222choppy: Welcome in Winton

Tuesday 22nd March 2016.

Left Curio Bay by 10am and cruised into Invercargill quite early. We had a cuppa and then went into town and called in to OPSM there. Ralph Patterson was having a day off but we spoke to his wife and after some lunch we went out to see Ralph.

Fortunately his place is on the way to Norman and Glenys's. (Norman is Duncan's cousin)

Norman makes us very welcome as Glenys is at the dentist. We had lots to catch up on over drinks and nibbles on the deck and then a delicious BBQ meal.

Wednesday 23rd March. Duncan's birthday.

Got up about 8 this morning - but the sun got up about that time too.

After morning tea we headed off through Riverton to Colac Bay. Glenys, who is really into her floral art collected some thick, tortured seaweed.

Norman and Duncan

We had lunch at the Pavillion in Colac Bay but it was very disppointing as some dishes (like the seafood chowder) are not ready and others (like the lamb pies) had been prepared days ago.

We called in on Norman's sister Isobel who is a weaver and lives at Colac Bay. Our next stop was the Tuatapere Cemetery and using the very comprehensive guide we found Duncan and Norman's grandfather and grandmother's grave. They knew that she was older than him and calculated by 19years!! Then Glenys scraped the moss off and we could see it was only by 1 year, so we had a few laughs about this error!

We drove along by the Scott farm with the wee Otahu Flat School in the front paddock. Just one room with a fireplace, but it was well maintained and possibly going to be repurposed. We could look up the valley to the original Scott homestead.

Scott homestead in the centre at back

Inside the schoolhouse

Duncan and Norman outside the school which their mothers would have attended.

It is good to drive through the countryside with a knowledgeable person. The large sheds are for overwintering stock, and the hay bales are in the fodderbeet paddocks because the cows need more roughage in their feed when they are on winter rations.

We had an excellent meal at Elegance before heading off to Sole Mio. Even though we had booked late we had a good view and of course the quality of the singing was exquisite.

Here's cheers!

Norman and Glenys

Birthday selfie

Sole Mio

The stage lights made it quite hard to photograph so I didn't waste too much time doing that.

There were also screens that you could watch but we didn't really need those.

The rain was pouring down when we went in, but eased off by the time we left, but it was a bit slow going home - most in Winton must have gone into Invercargill for the show.

Thursday 24th March - Day 31.

A nice relaxing morning - caught up on a bit of washing. Then we explored Norman's shed - a typical ex-farmers hoard!

The new tractor or is it a digger?

The old tractor

The poptop caravan, the quadbike, the boat, the kayak.....

Their son Jared joined us for lunch - his wife is expecting a baby any day. I had admired one of the tops that Glenys was wearing and so we went into town to Glowing Sky Merino and I bought a twinset in a watermelon colour. Then we restocked for the caravan at the supermarket. Another gourmet evening meal and then Norman got out his mother's Super 8 movies. Of course movies being a novelty, many of the shots are actually quite still so I took a few photos on my camera. They were of the Bushes, the Dowlings and the Gorries in the 50's and 60's. Not much of Duncan, but easy to spot as he seemed to wear the same jersey throughout.