Banging the drum

It's been a funny day.

I finished another page of my New Zealand travels at the wonderful white sand Pakiri Beach 90km north of Auckland where one of the last pairs of the New Zealand Fairy Tern - endemic to New Zealand - breeds.

I was out talking to another neighbour when a platoon of five military jets ran down the coast. A few minutes later they were back and then headed out over the sea and France to pass by again. We often get pairs of jets but not five. Later one of those weird planes with the tippy motors came by under the cliffs to emerge with a great thwop thwop of noise.

It's scary to think we are entering another period of growing tension with Russia.