Spring, Chess, Earthquakes and flu

Last Friday of the break and a post has not been made for quite some time now. Some bloggers post several times a day... how do they find time to have a life?

Term 3 finished in a whirl of strong winds and stormy weather. Eric went up to Spirits Bay to help with a major stranding of whales. This was the second one on thelast few months. He worked through the night to keep the beasts wet and alive. The wind was very strong. It sounds like an exhausting experience but also pretty special to get close to such normally elusive animals. The whales had beached on one of the most remote beaches in Northland. We are 4 hours drive from Auckland and the whales were 2 hours North of here. There are some pics here:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_objectid=10676472&gallery_id=114106#7106088

While he was up there, I took off on the last day of term for Christchurch with the College Chess Team. We had spent the whole term preparing, both for the games and for the costs. We raised $3000 to pay for the trip - half of it came from a charitable trust and the rest came $1 at a time from selling frankfurters at about 10 different events. So it was great to have all the prep done and to start driving down to Auckland.

We had a flight from Auckland to Christchurch and for two of the team it was their first flight. Not the easiest initiation to flying as we hit some pretty serious turbulence coming over the Southern Alps. There was a team of girls going to some other event in Christchurch on the same plane and they were laughing and screaming at the same time. Everyone else on the plane was gripping their seats and hoping the swooping and shuddering would stop!

Rain, wind and illness

Hi there folks.
The winter - or Spring is going about its business with much wind and rain and the odd lovely warm day.
As a consequence, colds and viruses are doing the rounds. Lots of kids at school are sick and we are not escaping our share. As I write this, the wind is howling as a huge storm crosses over us from Ozzy. We are on the edge of it and will hopefully escape too much serious damage. They are expecting a pounding down the line in Auckland though.

As a consequence of the weather and the ilness we are having quiet times. Last weekend we did very little and it was just what was needed. Stuart is hobbling around on his platered foot. He had the back slab taken off and a more permanent plaster stuck on, so he does not need the crutches any more.

We went to "Aunty" Fayes funeral at the Salvation Army. It was a lovely service really, considering that she had died. Her husband of 16 years was very at peace with her going and was ready for the next chapter in his life.

Eric is spending a lot of time trying to play people at chess. He has been challenging all and sundry. On account of beating me twice in a row he has declared himself the house champion. There is a quote that says that when your kid can beat you at chess, it is time for them to move out .....

We spent some time on Sunday cutting down scrub regrowth on the hillside above the pond. I got to have a big fire and then planted a load of native trees.

We are waiting for our first chicks of the year - we have a broody chicken who is on day 22 of sitting. When she got off the eggs yesterday at least one of them had a little bit of shell broken that looked like a chick trying to get out. So we are keeping away from her so she can get on with it.

Teachers were on strike on Wednesday and being a member of the Secondary Teacher's Union I went on strike - for the first time in my life. There are 2 aspects to our claim that brought this about. We are asking for 4% and have been offered 1% with another 1.5% next year. The second part is more complex and concerns a whole raft of conditions that the union and government do not agree on. Ultimately, I am not too fussed about the money. Not that 4% is partcularly extravagant - try getting a bank loan at that rate! More important to me is the steady erosion of working conditions. New Zealand is a low wage economy with relatively weak unions. Our current government are tories who have no great interest in lower paid workers. So whilst it is a bit scary sticking one's head above the parapet and making a stand, it also seems like a more principled thing to do than to take it lying down.

Eric the champion chess player

 

Eric has succeeded in becoming the family champion after beating me on Friday night and beating Patrick, Stuart and Chantelle in the previous days. Eric is always keen for a game but is mostly declined (by Chantelle, Patrick and Stuart). The competition rests between me and Eric. The rankings is; 1st- Eric, 2nd- Me, 3rd- Patrick, 4th- Stuart and 5th is Chantelle.

Broken ankle

 

 

 

 

We have had an interesting week.
I took Eric for a walk last week. Or rather, he took me for a walk because he had been to Kaitaia Reservoir with ATC and I had not.
It is set up in the Herekino hills a few Km from town. We had a pleasant walk through the bush to the little dam, ideal for a Sunday afternoon.
In the bush we went past a large tree with a hole in the trunk. I put the camera in and the flash illuminated a whole host of wetas hiding inside. They are a peculiar NZ insect that is similar to a grasshopper, with ridiculously long antennae.
We were also entertained by a pair of tourists who were doing the same walk, but who were very nervous of the herd of small cows that were enthusiastically welcoming their visitors. It must get pretty dull eating grass all week, so you cannot blame them getting a bit rarked up when some humans show up at the weekend.

School continues at breakneck speed with half the term gone already.
Stuart was messing around with some friends in the wet on Wednesday and he ended up breaking his ankle as he tried flying down some concrete stairs. It was a pretty painful experience requiring assistance the ambulance and sterling reassurance from Lisa, one of our school's first aid team. He has a backslab on for now and is hobbling around on crutches.

Winter hits

I was thinking that we had got off lightly this year as it had been very dry and the days were lightening up and there was that lovely spring warmth in the air.
I thought too soon. The rains arrived about 2 weeks ago and it has been very wet.
We do need a lot of rain to restore the water levels in the soil after the long drought so I am not complaining.
We still get the odd day when it is really nice and warm. Last Sunday was great and I had a good 3 hours of scrub bashing by the pond. Even managed to put some more trees in and have a few little fires before the rains came back. We even had heavy hail storms on Wednesday.

last weekend Chantelle and I had a real treat. It felt like a new chapter of life had opened. We left Eric in charge of the house with Stuart to keep him on the straight and narrow and went off to Taipa for a couple of nights. We were hostedby Eric and Rita and the Te Aupouri trust for a Whare Taonga weekend. It was a type of Marriage Encounter without the writing. We listened to a number of talks on relationships and parenting. Kinda like lectures, but there were some nuggets in there. A lot of stuff that we have worked out over our time together, but some other stuff as well that was a bit more pertinent. The couples were mostly all younger than us - when did wegrow this old?

What was really nice was being put up and having plenty of time just to chill out. They gave us 3 hours for lunch enough time to eat, to go for a walk along the beach and to have a siesta. Saturday night we were treated to a 3 course candlelit dinner in our own appartment.

Loads of food, so mauch that we took a couple of bags home and our poor starved kids thought that it was an early christmas.

So tahnks te Aupouri and Eric and Rita and keep up the good work.

We are all wellish, paddy was off with a stomach bug today. We are all pretty kanackered. it has beena hellish week - way too busy. But things are happening and life is unfolding in interesting ways.

No pics at the mo as I write this from a skinny notebook that has none on it. If I get near the desktop this weekend I might load some up. Mud, rain and washed out pastures. Just so you don't get the impression that it is always sunny here.

Congratulations to my Mum and Dad who recently celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

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.

Paddy's Birthday

 

 

It was Paddy's 11th birthday last weekend and he had 3 friends round for a sleep over. Lots of fun was had as one of them brough a Wii with him. Guess what he wants to buy with his birthday money? The blurry photo represents the speed of movement as they chased around. I think that some of them got some sleep between 1am and 6 when they woke up looking for birthday presents and more sugar.

The other pic shows the 3rd round of the Northland Secondary School Chess Tournament. This was organised by moi and held in Kaitaia College library on Wed June 16th. We managed to lur 4 other schools to come and play, no mean feat as some of them travelled over 2 hours to get here. Normally Kaitaia has to travel south to play in tournaments as the schools in Whangarei are not keen to travel. The chess teams did. We drew with the closest competition, the prestigious Whangarei Boys High School and won the tournament by 1 match point. Quite a relief. Now we qualify for the Nationals in Christchurch in september. Fundraising is in full swing.

I suspect that the schools will train harder for next year's event and we might have a harder fight on our hands.

Back at home plus the rabbit

 

 

 

Lake Ngatu Fun

 

 

 

 

Queens Birthday fishing trip

 

 

 

Last w/e was a long one and were we ready for it!
The forecast was shocking with high winds and heavy rain due in on saturday afternoon. So Chantelle and I decided to get up early and go fishing. My sources told me that the fishing kicks off just before the storm hits as the fish sense the impending weather and feed up. It certainly kicked off for us. We got to our place just as the sky was lightening - before 7am. On my first cast I caught an octopus. Chantelle caught big kahawai with every cast. They were about 2kg each. She also caught a good size rock snapper. I got a few but it was definitely Chantelle's day. We stopped fishing after a couple of hours because we had caught enough!
The rest of the day was spent gutting, scaling, filleting and distributing the catch amongst friends and neighbours. The weather also turned as bad as predicted but we had gotten ourselves out and did not mind to much. We had battered snapper and kahawai for tea with roastie potatoes and kumura.

On Sunday the fun continued. Took the boys up to Lake Ngatu. Paddy even went for a swim but the others were not so brave (or crazy). They found a bit of pipe and made a skipping pipe with it. Tricky to get a shot of them in the air. I went looking for Kuta grass - it is a reed that is harvested and woven into waterproof blankets and other garments. We carried on down to the beach to see how much the surf was pumping. It was good to see some pingao growing in the dunes. It is becoming rarer in these parts. We are growing some in the horticulture class at College and when it is much older I would like to plant it back on the dunes.

On the Bank Holiday Monday, the poor weather continued. The boys were happy to potter around. We had a toasty fire going. Stuart stayed at Nathan's house and together thay ran down a wild turkey in a swamp. That is not something I saw him doing 5 years ago! He cooked it for tea tonight and has carved the meat off to take on another hunt tomorrow.

I got some peace by going for a walk around the block. I went through the Matthews Mission Bush up the valley and then came back through neigbour Geoff's place. I got some great new perspectives on our place as his fields are over the stream from ours. Took a few pics of the wilderness that we call home.

The tree planting continues. Our place will change rapidly as they get bigger and shade out the grass.

The forest is started

 

 

 

 

Too the camera for a walk round last weekend. saturday was squally showers, but Sunday was a stonker. Calm and sunny.
We harvested kumura on Saturday, Se the pic below. The largest individual tuber had a mass of 1200g! Monsters. We have been enjoying lots of kumura soup.
The interesting structure is Stuarts "shed". He is laerning hands on about building on hills, the cost of materials and how to complete work. Dad can talk .. I spent a good bit of time working on our new outside toilet. Not quite finished.

The fields have grown a good crop of hay this year. It rots into good soil, or can be cut and thrown into the chickens where it makes awesome black compost.

At the front of the house we are growing some trees up to soften the view of our neighbours who have constructed a huge mound on their front lawn. We call it Mount Taranaki! I wonder what they nick-name our overgrown garden?

We have been busy as this week. Seniors on exam leave and we are all fighting off autumn bugs with varying degrees of success. Mists in the morning and cold starts give way to clear warm days. It ended up being 18C here today, after a chilly start.

I shall endeavour to take some human pictures this week in case you think I have done away with the family.

Shocking to hear all about the Cumbrian shotgun murders. I went walking in that area many moons ago. Just goes to show that beneath the surface lurks all sorts of angst. I was moved to see the Guardian pictures of bodies all over covered with blankets. The police have a horrible job to do.

 

 

 

 

Alter-natives

 

 

 

 

Last weekend we headed south over the Mangamukas in the brilliant autumn sunshine. It was the first weekend of decent weather we had had in several. We were heading for a tree nursery that was described as being in Waipu, but which was actually dozens of km away on the otehr side of State Highway 1 up in the hills south of Whangarei. No matter as this very generous nursery had put a small piece into the free newspaper saying that they were giving away 93 lots of 100 native trees to any land owners who cared to apply for them. I duly put in an application and was later stoked to get a phone call saying that I had won a lot.
The nursery was stacked full of very healthy looking trees of lots of different species. We loaded up our 100 and thanked the kind lady and drove off. We now have 100 holes to dig! I have put in about 10 so far in the last week. The plan is to have them in 3 places: one load as a south west wind break on Stuart Island, another third as a windbreak for the house itself and a final group on the road edge to give us more privacy.

After visiting the nursery we popped into Waipu caves not far away. The cave goes in quite a way and had huge stalactites and mites and a stream flowing out of it. The setting reminded me of Woodwell in Silverdale, except the trees growing up the limestone cliffs were totara instead of yew.

We headed for Whangarei after that and shopped for clothes. Burger King for the boys and then we belted back home.

In the local news this week: work has started on the new community centre. Our tech block at school has been knocked down to make way for a new one.