New Year

Spent a busy few days since Rosemary and Graham arrived back on New Year's Eve. I was working up at the little store with Colleen and Dave, just keeping shelves stocked, serving ice cream. Boy, are they busy!!!
The village has indeed filled up, as they had said it would. There are people everywhere, cars/RVs towing great big boats, kids playing in the streets – very strange, after the village was so very empty for so long. It should begin to empty out and the end of this week, but we'll be gone by then.
Anyway, back to recent events –Mervyn and Lesley Aitken, who are friends from Palmerston North arrived with R and G, and we had a great time. Went to a jazz/blues concert in a nearby vineyard, and heard great music, lots of people dancing on the lawn – must have been 300 – 400 people there if not more.
Then home for a NY Eve dinner, prepared by all of us – cold ham, boiled new potatoes, lemon mousse – yum. After that we settled down for a rousing card game – called Quidler, it's a word game, and because all of us love words (the dictionary continues to get a work-out), we had a great time. Silly, but fun.
Today, we all fixed breakfast together – NZ sausages, scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, courtesy of moi-meme. . . Do we love to eat or what!
After Mervyn and Lesley left, R and G, Marg and I took off for Tongariro National Park, which is less than half an hour away. I think I mentioned in an early blog that a very canny Maori chief gave that land to the English govt in the 1840's, as a national park, hoping that it's sacred nature would be recognized and the land would not be developed. The Park contains several active volcanoes, including one used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies; and, the entire park served as "Mordor" in the same films. The 'pretty' mountain, Ruapehu last erupted in 1995/1996, and the entire area within a 50 km radius was filled with ash . The land around the mountain is now covered with low bush, and flax bushes which grow wild.
A national kite-flying event was taking place at the golf course in front of the Chateau Tongariro, the one hotel on Mount Ruapehu. How beautiful it was to see dozens of unique kites, flying in a clear blue sky against the backdrop of Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom). And dozens of kids running, chasing the kites, and the kites' shadows, laughing wildly. Another food event followed, of course – another picnic, on the grass, watching the kites soar and dip.
To end the day, we went to the beach at Pakawa , which is the village next to Omori. There were hundreds of people there, but we found a place to set our chairs in the shade, and slept and read, and watched the people swim, kayak, water-ski. . . . Beautiful, of course. What a way to spend New Years Day. Very strange.
Bye for now.