Up North ...

I spent an hour or more writing a blog post about where we are now, way up in the north of New Zealand ...

We caught the ferry over to Whitianga only to learn that the internet cafe had closed and here I am, at the Information Centre, with no USB port.

On the USB stick in my pocket, I have the blog post and photograph, the one that where I attempted to capture the ongoing deliciousness and intensity of all we're experiencing here in New Zealand.

We're back with the friends who welcomed us into New Zealand, relaxing at their beach house in the Coromandel, almost exhausted by the incredible kindess we've experienced during our time in this beautiful Antipodean world of mine.

It's been bliss here, so much more than I could have dreamed it might have been.  So. Much. More.

We fly soon.  I believe I will simply spend the rest of the northern hemisphere winter blogging stories and photographs from New Zealand. 

See you once we're back online.

Christmas Day in the Land DownUnder...

Christmas Day has already arrived here in New Zealand, 12 hours ahead of our Belgian world ... and day has dawned the deepest blue, down here in Dunedin.

Some exquisite gifts have been exchanged and as I sit here writing, the delightful chaos of Christmas Day preparations is going on around me.

A Granita dessert has been made by Katie, Sandra has peeled the new potatoes, Gert is putting together the Salade Paysanne too.  The Pasta salad was whipped up last night by Sandra, and she's throwing the Turkey roast into the oven just now.  Tim has cut up plates of cold ham and a chicken will be roasted later.  

I was the pavlova girl but an evening out on one of the many hills around Dunedin, with two of my oldest friends in Fiona's beautiful house, means I'm moving a little more slowly than usual this morning.  It was an evening that requires an entire blog post really ... so special it was.

I need to peel carrots but wanted to wish you the loveliest of Christmas days

Till later.

My Little Sister and I ... today

My little sister, Sandra, suffers being photographed while I mostly avoid it by being photographer however ... today, in the midst of photographing my sister's family, Katie-niece decided that there had to be photographs taken of the sisters who hadn't seen each other in so long.

We survived it together.

The Road ...

I woke early ... as always while back in New Zealand it seems ... and slipped out into the day before anyone else was awake.  It's one of those things I used to do before leaving behind driving and beloved roads to known places.

There is no other road for me on a  Dunedin blue-sky-summer-morning, it has to be the Otago Peninsula road and so I  turned right and disappeared for a while.

It was bliss out there.  The harbour was calm but the tide was out and so there was only one rowboat reflection.  I'll have to go back before we leave ... I need one for the Belgian walls.

The weather folk tell me it was 17 celsius out there and I had taken a jersey but it didn't last and by the time I reached the Albatross Colony, I was all summer clothes and barefeet.

It's good to be back ... so good.

Home ... ?

I woke from an anguished dream about working as a wedding photographer for a friend and experiencing complete and utter gear failure.  My camera batteries ran out, the flash wasn't attached  correctly, I had no memory card ... it was a horror of a nightmare and I woke in a terrible panic that I had missed everything important of the wedding.

I briefly caught up with family and friends in Belgium via Skype then ran out the door to the Botannical Gardens here in Dunedin.  I was meeting with Nikki's exceptionally lovely family for a quick photography session.  She's a much-loved friend of my sister's and so I knew it was going to be a pleasure to take some photographs, just for fun.

But this morning I realised that for all the lightness and joy in my posts about coming home there is the growing awareness that it's almost time to leave this country I love. Driving familiar city streets this morning left me wondering what it is that I want from my life ... maybe the weight of the nightmare was still there in my mind because it seemed like a heavy thought on such a beautiful morning.

You see I have devoured the air as we have wandered the South Island, overjoyed to be smelling the yellow lupin and the cabbage tree flowers, sniffing out and identifying the wet stone-scent of Fiordland, the intense forest-bouquet on the West Coast.

I have loved the food, I have loved the people, I am loving summer in this place that I know so exceptionally well.  And is that the lure ... the seduction? The familiarity, after 10 years away from all that is known to me.

Driving the city streets today, I was wondering if Icould return to New Zealand ... the little island-continent out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at the bottom of the world? 

I think I need to go back to Europe now, revisit Genova because it gives me so much of what I require, check out Antwerp because I have this Belgian bloke who loves that city, maybe visit Paris on a day-trip once we recover financially ... just to explore what I need.  And to try to understand what I would do if there were choices ... you know?

Meanwhile, my beautiful Katie-niece sat next to me as I sat here writing and downloading today's photoshoot.  She photographed me at work ...  so there you have it, a real-time photograph of the Di Creature.