Lunch on the Way

Thames Junction Hotel. A historic building established in 1869, the beginning of the gold mining days. This was the days of steam. The days and nights of the gold stampers, noise, ground vibrating, and at midnight Saturday the citizens would wake. Silence. The Lord’s day. All this 20 years before the advent of electricity, but, at the bottom of the South Island.

Dec 2019, behind me, young women are meeting for an end of year work lunch. Platforms have been recently extended onto the road. A couple of fewer parking spots, but, with the advent of the electric bike…

A walkway runs beside our petanque terrain.
This time of year we meet visitors, German, Dutch, French.
Two people from Toulouse stopped and watched our play. Accepted the invitation to join in.
Serious players in the thought and precision of each shot.

Petanque

Two games lost, laughter and sun.

Sweat and battery power cyclists, dogs tugging on leads, herons nesting above us. A light plane circles above, circuit training.

And the fish are jumping. Fish and chips for lunch down at the wharf.

Early summer. Thames NZ.