A Retirement Blog by Caree Risover

Well this week's news that the Natural History Museum intends to move the diplodocus model from the entrance hall to the museum and replace it with the skeleton of a blue whale was a shock to the nation. So much so that I understand a petition is now circulating to try to get the powers that be to change their minds. Part of the museum's reasoning appears to be that it feels that after exhibiting Dippy since 1905, it is now time for its retirement (or at least a less prominent position) and secondly it is just a plaster cast.  I guess, from Dippy's perspective, that's what ageism in the workplace feels like, although, if he asked me, I could certainly recommend retirement!

  Wellington with a population of just over 400,000 people is the capital of New Zealand, neatly placed at the bottom end of the North Island across the Cook Straits from the South Island. Auckland with a population of over 1.5 million is the country's largest city but was its capital for a brief period of 24 years only, commencing in 1841. Although now both modern, outward looking cities, they are very different. We were privileged to stay two nights in Wellington in  a harbourside hotel, within walking distance of all the main sights. The city has a reputation for being "edgy." That's a state that is hard to define but you do come away feeling that it lives up to the concept, regardless. Coffee shops and craft beers; sculptures and a redeveloped waterfront; the cable car/railway and botanical gardens; the wind that whistles through and makes you bend double; the historic buildings especially around the Parliamentary quarter.  We visited the National M...

Mister E had a desire to visit the Northern tip of New Zealand, so we headed North in a small Toyota Yaris. I'm not too sure why we failed to upgrade the rental car as we subsequently did on South Island, but it felt somewhat Bohemian setting out with the bootspace fully laden in such a small vehicle especially when we bounced over every pothole, crawled uphill and proceeded gingerly over gravel roads. There was even one point where we were stopped by a Police Officer who suggested we were going a little slowly (80kph when the speed limit was 100kph) but it all added to the sense of adventure. We had decided in advance to proceed in a leisurely fashion towards Cape Reinga. Even so we still moved on every night, except in Pahia. It did detract from a sense of leisure and relaxation as we repeatedly packed and unpacked but then this was no beach vacation. Our first stop was Puhoi, a small village settled by Catholics from what is now the Czech Republic, beautifully pr...