South Taranaki.

We travelled down to South Taranaki ( where we lived in the 1960 and 70s )( R lived there from the 1940s -70s ) to attend the 90th Birthday celebration of R's Godmother.
 On Friday we arrived in Hawera and had time to stretch our legs. We walked around King Edward park. I hadn't done that since our 2 boys were small, so quite a while ago.
 We thought it was a lovely park; very well maintained. 

 Lovely blue delphiniums.

 Of course this took R's eye.

 I preferred this fine example of a mature Cabbage tree.

and the old gates,

and this delicate lemon iris.

 The moon gate into the Chinese garden was padlocked so we could only peer through the bars.

 The following day of the party was fine but typically West Coast windy. ( Patea is often very windy ) Part way through the party, it did this.

 It had stopped by the time we had to leave. We were very hopeful that it was pouring down back home but found only 7mls in the rain gauge when we got back.