Here's my beautiful sister-in-law who is responsible for encouraging me to come down-under this year. Thanks, Hiwi!
Russell, a small town with a permanent population of about 900 people or 1200 including holiday home-owners, was the first capital city of New Zealand. The residents have managed to keep their town free of big buildings and the commercial feel of Pahia and has a wonderful, relaxed island feel. During the 'silly season' the population of this place can balloon to 30,000.
This morning Tina chose to attend a service with my sister-in-law, Necia Shortland, at Christ Church Anglican, the first church in New Zealand. I dropped her off and made my way up to the cemetery to pay my respects to departed loved ones. The cemetery has one of the best views in the area with views of the sea on both sides of the peninsula.
Later, we wandered around town visiting shops and listening to wonderful live music performers at a park set up for a family day celebration. We eventually found ourselves at the Russell Bowling Club where Hiwi had been working since early this morning preparing lunch for participants of a bowls competition. We had been invited for lunch - and what a lunch it was!! There was a spread of local delicacies like I've never seen before - mussel fritters, crayfish, fresh oysters, kina (sea urchin), 3 kinds of fried fish, chips, ham, chicken, roast kumera and pumpkin, and salads galore followed by exotic fruits and desserts. I never saw the desserts as I returned to the table for seconds of oysters and kina. But a piece of custard apple was a nice finish - I've been on the hunt for custard apple for many, many years. Oh, it's so good to be back!!
We watched a bit of the bowls competition and then left in time to join a historical tour of Russell. Tina and I were the only guests on this one-hour tour and we thoroughly enjoyed hearing the history and seeing the major sights of this town.
Following the tour we set out to revisit sights that piqued our interest as well as to get a photo of the Knowles family home (a heritage building) on the beach.
Once my feet gave out (I should never tour in sandals) we headed back up to Hiwi's place for another great night of wine and visiting.
Ah, that was a nice post for reminiscing.
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