There is a total fire ban in Northland now. We had a little scrub fire here on New Year's Eve, when some people decided to have a hangi for New Year. We had the helicopter and 4 or 5 fire engines. Luckily the wind was blowing off shore, so it didn't come towards us. The day before would have been a totally different story. It was a bit of excitement we could have done without. There was supposed to be rain Saturday and Sunday. We got about 3 mls on Saturday and none on Sunday, which was disappointing, but really unexpected. Poor Southland was washed away over the weekend and we got hardly any. Weather is so fickle.
On New Year's Eve, Nita puts on a disc jockey until 1 am, so we went up to have a bit of a social time for a while, but we were in bed by 10 30 as we had work the next day. I couldn't go to sleep, so I lay in bed and tapped my toes until the music stopped and it went quiet.
I think they must have expected it to be quiet on New Year's day, as I was the only one rostered on for an hour. But no, everyone wanted coffee and croissants, so I was running. I had to get help from the office in the end as I couldn't keep up with the customers. I was very pleased when 9 came and I had more help. Eddie was busy too, as his rubbish helper didn't appear for a while, so Eddie cleaned up around the disco area by himself. He did score a sipper bottle and a stainless steel cup, hidden under a hedge, so all was not lost.
The photos below were taken at the New Year's Eve party. A good night was had by all.
