On holiday again

This retirement is a good lark, innit then?

Our view last night.

And first thing this morning.

Here we are in Mahia on the East Coast, having had Labour Weekend in Waimarama with good friends Chris and Willie who came to stay on the boat with us last year. Read about it here: http://nbwakahuia.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-fabulous-couple-of-days-with-nz.html

Since returning from their retirement trip, Chris and Willie have acquired a dog. Carlos is a beaut.

They tell me that Carlos doesn't like having his photo taken, but I am not so sure. I also think that Chris needs to have his name added to: he needs to be called Laughing Chris, much like Laughing John, as he spends a lot of time chortling and guffawing. By the way, that is Carlos's blanket on the floor by the table, but I never saw him sit on it ...

Moored up at Waimarama. See the little red reflectors I've stuck on below the indicator array? That was on advice from the VTNZ guy in Levin who told me that I needed reflectors within 150mm of the side of the van. The standard ones on the Swift are well outside that tolerance.

2C&W's house from the front. Note the clear blue sky.

The Weekend with 2C&W was cool - but far too much food and wine ... Excellent food and very good wine, mind you, but too much of each, I fear.

Part of the problem is that Chris makes all of their bread and it is amazingly yummy, with the result that I ate far too much of it. The other part of the problem is that Willie is a fabulous cook, so her meals had to be consumed in quantity. And the remaining part of the problem was that David and I bought a lamb rack and fillet steak from the Waipawa Butcher's shop in Havelock North on our way to Waimarama.

Of course the overriding problem is that David and I are gluttonous!

I have come away with some of Chris's sour dough starter and his recipes, plus a link to a baker whose youtube video he recommended to me. When I can find a ceramic casserole with a lid and some rye flour, I am going to get started making the sour dough in the motorhome - Chris and David tested the temperature of the oven herein and it gets plenty hot enough. Of course, Chris has a gadget for that test - of course he does! Why would you doubt that? Note to readers: David and Chris are ideally suited as they are both techy nerds and both love techie gadgets (did you notice then that I hedged my bets about how to spell techy/ie? I am sure there is no right answer actually, given it's a made up word of pretty recent origin, linguistically speaking...)

We did get some exercise to counteract some of the comestible consumption though - we are interested in a bit of capital expenditure in terms of e-bikes, and decided to try them out in Napier. So David borrowed Willie's bike and she found out that Fishbikes hires e-bikes for people with the shortest legs in the world - that is exactly what she said to the woman on the phone, but to be fair she was quoting me! So Willie stayed home with Carlos, David had her bike, Chris had his and I hired a small one.

As we were waiting for me to be served (the kind woman had put one aside for me), who should come biking past but the lovely Clare and Les, who were camped in their caravan along the foreshore. Given they were the ones who had recommended Fishbikes to us, it was a bit of a cool coincidence that we saw them there.***

We did a 14km return bike ride along the foreshore, and I did have to adjust the seat height (up, by the way) and the handlebars (also up) but of course, Chris had the required allen key in his pocket - of course he did! My bum did get numb but the legs weren't sore - the power assist seems to help a fair bit! So we will look for other hire places in Gisborne and Tauranga on this trip, all the while researching the bikes that will suit each of us.

I am going artificially slow in this photo of David and me riding together. In general, I was always a couple of hundred metres ahead of the guys, mainly because I find balancing is easier with a bit of speed on. Note the clear blue sky ...

 It is many years since I drove the road between Napier and Wairoa (back in SWIFTT days, I think [early 90s], with Sarah Heyward when we were developing some of the training modules). Yesterday's drive up the coast through and past Wairoa to Mahia felt totally new and unfamiliar. When Sarah and I drove it, it wasn't long after Cyclone Bola had ravaged the countryside. Much of the scarring from landslides has grown over, but a number of hillsides have now been clear-felled and look particularly crappy. Regenerating these is a bit of a struggle with all of the detritus from pinus radiata which is famous for restricting any undergrowth.

But it's stunning countryside and quite varied, with the native bush being prevalent closer to the Napier start of the journey.

This terrain is very similar to the Rangitikei

I think that cliff-edge has slumped in the last few years.

Farmland above Wairoa

And down the other side of the big climb out of Wairoa to the north

A clear felled hillside - no wonder logging trucks are ubiquitous on this highway!

On the way to Mahia - looks like parts of Rangitkei too.

*** Clare had thought we would be much further north-east by Labour Weekend, but no, as we spent 3 nights in Palmerston North staying with Dee and Murray.

Murray in consultation with Dr Mel who is an AP Specialist.

 

I thought both messages on this board outside a cafe in PN were clever and funny ...

As we left Waikanae early last week (we're retired and days of the week mean very little), we decided to make the trip up as we go along - one night in PN morphed in to 3 - see, we can be spontaneous!

And yesterday was our son Tim's 44th birthday - we sang to him, as is our parenting tradition... I am not sure either of the kids appreciate it, but being long suffering and knowing we won't change the habit, they valiantly put up with it. 💖💞💝