Getting into hot water

Who needs to pay for a spa treatment when Mother Nature provides her own for free? New Zealand is full of hot mineral springs and ingenious Kiwis have harnessed them for maximum enjoyment. Fresh from the source, the water is much too hot to the touch, but after running down the side of a mountain, the water cools down a bit to jacuzzi temp. That's where they stick a pipe in the spring, attach it to a large plexiglass tub, and build a deck so people can enjoy a mineral bath au naturel. A few meters downs there's a cold, glacier-fed mountain stream so you can cool off.

The stream also happens to be lined with skin-sloughing pumice stones, so you can give youself the full spa treatment without paying a cent.

Springing into lambing season

August and September mark the start of spring in New Zealand. But not only do we get the usual spring treats like asparagus, daffodils, and warmer winds, we also get lambs. Lots of them. Cute, cuddly and very playful ones.

Spring is the annual lambing season and millions of ewes (female sheep) give birth to the little ones and are then sheparded off into separate grazing areas from the males to keep a watchful eye over the lambs. The lambs never stray very far from their mothers' sides, and as we learned this weekend the mommas are VERY protective of their babies. If, for example, an American with a camera jumps out of a passing car to snap a close-up photo of the cuties, the mommas take off with the youngins' in tow and the photographer is left with lots of pics of sheeps' behinds.



Trivia question: How many sheep are there for each human in New Zealand? The ratio of sheep to humans is 10:1 (40 million sheep to 4 million humans), but at lambing season that ratio jumps as high as 35:1.

The Lay of the Land

Over the weekend, Paul and I hiked up to the site of a former Maori fortress or "Pa" in nearby Taradale. Sure enough, they knew a thing or two about picking a good spot for a lookout, as you could the ocean and Napier Hill (that hill below next to the ocean with all the houses on it) where we live to the east as well as the surrounding valleys and green hills in all directions.

The next day (sorry we forgot the camera that day) we found a secluded sandy (as opposed the pebbly) beach surrounded by cliffs about 30 minutes north of us by car. We were the only ones there, or at least so we thought until we saw some very deep footprints in the sand. A few minutes later a beautiful horse and its equally beautiful rider came galloping by. Apparently you can rent a horse and take it on a coastal trek. I'm putting that near the top of my "To Do" list. Now if I could only grow my hair long enough so it would cascade down my back and billow in the wind as I rode along the beach, then I'd have my own Harlequin book cover!

Feeling the earth move

"Did you feel that?" Is becoming a regular question at our house. Caught between two of the Earth's plates, New Zealand is rocked by an average of 15,000 earthquakes a year. Only about 150 or so of those are actually felt and far fewer actually cause any damage.

We felt one last night while watching a 9/11 documentary at home. According to the local authorities it registered 4.1 on the Richter scale and was centered off the coast just to the east of Napier. Felt a bit like a train passing under the house. Nothing really moved but we could feel vibrations. I felt a similar sensation about two weeks ago lying in bed after Paul was already asleep. That one registered 4.6.

People here are used to the quakes and public service announcements on radio and TV regularly advise people to make their homes quake safe by securing large objects and having emergency supplies at the ready.

Of course Napier was home to the deadliest quake in NZ history on Feb. 4, 1931 measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale. The city was then rebuilt in the Art Deco style for which it has become famous. We're hoping history doesn't repeat itself.

For more on quakes in NZ, see http://www.geonet.org.nz/latest.html.