesterday morning driving through the Estuary from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast in sunshine.

There were about five Royal Spoonbills just close to the road, feeding in the low water.  I have never seen them quite so close.   They don't mind the traffic at all - they just ignore it.   Sometimes there have been up to seventeen of the birds in this area.   They are quite rare.  The Maori name is Kutuku-ngutupapa. 
They feeds on insects, shellfish, small fish and frogs.You can identify them in the distance by the way they feed, walking and sweeping their spoon bills from side to side.

Black Swans

We were driving to town from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast and on the canal in the sunshine were this lovely family of Black Swans.   They originate in Australia, but have happily naturalised here, and sometimes on the nearby Estuary there are literally hundreds of them bobbing up and down on the water, resting from the Ocean beyond the Spit.   These parents are very forward in having their Cygnets, because most of the other Swans have much smaller babies.

There was a young couple with a toddler having a picnic lunch very near the Swans, and I was a bit apprehensive for them, as Swans can be very dangerous, but the couple were totally unfazed by the Swan Family.  Such a treat to see the birds so close.

kayaking and sailing

On the Estuary again, en route to Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast someone was kayaking.   It is so exhiliarating just to watch all the fun and activity on the water, never mind doing it.   There were lots of small boats dinghy racing, and one or two were having problems turning at the buoys because of the wind, and perhaps because they were not quite as expert as some of the other sailors.  It was misty out towards the sea, but inland the sun was shining brightly - quite a contrast.

Kite surfing and wind surfing

Yesterday afternoon the wind was up, and we were driving back to Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast and there were a huge amount of water activities on the Estuary a few minutes from our home.  You can  see how strong the wind was by the angle of the windsurfer, and also the wake from the kite surfer.   Friends of mine are very good kite surfers so I am sure they would have been out enjoying the weather.

Native Flower.....

Driving from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast into the centre of Christchurch yesterday, I had no problem parking (not that there ever is, actually), as the car was being serviced.   My friend and I walked through part of the Gardens, which are looking very very pretty with the Rhododendrons, Camellias, Michelias, flowering, among the exotics, and in the Leonard Cockayne Garden in the Native Section, there was Cleanthus, amongst others.  It is called Kaka beak locally, because the flower is supposed to look like the beak of a New Zealand Parrot.     Sir Joseph Banks and Captain Cook saw it flowering in Maori gardens in the 18th Century.

I love the New Zealand Native flowers, because most of them are dainty and elegant, and quite shy on the whole - not overly dramatic.

In Town Today

I drove into town today from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast to do lots of administrative things, not least the annual car service.  I had to wait for four hours while it was being done, which gave me a great opportunity to see a friend and have a treat of a yummy tapas lunch at a restaurant inside the entrance to the Botanic Gardens, and en route I saw two somewhat forbidding statues of Superintendants of Canterbury in the early days - the 1850's and 1860's - one inside the Gardens, and one just outside.  They looks so immensely self confident and as if they knew all  was well with their world, and yet they had only been out here for a few years and were real pioneers.  The first settlers lived in tiny A frame houses, one of which is in the Christchurch Museum, which is at the other end of the path from the restaurant my friend and I were in.

It says on this statue 'Wm Sefton Moorhouse  - to whose energy and perseverence  Canterbury owes the tunnel between the port and the plains'.    The tunnel is almost 2km long.  I know because I measured it when I drove through last week from Lyttelton.  Quite a feat in a very young country.

On to another job.....

Spring

In the garden  at Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast the Kowhai is flowering, and is the most beautiful bright yellow.  It's official name is Sophora tetraptera, and is the floral symbol for New Zealand.     That is quite a mouthful to say and almost everyone calls it Kowhai, which is Maori.   There are actually 8 different types of Kowhai, and once you get your eye in, it is interesting to decide which one you are looking at.  The different varieties flower at different times from early to late Spring, and to see a small tree absolutely covered in flowers is special.   The native birds love them too especially the Tui and  Silver Eye.

The evenings are drawing out which is great, because it means you can have more time walking on the beach, or surfing, or just watching the waves.   We have had great sunny weather recently too.

Concert

Tonight from Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast we are going to a concert in the centre of Christchurch, at the James Hay Theatre.   It is easy to get to, as it is only about 20 minutes drive away, or we could go by bus, but we prefer to drive ourselves at night.  

Christchurch is such an easy city to get around in, as it is not very large, and the centre is logically planned.  It was first designed only in 1850, so it does not have the complications of so many much older cities.  The centre is Victorian Gothic, and it is interesting to notice how the visitors here from Asia are fascinated, as for them it may well be the nearest they will ever get to seeing Northern European style 19th Century Architecture, and here we are far away down in the Pacific, and our next land mass is Antarctica! 

Our weather is absolutely glorious, and the Spring colours are bursting out.  Again we have a wonderful mixture of plants from all over the world, which adds to the exotic interest.   We are called the Garden City, and there are literally hundreds of gardens looked after by the city.  They vary from the huge Botanic Gardens which are spectacular, (and I am going to show lots of photos over a period of time to show this); to tiny ones only a few feet square/metres square.

must go.

Today on the Beach at Sumner

Today at Richmond Hill Bed and Breakfast  the sun is shining brilliantly, and the view of the Kaikoura mountains is very clear - glimmering in the far distance  across the huge bay.

I have just had a walk on the beach, with the tide low, and there are quite a few surfers out there.   Lots of people walking their dogs, and just enjoying this glorious spring day.