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.

 

Autumn rains

We are heading into Winter quite quickly it seems. We have gone from light and warm and dry to wet,wet,wet in the last week. So much so that we have lit our woodstove to make the house toasty and to keep the place from getting damp.
The good news is that the drought is officially over. The river level down the road is slowly rising. Our dam has gone up by a few feet. The veggy garden is soaking in all the water and is becoming sticky again in places. The microbes in the soil can start breaking down all the mulch that has been sat covering the soil all summer. There is a satisfying mouldering smell in the air. Life's cycles that have been temporarily slowed, can once again turn and put old plant material back into humus. The grass has put on a spurt and there is knee high kikyu to wade through where I have not scythed it.
The beds in the garden are looking a bit sad, but the trick over here is to remove old summer crops and replant with winter veggies. The broccoli and cabbages are doing well. The broad beans are cautiously sticking shoots through the tilth. They are such an exuberant plant and the smell of their blossoms is lovely at a time when flowers are in short supply. Their seeds are good for the first few meals but then tend to be ignored because of their gassy consequences.
The chooks are doing their work of turning and scratching and shitting all over the straw that they live in. Every few weeks I scrape a load out and tip it on one of the beds. It makes great soil. We are getting a few eggs most days, but most of the birds are having a winter rest. I don't begrudge them that. We were given afew hens from town friends who had outgrown them. They had got some of them from a local battery farm. 3 of them integrated well with the existing flock, but one was in a bad way, with few feathers and a dripping back end. I checked it for a stuck egg, but it seeemed ok. She is now enjoying retirement walking around the garden free at last. I am not particularly sentimental about animals and don't have much time for animal rights, but I do not like to see an animal being mis-treated either. A food production that churns out chucks in the sort of condition that this one is in seems to be wrong in my book. We were talking about the price of dressed chickens at tea the other night and although $16 seemed expensive, in some ways it is not unreasonable for something that has taken quite a bit of effort to grow. Perhaps it is unreasonable to expect to eat cheap meat every night if this is the cost?

I will try and remember to take my camera out and document some of the things that are happening about the place.

Not much other news really.

ANZAC day

Here is the photo (Northland age), of ATC , 64 squadron ,Kaitaia on parade for ANZAC day.

Bushcraft Camp ATC

 

 

 

 

The last weekend of the holiday saw Eric Stuart and I take part in the ATC bushcraft camp. I was assisting the Unit Commander Matt and officer in training Shelley with the event. The walk started in farmland and quickly got into bush at the start of the Kiwanis track just South of Kaitaia. The plan was to camp after a short walk and give cadets the option of dumping unwanted and heavy gear in vehicles before embarking on the second much longer day of walking.

Stuart and I had a night under a tarp, which I found fairly uncomfortable and cold. I had just had my back put in by the osteopath, so was feeling a bit vulnerable in my spine. In true military fashion, reveille was at some ungodly hour (0530) and the cadets cheerfully made a variety of breakfasts on the concrete pad shown in one of the pictures before being briefed about the walk.

The bush walk had been made more interesting by becoming a rescue exercise where some lost trampers needed to be located and made comfortable overnight. Grid references, compasses and maps were used and leadership opportunities given to the youngsters. It was interesting for me to see how much control Matt gave the cadets and how he devolved a lot of decision making to them. It obviously works because 20 teenagers gave up the last weekend of their holiday to do this walk. They ranged in age from about 13 to 18. Many of them are considering careers in the armed forces.

As it turned out our exercise mutated into a proper evacuation when one of the youngest cadets twisted her ankle and needed to be stretchered towards the road. Our route had to change from going deep into the bush and off the main track. It was still a good hike though and we all learnt how to make a stretcher out of trees and shirts.

We ended up at Ruth and Stephan's far,m coming in by vehicle at the front gate instead of walking into the rear of the place. The cadets took time to have a swim and then walked out to the paddock where they put up communal bivvies. I decided that it might cramp Stuart's style if I shared his bivvy and went to fraternise with the civilians at the farm house.

The next morning the campers were split into their two teams and took it in turns to bridge a stream with some bits of rope. They then climbed up the steep hillside. Again it was interesting watching them work as a team to solve the practical problem that they had been set. A real demonstration of hands-on learning that required leadership and teamwork skills.

That was 2 weeks ago now. Since then we have had school start. The clocks have gone back so our evenings are shorter now in terms of daylight. The sun is setting at about 5.30 and it is dark by 6. It is still pleasantly warm, without the punishing heat of Summer. It is also still dry as. We did get about an inch of rain on Tuesday, which did a little to get the grass growing. My veggy beds are still pretty dessicated though.

Last Sunday was ANZAC day and the boys were back at the ATC for an overnighter and an early morning. It is becoming an important part of our calendar here. They did the dawn parade and the 11 oclock community service as well. I went to that with Patrick. Our College head boy spoke along with the head girl from the other big school in town. They were both thoughtful speeches. I am deeply ambivalent about armies and the use that they are being put to in the world today. At the same time I am grateful that I do not live in a Nazi world. The NZ army tends to take on mostly peacekeeping duties in the Pacific rather than get involved in full on wars.

No pictures of Anzac I am afraid.

Until next time ...