Plants

 

 

 

 

Lots of plants on Motorua.
It has been farmland for most of the time that Europeans have been in the area, with the area under native plants gradually being reduced. With the advent of the shareholder idea, a conscious decision was made to plant large areas with native plants and to bring back some of the original fauna.
I was very lucky to have a guided tour of the Ponga trach with Carol Ralph on our last day on the island. She is very knowledgeable and taught me many new plants. She had helped to steer the valley from grassland to developing forest. It is difficult to convey the forest in pictures and even harder using words. I found the walk and talk very inspirational, because I am trying to do something similar, though on a smaller scale with our land. I also want to involve a group of College students with a restoration project this year.
So thanks Carol and all the other enthusiasts on Motorua, keep up the great work.

The pictures show a Nikau Palm, the shade house where the native plants are grown. Then a plant that I have not identified yet - it has a large seed pod full of itching powder hairs and red kideney shaped seeds. Anyone know what it is?
Finally, the gun emplacement at the eastern end of the island. The army were here in WWII defending the bay from potential invaders. They left behind some large concrete structures that are slowly being eaten away by the forces of nature.

Swimming

 

 

 

 

The boys did much swimming. Not all of it was documented, but I like this sequence of Paddy jumping off the wharf.
Eric was keen too. The boys spent their days in a round of swimming, eating, talking loudly, playing swing-ball, lounging about and then back to swimming again.
Chantelle and I read heaps.
I found a really good book that had been left by someone. It was called "Three cups of tea" by Greg Mortenson. It tells the true story of how this US climber visited K2 in Pakistan and promised he would return to the remote mountain village to build a school. This he did with great persistence and economy. He is a very charismatic man who continues to do the humanitarian thing of helping people whilst the leadership of his country persists in thinking they can impose their ideology on the Moslem world down the barrel of a gun. Get the book out of your library if you can.

Fishing

 

 

 

 

You know how much we like fishing!
Every night we went out to cast out lines. We caught mostly snapper that were too small to take back and eat. By law they have to be 27cm long. The penalties for breaking this are severe. Besides which it is not good for the future to eat all the small ones.
We ate some sort of fish every day. Pan fied snapper was best.
Chantelle caught the biggest fish - a trevally. Squid on large hooks was the preferred bait. Using small hooks caught too many undersize snapper. Pilchard was not good bait. Spinning was useless, not a single take.