Happenings

 

 

 

 

Life continues after Term 3 starts.
A few varied pictures here to keep you up to date with what we have been doing.
There is a lot of building going on in Kaitaia at the moment after years of planning 2 major projects have finally got the go-ahead.
Our College has knocked down its old technology block and the news walls have been going in this week. The photo above shows another even bigger project. The Te Ahu centre is a controversial project that aims to upgrade the Community Centre by adding to it room for a library, a museum, improved cinema and other stuff. It has been controversial because lots of places that have been separately getting on with their business will now be together sharing roof space. There has been much discussion about how much floor space each part of the entity is getting. I do not know what the end result will be like. It is ambitious and hard work for the people trying to make it happen. Not a lot happens in Kaitaia, so the paper has been talking about Te Ahu for at least 2 years. Hence it was great to see the bulldozers coming in and piling work start for the new buildings. More pics to follow. Anzac Day and the A&P show and lots of other functions will be different from now on.

Our cats have been catching lots of goldfinches recently. Pity because they are such pretty birds.

Eric had his birthday a week later than the day because he was away on leadership camp. he was quite happy to tuck into a pavlova when he got home.

Last weekend we slipped off to check out a potential new hunting ground in the Herekino area. We went down to the Grbch orchard afterwards and enjoyed grazing on tree fresh oranges and guavas. Going to little edens like this are very inspiring for me as I envision our place looking like this in maybe 20 years.

When is the best time to plant fruit trees?
20 years ago.
Pat Downer July 30th 2010.

Whangarei

 

 

 

 

Into our last weekend of the mid-year holiday now. Boo-hoo back to school on Monday and back to the crazy hustle and bustle after a pleasant respite.
We decided to get away just for one night this holiday and knowing that lots of touristy things shut down at this time of year we headed for the biggest city between Kaitaia and Auckland. Whangarei is about 150km South East and has a population of maybe 50,000. Quite a lot of things happen there. They have a big museum, a huge sports stadium, lots of shops etc. I have been a bit underwhelmed by our previous trips, possibly because we have mostly gone on day trips and have targetted the big box shopping centre where you could really be anywhere in the world. This time we got a hotel on the edge of town for a night and we built in a number of fun activities. Eric was away on his leadership course so it was just the four of us. We parked up by the main shopping area and had a good wander around the shops. It was nice to go into shops that had a good range of fanciful goods. For some reason I was pleased to see a shop selling about 7 different very expensive chess sets, plus a microscope for $1500 just out on display. We went into a few fishing shops and had a good yarn with one guy about the pros and cons of different kayaks. this bloke claimed that he paddles a kayak that is worth $15,000 because of all the bits and bobs he has added to it. He drives a bomb of a car because that is not important to him.

We visited Frings a microbrewery down on the riverfront. I purchased a flagon of dark ale for later consumption. Very nice it was too - not fizzy and definitely not a hint of yeast. How do they do that?

Paddy had asked to go swimming so we both went and visited the aquatic centre. It had a wave machine, hot pools and a regular lane swimming pool. It always amuses me how many different combinations there are for setting up a public pool. This one was particularly confusing because they were busy doing refurbishmenst and there were conflicting signs on bits of cardboard all over the place. We had to ask a lifeguard how to get out because the exit was hidden!

That done we went to the Indian Aroma for a takeout. There was even a choice of Indian takeouts! We had tried the Shiraz before so gave the other place a go. I think Shiraz was better.

On the Wednesday we wentback into town and Chantelel went for a coffee while Paddy, Stuart and I went to see "Boy" at the cinema. The place was packed out with kiddies at 10 am but thankfully they were all going to watch Shrek. There were less than 10 of us watching Boy. It is a NZ made film that has been very popular when it first came out. Boy is a young maori boy whose dad is away and he lives with his Nana close to the beach in a remote little community. Nana leaves him in charge of his younger brother and cousins for a week or so whilst she goes to a tangi (funeral). Boy fanatsises about his Dad and mourns for his mother who died giving birth to his brother. Dad turns up in the middle of the night with 2 other blokes who together form their own gang called the Crazy Horses. On the surface it is a very funny film showing how people make their own entertainment when they live in the middle of nowhere. We were in stitches for most of it. At a deeper level it is perhaps quite sad, because the Dad refuses to take responsibility for his children and he lives in a fantasy world. Meanwhile the kids suffer and are very neglected. I guess it makes possible a discussion of some issues that affect this country by using humour.

We feasted at BurgerKing before hitting the road and coming home.

More on what else we have been up to next week.

Just realised that the words above offer no explanation of the pictures. We went to Quarry gardens on our way in to Whangarei. They are a huge complex of gardens that have been built into a hillside that was quarried at some time in the past. The hill faces North and is close enough to the sea to support sub-tropical species. The bananas are fruiting mid winter, they don't do that for us up here in Kaitaia.

Stuart is pictured with one of his creations, he is continuing to make props for films, when he is not snaffling all our spuds and apple for the spud gun.

Stuarts Science Fair

Kayaking in Winter

Schools out and we saw eric off this morning. He was catching the coach from Kaitaia to Orewa to go on an ATC Leadership Course. He is growing up.

Paddy and Stuart were both staying with friends so as soon as the coach pulled out Chantelle and I headed North to Houhora Harbour for a kayak. It is months since we last went for a paddle. The forecast today was for calm before a big storm drops in from the North tomorrow. Perfect. As was the calm water. We were a little concerned about the car thermometer which was reading 2 degrees C as we drove through the dawn mist.

As it turned out, it was not not too cold. The sun came up over Mount Camel and warmed things up. The water was very clear and so we could see the bottom and sus out the best places to fish. The tide was coming in so we were not too keen to go out of the harbour against the current and then be having to come back in as it went out. We did go out to a big rock and then out to the mouth of the harbour. I was fishing with a luminous yellow plastic softbait with a lightweigt rod of Stuarts. I hooked into something big that put up a good fight. It was making good runs and pulling the kayak after it. We got it up to boat and saw it was very silvery, not one of our usual fish. I was hoping it was a kingfish as I have yet to catch a legal one and they are both good sport and very good eating. We got this one right up to the boat and it opened its mouth to reveal some very long sharp teeth - barracuda!. Chantelle was not keen to have it thrashing out in the limited space of the kayak. Knowing that they do not make good eating we cut it free and off it went back into the deep.

After that we drifted in with the tide and crossed some very shallow sand banks that had lots of cockles and vaguely reminiscent scooped out hollows in the sandy bottom. Rays! Neither of our favourite fish and there must have been about 30 that we disturbed with our path. They shot away with a swirl of water and looked like birds flying through the water.

We had a go fishing round a smaller rock in the mid harbour. I hooked into a kahawai and it bust my line. The barracuda seemed to have caused the line to fray badly - perhaps a combination of strain and UV damage on an old cheapo line. I had to retire from the fishing at that point and we shared Chantelles rod. We made for the deep water channel by the shore of Pukenui. People fish off the wharf and catch John Dory and other prized fish at some times of the year. Chantelle caught a nice Kahawai a nd we manged to land and deal with it.

After that we slowly worked our way back. kayaking is good exercise for the stomach, back and arms. We were out for about 5 hours. My legs were like jelly when we finally got out. The wind was getting up and the sky to the NE is looking black. Bring on the storm, there is soccer on the TV and we are both too kanckered to do much else apart from veg out.