Les Fruits de Mer

Back from New Zealand at the weekend it seemed a good way to counter my wish to be back in a kiwi summer, by having a seafood lunch at Les Halles in Sète.
The crumbed oysters were delicous & the tiny glasses of white wine just enough for soothing a jetlagged head.

The Seal Nursery

Just north of Kaikoura, where the Southern alps come down to meet the sea, about a 150m walk up into the bush, is a place where mother seals & their pups climb up along a mountain stream to this waterfall.
The babies play here, under the watchful eyes of one or two adults, while the rest of the mothers go out to sea to fish for the day.

The seal pups are only a couple of months old at this time of year and are still too small to go to nursery.
But the short climb up was worth it just for this view.

A shaky start to 2012

I love the way Christmas is extended well into January here in France. I'm not going to be here for the galettes at epiphany this year but I am going to be enjoying the kiwi summer in New Zealand for a few weeks.

I'm flying out to visit family & friends in a few days time & will be spending time in Christchurch. This city has been through so much last year after the devastating February earthquake and the literally thousands of aftershocks throughout the rest of 2010. They had another couple of big shocks just before Christmas, resulting in a very shaky New Year. I hope that 2012 brings better times for the city.