Most rural towns in New Zealand have a tall pole standing somewhere near the centre. The pole is not always visible, but is always heard, the reason being the air raid style horns atop the mast. When the siren sounds, day or night, everybody for kilometres around knows that there is an emergancy. The only ones who have to do something about it are the volunteer emergency services, the fire brigade and ambulance services, staffed by community minded volunteers. They drop what they are doing, and rush to their muster points. Very soon after that, the sound of sirens can be heard as the services make their way to the accident or fire.

The last blog was written with the hope that Lesley would not be called out. Not that she would mind such a thing, indeed her course in October in Keri Keri prepared her for such an eventuality. Less than 24 hours after writing, the siren went off when she was at work and I knew that she would be required to attend the emergency. Fortunately it was nothing too serious, a distracted driver had reached down for her water on the car floor while doing 100km/hour and her foot had jammed between the accelerator and brake. Her car came to rest in a field after doing a couple of somersaults, but the driver was okay, if a bit shaken. Praise be that she ended up in a field and not into a line of oncoming traffic. Apart from being shaken up a bit the driver was okay. Lesley offered her a check up in the surgery but she never saw the person again.......she travelled on south with companions who were in a different car.

Ira McNab had also attended in his capacity as volunteer fire chief for Cheviot. His crew was not required and it provided welcome relief to Lesley and the nurse as they approached the accident to see the fire tender returning. That meant no cutting and no fire. Ira's job while not in a fire tender or a training exercise is a farmer, breeding lambs and fattening calves. Farming is quite a common occupation in these parts and also fairly common in rural New Zealand are nurses married to farmers. Cheviot practice is no exeption, with three nurses having farms to go home to after work. An invitation from Joy, one of the nurses, to dinner with her husband Ira is indeed very hospitable and sounds interesting. During the course of our dinner at their house, which was lots of lamb chops 'from the farm', followed by pavlova the likes of which we had not had since our arrival in New Zealand. Here, small individual pavlovas are served in eateries, not a patch on the real thing. The tasty dinner just reinforces our belief that farmer's wives are experts at providing a generous and delicious plates of food.

Farmers are a group of people who do not see any necessity to clean up before they visit the doctor. To wash would be too time consuming. So Lesley regularly sees mud covered sweaty men with ailments, it all part of working in a rural practice. I hasten to add, wanting to keep our friensdship with other New Zealand farmers, that it would be wrong to extrapolate and perhaps its just a Cheviot thing. Indeed, in rural New Zealand when the water supply to the practice fails, you don't shut up shop on hygene grounds like you would do back home. The only discomfort is when the GP wishes to go to the bathroom having drunk too many cups of tea at lunchtime but as there is no flushing water she has to hold on for three hours till closing time then dash to the town public toilets! And she smiled at every patient who walked through the door, bless her!

Ira and Joy are fast becoming Moa experts. This flightless bird, a bit similar to an ostrich or a large kiwi, was about 12 ft high and weighing 510lbs, is now extinct in New Zealand, having been hunted out of existence. In 1280 when Polynesians settled New Zealand there were about 58,000 birds. By 1445 there were none. While digging a drain in a swamp, typical of where many Moa perished having become trapped, Ira uncovered a Moa thigh bone, which he presents to us for inspection. This bone is very large, being about 1.5 metres in length and you can clearly see the hip and knee joint sockets.

Hanmer Springs' claim to fame these days is as an activity centre where you can relax in hot and sulphurous thermal pools, have a wild ride down waterslides, play mini golf, get thrown around in a jet boat, do a bungy jump, shoot rapids in a boat, ski in winter, walk in all seasons, cycle, play golf, take a helicopter ride and visit a winery. This sounds a bit like Queenstown and it is without the razzmatazz. While the surrounding mountain scenery is reminiscent of the low Alps or Colorado, Queenstown definitely takes first place as the adventure capital of New Zealand.

For us, after a four hour visit to the pools and a dinner afterwards, we get the idea. Yes, and we were the oldest to whoop down the waterslides……..long may it continue!! OMG I hear our children say......glad we're not with these two oldies!

The guide books exhort you to visit Kaikoura which is about an hour's drive north of Cheviot. No visit to this area would be complete without a whale watching trip and this has been on our list for some time now. Intrigued by Whale Watch's offer that if you don't see a whale, they will refund 80% of your ticket, we sign up with confidence that this time we'll see these magnifient creatures. We have been trips in the past where such a guarantee is not given, and you return to port empty handed with the thought maybe the next time. This part of the coast is particularly appealing to marine life as a very deep canyon is a few miles offshore, the meeting of warm and cold waters thrusts plenty of food upwards for the whales. Our catamaran sails past a visiting cruise ship, under whale watch helicopter trips and out to sea, the Pacific swell deepening to about 3 metres height. We are given the safety briefing which includes how to use the sick bags. No worries here if you look at the horizon and trick your brain into thinking that you are steady. It works for us, and the captain calls everybody to the deck as he has sighted a whale on the surface. Identified easily by its frequently exhaled spout of water, we drift to within 50 metres. The creature is quite oblivious to our presence. The whale watching crew know when the whale is about to dive and with a final spasm of exhaling, and couple of arches of its body, it sinks beneath the water. The photo opportunity is called by the staff 'NOW' and cameras click to capture the whale's tail in the air before it disappears.

Average underwater time is 45 minutes so we cruise around, enjoying the company of dolphins and albatross, until two more whales are sighted. Satisfied with the afternoon's sightings, we shoot back to port. There is one more visit we have to make and that is to the seal colony. The local seals do not disappoint, sleeping lazily on the rocks in front of us. A short walk along the coast path and then dinner finishes a memorable day in Kaikoura.