Home and Away and Home again

 It's now 4 weeks tomorrow since we left Hokitika to make our way home due to the resurgence of  COVID-19 in the Auckland community back in August.

Auckland recently moved from Alert Level 3 down to Alert Level 2.5, and the remainder of the country is in Alert Level 2. We are not noticing much difference between Alert Levels 1 and 2 because we aren't engaged in gatherings of any size and we aren't using public transport where mask wearing is mandatory now.

There is one community cluster in Auckland with a sub-cluster associated with it, and fortunately the close contacts are all in isolation and any people who've tested positive are in managed quarantine with their family members. We have had two more deaths which is very very sad. 

We have several cases appearing in returning NZers who all go into mandatory isolation on arrival, are tested at Days 3 & 12, and if either test is positive, they are moved into a quarantine facility to recover and be managed tightly.

I have been working steadily since we got home, and fully expected the assignment to finish on Friday last week. However more tasks were assigned to me and so I am still well occupied. 

Because we expected to be clear of work last week, we decided to head up to Taranaki to see Dee and Murray, my sister and b-i-l. Murray's stem cell transplant has proved successful after a fair time of waiting and seeing. So yay!!! We had to go on a visit, of course! So we had a lovely weekend with them - and Murray is looking amazingly well! 

The shared meals that Dee and I cook up are always well received - it comes from years of cooking together at the bach and for both of us, cooking for crowds since then. Dinner 1: Chickpea and veg curry and rice, macaroni cheese. Morning tea 1: cheese scones, Dinner 2: corned beef with mustard sauce, cauli and broccoli with cheese sauce, carrots with honey and almonds, mash.

On the first morning though, David got up to make a cup of tea and complained that I was once again trying to kill him ...

It's not true that I was trying to do him in. However when I transferred the favourite mugs from the kitchen to the motorhome, I was also wanting to carry the elastic, needles and thread for changing the ties on my homemade mask to elasticated bands. The mug was an easy carrying receptacle and useful for storing them while I collected and transported other critical items. He is so untrusting!

David and Ollie (Murray and Dee's grandson) played tag. Ollie thought he would easily catch David ...

but David has age and cunning on his side and a mean sidestep! Where they are playing, by the way, is the camping area at Waitara Holiday Park that Dee, Murray, Kurt and Charlotte so ably manage. In the summer this area is filled with tents and vans. It is lovely and free form with no spaces laid out, just find a space and set yourself up.

Ollie recovering from not being able to catch David, David recovering from more running than he's done since he played similar tricks on the grandsons in the UK! I took these photos from the door of the motorhome. You can see the powered sites that are at the edge of the large camping field.

Then we had a night with Jim and Judy in Onaero (yummy lamb rack for dinner, and lemon meringue pie for dessert - beaut!), followed by two nights in Pukawa with Adair and John (curry one night, and lovely little open vegetarian pies** the next - with David's beetroot and carrot salad). **If you want the recipe, let me know.

As we left the shores of Lake Taupo, I stopped so David could go back and take this photo. I could see the mountains in my side mirror and could not let the photo opportunity pass. The mountains are up on the Central Plateau: Ruapehu, Ngaruahoe, and Tongariro.

On the Taupo Napier Highway, somewhere in the ranges or on the plain between them, the odometer ticked over to 20,000 kilometres. We did 1000 of them on this trip.

The last three nights away from home were in Waimarama with Chris and Willie and their dog Carlos. 

 

David and Willie with Carlos - he is a lovely wee dog who apparently doesn't like having his photo taken.

My wine glass is empty! What is that about? Carlos did leave very shortly (within milliseconds) of this photo being taken.

The food there was great too - mushroom pasta and salad, then when friends came for dinner the next night we had massaman beef curry (made by Willie) and chickpea and vegetable curry (made by me), dessert was an apple tart Nico made and poached pears with cream. The next day we had left over curry for a late lunch and then toasted sandwiches for dinner.

It may have been that he was busy talking or it may have been that he was suffering from the overindulgence of the night before, but Chris was serving pears into his mug. Doh!

 

All dinners were accompanied by far too much wine, so I am on a no wine week right now!

On a drive out to visit some of Chris and Willie's friends (Angela and Richard, and Jeanine) we stopped before a one way bridge to give way to a horse and rider. Lovely!

For this trip, because I was working, David was in charge of packing the motorhome ... I think he now realises what a mission it is to get everything that is required taken from the house and stored in a suitable place in the motorhome. Needless to say, we travelled to Waitara with quite a lot of stuff sitting on the bed rather than in cupboards. But as, by Saturday morning after a breakfast out with the guys in Waikanae, David still had the electronics to finish packing and his clothes to get started on, I put away a fair amount of stuff and packed his clothes for him too. It was the least I could do, given he'd relieved me of the burden of the big transfer of household goods into the vehicle the day before! I was very grateful not to have to do it.

It should be an easy task - and it would be if we had two sets of favourite pillows and two winter duvets, one of which could be left in situ, but we don't. The same goes for sharp knives, and favourite mugs. And we tend to keep the bed linen and towels in the airing cupboard inside ...

And then there's the food and the wine, and the sourdough bread I take up to Dee.

Apart from the financial reward of my working, I think it's worth carrying on with it, especially prior to a road trip, so I can avoid the packing task ...

I did a bit of work while we were away - a few meetings using Microsoft Teams - I hate to praise Microsoft (being a Mac user) but MS Teams is a really good app for running video meetings! I documented the outputs from the meetings at various times between holidaying and eating and drinking...

I had a meeting at 1pm on Monday, so we had to come straight home from Waimarama with no stops for morning tea or lunch, dammit - we passed some nice cafes on the way! So we have decided another trip away a bit closer to home is called for when the work is complete. There were a few local museums, cafes, interesting buildings that look to be worth exploring - I will consult Jenny's Romany Rambler blog for a comprehensive list, because she and Robin always find the quirky and the unusual and often quite prosaic but interesting things to see and do!

Two meetings yesterday - one about Lessons Learned and one for developing the schedule for two new projects. Lots of documenting arising from both meetings and I was a tired bunny!

We had dinner (fondant potatoes - look up Nadia Lim's recipe - blue cod sauteed in butter, lemon juice and parsley, and stir-fried vegetables), a glass of kombucha and then I was ready for bed!

David was tired too - he had done a lot of outside work, including raking up the blooms from the neighbour's magnificent magnolia and one of our rhodos and spreading them on the garden as mulch. He had started off the day cleaning the motorhome concrete pad - he had intended to use his dad's waterblaster but it was kaput, so it was a hose, broom and detergent job. He finished up, just before dinner, almost in the dark, mowing the front lawn.

And what a good man he is, he did the dishes and then vacuumed the kitchen floor - using his new toy that he purchased in Hokitika for use in the motorhome...

I will leave you with these memes:

So cool!

Manson, methinks ...