Paddy's walk

 

 

 

 

Paddy and I are just back from his "walk", my attempt to provide some sort of rite of passage as he grows older.
The pictures are the wrong way round, so perhaps I should reverse them. Or perhaps I won't and you can cope with the fact that the pictures in this post show the end of the walk, the second show the middle and the third show the start.

We went to the Warawara forest which is north of the Hokianga Harbour about 80 km Sw of Kaitaia. It is a huge conservation forest bordered on the West by the Tasman. Three predominately Maori settlements are found on its edges. Pawerenga to the north, an old Catholic settlement: they say that the only people who go there are those that live there and those that are lost. Panguru is on the East and has a large school that I had some dealings with as a science video-conference teacher a couple of years back. We started our walk from the coastal settlement of Mitimiti. The pictures show us climbing up above this small collection of houses.

The other boy in the pictures is Lance, who is Paddy's friend.

We aimed to walk from Mitimiti up a ridge path to find a vehicle track that runs from Pawerenga right through the forest. The first day's walk was very tough on us all, we climbed 400m through thick bush. There was a track, but it was steep and semi-overgrown. Trees had fallen across it and it took no notice of contours going up and down very steeply. As a consequence, we made slow progress on day one and made it as far as the vehicle track. we set up camp next to the roadway and were careful to stow all our food deep inside rucksacks so as not to attract foraging wild pigs in the night.

I lay awake partly because my back is giving me gyp and partly because I was trying to work out if that rustling noise was a pig, or a possum, or just the wind.

Day 2 Paddy's walk

 

 

 

 

Day two dawned cold and damp. Heavy condensation left us all a bit wet. But thankfully we had no nocturnal porcine encounters.

We were back on the track with a lot of ground to make up on account of our slow first day. We had left word in Mitimiti of our eta and I did not want to cause a Search and Rescue call-out. Fortunately, it was a lot easier walking along a roadway. It meandered round following the contours much more than the walking track. We even found time to take a detour and climb up Maungapuhotu, one of the peaks named on the map. It was supposedly 625m but I actually think that we climbed a neighbouring unnamed smaller peak. Never mind - the view was panoramic and well worth the detour. See pictures of Paddy and Lance posing with the world laid out below them. Paddy gave the view and experience the highest complement, saying that it would be his new facebook profile - let's see if that happens.

The rest of day was a bit of a grind as we walked along the vehicle track almost as far as Pawarenga and then cut off East down, down down to the beach. What a place to spend a night though! A large sandy bay with a meandering stream populated by pied stilts, paradise shellduck and NZ dotterels. The surf pounding away at a safe distance. Huge logs scattered amongst the grass as evidence of decades old storms.

In the morning 2 horse and a foal moved down from the hills to graze near our camp. Paddy was conviced that it was Mongolia!

We had a leisurely breakfast and then struck camp and had a pleasant short walk down the beach back to Mitimiti, our car and then home.

I enjoyed this little sojourn. There is nothing like getting away from it all to put things into perspective. I took no books and wrote little. The boys babbled lots of boy talk to each other, so there was space just to lie and watch the clouds scudding over and let the mind empty of detritus. It occurred to me this morning as I spent 5 minutes cleaning my teeth, that we are expected to mutlitask so much nowadays, to pack in more and more and achieve ever more, that we don't have time to think about half the stuff that we are doing. When was the last time that you actually concentrated fully on brushing your teeth, and were not doing it automatically while you were figuring out what colour to paint the bathroom, or how late you were for leaving the house?

I will stop now before you start thinking that I am having a mid-life moment ... if you know me, you'll know that I have always been having those!

 

 

 

 

Tryathlon

 

 

 

 

At last the eagerly awaited news of the tryathlon.
We arrived at the start nice and early to prepare our baskets and to dfamiliarise ourselves with the layout. Most of us had done at least some training together and there was a good spirit in the air. Most of us were a little nervous about the exertion that lay in store. I was a bit worried that I would not be able to complete the event, because my training was only as much as each of the individual parts and I had not attempted to do the swim, bike and run together.

To cut to the chase, there were about 40 of us taking part. Photos are not brilliant because our camera picture button has broken off and it is quite difficult to take pictures. I went into the pool in the 9th wave of 4 swimmers. I came out last. Most of the swimmers who were serious were using crawl, and I cannot do 9 lengths of crawl so I stuck mostly to breast stroke and one length of back stroke to preserve my legs.

The transition to bike was slow - about 4 minutes. I think if I was serious about getting a good time, I would change by the bike and perhaps not bother drying my toes!

I liked the 9km bike ride, because it was the bit I was most confident about. I flew round and caught up quite a few places. The last km was downhill and so we all went for that bit.

Transition to run was fast, I scoffed an energy gel and got out on the road. Running with a bunch of other blokes was a revelation. All my training has been done on my own, and it was much easier to keep going whilst trotting alongside a few other blokes.

I stuck with doing the short course 300m swim, 9km bike and 3km run. My time was 1 hour and 27 seconds. There were no placings because it was designed as a participation event and not a race. I guess there is merit in that, but as lots of the blokes said, we are men, so we compete! If I do it again next year I will definitely get training earlier and go for the long course.

Training

No pics this week as the camera is poorly. We are struggling on towards the end of term next week. Stuart has is on antibiotics for a sinus infection.

We have been having pretty quiet weekends. Chantelle and I did another kayak trip on my birthday up to Houhora Heads. The forecast was not too flash and we were not keen on the size of the waves as we went into the sea, so we retreated to calmer waters and fished from the kayak around a small island. I hooked onto what was probably a sting-ray, but fortunately did not land it. Chantelle got a John Dory up to theedge of the boat, but it dropped off. We were trying plastic baits as they are recommended for kayaks.

Last weekend, I took Paddy and his friend swimming. We were headed for the town pools, but they were closed. I am training for a Tryathlon (sic) whih will be held tomorrow, so I really needed to have a swim. So we shot up to Lake Ngatu. The level was right down on account of the drought, but it was very clean and refreshing. I had a go at swimming and then running. Mmmmm!

Last night I tried the cycling run transition. Quite tough to run the km after having cycled about 7km hard out. The actual event involves a 300m swim, a 9km bike ride and a 3 km run. That is the short course that I have opted for. The longer course is the same swim but a 15 km bike and a 6km run. The event has been organised by our innovative Doctor's surgery as a way of getting blokes to exercise. I am the only white person who has been going to the training sessions because it is a Maori Health Provider. It has been a eyeopener spending time with Maori men as we all figure out ways of incorporating exercise into our busy lives.

I had better not say anything more as the event is tomorrow. We might have pictures.

Eric and Stuart both have done well in the school chess ladder and are in the training squad for the team. Eric will be in the second team and Stuart is a reserve at the moment. Chess club has been running 3 lunch-times a week for the whole of this term.

Patrick went on an overnight camp with his school last week. They did a variety of activities including an assault course and kayaking.

Grandma

 

Great Grandma to the boys and Mike's Grandma died aged 98 on Monday morning after a short illness.

We are all sad and have been exchanging memories during the week.

The boys' most vivid memory is being given pound coins when they went to visit.
Chantelle remembers Spam sandwiches.
I have lots of memories - all good ones, as it should be for a Grandma!
Those Boxing Day parties when we would sit on plastic sheets and eagerly await big plastic bags of goodies.
Grandma as a double act with Grand dad and their humour.
Grandma as the great matriarch of Mum's side of the family.
The infamous kitchen drawers full of interesting objects that I never had a good chance to look through.
The immaculate garden at King Edward Road.
I remember them both coming to look after us in Heywood. I told Grandad that I had no interest in gardening! Don't remember anything about Grandma there though.
As a parent myself I remember taking Stuart over for an inspection. He cried so much (on account of his lactose intolerance as we later discovered) that she phoned ahead to warn Mum that the baby heading over to her was a real crier.
She liked to tak about her exploits at the swimming pool.
I do not ever recall leaving any of her houses with her, but can imagine that she would have been awesome company.
She put on an impressive show with the marching batons at her 90th birthday.

All the best Grandma!

Raft Race

 

 

 

 

Last weekend we went over the hill to Taipa for a raft race.
It had been organised as a way to bring together all the local church youth groups. What a good idea!
I think that this is the third year that the race has been held. It is the first time that we were involved.
It was a typical Far North event and most enjoyable for that.
No fuss, advertised by word of mouth, looked like it was not going to happen, seemingly crazy to a safety obsessed ex-Englishman. And in spite of all those things, thought had gone into it. There were 2 safety boats. The course was about 4 km down a pretty wild estuary with limited road access. The rafts ranged from the ramshackle to pretty seaworthy. In fact one girl swam the whole way holding onto a piece of bamboo. The kids themselves were fully involved in the whole thing as they had built the rafts and most crews were all under 18's. What is more, they all reached the finishing point, some needing a bit of a tow from the boats to make sure that we were not waiting too long at the finishing point. They all enjoyed themselves and were all stretched mentally and physically.
Despite all these good things, I am pretty certain that if the same event had been proposed in England, it would have been banned - or made so cumbersome with safety regulations that everyone would have been tied up in knots! And yet all the positives came out and no-one has drowned yet.
That is why I like living here!

Stuart was our family representative as he is most active in the youth group and had helped to build the raft. His friend Lance completed the great voayge as well.
We finished up at Taipa Sailing Club, with the obligatory sausage sizzle and spot prizes followed by some beach games. Choice!

Stuart ready for the long-jump

 

2010 A&P show

 

 

 

 

Last Sat was the A&P show. This is one of the big events on the Kaitaia social calendar. As usual the main event for most of the College students is Friday night. We went on Saturday, which is the main show day.

On the Thursday night we put some last minute entries to the indoor section. Stuart had been working on a Hellboy gun and he was stoked to win First prize with it. I( entered 3 categories of the veggy section and was pretty chuffed to get 3rd for my yellow tomatoes and 2nd for my dwarf beans.

The show was the usual mix of fair and commerce and animals and horses. I enjoyed meeting some familiar faces hanging around the greeny sections. We also helped the ATC to person one of the entrance gates.

Other news this week: we had a big dump of rain on Tuesday night. About 2 inches fell overnight. It helped to keep our tank fuller than it had been. The soil remains very dry. We are on a high fire alert and the town water supply is critically low. They are even talking of rationing and turning off for hours at a time. One of the school kids asked me if the school would be shut if the water was cut off. I said that it might be and her response was to tell everyone to turn on all the taps to bring forward that time!

Wednesday was School Athletics Day. Very hot and a fullon outside day. Lots of good things. Eric has got himself a catering role. Along with a number of other non-athletic souls, he was on the cooking party. They went around with tasteful stripey blue aprons, carrying tea and scones to the teachers scattered all over the grounds. He reckoned that he walked further than most of the runners ran in their races.

Stuart had to wear red to represent his House (Ngarimu). He informed us at 8am on Wednesday that he had nothing red, in a display of true adoloescent good planning. He ended up going round all day in a rather sweaty red Swanndri ( a NZ woollen knee length hunters shirt).

Very dry!

A few pictures to show just how dry it is.
The garden still produces good crops. We are eating cucumbers, beans, peas, tomatoes, a bit of corn, kale, silverbeet fresh with plenty more crops to come.
The dam (pond) is drying up. The picture shows its level tonight. Normally it is 5 feet higher. We are just getting no rain. When clouds form they pass over with barely a drop landing. We have had no decent rain since December. Sign of the times or El Nino?

We had a quiet weekend last. That is pretty much what we all needed as the previous week had been pretty busy. I am starting to get warmed up with the breakneck pace of school. It takes me by surprise every year. If we did not have such good long restful holidays, I would never get to the blissful state of restedness that I achieve by late January. Teachers over here look years younger in January than they do in December!

So, we went to town and purchased paint and materials for the roof. The iron from which it is made had become rusted in places, so applying the stitch-in-time principle Stuart and I went up and sanded and primed and eventually top coated the main rusty bits. On Sunday we did our usual Sunday morning bits, had a big dinner and then went out to Diggers to see Ruth and Stephan. We cooled off from the muggy heat in their deluxe alfresco swimming pond. I am in training for a tryathlon so it was my first bit of swim training. Much nicer than the session I did this Wednesday in the town pool, eyes stinging from the chlorine and no sign of the dragonflies that kept me company at the country venue.

Ruth showed us some of their special plants and I took pictures of the ones I was unfamiliar with. Kohekohe is abundant in their bush. There was a matai and a tree that we could not identify. Great fun and it adds a whole new dimension to being outside.

Family news: all settling in well at school. patrick enjoyed a trip to the RNZAF brass band with school on Wednesday. Eric is enjoying his Year 10 Food Technology classes and expands his repertoire of basic dishes. Stuart is apparently doing well in German. One of the advantages of teaching in the same school as your kids. You get to keep a close eye on what is going on. They are both in the 2010 Kaitaia College Chess Tournament.

Kayak to Lane Cove

Chantelle, a friend called Ty and I all spent last Saturday kayaking out to Lane Cove in the Whangaroa Harbour.
As you can see from the pictures the place is pristine. We had been to the wharf at Totara North before for a fish and had watched boats heading out. It was great to follow in their wakes and see what lay around each corner.

It was Chantelle's first kayak journey and she did very well. We worked out from Google Earth that we must have paddled at least 12km. Conditions were good, apart from a head wind on both the way out and the way back (how does that work then?).

Lane Cove is an arm of Whangaroa where DOC have built a hut so that people can stay overnight. No food, cookers or electric ... just a roof over your head and some bunks. I will certainly be figuring a way to get out there again for an overnighter. Ty is more experienced at the kayaking and he trots out to offshore islands to camp. He had a little rod on his boat and he even managed to catch a snapper as we were moving along.

We got out for a stretch at Lane Cove and climbed up a steep path to the lookout high above. basically on top of the rocks you can see in one picture. The view from the top was stunning and panoramic. I have included just the seaward view.

We went home happy, if a little stiff in places. The boys had separated up to various friends to allow us a bit of quality "us" time. Hopefully we will do it again some time soon.

Bush walk 1

 

 

 

 

Went for a 7 hour bush walk yesterday with Stephan the trapper.

Another belting day out. Good conversation, plenty of new plants and animals to look at. Stephan wa working as we walked round the 200 acre block of bush, checking and resetting traps that had caught a couple of hedgehogs and a rat. The block has been trapped for several years to reduce predator numbers so that kiwi, other native birds and animals can live unmolested.

For those who are interested, the black olive looking fruit is from a tree called the taraire. The white daisy like flowers are from Kirk's tree daisy, the butterfly on the ragwort is a small copper. The smiling bloke is Stephan. A man who enjoys his work!

We got back to his house in time for a refreshing dip and then we were called out to do a search and rescue for an 87 year old neighbour who had not come back from his bush walk. The police had scrambled a team from Whangarei by chopper. The local SAR team assembled from all over the Far North. Meanwhile the ragtaggle team of local police and neighbours did an initial sweep through the bush close to his abandoned quad bike. We were about to go back to HQ, when Ruth spotted the guy wandering up a track out of the bush. He looked a bit bemused to see nigh on 40 people gathered in his back garden! All's well that ends well.

Bush walk