Train to Wellington

Most of these pics are self explanatory. The mountain is Ruapehu, an active volcano in the Tongariro National Park. Seeing it was special for me, because I taught lessons about its last eruption in 1995 to my Year 10's this year, all based on what I had read. It makes it easier to talk about something when you have more experience of it. Now I have my own pictures to add to next year's lesson.
After we passed Ruapehu we followed a river that had cut its way deeply through the rock and made a gorge. Stuart fell asleep at this point!
The train was older and more rattly than I had expected. The views were exceptional, but for a long way the train could only travel at 40km/h which added an extra hour to the 12 hour journey. On the upside, the buffet car was selling decent food and at quite a reasonable price (e.g. chicken curry for $6, a hot drink for $2) we spent a small fortune on refreshments but would have needed a second mortgage to buy the same stuff on a UK train. We could also get off and stretch our legs about 4 times on the journey.

Flight to Auckland

Waiting to take off at Kaitaia Airport. Thumbs up to the people who run this place. It is very small, with 2 commercial flights to Auckland a day, but despite that it was friendly, efficient and saved us a 5 hour plus trip in the car.

The plane seats 19 passengers and almost everyone gets a window seat.

The aerial view is of Kaitaia town. In the foreground is our house. At the back is the bottom part of 90 mile beach and the sand-dunes of Ahhipara.

Summer holiday

We are back from our summer holiday in Wellington and readjusting to the rural life once more. Anyone would think we had been away for weeks. In fact we flew from Kaitaia Airport on Monday afternoon and arrived back on Saturday lunch-time.

That is not to say that we did not pack in a lot of stuff. For starters we went on loads of different btypes of transport: plane to Auckland, train to Wellington, boat out to Matiu-Soames Island, bus to the airport, taxi back from a restaurant, cable-car up to the Botanic Gardens, Ute back from the airport, on foot around the place. We spent quite a lot of time discussing Kayaks, but did not actualy venture out into the harbour in one.

We can see why they call it windy wellington - 2 out of 3 full days, it was very windy. It was also cloudy and not really warm enough to be going round in T-shirt and shorts. It certainly felt good to get back to the hot sun of Kaitaia yesterday.

Our accommodation was the Backpackers next to the railway station. Very convenient location for a family obsessed with modes of transport. We could not actually see the trains because our room was facing the front of the station. We could hear them though. We did get good views of the big container boats in the harbour and also of the inter-island ferries that go to South Island.

The room was a dormitory with 3 double bunks in it. En-suite bathroom with shower and toilet. Chantelle cunningly converted the shower into a bath by making a plug out of a drink bottle top, so we had an indoor bath. What luxury! It was a little bit awkward as we had a stranger in the room one night. He was a pleasant enough guy on a farming exchange from Canada and he was no trouble, the boys liked him. After that we asked that the bed be blocked, because the next person could be dodgy for all we knew. Socially it was an odd place. All these young back-packers doing their world tours but all so intense and insular. I had expected that people would be more open to talking. Perhaps that happens more in smaller places than the one we stayed in.

Highlights for me were seeing red-crowned parakeet on Matiu Soames Island, seeing the snow-capped peak of Ruapehu from the train, seeing genuine toe-toe in National park and seeing how different it was from pampas grass. I also enjoyed the genetics exhibition at Te Papa and the talk on the stars in the Carter observatory.

Stuart and Patrick seemed to particularly like going on a climbing wall at the quay. I will have to post again for Chantelle and Eric's favourite bits.

I will stick up some pics now and then add some more later as it takes quite a while to do each batch.

Summer Days

We have been having a lazyish time, getting up late and pottering around for the day.
Not a lot of news really, we all went to Whangarei for the sales on Tuesday. The sales bit was the huge retail park with the largest Warehouse in New Zealand and a whole load of other great big sheds. We picked up various bits and bobs.
We also visited the Whangarei Fernery which was a haven of peace and tranquility by comparison. It has been built by various local groups and was totally free to visit. Lots of different fern species, plus another couple of houses for lilies and even a very arid cactus room.
Chantelle and Eric and Stuart went again today to visit the SPCA with a view to getting a dog. We have reserved a German Shepherd cross called Zephyr. He looks really big in this photo, but actually he isn't .

New Year's Day Pictures

New Year's Day

It is now 2006. New Year's Day passed off without major event. We did very little today, pottering about. In the afternoon, the boys were insisting on going out somehere and it was proving very difficult to agree on where we should go. That is becoming more common now as all 5 of us have very different and strong opinions on where we should go! I would be interested to know how other families resolve this one. We ended up deciding not to go anywhere apart from our own dam, where we had a swim for the first time.

Access to the dam is a bid muddy and yucky so we first knocked up a little jetty. It is a bit of a bodge job, but I reckon that the ducks will like it. The water in the dam is deep and dirty, so although the swim was refreshing, you needed a shower afterwards because you came out covered with weed.

For tea we had 2 of the ducklings that we have been rearing for the last 8 weeks. They were very tasty, but it did feel very different to be eating something that we had had around the house for so long. It brought out some strong emotions amongst the diners. Either some of us will become vegetarians or we will become less sensitised.

We would like to wish all our international readers a happy new year. Now that we have clustrmaps at the bottom of the page, we can see who is logging on to read our page, or rather from where they are logging on. We have a regular reader in Eastern Australia and people in the US who have logged on. Leave messages folks!

Christmas Day photos

Christmas Day

With all the leisure time available now that we are on holiday, I could attempt to update the blog more than my customary once per week.

We have experienced our first Kiwi Christmas and had a pleasant day. It was very different to last years. Far less sociable, steak and swimming would sum up the main differences. Church was a lot quieter than usual, which was a surprise as many catholics make a special effort to turn up only on Christmas Day and at Easter in the UK. Perhaps they all went to the midnight mass. Father Pat gave a good sermon on the differences that the birth of Jesus has made in the world.

We had made the boys wait until after church before they opened their presents, much to their dismay. Lots of talk about "delayed gratification" was met with protests, all to no avail. The presents went down well and the surprise trip to Wellington was well received. Chantelle had made booklets giving a detailed itinerary. The boys have been studying times of arrival and departure and discussing them.

After that we went for a swim in the Mangamuka Gorge. We found a flat field with access to a cooling swimming hole and we all had a dip. Even Mum! We were disappointed at the amount of discarded food lying about which made it feel more like England than NZ, but apparently there is an element here that thinks nothing of chucking their bottles and cans out in a pile after their feed.

Back home to lounge out in the garden, eat steak for tea, have a bush bath etc. The TV did not look too promising, but I found 2 good films "Lucky Break" with James Nesbitt and a real cracker called The Stationmaster - American, minimal dialogue, very lttle plot, but very well observed.

Chantelle had spent the day making and receiving phone calls from the UK. I tried making mine on Boxing Day but only made contact with Dominic. Mum and Dad rang up at midnight on Christmas Day. I'll try and catch the rest of you guys at Clare's party.

Pictures

Bush walks and baths

We are all on holiday now and the anticipation for Christmas is steadily rising. The boys are worried that They are not going to get any christmas presents and keep on urging us to go into town to get it "sorted out". As if we wouldn't give them anything!

We spent last Saturday finishing off our bath. Over here many people living with unusual (by European standards) water supplies, do not have a bath in the house. we have missed having a long hot soak. After some days it is just what you need. So we researched the possibilities and the picture shows the result. A cast iron bath surplus to Paula and Grant's requirements has beeen sunk into the lawn in a secluded corner. The drain goes down the hill. It is currently filled from the hose with cold water and by filling with buckets from the hot water tap. Authentic bush baths are raised off the ground and a fire is lit underneath them, wooden slatting along the base prevents a burnt botty!

Talking of which .... suffice it to say for those of you in the know, that the area is healing nicely but sitting down is a bit painful.

Moving swiftly on, Patrick lost his first tooth and the other fron one is leaning over like a pissed gravstone. The NZ Tooth Fairy took 2 nights to pay up, which we tried to explain was due to its small population and geographical isolation.

I took time off from my parental and patriarchal(?) duties to go for a highly enjoyable bush-walk at Diggers Valley on Sunday. Mein host and guide was Stephan who is the fellow wielding the machete looking like Crocodile Dundee. A small select group of us walked from the farm into the hills above. We followed his water supply line first and then carried on to find the source of the stream. The bush was steep in places and there were several waterfalls to negotiate. Our progress was hindered by a tough vine called supple-jack that is like a triffid, very easy to trip over it. Also the aptly named "bush lawyer" which is a creeper with leaves that have sharp hooks, once entangled by the lawyer, it is difficult to get free! Despite all these obstacles we found the point where the stream started and returned aching all over and wet through.

Christmas greetings to all our readers!!

The week before Christmas

I have enjoyed this week, boys at school and plenty of time for sorting things out. I have actually been into school every day along with many other dedicated teachers who carry on working up until Christmas.

Life on the "farm" carries on, the grass grows and we have been experimenting with using the mower as a brushcutter. If you are careful you can cut down 2 foot high grass. The area round the veggie garden has been done, along with a wide strip going down to the chucks. On the poutry front, I rescued one of the youngest shaver chicks from certain death. It was squawking loudly at dusk from the long grass in the middle field. One of the cats was sat over it, either guarding it or having just injured it. There were no superficial injuries but the bird was unable to perch or even walk much. Eric has taken it under his wing so to speak and it is recovering well.

The ducklings should have gone down to the dam by now because the volume of their liquid faeces is becoming more notieceable by the day on the path around the house. We have taken them down twice, but they have made their way back to the house. They did this the second time because the 2 larger pairs of ducks already living there did not take kindly to the newcomers - even though they were all close rellies! The solution to this dilemma will probably involve a combination of an axe and Xmas presents to duckless folk.

On a more civilised note, some of us went to see the latest Harry Potter at The Swamp Palace last weekend. It was the best one yet, actually better than the book which dragged on for far too long (IMHO).

Pictures included this week are of Eric and his rescue chick, a Tui feeding on the flax in front of the house, and the pea seedlings that Patrick sowed that have popped up this week.

Skools out!

At least it is for Dad, the boys have another 10 days. We had senior prizegiving last night and junior prizegiving today. Then a typical Northland feed that went on for several hours, with farewells for colleagues who are leaving. And although there is still work to do over the holiday, I am not tied to the bells that have ruled my life for the last 9 weeks. Looking forward to having the odd lie-in, to getting my evenings back, spending more quality time with the family, animals and garden.

We had a housewarming bbq last weekend, to thank the many people who have made us so welcome here. We cleaned the house up and got a hot plate from the market. It all went very well, no-one got food poisoning and the weather was kind.

Managed to get the veggie garden by the chickens fenced off at the start of the week. That allowed paddy and me to plant out the pumpkins and beans etc that we had grown in the top garden. Paddy enjoyed sowing peas and watering the veggies.

The other picture is of Eric doing his taiaha practice.

Frying time appears to be here!!

Well the summer seems to have kicked in. We really can't remember the last good rainfull to replenish our tank, which considering is 2/3 full. Our poor neighbours have already had to call out the water tanker.
The Weekend started with us ( Mike and Chantelle) going out for a meal and a walk along 90 mile beach to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary.
Then on Tuesday Eric departed along with the top 2 years at Pamapuria school to camp. He has just returned today (Friday), and has promised an update when he's not so shattered.
On Wednesday ,Mouse the 6 foot something shearer came along to relieve poor , sweltering Masetse of his fleece. He also managed to do the goat as well . So they both look like little straggley beings plodding around the paddocks. Thanks to Mouse ,there are few shearers who would agree to shear such few sheep.
The attached photo's show Mo and Miss chicken having a chill under the stairs together, Masetse during and after shearing , Mike and chantelle on 90 mile beach. And goat, shania, being lopped.

Life and death down on the block

chantelle and I went down to feed the chickens on Sunday morning and were gobsmacked to see one of bantams had hatched out 18 youngsters. She had been sat tight on a nest in the ditch and this time we had just left her to it. Feeling vindicated by our laissez-faire approach I poo-pooed Eric's suggestions that we move them all up to the garden where we could keep an eye on them.
On Monday Chantelle did the chucks in the morning (for the first time in ages, I had not gone down before work). Poor bantam had only one chick left and the others had either vanished or were lying around the ditch in various stages of dismemeberment.

The stoat trap has been cleaned and baited with chicken fat.As of Friday morning the sole chick still survives. The other 4 chicks are all doing well. We have brought a shaver hen up the top to sit on a clutch. She has been broody for nearly 2 months now and hasnt hatched anything, so the enforced captivity in the broody box will either get her hatching something or will get her back laying again. Patrick managed to get the other shaver laying again, by opening her lid before she had settled on the eggs. She was off and couldn't be coaxed back onto them.

Other livestock news: the sheep remain twitchy but slightly less so than they were when they arrived. We are still trying to get a shearer for Mosetse (the ram). He is the opposite of the ewes, being bottle-raised he is too fearless. It makes him difficult to move around as he will not be driven. He has to be led, preferably by someone carrying something in a bucket! He has taken to harrassing us for his daily traet of sheep nuts and we are a bit worried that he will end up obese. The grass is romping away.

Ducks and ducklings are doing well. The ducks are well grown now and fly up to us for their daily grain. They have been showing signs of mating with each other, so we are looking forward to trying out lots of duckling recipes - I am - the others still find it a bit distasteful.

Stuart's Birthday

It was Stuart's turn for a birthday on Monday. after a number of options for presents had been debated exhaustively (I am not exaggerating here), he decided he would like to get an inflatable boat. This he did and assembled a crew of his mates to join him on the maiden voyage around the pond. Dad was instructed to rush home on Monday to supervise. The staff meeting finished and I raced home.

Then nearly a disaster - I was trying to carry the inflated boat down the hill on my own and it snagged on a piece of wire, puncturing it in 2 places. When Stuart found out all hell broke loose. Puncture repaired the trip was back on and proved a hit with the kids!

I went to Auckland with 8 Year 10 pupils for a bit more than 24 hours. It was weird being in a city again. Big buildings, lots of traffic, confusing road signs, cosmopolitan lifestyles and a more diverse racial mix. The purpose of the visit was to encourage Maori students to study Science and medicine at University. Although Year 10's don't give away too much about whether they are impressed or not, they were exposed to some good role models and an inspirational atmosphere. Even the 6 hour van journey each way wasn't too painful!

Pictures

Bonfires and holy things

Bulletpoint update this week; time is short!
Went shooting with Eric last w/e, he was let loose with a semi-automatic .22 rifle!
Went to a bonfire party on Nov 5th, very rural! Pitch black fireworks being let off on a windy hill-side. Chantelle tried on the latest must-have head-gear.
This week-end Stuart made his first holy communion and confirmation. Bishop Fleamy laid hands on his head, and Father Pat told him to tell the Bishop of Lancaster that he has now been confirmed. Could a reader in Lancaster pass on the message (along with our best wishes!) next time they see him.
That's it!
Been having problems with our connection, so cannot upload the pics. Keep checking and we'll get them up eventually.

Chantelle's Birthday

Today is Chantelle's Birthday. She received gifts and well wishes from all over and can be seen about to enjoy a juicy steak washed down with fizz. She said it was the first birtday in ** years that she had enjoyed the sun and not a dark night, cold and rain! One of the unexpected benefits of emigration to the southern hemisphere.

We have had a busy week. Last weekend the boys were demanding to sleep in my tiny tent on Friday night. As I was unwilling to see them knacker my only valuable possession, I suggested that we build a sleep-out on Saturday. Unbelievably a tee-pee was built in the space of one afternoon. It cost $0 and housed Eric and Patrick comfortably for one night. We had a fire and made toast and baked bananas before leaving them to nature.

Livestock news: 2 more chicks hatched from broody bantam on Wed/Thurs; We have another 8 muscovvy ducklings courtesy of Diggers Valley, Shanya is looking forlorn without her mate, sits about moping, we are going to run her with the sheep tomorrow as she has been on her own the last 2 weeks. Sheep all doing Ok, the ewes are very shy and won't come even when offered sheep nuts.

Other news: Stuart is moving from boats into go-carts. His team of ark builders are on stand-by. There have been a number of sparkler bomb incidents in Kaitaia. The mail box on our old house was blown away this week. Police and school are treating it very seriously.

Oh what a drama King!

Friday 28th October

Happy birthday Dominic! If you don't read this I am intending to send you a letter (along with letters to many other folks in the UK!). You will have to be patient as my emails get sent a lot more quickly than my letters.

Well we have had a rollercoaster of a week. We said good bye to Shazza the goat on Saturday as she had been getting progressively worse and was finding it hard to get up. She started scouring and went blind in one eye. Her mate Shanya was upset and stood a few yards away bleating. Mike came along with a gun and put her down. We buried her after shanya had had a chance to sniff at her friend's corpse. I was amazed at how quickly the blowflies moved in! Her rump was swarming with maggots within an hour of death. The flies over here lay live maggots and not eggs, which obviously speeds up the decay process. Makes me a bit nervous about the idea of going to sleep outside! You might wake up with half your arm eaten off!

It being Labour weekend, which is traditionally the start of the outdoor swimming season, I took the boys to the Takahue water hole on Sunday afternoon. It was a lot colder and deeper than it was last year. Shortly after we got back to the car, the heavens opened and we had a downpour.

Monday dawned cloudy and unpromising, typical UK bank holiday weather! It did get better as the day progressed and we went off to Tokerau beach on the East Coast. The boys all went in the surf on their body boards and I had a fish, trying to get the bait out into the surf as far as I could. It was a different way to fish, being battered by the waves and with gannets and terns flying over. I had a couple of bites, but nothing big was on. Apparently the Kahawi were running up the west coast!

On Wednesday Eric performed in his Drama club plays. It was a good night of talent, lots of variety, ranging from Dr Seuss poems, to Orpheus and including some funny little sketches, like the family eating out at a restaurant. Eric's main part was as the huntsman in Snow white and the seven dwarves. He played his part well, especially when he showed the step-mum a real bleeding sheep's heart as proof that he had killed off snow-white. Thanks To Ruth and Stephan for the offal, we might write a book "101 uses for a sheep's heart". The play was a good twist on the traditional story, as Snow-white steals the magic mirror and the dwarves use it to get rich at the horse races.

Until next week then.