Sunday, January 01, 2012
Christmas Day on the beach
The last picture is obviously Christmas day on the beach. We went to "pink beach" which is just north of Henderson's Bay. The weather has been pretty stuffed up all summer and no concessions were made for it being Xmas day. A strong Easterly was blowing. We had some shelter from the rocks and it was warm enough out in the sun. We had a nice day. BBQ courtesy of Chantelle and Rissy. Mike and I are New Age and are happy to let the women-folk take charge of the barbie!
There was beach cricket, exploration of the rock pools, I even managed a snorkel in a sheltered rock pool. No kina there though.
The most remarkable thing was when we were going home. We had a 3 car convoy and we were the last car. There is a windy metalled (ie gravel) road for about 5km from the beach to the main road. We came across an upside down car. The driver had taken a corner too fast and had rolled his car a few times. Luckily neither he nor his girl friend were injured, though she was in a state of shock. A few other cars stopped, the car was first turned the right way round, checked for damage. they tried to start it but it was not going anywhere. One bloke then towed the wreck to the side of the road so that no-one would crash into it. Mike and Rissy too the couple back to Kaitaia to arrange a tow truck. They then drove them all the way to Kerikeri where they had booked accommodation. All this without any involvement of AA, police, ambulance etc. Realistically, if we had managed to get mobile reception to call out any of those on Christmas day, it would have taken them hours to get there.
Happy Christmas to all our friends, realtives and lurking readers. Feel free to comment on the posts. Just let us know who you are! We see that we have people reading all over the world. Introduce yourselves. Go on now ...
There was beach cricket, exploration of the rock pools, I even managed a snorkel in a sheltered rock pool. No kina there though.
The most remarkable thing was when we were going home. We had a 3 car convoy and we were the last car. There is a windy metalled (ie gravel) road for about 5km from the beach to the main road. We came across an upside down car. The driver had taken a corner too fast and had rolled his car a few times. Luckily neither he nor his girl friend were injured, though she was in a state of shock. A few other cars stopped, the car was first turned the right way round, checked for damage. they tried to start it but it was not going anywhere. One bloke then towed the wreck to the side of the road so that no-one would crash into it. Mike and Rissy too the couple back to Kaitaia to arrange a tow truck. They then drove them all the way to Kerikeri where they had booked accommodation. All this without any involvement of AA, police, ambulance etc. Realistically, if we had managed to get mobile reception to call out any of those on Christmas day, it would have taken them hours to get there.
Happy Christmas to all our friends, realtives and lurking readers. Feel free to comment on the posts. Just let us know who you are! We see that we have people reading all over the world. Introduce yourselves. Go on now ...
Summer Solstice
More boring pictures of long-line snapper. Thing is, when you catch such a beauty, you just have to take a picture. And then it is only natural to share picture with your friends and family. Added to which we have had a couple of unsuccessful trips recently (past 3 in fact) so it is good to have visual reminders of the fish that we have caught.
It was the solstice (as usual) on about December 21st. I cleaned out the bush bath from its long winter hosting all the baby trees. Added a few candles, filled with water and lit a fire. Our first bath of the season. We as a species spend too much time indoors so it is always good to have another reason for getting outside. The mozzies are the only downside. The smokier the fire is the fewer hassles we get from mozzies.
It was the solstice (as usual) on about December 21st. I cleaned out the bush bath from its long winter hosting all the baby trees. Added a few candles, filled with water and lit a fire. Our first bath of the season. We as a species spend too much time indoors so it is always good to have another reason for getting outside. The mozzies are the only downside. The smokier the fire is the fewer hassles we get from mozzies.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
The run-up to Christmas
Greetings from the land down under.
Four pictures from the last week of excitement here in the far north.
Stuart and I went to a demonstration in Taipa last week. Andreas was showing a small group how he has been making fuel grade ethanol from plant wastes. He had a couple of very tidy sheds that had Stuart and I drooling. The demo was interesting. As the price of petrol rises, we will potentially start to use bio-ethanol in all of our cars. As an aside, Country Calendar, was filming us watching Andreas. This is a much loved long established series of TV programmes that features people in NZ doing interesting things in the country. It was doubly interesting for Stuart the aspiring film-maker to watch a professional at work. The bloke did not stop for long, filming from all angles.
Patrick finished school on Friday. It was his prize-giving on Thursday and he had been asked to give a valedictory speech. He shared it with a girl (whose name I forget). Paddy got to sit on the stage with the principal and guests. His speech was clear and amusing. We were proud of him. Now he is on holiday.
Stuart and I went off to Moturoa Island this weekend for a couple of days of bird watching with the OSNZ. We were hosted by CJ and Carol and had a pleasant time,exploring the island and conducting various surveys of the birds. One of my high-lights was looking for petrel nests on a steep slope. The birds leave a single chick in its burrow for days at a time as they catch squid out at sea. they return in the middle of the night, regurgitate a load of food and then fly off again. Apparently the chicks fledge themselves and know what to do and where to go once thay have flown off the cliff. Talk about looking after yourself!
On the Sunday, we scaled a steep cliff called Alcatraz. The view out to the mouth of the Bay of Islands is quite fantastic. The people on the island had decided that they wanted to encourage gannets to nest on Alcatraz, so they placed several plastic replicas on a piece of bare cliff. They also played gannet calls over a pair of speakers. Amazingly the plan was working to some degree, as a single real bird had landed amongst the decoys and was preening itself, oblivious to our presence 10 feet away.
Four pictures from the last week of excitement here in the far north.
Stuart and I went to a demonstration in Taipa last week. Andreas was showing a small group how he has been making fuel grade ethanol from plant wastes. He had a couple of very tidy sheds that had Stuart and I drooling. The demo was interesting. As the price of petrol rises, we will potentially start to use bio-ethanol in all of our cars. As an aside, Country Calendar, was filming us watching Andreas. This is a much loved long established series of TV programmes that features people in NZ doing interesting things in the country. It was doubly interesting for Stuart the aspiring film-maker to watch a professional at work. The bloke did not stop for long, filming from all angles.
Patrick finished school on Friday. It was his prize-giving on Thursday and he had been asked to give a valedictory speech. He shared it with a girl (whose name I forget). Paddy got to sit on the stage with the principal and guests. His speech was clear and amusing. We were proud of him. Now he is on holiday.
Stuart and I went off to Moturoa Island this weekend for a couple of days of bird watching with the OSNZ. We were hosted by CJ and Carol and had a pleasant time,exploring the island and conducting various surveys of the birds. One of my high-lights was looking for petrel nests on a steep slope. The birds leave a single chick in its burrow for days at a time as they catch squid out at sea. they return in the middle of the night, regurgitate a load of food and then fly off again. Apparently the chicks fledge themselves and know what to do and where to go once thay have flown off the cliff. Talk about looking after yourself!
On the Sunday, we scaled a steep cliff called Alcatraz. The view out to the mouth of the Bay of Islands is quite fantastic. The people on the island had decided that they wanted to encourage gannets to nest on Alcatraz, so they placed several plastic replicas on a piece of bare cliff. They also played gannet calls over a pair of speakers. Amazingly the plan was working to some degree, as a single real bird had landed amongst the decoys and was preening itself, oblivious to our presence 10 feet away.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Tom and Jerry plus prize-winner
Senior prizegiving on wednesday night. I was on stage as usual for 4 hours of bum numbing entertainment. Eric was in the prize winners enclosure for the first time. He won the Chess Trophy by beating everyone else who entered at chess earlier on in the year. Also an academic prize for the most improved at economics. Well done! Eric.
The cat watches the mouse.
The cat watches the mouse.
Wedding anniversary
A couple of weekends ago, Chantelle and I went over to Mangonui to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary.
We checked into the Mongonui hotel. Old for these parts, comfortable with bar very handy, a double room at $100 a night and what a view! Drinks on the balcony watching the world go by and the birds feeding in the bay.
We trotted a few 100m down the road to our fave restaurant - the Thai Cafe, for a lovely dinner. The food is divine, the meals are cheekily named. The views are as good as from the hotel. My only criticism is that they pack 31 seats into a pretty small space.
Back to Hotel for Irish malt and to see the election results start to come in. National were obviously going to win again. Labour did poorly, New Zealand First made a surprise showing and the Greens did better than expected as well. Overall result = another 3 years of conservative government - good if you are in business epecially in roading. Not so good if you are a beneficiary or in the state sector.
We were awake at dawn and the weather was as calm as predicted. We were itching to get out in the kayak and made it just after 8am. Great conditions paddling out of the harbour and on towards Hihi. Graet views and good to explore, but the fishing was pretty uneventful. I got onto something big in the harbour that ran off a lot of line and then slipped the hook. And that was about it.
We checked into the Mongonui hotel. Old for these parts, comfortable with bar very handy, a double room at $100 a night and what a view! Drinks on the balcony watching the world go by and the birds feeding in the bay.
We trotted a few 100m down the road to our fave restaurant - the Thai Cafe, for a lovely dinner. The food is divine, the meals are cheekily named. The views are as good as from the hotel. My only criticism is that they pack 31 seats into a pretty small space.
Back to Hotel for Irish malt and to see the election results start to come in. National were obviously going to win again. Labour did poorly, New Zealand First made a surprise showing and the Greens did better than expected as well. Overall result = another 3 years of conservative government - good if you are in business epecially in roading. Not so good if you are a beneficiary or in the state sector.
We were awake at dawn and the weather was as calm as predicted. We were itching to get out in the kayak and made it just after 8am. Great conditions paddling out of the harbour and on towards Hihi. Graet views and good to explore, but the fishing was pretty uneventful. I got onto something big in the harbour that ran off a lot of line and then slipped the hook. And that was about it.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Stuart's birthday
It was Stuart's birthday on Monday. He got up at 0530 and went on aschool trip to look at tertiary institutes in Auckland. His coach broke down on the way home on Tuesday, so we had a birthday meal for him on Wednesday.
Eric made a very nice cake, "sponge" with cream and home grown strawberries on top. "Sponge" because he had forgotten the recipe and made it up. As the lady who sold me the cream said "Cream can hide a lot of mistakes".
Eric has been busy doing exams. Two last week and ywo more this week then he is through. Fingers crossed. These are his NCEA Level One externals. Most of the course is internally assessed.
We have been having some pretty spring weather. Or is it Summer now. It has certainly been pretty hot. Good sunsets too.
We went over to Mike and Rissy's last night for a bbq. I couldn't resist the shot of Chantelle keeping warm and looking like a granny. I will probably be told to remove it. It has to be better than the pictures of Zephyr being chased around the garden by Jimmy.
Eric made a very nice cake, "sponge" with cream and home grown strawberries on top. "Sponge" because he had forgotten the recipe and made it up. As the lady who sold me the cream said "Cream can hide a lot of mistakes".
Eric has been busy doing exams. Two last week and ywo more this week then he is through. Fingers crossed. These are his NCEA Level One externals. Most of the course is internally assessed.
We have been having some pretty spring weather. Or is it Summer now. It has certainly been pretty hot. Good sunsets too.
We went over to Mike and Rissy's last night for a bbq. I couldn't resist the shot of Chantelle keeping warm and looking like a granny. I will probably be told to remove it. It has to be better than the pictures of Zephyr being chased around the garden by Jimmy.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
More fishing
Now some people have commented that a lot of the posts on here are about fishing.
Very true ... so here is another one!
We took Chantelle out on Saturday with Merv on his big boat - the Tiare - to go out to sea and to do some fishing.
Merv is a very accommodating skipper. He took us to the Moturoa Islands off the northern tip of the Karikari peninsular. We saw heaps of seabird and caught some cool fish. We sang happy birthday with a cake and candles just before it started to get rough. Then Stuart drove us part of the way home into a 25knot headwind. It was not the smoothest ride, but we all felt very safe. I certainly would not have liked to have been out in a kayak.
Chantelle caught a huge snapper on a handline, and we managed to capture the action on video so take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb2y7SgUfOk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL&noredirect=1
Very true ... so here is another one!
We took Chantelle out on Saturday with Merv on his big boat - the Tiare - to go out to sea and to do some fishing.
Merv is a very accommodating skipper. He took us to the Moturoa Islands off the northern tip of the Karikari peninsular. We saw heaps of seabird and caught some cool fish. We sang happy birthday with a cake and candles just before it started to get rough. Then Stuart drove us part of the way home into a 25knot headwind. It was not the smoothest ride, but we all felt very safe. I certainly would not have liked to have been out in a kayak.
Chantelle caught a huge snapper on a handline, and we managed to capture the action on video so take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb2y7SgUfOk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL&noredirect=1
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Aurere Beach
Lovely day yesterday and the boys had been watching wall to wall dvds, so we took off for an evening fish at Aurere. Some of the omens were good: new moon, offshore wind, low swells, change of light. Others less so: falling tide, water as calm as a mill pond when we got there. But it was a good walk as usual and we even had the company of Stuart anmd Patrick for a change. Plus Amos for good luck.
I took my time on the walk in as I wanted to check the Awapoko River New Zealand Dotterels. There is a nationwide survey going on as we speak and I wa spriveleged to have bneen given a few beaches to check. The dotterel is shown in one of the pictures below. They are endemic to the North of New Zealand and numbers are down to 1500. They nest just above the tideline and so are at the mercy of 4WD cras, dogs plus the usual rampage of introduced predators. So their numbers are in decline on most beaches except for the most remote or those where they are given special protection. They get neither on the Awapoko as cars drive down it fairly regularly.
I watched the birds for a good hour and rekon that there were 3 pairs in the area. Not a bad number. Here's hoping that they successfully breed this year.
I took some pictures along the walk. The shot of the sun through the tress is a kiwi classic photo. The tree is the Pohutakawa or NZ Christmas Tree, so named because it has bright red flowers at Christmas time. They are the most amazing twisted gnarly trees that favour coastlines. There are some fantastic specimens growing on the walk along to Puketu Island.
When I finally caught up with the fisher folk, Chantelle had landed a medium sized kahawai. I had never seen the water so calm at Aurere. We came last week and the onshore swell was so high that I was worried for Eric's safety on the same rocks. The wind had dropped and we were all enjoying a lovely evening when someone spotted a school (?) of orcas or killer whales coming towards us. We had fantastic views of a small group of perhaps 6 whales including an adult with a calf. Unforgettable!
Chantelle has put some video footage on her FB page if you want to see what we saw.
I took my time on the walk in as I wanted to check the Awapoko River New Zealand Dotterels. There is a nationwide survey going on as we speak and I wa spriveleged to have bneen given a few beaches to check. The dotterel is shown in one of the pictures below. They are endemic to the North of New Zealand and numbers are down to 1500. They nest just above the tideline and so are at the mercy of 4WD cras, dogs plus the usual rampage of introduced predators. So their numbers are in decline on most beaches except for the most remote or those where they are given special protection. They get neither on the Awapoko as cars drive down it fairly regularly.
I watched the birds for a good hour and rekon that there were 3 pairs in the area. Not a bad number. Here's hoping that they successfully breed this year.
I took some pictures along the walk. The shot of the sun through the tress is a kiwi classic photo. The tree is the Pohutakawa or NZ Christmas Tree, so named because it has bright red flowers at Christmas time. They are the most amazing twisted gnarly trees that favour coastlines. There are some fantastic specimens growing on the walk along to Puketu Island.
When I finally caught up with the fisher folk, Chantelle had landed a medium sized kahawai. I had never seen the water so calm at Aurere. We came last week and the onshore swell was so high that I was worried for Eric's safety on the same rocks. The wind had dropped and we were all enjoying a lovely evening when someone spotted a school (?) of orcas or killer whales coming towards us. We had fantastic views of a small group of perhaps 6 whales including an adult with a calf. Unforgettable!
Chantelle has put some video footage on her FB page if you want to see what we saw.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
camping
Just got back from a 2 day camping trip out at Diggers Valley. The theme this time was to escape "ediction" so all computers, mobiles, gameboys and other electronic devices were banned. Not as easy as it sounds to go without for 48 hours. Have you tried it?
Paddy secreted a gameboy in the car "just for the journey"! but Stuart ratted on him so it was ejected. We had (Ok I had) picked a couple of days where the forecast was good. It later turned out to be wrong and we were rained on most of the second day.
I have restricted the pictures to just 8 trying to get a variety and to illustrate the main attractions of our trip. We cooked over an open fire. Steak and baked pots for the first night and patsa and tomato sauce for night 2. The flat breads were pouplar and we had lots of cups of tea as well.
One of the boys' friends - Lance came along as well.
We did do some work in amongst all the fun. Clearing trees as Stephan cut them down with a chainsaw. I was impressed at the speed with which a skillfully operated and well maintained chainsaw could cut what would be a whole winter's supply of wood. It took 5 of us to move the brash and logs and we were not doing much standing around.
We had a go at trapping possums, using leghold traps set a metre up in a variety of trees. We checked these every morning at first light. They are not as humame as any other method of controlling possums. The possum gets a limb caught between 2 jaws and waits for you to come back to kill it. The main reason that they are used seems to be because the possum is alive until you come to kill it and so its fur can be removed with ease. It is more difficult to pluck a long dead possum. Plus the traps sell for $10 each which is a lot cheaper than most other control methods. We plan to use our traps elsewhere. Possums are a very serious pest over here. They kill native birds and strip native trees of their foliage killing them in the long run. New Zealand natives evolved in the absence of mammalian herbivores, so they do not have the defense mechananisms found in their ozzy or european cousins.
The flower is of the puriri, one of my favourite NZ native trees. It flowers pretty much all year round and is masive when fully grown.
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