Saturday, January 22, 2011

Picton Maritime Festival 2011

Picton Maritime Festival




Picton Maritime festival unfortunately struck a very cold windy drizzly day, the weather was not kind, people stayed away in droves, but we went and enjoyed a lovely lunch on the foreshore with lots of others. We chose the Thai food stall and the food was delicious, we also sampled the King Salmon stirfry with noodles, also yummy, there were plenty of other interesting food on offer as well..
Met up with a couple of friends from Church, Noeline and Karen, always nice to find friends at these events to chat and laugh with.




Bought a few odds and ends at the small stalls along the road, and watched a rather chilling display put on by the Fire Service and the Ambulance Service, with an old car accident mockup with 2 victims that required the Jaws-of-life to cut them free.

Saw Captain Cook sitting motionless on the Foreshore, a gentleman sits there and slowly moves a little looking exactly like a statue.
The marine boating events were mainly cancelled by the weather. As this festival is totally free, except for food it is very sad that the weather and the crowd did not come to the party.

There was a big area set aside specially for the children with face painting and clowns among other entertainments. We liked the stiltwalkers that roamed around the small crowd.

A most unusual form of entertainment was the walking -on-water game where children were zipped into a big bubble and then were able to walk on water within a large pool, it looked such fun and it was free.
Later the music and dancing went on into the night, before there was a lovely fireworks display put on by the inter-islander Ferry Company, my poor photos do not do justice to the colourful noisy display!

Thats my world for this week.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Unfortunate incident in Marina



This big launch has met with a mishap in the marina. During the night a mooring rope broke and allowed this big launch to slip in under the walkway within the Picton Marina, slowly the tide came back in trapping the bow beneath the walkway which is not a floating walkway, it is in the older part of the Marina.


The stern of the boat is now sticking up out of the water and bow is under water, soon the sea will flood into the launch if it is not rescued. Hopefully the tide will turn and go back out again before that happens. The walkway has also been lifted about half a metre too.
It is an overcast drizzly day and quite cold for a summers day, not a nice day for the owner to find his flooded launch sinking at his safe mooring within the Marina.
Eventually the tide did turn and the boat was ok, it didn't actually sink.
All of this unfolded right in front of our house, so we had a grandstand view.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Gifkins and Sons Steam Traction Truck


W.M Gifkins and Sons Steam Traction Truck, from Harpington about 1910 by my Husband Erle's Grandfather. A very rare model.
This special traction truck was used by the familys Wool Scour Business in Mount Somers, Mid Canterbury, New Zealand.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Golden Hills





The golden Broom covered hills of the Conway river valley near Kaikoura.
In the Springtime and early Summer these Hills are glowing with golden Broom flowers.
Broom is a weed plant in new Zealand it grows everywhere and seeds in profusion covering whole hillsides for miles. it is very pretty to drive through and there is a strong perfume too. Broom is marginally better than Gorse which also has pretty yellow flowers, but also has nasty thorns, Broom doesn't have any thorns and Sheep will eat it a little,