Island Life

The pictures will lag behind real-time events for some time, so the blog will be like the newspapers where they use archive footage to illustrate their articles. it all helps to break up the text.
In real time, Mum and Dad flew out of Kaitaia airport this morning a little bit delayed at 0940. The boys were allowed a late start to school to see them off. The plane to singapore left Auckland on time at 1400, so they are on their way back Lancashire! We have all enjoyed their visit. We had a lovely meal last night with our neighbours Goff and Janet, roast pork with apple sauce (made by Eric), followed by Goff's fantastic trifle and Patrick's Anzac cookies to go with the coffee. It was Anzac Day yesterday and I took Ma and Pa to the sevice at Kaitaia Community Centre.
It was moving to see the veterans, to listen to the speeches and hear the music. I used to have a problem with Remembrance Day Parades in the UK, but as I get older and less liberal, I have started to see some of the greys in the world, where it was previously black and white. Sometimes it is necessary for people to defend their values from people who would otherwise walk all over us.

The pictures are of Motoroa Island where we stayed last week. The island is a wildlife refuge, intensively trapped to keep down the number of rats and stoats so that rare endemic wildlife can flourish. It seems to work - Chantelle and I saw 2 kiwis in the wild for the first time, we also heard North island Robin and dad took a picture of 2 Kakariki on the fence next to the house we stayed in. I only saw these pics when we got home, or I would have spent more time looking for these particular birds.