Our First Week and our Third Cyclone 

Our first week has been very wet on and off and quite windy at times, thanks to TC Hola, which should be making landfall in northern NZ as I write this. 

It crossed Vanuatu to the north of us and did damage to Pentecost (where one man was killed by a falling palm tree), Ambrym and Malekula Islands, then sat almost still to the west of Vila for a couple of days, growing to Cat 4! It was eerily calm at times and we were ready in case it changed direction back toward us, but fortunately it moved safely away between us and New Caledonia. Hopefully it will lose its intensity well before reaching Northland and Coromandel.  

All this wetness has made getting washing dry a mission, and we have had to walk around the block more than once as the 'great lakes' almost connected into one big one.

But at least we can keep our spirits up with card games!

Making another couple of small improvements at the flat also helps - we replaced the shower curtain, which needed cutting down to size and hemming (by hand, my machine wouldn't fit into the suitcase 😏 ) and putting up a nice calendar from home.

Here are the aforementioned puppies, all 8 of them. 

On Sunday the sun came out again, and we were able to enjoy a coffee and a lovely stroll along the waterfront with Neville and Gloria after church. A big cruise boat was in and people were enjoying Fatumaru Bay. 

The waterfall opposite the park was spruced up and decorated for the Pacific Mini Games last December, but the water wasn't running today.