The start of Daylight Saving

We wondered what sort of weather we would get for our caravan rally weekend away at Paekakariki.  The weather was so horrendous on Thursday evening that we didn’t even bother loading the caravan in the wind and rain, but left it all till Friday after work. Luckily we didn’t have too far to travel up State Highway One to Paekakariki.  It took Robin a little time to set up the Sky TV decoder.  He recently had to purchase a new LNB for the satellite dish as our decoder was exchanged for a new one which uses a different frequency.  It was a matter of turning the TV on, going outside, bending down to ground level to move the satellite dish a fraction of a turn, then bobbing up to peer through the caravan window to check the signal strength on the TV inside.  He looked so funny doing this serious adjustment that I just had to take his photo.

Checking the TV signal strength

Bill joined us for a walk down to the beach on Saturday afternoon.   After all that bad weather the sea was running high, with large waves rolling onto the beach.  No wonder this coastline suffers from erosion as the waves pound into the sand dunes.  The local Surf Lifesaving club were having a working bee on their club house and were getting things all ready for when their season starts.   The wind and the sea breezes were quite invigorating and certainly blew the cobwebs away.  We stood on the foot bridge for some time watching the sea come rushing in to the river mouth then quickly flow back out again.  We came across a strangely shaped tree on the beach which had been well sculptured by the wind continuously blowing in from the sea across the branches.

The power of the wind on a growing tree

 

The wild sea

Our planned evening BBQ did not take place as the temperature dropped very quickly once the sun reached the horizon, so we all cooked and ate our evening meal inside our cosy caravans.  While we were busy attending to this chore, we noticed several Californian Quail foraging in the grass outside our window.  They looked quite comical as the crests on top of their heads bobbed about jauntily as they pecked away at their dinner.  These were followed by an even larger group of finches.  The smaller birds seemed to be gobbling up whatever grubs and seeds that the quails had missed.

 

Quails and finches

We had to change our clocks when we went to bed on Saturday night as it was the start of Daylight Saving.   Daylight Saving commences on the last Sunday in September, and ends on the first Sunday in April the following year, it has now been extended to a 27-week period.  We are fans of Daylight Saving and look forward to enjoying  the nice long summer evenings.