Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

I took a load of photos over Christmas, photos of the different Hawaiian islands we visited plus shipboard shots. Unfortunately disaster struck and hubby managed to delete every single photo on my digital card. There was much cursing and swearing on his part and I have to confess that a few mutters emerged from me too. Sigh. On the positive side we have visited Hawaii before and we still have hubby’s photos, but they weren’t as good as mine. I lost all the Christmas day photos, although I did visit Hilo Hatties in Lahaina and had my photo taken with Santa Claus. He was the most talkative Santa I’ve ever met. When he heard I was from New Zealand we had a discussion about the movie Once Were Warriors.

I love his Hawaiian shirt and the fact his beard was real. We had a lovely day in Lahaina. My highlight was getting up to watch the sunrise. We watched the pilot boat from the cruise ship and saw it stop suddenly. A humpback whale breached right in front of it and as we watched the whale breached three more times. It was a magical start to the day. This was the first time I’ve ever spent part of Christmas day on the beach. Unfortunately the photos to prove it are lost.

If you’d ever like a warm Christmas I highly recommend Hawaii as a destination.

With the approach of the Olympic games I thought I’d post a few photos from Britain. This week I’m all about villages. England has some gorgeous villages with pretty cottages and thatched roofs.

This is the seaside village of Mousehole in Cornwall. (pronounced Mowzel) I remember eating morning tea—a vegetable pastie and a cup of tea—in a small cafe in Mousehole. It was delicious.

The Cotswold area is full of pretty villages. They’re also over run with click happy tourists—a trade off for the locals, I guess. This is the village of Lower Slaughter.

This is a village in the Dartmoor area. The roads are narrow and you never know what you’ll find around the next corner. These ones all have thatched roofs. Very cute!

And finally Bourton on the Water is one of the prettiest Cotswolds villages in my opinion. There’s a river running through the center with tiny walking bridges so people can cross. One of the attractions in the town is this miniature village, which is an exact replica of the real one. It even has a model village within the model village.

I always think of cozy mysteries, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot and Midsummer Murders when I think of English villages. The quaint buildings hide so much crime and passion! I have a real soft spot for these books and TV shows. Maybe I’ll even write a village set romance one day—with a few bodies strewn around, naturally.

What comes to your mind when you think of villages?

Last week Mr. Munro’s employer told him he had to use up his remaining holidays. After several days of discussion and tossing ideas for holiday destinations back and forth, I said to hubby, “We could always go to China. We could go this year instead of next year.”

My husband took one look at me and said, “We’ll check it out once we arrive home.” (We were walking Bella at the time)

The long and short of it: We’re off to China at the end of August. I’m so excited about this I could burst. I can’t wait to walk on the Great Wall, see the Terracotta Warriors and visit the panda bear reserve in Chengdu among other things.

Our passports run out in February, but most countries require travelers to have a valid passport for six months after their return home. No problem. Off we went to our local mall to have passport photos taken.

There are all sorts of rules these days.
1. You can’t smile
2. Your eyebrows must be visible
3. Face must not be obscured
4. Glasses frames must not be heavy
5. If glasses are worn, there shouldn’t be any reflection from the lenses
6. The background must be neutral

The end result of all this is that my photo makes me look as if I belong in a facility of some sort. It’s the worst photo I’ve ever seen. My sister, who sees quite a few passport photos in the course of her work, says they all look bad. She didn’t make me feel better. I fretted about showing the photo to someone and getting it signed to say it was a true likeness of me. Yep, I’m that vain. I know I’ll hate showing my passport to anyone. The photo is really that bad! Mr. Munro’s photo is a lot better, and he had the cheek to laugh at mine.

Do you take a good photo? If you have a passport, is it a good photo?

White Island is one of New Zealand’s volcanoes—the most active one. The island is privately owned and was once mined for sulfur. I’d never seen White Island before and was looking forward to our visit. We had perfect weather and the volcano puffed out a little steam for us. Part of the crater has collapsed, allowing views of the inside. The cruise ship sailed around the island several times allowing 360 views.

I took this photo last week at the Clevedon A & P show. He was sitting comfortably and snoozing while waiting for his event to commence.

Isn’t he a handsome fellow?

To see more animal photos visit Camera Critters

Today I’m posting at The Raven Happy Hour about space flights. Have you ever thought about flying into space? I know I have. Check out my post about Space Flights For Ordinary People.

I’ve loaded lots of new photos of New Zealand to my online photo album. Once I finish my edits, I’ll add some from my recent cruise holiday in the Pacific.

Author Melissa Schroeder kicks off her Summer of Love today with excerpts and prizes. I’m visiting her on 4 June.

“Careful! Watch the knot. Do I have to go to work today?”

“Can’t we go faster?”

“Ah! Dinner time at last.”

“And maybe time for a snooze.”

These photos were taken at our local farmers’ market where they give pony rides to the children. To visit more animal photos follow the links at Camera Critters.

I’ve updated my photo album with fifteen photos from my recent trip to Samoa. Just click on the photos tab above and start exploring my album.