A week on from Cyclone Gabrielle's arrival in New Zealand, there are still communities cut off and towns struggling for food, water and communications. Auckland was hit hard, the wind and rain compounding problems wrought by the floods two weeks earlier - but the brunt of Gabrielle's power was felt mostly by the eastern North Island, in particular Hawke's Bay and Gisborne. Roading, railway lines and bridges are damaged, houses and farmland have been flooded, cars washed away, landslides, power and internet is still out to many thousands of households, and the pictures on the news are full of devastation. Over 10,000 people have become homeless. Because so many areas have been affected, all this will take an awful of resources and many months to start clearing up and rebuilding, it is just so heartbreaking to see. On a personal note, we are safe and still on holiday in the South Island, and our local area at home was not affected.
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Princess Anne has arrived in New Zealand for a short four day visit, accompanied by her husband Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. The Princess Royal arrived in Wellington on Wednesday and met with cyclone response staff at the National Crisis Management Centre. Because the cyclone has caused so much damage to the country her plans have been affected. Princess Anne is the Colonel in Chief of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals and is visiting New Zealand to attend its centenary celebrations.
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Actually, Princess Anne isn’t the only royal visitor to arrive in New Zealand. Prince Daniel and Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden are also visiting the country. A statement on the website of the Swedish embassy in Canberra said the couple are visiting this part of the world to promote and deepen Sweden’s bilateral relations with Australia and New Zealand.
There has certainly been such a lot going on over the last week, with the terrible cyclone taking centre stage, so much so that the two royal visits have not had a lot of publicity. But I’ve had time to do some more work on the toddler jumper I’m knitting, and have now completed the back and the front - the front has a little rib button band neck opening. Just the sleeves to go now.
Back and front completed
And another sunny afternoon spent on my Noah's Ark stitchery saw me working on two black and white Holstein cows. One of them is happily chewing on a buttercup.
Another block almost finished
