Our 43rd Anniversary

Jeanne decided that She'd like for us to take a hike around our section of the Opanuku Stream today. We hadn't done that together for quite a while and I agreed that it would make a nice event for our anniversary. It's a walk I've described to you before. It takes about an hour and a half to do it at the pace that we like. The 'wild' half takes longer, because the trail winds up and down some fairly steep sections, is narrow and can sometimes be muddy. The paved half is much more level and we automatically fall into a faster cadence with longer strides. 

I'm glad that we have this little piece of the real New Zealand so close to us. One tends to forget how wild the landscape really is when you are in suburbia. 

Beautiful

Hey Bob, imagine the walking stick could you make out of that, huh?

The paved side provides very comfortable walking. Just watch out for the bikers when approaching the corners. 

'Manu' in Maori has several meanings. In this context, it clearly means bird. The bird shown is a tui.

'Ika' means fish. Those are eels on the sculpture. 

A gigantic fern frond grows into the walkway. It will continue to unroll and expand. 

Now That's a fiddle head...

At the base of the frond I showed you just above is this new 'fiddlehead' just beginning to reach upwards. It's about eight inches tall and four wide. Under all that fuzz should be the edible portion. 

We're looking older, well, I am at least, but we've just hiked an hour and 30 minutes and we don't look too badly off...

Our 43rd Anniversary dinner was Thai takeaway... 

Chicken pad Thai, both mild and medium spiciness

Lava pork, hot

Seafood salad 

Fat noodle chicken

Green curry chicken

Spring rolls

Chicken satay on skewers

Rice 

 Tom Yum Thai prawn soup, (not shown)

It was a fine anniversary...-djf