Rugby in Dunedin

After being at the National Field Days on Thursday we donned on all our Winter Woollies and headed South to Dunedin.
The day on saturday was so warm we decided to visit the Cadburys Chocolate Factory. Yummy free samples were eated by us three. The game had so much atmosphere.Peole had dressed up in red or black and swung banners and sang songs. It will be the last time Carisbrook Stadium will be played on . It is a great field and the players will always remember it. The new one will be open next season.
GO All Blacks. Daniel Carter stole the show with his famous kicking and tries that he scored.

On Sunday the airport was closed so we had to drive to CHCH to catch our evening flight home.

Morocco for a week

As I was unable to get my stories to you just as they were happening Ive decided to include some web sites for you to look at as well. They have some great photos and video links.
http://www.visitmorocco.com/index.php/eng
As we landed in Morocco after a 3 hr flight from Paris the warm air with a tempertaure high in the 30's hit us.Cassablanca is on the Coast so we wandered to the Mosque and along the sea coast to a bar selling ice creams and cool drinks. The majority of swimmers were boys. All the buildings were in shades of natural brown colouring.Streets were clean and spacious. We dined in an old house that had been turned into a resturant in the centre of a residental area.Potted red gerraniums lined the entrance steps. We all ate fish for dinner as we are so close to the sea and it was a delightful meal.
Over the next week we were to visit a phosphate mine and have the thrill of watching this enormous dragline scoop the rock out of the hill side and send it on its way for sorting.


Marrachech was to be our home for 2 nights where we visited the soux markets and mixed with the locals tellling them about NZ while we bartered for shoes, jewlery and clothes. A souk is an amazing place.It is a market squeezed into a very small space where you can buy every imaginable thing. Shoes were our focus for this trip. Most people have soft leather slip on colourful shoes that can be assily removed at the door. In the evening the whole parking court comes alove with snake charmers, dancers, magicians and food stalls.
http://www.visitmorocco.com/index.php/eng
Im linking some web sites as they have a better picture of this amazing country than my photos can give you.
After Marachech we traveled to Feez.Through the country side we drove past fiels of wheat that had been harvested and the straw baled into small bales waiting to be picked up. Farmers were out in fields or under Olive trees minding their sheep. It never ceases to amaze me that the animals dont run off. I did see one lady chasing a small herd of sheep out of a green crop. Donkey carts were traveling aling the roads with their baskets loaded with freshly cut grass. Probably they were being taken to the cows in the sheds.

This time it our hotel backed onto a Medina which is a market village with 900 small lanes making up a living and shopping complex of markets. You need to have a guide to go in and find your way through. Shops are serviced by mule or donkies laded with goods. If they come through the lane you are on you litterly have to put your back against the wall and breath in so the donkey load can go past.Then you have to watch where you put your feet!!


I loved the food here. My favourite dish would have to have been a tagine. This is a bit like a steemed stew. A clay dish holds the meat, potatoes, carrots, pumpkin and onion. a funny hat like dish goes on top . This is set ont bed of coals and left to cook for hours.

One day we went to visit and hike up to a waterfall running through a canyon.Tagines being cooked on stalls on our way up the mountain. (We ate itin a small resturant when we came down) It was so hot people had placed plastic chairs in the small river and were sitting there with their feet in the water.
There were many stalls on the way selling a variety of goods. I loved the way the drink stalls cooled their drink bottles by buliding a small cave where the water came out and trickled down the mountain and allowed it to run over the bottles keeping them cool.


Another is a mix of tomatoes and cucumbers cut fine and sprinkled with fresh corriander. This makes a great compliment to other dishes.Spices usedin different food dishes are cummin, chilie, cinimon, paparika and ginger. Im always too full to get to the desert stage. Small cakes and pastries like in France are readily avaliable.. To drink I had mint tea with sugar.This has a green tea base with fresh mint leaves soaked in the hot tea. I did see a man dressed up in the medina in traditional clothes as the tea seller. He wouldnt let me take a photo of him though.
All too soon it was time to leave for home.

Paris Pictures

It seems so long ago that were were there so Ill just send you on a trip to the famous painter Claude Monet web site. http://www.intermonet.com/ We visited his gardens and we enjoyed walking along the rows of flower gardens. He loved to paint flowers. He has a famous painting of blue Irises. A lake is in the middle of his garden where he loved to go every day with a pile of painting canvasas and as the sun moved off his subject he picked out another canvas and worked on another piece.We walked accross the bridge over the water lillies. The subject of many of his paintings.
http://www.interagir.com/?entryID=36
The beautiful Iris photo from Monets garden
During the rest of our stay we visited the famous Louve Gallery which houses a famous painting called the Mona Lisa. It was difficult to see as so many people were looking at it.
I think the highlight of our visit in Paris was the trip to the Castle of Versailles. http://en.chateauversailles.fr/homepage The day we were there they were playing the fountains as a Movie crew was filming. My little video gives a tiny glimps into the enormous gardens the Kings had. These are turned on at 12 .30 pm each day for half an hour only. When King Louis walked his garden apparently they were on a sensor and truned on and off as he approached.

A Fountain Playing

More Pictures

A week in Paris

Hi we have spent a week in Paris which has been a dream with so many old buildings and history. I will have to make another entry telling you all about it with some photos.
We are now in Morrocco. It is sooo hot, about 36 deg. Thank goodness our hotel has a beautiful swimming pool. The country side is brown except for the trees which are green. Houses are made from bricks and here in Marrakech they have a pink tinge. Under the nigh light they are beautiful. Having trouble connecting to you but will catch up soon.

Catching up

We travelled into Rennes via Paris which seemed such a long way to go as looking on a map we had only to travel North along the coast of Brittany. However we set off and managed to change trains in Paris within the 15min time limit. Friends meet us at the train station and the heavens opened with rain. Everyone was so pleased except us as we had no coats or an umbrella.
We toured the town and found a hot chocolate that tasted very much like it was made from cocoa not like the chocolate we had in Spain which looked and tasted just like melted chocolate. So thick you could stand your spoon up in it.
Our friends live only 25 mins from the train station so we headed home to our 400yr old stone house which was to be our accommodation for the night. We slept in the upstairs attic.
We all helped Charrine to get in their 90 cows in to milk which were out in the paddock today as its summer time. In winter they spend all day and night in the barn. Two rows of 8 cups milked the cows. Perrin ( their 6b yr old son) showed us how to feed their 20 rabbits. These were housed in hutches which latter would be sent to a rabbit butcher for processing.
Tomorrow we head for Paris.

News Update

Hi Just a short note before hitting the sack to let you know where we are.
After Barcelona and Valencia we headed off through Madrid to Salmanica. We sped through hundreds of orange orchards. What a beautiful Spanish town Salamanca was. It had a real Spanish square surrounded by a high walled enclosure which happened to be a monastery thousands of years ago. People sat around the edge in restaurants and in groups in the centre chatting for most of the night. We know as our room opened on to the square.
We spent the weekend on the French/ Spanish border. Accommodation was hard to get so took a place out in the country that we can neither spell or say which happened to be over the border in France. We had hoped to stay in Spain a little longer as our language was improving!!! Our meal was a hoot with us not able to speak any French and they knew little English and Spanish had its own dialect way in there. We ended up with Rabbit stuffed in clear calalonni “things” and stuffed squid breasts.. if that’s what they are called.. It was served with white rice.
When we arrived bus loads of people were folk dancing. I could swear there was a whole brass band in the hotel dinning room come ballroom for the afternoon. We went for a walk and watched the farmers make hay. 3 people raked up the loose hay after the conditioner had rowed it up to make sure nothing was wasted.
The weather has been perfect if not a bit too hot. We spent the next day down on the beach at Hayendaye. Beautiful beach like you imagine the Mediterranean to be. People jammed on the sand like sardines.We walked around the headlands to a castle. We heard pheasants crowing to each other. Im glad we didnt see any rabbits as they are a opoular food item here that you can buy in the super market.
We have been managing the trains well and haven’t ended up somewhere we didn’t intend to be. Last night we stayed in Talouse around the railway station didnt feel all that safe. This morning we had planned to give our yesterdays leftover lunch of salami, cheese and cake to the beggar who had sat out on the street by the bakery door all night. We crossed the road to get fresh supplies from the bread shop and he had gone when we came out. Managed to find a home for it at the railway station however.
Love Bordeaux. It is a very old city with old buildings everywhere. Easy to get around. Lots of entertainment during dinner with musicians touting for space and attention. Food good. They certainly love potato chips with every thing. Us Flat Friens wanted to play on the water Mirror playground but we werent allowed. It was a huge area of mirror class covered by about 4 cm of water.
Off to Rennes tomorrow.

Photos

More Photos

A few Photos

Hola

Hola Im so sorry Id almost forgotten to post you all some messages. We are having so nuch fun . We loved Barcelona. We stayed on Las Rambles Calle which had a very wide section in the middle of the road where the centre line would normally go. Cars went down each side. In this tree lined area there were stalls and painters painting live portraits.People played theathre tricks on the pedristrians by dressing up and standing so still you werent sure if they were a statue or not. We found an interesting market and had a strawberry drink each. Everyone speaks spanish so we have had to rely on what little we thought we knew which turns out to be quite a lot. The underground rail system took a bit of working out we nearly missed our first train as we were on the wrong platform but soon sorted that out. We went to Gaudi"s Park. Mr Gaudi was a famous designer who created a lot of spectactular buildings in Barcelona. This garden has a fountain, a pond you can row a boat on, 2 museums and a zoo in it. I really loved his church called Sigrande Familiar. ( Not sure I've spelt that correct) He died before it could be finished. We went up a steepal in a lift and walked down thousands of stairs in a narrow spiral staircase. Our time here was also spent riding around the city in a double decker bus, riding the tram to visit an ald prison where the view over the city was amazing.All the buildings have white walls with red brick rooves. It drove throuugh the Olympic village and the port. We watched people using bulldozers and cranes to loading a boat with grain and unload a boat full of scrap metal.
Our hotel room was in the centre of an old building which had no windows. It felt like a box.

Meeting new friends

Hi you wont believe this but I've meet 2 new really neat friends who are going to travel with me Meet Flat Fred and Jessianna. We are now sitting in Changi airport T Singapore waiting for our flight to Barcelona which will be15 hrs long

Testing again

Hi I'm having to sit ony bag to close it

Testing

Hi Im off on an aeroplane again. Watch this space

Mothers day

Hi on sunday we had Mothers Day.I Missed you all. This was such a fun day with all my family ringing in to say Hello. Maie made a cad from Smilebox. It was really cool. Maybe you could try making one for me to see you all.
see you soon. Try this link and see if it works for you
http://smilebox.com/playEmail/4d5459314e5441324d5442384d7a59324e5459794d7a553d0d0a&sb=1

Home

Hi Im home from sunny Queensland and its rather cold here. I may need to look for some warm clothes.

Flat Friends

Dear Friends,
I’m here in Townsville and the weather isn’t that wonderful for water sports and Great Barrier Reef exploring so I’ve decided to fill you in with a bit about myself and my journey so far. I’ve also got some wonderings that you might be able to answer for me.
I stated off in Cambridge with my friend Louise from Cambridge East School. My name is Wendy and I am a flat friend of Flat Stanley. You would have all heard about him. I was sent to the McLeod Family who live on a farm in the New Zealand country side, for the beginning of my journey. Pauline introduced me to her grandchildren. (Casey, Amy, Lucy and Sofia live in NZ. Fin, Jess and Jamie live in Melbourne.) They have taken me places and shared their games with me. We have had some fun time together.

One day Fin, Jess and Jamie took me on an imaginary rabbit hunt. We pretended their Mum needed a rabbit for a rabbit stew. We saw where rabbits had been but never found a rabbit. We did find a wasp nest hidden away in an old log.
The children made up a story about the rabbit hunt which we may be able to let you see.

One day we went out to Athenree (near Waihi Beach) and stayed for the weekend. We swam and played in the sea.

Uncle Bob has a Kiwi fruit orchard which we visited. The fruit were huge and about to be picked. I wanted to eat one right away but they were still very hard. There were millions of fruit on the vines. Do you know where they would all go to?


Amy had a birthday party and we played Easter games and ate a lot of chocolate eggs.
Another day we visited Aunty Mandi and had a ride on a horse. I held on tight to Casey as I was a bit scared of falling off. The horse was so big. We all helped give it a wash. At the end of the day Casey did fall off by sliding off its rear end. Fin fell on top of her and she now has a yellow cast on her broken arm. I’m glad I sat that one out.


Pauline got me a passport and took me to Melbourne with Fin and Jess. They had to go back to school. We had to get up at 4 am to catch the plane. I flew in an aeroplane (much better than being squashed in an envelope) and got to watch the movie “Incredible Mr Fox”.

In Melbourne we went to Albert Park and made a story about all the “things” Fin and Jess saw.
It is to help them with their reading when they go back to school. We also went out to a lot of restaurants with Glen and his wife Steff who own a restaurant with a new courtyard. A possum had come over night and eaten his new lemon tree and some small herb bushes. How do you think he could stop this happening again?

Bill joined us for a few days and then it was time to say good bye to the kids and fly to Queensland. We have been travelling round here visiting people who grow sugar cane. Do you know how sugar is produced?

The harvest season begins in June. At one cane farm the lady had to remove a green tree frog from the chair before someone sat on it. I’m glad it wasn’t a cane toad. Do you know why?
As we grove from Cairns to Townsville we had to watch for Cassowary birds and Kangaroos crossing the road. I have seen some beautiful parrots. Can you find out for me how many different types live up here? They are soo noisy. I heard kookaburras singing in the trees late one evening. So far I haven’t seen any snakes.
One day we passed through Tully which is supposed to be the biggest banana growing region in Australia. Some of the banana plantations have different coloured bags covering bunches of bananas. Do you know why?

Many houses are square shape and built up on sticks. People give me all sorts of reasons for this. I’m wondering if you know?
I meet a man whose family have a special licence to keep a reptile. They have had a crocodile for 42 years in a big pen. It is fed on fish, lays eggs every year and is 3 metres long. It would be up to 6 metres if it was in the wild. I wonder how long they live for and what they will do with it?
At the moment we are staying in Townsville which is the biggest city in Nth Queensland. For the ANZAC day parade over 5,000 people took part. People marched proudly to place a wreath on the memorial and soldiers and families wore war medals to remember their service by.
Pauline and I want to go snorkelling out on the Great Barrier Reef but the sea is rough and visibility is too poor to see the beautiful fish. It is unsafe to go swimming off the beach as there are poisonous box jelly fish which can sting you in the sea. You have to swim where there is a net keeping them out. All along the beach there are emergency medical stations where you can find a bottle of vinegar. Do you know why vinegar is used to treat their stings?
Talk to you again soon
Cheers Pauline and Wendy.