Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

Last year Mr. Munro and I spent a few days in Venice during our Mediterranean cruise. Venice is a very cool place to visit. It’s bustling and full of color and noise.

Mention Venice and people’s minds drift to gondolas, but have you ever wondered what happens to older gondolas?

Some of the old gondolas are used as traghetto. And what is a traghetto, you ask?

A traghetto is used to ferry passengers back and forth across the Grand canal for a nominal fee. The locals use them all the time. We decided a romantic gondola trip was too expensive, but a traghetto was our chance to ride in a gondola.

The locals stand for the journey across the canal. All other canal traffic must give way to the traghetto. Note the uniform above – the striped shirt and black trousers. All the gondoliers wear this uniform.

I was a little concerned about this standing business, but I noticed the traghetto had a couple of seats and tourists were sitting for the crossing.

The canal can get choppy with all the traffic, and it was easy to imagine a passenger overbalancing (me) and tumbling into the water. I decided I was going to sit for the crossing.

We paid our fare and stepped aboard. Hubby, of course, decided to stand. Not to be outdone, I stood too.

And I managed to get to the other side completely dry, despite the rocking. No sweat! The traghetto wasn’t nearly as bad as the dug-out canoes in Africa, but that’s another story entirely.

Do you have good balance? Or are you the one who trips over their feet?

I’m generally pretty good, although the canal did concern me a bit. I think my big feet help with balance. They cover more ground

This is a shot of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, taken from the air. I remember the flight well because some of our group looked a bit green after they climbed out of the plane. I loved the flight because the views were incredible.

I’m visiting Harlie’s Books today and talking about romances with a reunited theme. There’s also a giveaway.

Tomorrow it’s ANZAC day (25 April) where New Zealand and Australia remember those who fell at Gallipoli during World War 1.

A few years ago, Mr. Munro and I visited ANZAC Cove and Chunuk Bair in Turkey. We walked from ANZAC Cove up to Chunuk Bair. It was sweltering hot and we were exhausted by the time we reached the top. We didn’t have packs. We didn’t have people shooting at us. I don’t know how the soldiers managed during the heat of battle.

Every year they hold a special service at ANZAC Cove where Australians, New Zealanders and the Turkish people remember.

Here are a few photos. (They’re scanned so the quality isn’t as good as it could be)

This is taken from Chunuk Bair and is of the view out toward ANZAC Cove. You can see the trenches in the foreground.

This is the New Zealand memorial.

This is ANZAC Cove (click to enlarge photo)

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

From Laurence Binyon’s poem For the Fallen, written in September 1914

Please take a moment to remember the fallen from past battles. Without their sacrifices our lives would be very different.

I’m in the middle of edits at present, so I’m whisking you off to Egypt for a quick visit to the pyramids at Giza. Imagine the heat and the dust, the pungent scent of the horses and camels and the hordes of tourists (not shown in this shot). Then there are these huge, awe-inspiring pyramids. The passing years have left their mark with the smooth outer layer eroded to show the rough stones beneath. A truly magical place to visit since you can practically hear the footsteps of the past.

And, in a change of topic, I’ve decided to experiment and try a little promo of my back list. I’m looking for blogs to host me for a visit at any time in the next six months. My promise to you is to be a good guest, and I’ll attempt to entertain your regular visitors rather than pelt them with white noise.

I write in most genres and while most of my books are erotic romance, there are a few that are not quite as hot.

If you’re interested in hosting me please email me at shelley munro AT gmail DOT com (no spaces)

Let me know:

1. Which genre you’d like me to focus on—choose a particular book if you like from my booklist

2. Would you like me to do an interview?

3. Would you like me to do a post? Do you have a particular topic you’d like me to write about?

4. Give me a couple of possible dates that you have free at your blog.

5. I’m happy to do a contest and will most likely do a rafflecopter giveaway each month

It’s back to edits for me. What are your goals for this week?

Regular visitors to my blog will know how much I enjoy travel. When the travel is combined with seeing animals in their natural habitat, I’m there because there is something very special about viewing animals on their home turf.

Here are some of my favorite animal encounters:

Thirteen Favorite and Memorable Animal Encounters

1. Camel – I like camels, and I’ve met quite a few during my travels through the Middle East and Asia, but my favorite meeting was in Egypt. We met up with a herd of camels consisting of mothers and juveniles. Once we mounted our camels, we ambled along with the rest of the herd. It was fun and relaxing. This juvenile camel was very curious and wanted to investigate me at close quarters.

2. Giraffe – During a visit to Kenya we visited a giraffe reserve, not far from Nairobi. There you can feed the giraffes and observe them at close quarters. I’ll never forget their abrasive tongues and the feel of giraffe slobber. It was a fun visit!

3. Whale – I’ve been whale watching in lots of different locations including Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Alaska and Maine. These huge creatures are majestic, and it’s always thrilling to see them in person. This photo of a sperm whale was taken near Kaikoura in New Zealand.

4. Baboon – We stayed in cabins in Uganda, and they had a small shop where they sold chocolate including Mars bars. The local kids selling slingshots at the gate should have clued us in. Those baboons went around in gangs, and the animals actually mugged some of the people in our group and stole their Mars bars.

5. Dolphin – I went for a day trip from Auckland to dolphin watch. Once we found the dolphins we spent ages watching them play and surf the bow water.

6. Alpaca – These guys just have so much character. I’d love to own one of these. I guess I need to get some land first.

7. Moose – Hubby and I came across a queue of cars when we were driving through the Grand Teton area. They had stopped to check out this bull moose that was calmly grazing while tourists clicked photos.

8. Rhino – When we visited Chitwan National Park in Nepal, we were privileged to see this rhino and baby. It was worth crawling out of our beds early in the morning.

9. Snake – We don’t have snakes in New Zealand so any encounter is memorable. Hubby was playing a round of golf on Lindeman Island, which is in the Whitsunday group in Australia. We’d been told there were no snakes on the island. Someone should have told the snake I almost stood on while striding down the fairway! I started looking where I was walking after that.

10. Takahe – It was thought the takahe, one of New Zealand’s native flightless birds was extinct but they were rediscovered in 1945. They’re still very endangered, and are now mostly on offshore islands, which are pest free.

11. Elephants – we’ve seen elephants in Africa and also in Asia. They’re such cool creatures. This photo of the baby elephant was taken in Kenya.

12. Panda – We visited China two years ago. I wanted  to walk on the Great Wall, see the terracotta soldiers and visit the panda. Not only did I see the panda, I got to hold one. The money raised from tourists goes back into the care and research of pandas. It was worth every dollar.

13. Gorilla – My number one animal encounter was with gorillas in Rwanda. I cannot begin to express how magical this was but can still feel the awe and excitement as I watched these animals in the wild. I have an essay about our gorilla encounter on my website.

Do you have a memorable animal encounter to share?

At some stage during most of the cruises we’ve taken, the cruise director will read out a list of the top ten complaints/questions they receive from passengers. Here are three for your amusement:

1. The passenger with an inside cabin who complained because they didn’t have a view and wanted the cruise staff to cut a porthole for them.

2. The passenger who complained because the sea was keeping him awake.

3. The passenger who complained because he didn’t get a suntan. He was cruising in Alaska.

This made me think of our past holidays and the things that have gone wrong. Luckily, to date, we haven’t experienced any huge dramas, merely minor irritations.

1. The hotel room in Egypt with mouse droppings all over the bed. The second room also had mouse droppings and I gave up. I slept with one eye open and used my sleeping bag.

2. The hotel shortage in Zanzibar. We stayed on Zanzibar for three nights with the hotels becoming worse and smaller each night. The last room was a small square box with no windows or facilities and we had to run the fan or melt. The fan was really noisy! Didn’t get much sleep that night. Oh, almost forgot. The first night our friends, who stayed in another room, had a nocturnal guest—a rat. They called the hotel desk and it was like a Greek comedy. The story and the size of the rat has grown over the years. We still chuckle about the rat story. Also, the ferry going back to the mainland broke down and we spent time drifting in the humidity while they fixed it.

3. The hotel in Greece that was really still a building site. After two nights we complained and were shifted to a new and much better hotel.

4. The camp site in Kenya. The porters asked if we’d heard any noises during the night. “No,” we said. They’d had to chase elephants away from our tent. When we didn’t believe them they showed us the footprints. They were really close to our tent!

5. The camp site in Tanzania. I was petrified about having to go to the loo in the middle of the night. Luckily I didn’t need to, but the roar of the lions kept me awake all night.

6. Camping once again, this time in Rotorua, New Zealand. It was a wild and windy night, so windy only our weight kept the tent on the ground. There was a few times when I didn’t think that would be enough to keep us earthbound. We ended up driving home at about three a.m.

Do you have any bad holiday stories to share?

Last year one of our final stops during our cruise was the island of Madeira. We weren’t meant to visit the island, but Hurricane Sandy meant a change to our itinerary. Not such a bad thing since Madeira is beautiful.

So what can you do in Madeira?

1. Take the cable car to Monte at the top of the hill. It’s a long ride with glorious views of the city and coast.

2. Visit the tropical gardens at the top.

3. Take a ride in one of the Monte toboggan wicker baskets. Two men tow, then guide your basket down the hill. Some go faster than others. The men who do all the hard work wear a white shirt and trousers plus a straw hat.

4. Visit one of the many shops that sell madeira wine – not really to my taste since it was quite sweet.

5. Wander around the some of the beautiful churches.

6. Check out the markets for fruit, flowers, fish and people watching!

7. Dine at one of the restaurants. I had fresh fish with a madeira sauce, and it was delicious.

8. Try some of the traditional Madeira bread.

9. Go for a sail on the Santa Maria, a replica of Christopher Columbus’s flag ship.

10. Wander in what used to be a red light area. The area had a bad name, but the buildings were given cheaply to local artists. All they had to do in exchange was decorate their doors. These days it’s fun to wander down the alley and check out the different doors.

This is a selection of things to do in and near the township of Funchal. From what I hear the rest of the island is just as beautiful. Maybe next time!

Last week I took a day off writing and went on a wine tasting tour with Barry’s Wine Tours. After managing to cause a little chaos, (I got lost and went to the wrong meeting point) we headed to Kumeu, a region I’d only driven through before. Twenty minutes after leaving Central Auckland, we were in the countryside.

Our first stop was Soljans Estate Winery. This is one of our oldest wineries, and it traces its roots back to 1927 when Bartul Soljan arrived from Croatia and started his vineyard.

Most of the vines are covered with nets at present to protect the grapes from marauding birds. The roses were traditionally planted at the end of rows because they show signs of disease first, before the grape vines. They’re sort of like canaries down in a mine. The red roses signify the red grape varieties and yellow roses were planted at the head of rows of white grapes.

The merlot grapes weren’t doing well, so the vineyard owner decided to graft pinot gris grapes onto the merlot vines. Experts were brought in from France to do the specialist work. Below the white tape, the grape is a merlot vine. A bud from a pinot gris (white grape) was grafted into the area and has grown into a new vine.

The business end of the vineyard. These are stainless steel casks that hold the wine.

This is one of the wine bottling machines. The labels come next.

Tasting is the fun part of the tour. We tried six different wines, white and red. There are crackers and water to cleanse the palate between varieties of wine. Some people can be snobby about wine. My opinion – if I like the wine then it’s a good one!

This is a photo of West Brook Winery, the second vineyard we visited. As you can see the grounds are gorgeous and perfect to take the family for a picnic on a Sunday afternoon.

The day was lots of fun and the perfect way to recharge my writing batteries.

Where would you go if you have a day off to recharge?

This is the Kissing Gate Cafe, the inspiration for my cafe, Storm in a Teacup, in the Middlemarch Mates series. Most of the characters visit the cafe and much gossip is exchanged there.

An old bike parked outside the cafe.

I’m visiting LilyElement today with a promo post for Scarlet Woman. This is the last day that Scarlet Woman is available free so make sure you grab your copy today!

The Sutton Salt Lake, not far from Middlemarch, is New Zealand’s only saline lake. During the heat of the summer, the water evaporates. There was no water when we visited and the partially dried lake bed smelled in the summer heat. It smelled pretty bad! I’ve mentioned the salt lake in several of the Middlemarch Mates books, but just in passing. It’s certainly an interesting place and according to the Department of Geology, it’s not as salty as the sea.

I’m visiting Sarah Ballance today and taking Emily Mitchell nee Scarlet with me. She’s telling us about all the reasons we should move to Middlemarch. Come on over and say hello.