Our northern odyssey has begun

When I wrote this on 9 Feb, we were in Te Kōwhai at a POP (park over property). It's lovely and peaceful - just a little traffic noise but nothing disturbing. We are parked up under a couple of silver birch trees with lovely shade and a slight breeze.

 That is such a different story from the last 3 places we stayed where there was little shade to be had and lots of scorching sunshine. Bloody climate change!

We left home late on Wednesday afternoon and only travelled to Tangimoana Road again - it's lovely and peaceful and just far enough away to feel like we are underway and not so far that it is a hassle after a full day's activities.

Craig, the farmer at Tangimoana,  gave us a bag of lemons, oranges and limes, all for $1. We will definitely stay there again and again!

David had done a sterling job of most of the packing the motorhome which meant I could finish off some admin tasks and attend the Lodge residents' meeting and afternoon tea.

David, bless him, had dumped a heap of his bits into 3 shopping bags and plonked them in the shower cubicle, to be sorted later. It's the quickest way for him to pack - otherwise it can take weeks. I exaggerate of course, but what would our relationship be without the occasional injection of hyperbole? 

The upshot of said dumping though, was that he could not find his 3 sets of glasses (reading, distance, sun) or binoculars later that evening when I was already in bed and he was searching by the light of the torch on his phone. Before panic set in, I got up and turned on some lights and found the items in the bottom of one of the bags he swore he'd already searched. He HAD searched it using a boy's look, but hadn't dug down to the bottom - and he was virtually searching in the dark Not a good look (literally) for a man who is partially sighted!

So that panic was averted. Since then however, he has misplaced said reading glasses somewhere in the motorhome. Neither of us can find them, so I fear a new pair will need to be acquired when we get home. He doesn't wear them often, so no need to source a new pair on this holiday. (Update: he bought a cheap pair from Chemist Warehouse in Pukekohe so I don't have to lend him my reading glasses each time he needs to actually see something.)

Dawn at Tangimoana

 

We woke early in Tangimoana, and headed out without brekkie on our way to Turangi. Thursday was scheduled to be a big traffic day here in NZ because the Friday was Waitangi Day, a public holiday, and NZers just love to go away for a long weekend! 

As we drove along Tangimopana Road heading for SH1. Ruapehu was visible in the distance. No traffic, so I could stop and take this photo out of the habitation door.

 

Ruapehu as we approached Waiouru. Impressive sight.

 We like to be off the road by noon on holiday weekends, so an early start felt good. Almost no traffic for the first couple of hours. We were going to treat ourselves to a cafe breakfast in Waiouru but every cafe on the left hand side of the road were fast food outlets, so we drove up on Desert Road and parked in a Rest Area with a view of Ngauruhoe and had healthy fruit, yoghurt and home-made muesli. 

 

Ngauruhoe from our lunch spot. Pretty impressive, eh?

And from after lunch we found a spot to stop to let trucks go past - the drivers travel the road every day, so they go flat out. I don't, so I am more sedate.

 

Once we arrived at Turangi NZMCA park, I walked into the town to the supermarket - I wasn't gone long (only 5800 steps) but got burnt on my arms and neck... A blobby afternoon followed. But I did order and pay for another chair so Julia has a nice one to sit on while we are travelling together.

However the man who pulled up next to us in the late afternoon asked David his name and it turned out they had been in the same class at high school. Connections are often not more than 2 degrees of separation here in Aotearoa...

The next morning, we left slightly later than I would have liked but still we were the first out of the site - having filled with water and dumped the rubbish. We stopped for brekkie (baked beans on toast) beside Lake Taupō, and I discovered that lake waves have a different rhythm to sea waves. While sea waves are soothing and soporific (I think) because they are less frequent than a resting heart rate, lake waves are frequent and stressy. The black swans were lovely and friendly though - not like the aggressive white English ones that are also much larger! 

Much smaller and still graceful.

 

We parked up for that night just out of Reporoa - a lovely place but not enough shade in the afternoon ... And very hot.  I had put some washing in a bucket and decided to rinse it off at the closest tap that already had a hose attached. I held the hose out over the bucket, and instead of water coming out when I turned the tap on, out came about 20 earwigs!! AAARRRGGGHHH!!! And then came the water, so my shorts and socks and knickers were infested with earwigs who were swimming, crawling, hiding. I shook them all out (well, I hoped I had) and hung the washing out to dry. Needless to say, I did a thorough check olater before bringing it inside ...

Mount Tauhara, known in Maōri as the Sleeping Lady, from our campsite near Reporoa.

 

The Sleeping Lady at dusk

 

Yesterday we drove to Welcome Bay near Papamoa because we wanted to see Pauline who we haven't seen for over a year. Her husband Barry died in October and we weren't able to go to the funeral. Pauline and Barry were founding members of the Zero Degrees Club that we started when we all lived in the UK.

Pauline came out to us for lunch and we taught her 5 Crowns. I shouldn't have because she and David beat me, dammit. We have asked her to come and visit us in Waikanae - she had better do so!

David declared he could get under the extended table to sit on the driver's seat, rather than going outside and in the driver's door.

 

Kilroy was here. Five Crowns was about to get underway...

 

She is such a gem, our Pauline.

The Welcome Bay NZMCA Park is not a place we'd go back to - the road alongside it is a racetrack with chicanes and down- and up-hill rally features. Very noisy and no shade either - and yesterday was BLOODY hot. Heat, as you may have gathered, is not my favourite weather condition. 

Today was a productive one - first stop when we got to Hamilton was to get water (after the floods and bad weather of the last couple of weeks, the Welcome Bay site's water was contaminated) and there is no water available at today's site. Our second stop was the laundromat to wash and dry the sheets, duvet covers, pillow cases, tea towels. While the washing was occurring, we had brunch at the cafe next door: eggs benedict. Yum. Then while the washing was drying, I went off to Spotlight and Burnsco - topper pad for Julia (ACP had forgotten to pack it), emergency pineapple lumps and emergency peanut slabs, replacement wool duvet inner (we gave one to my brother over Xmas), 2 new duvet cover sets, pillow case for the triangle pillow (I forgot to pack it), and collect the chair I had bought online. Both shops were having good sales so prices were reasonable.

One thing we have realised is that using Google Maps has lessened our capacity for navigating and for intuiting compass points!  When we arrived here at Te Kōwhai, we parked next to the hedge, thinking we would have the shade for the rest of the day. But no. Brendan told us when he arrived home that we were going to shortly be bearing the full brunt of the sun. So naturally we moved - into the shade of the trees.

David playing the ukelele in the shade. Prior to this we were parked against that fence in the distance... I sent a video to David's mate Ron who is tutoring him - there's been much improvement!

 

Today we have bought two meals: brunch (although I did make fruit salad, yoghurt and muesli at 7am) and a fish burger for David and toasted sandwich for me plus chips to share and a lamington each for dessert. Tomorrow we will be good, I promise!

This vacuum-packed parcel is the bedding we have brought for Julia's use. It is heavy. While we travel it is parked on our bed, in the evening it is moved to a seat.

 

Home and Away and Home

 It is now 2 months and 8 days since I last posted - talk about slack! And I've just looked at my last post, and what a coincidence: I currently have a pot of dahl cooking again! This time it is filled with cauliflower. David came out to the kitchen a few minutes ago, enticed by the aroma. I somehow reckon it'll be an early dinner...

 Christmas this year was at Waitara Holiday Park with my sister Dee's extended family - and a cast of thousands. Well, at least 20 people. And as always far far far too much food. For a few days afterwards we all lived on leftovers.

I had made 4 containers of sticky toffee pudding (2 throwaway aluminium roasting pans, plus two 8"x8" cake tins - definitely in the realm of over catering given there were two massive pavlovas (Dee), about 30 meringues (Ann), berries, and cream and custard and sweets and chocolates. And that was just dessert!

I had made 2 pies filled with caramelised onions, brie and mushrooms. Very yummy. And mushroom sauce. and a roasting dish of cheese and onion tart. Not sure how many vegetarians I thought I was catering for apart from David and me. And there was ham and pulled brisket and lamb (I think - how would I know? I don't eat meat), plus heaps of salads and roast veges.

 

L-R Terry (Charlotte's brother), the twins and Charoltte opening presents

The twins, Charlotte and Kurt - Kurt was in pain from overdoing the exercises that morning...

David, Kirsty and Debs, Dee's daughter in law

Kirsty, Debs and Jonathan with their daughters, Charlie and Eva. Nicola was on Santa duty

 

Kurt set up the water slide and a number of kids had lots of fun. Almost no adults, apart from Terry, had a go. Amazing how sensible the daughter, niece and nephews have become ...

 

A rainy day - cannot remember which one it was but it bucketed down - I was still in bed at this stage because why not?

Mid summer Xmas often feels very strange to people from the northern hemisphere, but for us it feels exactly right. Because it was warm we all sat out on the deck, wearing shorts and t-shirts and jandals in the main. But of course plenty of decorations - Charlotte, Dee's daughter in law, absolutely loves decorating for Christmas and she goes all out making the house and deck look fabulous.

Backing up the truck a bit - David and I had collected Kirsty from the Waikanae station on 23 December, then waited while she shopped for the alcohol and some groceries she wanted for the few days we were going to be away; and then on we went. There was a stop at RJ's factory shop in Levin (Kirsty's request) to buy licorice: allsorts, chocolate licorice logs, ... Then on to Whanganui where we stopped to make and eat lunch and for me to have a short rest. Ordinarily, I would have rested for about an hour or so to give my arms some relaxation from extension required while driving, but a certain daughter was keen to get to catch up with her cousins. She was in contact with Nicola for the latter part of the journey, and even though we stopped outside Whanganui to buy strawberries and blueberries and once again at the supermarket in Waitara, it seemed imperative that we make all possible haste.

I saw why when we arrived - while David and I went into the office to check in, Kirsty went around through the side door, and then appeared in the office holding an espresso martini that had been prepared in advance of her arrival ... 

 The several days seemed to be filled with meals and not much activity, to be frank. I don't think I ventured outside the camp the whole time except to go to the pharmacy to collect a prescription for my brother and to the supermarket for the inevitable forgotten item.

David and I left late on Saturday afternoon and made the trip home in two chunks with a very brief stop to buy diesel at Stratford - cheapest I've seen it for ages at $1.79 a litre.We stopped at Hawera NZMCA campsite overnight and looked out our front window at Taranaki Maunga. 

I love that mountain

 

The  next day we left there at about 7.20am, headed to Whanganui to make and have breakfast at Springvale again. Then onwards to Waikanae. A quick stop at the supermarket and to top up the tank with diesel, then back to Wren St. David, bless him, completely emptied the motorhome, I did put away the food though ... Then I had a sleep for the afternoon.

The following day was cleaning the motorhome day - I was on fridge cleaning and washing the outside of the mh. David cleaned all of the inside. 

On Monday afternoon, I realised we had far too much cheese tart for the two of us to eat, so I invited Sue and Janet (neighbours and friends) over for an early dinner to help us out. Cheese tart (leftovers), lettuce salad, beetroot and carrot salad (leftovers), potato salad. Followed by ginger loaf (left over) and custard...

First time I've ever served custard in a wedge shape ... 😂

 

I wonder who bought that T-shirt for David?

 

OK, I am pretty much all caught up, apart from that I started Aquamove again on Tuesday and it was lovely to be back in the pool laughing and exercising and laughing and singing - the acoustics in that building are amazing!

 

 

 

 

The motorhome is back in its tree-clad home

 It's been a bit of a busy day today. First off I had Aquamove which doesn't feel tiring at the time but hits a bit later. It's not surprising that it tires me because there is a lot of running on the spot, jumping, washing machines, standing on one leg and rotating the other, arm stretching, star jumps, ... But somehow in the water the exercise is really easy to do.

Then I had to email the committee members with 7 papers for our Monday meeting. That entailed finding all the documents in my filing system, doing a final edit of a couple of them, attaching them so they showed up on people's email in the right order. Not a trivial task but not arduous, to be fair.

After that I had arranged to meet with Joan, our wonderful 94 year old neighbour to discuss the process for clearing her villa after she moves into the Lodge on Monday. That wasn't difficult or energy-sapping at all but emotionally tough as we will miss Joan. However she is keen to stay as an honorary member of Sector 10, and she is keen to keep coming to Happy Hour on Fridays, so we will see her regularly. She had better keep coming to Quiz nights because she is a fount of knowledge in our team!

Then it was time to move the motorhome out from behind our place - the first obstacle was that there was a car parked across the road I was backing out on to. Discretion was the better part of valour and I think the visitor saw me reversing and decided to hop it pronto! Good choice!

We can only keep the motorhome here temporarily and bad weather counts as a good reason to have it parked here. 

We've had lots of rain in the last week or so, and I was not taking it back to its position up at Richard and Ngaire's place because the driveway is a bit too skiddy for a front wheel drive when it's damp ...

Over the last couple of days it's been quite breezy so we decided today was the day. It requires a bit of organsation though as we have to remove the gates at the bottom of their drive first so the motorhome will go through safely without gouging bits out of the sides.

Unless it is very dry, I am always anxious taking it up the slope - rightly so today, as I did a bit of a skid close to the top... But success - it is up and in place, solar blanket is fitted to keep the engine battery topped up, all blinds closed, the steering wheel lock is on, all lockers locked (good thing we checked because they hadn't been locked from our clearing the mh out on arriving back on Sunday...)

David and I helped Richard and Ngaire re-construct their washing line - Richard had dismantled it, taken to wires off, fixed some bits of the framing, repainted sections of it and needed a hand getting it back together. All four of us took an arm each and lifted it up on to the pole, then Richard U-bolted it back on the small platform on top of the pole. As we left, he was adjusting the height of one arm - he is tall and he'd be in danger of taking an eye out as he approaches it. I, on the other hand, could happily walk beneath it. I'm a perfect height, me - the clothes line is far too high for me to use comfortably though.

Home to make a veg dal for dinner - it is bubbling away now, and I have also started a big pot of frozen veg scraps and water to make stock. David has cooked the rice. Now I'm waiting for the cauli, broccoli and peas to cook that I've just added to the dal.

  

Dal is almost ready - good, because I am hungry and tired!

Update: the dal is delicious! And there is plenty left over so I won't have to cook for a week... I think I will make curry puffs in the weekend! Oops, David has just been in for a second helping... I need to revise the estimate of its longevity!

The motorhome roof is clean and thinking about Phil

 A reasonably busy day today, in a way.

This morning I got up to take the motorhome up to Levin to have the roof washed - if I'd thought about it, I could probably have organised it better by doing it after I got the CoF on Wednesday seeing as the two places were about 2kms apart. But hindsight is a wonderful thing - I hadn't checked the state of the roof before I went CoFing. Next time I will think...

When I came back I had breakfast and then a bit of a fraught meeting that should have been 1/2 an hour but took over 1.5 hours and wrung me out a bit.

Then checking out signage at the gym here, then home for a brief time and off to serve behind the bar at Happy Hour. That is a task I really enjoy, so I am happy to take on additional turns when others cannot do it. 

Accordingly I am on the bar next week and a fortnight later. I'll be catching up with the number of times Julia is on bar duty in Kibworth soon!

David has been getting the motorhome ready today as we are going away overnight tomorrow. We have a funeral to attend in Hunterville in the afternoon. Our friend Phil died Thursday last week and we need to go to say goodbye.

Way back before 2000  I used to stay at Phil and Oriel's place when I was working in Marton. They ran a lovely B&B which cost me (my work) $81 for dinner, bed and breakfast. On my first ever night there, Oriel served me G&Ts (note the plural) before dinner, then a 3 course meal with wine. Wonderful but aaarrrggghhh!!!

So in the morning - full breakfast of course - I told Oriel that I could not cope. The most that was required was wine before and during a two course meal. And it was dessert not a starter. Oriel makes the most delicious pavlova roll. 

We had many lovely meals and great conversations where I did my best to educate Phil on the evils of National governments - fat chance that I would succeed because he was a farmer and conservative, through and through. 

Regardless of his politics he was an extremely kind man and a lot of fun. At one point, I had South African clients of the firm I worked for coming out to visit the firm. Mostly they used to be put up at fancy hotels, and wined and dined when overseas, but Marton doesn't have such facilities. Instead, I took them to stay the weekend at Phil and Oriel's farm. Lovely food, down to earth hospitality, and a lot of fun.

 A highlight was Phil attaching a flatbed trailer to the big tractor, placing form seats in the trailer and driving us around the farm. Such laughter. Not a H&S consideration in sight - apart from the fact that Phil didn't venture off the farm tracks...

I (work) had hired a van for the weekend and I drove them to the Feilding A&P Show. So instead of sterile could-be-anywhere hotels, they had an authentic NZ experience, thanks to Phil and Oriel. Who, by the way, moved out of their bedroom into their old caravan so all the guests could fit in the house!

David and I would occasionally go and stay with Phil and Oriel and take other overseas visitors for the experience of an NZ farm. They refused to let us pay because they said that as a paying guest while working in Marton, I had greatly increased their B&B earnings. Very kind and generous people.

And one of the first film conversion jobs that David ever did was of Phil and Oriel's wedding - they were so beautiful and so young!

The last time we saw Phil was a few months ago. He and Oriel retired off the farm several years ago now (even though for a long time Phil still went and helped their son Justin) and they were living in Feilding. Phil finally had to move into a rest home through ill health and severe lack of mobility, and David and I went to visit. I noticed that while he was still mentally up to the minute, his voice had diminished. So I suggested he move his arms up and down as much as he could manage, so he used his chest muscles and stretched his lungs. And voila - his voice became louder.

So at my very next Aquamove session I introduced a lot of arm exercises and told the team why. And then at my session on Tuesday, I told them that Phil had died. 

I reckon he will always be in my thoughts when we are waving our arms about and doing the I must I must increase my bust movements, and the moving through the water using arms only when lying on the noodles or riding the noodle like a horse...  Also lung capacity and voice strength were on my mind when I introduced blowing water through the pool noodle, so Phil has been an inspiration to the people at my Aquamove sessions even though they didn't know him.

 

And the solars are working!

Wednesday:

Even though it is just spring and we have had several grey or rainy days, the solars are doing their job - heating the hot water most of the time. We have only had to set water heating to boost using the national grid a couple of times when we have both had showers and done several loads of washing.

 Sunny day today, so it's all happening on the roof - yay!

 Yesterday we went down to get the motorhome from behind Richard and Ngaire's place, so I could wash it and be ready for heading up to Levin to get the Certificate of Fitness inspection done. The sides of the motorhome were reasonably clean but the back and front were messy! Today when I got back from getting the CoF, we checked the roof - OMG! the amount of leaf litter, pine needles and dirt was overwhelming. David cleared what he could reach from the ladder, then I hosed as much off as I could. Then I decided we needed professional help! So I tracked down the guy who cleaned it for us previously and I will take it up on Friday.

Thursday:

We are going to find a suitably sized tarp to cover the roof with while it's up at R&N's place so we can keep the roof at least partly clean! The trick is going to be how to get the tarp up on the roof. I was thinking about it overnight and decided we should put it on and tie it down here and then I can drive very slowly to R&N's place. It's not far and I need to drive at 15kph through our retirement village, and there are speed bumps on the way down the road, so high speed isn't do-able anyway.

It is now Thursday and I am about to have an afternoon nap - I took an Aquamove class this morning and we did lots of jumping and running on the spot and I am tired!! 

This is my new favourite activity - blowing water through the pool noodle - I swear we only do it because it is good for lung capacity ...

I now have a new great nephew - my nephew Jamie and his wife Kirsty (not our Kirsty) have had a wee baby boy. I have seen a photo and he is very lovely. Our Kirsty is going to visit where they live and they are hoping to all catch up. Yay!

Right, now I really am going to have a snooze. 

And the solar panels are up

Yesterday the solar guys came back - only 3 of them this time. And boy, did they work hard! They'd been here on Monday and Tuesday - rain on Tuesday but they worked through.

Yesterday they had to finish putting in the brackets and the struts for the panels and then fit all the panels. So they didn't finish until about 5.45pm and it was starting to get cold!

They'd had morning tea/lunch at 11-ish (their lunch and chocolate brownie and biscuits I provided this time) and then they worked through. I had ordered fish and chips for David and me to be collected at 5.15pm so I ordered some for them too, then made paper plates into little bowls (make 4 cuts around the plate then staple the edges together - instant-ish bowl) so they could safely transport the f&c in the vehicles and eat on their way home. They all live at least an hour from here in Palmerston North, and I was sure their blood sugar would be getting quite low.

Some tiles have to come off to be trimmed (shaved, they call it) so the brackets will fit without lifting the bottom of the tile and causing leak points.

Tiles back on and brackets fitted. the guys on the roof are AJ and Josh. Harley was doing the shaving and gluing down on the ground - as well as bringing the panels around from the garage to lift them up for AJ and Josh to fit them to the struts (not shown here).

 

Changes and additions to the switchboard plus a new gadget for David's delight. The red light shows that there was no power being generated - the sun was on the way down when I took that photo yesterday evening.

ACP in his PJs checking for the 3rd time this morning. And yes, there was power being generated. And I know I am going to be kept informed constantly...

This morning, before he'd even eaten breakfast, ACP was out checking the display to see if power was being generated. This is going to be my life from now on ... And he's done the same a couple of times since we got home this afternoon. Sigh.

I did tell him I'm happy for him to check, but he needs to close the damn door into the garage - the garage is NOT insulated so the cold air in there likes to migrate into the hall and lounge.

I am expecting multiple updates every day, by the way. If you hear screaming coming from this area of the world, that'll be why...

Thinking about Ed Shiers today

 We are currently having solar panels fitted to the roof of our villa - 15 panels which is slightly more than we had on nb Waka Huia...

Instead of it being just Ed fitting them, here we have a crew of about 7. There's ropes and harnesses being employed because our roof is a series of steep sections that the panels are being fitted on.

 

Matt on the flat section above our bedroom. He's working on removing tiles that have to be adjusted so the struts for the panels can be fitted.

AJ removing tiles from over the garage

 

Matt removing or replacing the tiles - hard to see which from thios angle...

Two of the guys adjusting tiles and applying sealant. Susan's camellias are getting rather dusty...

 

 

Two other workers waiting for their jobs to be ready, I think.

Sewtting up happening at the trailer. The panels are in that big box.

 

AJ trusts his harness. Not sure where it is fixed to on the other side of that garage roof...

We are looking forward to lower power bills and being able to feed power back into the national grid and getting credits for that!

Of course there have been cheese scones made and fed to them at the outside table. Tomorrow it'll be shortbread - I made a batch (NEVER AGAIN!! what a bloody faff...) and then left the house to go and take photos, so it's a bit browner than it's meant to be. Definitely not suitable for selling at the Fair which was the original intent. But I reckon the guys will be happy enough with it.