Too much to lug around!
On this day, off to the green waste (that load has gone) and then to the beach to collect buckets of rocks for a garden project. Stopped by a nursery on the way home and - impulse buy - one of the Vegepod flat packs.
We had a couple of weeks in Sydney in autumn, feeling like summer. In Sally's garden with a cup of tea under a crepe myrtle.
Walking on a track with Gillian above Narrabeen beach one lovely day.
Stayed up on the northern beaches with Peter and did essential teary and warm family things. Gosh did we pack it in. It was a busy and emotional visit, catching up with many nearest and dearest, from the youngsters to the nonagenarians.
Picked up a hire car at the airport and shot down to the Southern Highlands to Lyn's for several days, where the autumn colour was therapeutic, and then up to Newcastle for lunch with Rita and Sandy in our Kia 4 (ok car but won't be buying one of those).
Inspecting Jason's sliced finger (there was a wide range of activities on this trip). If only he'd used Janey's beautiful bread knife, that was so good she bought us all one.
Sea pools of course. Avalon with a good bit of surf washing into the pool that day. Waiting for the set to come in...
Closed seven years for earthquake strengthening, Wellington's central library reopened with fanfare yesterday.
We trained it into the city and walked along the waterfront to get to the opening festivities.
Carol joining the queue to get into the library - which moved pretty fast. A beautiful day too, so very pleasant and positive to be in the redone City Square area with a bunch of people keen to see our new library.
The Chatham Islands is a group of several islands with a population of about 600, most of who live on Chatham Island. It is part of NZ, way out there in the Pacific, 860km due east of Christchurch. It's one of the most isolated places on Earth and that remoteness influences everything.
We went for a week on a group tour and it was fabulous. We drove to Auckland so got a road trip as well, via Hamilton on the way up and Coromandel, Putaruru, and Taupo on the way back.
On windy Tikitiki Hill overlooking Petrie Bay, so far this is the oldest I've ever been:
We ventured out every day with about 20 others in an oldish tour bus and bounced over most of the island's gravel roads learning about history, geology, flora and fauna, environment, farming, fishing, community, rust, and isolation.
Here's some experiences.
A half day fishing trip, where Mish and I just gawked at Buller mollymawks while the others hauled in 40 blue cod on lines. Too easy. The birds are a pretty Chatham Island albatross, they know a fishing boat when they see one.
Then a royal albatross arrived! What a beauty.
Still on fish, the hotel's rental cars are all named.
We went out to farms and properties where the owners talked about work and play on the Chathams and what it is like to live in a remote area. The supply ship from NZ comes about twice a month and is due for replacement (which the locals are thrilled about), and the 34 seat Saab plane comes several times a week.
Mish found some beautiful blue shark teeth fossils on Blind Bills beach in the lagoon.
Chatham Island shags hanging out at the archeologist's place.
It's a windswept island, a peat filled volcanic landscape, known for its changeable weather that can alter plans daily. We had the sheer luck to have a week of mild weather with six drops of rain one morning.
Splatter rock (pillow basalt lava).
Bold and black basalt columns.
Hotel dinners were fun - high quality and delicious. Lots of fish of course, with crayfish and blue cod and paua starring. Dinner at 6pm - except for the day the power went out, and staff still managed the full meal a bit later. Our group snaffled the best tables, beating the cycling tour group who were also staying at the hotel. We coated the cyclists in road dust a few times but they were cheerful.
The hotel owner's dog, Peggy Sue, had the run of the place, and is here being hopeful in the dining room.
Breakfast in the hotel was a bun fight. We had picnic lunches on the road, dropped in to someone's living room one day for treats, and on the last day had a delicious bbq in the hotel's big garden/nursery area. They grow as much as they can in sheltered sunny spaces. We asked the hotel what they'd like people to bring in when they visit the Chathams = lemons and avocados! We took books for the main primary school.
Outlook from our hotel room.
We had a talk from an archeologist at her property one day. She and her husband, like others on the island, have planted a hundred thousand natives on their land. She explained some Moriori history.
Moriori were the first arrivals to the islands. Like Maori, they came from the Marquesas area of the Pacific and they arrived at the island they called Rekohu via NZ around 800 years ago. French and English ships began to arrive late 1700s. Then came the whalers and the sealers. Maori paddled over in 1835 and that was disastrous for the peaceful Moriori.
Little physical evidence remains of the pre European Moriori: dendroglyphs and petroglyphs like these seal like carvings into rock.
A main benefit of being in a tour group was access to places in private ownership, which is most of the island.
There we go, hiking over another paddock to get down to the petroglyphs on the coast.
Carol being 70.
The bumble bees like it.
