Christchurch’s botanical gardens are beautifully kept, but after a day and a night, and another day of rain we nonetheless decided to go with the flow and head on down to the coast:

Unrelated to pretty much anything else here, but a good parenting fable and top of this trip’s playlist.

At Blockhill, Melisa and Olmec are 8 years into their sustainable, low environmental impact project, and we were bowled over by their efforts to turn a grass hillside into a verdant and bountiful garden.

This trip took a lot of preparation: arranging time off school, travel arrangements, route planning etc. etc. but all that only took us as far as Wellington on the North Island.

Riverside was established in 1941 by conscientious objectors and today describes itself as an intentional community: the intention being peaceful and sustainable.

Time is different here – hits from yesteryear play on the radio (Stevie Wonder’s being superstitious just now), happy hour is practically an institution and blokes hunt.

Here is a wild place, where bold little feathered dinosaurs emerge from spiky undergrowth to steal your olives.