Have been delayed a couple of days posting this on account of having to spend time getting to grips with updating our property websites. I now know what a hyperlink is, and can do such things in the website editor! Our website designer has finally ditched us and doesn't reply to e-mails asking how to do this and that.......so it was in at the deep end as they say. To tie up the blog from Gisborne, you might like to know about a couple more quirky New Zealand things. I mean, if anybody out there can say 'Well, this happens here or that happens there, it's no big deal Roy…..post the info in the comments please!

Anywhere in the world is used to shops and traders attempting to get your hard earned dollars from your pockets into theirs. And of course one of the old shopkeepers' tricks is to offer goods at a cent or two less than the full dollar. How many of us have been tempted by '2 for $3.99' or 'Special, today only, $ 4.99'. Indeed such promotions are used here, not any less than we are used to. But when you take the product to the checkout, hand over your $5, the newbies here stand and wait for their 1 cent change. It's because the smallest coin denomination is 5 cents and the price is rounded up. But it works the other way, if your goods come to $ 32.02, they only take $ 32 off you. Swings and roundabouts I suppose, but the trader still promotes the offer with the 99 cents but to catch your eye.

Okay, here's another thing. The Maori language has only 20 letters in the alphabet, amongst others there is no 'q' or 'z'. There is a profusion of 'W' and many duplicate place names throughout the country, viz, near Gisborne we have Wainui, Waimoana, Waiharehare Bay, Waihau Beach, Waimata Valley, and Whangara, Further afield there is Waimate, Waipapa and Waipara, Whanganui, Whangara, Whangarei and so the list goes on. Auckland sounds positively easy after this lot and much of the time we need to look at the maps to find where a place is it is so hard to remember. And these are just placenames………your Whanau is your extended family group, Whakapapa your family tree and Whare is a house with Wh pronounced as 'F'.

As the photo album attached to this blog tells, the Smarts hosted a gathering last Saturday the 22nd for Lesley's practice. We're not sure if it is a tradition to suggest to the oldest British GP who has been there the shortest time that hosting a bash before they leave is 'de rigueur'. But we're up for that sort of thing, especially as the folk bring their own food, or cook it on our barbeque…..the 'boil up' was just that, potatoes, and meat (probably a couple of animal heads in the pot for flavour). It's just as well Lesley had a few spare bottles of wine, as the guests' ran out at 11pm and I guess we should take it as a compliment that five stayed on till 1am. Hey, that's what hosting a party is all about and it was actually really good that we had some real Kiwis in our villa.

I'm sitting in our van a few metres from Midway Beach in Gisborne. Lesley is at her weekly Rotary meet in town. Through an almost cloudless blue sky the sun is warming and inviting………so inviting that we've been for our first swims in the Pacific in the past couple of days. A few Gizzy locals still wear wetsuits, but they are in the minority, the warmer weather has brought out the sun worshippers, picnickers, walkers, swimmers and kayakers. I pause writing, glance up and take in the picture postcard scene. There is Nick's Head across the Bay of Poverty, its white rock glistening in the late afternoon brightness….remember our first day in Gisborne seven weeks ago when I wrote that the headland was just an idea through the battering rain? The 'Titirangi' tug plies the shipping channel with a dredger. While the breeze kisses azure waters, the wild flowers in the dunes dance gleefully nodding their agreement that summer is finally here. In an hour the sun will have set on Gisborne, as our time here is about done, and we move out of the Bay of Poverty to the Bay of Plenty. Yep, it's been good, we've made friends, dished out the invitations to stay in Edinburgh and we honestly think we'll see some of the folk again.

So with that I'm signing off from Gisborne, that next blog will be from the Bay of Plenty…….and I'm off for a carry out curry right now….still got the good old staples out here!!