My friend Monty

Nothing in my blog since Christmas?? Must mean I have a life says Laura!

Life in Moeraki continues as per usual with the normal dose of insanity, craziness and fantastic feats of nature. I can't say I ever find it dull, a normal complaint from young uns passing through "theres nothing here, nothing much going on...". I wondered what they weren't seeing. How can you fail to see the entertainment in the local soap opera unfolding, day by day a new story comes to light. Same anywhere, any small Local village has its 'characters', its issues, its stories. Moeraki's tale centres around the wee fishing village, the beer-downing fishermen, and the rest of the weird and wonderful collection of people inexplicably drawn to the place.

For such a tiny place there's alot going on. Two galleries with local artists work proudly displayed, much of it from local Maori's, fine work it is too.
An award-winning celebrated restaurant, one of the very best fresh and local places in New Zealand - that being demonstrated by the hundreds of customers that flood through the little wooden door daily.
Nature in all its glory, fierce and wild and just there. A trip up to the lighthouse past the Kytes transports to the another world almost - the sea and her creatures as nature intended but metres away. Yellow eyed penguins just chilling out in front of you, seals basking in the sun, the strong smell of seaweed up your nose, in your hair. Everything seems bigger, more powerful up at the Lighthouse.

Last week we lost a chef (back to jail), almost another chef (on fire in the smoker) all the dogs (mercilessly evicted by the council), and many of us staff almost lost ours minds over the sheer volume of customers flooding in. But then something amazing happened...
Her Majesty the Sky put on a show like never before. The most humbling display of light and shadow, hard and soft focus, delicate sweeps of watercolour and the vibrancy of oil colour. All at once, but moving, always changing and evolving. I was stunned. I just stood there with my broom, staring, exclaiming, staring mouth open for 20 minutes while the sun went down and the sky went up in flames. Gayle took a picture, maybe one day I'll show it to you.

So don't tell me nothing happens in Moeraki kids.

Juliana, my lovely flatmate leaves today. Sad. That opens up another chapter of my Moeraki story however as new staff'll be moving in shortly. Stay tuned...