Another wintry day

We hear that there is something of a heatwave in Britain at the moment. Spring also seems to have come early to NZ, with the locals blaming El Nino. Though it's still August, we had 19oC (68oF) today, so the shorts and t-shirts were out.

We had a lovely day, driving 50 miles out to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. Akaroa was established as a French whaling station and still hangs onto the French influence. The sun shone and the boys had a swim in the harbour (sea loch?) shown in the picture above. We decided to save a trip out to see the dolphins and penguins until another day.

This time next week, we should be in our own house. The container arrived in Christchurch on Wednesday, but it won't be delivered to our's until Tuesday 1st, exactly a month after we arrived. Though it's been lovely staying with people whose generosity knows no bounds, it will be lovely to be in our own place at last.

The big event of the last week was the boys starting school. They have settled in remarkable well, though we had our 'ups and downs' in the evenings as emotional and physical tiredness took their toll. But in hindsight it has been a good week and we are all happy.