Various topics

I was very excited last week when we experienced a brief thunderstorm. It came up quite quickly- and I was first notified by that old "sheets of rain" sound on the roof, that I hadn't heard it so long. It was followed by thunder and lightening. Not much, but enough to remind me of a good old Saskatchewan summer storm. Lo and behold a lightening strike about 5 kms from home started a big fire. I drove by on the weekend and witnessed at least 3 choppers out doing their dosing duties. This was on Saturday. There were numerous spectators sitting on the side of the road, watching. I drove back again Sunday and there seemed to be less smoke, and less spectators. It was cool seeing one of the choppers (a pretty red one) come in for the landing quite close to the road, as I was driving by. Luckily the road had just been retopped so the speed limit through that section was slow, allowing me to watch. It came very close to houses, but was in the hills with the trees, so I think didn't cause any home damage, fortunately.

I've been thinking NZ Housing prices were super duper high, and it was confirmed today in a newspaper article. A quote " New Zealand was divided into seven areas for the survey and was the only nation in which all markets were rated severely unaffordable. " see the full story at :
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4366750a10.html
Interest rates are in the 10% neighbourhood. In my part of the country it seems houses tend to be in the $300-$400K neighbourhood, anyway. $30K of interest buys a lot of rent!

I visited Picton a couple of times on the weekend. It's not quite Nelson, but I love that little town.

Much in the news of late has been about the death of Sir Edmund Hillary. The one who "knocked the bastard (Everest) off." First, that is to say. Sometime around the same time as Queen Elizabeth was coronated. From everything I've read, he was a humble man, and he contributed greatly to advancing the lives of people throughout the world. He will be missed.