Iceberg madness--still frozen in the grip of the quest…

we hope to see one today or tomorrow…Tess has already tried twice

today’s paper says that berg watchers are still queuing up. More than 10 days since the icebergs were first spotted off the Otago coast, the berg spotting craze shows no signs of letting up. With some of the icebergs believed to be drifting very slowly, about 400m an hour, they may be around for a few days yet. People are paying $830 to fly from Queenstown to Dunedin where they then hop on a helicopter for viewing from up close. The paper shows a diagram of where to go (on land) to take a look. On a clear day one can see 120km from Mt Cargill—just outside Dunedin, which puts the icebergs within viewing distance. (For more info the ODT says consult maps.gns.cre.nz/website/iceberg/ for daily updates)

from yesterday’s paper: “Cold water poured on couple’s iceberg wedding plan”

A Dunedin couple’s plan to get married on an iceberg has hit stormy waters. The couple planned to board a helicopter accompanied by a marriage celebrant, land on an iceberg off the Otago coast and get hitched on a floating piece of the Antarctic. But the helicopter pilot said it was too dangerous and Internal Affairs has cast doubt on the legality of the planned union. The woman getting married had been negotiating with a women’s magazine and declined further comment...Ice was falling off the icebergs constantly and it was difficult to find a safe place to land…In the eyes of the law, the couple might also be on thin ice. Internal Affairs spokeswoman blah-blah said people had to be within 12 nautical miles of the coast to be married legally. The icebergs are at least double that distance from land. Ms. Blah-blah said that captains of ships sometimes married people at sea but obviously, there was no captain of an iceberg…

those floating mountains of ice are not unlike the static mountains of lav paper now stored in our storage cupboard. Our first purchases of lav paper as newcomers to Waikikamukau were rather chaste--on the order of 4 rolls in a package. I thought this had something to do with the fact that we are living in such a ‘green’ country--literally and figuratively. This notion was dispelled by the discovery of 8 packs…almost like home. The lowest price supermarket on the flats in S. Dunedin happens to be (no surprise) in the part of town where the population is densest and where the car dealerships are clustered. Pak ‘n Save as it’s called (where you bag your own groceries once they are tallied) displays its wares in the large boxes they are shipped in. It is so down-market that its carriages are called trolleys rather than trundles. Big towers of the featured bargains surround you at the entrance of this establishment. A couple of days ago, imagine my amazement when I spotted lav paper there, wrapped 18 in a pack. I thought that the price was four of those packs for NZ$ 5.23! Looking at the slip at home, it became apparent that was the price for each 18 unit. Well, 72 rolls of toilet paper for 19.99 (it ended up somehow) is not that bad…i guess

The 24 hour markets that dot Dunedin are called Tip Top’s. These are termed dairies or creameries (milk might cost around $5 rather than $3.25 at Pak 'n save)…Tip Tip itself is a brand of ice cream and ice cream products that happens to have its 50 anniversary this year. ‘Stop for a cone—only 10 cents, this week only’. Tip Top ads were apparently always very cute and launched the career of Rachel Hunter as a child actor, for instance. The local Tip Top also sells a variety of hot foods: meat sausages, crumbled hoki, etc. and biltong—“tastes just like in South Africa”

And this last snippet…filed under ‘flies’ in the lexicon of my life are the house fly and the horse fly. Oh sure, I know black flies, deer flies, bottle flies(?), no-see-ums, gnats, the famous Jimmy crack corn blue-tailed fly, but the basic default fly for me is the house fly. When Summer used to arrive in Northampton, Tessa would say with an air of hysteria: “there’s a blow-fly!’, as if we were suddenly in grave danger. Okay, it is now apparent that there is such a thing as a blow-fly. Seeing is believing. (Knowlege is Power. The early bird catches the worm...don't get me started...) Wim complained the other morning that he had been bothered by a wasp buzzing around as he was drifting off to dreamland the night before. Tessa posited the blow-fly as the miscreant. Low and behold, yesterday there was a thick bodied very loud, aesthetically unpleasing fly in OUR bedroom. My response was automatic. I am now an experienced blow-fly annihilator. Actually, at the moment, there is a second one here in the sun room. It was within reach a moment ago but perhaps read the future on my screen…excuse me as i sign off and go into stalk mode…