Newtonhill & District Village Association

Here I am at the other side of the world, a long way from Muchalls and Newtonhill. When I first knew Newtonhill it was only a small village a little bigger than Muchalls. In fact I remember having arguments on the school bus on the way home as to which was the bigger! Now there is no competition as Newtonhill is almost part of Aberdeen and Muchalls remains virtually unchanged - except for the street lights added in the early 70s.

New Zealand is a country of climatic variation. Where I live, in the Auckland suberbs of the North, it is sub-tropical. I live around a rain forest. Today in mid February the temperature is around 27C with over 60% humidity. It rains a lot but the sun shines every other day, even in winter. In fact the winter here is much like the summer in North East Scotland. In South Island the weather is even warmer in summer but colder in winter. Temperatures range from mid thirties celcius to around zero in mid winter.
The mountain ranges of the south are called the Southern Alps and are much higher on average than Ben Nevis.
It has a Scottish feel to it however and many ex-pat scots live there including some of my relatives in Invercargill.
A long time ago my own father came out here and stayed for six months before leaving for personal reasons. He never stopped telling us about New Zealand and now I know why.

The poeple are friendly, the food of good quality and the weather is great most of the time. New Zealand also produces some of the worlds best white wines. When you live here you begin to miss some of the things about Scotland however - the accents and the buildings to mention but a few things. The buildings here look less permanent and most are made of wood. For the climate they are ideal.

Yes I miss the North East, the Muchalls rocks and dramatic cliffs. The time of the harvest and the smell of the countryside.
I miss Aberdeen, Stonehaven and my relatives and friends. However, the life here is more than compensation.
I now work at a New Zealand University and despite all my education, reading and researching, the mystery of the Muchalls UFOS all those years ago remains unsolved. I still talk to my sister about the whole episode many times on the phone.
It was very much part of everyday life in our early teens. I used to study for my O'grades (and later highers) and then go outside later to see them hovering over nearby farms and woods. We would watch them for hours on end and wonder...
Eat your heart out Mulder and Scully - we beat you by 30 years!!

I attach some pictures...

This is a pic of the garden of the house I live in. Here we can grow almost anything from grapes, olives,
oranges and lemons, grapefruit and all manner of vegetables.Native palm trees are the norm in this part of West Auckland.

This is the bridge in South Island just outside Queenstown where bungy jumping was invented!

These are pics of my (soon to become) New Zealand wife Jude and myself standing next to the foot of the Fox Glacier in South Island.
   

Here is a pic I took of the lake and mountains when on holiday last November.