Counting the Country, Company Coming & Carbon Conservation

Two years ago when we were in New Zealand there was a census scheduled but the census was cancelled due to the earthquake that had just occurred in Christchurch, the home of the department responsible for the census.  The census was taken on March 5th of this year and was made really easy as you could fill in the census forms online.

Wanting to do my bit for future genealogists, I ensured that we filled in the forms, but a part of me did it just to confuse those same people who will not find us in any other New Zealand census in the past 30 years.

Last Thursday my sister, Margaret, arrived for a visit and we did the airport perimeter walk while waiting for her flight to arrive.  We were surprised at the lack of security fencing around the airport and just how close we could get to the departing aircraft, something that we haven't seen in Canada in decades.

Those of you with shares in Bombardier, or who are proud Canadians, will be pleased to see that Air New Zealand is operating a fleet of Q300 aircraft on its regional routes. 

Nelson is the 9th largest city in New Zealand, with a population of 43,000 people, but has the 4th busiest airport in the country, so is well served with flights from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.



We went through the whole of February without using any form of motorised transport, not even a bus, so we have been doing our bit to reduce our carbon footprint, but we broke down this week and rented a car for 6 days so that we could do some out of town trips.

On Friday we went to Pelorus Bridge, a scenic reserve about an hour east of Nelson.  There are numerous trails of various lengths, and we opted to do the waterfall trail.  Unfortunately both waterfalls were very unimpressive due to the near-drought conditions.  But we walked through native bush and black (Honeydew) Beech forest which provided much appreciated shade and had some great views of the Pelorus River and surrounding area.  We enjoyed it so much that we did another shorter walk as well.

I never thought that I would be discussing erogenous zones with my sister, but truth is stranger than fiction.  On Friday night we went to the local Repertory Theatre's production of Erogenous Zones, which we thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend seeing it, even if you are with your sister. 

Saturday was market day and the now habitual coffee with Pam and Brian.  Over the past 6 weekends we have gotten to know several of the organic farmers and we will certainly miss our weekly trips to check out what is in season this week, and to chat with the vendors.