Lazy Labour Day

Monday 27th October was a public holiday here in New Zealand. It was Labour Day which commemorates the struggle for an eight-hour working day.

New Zealand workers were among the first in the world to claim this right when, in 1840, the carpenter Samuel Parnell won an eight-hour day in Wellington. Labour Day was first celebrated in New Zealand on 28 October 1890, when several thousand trade union members and supporters attended parades in the main centres. Government employees were given the day off to attend the parades.

We took our portable camping stove (part of our yet-to-be-used earthquake kit) down to the Waimakariri Gorge and drove down the side of the river for a few km's and found ourselves a nice little patch to sit and chill. We took a heap of tiger prawns, garlic (of course!), lemon, butter and some roti and ate al fresco while the dogs went for a swim (water was too cold for humans!).

The temps were in the high 20's and despite sunscreen we both ended up with sunburn! Oooops.