It's raining, it's pouring....

Monday 29th June: Rain fell overnight. We knew this because we were woken up by the sound of rain dripping through the roof on to our bedroom ceiling. A roofer had recently fixed this part of the roof after we reported the ceiling there was bulging. They removed the bit of roof insulation there that was sodden but did not replace it. The drip used to fall silently on to it, but now it is loud, so no improvement at all.
Steve spent the morning around town talking to the bank, solicitor, Council, building inspector, estate agents etc in town, gathering more information about the house we recently visited. We schooled, learning about the intestines and practising our Spanish. We also started to make some of the boys' entries for the Waimate Winter Show later this week. The photo shows you Jonathan's entry for the "model" section.
After lunch we went to see another house, but this one did not meet our needs. I took Peter and Jonathan to gymnastics then home for tea. It had rained all day and the chickens were now filthy and wet and very grumpy! As the top temperature today was only 3 degrees, the rain fell as snow on the hills in front of our house.
After tea Steve and I settled down for Desperate Housewives and Spooks.

Flying fox

Sunday 28th June: Today dawned with a thick frost and subzero temperatures. Fortunately Edward's camp had been sleeping indoors and not under canvas last night! The Cub Leader rang to say Edward wasn't very happy this morning so I drove over to see him. He was tired, cold and hungry - three good reasons to be unhappy! I made him some hot breakfast and had a cuddle with him and he decided to stay on at the camp. While I was out Steve had delivered Peter and Jonathan to Sunday School and I collected them later. My friend Sharon and her children Thomas and Katelyn came round for roast lunch and rich chocolate mousse (husband Gordon is a Cub leader and son Brandon is a Cub on the camp too).
At 3pm the camp was finishing so I went a little earlier and was there in time to see the children going on the flying fox (zip wire).
Home for homemade pizzas and off to bed for Edward to catch up on lost sleep!
The photo is one of Edward on the flying fox, which you had to climb up the side of a steep hill to get on to and went right across the top of a large paddock. There was a lot of screaming as the children rattled down it!

Berries galore

Saturday 27th June: Today started icy cold but turned into a chilly but sunny day again. In the morning Steve went out flying his planes. The boys and I packed Edward's stuff for Cub Camp and I baked muffins for him to take.
After lunch we drove Edward to Attwill Park, on the edge of Waimate for his winter camp. He had agreed to stay overnight- his first night away from us. The rest of us drove round the corner to revisit the house we went to on Monday. Steve and his boss Barney went up in the roof space to have a look, and I measured up rooms and had a closer look at parts of the garden.
The boys had tea and our neighbour came in to babysit. Steve and I went out for a lovely meal at Riverstone Kitchen south of the Waitaki River, about 20 minutes from here on the way to Oamaru. The meal was excellent and we went with the locum GP and her husband who is at Steve's surgery at the moment. They are from Canada and are living two doors down from us.
The photo is of a bush in our front garden that is covered in berries and is alive with blackbirds and sparrows all day.

The end of the week

Friday 26th June: Another cool and damp morning but it warmed up to 12 degrees in the shade and it was nice and warm in the sun.
We were at Ruth's house for piano lessons about 8.45am and finished by 10am. We went for a walk on the way home and the boys played in the garden when we got home. We got some maths work done and completed our topics for the week, including how chocolate is made ( a very important topic!).
In the afternoon the boys played with playdough and I got on with planting out some strawberry plants into tubs. For tea we had tuna fish surprise and toffee cake.
The two photos are of Jonathan. First, dressed up in his pirate outfit, and I asked him to look fierce. Second, I found him stroking a piece of ribbon in my sewing box. I used a piece of this ribbon on his "snuggoo" - a piece of fleece with soft ribbons to cuddle and love at bedtime - and he just discovered this other piece, sat down and sucked his thumb.

Sunrise in Waimate

Thursday 25th June: Today started bitterly cold but with a beautiful sunrise. The fabulous thing about this time of the year is that the sunrise is about 8am so I get to enjoy it!
We fitted a couple of hours schooling in and then headed down to Oamaru. We got some shopping done and then the boys had their swimming lesson and a play in the pool with the other children after. We enjoyed lunch out at Subway and got a blanket in Warehouse for Edward's Cub Camp this weekend.
We arrived home about 4.15pm and got straight on with cooking tea. We had home-made sausages and baked beans and mashed potato. Jeanette came to babysit while I went to TKD and Steve was in when I got home. I had a great chat with my Dad on skype and we chatted about photos of the house we viewed on Monday.
The photo is of the sunrise taken from our back step this morning.

Jonathan the Kea

Wednesday 24th June: For the past week or so the mornings have been frosty, but today was a mild 8 degrees when I went to feed the hens.
In the morning the boys schooled and I managed to make pumpkin soup, bread rolls and scones whilst supervising. A friend called Sharon joined us for lunch, then the boys played and the estate agent called round to give us answers to some questions from the property we saw on Monday. Then it was time for Jonathan's big exciting moment - he was going to be invested into Keas. This is usually for 6 and 7 year olds but the pack only had a few children and he was invited to start early. He loves going (with Peter there too) and has been practising his Promise and Motto for the past two weeks.
I took some photos, of course, and chose one of them for today's photo here. Edward and I popped out during the rest of Keas and I had my flu jab done at Steve's surgery.
Home for tea, we had pork stroganoff and flapjack and custard.

Today is Tuesday

Tuesday 23rd June: A brighter day today so the washing got partly dry on the line. We schooled in the morning and it was a successful session. We are studying the stomach and the boys are especially enjoying a book we are using called "Burp Gurgle-urgle".
After lunch we walked down to town and went to the crafty shop, supermarket and library, and then went to Video-Ezy to hire a DVD for the boys to watch tonight for their movie night. They chose Wall-E which turned out to be rather entertaining.
For tea we had pancakes with chicken and mushroom filling which everyone gobbled up.
Steve went out climbing this evening.
The photo is of a wall painted by a local artist. It is on the side of the Chinese take-away / fish'n'chip shop in the main street.

I can see ewe

Monday 22nd June: Happy birthday Dad. Today was another chilly day and the air was damp too. We schooled the first part of the morning and then went to see another house for sale. You can see the details at http://www.shrewdmove.co.nz/1087616 but as you can see you don't get a lot of information and the photos aren't great either. However the house is a real possibility for us. We were rather surprised though to find out that the house comes with a pregnant ewe and a goat! But when we down into the paddock we found that the ewe had delivered (see photo) and so her future is now a little less certain.
After lunch the boys played and then soon it was time for gymnastics, tea, Cubs and TKD - the usual Monday routine. And of course it finished with Desperate Housewives and Spooks.

Mashed yam cookies

Sunday 21st June: The shortest day of the year for us! Today dawned (well, 8 o'clocked!) sunny but then a big bank of cloud came over and warmed the air a little. Steve went to fly his aeroplanes with a friend in Oamaru and the boys and I went to Sunday School.
We had a lovely roast lunch with roast potatoes, roast carrots and roast pumpkin, followed by chocolate and apple cake.
In the afternoon the boys were let loose on the computer and tv games and at one point we had the music from three different games going at the same time in one room!
For tea I had baked some cinnamon and sultana cookies. They are meant to be dipped in runny white chocolate and allowed to set, but I ran out of time. My solution was to hardly melt the chocolate and then try to wipe it over the cookies. It looked more like mashed potato! We have just harvested the yams from two of our plants but not yet eaten them, so we told the boys they were mashed yam on top. They all believed us, but Peter and Jonathan tentatively nibbled them anyway and said how much the yams tasted like white chocolate, while Edward refused to try them!
In the evening I had a lovely chat to Jackie in Havant, and hopefully the rain held off long enough for her bbq.

Guy's birthday party

Saturday 20th June: A nice sunny day. We had a lazy start to the day and a late breakfast then everyone poddled round doing their own thing. Then we found the waste pipe had blocked again so Steve had the unpleasant task of sorting that out.
At lunchtime we had a call inviting us to a surprise party at 2pm as an early celebration for Guy's 49th birthday. Guy is the farmer who took us out in his combine harvester earlier in the year, he flies model planes with Steve, and owns the field with their landing strip on. His wife Kathryn is a nurse at Steve's surgery. We picked up other friends on the way out to his farmhouse.
It was a very civilised party of tea and a cake with candles. Then there was the unveiling of his present - a new plane (he's crashed all the others, apparently!). The photos show him sandwiched between the heat of his lounge fire and the heat of his candles; and the delight when he uncovered his new plane.
Home for tea and stores before bed.

Boys in costume

Friday 19th June: Sunny but cold in the gusty wind. We started the day with piano lessons for the boys, and they also completed their flight lapbooks. We walked to a friend's house to play and then home for lunch. Over lunch Peter and Jonathan decided to dress up with the bits and bobs we bought yesterday, as a cowboy and pirate respectively (photos to come another day, I'm sure).
After lunch we needed to go to town. Peter couldn't understand why the staff in the bank might not appreciate him coming in with face mask and pistol and so reluctantly left his cowboy costume at home!
We went to the bank, craft shop, supermarket and library and then walked home. The boys played a computer game and watched some episodes of "Pink Panther" while I cooked home-made burgers and chocolate mousse for tea.
After tea it was bath-time and I sat and knitted while Steve uploaded some flying videos to you-tube.
The photo is of a tiny cottage in the next street from us - one of the smallest homes I've seen but beautifully neatly kept with a well-loved garden.

Here there and everywhere

Thursday 18th June: Happy birthday Sally. Another chilly day but nice in the sunshine. We did a couple of hours of schooling and then headed south to Oamaru (photo of view west taken from next to the Waitaki River). First we went to the $2 shop and got some props for a fancy-dress disco the boys have in a couple of weeks. Then it was time for their swimming lesson. The small classes (3 or 4 in each group) means they are progressing well. From there we drove further south for about 5 minutes to Totara School. The Life Education Trust wagon (see photo) was at the school and a homeschool group were having a session for the afternoon. There were 13 children in all, age 5 to 8, who had a 90 minute session about "Air to Live" which our boys enjoyed enormously.
We drove back to Waimate via the supermarket, and passed the land of the Cub leader whose husband was busy burning the stubble (photo).
After tea Jeanette came to babysit while I went to TKD training. Steve was on-call but didn't get called out at all.

Chalk graffiti

Wednesday 17th June: Today was bitterly cold but sunny at times. At 7.30am all three boys rushed in to tell us that had put trousers, shirts, sweaters and coats on top f their pyjamas and would be going out into the garden to decorate the concrete with the new chalks I bought them yesterday. It was 1.9 degrees but they were still there at breakfast time at 8 o'clock.
We schooled in the morning and learnt more about the heart and circulation, did some more of our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory project and learnt some colours in Spanish.
After lunch we went into town to run some errands and then went to the playground before Keas at 4pm.
Tea was beef casserole and the boys took AGES getting ready for bed so there was no time left for stories.
The photo is of Edward beside part of his decoration of the back garden.

Waimate GP

Tuesday 16th June: Happy birthday Jacob. A bitterly cold day after hailstones overnight. I felt awful when I discovered I had locked the chickens outdoors overnight with no shelter. They were very cross with me this morning but still laid their eggs, but might refuse for the next couple of days apparently.
Dunedin (2 hours south) had so much snow overnight that the police recommended people not to drive and only to walk if they had "4wd boots"!
We schooled in the morning and after lunch helped Edward's Cubs leader set up a display in the library.
Back home we had meatballs for tea and a yummy chocolate pudding.
In the evening I was at a Gym Club meeting.
The photo is of the statue in town of Dr Margaret Cruickshank. She was the second female doctor to qualify in NZ and the first female doctor to practice in NZ. She was a GP in Waimate until she died of the Spanish flu in November 1918. Having read a bot about her she had a twin sister and other younger siblings and her mother died when they were young. Help was needed around the house so one week Margaret would go to school and her twin Christina stayed home, and the next week they swapped. In between they taught each other what they had learnt. In spite of that she went on to be such an influential person, and Christina went on to be Principal at a College on the Norht Island, another unusual situaton for a female at the time. I don't feel so bad about home-schooling outcomes now....

13 years today!

Monday 15th June: Our 13th wedding anniversary. Sunny today but a high of only 7 degrees and snow expected. Although Steve doesn't work Mondays he had lots of paperwork to do so he went in for the morning. The boys and I did some maths and started a project on the history of flight. After lunch Steve had the boys and I went down to Oamaru. Unfortunately I had broken a back tooth on Saturday and spent the afternoon in the dentist's chair getting it fixed. And of course I couldn't eat for the evening so it was lucky we weren't going out to celebrate!
So instead I had a cup of tea and after Edward had returned from Cubs I enjoyed Desperate Housewives and Spooks and did some knitting.
The photo is of a road sign by the harbour in Oamaru at the entrance to a penguin colony - a sign that always make me smile. Don't see many like that in Frampton Cotterell!

Richard Pearse

Sunday 14th June: Today there was thick fog outside while we ate our breakfast. It was also very cold outside. The boys and I waked to Sunday School, and while we were there the fog lifted to give a sunny day.
After lunch we drove to Timaru. At the airport there is an aviation heritage centre so the boys and I had a look around it. The exhibition is mostly about Richard Pearse (after whom the airport is named) who was a pioneer of powered flight. In fact he might even have made his maiden flight (which was 12 seconds (the record for a chicken is 11 seconds!)) some months before Orville Wright did. The photos are of the weather vane at the airport, a small model of Richard Pearse in his aircraft, a painting showing his flight (before he landed on his own gorse fence!) and a poem about Richard Pearse written for a school project. One guide book told us that he "had a wallaby loose in his top paddock" which is presumably explained by the fact he died in a psychiatric hospital.
After all that excitement we saw Steve's plane land and drove home with him. Our neighbour Jeanette came in to babysit and Steve and I went out to a farewell dinner for one of the other doctors at his surgery.

Ploughing competition

Saturday 13th June: Another warm sunny day, high of 15 degrees. Very nice. In the morning we went to a Ploughing Competition we had seen advertised on the Waimate Councils' website. We drove out to the middle of nowhere and found about 40 tractors in a field which was all pegged out, and a red flag flying (photo). In the next 30 minutes or so nothing much happened... except our imagination went wild as to how this was all going to work, and our ideas got more and more silly. First I thought what a good ruse this was. You have lots of land that needs ploughing. So you create a competition which lots of serious people are so eager to be in that they pay money to take part. So 40 other people plough your land at 40 times the speed you can do it and you give the winner a small prize. Result: ploughed field AND keep the rest of the money! I like it.
The boys wondered if the red flag was to do with shooting and had the idea of clay pigeon shooting whilst ploughing, then the ideas of synchronised ploughing to the 1812 overture and shooting in time to the cannons at the end came to us.
What actually happened was completely different. A truck left the field towing an animal trailer in which were about 12 men, standing up, and they drove off down the road (photo). They drove to a community hall a mile or so down the road and all disappeared inside. But first they all removed their boots and left them neatly outside with their hats positioned on top (photo). Nothing happened in the field because there was no-one there! Perhaps there was a theory test first??? We didn't hang around to find out....
After lunch the boys played in the garden, creating chalk drawings on the concrete. I was kept busy converting two of the boys' single beds into bunk beds which created a lot more space in their bedroom for them to move around and even play in. However, Edward, who now has the top bunk, has not settled well this evening so it might be a temporary change.

The end of another week

Friday 12th June: A warm sunny day. We began the day with piano lessons for all three boys. After we had walked home we completed our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory requirements for this week, practised counting to 10 in Spanish and did some times table practice. We also looked at the anatomy of teeth to finish off that topic.
By now it was lovely in the garden so Jonathan and I dug up some yams he had planted months ago, did some weeding (which the chickens had for a snack!) and planted garlic and transplanted brussel sprout plants. We also moved the chickens and raked over the area where they graze and it soon looked much tidier.
In the afternoon we went out for a drive and picked up some pine cones. While we were out we saw and photographed a farmer ploughing the fields.
As we drove back into Waimate the siren sounded to summon the firemen, and I managed to get a photo of one of the trucks as it came out of the fire station. We visited the library but as is often the case, left with more books than we had returned. In fact we have 95 books out at the moment! Once home the boys cycled in the back garden. For tea we made our own pizzas, and had an extra-long story-time at bedtime.

The sun came out!

Thursday 11th June: A warmer day today, 12 degrees at best, with sunshine at times. We started the day with a trip to the Playcentre. The boys enjoy using the playdough and one of the tools to make a train track, as shown in the photo. Their imagination and the quality of the work is usually lost on the younger children there, but the boys show great concentration and teamwork when they make it, and great tolerance and restraint when it is remodelled for them!
We left early to go to Oamaru for their swimming lessons. Edward and Peter and one other child are in one group, and Jonathan and 2 others in the other group, so they get plenty of attention and opportunity during the session. They carried on plaing in the water for another hour, the mums chatting and knitting away.
On the way home we bought some strawberry plants which I am assured are not going to be killed by the frost, and we didn't get in until 3.30pm. The boys then took the attitude that if they hid and were very quiet I might foret they were there and not get them to do an schoolwork. I didn't want to spoil their fun so I made a cup of tea and sat down and enjoyed the peace and quiet.... and made them do some work while I was cooking the tea!
Home-made sausages for tea - very tasty - then another long story book before bed.
I did some paperwork for the gym club and then settled down to watch a film recorded from the tv in England before we left. It was odd to watch English adverts again after so long because they are very different from how things are advertised in NZ.

Oamaru International Airport

Wednesday 10th June: Happy birthday David, and hope you enjoy your graduation today, Will. Today was chilly and grey and the washing stayed in the washing machine. We got up and drove to Oamaru International Airport to take Steve for a flight to Rotorua on the North Island. First let me explain that you can buy a through ticket from Heathrow to Oamaru so we could have arrived here with our 46kg luggage allowance each. However, the plane might not have taken off with all that on board.
The arrivals and departures are combined in one building with the Air Traffic Control building next door. What actually happens is you go in to the one room. A woman checks you in, and the other member of staff puts your luggage on the trolley, pushes it out to the plane, waves the glowy sticks at the landing plane, opens the plane door, unloads the landed plane; meanwhile the lady is making a coffee for the two pilots who are now sitting in the one room with the passengers. Then everyone walks out, gets on board, the pilots check up and down the runway and look up to check the sky is clear and then take off. Not sure what the control tower is for because there's no-one in it. There were 3 passengers arriving and 2 leaving! Then the two staff have a long wait until anything else is going to happen.
Anyway, we drove back to Waimate and schooled during the rest of the morning. In the afternoon another home-school family came to play for a couple of hours, and Jennie (the other mum) and I made sausages.
Peter and Jonathan went to Keas at 4 o'clock, and Edward and I completed his Cubs task which was to collect and record litter from the park.
Once home we had tea and enjoyed reading a book before bedtime.
The photos show the amazing facilities at the airport, and the snow-capped mountains in the background.

It's all banned in Waimate

Tuesday 9th June: Grey and chilly, high of about 6 degrees today. My brother David tells me it was 42 degrees where he was in Istanbul - didn't need to know that!
Schooling went well in the morning - we started an online course around Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and also one in simple Spanish so we were busy all morning.
After lunch we walked into town to the library and the craft shop and had a snack at the Rainbow Dairy. While in town we spotted new notices banning riding bikes and skateboards along the pavement outside the shops. Compared with Gore's $20,ooo fine you get off lightly in Waimate - your 'transport' is confiscated and you have 3 days to find the $25 to get it back. Have no idea who is policing it, though, and the schoolkids were completely ignoring it.
Home in time to cook a warming curry for tea.
Steve had a long day at work catching up on paperwork that has mounted up while he has been away.

A chilly grey Monday

Monday 8th June: Today was cold and grey all day. We schooled in the morning. One of the topics we are looking at this week is teeth, plus some more online courses I'll tell you more about as we get further into them. While we were busy Steve went to meet a roofer at the house we keep going to look at maybe buying, and measured up windows and spoke to a joiner.
After lunch we went to view a different house for sale (owned by bloke with Manchester accent, too small - the house, not the bloke from Manchester), a house for rent (hated it) and a house not for sale or rent but might be (?) right opposite Steve's surgery.
Took the boys to gymnastics then home for tea, rushed Edward off to Cubs and then collected him later (decided it was too cold to run around a large unheated, uninsulated room).
And then, being Monday, it was a quick chat with Mum and Dad before Desperate Housewives and Spooks. Dad missed the last episode of Spooks, the series we have just started last week. We were experimenting to see if he could watch our tv through the skype connection so he can watch the final episode in a few weeks!
The photo is of a stone carving in the front of the High School grounds. The boys have fun telling me they think it looks like a sofa or a smiley face with a moustache!

Scenery en route home

Sunday 7th June: We left a frosty Ranfurly after the boys had played in the playground (photo). We drove towards the coast at Palmerston. One the way we enjoyed the views of the clouds hanging over the snow-capped mountains, backlit by the sunshine (photo). We also saw some of the 50 million sheep that live in NZ.
As we approached the coast we saw ahead of us what appeared to be Glastonbury Tor (photo), but in fact it is Puketapu Hil, which towers 343m over Palmerston. At the coast we turned north and called in to Shag Point where there were seals on the rocks (photo), then stopped for lunch at Moeraki. The boys and I had visited the boulders in January on a hot weekend away but we had not shared it with Steve. We enjoyed the sun as we walked along the beach and the boys jumped in and on the boulders with their usual enthusiasm (photo).
After lunch we continued home and arrived to find Waimate cloaked in dark grey cloud. As we unpacked the motorhome we discovered our new chest freezer in the garage had been switched off while we were away. The fish Steve had spent hours waiting to catch, the blackberries I had spent ages picking in a wasp-stinging way, and much more, are all lost and very stinky. Steve and I were very disappointed, especially as our evening meal (fish and chips) was in there too. Then our neighbour Jeanette called in with a pot of soup for us, and tea was solved.
The chickens have continued to lay while we have been away and having one heat pump on low has kept the house warmish for our return.
Now to face the pile of washing.....

Ranfurly

Saturday 6th June: We left Alexandra and drove sort of east-ish in general, but then spotted a road called 'Loop Road' which proved too tempting to miss. Some time later we came to St Bathans (pop 5 plus a ghost in room 1 of the Vulcan Hotel). This is an old gold-mining settlement and the few remaining buildings are the originals. All that is left of the workings is Blue Lake. Originally there was a hill 112m high but it was left as a 68m deep hole which filled with water = Blue Lake. It is incredibly quiet although in summer it is a popular place to camp and swim. There is a small church there which is Catholic which surprised me until I looked in the graveyard and saw that many of the early diggers were Irish, particularly from Co. Wicklow.
After an enjoyable walk along one side of Blue Lake and lunch we drove on to Ranfurly. This is a small service town (pop dont know but we only saw one person, who was in the Visitor Centre and was so chatty I wonder if we were the first people she had seen this week!) and used to have a railway line through until 1989. Several of the main buildings burnt down in the 1930s and in their place there are several art deco buildings.
The campsite was so very quiet and we were the only ones staying and the boys loved the adventure playground. We settled in for a very cold night.

Alexandra and Clyde

Friday 5th June: It rained overnight and the miserable campsite was now a wet miserable campsite. We drove north-ish to Alexandra, where we arrived just in time for lunch (photo of boys in camp playground). This town is renowned as being hot and dry in the summer, and cold and dry in the winter. It certainly was cold and dry, in fact bitterly cold. Alexandra turned out to be a busy little town with an enormous campsite. On the hillside overlooking the town there is a large clock (photo). 12m in diameter, it seems, and has been there since 1968. It is even lit at night.
We drove 10km to Clyde, an old gold-mining town from the 1860s. At its height there were 70 hotels here, and some of them remain. They are stone buildings which is unusual to see in NZ, and are in good condition. In fact some of them are in beter condition than one of the newer buildings on the main road (photo).
There is a dam just outside Clyde (photo) - it was the damming of this river that flooded Cromwell, some miles up the road, where we went last weekend and saw the abandoned and recovered buildings. All around the hillsides here is wild thyme growing, which smelt wonderful as we wandered round enjoying the view of the lake.
We went back to Alexandra and the boys played in the public playground before we returned to the campsite and put the heating on.

On to Gore (lovely name!)

Thursday 4th June: We left Te Anau and drove east-ish through Lumsden. We had a short stop in Riversdale. It amazes us that these small settlements along the road have such fabulous playgrounds for us to stop at. The boys get to stretch their legs and we brew a cup of tea!
Our next stop was a small aviation workshop and museum in Mandeville. Here, engineers make or refurbish old aircraft. All the aircraft that leave the workshop can fly, they are not just static display models. We were allowed to wander round the workshop (photo of one in progress) and then walked round the museum of finished models, including a 1910 Pither plane. One plane didn't look as ready to fly as the others (see photo).
We carried on to Gore which was grey and gloomy (and not just the weather!). This is the country music capital of NZ and there is also a lot of fishing done here and so a big fish statue is at the top of the main street (photo). We were surprised by a sign on a lampost in the local park regarding skateboarding penalties. A $20,000 fine!! (photo)
We settled into the campsite, which was basic at its best, and took a walk into the town centre. Back at the campsite we then discovered we were alongside the train track which carried freight trains through the evening and night.