Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Loose Nuts

The first time I flew was from Australia to New Zealand, February 1989 – on the same day nine unfortunate people were sucked out of United Flight 811 from Honolulu. I didn’t hear about this for another day or so, after having flown for the second time – this time in a tin can with wings. My unease almost spoiled my “Grand Traverse” of New Zealand’s Southern Alps, flying over ‘the largest glaciers, highest mountains and some of the most spectacular scenery in the Southern Hemisphere’.

Posted for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Vehicle Details

Here I was, thinking I was taking my life in my hands, daring such a trip in this little plane while, unbeknown to me, the remaining passengers on our bus taking the mountain route to our accommodation were in real danger. nz bus During the pre-tour servicing, the wheel nuts on the bus were tightened by hand, but someone forgot to come along and tighten fully with the machine.

I found out all this when we landed at the airstrip later. (The same airstrip I lay on watching the stars later that night – only I had no idea what the asphalt was in the dark. I thought it a road.)

The photo shows the bus-driver and a fellow tourist trying to either take the wheel off, push it on, or to straighten it so they could get stripped nuts off. They were at a photo-stop, I believe, when someone noticed missing nuts. There was also the problem of not being allowed to interfere with the wheel that contained the mileage counter. Anyway, they salvaged enough nuts to go around to get to our destination.

We didn’t get our trip up to some famous mountain resort or homestead the next day, because the nuts had to replaced and machine tightened at the next town. Needless to say, it was a cautious trip down the mountain.

(I will have to find my notes to fill in the names of places, but I boarded the plane at Lake Tepako. )

nz plane

cees fun photo challenge
(Yes, I have changed the look of my blog theme, yet again.)

Book Review

A Children’s Book: Lily’s Wish

Cover image from the publisher’s website

My copies of Barbara’s wonderful children’s book, Lily’s Wish, arrived in todays mail. Naturally, I read it but it caught me out because I read it like an adult. I didn’t take the time to drink in the delightful pencil and watercolour drawings on that first pass, as a child would. Reaching the last sentence, I realised I had missed something important and I had. I had overlooked the very thing that makes this book so special – Lily’s gift to her grandma.

This is what Barbara’s publisher, New Frontier Publishing, has to say about Lily’s Wish.

Lily’s Wish
Written by Barbara Pyett and illustrated by Serena Geddes
Paperback
ISBN: 9781921042829
32 pages
Reading Age: 4 – 8
Release Date: January 31, 2012

Lily has a special Christmas wish, but only one person can make her wish come trye [sic: that’s a worry!]. She writes him a letter and another and another. He writes back, but will he grant her wish? Do you believe he can? Barbara Pyett’s magical Christmas tale about a selfless young girl and her inspirational wish is brought to life by Serena Geddes’ delightful illustrations.

Here is a peek inside – I think I’m allowed to do this for the purposes of reviewing, even in my poor fashion.

lily Ignore all the shadows on the page – that’s just me – and I didn’t want to squash the book flat, and risk spoiling the brand new look. But you get the idea, the illustrations are gorgeous, all pink and pretty. lily2
Lily’s Wish can be purchased from the publisher ($9.99 plus postage) or online book stores such as Fishpond ($14.95, free postage Australia)

I love Barbara’s dedication to her grandchildren, and to all grandchildren separated by distance from their grandmothers. If you have children in the reading age range (4 – 8) then you can’t go past this as the perfect Christmas present, either in its own right or as a stocking-filler.