A Hot Day in December

We’re walking in the Gordon Carmichael Reserve…

A Sunday afternoon constitutional. We pass by two small gulls by the side of the path. They’re looking a little lost and bemused. It’s a wetland reserve with lakes and water ways, planted with native New Zealand plants, such as NZ flax and Cabbage Trees. It acts as a filtering system for storm drain run-off; the pools settle the sediment and the reeds and water plants filter out the contaminants; a series of walk ways and cycle paths run through it.

‘All the seats are in the sun,’ says Val, ‘which is what you normally want, but not on a hot December afternoon’

It’s not the only incongruity. We are staying with friends, Barbara and John Hill, in Bethlehem. No., it’s not the famous one. It’s a small suburb of Tauranga; situated in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand…

 

Pictures from Singapore