A visitor!

 Not many coming by. We will have a visitor wing later this year, so standing by.

Us with Felicity at the Dutch cafe in Foxton. Happily awaiting my apple crepes...

New Plymouth weekend

 Mish had to pick up some artwork in New Plymouth so we went up for a quick road trip. Detoured around Cape Egmont to have a stroll through Pukeiti rhododendron gardens late in the day. Missed the flowering by a few weeks but it was nice to walk around before arriving in New Plymouth.

We did get a brilliant flower show from all the yellow pohutukawa trees on the coast. These are much rarer than the red trees, NZ's Christmas tree.

On the coast cycling route.

Glorious.

There's a BMX track there and we watched a meet for a while, lots of racers racing. Had a go on the velodrome next to the track but too chicken to go high though. 

And a bit further on we stopped at a food van and enjoyed the music and ambience and view for a while. Lovely day, I'm glad we decided to take the bikes at the last moment.

Even went to the movies - the Hunger Games prequel  which was ok. Drove home in the rain yet again. Every time we do a road trip with the bikes on it rains. We could get a paid gig going to drought areas.

Birthday trip to Waitarere Beach

Waitarere is up the line about an hour north of here. We took the dog and hired a bach for three days for the pensioner's birthday. Still not grey.

Looking back at the bach from our track to the beach. A simple beach house, almost directly across the road from the Thomas beach house mum and dad owned from the early 70s to the late 90s. We had some fun there.

A different perspective of Kapiti Island from further north.

It's a long and wide grey sand beach, also a road. Some traffic late in the day when people arrive for sunset and evening picnics. The morning of Michelle's birthday we walked 5km and only saw a couple of cars and walkers, one fisherman, and a very tired young seal trying to sleep at the water's edge.

Some big bits of driftwood  and plenty of interesting smaller pieces and shells about. This one is an old tree root system. It hasn't been in the ground for a while. 

We just hung about the bach and the beach for a couple of days: reading, eating. A blackbird flew into the house one morning and  Plum grabbed its tail feathers as it passed her. Poor bird. We got it outside but it flew away with a pink bald bum.

Back home, a thrush had built a nest in the peas while we were away. 

 

Helicopter top dressing

 Unusual - it's a job for small planes usually.

But, the copter was working over a typical farm landscape just up the road from us. That's Kapiti Island in the background.

Road trip Taupo and New Plymouth

First stop, the honey shop an hour north of here. Honey ice creams for everyone; Janey and Peter enjoying their pit stop snack. Honey and ginger Janey's new favourite.

Onwards, along the Desert Road with the mountains in cloud but suitably atmospheric.

Then three nights at the Wairakei Resort in Taupo. Lots of damage around from Cyclone Gabrielle, trees cracked and bent and blown down all around the resort. Beside the resort there used to be a radiata pine forest.

Huka Falls, roaring as usual.

Bit of shopping and sightseeing and hot pool bathing, including a walk to the Aratiatia rapids and  through the thermal area of Craters of the Moon. Mish and Janey strolling through the steam.

Across the top of Lake Taupo and through paddocks and wee towns to the east coast and New Plymouth. The weather changed and Mish grabbed this car shot of Mt Taranaki as we got closer.

Squeaked in a walk on the waterfront that afternoon, the sea driving in from one of our many passing storms. 

Time for indoor sports and a visit to the Len Lye exhibitions in that amazing mirror steel building, and then across the road to hot food in a modernised big old pub.

Found an industrial salvage store in town and spent a while in there. Spent cash too, buying a light for one dim corner of the house and later buying some cheese storage boards from Gouda in the Netherlands. Mish had to go home and measure. They're long and wide and they'll be bookshelves in our new library (coming soon to a renovation near us). 

I wonder what the cheesemakers make of that - knowing their old boards are bought by some guy and off they go on a sea voyage to New Zealand to be oohed and aahed over and then reused as a treasure. Bet they laugh. He's a regular buyer. And he had some cool stuff from Bangladesh ship wrecking yards too.

Home after a week away and picked up the dog next day. She had a nice stay at one of the local kennels - we think. She seems relaxed at home again, in the late autumn sun.

 

Night in a lighthouse

 We had a night in the city at the Island Bay lighthouse. It was built about 30 years ago and is not a real lighthouse, but it does look like one.

Panorama view from the top looking east over Island Bay (with its island, Taputeranga) toward the airport and bottom of the North Island.

Closer view with Qantas landing. The plane will fly behind that hill.  One of Wellington's many slips evident on the left - we have had heaps of them lately.

It was a cool and windy night so we got the full breezily noisy experience through aluminum windows in small spaces. It was great! View from the teensy kitchen. Next level up was the bedroom and then another level up tight stairs for lounging and looking for orca and dolphins (no show, sigh).

Descending with style, not falling.

Next day we had a city moment, beginning with a drive around the coast for breakfast in the old Maranui surf club at Lyall Bay, then into the city for an urban moment including  getting an ear repierced  (me) and a visit to Unity books. Back home via mum's for a cup of tea as the temperature dropped with a polar blast coming up the South Island. 

Three day trip to Havelock North

Havelock North is up on the east coast in Hawkes Bay. Misha's cousin Susie was visiting her daughter Nicola and we drove up in the rain (again!) to say hello. Seems like every road trip lately is in the rain. So it was a misty drive in a very green landscape, with lambs.

We stayed on a quiet apple orchard (it's apple and vineyard country) in a self contained wee house. Came back with some crunchy Pacific Rose apples from the big market in the Hastings showground on Sunday morning. 

Had a look around the area and a better look at Hastings, as we usually stay in Napier when we're up this way. Hastings runs into Havelock North and is also an art deco city. It's only 20km from Napier so it copped the 1931 earthquake too.

Art deco themed streetlights in Hastings.

Drove up to Te Mata peak, the local range of limestone rocks pushed sharply up by crashing tectonic plates over millennia. It's a dramatic climb and an impressive view above Hawkes Bay cities and sea, and over to the Ruahine range in the middle of the North Island.

The height and steepness makes it a good spot for throwing yourself off. Mish would. 

And stopped in at a sculpture garden on the way home.

I'm thinking about the box of interesting metal bits I have in the garage...

Drove home without rain - amazing - to find our first plum blossoms have popped.

Road trip Blenheim and Christchurch

Over to the South Island on the ferry again. Big swell leaving Wellington harbour  but it was an exciting ride to be outside with the waves and, below, nearer the South Island, albatross and petrels. Another ferry on the horizon, heading for Wellington. Those wrist pressure bands for sea sickness - they work!

Heading into Marlborough Sounds. These guys just came topside. 

Car looks little down there - with bikes on.

First stop, Blenheim. Lovely cycle along the river paths and a night at the theatre watching Dan sing in Les Miserables. Next day, a bit of work picking olives for oil pressing. The trees are around Sue and Phil's house. Beginning the stripping of branches and dropping olives onto sheets of plastic for Phil to collect. He kept just ahead of us laying out sheets. That's guide dog in training Lincoln sniffing runaway olives.

Harvest about 100kg; made about 19 litres of oil and we scored a jar on the way back through Blenheim.

On to Christchurch, down the coast through Kaikoura and obligatory stop to watch baby seals and collect circular white stones at mint imperial beach (Kekerengu).

Mish got us an airy light-filled air B&B for six nights just out of the city and we had a good look around the city and environs.

First up, an organic fruit and veg market where a guy told us about the panoramic view up on the Port Hills. Bought some veg and headed up into the hills. He was right.

The Port Hills are a large area between Christchurch and the port of Lyttleton (which sits on the edge of an old volcano). We did get a terrific view west to the Southern Alps.

And east over Lyttleton harbour which formed from the crater of that volcano many years ago. A beaut day, the hills full of walkers and bikers and one butterfly expert who showed us a rare one.

And then down narrow roads into Lyttleton for lunch.

Jase came down with a cold so Mish and I headed out without him and cycled around some of the residential red zones of the city. Red zones are areas where houses were so damaged in the 2011 quake that part of the rebuild process has been to demolish hundreds of them in big grids. They now look like parks and are acres of old gardens and roads and footpaths, with just walkers and cyclists allowed. There's a bit of foraging going on. All that remains to show that houses were here are the overgrown driveways.

Hardly anyone around. Eerie to stand in an intersection where no car will ever drive again.

Wrecked footbridge that used to be over the Avon, now left by the river, as is where is.

In the city, the rebuild goes on. There are lots of new buildings and street art, and still lots of broken buildings and work to do. The cathedral is being rebuilt in the same style - after 10 years of debate about that - and it has a wonderful banner on the square. Here it is, from across the road inside the new library, which is a great space.

Walked down the road one night to trivial pursuit at the local pub (we came 11th out of 14 teams, but dinner was nice). 

Cooled off in the Antarctic experience, including being shut in an ice room while they turned the wind chill up, and a ride in an all-terrain Hagglund vehicle.

Saw our old Newlands neighbours Robyn and Sean and went for a walk on their part of the coast, with oystercatchers. 

New Brighton pier is there too.

Drove out to the French settlement of Akaroa on Banks Peninsula for the day. Very quiet there, no cruise ships and hardly any tourists. It was just us when we got out of the car at about 10am so we walked up a hill to earn lunch.

So, we saw some of Christchurch and loads more to see. We'll be back before another 20 years have passed. Headed back to Blenheim after six days, with a lunch stop at Kaikoura. 

The view from the pub:

More cycling at Blenheim, going in a different direction this time. 

 

And home on the ferry. In Picton for a waterfront walk with Sue before the afternoon sail. We're looking for rays.

 That ferry ride was a cool but calm trip with albatross and orca and a rusty dog. Can you see it?