Love Is in The Air!

The ‘platter’ dinner we put together last night with the tasty morsels collected at the Otago Farmers Market was delicious…it included a small loaf of sourdough bread, kumara & chickpea dip with an assortment of seeds and herbs sprinkled on top, smoked cheese, nectarine chutney, Polish sausage, smoked chicken, tomato, ‘Flatto’ white peaches and a bag of mixed leaves from an organic stand…it did include nasturtium flowers and a few other teeny tiny flowers. Dad complained about having to eat ‘bloody’ flowers but the lovely bottle of wine we drank to accompany the meal soon appeased him!

Dunedin is built in a natural harbor on a relatively small area of flat land. It is surrounded by steep hillsides. Some of its streets are steep & this morning before we left we visited Baldwin Street; claimed to be the steepest street in the world, a claim that is celebrated during the annual chocolate festival by rolling 15,000+ jaffas down it.

One of us…yes it was me…decided to walk up to the top of the street while the other three members of the team (pikers) waited in the car at the bottom of the hill!

 The street!

A lovely Japanese lady took this one of me in front of the mural 
at the top of the street…I returned the favour and took one of her.

The Pikers!

We then set off on the 290 k drive to Te Anu…along the way we noticed many changes in the landscape…deer were added to the list of livestock being farmed and the rolling hills became steep mountains.

Ever since we arrived in NZ we have been very surprised by the weather, we were expecting the temperatures to be in the mid to low twenties throughout our stay. In Christchurch the weather was very warm and one day the temperature made it to 32°C! We were beginning to think we had not brought enough summery clothing. Today was different, at one point the temperature was 5°C!

As we drew closer to Te Anau I was stunned to see snow on the highest mountain peaks, my comments about this fact were met with disbelief all round…they all said it was just low cloud on the mountain tops. There was low cloud…BUT THERE WAS ALSO SNOW! Andrew and Dad finally agreed that perhaps it could be snow…however there was no convincing Mum! She felt that it looked like snow but she was certain that it was just low cloud.

Mum had a big surprise when we were shown to our rooms…we booked a ‘Love Is In The Air’ package that meant  an upgrade to a deluxe room with a spa bath & both rooms had a bottle of wine and cheeseboard on arrival. The rooms are very spacious, the bathrooms beautiful and the double spa baths with luxurious soaps and bath potions very tempting.  Mum was quite overcome and got a bit teary…wonderful. We opened a bottle of wine and shared the cheeseboards with a few left overs from the Farmers market that were still in our cooler bag…what a yummy lunch.

We settled in to our rooms and while mum and dad had a rest, Andrew and I went for a walk…the township sits on the edge of Lake Te Anau, lying on the border of Fiordland National Park and Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Area.

Lake Te Anau is the largest lake in the South Island and largest in the country by water volume getting to depths of over 400m.The lake sprawls at the feet of high rugged mountains, and here are some of the photos Andrew took on our walk…mum was finally convinced about the snow.

In Te Anau restaurants are plentiful with menus featuring delicious local fare like venison, lobster and seafood…we walked along the main street…mum saw the snow on the mountains from there and was finally convinced we weren't making it up. We decided on a lovely Italian restaurant…our meal choices featured all of the above options…

After dinner we returned to our rooms for coffee and polished off some more of the Cadbury chocolate we purchased at the factory yesterday. Mum has talked Dad into having a spa before bed tonight…’Love Is In The Air’!

To finish off tonight I have found the entire poem that I mentioned yesterday, it brings back fond memories for me and I hope it does for you too.

Vespers

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,

Droops on the little hands little gold head.

Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!

Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

God bless Mummy. I know that's right.

Wasn't it fun in the bath to-night?

The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot.

Oh! God bless Daddy - I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more,

I can see Nanny's dressing-gown on the door.

It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood.

Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,

And pull the hood right over my head,

And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,

And nobody knows that I'm there at all.

Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.

And what was the other I had to say?

I said "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?

Oh! Now I remember it. God bless Me.

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,

Droops on the little hands little gold head.

Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!

Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.