Wairere Falls and Christmas

 

Another lovely day today. We have been over 30 degrees over the last 3 days, but it is a little cooler today, which is very pleasant.

We had a lovely day at Eddie's niece's house near Taupo on Christmas Day. There was 16 of us for dinner. It is a really lovely new home with great views. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures. I had a phone free day.

We ended up staying the night and came home on Boxing Day. We had our granddaughter with us. She is up from Dunedin again. We have been sharing her with her other Grandma here in Matamata.

I took her up to the look out on Wairere Falls last Thursday. The falls are quite full. I was a bit surprised as I didn't think we have had that much rain. It must be raining more in the Kaimai Ranges than down on the flat. I did take photos here.

Wairere Falls in full flow

Me and Abbey at the lookout

We went to Katikati to visit friends on Monday, as it was his 70^th birthday. We had a lovely day with them and a lot of other people. Some we knew, some we didn't, but lots of fun and laughter. We were going to go to Ngaruawahia yesterday for more visiting, but they rang on Monday night to say don't come as Alan had woken up in the night with a fever and a cough. He was off to get a covid test. Fingers crossed he is ok.

Eddie has got some sealant that he is going to paint over the roof to make sure we are really and truly waterproof. It is one of the projects he has in mind for the holidays. He also wants to get the truck all nice and cleaned up for the new year. He is making a start on that today.

We got the fridge back on Friday. It was ready earlier in the week, but we couldn't be bothered going over after work. Eddie took Friday off and went over to Hamilton to get it. A friend helped him to put it inside, so when I got home, it was all done.

A Christmas Tree

 

Not much to tell this week. Eddie bought a little Christmas tree for the caravan on Saturday. It has fibre optics at the end of it's branches which flash red, blue and green. He has also hung some fairy lights along the front of the caravan, so we are very pretty.

Below are some pictures of the tree in it's various phases.

A walk to TECT in Tauranga

 

I went on the first walk with the tramping club last Sunday. It was great to get out and about with them, as it has been a long time.

We went to TECT Park between Tauranga and Rotorua. It is a huge hunk of land (1650 hectares, which is just over 4077 acres). It was bought by the Western Bay of Plenty and Tauranga Councils in 2004. The name is taken from a naming rights sponsor, the Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust. There are lots of activities to do there. They have mountain bike, walking and horses riding tracks. A high wire adventure walk (we didn't do that). There is also a shooting range, paint ball and radio controlled aeroplanes. I had never heard of it. It is a great asset for Tauranga.

We enjoyed our day there. The track markings leave a lot to be desired, so we had a bit of fun working out where we were at times.

The first area we walked through was part of the Matariki Tu Rakau project. It is a national project to establish stands of trees across New Zealand as places to honour New Zealand heroes. The ones at Tauranga were planted by the Lions and volunteers in spring 2021 to honour Lions nationally and globally. 1000 trees were provided by New Zealand forest service as part of the billion trees programme. The trees are quite small now, but it will be a wonderful area when they have grown. There is a pest eradication programme in place too.

. Another of the tracks we followed was to the lost tank. There was no explanation as to why it was lost and we found it quite easily. Sort of. We went past a track and thought that was where we would come out, so we set off up the road, that went up a quite steep hill. That's the first bit of hill I had climbed in a while and I was soon puffing. Eventually it was decided that it wasn't a loop at all and we went back down. We met a father and son mountain bikers going up. It looked like jolly hard work to me. I suppose they were enjoying themselves, she said doubtfully. We walked along the track for a while and, quite by chance we found the sign to the lost tank (remember that. Sorry it was a while ago since I mentioned it). The sign was on a post, with all the information facing away from the track. Did I mention some signage left a bit to be desired? Anyway there it was large as life, looking just like a water tank. I have looked on the website for more information, but couldn't find any.

There are a lot of pine trees that are part of a forest owned by forestry companies.

A view from the track

                            The lost tank. 

                      A bushy area

Speckle Park Cattle

 

We enjoyed our week at Papamoa in spite of the inclement weather. The sea was rough the whole time we were there, so no fishing was done. We only walked on the beach twice. We did spend a lot of time catching up with friends, so that made for a pleasant week.

We hadn't been back an hour and a sparrow was putting grass into the hitch! Eddie has covered it all over, so nothing can get in now. The starling still wanders up and down the fence behind us, keeping an eye out for a gap somewhere.

There are some interesting looking young cattle in the paddock behind us. They posed quite well when I took their photo. I didn't know what breed they are, so I did  some googling and found out which I have added below. I got this from a cattle breeding site, whose name escapes me now.

Speckle Park Cattle

History

In 1937 Mary Lindsay, daughter of a beef farmer of Greenstreet Northern Saskatchewan, Canada, spotted a uniquely coloured speckled red roan heifer in her fathers herd. The unique colour pattern impressed her and she subsequently bought the heifer from her dad.

She found regardless of the breed of sire she bred the cow to it always produced calves with that colour pattern. It is believed that the heifer was a descendent of a Teeswater Shorthorn which carried the White Park gene as well. These two ancient breeds dating back to the 16^th Century were hard, strong and milky. Mary continued to breed speckled cattle and found that the speckled pattern was a dominant trait in her newer version of those ancient breeds. The cattle grew quickly, were hardy and quiet natured.

In 1959, Eileen and Bill Lamont (Angus breeders from Maidstone, SK), became interested in Mary's speckled cattle, bought their first speckled heifer. It was to lead to the development of what is now known as the Speckle Park cattle breed. The Lamonts crossed their "speckled" cows with superior registered Black Angus bulls in the late 50's and early 60's. The resulting offspring came in a variety of colour patterns, white with black points, some leopard coloured (spotted on their sides) and some black sided with speckled hips, white top and underline and roan faces.

Over time the Lamonts breeding work created high quality carcass cattle, light birth weights with the speckled colouring. They decided to name their cattle Speckle Park cattle. Other beef cattle breeders saw them come through the cattle markets and bringing a premium price. Their interest grew in these hardy, heavy milking and distinctly marked cattle to the stage they started purchasing bulls and females from the Lamonts to try them in their herds. Within a few years a dedicated group of breeders were now breeding Speckle Park cattle, mainly from the Nielburg area of northern Saskatchewan.

In 1985 with the help of nine other Saskatchewan cattlemen the Canadian Speckle Park Association was formed. Their aim from there on was to stabilize the breed and have them recognized as a pure breed.
On June 4 1993, Agriculture Canada approved the incorporation of the Canadian Speckled Park Association and were declared an evolving breed of cattle. February 14^th 1995 saw the Associations first set of by-laws granted by ministerial approval.

History was made on July 6^th 2006 when the Minister for Agriculture announced the Speckle Park breed a distinct pure breed, the first and only breed to be developed in Saskatchewan Canada.

Statistics

• Easy calving, low birth weights

• Highly fertile-with magnificent udders and high milk flow

• Breed renowned fault free structures

• Polled breed

• Docile cattle, quiet, tractable and kind natured

• Impressive weight gains off both grass and grain

• High Marbling yet perfect fat covering, off grass or grain

• Incredible yielding carcasses, impressive quality fine tender meat

• Hardy and tough with dark pigmented skin

• Attractive, easy on the eye

Distribution

Today there are over 70 Purebred members and some 3,000 registered cows on the register in Canada alone. In 2007 and 2008 over 700 embryos and 1500 straws of Speckle Park genetics have been exported to Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Denmark with the first calves due in May 2008.

A group of Australians have in 2007 formed the Australian Speckle Park Association and will handle registrations for both Australia and New Zealand. They will also be the first to have a Performance Data Recording system in place for Speckle Parks, with University of New England, Armidale, Australia and the Agricultural Business Research Institute of Australia, which will bring a new and exciting dimension to the breed.

 There hasn't been a lot to report on lately, hence the lack of posts. 

The starlings are still trying to make a nest in the hitch of the caravan. Eddie was pulling out the grass on Saturday and the bird sat on the fence and squawked at him. I don't think it was happy

We have a native bird of the year competition here every year and this year the native bat is a competitor. Very funny. Still Australia was in the European singing competition, so why not?

Parts of Waikato are locked down for a while. We are ok in Matamata. We were very busy at work on Thursday, as everyone thought we would be next. There was a rumor that there was a case in Matamata. Of course there wasn't. Where do these rumors come from?

We sold our big generator, as it is very heavy and more than we need. The man who bought it lives in Hamilton and can't come and get it because of the lock down. We have bought a new one which we are waiting to arrive. Eddie is going to chase it up today as it has been about 10 days.

Last week we couldn't get into our emails. The computer seemed to have forgotten the password. That is usually me. ha ha.  I turned it off and on several times and in the end I rang Spark. The nice lady I talked to couldn't really help me either. I rang Wireless Nation, who are our internet provider, and spoke to a nice man there. He actually looked into my computer via a remote what ever it is called and still couldn't make it work. It was all very puzzling. As a last resort, he suggested I try and hot spot with my phone. Well it wouldn't do it, but the modem was turned off while we tried and when I turned it back on again. Ta Da!!  It worked. I know what to do if it happens again. I spent most of the day on the phone or the computer. I felt like I had wasted the whole day, but our daughter said no, because you fixed it. Which I suppose is true, but it wasn't what I wanted to do on my day off.

Vaccinated

 We had our second injection on Monday with no repercussions, so all good there.

Now we have gone back to level 3 Eddie went to work this morning. It was rather cruel and unusual punishment after 2 weeks off. He had to start at 4 am. A bit of a shock to the system.

I won't go back to work until level 2 as the garden centre doesn't open until then.

This is a bit of a view through a hedge on my walk yesterday, with a nice view of the Kaimai Ranges in the distance.

We got our new heater from Mitre 10 on Friday. Eddie ordered it on line. It only took 2 days to arrive. It is a Kent microthermic heater and we think it is one of the best we have ever had. It clicks off and on at a set temperature. We can also set a timer on it if we want to. I have to remember to run the vacuum cleaner over it regularly to keep the dust out. We don't want to break this one.

 

Well we are coping with our new lock down. We have slipped into retirement mode and so the days go by quite well. I have been going for walks, but Eddie is keeping well away from everyone. In saying that he worked yesterday on some job that was apparently essential. My job at the garden centre is on hold at the moment as it can't open at level 4. The vege shop where I used to work is open and they asked me today if I would like to work there over lock down. I said yes I would and then I changed my mind when I got home. I don't suppose they are too pleased with me, but I don't feel quite so safe this time for some reason.

Our heater stopped working the other night, so we put the diesel heating on. The next morning Eddie pulled it apart and it was so full of dust. We vacuumed it out and it went again. We thought well that was a nice cheap fix, but it stopped again last night. It is only 1 year old with a 2 year warranty, but it may cost more to send it away than to buy a new one. It's a bit hard to get a new one at the moment with everything shut down, so we have borrowed one from a friend. Who knew the caravan was so dusty. 

There isn't a lot to report again this week. Maybe when we come out of lock down.

Fridge in situ at last

 

Well much excitement here on Saturday, putting in the new fridge. Getting it through the door easily should have been our clue. It is taller than the old one and a bit narrower. As it is screwed in to keep it from falling out, when we are traveling, something had to be done. Eddie cut out under the cupboard above the gap to make it fit there and then we got some wood to fill in the gap. (Good old Mitre 10) Of course we had to get 2 lengths for each side as 1 wasn't wide enough, but 2 was too wide, so he had to buzz one down got them glued together and all seemed to be well. We are lucky that Jim has all the things in his shed, so we can do this stuff. Eddie measured again and yes all is well. We pushed it in to the gap and it got about half way and stopped. The right side had a slight bow in it that we couldn't tell by looking, so out it all came and a bit more buzzed off the wood and all was well. As you can imagine, there was a lot of wailing and teeth gnashing. As it is narrower, the door shelves don't hold as much, but it is deeper, so it balances out.

The door is black, so it shows all the marks. Sigh.

This one has screw holes inside the fridge with little covers to go over the screws so you can't see them. The old one had the screws on the outside and we were a mystified where to put them to start with.

I went for a walk with the tramping club Sunday. We went into Hamilton and walked from the gardens, down one side of the river and back again. We had lunch at the gardens café when we got back. It was a nice day out and good to catch up with old friends again.

New Refrigerator

 

We got the old fridge out on Sunday morning. It came out of its gap easily enough, but getting out the door was quite another matter. The fridge was about 4 mm too big to go through. In the end Eddie had to take the door frame off. We think they must put the fridge in place before they make the door. In the afternoon we took the old one too the dump and got rid of it. We were using a couple of little electric fridges that are like chilly bins. 

The new one was in the shed, but Eddie has been late home 3 nights in a row and too tired to be bothered getting it in. He was home at a reasonable last night, so we got it in. It is a lot lighter than the old one, so that was a bonus.  It went through the door ok, but it was too tall for the gap! It is supposed to be a replacement for the old one. Eddie was able to trim off a bit of the cupboard above it. It is also narrower, so there is a gap at the side where it is supposed to be sealed against the side of the hole made for it. Some more work is required.

It has a nice black, metal door, so now I can use magnets on it for the first time in 4 years. I have been using blutack to put things on the fridge up until now. The black might be hard to keep clean. 

Taupo and a dead refrigerator

 

We went to Taupo at the weekend, where we checked out 4 camping grounds. Now we have to decide which one to choose. We think we will be going there about mid September. We are just waiting on Swaps to give us a date.

While we were there, we visited Eddie's niece's nice new house. It's a lovely sunny home with views out to Taupo township and the lake on one side and the country side the other. It is right up on top of a ridge. Anita said it can get quite windy too and she feels like they are going to get blown away. Her sister, Brenda and partner, Riley came up as well. We haven't seen them for a while, so it was a lovely catch up on all the family doings.

When Anita took her daughters to riding lessons, we went to our accommodation for the night. We stayed at De Brett's. We had a studio unit, which was very comfortable. We had dinner at the hotel next door. I had a duck leg and Eddie had steak. For dessert we had an apple tart with walnut ice cream and salted caramel. It was all very nice and satisfying. Our breakfast in the morning was free as part of our accommodation deal. It was huge and we were full for the rest of the day.

The view from our unit.

On Tuesday, when I was putting the groceries away, I found a puddle of raspberry juice in the freezer. It would seem that our refrigerator/ freezer has died. I bought a thermometer yesterday and the freezer is at 4 degree's and the fridge is at 10. Mmmmm. Not good. Luckily I had room in the little freezer we have to put things into and Eddie's beer fridge has been called into service. The freezer has become the fridge and the fridge has become a slightly cool cupboard. Eddie ordered a new one last night, so we will just have to manage until it arrives. It is solar only , so with our new system functioning well, it should be all ok. The old one is 13 years old, so suppose it has done good service. we think everything in our caravan is done now. At least we hope so!

Fallen Trees

 

We had a 24 hour power outage over the weekend. During the storm, on Saturday night, a tree was blown over and managed to take a branch off another tree, take down the power lines and the fence. We thought they would have fixed it over night, but they didn't start until about 8 30 the next morning. The power finally came back on at 3 30. Our new solar system worked well, so we were very pleased with it. We lent Janice and Jim our generator for their freezer. (They are the people whose property we camp on).

fallen tree

The tree it damaged

They aren't the prettiest trees in the world, so I suppose it is no real surprise that it fell over in the wind.

Well I wasn't going to go to work, but a friend asked me if I would like some part time work at the local garden centre. The boss is going away and they are a bit short staffed. I said I would, but I might only be there until September, but that was ok. I am going to started on Wednesday. It is only casual and I am not going back until next Wednesday. Every bit counts towards filling the hole in the bank account.

A little news for the week

 

Well it has been very quiet over the last week. The weather hasn't been too bad, but cold of course, so it is nicer to stay indoors and hibernate. It's winter what else do we expect. Then we complain it is too hot in summer. We are a contrary lot. 

There was a good frost this morning. On frosty mornings we use the water in our water tank as the hose from the tap is usually frozen. It hasn't defrosted yet and it is nearly 10. The frost has gone though and it is a lovely sunny day. 

Swaps have asked Eddie if he would consider going to Taupo for the road work season at the end of August. He has found us a place to stay at the National Equestrian Centre for a reasonable rent. We are just waiting to see if it will happen. It will mean we will be there until about March, so we would be able to go north before it got too cold. He is hoping to get some more information today.

The starlings are already making a claim in our goose neck as a nesting site and putting grass in it ready for a nest. They must have been really pleased to see us back again. They are going to be very disappointed if we go to Taupo.

A Social Weekend

 

We have had lovely sunny weather this week, with good frosts to start the day. It's a good one on Monday morning. It's was -2 under the awning at 8 o'clock, so I expect it was more out in the garden. I was glad to be indoors at a balmy 19.

We have been social butterflies this weekend.

Old friends had a 50^th wedding anniversary on Saturday night, so they had a pot luck dinner with them and their family, which was fun.

On Sunday night we went to dinner with Eddie's work mates. We usually get together on the 4^th July to remember their work mate, Jason, who died 4 years ago. It was good to catch up with them all after being away for a while.

On Monday, my sister in law, Carole, came to visit me. She lives in Christchurch and her daughter and family live in Dunedin, so we don't see each other very often. Her daughter and her husband have an archeology business and came to Taupo for a conference. Carole came up to take care of her granddaughter, Hermione. As Matamata is only 1 ½ hours from Taupo, Carole decided to spend a day with me. It was a lovely surprise when she rang and said she would like to come up.

Hermione is 18 months old and very cute. (of course). She was quite shy and only smiled at me from a distance. We had lunch and took Hermione for a walk in her buggy. She likes buggy rides. Carole said she took her for 1 ½ hours the other day, and she was quite happy. The other 2 girls stayed with their other grandparents in Dunedin. Because they live so far away and we haven't made it to the south Island yet, I have yet to met Mavis and Violet.

Stupidly, we never took any pictures. 

New Solar

 

We spent Monday wandering around the Base shopping centre in Hamilton, while they worked on our van and truck. 

The truck now has a fancy gismo, so we can charge the van batteries as we go. On our roof we have another solar panel and everything appears to be working as normal at last. We ended up putting in 2 lithium batteries, in stead of the 4 gel ones we bought. They assure us we won't have to worry about batteries ever again. One would hope so at the price. Luckily they had $600 off each battery, so that was a good thing.

We went to see a movie on Monday too. It's called “The Bodyguard's Hitman's Wife”. It's a sequel to “The Bodyguard and the Hitman”. The language was appalling, but it was quite funny. The added advantage was, we got to sit down for a couple of hours. We aren't made to wander around shopping centres. It is hard work and a bit boring.

We were going to come back to Matamata on Monday night, but it was 6 o'clock before they finished and we had had enough, so we stayed at a park over place in Hamilton. There was no work for  Eddie on Tuesday because of the wet weather, so we took our time and got back to Matamata at lunch time.

We are going to go off grid for a week and see how it all works.

Jolly cold this morning with a -1 temperature to start the day. The frost is melting now and the sun is shinning.

Not a lot of News

 

It's sunny here today for a change. I feel like it has been raining since the beginning of the month. Shortest day on Monday, so that's good. I know it will probably get colder, but at least it will be lighter. I don't mind the cold, but I don't like the dark. It hasn't really been cold yet. We have had a small frost this morning, but the sky is blue and the sun is shinning.

Eddie was home on Monday, as the weather has put the job he was doing, on hold.

The property behind us has hens, that free range all over the place, including Jim and Janice's. I spend a bit of time every day shooing them home again. They dig up Janice's plants, so she isn't at all amused by them.

Back to Matamata

 

We have spent 3 nights at Kaiaua. It is on what is called the “seabird coast”. It is one of the places that the godwits leave and come back in their migration. They fly up to the Artic to breed and then come back to New Zealand for our summer. The babies, who are only about 8 weeks old when they leave the Artic fly back too. It is quite amazing how they know where to go. It's one of my favourite places to park.

Our friends, Natalie and Murray came and parked there with us. On Saturday afternoon, we did a bike ride along the bike track. We did just over 11ks by the time we got back to the vans. We pretty much laughed the whole time they were with us.

It has been very gloomy with a bit of rain since Sunday, and our solar panels have been struggling. We parked at Eddie's sister's place for a night and came to Matamata yesterday.

We went to the solar power expert in Hamilton on our way yesterday and learnt that our system is not working as it should be at all. Well we sort of knew that, but didn't know how to fix it. It is going to them in 2 weeks time to be sorted out and another solar panel added. With 1 more on the roof, we should be ok even on gloomy days. It seems that the people in Whangarei, that we dealt with didn't know as much as we thought they did. They sold us the wrong batteries to start with. Sigh. We can work around that though, so all is not lost.

Eddie is working today and I have been into town and caught up on all the washing that has been neglected over the last week.

Whangateau

 

We are at Whangateau Harbour now, near Warkworth. It's about an hour or so north of Auckland.

Whangateau Harbour

We went to the wharf last Friday to try and catch a fish, but nothing was happening. There is a lot of mullet in the little harbour, but we don't have a mullet net and they have too soft a mouth to use a hook. Last time we were here, someone caught a kingfish from the wharf, but it wasn't to be on Friday.

Eddie enjoying the sun

On Saturday we did a bit of a walk over the mud flats. When the tide goes out the sand/mud is quite firm, so it can be walked on. In the middle is an island of mangroves, so we did a circumnavigation of it. It is a bird nesting site in the spring. You can see the mangrove "island" in the centre of the top photo.

There are a lot of spoonbills here. We often see them feeding at low tide. We also saw a white heron one day. We weren't too sure, as we thought they lived in the South Island.  We googled them and found out that they do spread out over the country after the breeding season.

White herons

Facts about the white heron from the Department of Conservation web site.

The kōtuku is common in Australia, the South Pacific and Asia.

In New Zealand it only breeds near Whataroa, South Westland, between September and January. This colony is in the Waitangiroto Nature Reserve and guided jet boat tours take visitors to view the birds from an observation hide.

During the breeding season time, the birds feed in the large coastal lagoons in the area, particularly the nearby Ōkārito Lagoon.

After breeding, the birds disperse widely and may be seen at coastal freshwater wetlands or estuaries throughout the country.

White heron facts

• The kōtuku colony is located in tall kahikatea-dominated swamp forest. Birds make their nests in the crowns of tree ferns or in kōwhai or kāmahi trees.
• During breeding seasons, they grow long, loose breeding plumes from its back and wings. The normally yellow bill turns dull black, and the facial skin between the eye and bill brightens to a bluish-green.
• They are solitary feeders. At night when not feeding, they roost in trees. Their voice is the typical heron croak in flight or when disturbed.
• They feed mostly on small fish (such as whitebait), eels, frogs, shrimp, aquatic insects, mice and small birds (such as silvereyes). They may grab prey with their sharp, dagger-like beak.
• It is believed that the colony was formed by the natural introduction of birds from Australia several hundred years ago. Australian birds are still occasionally blown over in some years and augment the New Zealand population.
• The white heron is specially adapted for wading in shallow, muddy waterways: it has long legs that are bare of feathers to well above the ankle joint and long spreading toes.
• White herons have elaborate courtship displays. Males build small platforms from which they advertise themselves to females. Male displays include a spectacular raising of the nuptial plumes, with the neck erect, the bill snapping and the wing feathers flicking. Once a female is attracted, the pair preen each other and intertwine their long necks, wings and bill.
• As a symbol of things both beautiful and rare, the kōtuku occupied an important place in Māori myth and folklore, and to compare a visitor to a kōtuku was a compliment of the highest order.
• 
  

We have had rain since Sunday. We even had a bit of hail on Sunday morning for a few minutes. Needless to say, we haven't been outside much at all. When it stops we go out for some fresh air. We have been spending the day on our computers and reading.

 The camping ground had people here for Queens birthday weekend. There caravans here that can be hired. There is a little one next to us, which a couple moved into on Saturday. They got out of their car and looked at us and looked at theirs's and burst out laughing. She took a picture of ours' and said she was going to tell everyone it was the one they were staying in. We thought it was quite funny.

We are heading back to Matamata. Eddie is going to be driving a bobby calf truck for a friend over the season. He only has to drive, as there will be a couple of lads to put the calves in and out of the truck. We will be in Matamata for about 8 – 12 weeks. We can park at the truck yard, but it is near the railway line and Eddie isn't sure he wants to live at work, so we might going to go back to where we were before at Ecclestone's property.

Here it is Wednesday and it is still blustery and showery, so we haven't been able to explore as much as we wanted too. There are a couple of walking tracks that we will have to come back to do. The farmers are pleased to get the rain as it has been very dry up here over the last few months, so we mustn't complain.

We went into Warkworth for the shopping today and had  lunch at a café in Matakana on our way home, called the Plume café. It was very nice too. Eddie had an all day breakfast and I had corn fritters with bacon and sour cream. Both very yummy. 

Tomorrow we are off to a pop over place near Titirangi to catch up with some friends. If we can fit in. It looks quite small, so we will see how it goes. 

Tinopai and Pahi

 

We came back across to the Kaipara Harbour on Saturday and we stayed at Tinopai, until Monday morning.

We went down to the wharf on Sunday morning, and with his last bit of bait, Eddie caught a Kahawai. Before that he fed a lot of little fishes.

We did a bit of a drive around the village in the afternoon, as it is too wet to ride the bikes around. We passed a lot of hidden driveways around the place, that must all be houses off grid as there are no power lines near them. I was glad we were in the truck, as the roads became unsealed and quite rough.

On Monday morning we came to Pahi. We are still on the Kaipara Harbour. This is a really nice place. We came here years ago, in our tent for a New Year Eve's.

In the grounds, there is a largest Morton Bay Fig tree you have ever seen. It is recognized as the largest tree of its kind. They think it was planted before 1840. In 2011 it was 25.7 metres high; 14.8 metres around its girth and has a spread of 51 metres. It is full of birds flying in and out making a lot of noise. I thought they might wake us up in the mornings, but they don't.

A little bit of info about the Kaipara Harbour. It is one of the largest harbours in the world by area. At high tide it is 947 square kilometres in size. There are 409 square kilometres of exposed mud flats at low tide. No wonder lots of sea birds live in the area!

Eddie in front of the fig tree trunk

view of the harbour from the wharf

fig tree

Pahi Hall

The Pahi hall was built in 1889 and was the local store. Eventually it became the local hall. It has been upgraded and repainted a few years ago to give it a new life. There was a group of mothers using the other day with all their children. They had a great time running around the reserve and paddling in the water.
The house was the original hotel. I think people stayed in it when they came here on the ships that used to sail around the harbour. It is now owned by a local man who has an oyster farm in the harbour. He puts sticks into the mud about half way between high and low tides. The oysters are wild ones and when they are little spats, they naturally attach themselves to the sticks. In 18 months time the oysters are ready for harvest. He goes out every day and comes back with a load. After harvesting he replaces them with fresh sticks and the process starts again. 

Sorry about the jaunty angle of the house.

I went for a walk today and this is the view from the top of the hill as you come into Pahi. Over the other side is the village of Whakapiro.

Ruakaka

 

Before we left Bayly's Beach, we went to Pouto about 60ks away at the end of the peninsular, to go fishing with Adele and Russell. We could see the waves coming in over the bar to the Kaipara Harbour. Eddie caught a good size Kahawai which fed us all. Russell was very disappointed not to get anything. He was very disappointed with west coast fishing.

Eddie caught a nice kahawai from this point

getting set up with the fishing tackle

Adele and I did a bit of a beach walk and cleaned up a lot rubbish as we went; such as plastics, fishing line, cans and other assorted stuff. It's hard to believe people are so lazy and leave their rubbish behind them. 

We are now at Ruakaka. We came here on the 21st May. We had to come back across here as the COF was due on the caravan and there is no where to get that done in Dargaville. Ridiculous but true.

We were booked into a garage to have our COF done on last Monday morning. When we got there they didn't have us booked in. It turned out they had another branch in Warkworth about 60 ks from where we are and over the Brynderwyn hills. We went to the VTNZ and waited in a queue about 4 hours. A test of patience. Thank goodness I had thought to take my book. Eddie chatted to other people in the queue.

We went to the garage yesterday,  to get something in the suspension done. Eddie has bought the parts a while ago ready to get it done, but we hadn't quite got there. Then back to VTNZ to get the re check done. The line wasn't so long this time, but I still read my book.  Now we have a brand new COF on our window. 

There are lots of birds here in the estuary. There are oyster catchers, godwits, dotterels as well as the usual seagulls. There is also a quite friendly duck with 5 ducklings. Quite late to have babies we thought. She isn't very frightened of us and we can get quite close.

Eddie is actually worked for a few days last week. A friend of his has a few trucks, based in Tirau, near Matamata and they are unloading a container ship this week at the port in Whangarei, so Eddie did a few days for him. On Monday, Eddie went and delivered the container he had on board to the logistics place in Manukau in Auckland. No one had told Simon the ship was finished, so Eddie went on down from Auckland to Tirau and Simon flew him home from Rotorua. I had to walk down to pick up the truck. I am very glad it wasn't raining, as it's a bit of a walk.

 He is also going to work for Simon in June, driving a bobby calf truck. We will be based in Tirau for 6-8 weeks.

We have had a couple of stormy days here. We have had very strong south east winds. It's still quite windy today, but it is supposed to calm down later today.

We took the awning in on Friday night, as one of the anchor straps had pulled out of the ground and it was easier to take the other one in, with the wind a blowing than try to reattach the disconnected one. We figured they might come out again during the night.

This is our view at the moment from our site at Ruakaka. With the full moon happening tonight, the tides have been very high, with no where for the birds to settle on the mud. Usually there is a high point they can sit on with the water all around them. It is coming right up into the mangroves you can see in the photos.

Our next port of call is going to be Tinopai, which  is back over on the Kaipara Harbour, so we can finish exploring there. We are going on Saturday.