Reporter's diary

Press, 23 November 1981, Page 2

Reporter's diary

Many talents

THE MUNDY family, whose Coutts Island vineyard, the St Helena Estate, was in the limelight last week with the first release of its wine, has many more strings to its bow than just being able to make decent wine. While the Mundy brothers, Norman and Robin, had been potato growers all their lives until their crop was ravaged by a particularly nasty disease four years ago, their wives have not been sitting back waiting for the grapes to grow either. .In between being co-opted to pick grapes, Mrs Margaret Mundy has been spending a lot of

her spare time weaving and turning her hand to all sorts of culinary delights. A woven wall-hanging, which she calls “Canterbury Wine” ■ adorns the brick wall at the entrance to the winery (see photograph). In green, brown, blue and white, it depicts bunches of grapes amid greenery, with the grapes trickling into a.. ..wineglass. Woven wool vine roots dangle from the bottom. 'Mrs Mundy also, baked copious quantities of bread for the official opening of the winery last week, including several very large loaves, some shaped in the form of bunches of grapes and others in the St Helena crest. She was also responsible for cooking the three delicious trout which had been caught by her brother-in-law, Robin Mundy, at Lake Alexandrina on the opening day of the season a fortnight ago.

Capital expense

THE COST of high living in

the various capitals of the world has revealed that London is no . longer the most expensive place to visit. It was at the end of-1980, and at the beginning of this year, when the pound was up to $2.45, but the fall in the pound since then (by as much as one-quarter against the United States dollar, and one-sixth against all leading currencies), has dropped London to forty-fourth place in a table of 89 cities. This puts London squarely in the middle of the table with a world rating of 100. Sydney is rated at 106.5, Bahrain at 120, and dearer still is Tokyo, at 138.2. Accra has the unenviable top spot as being the most expensive city in the world, more than , twice as costly as London - and New York, while Nicosia is the least expensive.

Mountain memories RUSSELL Brice and Paddy Freany, those two intrepid

mountaineers who had to give up their recent attempt on Mount Everest after making Ht as far up as 7600 metres, will be giving an illustrated talk about their adventure in the Limes Room of the Town Hall tomorrow evening at 8 p.m. The two men, from Wanaka and Christchurch, say they are presently working hard to put on some of the weight they lost during their mountain attempt, when they were caught in what they described as “the worst storm either of us has ever experienced.” The storm stopped every expedition in the Himalayas in its tracks and was the cause of 10 deaths in the mountains. Asian voters VOTING instructions in three Asian languages will be available for the first time at . these elections. Leaflets in Vietnamese, Laotian and Khmer . (Cambodian) have been prepared by the Justice Department, for the large, number of refugees who have settled in New Zealand in the last- three years. They are being distributed through the Labour Department’s . resettlement division as well as SouthEast Asian cultural groups. Speakers of Samoan, Nieuan, Tongan, Cook Island Maori, Tokelauan and, of course, Maori, tire also being catered for in pre-election and election day voting information. Unlimited? THE GREY County Council has decided to nominate one of its Cr Shirley Smith, for the Greymouth Business and Professional Women’s Club “Woman of the Year” contest. Cr Smith’s only comment, when the nomination -was made.. was to ask if there was any age limn. “Yes. 92” replied Cr J. D. O’Connell.