Joy Bennett, of Alexandra, sent these dazzling pictures of a golden-edged Clutha River and patches of colour splashed over the Ripponvale Flats.
She says she was fortunate to be able to get into the air and take a broad look at parts of Central Otago.
``I took these while flying with my husband Roger around the area. It's so pretty just now with all the colours, especially those golden leaves beside the blue water along the Clutha.''
Thanks, Joy. Looking forward to the arrival of more photos in the coming days.
Otago Peninsula
Talking about Otago's breathtaking beauty, a mate picked me up on Tuesday morning and we went to explore Allans Beach on the Otago Peninsula.
It was many years since I'd been to that part of the peninsula and it was pretty awe-inspiring to be so close to some amazing wildlife. We saw four sea lion pups play-fighting in Hoopers Inlet and what looked like a fully grown sea lion splayed out on the beach hard up against the sand hills. There were pied stilts and plenty of shags, swans and gulls too.
There were a few other people on the beach in the fleeting sunshine, including a mother and son with Australian accents. They stopped to talk about what they were seeing and were clearly astonished at how accessible the wild is here. That is something quite a few Dunedinites take for granted but shouldn't.
Getting to school
A mischievous ODT colleague left on my desk a copy of a letter to the editor from October 23, 1924, in which a mother of five complains about the impossibility of getting her children to Palmerston School on time from their home at Goodwood Bush.
Mrs S.E. Goodwin says a ``gross injustice'' has been done to her children by the Education Board in closing Goodwood School.
``We live over three miles from the school. The Education Board has put on a lorry to convey the children to Palmerston School.
``The lorry comes to Goodwood School at 8.45am. Our children would have to walk over three miles before that time and that is impossible.
``I have asked the board to send the lorry two miles nearer my place, at the bottom of the Goodwood Village Settlement road, but it has declined with much sympathy. Its sympathy, however, will not educate my children.''
She concludes: ``If the Education Board cannot see its way clear to bring the lorry two miles nearer my home, the best thing it can do is buy my farm at my price and let me get a place nearer some school.''
Hmmm. Doesn't this ring a few bells? Just substitute bus for lorry. And forget about the ``much sympathy'' part of the 1924 trials and tribulations.
Lamson Tubes
It was good to hear from a few of you about those marvellous sucky Lamson Tube machines that whizzed money, documents and, in some more roguish cases, apples and uncovered cups of coffee between floors in a building.
Doug Leggett has similar memories of the system that I have from working at airports in the 1980s.
``I can remember when working for the Ministry of Transport back in the 1970s that the civil aviation division utilised the Lamson Tube system in the control tower at Dunedin Airport too.
``I don't know whether they ever sent ``unsolicited'' items in the canister, but they were certainly the good old days where you were allowed to have some fun, playing practical jokes on your workmates.
``Incidentally, the Dunedin Hospital laboratory still uses the Lamson Tube system.''
Sarah Hyde explains further about the hospital's continued use of the generally trusty and fast pneumatic tube system.
``Ward staff use it to send samples to the lab, for requests to the blood bank, to get blood from the blood bank and for all sorts of equipment and paperwork.
``The system does intermittently get blocked if an item is placed in the Lamson without being in a tube - something that is usually done once by the embarrassed offender.''
Sarah has also taken her family to the C1 Cafe in Christchurch, where customers can order sliders and curly fries by Lamson Tube and the food arrives back in a tube.