Stormy Weather

Hi there folks.
Updates seem to becoming once a month, perhaps because we get more used to everything and so events are not as newsworthy as they were last year or the year before. I update now more to keep the blog going than because there is much new to report on.
Yes, it is holiday time. Just after Winter Solstice/ Matariki. We are currently having a big storm with 100km winds and a good dumping of rain. This follows on from poor weather last weekend. We have all suffered from varying degrees of illness. Paddy was off for a week with a flu - high temperature and flat out for 2 days. He managed to drag himself in for the last day of term and has been ok since then. Not pleasant though with a thick cough. Chantelle and I have both had a sort of sub-flu. Headaches and muscular aches and a feeling of lethargy. Not full out flu, but probably a sign that our bodies were fighting something off. Eric has escaped unaffected and Stuart has mostly been Ok.

So what to do in the holidays? We planned a day out on Thursday and were going to go to Whangarei. Chantelel was the main mover behind this as she was after running shoes. Not feeling up to it, we considered closer venues and explored possibilies.
Most attractions shut down at this time of year, the tourist trade must not be enough to keep them open, and the residential poulation cannot be enough for them to be viable. In the end the day dawned beautiful, calm after all the wind, with strong sun. We went down the East coast to Totara North - a sheltered harbour over the water from Whangaroa. Lots of game fishing boats go out from here. We had a couple hours of fishing from the wharf and caught 4 fish, called parore. The last one in particular gave as good a fight as would a snapper. Eric smoked them yesterday and they kept us fed for a day.

We had planned to go from Totara North to the dinosaur museum near Kaeo. This is a gem of a place, run by an enthusiastic rock hound as a hobby. The place was still there but no-one was around. The Texas Diner was next on our list and that too was closed for winter. We decided to carry on to Kerikeri to see what we could find there. I took a left on the way to Matauri Bay as I had always wanted to explore that piece of coast. It was a lovely place - in the Winter with few people there. We got a lolly each, cos that's what you do on a day out. The owner of the camp store told me that booking for the summer were going well and they were expecting 1500 people for xmas. Call me a snob, but I just don't get the seaside crowding together thing. The campsite must be jammed packed. We had a trot up the hill to stare out at the last resting place of the Rainbow Warrior. I told the boys how the French agents put a bomb on board the boat as it was moored in an Auckland harbour, stocking up before it went off to protest against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. There was a monument on the hill top with an arresting stone design.

Back on the home front, the fields are sodden with rain. We moved the chucks onto fresh ground last weekend, so we have more manured ground to turn into veggy plot this spring. It pleases me that I have a whole field to gradually bring into cultivation. I must take some photos of the beds in their winter resting state. With no sheep to consume vast amounts of our time, I can keep picking away at the veggy garden. I am also using this winter time to remove gorse bushes. I find that if we cut them in the spring, then birds have already started nesting. At the same time I am trying to increase the cover of native plants by planting seedling manuka, kawakawa, and totara. I stuck in 2 olives and a plum tree. Plenty more waiting to go out.

Teas ready so I am off. Apololgies for typos.

Winter Brrrrr