2023 is raging past.

 It is the end of April already and although there is much to look forawd to, I do feel as if 2023 is racing past. Possibly becauseI have spent a lot of time in the last few months readng and watching netflix. This is as a result of the body slowing down. Not sure if the nana naps I want to have often are a result of the mini stroke in December or the covid I had at the same time but the result is a much less energetic Liz than I prefer.  Nevertheless i am still keeping well otherwise so i should be very grateful. could be a lot worse than simple tiredness.  

Been a hectic month this April.  On April 3 I drove up to Auckland and stayed two nights at Herne Bay ( thank you Gil and Dot who were in Hawaii)  I visited MArgaret in Wattle Downs, and Karen D came in for dinner.  My long awaited visitors from Colorado,Karen and Tom, arrived in Auckland where I met them at the airport and we had a brief tiki tour on the way into he centre of the city including a visit to one tree hill and Mt Eden and then a drive along the Tamaki drive. I took them back to Gil and Dot's for lunch as they could not check in to their accommodation until after 3pm.  We did a quick trip over the Harbour Bridge just to say we had done it. weather a bit overcast which is a pity.  After lunch i wanted to take them out to West coast beaches but roads are still closed so I aimed for the Arataki Visitor centre which would have birds and might give them an idea of our native bush. But, the Scenic drive was temporarily closed for the day! Oops, plan C. Drove out to Cornwallis and we had a little walk around and Karen had fun identifying the birds. She even found what was later identified as a kingfisher sitting on the mudflats with the sea gulls.  

The next day we went to Waiheke and and did the Hop on Hop off bus. Weather not being co operative and we ended up leaving on the 3pm ferry as it started to rain and that was clearly going to spoil the views and dampen spirits. Still a worthwhile day though. 

ON the 7th April I picked them up and weheaded south. Via Seabird coast and called in at Miranda Sea Bird centre at Kaiaua on the Firth of Thames. 

Kaiaua - sea bird coast Karen and Tom from Colorado 

Then on through Paeroa and Karangahake Gorge. I didnt realise how many areas had damage inflicted by Cyclone Gabrielle - even the usual walk at the Gorge was part blocked. Stayed the night at Waihi after looking at the Open mine pit for the martha's Gold mine. Lovely dinner at Turkish? restaurant in waihi "Down Thyme".

  Next day headed through Katikati - the mural town and stopped off at Te Puna Quarry - beautifully developed gardens all done by volunteers. Track wasnt flat - my legs are not liking slippery bush tracks with steps... Then through Tauranga to Mt maunganui. and thence to Rotorua. But saw sign for Okere Falls so we diverted and oh what fun. Found that Okere Falls are on the Kaituna River where they do rafting trips. and we saw 5 kayaks and 5 rafts come down the 7m falls - the highest commercially rafted falls in the southern hemisphere. Great fun!

On to Rotorua to the Jet Park Motel.  dinner at "Amazing Thai " very pleasant.  hotel/motel was expensive but well equipped and opposite the Countdown so we could top up supplies. Still damp. Next day was amphibious duck tour and went on Blue and green lakes karen spotting birds!  very humourous driver and value for money. 

One of the amphibious "Ducks" ex WWII used for touring Rotorua 

Discussing bird names at Green Lake

we did have a    little walk around Ohinemutu but church service was on (Easter Sunday) so couldnt go into St Faiths. After a quick snack we went up to whakarewarewa to the te Puia centre for their geyserland tour.  Very efficient tour, kiwis, mud pool and geyser then into the craft centre.  Tobe honest felt let down - couldnt go round the actual village - a separate enterprise now apparently.  The next day we took off for Taupo but I went via Waimangu and we took ourselves on a self guided tour and that was very interesting and my visitors enjoyed it ( First time I have paid to tour Waimangu - used to come in the back way via kayaks) 

Frying Pan flat, Waimangu Thermal valley

Inferno crater,Waimangu Thermal Valley

- Karen was able to stop and wait for bird sightings and take our time. They now have a bus to bring you back up the hill! I wasnt looking forward to walking back up.  Then Huka Falls ...  crowded and the sun was coming out - by coincidence two kayakers chose that time to canoe down - the water level was low but it was still awesome to watch.  

Karen and Tom at Huka Falls

Afternoon was a cruise to the maori cliff carving on Lake Taupo - overcast but still value for money as we got really close and lots of photo opportunities. 

The boat we were meant to go on - mechanical failure,so we went on a modern launch instead. 

Othr rock carvings, same site. 

rock carving on cliff at Lake Taupo

 Portofino   italian restaurant for dinner. Nice motel Acacia Lake View - close to town - significant road changes in Taupo.

Set off in rain the next morning around the lake- quick call in at Tongariro river Red Hut Pool and down the Desert Road, cloud lifted a bit so could see where the mountain was, but not see the three volcanoes... ;pity. Had a quick cuppa out the back of the Waiouru Army museum and posed in front of the gumboot at Taihape.  Admired land formations of Rangitikei river and called in at Wool Factory where I made a purchase.  Then on to the farm to see Jonathan and Amy.  Home in plenty of time for me to make dinner.  

Next day we went to Pukaha National wildlife centre ( Mt Bruce)  - wonderful collection and conservation of native birds and native eels. Got to see some of the birds we would be unlikely to see in the wild eg kokako, takahe and saddleback as well as close up to Kereru ( wood pigeon) also beautiful ferns on the walk through their patch of bush.. A very well maintained centre.  

Kokako

Kaka

Kereru - wood pigeon

Takahe

Amazingly after we got home  we realised Karen didnt have a good picture of a tui and none currently in back garden so I sent them off for a walk by th river while I cooked dinner..  and yes! a tui obligingly performed for them and they got a good photo or two. 

A very early the start the next morning and I drove them to wellington to catch the ferry which was running, thank goodness, after a few months of on again off again performance by our aging ferries and they had an apparently very calm crossing.  Blessed were they!

The next weekend Amy had a donkey show at Ashurst and Cordelia and Matilda ( neighbour from Mt Taylor) assisted.  They had a lovely day and Jonathan did his usual Best dressed performance in blazer and tie.   

Cordelia - junior rider

Cordelia - junior rider

The end of a good day.  

After a couple more lazy days callum was 13, growing up fast so I shouted him and 2 mates to a go karting session. It was loud but I think they enjoyed it. 

So now I must get ready for some quilting action - have Tote and Gloat our local exhibition on 6 May and Great NZ Quilt Show in Rotorua on 13 and 14th May. I will enjoy both!

By golly it is almost the end of October..

 

My first rose from the new roses I planted - this one is Aotearoa - has a beautiful perfume. 

By golly the days are flying by. I have been quite busy and when there is a quiet day I have been really lazy watching netflix movies or reading..  

Last weekend, Labour Weekend, i drove up to the central Hawkes Bay , and parked overnight at the Clifton Rd reserve where there were so many other campervans it was like being in a car park, I had hoped there was a group of Motor Home Babes meeting there although I met only one of them who had lost her husband only 7 mnths ago. 

The next morning I was up early and drove up the end of the road where the cape Kidnappers Gannet tours left from. I was able to get the last seat on the morning tour and it was great. Wayne the guide was, I think, one of the members of the family who originally owned the property before the rich American new owner  developed the roads, restaurant, lodges and golf course. he was very knowledgeable about the birds and the management of such a large "station" not just a farm. Apparently it is now one of the largest nature reserves in the country. Very rugged farm land and when we got to the cape where the gannets roost they were so very close and huge numbers. They were courting and nesting. No chicks until at least Christmas time.  Beautiful day for it.  Morning tea was provided and welcome.  

View out my back window at Clifton reserve looking to wards cape Kidnappers. 

Clifton Rd free camping reserve. 

Our 22 seater coach at the Gannet colony.

Another group of gannets, started naturally  after the  land for nesting ran out on the original nesting site. 

When they nest in such a way that they are just out of pecking reach of their neighbour they naturally form neat lines. 

The rugged land of the Caqpe Kidnappers station.10 Km of private road into the Gennets. 

View from the Cape looking back towards Napier - could see the snowy top of Mt Ruapehu in the distance.  

I set off after the tour and drove down to Kairakau Beach where there is a great freedom camping area  right by the beach - usually with toilets but they were out of action this time. Not so crowded and i was able to park  right up the end of the road  in relative quiet isolation by the bush. Sound of loud surf all night was very restful.  

Dawn at Kairakau Beach from my campervan window.  I saw the string of lights of Elon Musk's telecommunications satellites in the clear sky during the night - beautiful!

Looking east along KAirakau Beach in the late afternoon - much more crowded with swimmers and picknickers earlier in the day.  

After a walk along the beach early in the morning, with Tui I set off for home taking the back Pourerere road - lots of very big sheep stations and some lovely old homes. 

Te Aute College chapel on the road home before Waipukarau

Beautiful little church close to Te Aute

The weekend a fortnight ago I had gone down to the National Quilting symposium at Lower Hutt. Class was great with Shirley Sparks and small class was very congenial. The parking spot was a large car park opposite the Petone Working Mens club where I ate two nights but boy racers were going up and down the road on the Saturday night so on Sunday I decided to take off and go to the Otaki River mouth which was right by the water on a stony beach area. It was very pleasant. Facing west with a wetlands reserve behind, this was a very popular place with locals for fishing at the river mouth,  and obviously in summer would be full of families. When I returned Tui was very calm and pleased to see me. Obviously she had been well cared for by my house sitter.  

This is the "in progress" wall hanging I started at the symposium. Painted and stencilled on the background. To be finished at home.  

One morning in the school holidays  I had taken kids to the adventure playground in the bush beside the Manwatu River. while Jonathan needed to do a Zoom meeting from home  - great spot.. 

This playground in the bush is a great way to get kids outdoors for a while!

All in all it has been an interesting couple of months, and next month I have a couple of other adventures planned so more to come!

August - more rain!

 Although it hasnt rained every day and there are no disastrous floods here as there are in other parts of the country, the weather has been boringly grey most days and cold and wet far too often for my liking. My spring flowers are starting to come out so there is light at the end of the rain tunnel. Roll on spring!

August has been an interesting month. with several very busy weeks. Starting with the visit from Bathurst of my very grown up grandsons, Sean and Josh ( 22 and 20)   Good looking young men, real country lads - didnt seem to feel the cold. Josh wore shorts and t shirts the whole time he was here! 

I had 5 of my 6 grandchildren all round for dinner and it was great that the lads made an effort to interact with their cousins. They took the girls bowling and after dinner we played Rummikub like they used to with Grandad. I was most appreciative of the fact that they spent 4 nights of their week in NZ with me while still fitting in their adrenalin kicks in Rotorua and then black water rafting at Waitomo.Caves. I hope I get the chance to catch up with their sister Samantha - maybe in January?

The weekend  before the boys arrived I drove up to Morrinsville for he 80th birthday of one of our oldest friends from our canoeing days, peter Sommerhalder. It was like a  canoe Club reunion and a pleasure to catch up with some people I had shared great times with in the past. 

Treffery had been one of my women science role models and it was intersting to note that as a marine biologist she is now working with one of the environmental engineering companies.  She and her husband Peter arestill heavily involved in canoeing through their business  Canoe  and Kayak.  

My longtime canoeing friend Peter Sommerhalder.

Rona, John Maynard, me and Pat Shaw - lots of laughs and memories of good times shared.

After a busy week of Sketching group, Sewing group, Book club, Classic Movie group and Gardening Club and U3A Science group  I took the campervan round to Jonathan's place where it will be parked while he is over in Geneva at the United Nations Committee meeting reporting on Human rights for People with disabilities. Each signatory to the Human Rights Treaty has to report every 4 years on way their country is providing equality of access and treatment of people with disabilities. It was 8 years since NZ was last "audited" and Jonathan was part of the NZ delegation as the chair of the Independent Monitoring Mechanism which is formed by all the Disabled persons organisations  who critique the government's performance in this area. He had put in hours of work in this role and got to speak at the UN meeting. Notably he was not entirely positive and was actually quite forthright about continuing inequities in the access, choices and support available for disabled persons.

We were able to replay his contribution which is put out on UN live TV coverage, I know he felt pleased with his efforts and I think he spoke extremely well. Meantime I have been supporting Amy by staying round there when the kids are at Linton St.  Amy is doing all the stuff at the farm everyday and I am able to be there for the kids which is handy as they are not wanting to go out to the farm all the time especially when it is raining.  Force is missing his dad, and we have taken him for a few walks as well as Amy taking him to the farm every day for exercise, although he apparently is enjoying the ponds formed by the rain, well, labradors are water dogs aren't they!

Force giving the big teddy a little love 

Callum trying out the inflatable canoe I have been lent on the  local lagoon. The rain stopped briefly so we tookthe opportunity to get out and about.  
Cordelia insisted on having a go but we needed to ensure she wasnt in a windy spot, she might have been blown away. 

Then Annabelle decided that she had to have a try as well in the "green banana". Nana had a try as well and although it was no substittue for a "real" kayak it was fun and I can fit it into the campervan when it is folded up, so come summer I hope to find a few suitable places to get my canoeing fix. Only problem is my 76 year old knees make it difficult to get out easily - I look an idiot struggling to get out in shallow water.  It is becoming increasingly obvious I need to face up to the realities of an older body and stop dreaming of doing what I happily used to do 30 years ago. 

Force keeps bringing out his pink cuddle rug.  It is his comfort blanket.  Callum is good for cuddles and he also has the attention of Tui and little Topsy ( Amy's dog).

I have had a couple of good sewing days with my local sewing group and this weekend coming Robyn and a couple of her friends are staying with me while they take part in a couple of local dog shows. Tui's nose will be out of joint probably as several little dogs will also be staying. Tui mostly ignores visiting dogs, thank goodness she doesnt get possessive. 

I am enjoying having so many visitors here in Palmerston North and glad I bought a house big enough   ( 2 spare bedrooms) to easily accommodate visitors. 

Oops - we are now into September and Joanthan is back. weather having another cold windy spell after a few days of some sunshine.  I did appreciate comign back to my own house although i slept well in my campervan at joanthan's house. It was like being in a cuddly warm cave as i had extra eiderdown on the bed.  Kids were mostly pretty good although they would rather stay on their devices that do any thing else which is very frutrating. how to break the cycle??  I did get them out for a walk on sunday along the riverpath and they played quite energetically on the exercise equipment on the riverpath.  

My exciting news is that I have booked to go on an Outback Spirit tour next year ( July 30th) to the Kimberleys and the Top End... only hiccup is that I need to be sure I can do at least most of the walks on the tour. Most are 1 or 2 km although two walks are about 4km and classified as 'difficult", involving rock clambering and steps.   Good incentive though to get out and get walking and exercising. 

July

 Well July is truly winter - after what seemed like a lovely long autumn we now have the wind and rain and  rather too much of both at the moment.  Good weather for working on unfinished sewing projects and i have been pleased with the progress I have made on that front although i think i have watched too many netflix movies and read books... not enough physical activity although keeping warm and out of the way of covid or the flu has seemed more essential.  

I had to read three Sanskrit verses from the Bhagavad Gita for a special evening held in mid July so there was a bit of practice doing that as I tried to get the pronunciation and rhythm  as accurate as possible. 

The weather was not good for doing outdoor activities with the kids in the school holidays so I resorted to taking the girls to try out the local indoor Go Kart racetrack which they found entertaining. The youngest,  Cordelia, just put her foot down on the special Kiddi kart and seemed to go flat out whereas Annabelle seemed to be jsut a bit more cautious although they both seemed to be flashing round pretty fast. 

Then my focus shifted to getting ready for the embroidery conference that cousin Linda was convening in Tauranga. I signed up for two classes and was looking forward to some creative time.  

The first class was "Creating your own textile Art design"and involved discussing the elements of design and then being given some shapes and using fabric we had brought to put these into a small composition which illustrated the concepts we had been discussing.   I really enjoyed this. in the photos, the small ones are my initial layouts and the big one was done by our instructor.  I liked her style. 

the second class was about using stitches to make "marks" and was a lot more random, exploring using threads of different textures, thicknesses, and stitching simple stitches in different shapes and directions.. I cant really say that i have any sort of finished product from that  class but my beginning efforts are shown in the following picture... We had to stick to black and white. 

The following two were examples provided by the instructor.  

So now I am back home after a lovely drive - the weather was much better going up to Tauranga than I expected and I got a lovely view of the mountain. Coming back  the mountain was totally enveloped in  rain and cloud  - wouldnt even know it was there.  I was warm enough in campervan although a powered site at the local campground meant I could use the eleectric fan heater ( cosy!)

I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with Linda and her family - I stayed overnight with them after the classes were over. She is a delightful person and such a talented embroiderer!  I always feel very welcome there and I think I am the only relative on her mother's side that she keeps in touch with. Certainly the only one in NZ.  Apparently she has fond memories of spending time with my family when she was very young and early photos of her as a baaby show her with my Mum and myself.  

I am off again this coming weekend to Morrinsville to celebrate the 80th birthday of Peter Sommerhalder a longtime canoeing friend - he met his wife at our place over 50  years ago.  Then the big grown up grandsons arrive from Australia for a few days  .. That will be fun!