Botanicals

We have a beautiful botanical garden in the capital, complete with hot house, begonia house and rose garden. It also has a conservatory coffee shop. Welcome to happy afternoon dreaming in the sun

Foxglove Hollow

We dubbed our home "Foxglove Hollow". These purple bee high-rises are scattered amongst the native trees all over our property; a constant source of fascination to our two cats.

On the road to Nelson

Golden Bay and Motueka

Random shots out of the archives

Wellington Harbour

Traffic, S. Island style

Plimmerton, looking to the S.Island

Auckland
Welcome to my world. Wishing my visitors a wonderful weekend.

Today..........

I felt hard pressed on every side


intellectually at a standstill


and seriously not amused


but trusting for a day in the sun tomorrow

Basket Case Robbery

Tonight's content of the shopping bag: tinned and packet cat food, rice, washing up liquid, tinned fruit, chilli beans, marmite, olive oil, two loaves of bread, sliced sandwich beef, kippers and evaporated milk. Total bill (with discount) NZ$99 or US$71.75 / UK pounds 45.80.

A recent article in the Weekend Herald did an analysis of comparative shopping baskets in NZ, Australia, the UK and US. The US and UK shopping baskets were cheaper than the NZ equivalent. Given that our salaries average one third less than a comparative UK salary, you can understand why we gasp with amazement at grocery prices in the UK. It is cheaper to buy NZ lamb and milk products in England than it is here How is it that we are told we pay "export prices" for lamb and butter here, and yet the price in the UK is cheaper? It doesn't make sense but it does make me mad. We have only two supermarket chains, so competition is poor and we have less than 5 million people so the "economy of scale" argument is used all the time.

Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful I have food to eat, but boy, this country is EXPENSIVE!