I am worried the Remarkables vet team will have to start begging in the street, not just because my Speedy cat has gone to the great hunting ground, but because so, strangely enough, has my mother's almost identical Burmese Pouzols.
Between them, they've clocked up a huge number of hours of veterinary care, especially Speedy, who was diagnosed with feline Aids five years ago and has been kept healthy and happy for much longer than is normally possible, thanks to the remarkable Remarkables team.
If you have a cat, do get them vaccinated. Most of the feral cats here have feline Aids and pass it on by fighting with your much-loved moggy.
On to happier subjects ... The Glampers are a group of girls from all over New Zealand who go hiking each year. This year was the first time we've done a North Island one: the beautiful Waikaremoana track. We went with a company called Walking Legends, and we were looked after by guides.
And what guides! Three gorgeous young men who cooked and carried and cared for us. They ran ahead to make sure the fires were lit and checked we hadn't left things behind. They told us stories and fed us chocolate. It was a lovely change for the Glampers (all mothers), to experience being mothered by men our sons' ages.
We slept in Maori bunks - big wide platforms with the mattresses lined up. Two unlucky Czech men ended up in a bunk with 11 very immature mothers. As there's no electricity in the huts, we couldn't see them and the poor things looked slightly traumatised when they came in for breakfast in the morning. That many 50-plus women getting dressed and shouting and laughing must have been deeply disturbing. We made them tell us their names (Lubosh and Jaga) since they had slept with us - always good manners! Lovely, lovely visitors.
Ever nosy, I always read visitors books and was amazed there were almost no South Islanders in the hut book. What's going on?
This walk is a must and is the site of so much myth and history. It is eerie and ghostly in places and bright and cheerful in others. The vegetation is quite different from ours, and as for the towns we drove through to get there ... This is the NZ we never see down here: a grinning toothless Maori on a rough-coated nag galloped along the tarseal chasing a motley herd of cattle away from his nan's garden and laughing when they ran through a playground, a timber yard and someone else's garden right opposite the shop where we ate homemade scones (excellent ones, I must say). Dilapidated petrol pumps outside still showed 66c a litre and the shop lady was smoking behind the counter.
History revisited! I panicked at the thought of three lightless nights, but I read such a gripping book all night on the night we stayed in Rotorua that I slept soundly for the rest of the entire trip. It was Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes.
Louise lives in her small home town working in a cafe. When she loses her job, the only job she can get is caring for Will, a young and very angry tetraplegic. While it deals quite matter-of-factly with many of the real problems of being a wheelchair user, it focuses a bit much on the things people can't do. When Louise tries to lure Will out of his black mood, and to start enjoying life, he points out she is perfectly able-bodied but lives a boring, pointless life as well. It's a very valid point and I think most of us know lots of people like Louise.
There's so much on this weekend, including the Queenstown Primary School Fair on Saturday. Don't miss the beautiful Jane Turner spinning her chocolate wheel!
