16 January: Monday. The day began beautifully. We drove through the Manawatu Gorge toward Pahiatua, then east on the Pongaroa Road to Akitio on the east coast to have a day at the beach. It was sunny, cool, and windy. We walked along the rocky water's edge, collected shells, and generally enjoyed the day. On the way home, we got a message that Max had had a serious skiing accident in Colorado. A flurry of phone calls, emails, and Facebook messages followed. He has been seriously injured, and we are too far away to help.

17 January: Tuesday: Happy birthday, Mary! It is a cool day, but clear enough to get the laundry done and dry on the line. By mid day today we had reached out to friends and family at home who reached out to their friends and family to find moral support for Cathy in Denver where Max has been airlifted to the Denver Health Medical Center.

18 January: Wednesday. This morning we had coffee with Pete and Joan Sommerville. We met at a coffee shop in town only to find, in the course of conversation, that they were staying with Joan's sister and her husband who live next door to where we are staying! We could have had coffee at home! We had a good visit and will see them again when we are traveling on the South Island in March. After coffee, we set out for a drive south to visit friends in Birchville, Upper Hutt. We drove along the Kqpiti Coast and were a bit surprised at the ferocity of the sea. The weather has been very unsummerlike (is that a word?), and currently we are expecting what is called a weather bomb. High winds and rain are expected for the area we are visiting. We had hoped to drive over the Akatarawa Road through the Tararua mountains, but the clouds rolled in, and we stuck to the lower roads. We arrived at the home of Darcy and Phyllis Ross to a warm welcome and settled in for the evening.

19 January: Thursday. The weather did not disappoint. It was a wild night of winds up to 100 mph and horizontal sheets of rain. Many roads were closed, and some people lost power. This morning was still damp. Buzz and Darcy went to the Upper Hutt Men's Shed for the morning. This is a workshop where they do woodwork, metal work , etc., and the projects they do benefit local charities. Phyllis and I went for some retail therapy. After lunch the weather cleared and we went to Maidstone Park where a group of sculptors was working on carving Oamaru stone. It is limestone quarried in the South Island town of Oamaru. The sculptures are of traditional Maori designs as well as modern and abstract ones. The sculptors are happy to stop and tell about their projects. We had a quiet evening at home. Our dinner included the sweet Italian sausage Buzz and I made last week. We served it in Marinara sauce...quite tasty.

20 January: Friday. Darcy had Grandpa duty this morning while the rest of us relaxed at home. We went out for a fish and chips lunch (7/10 on the Tauranga Fish Market rating scale), and then packed up the car for the drive home to Feilding. We drove over the Rimutaka Hill road which, on Wednesday night, had been closed to traffic because of the high winds. This road is about 5km to the summit and another 4 or 5 km to the bottom on the other side. We stopped at the summit as we always do to look back at the winding road we have just navigated. On the north side of the road we entered the Wairarapa region and were very surprised to see snow on the highest peaks of the Tararuas. It is supposed to be summer! When we got home, I made a pizza for supper, and we had a quiet evening.

21 January: Saturday. All week we have been keeping in touch with Cathy and Anna by email and text messages. Max has had two surgeries and remains in very serious condition. As I tried to think of a way to help, it occurred to me today that our old friend Gerry Platz, a retired Presbyterian minister, might have a contact with the Presbytery in Denver. Cathy and Max are very involved with their church here. I called Gerry, and by late afternoon Denver time a minister had been to visit Max in the hospital. Keep that in mind. If you are traveling in a strange place, and you find yourself in need, reach out to your faith community.

In the late morning we picked up Roger and Doris Berry and went for a drive to Apiti...about 40km north. It is a lovely drive through the countryside, and we stopped at the Apiti Tavern for lunch. The walls of the pub dining room are covered with photos of Apiti school sports teams from 1898 forward, art work by local artists, trophy deer heads and antlers, and the obligatory signs a pub must post. We had a good meal and great conversation. At 90 and 88 respectively, Roger and Doris are delightful company. We stopped at their home to have afternoon tea when we returned to Feilding. Wile we were there, they got the phone call that their first great grandchild, a boy, was born this morning. Home again in the late afternoon I organized my photos and rested.

22 January: Sunday. Happy Birthday Kate and Laura! Forty-five years ago you were born into our family in a little maternity home in Pahiatua. We are celebrating the twins birthday by calling and "Skyping". Well, the weather "packed up" again today. High winds and a great deal of rain kept us inside all day. At the Cardrona ski field on the South Island, they got an unprecidented summer snowfall, and in Auckland there were trees down and power outages. Looking forward to a better week on all fronts.