Happy New Year - Sun-baked holiday

Two daughters on the lawn at the bach under the brolly. Grass was like a desert. Will it ever be green again...?

Three daughters in the sand dunes at the beach. Pandering to my desire for a photo for the NZ Herald photo competition. You know: "She wears sea shells on the sea shore...." Did you know: the whelks all twist the same direction. Wonder if it's different in the Northern hemisphere. The things you think about on holiday....

I know, the man's a killer of fish, hunter-gatherer. Fishing was very good this holiday. And so many dolphins about. We even saw Orca come up the estuary and go after sting ray. What a great place.

Rick Stein based casserole recipe for King Fish that is fantastic: Put par-boiled potato slices at bottom of baking dish, and add vegetables like skinned broad beans, sliced pepper, sliced mushroom, sliced zuccini, plus 75 ml olive oil, 200 ml stock, salt and peppper, and bake this lot at 200 for about half an hour. Then press into this base of baking vegetables, a dozen or so 3-4cm long steaks obtained by cutting across your King Fish back-steak fillet. You can use the steaks to impress fresh herbs into the heart of the casserole. Then sprinkle salt and pepper and put back in hot oven, where it will only take between 5 and 10 minutes to cook the fish perfectly. Juices soak into the vegetables. Then serve.