The Santa Scandal!

Stop the presses! Quit tasting wine and marveling at art deco! The local Santa Claus in the village of Levin near Wellington has been sacked by the corp. sponsor for the parade because there were expanded duties - including a lolly scramble - and they wanted to try someone new. Not your fault, Kris, we're just headed in a new direction and your real beard and belly isn't working. The new Santa, old Santa says, had lopsided belly padding, crappy fake beard and was rubbish "and I told him so." Quel scandale!
In other news...
1. "Kids warned off cold cheerios" the headline screams. Aren't all cheerios cold? Not here, where a cheerios is what we call a Vienna sausage or cocktail weenie. And it's a fave party food for kids and a treat offered when kids visit the butcher with mum. The local medial officer of health, Ramon Pink (could this be any better?) says uncooked cheerios can cause and infection leading to upset tummies. So in future, cook your cheerios.
2. NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark was seen texting on her cell during the Queen's opening speech at a Commonwealth meeting in Uganda. Much tutting and hand-wringing.
3. They may be having riots in Tonga, but the good news is the chubbies are losing weight as a result.
"Imported goods such as mutton flaps and tinned meat went up in smoke in the riots last November and are still too costly for most people."
Mutton flaps? And here's me thinking sheep can't fly....
4. Members of a local rugby squad are raising ire among walloby huggers for tossing the wee creatures around in a drunken spree last weekend on a holiday island trip. Some were tossed from milk crate to milk crate. Poor buggers.
And now back to our regularly scheduled travel blog.
I managed a good day - first an art deco walk around the 10 blocks of downtown destroyed by the quake in 1931 and rebuilt in deco style. It's just lovely, all pastel colours and accents on mostly white buildings. This aft. I joined 3 people from Calif. and a couple from Germany to taste at 4 wineries - two small, one medium and a larger one that is the area's oldest. Bear in mind that a large winery here is still very, very small. Less than 1% of the world's wine production comes from NZ, we were told. The scenery was lovely and we tasted some very good wines.
Last night I had dinner at the County House hotel - a real splash-out meal and just exceptional. Scallops fresh as could be and lovely local veg and cheeses from nearby dairies to finish.
Today I'm off on a cycling tour of local vineyards. The sky is brilliant blue and we're expecting a high of 20. Perfect. But first a stop at Opossum World to buy socks. There, in striking talbeaux were many stuffed opossums, much hated here for their voracious vegetation appetites. I will post pics later. The possum in art deco flapper garb was my personal fave.
Hope you are all well.
Linda

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