Update from Australia and New Zealand.

I am on my travels again and writing from Napier, New Zealand. Earlier I declared that my blog would be about interesting places and people rather than my own doings but I find that I cannot help writing about myself.

For instance, I flew from London to Sydney where I had arranged to spend Thursday and Friday night last week. I arrived on Thursday morning and was not up to much for the rest of the day. I managed to walk the quarter of a mile or so down to Circular Quay to have a cup of coffee and then to plod back. It was quite warm - about 26C, call it 80+F.

Friday I had decided to do what I did once before and take the ferry to Manly at the entrance to the Harbour and where just a few yards further on is the ocean beach on the Tasman Sea. The Tasman Sea stretches a thousand miles to NZ and past it, since NZ is quite small on the map, is the Pacific all the way to South America. I find those horizons with almost illimitable seas beyond rather frightening.

My choice of outing was not as it turned out ideal. Last Friday Sydney experienced a two month temperature peak of 38C. Manly was probably not much more than 30 - say 90F - but warm for a stroll. Manly is a popular day trip for Sydney people. This display of ice-cream on a stall in the arrival pier tells one that:



There is another side to Manly as in even the smallest place in Australia, one which we in Britain should noot forget.



Here is the beach, just like all the other pictures of Australian beaches.



I managed a prawn salad for lunch and a glass of cold lager in a pleasant beach-side restaurant:



Then I made my way back to the ferry and slowly plodded back up the hill to air conditioning. I did pause at the forecourt of some large building to photograph this Leopard one of a pair cheering the surroundings.




In the evening the temperature dropped and a thunderstorm flooded part of the city.

Napier a pleasant 23C. Wait to hear about the coming Art Deco Celebration Weekend.