Exploring the centre of the island

 It was a long weekend here in NZ on 5, 6 7 Feb - Waitangi Weekend - and we were away in the motorhome. We were careful with socialising and making sure we were only in places with other vaccinated people. Omicron is in NZ and we recognise that we will probably get it eventually, but seriously, we would rather not!

We drove up on Thursday 4 Feb from home to Ongarue to stay with Linda and Graham. Linda is my former sister in law, and we have been good friends for many years.

The drive up had a stuttery start - there were errands to run on the way:

• Firstly we called in to the Mobil Service Station at Waikanae to check the tyre pressures and lower them. We had thought they had to be at 80psi, which it turns out is the maximum, rather than the recommended level for a comfortable ride. We tried them out at 70psi - pretty good as it turns out
  
• We had to call in to Gypsy Caravans in Levin to return a water filler cap that we had bought without taking our original broken one in to compare it with. 
• Then we stopped at Palmerston North (a bit of an off track detour) to collect an orthopedic cushion - with a gap at the back to save my coccyx from being bounced on. Didn't work but it did raise me a couple of inches higher in the seat - not that cool. Of course, David tried the cushion and loved being elevated - far above his station, if you ask me...
• Lunch at Sanson.

Considering we had thought (can't actually say we planned ...) we would leave home fairly early, ending up having lunch less than 2 hours away from home at 1.30pm was a bit of a failure ...

And to be frank, I had forgotten how far away the centre of the island is! It may be a long way away, but it is spectacular.

Mt Ruapehu from SH1

Mt Ruapehu from SH4 - having turned left at Waiouru

The Makatote Viaduct - pretty impressive. The roadway goes down the into the valley, around a few corners with a sharp bend at the bottom, and then up the other side. The train, of course, goes straight over the top ...

Looks impressive, doesn't it? It's a massive piece of engineering.

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Read all about it, Read all about it ...

I had promised to bring dinner to L&G's, so given our stuttery start, once we were out of Sanson, we had to keep going rather than stopping off to look at places of interest. We decided the trip home was going to be slow so we could spend time investigating.

But the trip was unavoidably delayed just before Taihape. We came around a corner and started down the hill, when three vehicles approached and one of them threw a fairly sizable stone from under its tyre. I know it was sizeable because I could see it coming towards me! It hit the windscreen with a helluva bang. I actually think it may well have been an asteroid ...

So we stopped at Taihape at an auto-glazier who taped it up for us. Then he very kindly gave us a roll of tape and a razor blade in case we need to replace it.

The taped up injury to the windscreen. It turns out that these windscreens have two layers of glass with a sheet of plastic in between. Damn fine idea, I reckon!

Graham is a sheep dog trialist and his dogs are very precious to him, even though he keeps saying he'd like to give up trialing ... The dogs are definitely not pets but they lounge around on their individual blankets on the deck. They are the best behaved dogs I've seen anywhere.

The property that L&G have only owned for a year has been transformed since their arrival. It was apparently covered in blackberry up and over most of the house, all through the formed gardens close to the house and across a fair amount of the rest of the acreage. They have done a huge job in clearing it, and Linda has re-established the garden. The grapevine is amazing and covered in grapes getting ready to ripen - unlike mine! She did say to me in the morning that she should have taken advantage of the fine weather spell and put a coat of stain on the house ... I wasn't quite sure which hours of what night she would have done it in, but she is definitely a hard worker.

Linda and Lu the huntaway heading down to the bottom of the property - the stream, the hole in one, the seat. I doubt that either Linda or Graham has sat down there: too too busy!

 

The house from only part way down the hill. L&G added the large verandah.

 

Apparently the river was very low on our first day there - there had been no rain for a month or so. That meant the waterfall wasn't.

 

Linda had cleared blackberry from everywhere you can see on this photo.

 

The dogs' blankets. The canines have pride of place on the deck and are so very well behaved.

 We headed back to Taumaranui late in the morning and promised that we would come back to stay again before we headed home - Graham had dog trials in Whangamomona and had said goodbye to us at 6.45am so we hadn't had much time with him. 

Judy had told me of a shop in Taumaranui that she had bought some clothes in the previous week and they had a sale. So of course I had to check that out. Nothing that interested me as I was only looking for shorts in a lightweight material - no shorts at all. But I had passed a place called TMP Fashions that had a nice shirt for David in the window. So I went in to the shop and as I made my way towards the counter I espied Vassalli jeans! Yay!!! And a pair of shorts. Yay again. So three purchases from a shop in the centre of the North Island in a town that most people could not pinpoint on a map.

Then it was hunt for the supermarket - it has moved to a pop-up site because the original one was too small with a very awkward carpark. A new one is being built on the same site with additional space having been purchased; but in the meantime, where the hell was it located now? Google Maps to the rescue.

It was incredibly hot but I still left David in the motorhome while I went in and scooped up groceries that we didn't have, and some that were impulse purchases, of course. Like the watermelon and the several bottles of ginger beer.

Then David was keen to empty the toilet cassette which had only been used for one night, and we did have a spare empty one with us. But sometimes it's not worth arguing about whether it's on the critical path, now is it?

Jim and Judy found us while we were at the dump-station and we followed them to Owhango, stopping part of the way there at the Paritai look out to see the very long train going past below us and beside the river. 

 

Judy said that in all the time they lived in the area (Owhango where Jim was principal) she hardly ever saw a train going past this point.

Team Tulloch: Judy, Jim and Tom the labrador outside the lodge

Judy had given me instructions on how to find Brock's Farm and I had asked our friend David R if it was the same area as his former trapline (for rats, stoats, anything predatory and small) in the adjoining bush. So I sort of knew where we were going. What I didn't realise was quite how spooked I would be by the farm track that we drove down to get to the Lodge! It was bumpy, gravelly, windy and narrow. And I spent the next few days worrying like crazy about whether I'd be able to get back up it. The fact that we went up and down a couple of times with Jim and Judy in their truck did little to allay my fears. slightly more effective was Bill, the farm owner, telling me it had been the track down to a timber mill and that logging trucks used to use it constantly. But still I worried. And of course, then the large rain storm arrived and kept going for about 36 hours, so I worried about slips ... My imagination is far too powerful!

Anyway, being at the Lodge was lovely. It was just Jim, Judy, David and me. J&J slept in the lodge and we slept in the motorhome. We had electricity, they did not ... 😊😉 Judy had thought there was a generator there, but no. So we lent them a couple of little torches we have in the motorhome. And all cooking was on portable gas camp elements or the BBQ.

 

Adair and John had arrived. David was checking out the pink cross on the bum of Adair's pants ... There's the motorhome, down where there was a modicum of shade available under the trees. We had scones there...

John has a lung disease which makes him extremely breathless on very little exertion. So he now has two mobility scooters: this is his indoors version. It folds up and can easily go in the back of a car. While we went walking, John was in charge of the lodge ...

Adair and John came to visit on the Saturday and Bill and Carol (the owners) came down for cheese scones, and then later for dinner which was cooked on the BBQ indoors because it was persisting down, and there is definitely an age limit on blokes standing outside BBQing in the rain.

In between scones and dinner, while it was still sunny, we had a walk through the bush to the river and saw in the distance the whio, the native blue ducks. We walked across the lagoon on the boardwalk our friend David R (the aforementioned one of the trapline), we hugged trees, and enjoyed the quiet and the company.

Looking up the Whakapapa River. Good view of Adair's pink cross ...

Somewhere up there in the river, near the rocks there are whio - honestly there are!

 

Hippy Judy

Hippy Adair

By the totara tree - Jim had gone back by this time because Tom wasn't allowed off the lead in the bush and he was a bit unhappy - he needed a swim in the river away from the possibility of whio, given he's a retrieving kind of dog ...

Back from the walk and the rains came down! Our timing was impeccable! So then it was on to dinner prep - see the women in the kitchen!

A platter of nibbles behind the stainless steel butter dish, and the vegetable kebabs I prepared. Adair and Judy toiling away.

Two photos of the kebabs because I was very impressed with them and I want you to be too!

On Sunday morning, Jim, Judy and I went to the local market in the village hall. Judy found some old friends and acquaintances (somehow I don't think we could go anywhere in NZ without Judy finding old friends...) so while she chatted, Jim and I went next door for coffee at the Blue Hill Cafe.

Then in the afternoon it was up to Bill and Carol's for afternoon tea: Judy had brought a lovely ginger loaf and I had baked a cake and brought it with us. For the life of me, I cannot remember what it was! I do remember that it was yummy though, as was Judy's loaf. Recipe required! 

On Monday when we left, we all had breakfast together at the cafe - David R had recommended it, so we were obliged really... A great place. If you are heading through on SH4, do stop there. Lovely food, great service.

After breakfast, across the road from the cafe, David is at latitude 39 deg south.

These are the Owhango public toilets. The photo on their doors is of the boardwalk we crossed at the lagoon in the bush - our friend David R helped to build it.

I know there have been no photos of me so far but I definitely was there!

Then it was back to Ongarue to see Linda and Graham again. 

David refused to play Pictionary with Linda and me - he had been severely trounced by us years ago. Linda is an artist of some note and I am a good guesser, plus when it's my turn to draw, I don't aim for tentative strokes. After all, I am the teacher who showed kids that almost any person, animal, bird or creature can be drawn as a series of balloon shapes. In the case of sheep, it's fluffy cloud shapes...

So it was 5 Crowns and Up and Down the River. Graham was consistent in that he moaned all the way through each hand and then won lots of them - bastard.

Then it was petanque - they have a petanque court, although avoiding the sheep and rabbit shit was a bit of a challenge at times!

Waterlilies - beautiful!

 

Getting ready for petanque...

Speaking of rabbits - these two people are so soft hearted that they cannot kill the rabbits! What is that about? Next time we go, I'm going to take poison or traps or something! Rabbits are an anathema. I know people in the UK love them as do people in the US. But here, they are a bloody pest!

Fabulous to spend time with Linda and Graham and we need to do more of it!

 

A message for David

 I sent this to David, telling him I loved him really.

He has now printed it out and pinned it to his office wall - which proves my point really ...

By the way, there is an apostrophe missing - don't think I didn't notice ... And so did the procrastinator.

Excellent word, procrastinate - it means towards tomorrow in Latin.

And it's done!

 The concreting exercise was successful and we are pleased!

Cheese scones were produced early which was a good thing as the concrete truck's arrival was brought forward again to 9:30. 

The truck arrives and only Pete is here from the contractors ...

Pete needed the wheelbarrow dampened so the concrete slid off easily

Warren reversing down the driveway. I had moved the motorhome back out of the way, but a couple of the roses beside the drive got a bit of an unwanted trim ... Of course, he was more interested in avoiding the cabbage tree for some reason!

Zack and Mike arriving wondering how come the concrete truck was early ...

David likes to check my height against the wheels ...

Warren is ready to pour.

Mike on his way with barrow number two, I think

Westie was in charge of spreading and placement. Westie was one of the guys who built that fence to his left some years ago too.

The mesh had been placed on the first layer, Westie was spreading out the first part of the second layer and Zack was on the big rake.

Mike bringing a barrowload - that is extremely heavy. Pete who is in his 60s was only doing half loads - very sensible! Mike was using it as softball training, I think - good for arm and back development.

David and I watched - a much better use of our time and skill. I did take photos though and made tea, coffee and the scones ...

Warren holding back the flow while Pete leaves.

One layer on all over and Westie doing something I'd love to do - standing in wet concrete. Zack is waiting for the next spreading manoeuvre and Pete is watching - I think he needed a break.

Zack's turn at the smoothing while Mike delivers the next barrowful and Westie keeps an eye.

Starting to look really good.

After a late morning tea, Westie did an initial float smoothing where he used a very wide smoothing trowel on an extremely long handle. That float operation is designed to bring the excess water to the surface so it can be swished gently off the edges. After that, they all left with the hope that the rain would hold off.

It didn't, dammit! It wasn't hard and mostly was not a problem to the surface - except where the magnolia tree next door overhangs the concrete. The drips from the tree were MUCH larger than the rain drops!

In the front left, you can see that the surface is pocked. The offending branches are just above. You can see Westie's float trowel. It was leaning against the raised vegetable box and was very long!

They were due to return to do a final float after about an hour. But because of the pockmarks and because it was over an hour, I called the contractor to find out when they would be back - the concrete takes a while to go off, but there isn't really a long timeframe where it is still workable.

Zack and Westie came back and sorted the pockmarks - it was not a simple task, and we are grateful they did such a good job of it. Westie is kneeling on a long metal plank  and leaning on a trowel - just shows how fast the concrete starts to go off that his trowel didn't sink under this weight!

Edges being smoothed and rounded

The almost finished, not yet solidly dry result. We are happy

The guys have to come back on Friday to do two cuts across it, from front to back and from side to side. Apparently, according to the lovely Luke, they are required to ensure that it doesn't crack. Must be right because he did it on the concrete pad under the motorhome and that has not cracks at all!

Friday's morning tea is going to be banana and blueberry muffins. I am not sure how many people are needed to do the cutting, but I will make sure there's enough muffins for all of yesterday's team...

Right now I am going out to give the concrete a little wetting with a gently running hose so it doesn't dry out too fast.

Concreting happening today

So of course, it is raining. The concreting has been delayed twice since before Xmas because of rain that was forecast, and neither time did rain eventuate. But today, of course, it has.

However we have asked the firm to go ahead regardless of the weather. Our thinking is that with Omicron in the community here now further delays will run into issues of resourcing due to either the contractor's staff becoming ill and having to isolate or the concreting firm being in the same boat. Of course, it could be David or me who gets infected which means we would both need to isolate, with no one able to come to the house.

So any minor damage to a newly concreted surface can be fixed later if necessary. And having the rest of the summer where we will probably be at home and able to use the back garden area for sitting out at a less than perfect concrete surface and eating and enjoying the clement weather seems far preferable to us than continuing with the currently unusable space.

We used to have the table and chairs on the grass, and it was generally excellent. However in the evenings, the pesky little insects that live in the lawn and like to come out for blood in the dusk were an absolute menace. The concrete pad is an effort to reduce the size of their habitat.  I suspect we will still use a plethora of citronella candles (I wanted to call them limoncello when my mind was hunting for the word 😆) and we also have purchased a couple of the ultraviolet zappers that will be employed...😈😈

 

The view of the unusable space from the back doorstep - smack bang in the middle with no space at either end to put out the outdoor table and chairs.

And from the sunroom - it'll be lovely when we can sit out there. I plan to place a few pots and David's dad's sundial as well.

 

Cheese scones for the workers are planned - David has already grated the cheese last night. He's a good man. 

However he DID forget to reset the tea maker and set it to make my early morning cuppa. He is a bad man. He is now on probation. However (x 2), to show that I am merciful, I have a) made tea for me and b) made his special tea for him, and c) not raised the fact that he forgot to sort out my teamaker last night, and d) not informed him of his probationary status. 😇😇😇😇

He is also therefore very lucky to be married to such a forgiving angel ...

Getting Bike Fit in the Bay and Omicron is here, dammit!

 We are staying in Waimarama with Willie and Chris.

David with his friend Carlos who doesn't move far from Willie ...

This is what I can see in the mirror in these tall people's house ...

And while we have been here, we have

• dropped our bikes off at The Hub in Hastings for their check ups (we love The Hub - absolutely wonderful customer service)
  
• had lunch at Janneke and Nico's (cheese scones made by me and tomatoes grown by J&N)
  
• have been out for two bike rides with W&C,
• the first was an 18km circular route from Taradale to Puketapu, out on one side of the river and back on the other - with lunch at the Puketapu Tavern 
• the second was 36kms return from Awatoto to Bay View - with lunch at the cafe in the campground at Bay View
• made the decision that we will have a day off biking tomorrow ...
• eaten yummy food - Willie is a great cook.

The whole group - Chris did the selfie because he is tallest and has the longest arms ...

At Awatoto almost ready to head off on our ride to Bayview.

 

Not the best photo, but that is a marlin caught by those two young men.

On our way back from Bayview, we could see the northern side of the port and Bluff Hill.

I raced ahead (at about 22kph) looking to minimise the amount of time I was seated. So I stopped in the shade after I'd passed the port buildings, then I waited for the others. Chris came first - I was too slow to get a photo of him. Here comes David.

And Willie coming through the shady patch.

We both have new more comfortable bike seats from The Hub, and I have had a riser fitted to the handlebar column (by Robert at The Hub) so now my bike looks very Dutch - like a sit up and beg bike! And it's very comfortable to ride.

Dinner last night was pizza, built by Willie and me, cooked by Chris in the Weber BBQ. Yummy!

Chris is cutting up David's and my pizza - all got consumed, and to be honest, David had 5/8 of it ...

This morning, for Lisa on What A Lark, I took photos of Willie and Chris's garden - Willie loves her garden and even though they have had no rain for a couple of months, with none predicted for at least two more weeks, she has trained her plants to cope without constant watering. Of course, they use rinse water for spot watering.

Dahlias

Tomatoes by the garage have gone crazy!

 

Petunias looking fabulous!

Our next stop is going to be Waipukarau for a bike ride on our way back to Waikanae.

These plans may be disrupted by the news that with at least 10 cases of Omicron now in the community we are going into RED on our Traffic Light System. That means masks always in indoor settings and outdoors where physical distancing cannot be maintained, limits of 100 people at venues where all are vaccinated, 25 where they are not. There is guidance about duration of isolation if infected or a close contact, which I have to study a bit more.

The government planning is based on scenario planning for up to 50,000 cases - hard to imagine here in NZ where we have successfully pretty much kept covid at bay for the last 2 years.

And our World Famous amazing Prime Minister has postponed her wedding which was due to happen in the next week or so. When asked how she felt about it, she said 'That's life. Of course I am sad. But other people have had a lot more to deal with when unable to see loved ones before they passed away or when they have been very sick.' She truly is an amazing person. We are so lucky to have her.

OK, now it's a question of wait and see what happens over the next 24 hours re accommodation availability - that will determine whether we travel directly home or whether we stay in Waipukurau - motel owners may be a bit chary about having people coming to stay right now. A phone call will determine that though.

We have been chatting with Willie and Chris this evening about whether we will still go to the South Island in March - they are due to go a couple of weeks before us. We have all decided that we will play the wait and see game really. And we agreed also that deciding whether or not we can go on holiday is a very first world problem ...

Back to the previous post about being in Tongaporutu:

While we were in Tongaporutu, we visited the old bach. It looks very, very different. Kelly and Peter have stripped it out and changed where the bedroom is - that was part of the lounge for us. They have opened out the bedroom and the dining area into one large room - it's very empty in the summer because they have also extended the deck and have transparent plastic walls and pretty much live in it constantly. 

They have relined the walls and ceiling with ply which looks cool and is easy maintenance. They lifted the carpet (very old, tired, worn), uncovered a large amount of sand from over the years ..., and then they have sanded and polyurethaned the matai floor boards. It looks wonderful!

The bedroom - I love the photo of two of the sisters with Taranaki in the background.

The new lounge which has incorporated the bedroom.

The kitchen has been refurbished - it needed it...

And a lovely job has been made of the bathroom!

 It is great to see the bach being used and loved, and it does lessen the loss of part of our family history. Rather than seeing it as a loss, I'm viewing it as a change of direction - and the fact that Kelly and Peter are enjoying it does assuage the pangs of that change.