January 14th and 15th Fishy Times and the Bagpipes

Well a road trip for me and a fishing trip for the others. I think I am the only NZ'er in existence who does not like fishing. I don't mind going out on a boat and love the ocean and scenic views - but as for me fishing? That is a definite no.  George obviously married me for something other than my fishing skills, as he is an avid fisherman.

We were very fortunate that our friends, Judy and Chris, offered us the opportunity to share a day out on their boat Braveheart. Yes, there is lots of Scottish blood in that family and on both sides. So the boat is fittingly named.

We headed over Thursday afternoon, stayed the evening in Whitianga so we were ready to depart in the morning bright eyed and bushy tailed.  En route we drove through Morrinsville, which in recent times has decided its claim to fame will be to be the town of painted cows. I am not sure if this one was positioned in the right location however?

In the evening we were treated to some tunes piped out on the bagpipes by Chris - much to the acclaim not only from us, but from neighbours who all emerged outside to listen and gave Chris a round of applause.

Dusk settling on Sovereign Pier

Out next morning and ready to head out.

This is the famed Cathedral Cove - a must do for any NZ visitor, and it was wonderful to see it from the 'other side'

Johnny got the first fish of the day. A beautiful Albacore Tuna, and guess who tucked into Sashimi in the evening?

Thanks to Judy and Chris for a wonderful time

January 13th One More For the Roll of Honour Walls

I have to confess that our toilet (bathroom for US readers) is a homage to the wonderful VW.  Every wall has VWs on it and even the annual calendar is a VW Calendar.

Allow me to present our new addition to the wall:

Yes, it is a 3D image (note to self: do not inspect picture when under any influences). And here's a small sample of what we have  - you have to visit us to see the rest!

January 12th The Flowering

There was much excitement in the neighbourhood today, okay I will narrow it down to in the house, when our never before cactus flowered.

I tell a lie because last year there was one flower bud. George did the unthinkable and touched it. This cactus obviously is not in touch with its emotional side, as at the point of human contact it shriveled up and the flower refused to open and eventually died..

So you can image this year, when we have seen the buds we have been waiting, waiting and waiting. And of course, George has been under strict instructions to not touch and it is a hands off policy.

Today, we were rewarded. Late afternoon the first flower made an appearance. The plant is obviously a shy and retiring type, as the 2nd flower made an appearance, but well after dark. The second flower is larger than the first. And there are more to come.

The cactus has grown from a small broken off limb from the original plant at my son's place. A piece of interesting information for you, the original plant was a tiny six inch specimen that was purchased at a supermarket of all places. That first plant is now the height of the house, with numerous limbs coming off it, and the plant I have now is one of those limbs which broke off, and is now higher than our fence.

Allow me to present our shy Cactus flower (the size of a small dinner plate)

January 11th Please Mam, Can I Have Some More....

Felicia totally indulged us today by making not only for dinner, but also giving us a good supply for the freezer, Samale (that is the Romanian name), and in English we know them as Cabbage Rolls. Mum used to make them, and mine are okay but compared to what Mum made, and the various Romanian ones I have tried, mine are missing just that little bit of oomph.

Minnie decided to put on her 'Nobody loves me and I only get fed table scraps' face, and was begging Felicia to feed her. I am not sure if she did or not!

Look at the wonderful supplies we have for the freezer. Felicia spent the day making over 90 Samale/Cabbage Rolls for us.  We are spoilt - or rather our tummies and taste buds will be

January 10th Boys And Their Toys

It was time for the boys to compare sizes today - of their drills. Thanks to a dose of sunburn the previous day, they had to cover up with their French Legionnaire caps

We found out who the real big boys were though later in the night, when the card sharks came out

January 9th Lonely Bay

We are trying to share as much of our beautiful scenic spots with Felicia and Johnny, George's sister and brother in law visiting from Romania

Today's outing was to Lonely Bay, which is just around the 'corner' from Cooks Beach.  However Satellites don't recognise the exact location of Lonely Bay, or Shakespeares Cliff, so we will just have to remember this as being Lonely Bay, even though it states otherwise

And when we arrived late morning, it was indeed Lonely. We were the only ones on the beach for the first hour

 Fortunately the cloud cover dispersed and we were treated to beautiful blue skies. Minnie had some company and made friends with Lola

Here is a birds eye view of Lonely Bay and why it is a firm favourite to visit

 Time to head home and we stuck to our time honoured tradition of returning home by a different route via the Thames Coast road. Look at the wonderful views of Coromandel and the surrounding islands, and you can see why no matter how many times I see this view, I still gasp at the sheer beauty of it

January 8th Seriously? I Mean Seriously?

You didn't expect me to venture out for a photo today, with weather like this did you?

January 7th In Loving Memory Of My Wonderful Mum

Today would have been my Mum's 93rd birthday. I cannot think of her as a 93 year old and still picture her as she was when she was well and before she passed away on January 1st, 1984. Every New Year is tinged with sadness.

That is 4 candles at the top of Mum's headstone. We were going to light them and had one for each of us there, with the Romanian tradition being that it would give her light on the other side. However strong prevailing winds put paid to that idea, so we brought the candles home and I have set up a memorial in the lounge instead.

Love you Mum. Even though you have been gone now for 31 years and didn't get to know your grandsons Harley and Todd, or your great granddaughters Havana and Samara, I am sure you are with us and guiding us all (and shaking your head at times when we refuse to listen)

January 6th The Things We Take For Granted

Tonight's dinner was Snapper and a freshly caught Kahawai, which was gifted today, which George smoked. The Snapper I crumbed, and whenever we have fish for dinner it is just a habit of mine to cook up some frozen wedges. A very easy dinner with minimal effort required, apart from crumbing the fish which can be an icky job, but worth it.

Which brings me to my photo of the day. As mentioned the side was frozen wedges, which get popped in the oven and cooked until they are lovely and brown.

I got a shock to be asked by our guests 'what are these'.  They had never seen frozen wedges, peeled and read to pop in the oven before!  These are just one of the many things we take for granted, and my biggest dilemma is should I buy seasoned or non seasoned???

January 5th The Perfect Souvenir

We decided upon the perfect souvenir for our family to have  They didn't have much say in the matter - well they did and didn't put up too much resistance

I will always remember NZ!!

Are you sure this doesn't hurt

You can't be out at Raglan without seeing family. I didn't take any photos but found this attempt at a selfie when we got home

December 31st to January 4th - Happy New Year and Road Trips - Part Three

One final day of holidays before we head back to the reality of work and heads down and posteriors pointing upwards.

For today's drive, we decided to point the vehicle's nose in a southerly direction. First stop was the Otorohanga Kiwi House. No photos whatsoever are allowed in the Kiwi House as they are nocturnal birds, and it was disappointing that of the 4 on display, only one was out and about and grubbing for insects. Fortunately we did get to see the one, and she was a large bird. As proof we were there, I did manage to take a photo of some Kiwi Poo for you

From there we went further South and inland towards the West Coast to the Natural Bridge

Next stop? Marakopa Falls - which are 35 metres (114 feet) in height and thought to be NZ's most spectacular.  The forest walk to get there is wonderful and indicative of NZ forest walks

Then you come upon this wonderful sight, and recent heavy rains added to the waterfall's majesty

Next? Shudder back to reality and we have to re enter the workforce (with a thud)

December 31st to January 4th - Happy New Year and Road Trips - Part Two

Part One of the December 31st to January 4th Blog dealt with big city touring. Well as big as big can be in a small country like New Zealand. Cities are not our forte - our countryside is, and it was time to treat the family to some of NZ's natural delights.

January 3rd in the morning was spent visiting friends and family. We were keeping an eye on Weather Apps as to where it would at least not rain.  In the end we decided to drive up North again, but over to the West Coast and to the Waiuku area of New Zealand. Our first stop was at the lookout point for NZ's largest steel mill - which you may think is in conflict to seeing natural delights. However an interesting point with this mill, is that even though 2 chimneys are prolific smokers, the mill is surrounded by 420 hectares (1,038 acres) of a natural green belt (which is enforced). So it isn't such a blight on the environment and surrounds.

From there we decided to proceed to Glenbrook Beach - which I am sure I had never seen before, but George assured my crumbling brain cells that I had  All was good and well...

 Until we discovered the car keys had been locked in the boot of our locked car. The only consolation after a 2 1/2 hour wait for help to arrive, was when the technician advised us that VW's are one of the hardest vehicles to force entry into. Yes that is good, but not what we wanted to hear on this particular day

Notice that blue sky showed up after he arrived For the 2 1/2 hours preceding it was grey and wet - but fortunately not cold, just wet!

After that little misadventure we made our way to our original destination of Karioitahi Beach, a wild and wonderful black sand West Coast beach

December 31st to January 4th - Happy New Year and Road Trips - Part One

We decided to see out 2015 in fine style and with a bang. We treated ourselves and family to a prime spot location to see Auckland City's Fireworks display. That all went good and well, but it was the early hours of 2016 that will make this a New Years to remember.

Downstairs in downtown Auckland a live band was playing, so after the midnight festivities, we decided to head down to join the crowds. Yours truly, ie moi, usually shuns large crowds. I am anti social and prefer the company of my nearest and dearest. So this was a bit of a first for me for a New Year's Eve celebration.

Well I needn't have worried, but I hate to think what may lurk out there in YouTube land. A group of young Indian gents nearby saw me getting my boogie on and gyrating my geriatric hips and invited me to join them for a dance - which culminated in a dance off between me and a 20 something Indian Mover and Groover. The same also happened with a Chinese Granny, who congratulated me on my boogey. Which is all well and good, but on completion I had to pose for selfies with numerous of each of their individual groups. So this short plump pink haired Granny achieved her five minutes of fame. Yes there is a video made by George, but I sure as heck aren't posting that for public consumption

New Year's Day dawned and it was very wet. Our first stop to take the family was Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium

Yes I am puffed up with my own importance

Which way is the party guys?

We then drove up to the top of Mount Victoria in Devonport, Auckland for a birds' eye view of the Auckland city skyline

Confession time! This is the only photo I took as it was blowing a gale force wind. I let the others do the sightseeing duties and I maintained vigil from our vehicle.

This was followed by a visit to Sky Tower Auckland for some more panoramic 360 degree views. A lot of people freak out at the thought of standing on the glass floor panels. Lots of things do scare me (no photos taken whilst on swing bridges for instance), but as for this, definitely not

That was the first day of 2016 done and dusted. On to January 2nd and I thought I had better take a photo of our wonderful inner city hotel view from our room

A View to Die For.. Yes if I had to look at this every single day, I think I may well jump!

Then totally out of character for an inner city '4 Star' hotel (cough cough splutter splutter), I found this wonderful piece of graffiti art in the garage basement

Time to drive up North to catch up with family.  As Snow Planet is very close, we decided to have our first coffee of the day in the Cafe there so they could see what NZ'ers who do not have access to snow do - remember the saying "Build It and They Will Come" and yes they do.

We can't leave Snow Planet without me sharing their Loo With A View - the Ladies and Mens are the same (not that I checked out both, but thank goodness for modern technology and instant photography)!

December 30th Minnie's Double

On today's walk we chanced upon Minnie's double. Her owner was sitting in her car in the park with a friend when we came ambling along. She called out to me and asked if she could let her dog out. At first I expected some big huge monster to jump out of the vehicle, but I was surprised to find (excepting a different colour) a Minnie double!

It blew us both away how alike our dogs were, even down to their tails and faces. The only difference being colour as mentioned, and age - with a good 10 years of age between them. Minnie obviously holds her age well

Allow me to introduce Sassy...................

December 29th These Are The Days In My 'Hood

With an increase in temperatures (finally) upon us, and a lighter workload due to the holiday week, walks with Minnie have been occurring in the morning as opposed to the usual after lunch walk. Being a holiday week, there are more people out and about and when I got home, I actually realised what an interesting neighbourhood we have.

First off around the corner there was the house that I used to think resembled a creepy ghost house. Windows were never opened, and no inhabitants were ever spotted The elderly resident must have passed away, as there are now young people there. Windows are still closed (and it is a very hot day), but there are now cars parked on the property and I received a friendly wave from a young man mowing the lawns.

Further down the road to the newly painted house - a lovely grey and very similar colour scheme to ours - but the house is younger by a good 60 years. I managed to pass on my appreciation as to how good the house looked to the lady of the house, who was cleaning her windows. In return I received an appreciative thank you and best wishes for the New Year.

We couldn't go past Monty's abode (Minnie's canine boyfriend) without having a chat to Margaret and Selwyn, and catching up on their news, whilst Minnie and Monty smelt each others bums and were happy to see each other and chew the fat over what had happened in their lives since they last met.

Down the road from there and a hello to the Sri Lankan family, who were out front working on a fishing net! Mum was nowhere to be seen and I have had a couple of chats with her. They have only been in residence for 12 months and have planted a lovely garden and the house has been painted and spruced up since they moved in.

On to the Park, and half way along the green walkway is where an awesome big fat Ginger cat lives. I haven't seen him for a while - and today his captive owner was out front. I found out big Ginge is actually 13 years old and his name is Aranui.  He resides in the house with 4 other cats, and she is worried as there appears to be kittens on the way. Note to self... Crazy Cat Lady owns Big Ginge, but is nice to talk to.

On to our street... two little kids freewheeling their bikes down the hill - which to them was really big and steep (try our driveway kids and you will think again!).  They were waiting for their family who were out walking, to catch up. When they did I saw they had 2 vicious pit bulls with them. Fortunately they were on leashes, otherwise they would have enjoyed Minnie for breakfast. Or Minnie could have turned into a dastardly Ninja Dog and had them for breakfast - after all she is Super Dog in disguise.

Home and up the driveway (puff puff)... only to be advised by She Whom Is Suspect in the head and is a neighbour that there must be tomcats on the loose in the neighbourhood, as her chicken, which has just recovered from escaping and being kidnapped by another neighbour, has now been attacked by a tomcat.  The chicken may be near death and this is a great tragedy, but I was advised it was nothing some Manuka Honey couldn't fix.

Forget These Are The Days Of Our Lives... This is These Are The Days In My 'Hood!

December 28th Many Hands Make Light Work

Not only do many hands make light work, but they also lighten the workload!  How I wish we had his help to pack up Xmas decorations every year.  It took us 2 days instead of the usual 4 to 5, and everything was dismantled, packed and put away.

This photo shows only a portion of the decorations - these are the ones that go up into our very small - and yes it is very small, roof space, and they run the length of the kitchen. Johnny is in total shock as to how much there actually is once it all comes down. 

That's it for another year (or maybe two years).