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Ahhhhh… September 1st… the beginning of spring in New Zealand.  Thank goodness, I just hope it’s for real because I’ve had about enough of winter.  I have to say it was a good start today with plenty of sunshine and not the first hint of a raindrop.  Amazing what a pretty day can do for one’s disposition… I got up  and went out and fed the dogs and birds even before I had my coffee – unheard of!!  I was even motivated enough to wash the stinky Laborador and hit the flowerbed that I just never could make myself weed over winter.  Even Jim wondered who this person was speeding around… it certainly didn’t seem like the same one that’s been dragging around for the last 3 months.  Fingers crossed that there won’t be many late cold snaps.

We’ve just come home from a week-long getaway to one of our Pacific neighbors, New Caledonia.  This was sort of a surprise trip as we weren’t really planning to go anywhere – but since we sold our cattle early this year, we thought we’d head somewhere a little warmer and change our scenery for a few days.

Since we haven’t really done a whole lot of traveling in the South Pacific, we don’t know too much about our neighboring islands.  We came to the conclusion that we should visit New Caledonia because it is close (less than 3 hours away) and since it is a French protectorate, we were hopeful that the food would be good.  It was.  We probably could have picked a better time of year since it was their winter too… but it was still at least 20 degrees warmer there than here, so definitely an improvement!  We had a couple of days of cloud, but I guess you can’t ask for perfection every trip.

It was really a fact-finding mission as much as anything.   Now we know a little bit about the country and what parts we might want to visit next time.  We stayed in Noumea in the south of the island and pretty much stayed in that area on the mainland.  However, we did take a day trip to the small but beautiful Isle of Pines at the southern tip of New Caledonia.  There we found really pretty white sand beaches and crystal clear water.   We rented a car and drove around the whole island.

The week went by really fast, a little too fast!  I’ll post a few pictures from the trip soon.

Thank goodness this is the shortest day of the year… at least we can look forward to more daylight tomorrow, even if it’s only one second’s worth!  As per the advice of the local garden columns, I have planted my garlic and shallots on the shortest day – first time I have tried growing them from bulbs.  Actually, it’s the first time I’ve tried growing garlic at all.  I’m anxious to see how they will do, but it’s a long time until harvest… the longest day of the year, December 21st.