Post holiday blues

Back to plain clothes and porridge, Dad used to say at the end of a holiday. I don’t mind either of those things, but the break has made me realise how much work there is to do at home. This morning I had to remind myself how I clean the shower. There was laundry to do. Plant pots and containers were dry and needed urgent watering, with some plants quite distressed. The grass is long. I have to cook again, go to the supermarket, feed the cat – and Mum.

But the cherry blossom is out, the anemone bulbs I planted are flowering, the lettuces are ready to eat and so is the kale (although some has bolted). It seems all the plants, in just 12 days, have doubled in size.

And I have photos to look at, some of which I hadn’t included in my blogs. These three are from near Raglan.

On the bus tour I was intrigued by the numerous corrugated iron figures, such as the perched pukeko, as we drove through Tirau, and wall paintings at Trelinnoe Park. I sought out Wardini Books in Napier, having read the two crime fiction books the owners, Gareth and Louise Ward, have co-written and set in their second book shop in Havelock North – which I also saw as we drove through.

A book in the Napier hotel foyer celebrates twenty years (so far) of its farmers’ market.

I was delighted to see this huge art work in Hamilton which I had seen in a documentary about public art by Māori artists. Then I encountered a photograph and information about it in the Museum – much better than my photo taken from the bus.

Other snippets from Hamilton include a glass of wine I enjoyed at The Bank (with a bowl of seafood chowder), the statue of Dame Hilda Ross (so unusual to see a statue of a woman politician), and a colourful photo from the Hamilton Library. There was no natural light in the library, so I hope the alterations in progress at the front include huge windows facing out onto Garden Place.

I love this art work featuring Hamilton by local artist Kate Hill at the Waikato Society of Arts ArtsPost.

Finally, there are some more mundane shots: my hotel room desk where I wrote my journal and blog posts as my holiday drew to a close, the foyer of the hotel where I had breakfast each day and, at Hamilton airport, the ingenious airplane-shaped taps with both washing and drying functions.

So it’s plain clothes and porridge from now on, as Dad said, but I have the memories – and some delicious limes to enjoy from the Raglan garden of my ‘shuttle buddies’ who saved my holiday by sharing their shuttle ride from Auckland airport so that I made it to Hamilton on schedule when the direct flight from Christchurch to Hamilton was cancelled. The flight home was – despite some turbulence and the rather unnerving sight of propellers from my window (how do these aircraft fly?) – blessedly uneventful.