p.s. Last words on our stay in New Zealand

We were fortunate enough to have five days 'off-duty' from the family. So we hired a car and drove to visit a friend in the beautiful country north of Auckland not too far from where her pioneer ancestors arrived from England. Then we drove to the Coromandel peninsula and spent another couple of nights with a friend in Whitianga. Here's an idea of the kind of scenery we saw. You can be sure we feasted our eyes and soaked up its beauty.

Kiwi vernacular sounds quite a bit like our South African accents, seeing as they too do the flattened 'e'. However, they have one idiomatic quirk that I'd like to mention, and that is, they cut off their similes. And so, for instance, instead of saying 'sweet as (whatever)', they simply say 'sweet as'. I rather like this leaving it open, because you can escape the cliche of thinking 'sugar' or 'pie' and let your imagination run rip.

Personally I can say that I found the countryside as beautiful as paradise.

And that's it for the moment, folks.