I enjoy this series by Anne Shillolo, and Murder at Hay River (An Elk Ridge Murder Mystery Book 4) was another enjoyable read. 📚:
A photographer is killed and abandoned in a macabre display on the banks of the Hay River. Constable Ezra McCann’s home is nearby and his celebrity family feel like they're targets. McCann is on the alert. He also has a strong suspicion that the new nanny is not who she seems, and that’s one more thing keeping him awake at night.

Tomorrow the photographer will take pretty pictures of our house so we can advertise it for sale. Today I'm transforming our home into a house someone else should want to buy.
Gone are the pet photos, the piles of our clutter, the smudge on the doorway I should have cleaned weeks ago.
Sanitised. 😒
We were near Whanganui yesterday when three large military aircraft flew low and slow in a sweeping arc ahead of us. I was slow to take a photo. 😒

Turns out it was part of a farewell tour:
To mark the [official retirement] of the [RNZAF C-130H Hercules] fleet it has recently carried out flypasts over Northland and the central North Island.
Via RNZAF C-130H Hercules fleet retires after 60 years of service - New Zealand Defence Force.
We stopped at Main Street Cafe in Waverley for lunch. They had a pleasant garden area.

Next door, on the street was a life-size statue of a racing horse and jockey. It turns out the horse Kiwi was reared in Waverley and made racing history:
At the turn of the Flemington track, with 500 metres remaining, Kiwi was positioned as the second last horse. …
Upon approaching the final straight, Kiwi began to advance through the field. At the finish line, Kiwi won the race by just over a length.

This puriri tree at Pukekura Park is about 2,000 years old!

We visited the gorgeous and popular Pukekura Park in New Plymouth:
Pukekura Park is an idyllic, inner-city botanical wonder that was first opened in 1876. Once swamp land, the 52-hectare park is both a garden and a public recreation ground.



While Aotearoa is in the South Pacific, I guess technically both Waikawa Beach and New Plymouth are actually on the Tasman Sea, and South and North Taranaki Bight respectively.
Nevertheless for the Pacific Wave Appreciation Society, the following video from Autere / East End Beach, New Plymouth. 🌊
Two minutes walk from the Devon Hotel in New Plymouth is the coastal walkway and beach. Looking southish.

Our friends J & H, keen motorcyclists, have ridden their bikes 510 Km from Whangārei to meet us in New Plymouth — a 280 km drive for us.
The Devon Hotel is comfortable and has free EV charging.
It's good to get away for a day or two from the ongoing house cleaning, tidying and readying for sale.
You’re never in any doubt where you are when stopping at Bulls for lunch.

I enjoy the Detective Clare Mackay series by Marion Todd. Dead Man's Shoes (Detective Clare Mackay Book 9) was another good read 📚:
A young man is found dead near a nightclub. He has marks on his neck, the signature of the Choker, a killer who has been targeting gay men across the country.

A couple of years ago I didn't care for one of Tannis Laidlaw's books, but I thought I'd give a different series a try. It didn't work: I can't stand the characters in Darkwater Lake Mysteries: Box-Set - a complete series of 5 psychological suspense mysteries. Abandoned. 📚

I usually take my Waikawa Beach photos from across the estuary, somewhere south of the river throat. That's several hundred metres south of the river throat where a groyne is.
Standing at the groyne looking south on a particularly high tide gives quite a different impression.

This was such an interesting podcast episode! Lingthusiasm Episode 99: A politeness episode (1 hour):
…different uses of “please” in UK vs US English, levels of indirectness, email etiquette across generations and subcultures, rudeness and pointing … and how a small number of politeness ingredients can combine in so many different ways that are culturally different.
For my own future reference — Hawaiian Language:
Hawaiian diacritical marks, ʻokina (ʻ) and kahakō (macron) are not just symbols but essential components of the Hawaiian language. The ʻokina represents a glottal stop, a pause in speech, and is typographically represented as a reversed apostrophe. The kahakō, on the other hand, is a bar above a vowel that indicates a prolonged sound. These marks are crucial for accurate pronunciation and meaning in the Hawaiian language.
// @hawaiiboy
Hah, a potential buyer is coming to look at our house this afternoon, in the single hour today when the 100% cloud cover drops to 27%. 😀

Ugh. Looks like creepy spam. Blocked!

It turned out today was floor washing day — prompted in part by the full cup of coffee that started the process in the lounge.
Our floors are all vinyl: we learned while building that houses close to the beach shouldn't have carpet because of all the sand that appears.
Wiped myself out today sorting stuff in the grounds and garage, carting stuff around and loading a skip. Even used both chainsaw and weedeater, as well as a spade. Whew!

It's amazing how much stuff you can clear out when you're moving …
I apologised to this rather chubby Green and Golden Frog for making it homeless. I'd just removed a pile of stuff it was sheltering under on the property.
Glad to see the frog at all though — we're concerned there seem to be fewer around these days.
