by I flew into Timaru on Thursday on one of the new, well old, 50-seater planes. Only 14 of us were on it. My parents picked me up and took me to their new place in Moeraki. It’s got sea views and all-day sun with two decks. Mum reckons its value has already gone up by 20 grand or something. They both love the North Otago coastline and it is beautiful there. We awoke on Friday to a blanket of snow. Along the coast to the Kaik we saw dozens of seals but no suggestion of a yellow-eyed penguin. Yesterday we walked to the famous boulders which according to Wikipedia have a bimodal distribution – big ones, little ones, and very few in-between ones. You could see the occasional boulder spawning from the cliff face. There were also some interesting rock formations. When we got back we watched some of the opening ceremony of the Olympics. I always find it interesting when teams walk on out of English-language order. And the Portuguese language, especially Brazilian Portuguese, is gorgeous. It rivals Romanian for me. I’m not all that bothered about the Olympics themselves this time though, and I don’t think I’m alone there. I watched some of the coverage today (my parents have all those Sky pop-up channels) and found footage of Rio street life more interesting than any of the basketball or hockey.
I’m now in Geraldine, in the biggest of my parents’ four properties. I’m surprised by how keen Mum is to sell it. There’s always a lot of property talk whenever I come down this way. I hate it.
We’re in the midst of a decidedly cold snap. Inland here in Geraldine there’s even more snow on the ground than there was in Moeraki. After a lovely crisp cloudless day it’s currently minus 2 degrees. It’ll be more like minus 6 when I catch my 6:55 plane in the morning. Good practice for what I’ll have to contend with in a few months.
