Honestly, I feel so lucky to live in Wakatipu.
I never like leaving, especially when I'm only going to the North Island.
I always get a bit snooty about that place with the big population and traffic jams and crime.
But every time go there, I have a ball and remember what fun there is to be had in our biggest city.
I was delighted to discover that I have been given a massive art collection in downtown Auckland. So have you.
Get on up and see for yourself what the country's richest, most generous people have given all of us at the newly (and sensationally) refurbished art gallery.
The constantly blooming and drooping flower chandelier is there for only a year and had crowds of wide-eyed open-mouthed schoolchildren (and one middle-aged housewife) hypnotised.
The art gallery visit was just a bonus - we really went north for the party celebrating Roger Dickie's new status as a pensioner.
We celebrated this worthy cause long and hard and I have come home having left my voice and my scarf on Matarangi beach somewhere.
There have been lots of other birthdays this week, including my delicious nephew Felix, who turned 3 (I must remember to buy him the same vast quantity of sweets my brother bought my children at that age ... that'll be sweet justice) and also a big happy birthday to long-time local Jean Mee.
I missed the Goodbye Sarajevo sisters talking about their book at Dorothy Browns on Thursday.
All the reports from many of you have made me so sad not to have heard their fascinating stories.
If you haven't read the book, do get hold of a copy - it's an extraordinary read.
I had, but hadn't read anything of hers.
That oversight has now been rectified, and I have so enjoyed her The Unfortunates that I can't wait to read more.
Poppy is an heiress of the Minkel's Mighty Fine Mustard family, brought up in early 20th-century New York where no respectable young lady would be caught getting an education.
She is so blindingly naive and her observations and reactions to events are so wrong, that you just can't help laughing.
The other book I loved is John Baxter's The Most Beautiful Walk in the World.
I'm a sucker for books about walking - remember that walking is not a sport, but a philosophy.
I can't remember who said that, but I couldn't agree more.
The author is a writer living in Paris (now I have to add all his books to my list of must-reads as well) and he becomes a guide taking literary walking tours around his part of the world's most romantic city.
If you love Paris, you will just adore this book, and if you are thinking of going there, it's got a whole section of really useful tips at the back.
And on the subject of walking, its great to see all that work being done on the Sam Summers track.
I think its the most beautiful of all our walking tracks, but then I seem to think that about whichever track I've just been on.
Don't forget it's the Arrowtown Flower Show today.
If you are reading this early enough, you can whizz in with your daffs and camellias and enter the competition.
Otherwise, get along after the judging to see what our best local gardeners and flower arrangers are doing, and to buy as much as you can from their fabulous plant stalls.
