Holiday walks

Went for a cracking bush walk with Hal last weekend. We were aiming to reach the summit of one of the local hills called Puketutu. NZ bush is quite different to UK woodland. The tracks tend to be indistinct. The undergrowth is thicker. There is sign of wild pigs. It is rare to meet anybody else. We made it to the top. At least we thought we were at the top! The hills are forested right to the tops round here so you rarely get a view. We had planned to walk along theridge to a quarry and then back to the car. Without GPS this was going to be tricky as it was hard to tell where the ridge was. So we played it safe and walked down the valley back to the car. It still took us 6 hours to complete a short ascent and descent. The picture of eggs, beans and asparagus shows the produce from the garden. It is a slow spring in terms of getting veggies from the garden. The broad beans have been badly affected by the chocolate spot disease and so their yield has been low. This time of year is critical in the garden though. There is a narrow window of opportunity for preparing the soil while it can be worked. By the middle of the week we had had no rain for a week and the recently dug soil had set into sun baked clay. The addition of a large barrow of compost made it possible to stick in a row of peas and haricot beans. Frost cloth is protecting the early cucumbers and courgettes from the cold winds. I went down twice in the evening with a head torch after the rain started to harvest snails. I collected about 400 the first night and 100 on the second. The chooks love eating snails so I throw them a handful most days.