Family and friends in Waitara

Although we were in Waitara for essentially a sad reason, i.e. the loss of Murray (Muzz), my brother in law, there were lots of laughs and smiles, lots of friends around and quite a lot of light relief. And quite a lot of political stuff came up - life has a way of keeping on keeping on and the world keeps turning.

Let's see if the pictures tell the story of the two weeks we were there...

A memorial tree planted by our son Tim in Bulgaria.

Tim is just reading the university reference his older son Olek, our older grandson, got from his school principal. I think you can tell by Tim's face that he is feeling very proud of Olek - and rightly so. The kid is a gem!

This came up on someone's post while we were in Waitara - and it appealed to me as being absolutely spot on!

This one came up too - also apposite currently ...

I was surprised by this but I am sure it is true. For the English readers, our national day here in NZ is Waitangi Day, 6th February. But just to be clear, we also have a public holiday on the first Monday every June when we have the day off for the Queen's Birthday!

David with Gerard, Nicola's partner - David has adopted my trick of standing on a higher step ...

Glenn is one of Murray and Dee's whangai sons. David is short! Three lovely men in that photo.

I made 2 pizzas for one meal (about 12 or 13 people). I made a mistake with the dough and had used 4 cups of water for the yeast, instead of 1.5 cups. And I only realised it when I had added the flour to it. So I had to substantially increase the amount of flour and yeast, so the proportions would be right.  Needless to say, I had far too much pizza dough, so there is a fair amount of it in the freezer for next time and the time after... 
As I do on the boat, I use a wine bottle as a rolling pin - things have to have more than one use when you live in a small space with limited storage. A change from on the boat though - I am fairly sure this bottle had contained alcohol-free wine ...

I used the leftover of the chilli I'd made for the team the day before with the addition of a jar of fig chutney (gifted to us by Gavin and Deb in Rangiora) as the sauce base, then shedloads of veg, including roasted kumara, carrot and pumpkin with raw veg and cheese baked on top.

Discussing funeral arrangements over the coffin that the guys were making. From right to left: my nephew Kurt, Dee, my nephew Jonathan, and Gerard

Charlotte is married to Kurt. She has an amazing voice. Wearing gumboots because it was raining, and sunglasses on top of her head because it had also been sunny - it's known as Taranaki sunshine for a reason!

Over at the skate-park across the road from the motorcamp that Dee, Kurt and Charlotte manage, Kurt and Cam, one of the resident campers, painted a tribute to Muzz. I will find a photo of the finished work and include it.

I turned 71 while we were in Waitara, 2 days after Murray died. Gerard made me a birthday cake, bless him: banana with chocolate ganache made with coconut cream rather than dairy. And Dee's best friend Sarah made a pavlova for me. Julz used up some of the overload of ganache by dipping strawberries into it. I ate my birthday desserts the next day (to avoid the virulent voluminous vomiting that would have been a guaranteed fixture if I'd eaten it that evening before going to bed...)

 

Kirsty sent me flowers for my birthday - the most beautiful peonies. What a wonderful colour they are!

Dee came to visit at 6.30 the next morning after her shower - I shared my pavlova with her and my banana cake with David.

Murray was an arctophile, i.e. he loved teddy bears. Many of them had been stored in a large plastic bag (cruelty to bears, cruelty to bears!!) and others had been camped out on the spare bed in Dee and Murray's 5th wheeler (their home). So they needed freshening up. I gave them an adventurous turn in the clothes dryer - they loved it. Once freshened up, some of them decided they needed to be on display with their mate Mel...

And the others wanted to be looking out across the campground...

Most of the bears and Mel ended up at the funeral - the bears were used to save seats for the family, and Mel sat on the grass in front of the lectern.

The korowai draped on the coffin. And people writing messages to Murray on it.

At the crematorium, Dee read the tributes to Murray. Colin the funeral director (a friend of ours who did not know Dee and I were sisters until we surprised him a couple of days before the funeral) had done a splendid job of getting the crematorium ready for Murray.

There was no service at the crematorium. We just gathered to say goodbye. It was all family/whanau gathered there. You can tell how informal it was because Gerard had changed into his jandals ...

On one of the first fine and non-windy days for a fair while, we decided to go biking - and Jim and Judy came too. We started at Bellblock and headed along the New Plymouth Walkway. It is a magnificent asset for the city. The only piece I found spooky was a short run that was all boardwalk, quite narrow and slightly above the ground - my imagination kept thinking about coming off ...

Judy, David and Jim. Not sure where I took this ...

I swear I was standing in a declivity - I mean, I know I am short but FFS, that photo is ridiculous ...

This is a most magnificent bridge. When there are no clouds, the mountain is part of the scene and looks magical.

We stopped at a little caravan cafe for a drink. Loved the furniture, and Jude said she and Jim had this style when they first got married. David and I didn't but we did have concrete block and planks of wood as bookcases ...

The bridge from afar ...

The bike ride was 24 kilometres, and my bum was a bit sore by the end of it - the sore arse event in Hanmer Springs hadn't yet been fully recovered from. But it was a good ride - excellent track, few bumps, lovely views, plenty wide enough for cyclists and walkers to share, and beside the sea almost all of the way!

We didn't stop to take a photo of it, but we passed the Kawaroa Pool which still has the building that housed the filtration and heating plant that my dad built back in 1963. At that time, the pool was replacing the old salt water pool built in the early 1900s that was filled by the tide twice a day. Salt water was decided on again, so Dad built a filtration and heating unit that still made use of the tides. He was a clever man, our dad.

Dee's birthday was the week after mine - the kids did a BBQ and I made something veg too - a coleslaw and something else but I cannot remember it ... Sarah made another pavlova - she is a star.

We headed away on Sunday morning in the pouring rain again, and had a lovely stop at Colin and Ann's place in New Plymouth for brunch. Ann made a savoury bread and butter pudding with mushrooms, onions and tomatoes in it - very yummy and it has to be replicated here!

We only went as far as Levin on Sunday, as we had an appointment with the solar and battery fitters on Monday. We stayed in the very pleasant motorcamp there and I think I was in bed about 20 minutes after we arrived ...

Early on Monday morning I drove us to the Solar place, left David packing the stuff we needed to take home, and I walked into the town to pick up a hire car for the day so we could go home. Instead of going straight home, we went for breakfast in Levin and met Adair there - she was on her way back to Pukawa and it was too good an opportunity to miss! 

Tuesday morning was very busy - I had to take the rental car back and drop it off, walk back to the Solar place, collect the motorhome, drive it home and then drive the car into Plimmerton and catch a train to Wellington for an osteopath appointment. The rain had been pelting down for a fair while and the road to Levin was flooded southbound, so I was a bit worried my finely timed arrangements would fall through, but all was well.

Almost a whole week has passed since then - what on earth has occurred during that time??? When I remember, I may post about it ...