Intrepid Walking 2011

Intrepid Walking 18-24 January 2010

2010-01-25T02:12:00.001+13:00

Last week we didn’t walk at all, we’re in the middle of a heat wave, with high humidity, and I didn’t have the energy to go up and down the stairs let alone out walking! I didn’t need the fan on today so hopefully it will be a little cooler this week.

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Intrepid Walking 11-17 January 2010

2010-01-25T02:02:00.001+13:00

January 11 - Waikumete Cemetery, Glen Eden.

This is my grandmother’s brother’s grave, looking a bit worse for wear, he died in 1920. It rained off & on while we were there so we didn’t stay long but it was a pleasant morning walking amongst the wildflowers looking for the grave of a relation of someone in England. Didn’t find it unfortunately.

My downfall & the reason I need to do more walking….

Gorgeous carnation grown by Dennis, smells good too.

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January 12 - Wellpark Reserve, Wellpark Ave, Westmere.

I lived at 42 Wellpark Ave until I was married so we took a little trip down memory lane today. Westmere is an older suburb of Auckland, the house I moved into when I was 9 mths old was already 90 years old in 1941. The above is now a reserve where ‘the gully’, as we called it, was back then. Below is the street from one end to the other, #42 is on the right about half way between the two cars.

Running down behind the houses on our side of the road was a chicken farm when I was young, by the time I left it was unused and quite dilapidated, we used to love climbing over the fence to play in the hen houses, yuk! Now it has been changed into pensioner flats!

We took our lunch and sat in the reserve, the weather was another perfect day.

This is #42 as it is now, it used to be a beautiful old Victorian Bay Villa (built c1850) before Dad rebuilt it in the style of the day in 1951, totally spoilt it! I’m sure I have a photo of the house back then but the only one I can find is this one taken on my wedding day in 1963! It looks like they’ve moved the front right wall back a bit and put in french doors and a verandah. That’s how it used to be before Dad rebuilt it except it was back level with the front door.

The house at #40 hasn’t changed much over the years though, it still has it’s drystone fence:-

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January 13 - No walk today, instead we had lunch with Liam & Flynn before they went back home to Melbourne.

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January 14 - Otuataua Stonefields, Mangere.

First stop - the airport to say goodbye.

It was another perfect day so on the way home we did a bit of a tiki tour of Mangere as it was Dennis’ turn for a bit of nostalgia, he used to own the Airport Dairy. As we drove past Ihumatao Quarry Rd I noticed a sign for the Stonefields so we investigated, neither of us had heard of them before. We spent the next couple of hours rambling around them, in the hot hot sun I might add!

It’s amazing the places you find in the city you’ve lived in all your life that you’ve never heard of.

There they go, they flew right over us!

Click on photo to read the information.

Looking out to Puketutu Island and the SkyCity Tower in the far distance.

One Tree Hill in the distance.

Not sure but this could be the remains of a Maori Pa. (I didn’t notice that splodge on the camera lens until later!)

My favourite photo of the week.

This tree was growing as a long hedge, was probably someone’s front garden once, looks like a native tree but I don’t know it.

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January 15 - a rest day, too tired after yesterday’s effort.

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January 16 - Oratia Farmers’ Market, Parrs Cross Rd, Oratia.

We spent a lovely morning browsing amongst the fresh produce for our weekly fruit & veges, strawberries, snow peas, green beans, mini roma tomatoes and three new herb plants we didn’t already have including a purple sage, plus a few seedlings for our garden.

The two things I especially went for, Maori potatoes and Echo Valley olive oil, weren’t there but we did have our lunch sitting in an old (very small) band rotunda listening to the live music.

Chocolate fish with our coffee!

All set in the midst of a vineyard.

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January 17 - we were just on our way out when visitors arrived so that put paid to today’s walk.

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Intrepid Walking 2010

2010-01-11T00:03:00.000+13:00

A new decade, a new year, a new name, a new project!

My new year’s resolution was to go walking for at least an hour every day this year - that lasted four days! It rained on the 4th but I couldn’t have walked far anyway, my muscles were tooooo sore from the first three days!

So now the new resolution is to TRY to go walking every day.

January 1 - Exhibition Drive Pipeline Walkway, Titirangi.

January 2 - Oakley Creek Walkway, Waterview.

January 3 - Exhibition Drive Pipeline Walkway, Titirangi.

January 4 - raining.

January 5 - Manutewhau Walkway, Moire Park, Massey.

You might guess this is the reason I wanted to get fit again! This is a scrum thingamabob that rugby footballers practise on. Not a pretty sight I know….

January 6 - a rest day!

January 7 - too busy, we had a family BBQ at our place before visiting son from Melbourne went home again.

January 8 - Oakley Creek Walkway, Waterview.

Didn’t take the camera today, just as well because it rained and we were drenched by the time we arrived back at the car again.

January 9 - Kiwi Valley Farm Park, Henderson Valley.

Youngest grandson, Flynn, aged 10 mths, blue-eyed blonde.

Liam & Harry - let’s all jump on Poppa!

Oh no not again - it’s bigger than the horse’s!

Harry loves his cousins.

May the best man win….

January 10 - rest day after 4 hours in the sun yesterday.

Today - the cemetery…….

Lunch with Harry

2009-11-15T21:08:00.001+13:00

Yesterday I was treated to a lovely birthday lunch at Harry’s place.

B.L.T Ciabattas with a little bubbles yummy…..

Harricane was in his usual fine form! He’s doing the Haka at the table!

And then guess what – it started raining, surprise surprise!

My daughter gave me this glorious sunflower on Thursday, it’s real too.

French Bay

2009-11-15T20:39:00.001+13:00

Last Wednesday we had to go to French Bay so we fitted in our walk at the same time. Unfortunately it was overcast and the tide was out so the photos aren’t that inspiring.

French Bay is the home of the Manukau Coastguard and the French Bay Yacht Club.

One lone fisherman was out there gutting his fish and feeding the seagulls.

Found this large scallop shell, shame it was empty!

This was a bright spot in an otherwise dull day, an Australian tree of some sort I guess.

Back home again as it started to rain yet again! This is the miniature rose bush that is now about 5 feet tall and blooming for the first time in about 8 years or so!

The vege garden is coming along nicely, beans & tomatoes shooting up, peas still wandering every which way, most of the radishes gone.

My birthday cakes :)

2009-11-12T22:12:00.001+13:00

Passionfruit Cheesecake and Carrot Cake – yummmm…..

Dove-Myer Robinson Park

2009-11-10T22:38:00.001+13:00

Last Friday I had to go to Parnell to pick up a book so we took our lunch and spent a very nice couple of hours walking around Dove-Myer Robinson Park, better known as the Parnell Rose Gardens. The park is named after the popular and longest serving mayor who served Auckland for 18 years, there are around 5,000 rose bushes planted there and this is the best time of the year to see them. Wow, what can I say, I leave it up to the photographs to speak for themselves. Roses as far as the eye could see!

See what I mean? Then we walked down through the park to a little beach called Judges Bay that looks like it is cut off from the sea by the main road along the waterfront. However, the tide still comes in and out so I guess the road only goes over the top of it somehow.

Here we see a train going past with the container wharf behind that and then the bay with Devonport & the Naval Base on the north shore in the distance.

All of a sudden this helicopter came in to land on the helipad somewhere in amongst the container wharves.

And then this one took off, what a clatter!

This happened while we were walking up the hill to this beautiful old church that is still used today. St Stephen’s Chapel was one of the first Gothic Revival churches commissioned by Bishop Selwyn. The chapel was built in 1857 and has a Greek Cross plan. It was originally built for the signing of the Constitution of the United Church of England and Ireland in New Zealand.

I was delighted to see the grave above is the resting place of Vicesimus Lush who I was reading about only recently.

While I was looking on Google I came across another photo of this tree taken during the winter, I wish I’d thought of framing the church with the tree, oh well we can’t all be great photographers!

Looking over towards the park we’d just come from, boy that was a steep hill!

With the Sky Tower in the background, it’s in the city a few kilometres away. The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere.

The end of another lovely day in paradise (when it’s not raining).

More from Whitianga

2009-11-10T17:12:00.001+13:00

This the old stamper battery that was used in the Moewai gold mine in 1908.

Then inside the museum we stepped into the 18th century and spent a wonderful hour remembering what we’d learnt in school about Captain Cook. This is his map of the area, didn’t do too bad did he?

View Larger Map

These two paintings depict the wrecking of the H.M.S Buffalo there in 1840 while collecting Kauri trees which were used for the ship’s spars, the beach was named after her.

An old butter churn that could churn out 200 gallons of butter in 1½ hrs.

And so that was our visit to Whitianga. On the way home I spied this beautiful sight and shouted stop! Luckily we were the only ones on the road at the time. Somewhere near Hikuai.

And no this isn’t the road we were on, NZ roads are slightly better, this is the farmer’s driveway.

Next time – the day of the Roses…..

Hot Water Beach

2009-11-06T18:08:00.001+13:00

While we were in Whitianga last week we took a trip down to Hot Water Beach a few kilometres south. A popular surfing beach but mainly popular for the hot water that seeps up through the sand from underground springs in certain parts of the beach. The best time to go is 2 hrs either side of high tide so we went racing off after breakfast without packing up so we’d make it in time. It was another lovely warm day but the wind was cold coming off the water on the beach.

People take or hire spades and dig large pits to sit in although not many people were sitting this time because it’s not quite summer here yet. You have to be careful because the water can be quite hot in spots, I ended up with lobster red feet!

After our paddle we went back to the shop for a coffee and while Dennis sat in the sun and talked to one of the locals I walked over the road to the Moko Artspace shop & showroom in the artist’s home.

The lady in the shop was especially proud of this cactus that flowers for just one day and today was the day!

After I tore Dennis away from his new friend we walked along a track that runs along the side of the beach.

After that we drove back to Whitianga and it was still only lunchtime so we had Subway before we went for a walk along the estuary.

We found this delightful little Museum where we spent an hour or so pottering around inside.

Built in 1911 for the Mercury Bay Dairy Co. We watched a film about Captain Cook when he first stopped on 3 Nov 1769 in Mercury Bay, so named as ten days were spent here observing the transit of Mercury. Before leaving Mercury Bay, the date and the ship's name Endeavour were carved into a tree, and James Cook took formal possession of this area.

More photos coming…..

Trip to Whitianga

2009-11-01T22:04:00.000+13:00

Last Wednesday we took a trip down to Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula to deliver some xmas lights to friends. They have a B&B right on the beach at Wharekaho Beach, the next one around the coast past Buffalo Beach. We had two days of perfect weather, hospitality and relaxation, not to mention a wonderful time.

View Larger Map

About 30 mins from Whitianga on the way there.

Looking out towards Mercury Bay, so called by Captain James Cook when he landed here in 1769.

http://onthebeachwhitianga.co.nz/ – where we stayed.

Looking towards the northern end of Wharekaho Beach better known as Simpson’s Beach.

Looking towards the southern end, 3.8km long. We had the whole beach to ourselves seeing it was a week day, so peaceful.

At the southern end.

Grumpy!

The New Zealand Dotterel (Tūturiwhatu pukunui) is an endangered species found only in this country. It was once widespread and common but there are only about 1500 birds left. This serious decline in numbers is due to a combination of habitat loss, predation by introduced mammals and disturbance during breeding.

These two were obviously rather distressed as we walked by, they kept running backwards & forwards chirping to each other – or us – they are showing their breeding colours – orange breasts – so we think they must have had a nest nearby.

Looking from Buffalo Beach Esplanade towards the Estuary and Ferry Landing.

Buffalo Beach, Whitianga.

Next time – Hot Water Beach……

Labour Weekend – Day 2

2009-10-25T18:19:00.001+13:00

It was overcast this morning so we just potted around in the garden for awhile then after lunch the sun was out, & in, & out again so we went for a ramble along the boardwalk of our local mangroves swamp! Very inspiring – not! I’m not holding out much hope for a better day tomorrow, mainly because rain is forecast!

Here’s a few photos of our garden, I thought it best to get in with the photos now before the insects & diseases take over once more! I would rather not use chemicals to spray on the garden, especially the stuff we eat, so by the end of the summer it’s not looking so hot!

This is the new raised herb garden we put in down the side of the house, it only gets the sun during the middle of the day so not sure how they’re going to go here. Still a few places to add more yet, when we find some we don’t already have.

The lettuces in the hydroponics are starting to grow once again, that’s rocket in the front, it sprouted up and went to seed within a few weeks! More lettuces will be added soon so we have new ones coming on regularly.

This is what our garden looked like this time last year before Dennis retired. Look at those weeds!

And this is what it looks like now, much better with the new raised vegetable garden in the middle. On the right is a retaining wall with a fence on top of that, our next door neighbours are behind the trellised fence in the background. Not very large but just a nice size for us. When we first shifted in 10 years ago we planted four slow growing palm trees across the back of our garden. It’s taken 10 years for them to have grown this much! One of them died so now we have this gap in which we’ve tried to grow other things but never had much success because this part of the garden is usually in shade most of the year except in the middle of summer. So now we’re hoping to at least get a good crop of peas, beans, tomatoes, silverbeet and beetroot.

In the background is the olive tree which is covered in little olives. Would you believe in the foreground is a miniature rose! Years & years ago it was planted in the corner of one of the steps leading up into the garden and it has never flowered. I kept on saying don’t pull it out I want to see it flower and it just grew bigger & bigger until this year I gave it a good talking to and said ‘ok this is it, you flower this year or I’m pulling you up’ and blow me down it’s absolutely covered in buds! Not the most inspiring of blooms though, a flat white one.

Seedling lettuces getting a bit of sun and in the background is a blueberry bush, there are two of those also covered in pretty white flowers that will <hopefully> eventually turn into blueberries.

One of my favourite plants – Coprosma Golden Glow. Transplanted after being in a pot and just shot up overnight. You might think we have funny looking soil in our garden, up until last year the whole garden was covered in weedmat underneath wood chips. We decided to pull up the weedmat and start again, there was so much wood chip that in the end we left some of it hoping it would rot down eventually.

Another miniature rose, buds are orange, flowers open to yellow and fades away to nearly white.

This is the New Guinea Impatiens ‘Red Fox’ that I bought yesterday, I can’t get a decent photo of it without the colour being overblown. It’s definately bright orange when you see it next to a red one.

Two climbers, purple pelargonium and an apricot rose.

The Avondale Mangroves Boardwalk.

Dead supermarket trolley! See what I mean – not that inspiring?

Mangrove fruit.

Dawn was the drive behind getting this boardwalk made, beats me why?

Labour Weekend – Day 1

2009-10-24T23:10:00.001+13:00

Our long holiday weekend was off to a good start weatherwise today, one out of the box. We went for a stroll around one of our local parks, had a picnic lunch and then called into the garden centre for a chaotic browse for plants to spruce up our garden for summer. Half of Auckland had the same idea, as I said very chaotic! We ended up with three herbs, a rainbow coloured silverbeet, three bright orange impatiens, 12 strawberry plants and a pop out strawberry container to grow them in!

This is an old b&w picture of the area taken in 1921, many years before it was developed into the beautiful park it is today. I lived nearby when I was growing up and us kids used to go there to catch tadpoles and bring them home in glass jars. I don’t ever recall any of them ever becoming a frog though!

Two Pukeko – Porphyrio porphyrio melanotus – bickering over a piece of bread.

I was fascinated with how they held the bread in their loooong toes to peck at it.

Huge eels in the lake, very fat & overfed!

Enough said!

Very large fish, don’t know what they are but look at that gorgeous gold colour.

Baby black swans, shame about the water being so muddy. Hey, it looks a bit like a painting rather than photo doesn’t it?

The playground was crowded.

Mother Australasian Coot – Fulica atra australis – feeding her baby.

These two swans were characters, they’d swim out together from the shore, then one would peel off to the right and the other to the left, turn around, meet in the middle and then race each other back to the shore as fast as they could! Bored teenagers I bet!

There were lots of people out & about, various nationalities and persuasions, all out walking their children, their dogs, feeding the birds & eels, picnicking and generally taking in the delights of a lovely day.

Hey, what’s a Melbourne tram doing in Auckland?

This young girl sat here the whole time we had our picnic, in quiet contemplation just staring into the water, romance problems perhaps?

Hoping for just such a lovely day tomorrow.

Dentist again

2009-09-17T15:35:00.001+12:00

On Tuesday I had an appointment with the Bone Research Study that I’m participating in at the hospital. I had to fast for the blood tests so I was really hungry by the time I arrived there at 10am. After three more bone density scans and blood & urine samples (why didn’t they tell me that before I went when I arrived!!) they gave me breakfast, very nice too. I had intended on taking my camera with me because we were going to walk in the domain afterwards but darn it I forgot it! It was another lovely day so the walk was very enjoyable.

Yesterday I made sure I had the camera with me on my second visit to the dentist in Newmarket. The weather has been wonderful lately so we detoured on the way to the train on our way home. I had the most decadent chocolate filled croissant with my mocha for lunch, at this rate I’ll need to walk forever.

There’s a lot of construction work going on in Newmarket at the moment, a new train station etc etc, it was so noisy and dusty that we made a quick getaway in the end, after a few snaps.

The murder house.

Spring beauty.

‘Sliver’, the Virginia King sculpture on the corner of Khyber Pass Road and Broadway.

A new bus service I hadn’t seen before, Waka Pacific. I liked the design painted on the bus - it reflects the Maori population of the Papakura area. The colours and shapes represent the water, air and land. There are also references to the area’s three pa sites.

Lunch in the sun. Behind the temporary blue wall is a lovely little park called Lumsden Green that must be having work done on it. The Green occupies a triangle of land at the intersection of Parnell Road, Broadway and Khyber Pass which had been put aside as a reserve in 1878. The park is ornamented by a modernist fountain, a 19th century canon and a stainless steel sculpture by Marte Szirmay installed in 1969 to mark the Centenary of the Newmarket Highway district. The park is named in honour of David Lumsden, the last Mayor of Newmarket before amalgamation with Auckland City in 1989.

Appetising food in the window of the Dondon Rikka Japanese Restaurant in Short St.

Where I live!

Nearly home, a little oasis in the midst of traffic chaos in New Lynn.

Fathers’ Day 06-09-09

2009-09-07T02:01:00.001+12:00

This year fathers’ day lasted all weekend! Yesterday Harry & his parents came to visit and as it was such a beautiful day we all took a trip out to Kiwi Valley Farm Park in Henderson. A great time was had by all and yes even grumpy old Poppa (he’s recently given up smoking) managed a smile or two!

First up was this cheeky talking Lorikeet who wasn’t too sure what this was on the man’s arm!

And he was really interested with whatever it was he found in Poppa’s beard! Sorry about the closeup dear….

Cute bunnies.

Mmmm I wonder……….

Yawnnn, no Mum this pony is too small.

That’s better Mum, the big horse, I’m a big boy now.

The tractor ride, see Poppa it’s fun aye?

Ernie the Emu.

Feeding the goats.

Harry’s first driving lesson!

Look Nana….

Oops…..I guess I should be watching the road!

Today Harry came to visit again, this time with Aunty Justine.

Another lovely day although cold out of the sun. Late afternoon we walked to our granddaughters’ place where the two of them (aged 9 & 12) cooked us a lovely Fathers’ Day dinner. Thanks girls it was yummy, Lasagne & Salad and Berry Pastry Dessert with a glass of wine.

Twinkles soaking up the late afternoon sun!

Nice one Becky, what’s with the squinty eyes!

That was our Fathers’ Day weekend, wonderful weather and great company. Love you all.

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I wonder what weather this week will bring, lots more sun I hope so I can do some walking and try to get fit again!

Spring has sprung….

2009-09-06T02:40:00.001+12:00

It’s been a long cold winter but now that Spring has arrived I’m ready to be out and about once more.

On Friday DH had to go to the doctor to get a steroid injection for his ‘trigger finger’ complaint (a nasty condition where the tendon that controls the finger spasms & locks the finger) and as it was a lovely spring day we caught the bus there. On the way home we stopped off at Olympic Park in New Lynn which is alongside the Avondale Stream. It has lovely walkways, playgrounds, Maori carvings and other pieces of art as well as an eco-system house and a spider sanctuary for the Avondale spider (species Delena cancerides) made famous as the eight legged 'killer spider' in Steven Spielberg's Arachnophobia.

These are a few photos I took along the way.

The first one is a Vireya Rhododendron in my garden that I gaze out on every day from my kitchen, this is just one branch of flowers.

Spring blossoms & flowers in abundance.

The first flowers of the Kowhai tree.

Maori Carving.

Hinaki Sculpture (Eel Trap).

The bridge over the stream with the power lines overhead.

From there we walked home via the Manawa Wetlands in Margan Street where they had recently been planting a new area to commemorate the babies born in Waitakere City last year.

Today was an even lovelier day weatherwise so we were out again with grandson Harry and his parents to visit Kiwi Valley, more on that tomorrow.

NZ Road Signs

2009-06-23T00:29:00.001+12:00

A funny little quirk of mine is that I like taking photos of road signs! Trouble is we can't stop when we're in a long line of traffic so I miss a lot of them! These are a few taken this year.

I haven't seen a sheep one yet but I'm sure they're out there somewhere. I'm also on the lookout for a Kiwi one but I think we're going to have to wait until we get to the South Island for that one. Here's a link to one - kiwi road sign.

And look, I even found a penguin one!

Winter's Day at Brown's Bay

2009-06-21T17:22:00.001+12:00

Harricane came to stay with us last night but he wasn't quite himself, he was only at half speed although he did manage a few water spouts in the bath.

That's his 'transformer' tatoo on his arm! We weren't allowed to wash it off.

At 5am he had a good cough and 'spat out his throat' as he put it - all over the bed! He didn't want any breakfast so after we went to our local wetlands to feed the ducks (I forgot my camera) we went to meet his parents at the skate board park on the beach at Brown's Bay.

It was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky so we had a picnic lunch.

What better way to end the day than with a hot yummy Superman Fluffy!

And a yummy mochaccino for Nana!

After that a quick trip to A & E where they found he had tonsilitis! No wonder he was only at half speed.

Fading Beauty of Autumn

2009-06-08T17:06:00.001+12:00

Seeing that it's winter here already I thought I was too late to see Cambridge in it's Autumn splendour but was pleasantly surprised to still find some signs of it left. Yesterday we took our daughter down to pick up her new car so took the opportunity to have a look around and to scrummage through the antique shops of course!

First stop Huntly on the Waikato River.

Second stop the car! A 2001 Ford Mondeo Zetec.

Cambridge township. It was a beautiful sunny day with not a cloud in the sky but brother it was freezing, the wind was coming straight off the snow!

Still some signs of what the countryside must have looked like a few weeks ago.

Cambridge is also home to many Horse Stud Farms. This lovely tile was in the footpath.

Cambridge Town Hall built 1909.

Just by the Town Hall.

Cambridge Superloo - I wasn't paying no 50c to use it though! Just what is a Superloo anyway?

St Andrew's Church, it looks even better in real life.

The red iron, Victorian pillar-styled letterbox on the corner of Victoria and Hamilton Roads was built by P & D Duncan in Christchurch and installed about 1898. It has stood on this corner ever since. At that time it cost between £9:10:- and £10:10:-. There are not many of these old letter boxes still in use and the insignia VR makes this one very special.

St Andrew's again.

Still a few leaves left on this lovely June day.

On the way home we stopped by the Waikato River and took these photos of the sacred Maori cemetery on Taupiri Mountain.

I was freezing but I just couldn't resist these photos, the river looked so beautiful with the setting sun shining on it and the water so still.

Across the other side of the river.

A little further on we came to the Kimihia cemetery in Huntly. The old part of the cemetery was covered in fallen leaves and with the setting sun throwing long shadows on the lawn it was a lovely sight.

On the way home we stopped in to wish Lauren a very happy 12th birthday and had lots of yummy chocolate cake. The perfect end to a lovely day.

Flynn Charles 25.3.09

2009-06-02T00:51:00.002+12:00

My new grandson in Melbourne was supposed to be born on the 9th of April but he had other ideas and surprised everyone by turning up on the 25th of March.

Just like his father!

With Mum & Dad & big brother Liam James at his maternal grandmother's 70th birthday party.

I flew to Melbourne on the 3rd of May to stay with them for a few weeks.

Yeah I managed to snap a smile!

I think his big brown eyes have grown even bigger, he sure has since I was there last.

Love you both.

2-5-09 Harry's 4th Birthday

2009-06-01T21:21:00.003+12:00

And then there was Harry's 4th birthday party at McDonald's! One small room, 17 children plus parents = chaos! Enuff said!

Of course I'll smile Nana, this is my best pose.

Before the chaos - I'll spare you the during & after photos!

The TMNT are back in fashion! Happy birthday Harry, love you.

Grandchildren & Cemeteries

2009-06-01T16:18:00.002+12:00

Sometime in April Dennis sliced his heel rather badly so the weekly walking trips went by the board until it was better. Just before it happened one sunny autumn day we took our two granddaughters for a drive to the Purewa Cemetery in Meadowbank to search for a grave I was interested in finding. They were really spooked about being in a cemetery so we didn't stay long, it took me all my time to get them out of the car! They're not looking too happy are they?

After that we visited relations in Kohimarama and went for a walk on the boardwalk along the beach, just a beautiful day.

A few photos I've taken of our grandchildren since then.

This is how you hold your tongue when you're playing a game on your cousin's mobile phone!

Harry's swimming lessons. He's funny, he loves them but he keeps on forgetting to kick and sinks like a stone!

31.3.09 A Day on Waiheke Island

2009-05-31T23:24:00.000+12:00

Just 35 minutes from Auckland by ferry takes you to Waiheke Island. Situated in the Hauraki Gulf, Waiheke boasts a subtropical climate and a beautiful 100 km coastline.

My family used to holiday regularly on Waiheke when I was growing up, it was a very popular destination. In those days it would take us 3 hours on the old 'Baroona' ferry and more often than not at least one of us three girls would be throwing up by the time we arrived! There was only one shop where we were, in Surfdale, where you could only get fresh milk & bread (delivered daily from the mainland) & other basics and as we were always there for Christmas Day I hate to think how my parents managed to get us, food for two weeks, our clothes and all our xmas presents there in one piece! There were no cars & very few buses either so we walked everywhere.

Dennis has lived in NZ since 1964 but has never been there so today was the day, especially as all public transport is now free for us pensioners, including the ferry! Up early, pack our picnic lunch, catch the train into the city & onto the ferry that is now only a 35 min trip.

Inside the Britomart Railway terminal in the city.

Don't you love people that walk in front of you!

Outside the station on the way to the ferry we stopped to look at this magnificent bronze sculpture of a Maori Warrior made by Molly MacAlister in 1964.

The old Ferry Building built on reclaimed land in the Edwardian Baroque style in 1912 is now a Category 1 Historic Place. It was extensively restored in 1986. Taken from the roof of the ferry by Dennis.

The waterfront as we pull out from the wharf (Dennis again).

I forgot to take a photo of the ferry we went on so I found this on the net.

Just coming into Matiatia wharf. From there we caught the bus to Onetangi Beach.

The local mothers' walking club at Onetangi.

Onetangi Beach on a Tuesday morning in March. It's the most beautiful long sandy beach, we walked along to the end and back to catch the next bus to Surfdale.

I wanted to have a look around at the place I stayed at over 50 years ago, it's changed beyond recognition, no shop, no wharf where the ferry first stopped, very nostalgic though.

This is where the Surfdale wharf used to be, now there's absolutely no sign that it was ever there! Just around the corner is Blackpool beach.

We stopped to have lunch on Surfdale beach, not the most exciting beach in the world but we kids had such fun here.

Joined by a few ever hopeful seagulls!

The water that day was like glass.

I can't be exactly sure but I think this might be the house we used to stay in, but then again maybe not.

Back to the bus stop to catch the bus onto the main shopping centre at Oneroa Beach.

And here it comes.

Toi Tois at Oneroa. Yes that's a sailing shop anchored in the bay.

This is as close as we got to the beach, after walking around the shops we didn't have time to get down there before the bus was due again. Back on to the ferry where we had nice hot mochaccinos on our way home.

Going past the container wharves with the city behind them. We didn't see any sun that day although it was a lovely warm day it was overcast all day. The city looks sort of smoggy doesn't it.

What a contrast in the colouring of these two photos.

A different view of the Ferry Buildings.

Auckland Waterfront Serviced Apartments built to look like a cruise ship on Prince's Wharf where all the cruise ships berth.

And so back to the railway station and home. This is the facade of the old Auckland Post Office, step inside the doors and you're in the Britomart Railway Station. You will find a photo of the post office when the trams were still running here.

Next stop the cemetery......

21-3-09 Whenuapai Air Show

2009-05-31T15:42:00.001+12:00

We were going to meet grandson Harry & his parents at the show so armed with our mobile phones we set off nice & early. Woops, the next thing we knew we had joined the rush to beat the rush! Harry's dad had hit worse coming from the North Shore and it took them an hour longer than us to get there!

When we finally arrived we found there was very spasmodic phone reception so we had a merry old time trying to track each other down! By the time we found them we'd eaten our picnic lunch & as it was such a hot day I ended up most of the time sitting in the shade of the aeroplane wings! Anyway, the air show was fabulous, an enjoyable time was had by all but boy was I pooped when we arrived home!

View Larger Map

Next stop Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf......

Weekend in Whitianga

2009-05-31T09:42:00.001+12:00

Well, so much for retirement, no time to keep all of my blogs going! Catching up now.

Back in March I went away with the Card Girls (so called because we've been playing cards for over 40 years) for a rest & relaxation weekend. We do it once a year and this year we went to Wharekaho Beach probably better known as Simpson's Beach just a few minutes the other side of Whitianga.

The weather wasn't the best that weekend but as usual we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We stayed at a wonderful bed & breakfast run by Diana & Gordon Barnaby called On The Beach and it was, literally!

This was the view from the lounge when we arrived.

That night we went to the local RSA for dinner and had a lovely hot spa before bedtime.

Next morning dawned bright & sunny, for awhile!

After breakfast we went into Whitianga township for a spot of shopping & walking along the waterfront - until it started raining again! We then decided to catch the boat to have lunch at Ferry Landing.

I had the most yummy whitebait fritters for lunch and completely forgot to take a photo of them! Not that much to see at Ferry Landing but this pretty little cemetery caught my eye.

And here we are on our way home again.

Notice how I very artfully never have to be in the photo! One of the girls took the plunge when we arrived home, the rest of us were too pooped!

That night Diana & Gordon had cooked a wonderful roast dinner for us. Sunday we stopped for lunch on the way home and that was our weekend finished for another year.

View Larger Map

Next stop Whenuapai Air Show......

Boo!

2009-03-12T18:16:00.002+13:00

I'm still here folks! Back on the beat so to speak.

DH Dennis was going to retire this year but with the current recession his firm had been laying their workers off and he went in the second wave at the end of February! Not a complete surprise but a bit of a shock to the system when he'd been working there for nearly 20 years.

We haven't yet decided what we're going to do with our lives but we're definately not going to sit around waiting to shuffle off this mortal coil that's for sure. I would like to travel around NZ for a year or two, in a mobile home, to see where we might like to live eventually, but there's no rush. In the meantime senior fares on the public transport is all free now so we're going to take advantage of that and have a good look around the city we currently live in. I was born here and apart from living in Melbourne for a year have never left so I think I know it pretty well. However, Dennis moved here from England in 1964 and has never been to the South Island and would you believe Waiheke Island! So that's on the agenda very soon.

Twice a week we're going to catch the train, get off at a stop we haven't been to before and have a look around combined with a bit of walking and a cup of coffee before we come home again. At the very least we will/should get fairly fit.

Today we started off with getting the train to the last stop out west - Waitakere. Not the most exciting place to start off with but never mind, the weather was good and we found a little park to sit in to have our lunch. There was one shop, one school, a sports field where we had lunch, a railway station and a public toilet and that was about it! Oh yes the RSA but that wasn't open today.

Tois Tois in Waitakere

Waitakere Primary School built in 1921.

Bus stop outside the school.

Us playing in the park!

Heritage Day in Helensville - Part 2 (cont)

2008-12-16T21:10:00.002+13:00

After we walked around town looking at the old buildings we stopped in at the Helensville Pioneer Museum Open Day.

Helensville Primary School opened in June 1877, although this house, the home of school principals from 1883 to 1973, wasn't built until 1883.

Hedley Cottage, this Edwardian cottage was built in 1910-1912. It was opened as the offical museum for the Helensville & District Historial Society on 11 Dec 1970.

The bedroom.

The Hec Nicholls Memorial Barn is dedicated to the first president of the Helensville & District Historical Society. This mural painted on the side of the barn is of Mr John & Mrs Helen McLeod, the founders of Helensville. The Maori carving I presume is of the local hapu of the Ngati Whatua iwi.

Aren't they cute? A couple of Alpacas from the Alpaca farm at South Head in Kaipara.

On the drive home we passed this Tuscan style farm house, I could have sworn we were in Italy! Shame about the power lines!

On the opposite side of the road were these beautiful creatures, sorry about the rear views!

And that's the final in the saga of our weekend to Helensville and Parakai. Next on the agenda is our long weekend trip to New Plymouth but first I have to sort through about 500 or so photos!

Have a very merry Christmas everyone.

Meri Kirihimete

Ka kite anō, mā te wā

Strolling around the Gypsy Fair

2008-12-07T11:22:00.002+13:00

Yesterday was such a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky with a slight breeze to cool you down now and again. We spent the morning walking around this Gypsy fair at one of our local parks. I surprised myself and didn't buy anything although there was a very cute birdhouse that tempted me, I resisted though!

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post more Helensville photos yesterday, will soon.

What were they listening to when you were born?

2008-12-06T07:38:00.003+13:00

Here's something a little different. The #1 song on this date in history site allows one to search by date for and listen to Billboard's #1 song on a specific date in history back to the 1890's. In order to hear the songs one needs to have iTunes installed on the computer. I found that searching for songs for dates such as children's births, weddings etc triggered my memories for the times these events occured. When I was married the #1 was "Chariots of Fire" by Vangelis (haha very appropriate) and when I was born the #1 was "Only Forever" by Bing Crosby (if only!).

Heritage Day in Helensville - Part 2

2008-12-04T23:08:00.003+13:00

Now, where was I? Oh yes we'd just had breakfast at the old railway station.

So after breakfast we went for a walk around Helensville to look at all the old buildings that were open for Heritage Day.

The Old Grand Hotel

The New Grand Hotel

And it's beautiful gardens!

This is what NZ weeds look like, probably very similar to yours! Poor neglected old house, it looked so forlorn that I couldn't help myself, makes a lovely photo though. Those trees on the right with the long thin trunks are NZ Cabbage Trees.

Malolo House

Built in 1904 as a doctor’s residence, the separate "Kaipara Wing" was added in the 1920’s as a cottage hospital. It was the local maternity hospital until 1958. Dr. Farqhuar Matheson christened the house "Malolo" in 1924, after spending time in Samoa. ‘Sau Malolo’ means ‘Come and Rest’.

The Regent Theatre

The Regent was built in 1941 during the War. It was a 400-seat theatre and was filled to capacity most Saturday nights during the 1950's and '60's. The lovely art deco-styled foyer is now the Cafe Regent with a capacity of 45 seats for dinner and 20 for dinner and movie. It didn't look like the cafe was open any longer though. The rest of it is full to the rafters of vintage ephemera, I had a ball in there!

The Old Post Office

Built in 1911, it is now an antiques and collectables shop.

Not sure about this one, looks like a church, now the Christian Life Centre.

After the walk around town we called in at the Helensville Museum on our way home, more photos tomorrow.....

Heritage Day in Helensville

2008-11-14T22:51:00.002+13:00

Sunday morning after checking out we had breakfast in the old Helensville Railway Station that is now The Ginger Crunch Station Cafe, the traffic in and out was constant and what a delightful atmosphere. We were serenaded by two young girls singing with their guitars and the food was great.

I had the Western Line dish, french toast (with nuts) , bacon, bananas & maple syrup, yum! However, I would have put the glass of maple syrup on the plate after I sprinkled it all with icing sugar!

And to finish a mochaccino with a complimentary slice of Ginger Crunch.

Then off we went to walk around Helensville to see all the old historic buildings and to visit the museum and historic village. BTW Helensville & Parakai are synonomous with each other, Parakai being just a few kilometres down the road from Helensville, or vice versa!

Back to Weekend in Parakai

2008-11-14T13:09:00.004+13:00

So after we left the Macadamia Farm we drove a bit further up the coast to Shelly Beach where we sat and watched a runabout with two men being rescued, I think their outboard had conked out!

Then we drove home, had pizza for tea and watched the election day results in between a few more soaks in the pool!

Wording on the monument:-

This monument was placed here in 1990 as a sequicentennial gesture. It replaces the original stone that was placed here in 1884 to commemorate the Great Meeting House erected on the foreshores of Herepiiti Aotea. We thank both the Maori & Pakeha for their combined efforts to mark this historical occasion.

Maori - indigenous people of NZ

Pakeha - originally referring to the early European settlers of NZ

Happy Birthday

2008-11-13T20:47:00.002+13:00

Yesterday was my birthday and we went to DGS Harry's place where his mum made us a lovely dinner. Harry was at his full on best, this is the photo where he was at his slowest!

This was dessert, yum, thanks Harry's mum - and dad for the BBQ.

Did you know that on this day in 1952 the first false fingernail was sold? Gosh I would have been 12 and probably didn't have a clue of such things! I do remember that at a very young age I thought the year 2000 was that far away that I probably would never see it - and here I am 8 years afterwards and still going strong, well fairly strong :).

Thank you to all my friends who sent me email, facebook and such like birthday greetings, you made my day.

My New Blog

2008-11-12T14:57:00.002+13:00

Announcing my new blog - Strangers in a Box - all about my steadily growing collection of vintage photographs, mainly of unknown people, and my attempt to restore them.
Please pop on over and have a look and if you have any of said photos you would like to share please don't hesitate to leave me a comment on either blog. I'm also prepared to purchase any unwanted vintage photos so please keep an eye out for me.

Macadamia Farm

2008-11-10T15:25:00.003+13:00

Then we wandered around the farm for an hour or so and had the whole place to ourselves.

I wasn't up for an angry beehive so out came the tele lens.

Visit to Parakai (cont)

2008-11-10T13:48:00.004+13:00

After settling into our motel and our first soak in the pool next stop was lunch at this cafe, very cosy with lots of arty stuff for sale.

After lunch we started to drive out to the South Head of the Kaipara Harbour but were waylaid by the Macadamia Farm. We stopped to buy some macadamia nuts and found a beautiful farm to wander around. First we bought bags of nuts and a macadamia nut cracker (ever tried to crack one of those beauties?).

Then we had a macadamia coffee with a lovely nutty flavour, sitting in the sun enjoying the view and the sparrows.

It's the wrong time of the year to see the nuts on the trees but I did manage to find a few flowers to show you the life cycle of the macadamia nut. First the flowers.

Then the nuts start forming.

I found these on the ground, green nuts, one that had split open to show the nut inside and finally the nut a little shrivelled and a few broken shells.

More later.....

Visit to Parakai

2008-11-10T10:41:00.003+13:00

On the way to Parakai we stopped at the Oratia Farmers' Market to pick up some Maori potatoes but they weren't there, too early in the season for them I guess. Picked up some lovely freshly grown strawberries and a pot of my favourite Apricot Chutney, the day was one out of the book and I really wanted to stay & browse some more but those mineral pools beckoned!

Next stop was morning tea at Kumeu at the Carriages Cafe which is a couple of old train carriages with a lovely sunny deck built between them to extend the cafe. A really beautiful spot right by a pond, great coffee too.

Weekend in Parakai

2008-11-09T22:32:00.004+13:00

We decided to pop up to Parakai for the weekend to soak away our aches & pains in the mineral pools after spending all week waterblasting around the house. We stayed in the Geothermal Motel for the night and spent a lovely two days having a look around the area which is steeped in history. I must say I recommend the motel if anyone is thinking of heading that way, we had wonderful service from Nicolette who runs the motel, the unit we were in had a covered outside private pool that you could heat at will and we definately took good advantage of it.
We were lucky to strike Heritage Day in Helensville today so that was a lovely bonus. I'll post all my photos tomorrow as I think I soaked up too many minerals and am now quite pooped! I think this one is my favourite from the weekend, taken inside the old Helensville Railway Station which is now a lovely cafe, I took this while waiting for my breakfast, the mini quilt was hanging on the back of the door.

Help educate little kids

2008-11-07T13:18:00.004+13:00

A blog friend of mine is requesting postcards from around the world for her two children who take them to school where their classmates then have a talk on where the postcards came from. I think this is an excellent idea for young people to learn about the rest of the world so I was delighted to send them a couple last week. She would still love more from other parts of the world so if you'd like to send one or two then please visit this page on her blog. Or just send them to this address:-

Pravan and Priyasha Landry
8140 Willow Ranch Trail
Reno, NV 89523
USA

An Historic Day

2008-11-06T19:24:00.002+13:00

Using part of the Speech On the Granting of Indian Independence, August 14, 1947 by Jawaharlal Nehru 1889-1964.

Our Hydroponics System

2008-11-01T23:51:00.005+13:00

A few weeks ago I mentioned that our hydroponics were down for maintenance and that I missed being able to pick my daily salad. Where it was located is now almost always in the shade thanks to the trees in our neighbours place growing over the 10 years we've been here. So we've shifted it to where it's mostly in the sun and added another couple of rows. As you can see it's all home made (brilliant DH) with the battery that's needed to pump the water running from a solar panel (the large white thingi). The pump comes on 4 times a day for 5 mins and that's all it needs, the water with the nutrients is pumped up from the tank below and runs down the 4 channels and back down into the holding tank again.
The plants you see have been in for a week and already the strawberries have a flower. There are also my favourite fancy lettuces, mustard, parsley, chives and yesterday in went two round patty green courgettes and three different coloured cherry tomatoes, they'll probably need tying up to the fence later - hopefully! Still more room yet so I'll probably get a few more herbs and a dwarf spinach or two. This little corner of the garden is always where the grandchildren head for first in the summer, they even beat the birds to the strawberries!
If anyone would like to know the ins and outs of running a hydroponic system just let me know and I'll get all the details from DH.
Note: Okay I'm an idiot, I didn't even notice there was no solar panel on the white thingi, apparently it broke and we're just waiting to be able to afford a new one! I also knew all about it breaking according to DH!

New Plymouth 24-10-08

2008-11-01T21:51:00.005+13:00

Back to our weekend in New Plymouth. After we'd settled in we were enjoying a cuppa outside our cabin - all bundled up against the cold but there was more room outside than in - when we were entertained with these old planes practising their aerobatics for a display they were giving over the weekend. Oh good, an excuse to get out the tele conversion lens for my camera, it's only a x1.7 though so this is as close as I could get.

And then these birds thought they'd get in on the act!

Soon after that it started raining and didn't stop all night, it just bucketed down and the cold was blowing straight from the South Pole!

To cheer ourselves up we read in the local paper there was a 24 hour book sale on that night so we found our way there and spent a happy two hours searching through all sorts of books. I'm into audio books but didn't find any of those, however, I was delighted to find these two Peter Mayle books, the first two in his series about buying a house & living in France, that I've wanted to read for awhile now. I can get the third book on audio from the library but the first two haven't been made into audio books so I was loathe to start with the third one! I wasn't even looking for them and there they were side by side. Along with the two other books on old NZ that are both loaded with old historic photos and another small very funny book that I read over the weekend I was a happy chappy - until we stepped outside the door to be confronted with the pelting rain, we were soaked to the skin by the time we ran to the car - and to top the night off there was nowhere in the cabin to hang clothes so we had them hanging from the curtain railings and all sorts of unusual places, hoping they'd be dry by the morning! BTW if you're looking for a delightfully funny book that doesn't take too long to read let me know and I'll post it to you, it's called "This Blessed House" written (in 1989) by Da'Vella who is a popular NZ artist. She bought a historic Catholic church and along with her 9 year old son built herself a house from it and another church she bought later at the beautiful Lake Hayes in the South Island.

And so to bed, looking forward to not hearing the rain when we woke up!

My Hero

2008-11-01T21:10:00.000+13:00

How's this for confidence?

2008-11-01T18:25:00.004+13:00

Note: You may have problems with the video stopping & starting. If you do watch it to the end then play it again, I've found that it's okay the second time around.

Next Stop.....

2008-10-31T23:42:00.003+13:00

.....New Plymouth 12.27pm

7 hours 37 mins to do a 5 hour drive wasn't too bad! We stayed in the Belt Rd Seaside Holiday Park right on the sea and brother was it cold the whole weekend! I lived in my warm raincoat that I'd thrown in at the last moment just in case! We did have a very nice view from our cabin although looking at the port of New Plymouth spoiled it a bit.

Next Stop.....

2008-10-31T22:15:00.004+13:00

.....Tongaporutu 10.23am

I'd read an article in a Motorhomes magazine about The Three Sisters at Tongaporutu so I was hoping the tide would be out when we arrived because you can only access them at low tide - we were in luck. You walk out along an inlet towards the sea and just around the corner are the Three Sisters - now jokingly called the 2 1/2 sisters because the sea has worn away one of them, further along is the Maori rock carvings and Elephant Rock. I didn't find out about the Maori carvings until after we'd been there so I was disappointed I didn't get to see them.

There's a really lovely photo of the area on this website that shows Mt Taranaki in the background.
Next stop.....New Plymouth

Next Stop.....

2008-10-30T16:35:00.007+13:00

.....just out of Piopio 9.12am

We didn't stop at Piopio but I wish we had now as I missed seeing this sign, found it on the Internet.

Piopio is named after the now extinct NZ native Thrush, all the streets in Piopio are named after NZ native birds.

Somewhere around Paemako by the Mangaotaki River we spotted these unusual rock formations so another unresistable photo stop!

I was surprised to see this tree was full of plums, I hadn't noticed them at the time!

Next stop......

Next Stop.....

2008-10-30T15:08:00.006+13:00

.....just out of Te Kuiti 8.50am

I couldn't resist stopping to take a photo of this beautiful scene.

Next stop.....

New Plymouth Here We Come!

2008-10-30T13:22:00.006+13:00

Last Monday was Labour Day here in NZ so we decided to take a couple of extra days and have a break away. DH has an Aunty who moved to New Plymouth last year so that was our destination. Would you believe we left Friday morning at 4.50am, no I didn't think so, I didn't believe it either, but we did!
From New Lynn West on the map

First comfort stop - Huntly 6.11am & the first light of day

Sunrise over the Waikato River.

The Huntly Power Station - the largest thermal power station in New Zealand, supplies around 17% of the country's power.

Second stop for breakfast - Otorohanga 7.36am

Shopping centre, hardly a soul stirring.

Both sides of the long street had these lovely hanging baskets all the way along.

A painted wall on the side of one of the shops.

This is the side of the antique shop, shame it wasn't open yet!

I had to laugh at this one, some of the kiwi icons that make us Kiwis!

Next stop Te Kuiti....

Harry the Softballer & his team

2008-10-20T18:05:00.005+13:00

I'm finally uptodate on posting my photos, this last lot is from Saturday's game.

Getting the low down from Coach Chopper.

Warming up.

I'm here, hit it this way.

This has to be my favourite of all of them - and there's Harry right in the middle of the mêlée!

Butter wouldn't melt in their mouths!

Shirt too big pants too long......LOL

Fabulous hit Harry, too bad it was a foul ball......

Okay be patient, just practising my stance.....

Great game everyone, three cheers for........

Happy little angel

2008-10-20T16:44:00.002+13:00

On the way to softball he actually sat down (his choice of seat!) and sat STILL to let me take some photos, it was my lucky day! This was his angel phase of the day, the little s..t phase came later when he was tired out from all the exercise.

A little monkey

2008-10-20T16:32:00.003+13:00

And now Harry the Mountaineer!

A little impromptu concert

2008-10-20T16:22:00.002+13:00

So far we've had Harry the Softballer now it's Harry the Musician.

French Market at French Bay

2008-10-20T12:40:00.004+13:00

The weekend before last we drove to one of our local beaches on the Manukau Harbour where they have a French market day once a month. We had french crepes on the beach and went for a stroll in the spring sunshine. People were out and about with their children & dogs and having a great time buying up at the french bakery set up in the Yacht Club!

This was an interesting tree I came across, looks Australian to me but just waiting on a botanist to identify it for me.

Photos from Healesville Sanctuary

2008-10-20T10:19:00.004+13:00

Back to my visit to Australia in August. These are some of the beautiful Raptors that fly free at the Healesville Sanctuary Raptors Free Flight Demonstration. If you're ever going that way the Sanctuary is well worth a visit (and the price!), but make sure you put aside at least half a day!

I didn't take notes on what the different birds are, thought I would remember, hah right!

I've done a bit of research on them and I think this one is either a Brown Falcon or an Australian Hobby, I can't tell because they look very similar.

This is Beatrice the Black Breasted Buzzard.

And Ace the Wedge-tailed Eagle.

Ace again, isn't he beautiful?

The gorgeous Barn Owl.

The Brown Falcon or Australian Hobby again.

Better version of the Healesville Santuary movie

2008-10-20T08:09:00.003+13:00

Harry's first day at Softball

2008-10-20T00:01:00.008+13:00

Yesterday I went along to DGS Harry's very first game of softball (t-ball for the young ones) and what a time we all had, I think the parents enjoyed it as much as the children did! Harry is 3 & a half, not quite used to sharing the ball yet so a few tears but he's getting the hang of it! He's the one with red sneakers, the third generation of softballers in our family and the third generation of lefties!

I've just noticed the word 'thank' has been left out of the credits at the end, it took hours to upload this version (24megs) so I'm sure not going to do it again!

PS If you're wondering why this is coming up as a new post when you saw it yesterday it's because I deleted yesterday's video and uploaded a better version of it, this one is not so blurred!

Healesville Sanctuary

2008-10-09T22:24:00.005+13:00

This is 6 mins 09 secs of animals & birds with DGS Liam talking in the background! We spent a lovely 3 or 4 hours here on the way home from Marysville, but it wasn't long enough, I could have stayed there all day and come back tomorrow for more!

Edited 20 Oct 2008

I've reuploaded a better version of this video, see the 20th.

Last ones in the snow

2008-10-09T20:03:00.002+13:00

Just a few more from the snow then I'm onto the Bird Santuary visit - more birds!
My youngest son, his wife & son.

Three generations.

Not the most elegant of photos, brother I was so cold I could hardly move, trying to stand up was not a pretty sight either! See that hand without a proper glove, I'd taken it off to take photos, it was frozen solid!

Am I boring you yet?

2008-10-09T17:27:00.004+13:00

Here's a few more photos from our weekend in the snow. The first one is another bird I took from a fair way away, don't know what it is, not as pretty as the parrots but we can't all be stars can we!

Misty morning amongst the eucalyptus trees.

Little kid.

Big kid.

Big & little kid.

Methinks we've just had a hot chocolate drink!

Just fallen off the toboggan and loving it.

Huge snowball destined for Nana - thank goodness he could hardly lift it let alone throw it!

Snowy tree stump.......you MUST be bored by now!

Great quote

2008-10-08T23:25:00.001+13:00

I read this on a photographer's blog, I think he was talking about his camera but who knows!

'It's better to go out and shoot absolutely nothing than to leave your gears doing nothing in the drybox'.

Wednesday

2008-10-08T22:34:00.003+13:00

Back to my Aussie holiday in August, I still have heaps of photos I haven't posted yet.

These are a few of the parrots I saw on the first morning of our holiday weekend in Marysville. Friday morning we woke up to constant drizzly rain and this was to be our first day up the mountain to play in the snow. These beautiful birds came to visit us while we were having breakfast, hoping for their share I reckon. I took these photos through the window because I thought if I went outside they'd all fly away and I'd miss my photo opportunity. Most of the photos turned out a bit blurry, not because of shooting through the window but because in my hurry to get the camera before they flew away I forgot to put it on the right settings!

This one I think is a Crimson Rosella.

This one is a female King Parrot, still fairly young I think because she doesn't have the ring around her eye yet.

This one is the male King Parrot.

Both of them sitting on the BBQ, you can see how wet it was.

This one looks like a very young baby with his adult feathers just starting to come through. Isn't he cute all ruffled like that, not the best photo!

This funny Galah Cockatoo I saw out for his morning walk across a field with his mate on our way to the mountain after breakfast. Taken out of the car window.

At the same time I loved the look of this old horse drawn cart & barrels that were sitting there as we were waiting at the traffic lights.

More soon.....

My other new shoes

2008-10-06T01:20:00.002+13:00

Saturday & Sunday

2008-10-06T00:02:00.005+13:00

On Satuday I went to the 70th birthday party of one of the card girls - in case you haven't read my blog back far enough - we've been playing cards for 40 years! I won't subject you to a photo of us all but here are some gorgeous flowers she received in my favourite colours.

I was hoping for a nice warm sunny day today (which is now yesterday) but no such luck, at least it was warm but overcast most of the day & quite windy. Nevertheless we decided to go for a walk somewhere but first lunch in this nice little cafe not far from where we live. We had a yummy fish pie and I forgot to take a photo of it!

On the way back to our car I saw this beautiful Chinese Toon growing over the top of someone's roof.

Just at the end of the same road is a little beach called Green Bay which I haven't been to for at least 40 years so we went to check it out. On the way through the bush to get there we came across this sign, looks very inviting doesn't it?

The beach is very small so I'm afraid today you mostly get me!

Boy is it hard to get a decent photo with the timer!

I really like the look of the green moss growing all over the rocks.

On the way home we called into The Warehouse to get a glue stick and these shoes jumped off the shelf and into my trolley! Ah lovely, great for the summer and the pewter colour goes with everything.

We also managed to come home with a very nice door mat and a new LCD screen for DH's computer! Not bad for stopping for some glue....

Long Tall Sally

2008-10-05T19:12:00.002+13:00

Julie commented - Is this a euphorbia trigona? It is so cool growing so long and thin like that! Great place for it by the front door!

Yes you are right Julie, it is a Euphorbia trigona, well spotted. It's probably growing too tall & thin because it's been inside since birth. It was by a sunny window but the little leaves used to curl up and die very quickly, although that was probably through me forgetting to water it for months, so I moved it to the front door where it gets the light but no sun.

The other green plant in my neighbours garden that bleeds sticky milk when it's cut is also from the same family, probably Euphorbia cyparissias.

Spring is here...

2008-10-04T00:06:00.006+13:00

Although we haven't had too many warm sunny days yet, the september winds have been & gone so hopefully it will start warming up soon.
I haven't done much walking and no photowalking at all lately so yesterday I was determined to get out for a short while, went to get a haircut and took my camera looking for signs of spring, came home with only one photo! So I just took a few photos in my garden and a few of the neighbours' and called it a day.
This was dinner last night, nothing to do with photowalking but it did look so pretty! Pork butterfly steaks with apple sauce, salad and my version of Boulangere potatoes. We usually grow fancy lettuces in our solar powered hydroponic system outside but it's having an overhaul at present, I do miss being able to just run outside and pick a few leaves for dinner along with a few herbs etc.

Along the front of the house is where nothing much grows because it's the cold side and there's a large overhang so it doesn't get much rain - it does get lots of fish poo from my aquarium though! I've planted small succulents and this is one that is flowering at the moment.

I used to have these growing in abundance, they still keep coming up from seed all over the place but they are a devil to prune as they bleed sticky white milk that gets over everything! This one has come up in my neighbours garden, she hasn't found out how nasty they are yet - they do look so pretty though.

One of my other neighbours (I have 26 of them) has this lovely lavendar growing along the front of his fence, smells divine. That's my house on the right.

This is a beautiful Wistaria growing around the corner.

I have three Vireyas growing in large pots on my front lawn, this is the first one to flower.

And finally as I went inside I thought I'd take a photo of this long tall plant by my front door, I know the name of it but it's lost in the jumble that is my mind at the moment! I've had it from a baby since we shifted into this house 10 years ago, I keep having to shift it to give it room to grow!

Click on it to see a larger view.
I still have lots of photos and movies I took in the snow in Australia to post yet, oh boy I'm never going to catch up!
Boulangere Potatoes for 4 people
Slice 650g potatoes thinly & chop one small onion. Layer in oven dish along with salt & pepper and a little freshly ground nutmeg between each layer. Pour over 290mls of chicken stock and bake at 175oC for one to one and a half hours. I divided mine between two small casseroles so they only took an hour to cook, kept one for tonight to have with melt in your mouth steak.

Talking Books

2008-09-14T23:56:00.003+12:00

Further to the list of audio books I was talking about back in May, I'm wading through them all very slowly now that I am able to be on the computer a bit more. I can really recommend these two authors and the nine books they've written. Peter Kerr's are hilarious and really worth getting from your library, Carol Drinkwater's are a little more sober but very interesting. At the moment I'm listening to 'Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure' by Sarah McDonald and thoroughly enjoying it, another one I laugh out loud at whilst out walking with my iPod!

Let's go tobogganing!

2008-09-14T23:26:00.002+12:00

The first day we went up the mountain it rained most of the time but the small kid and the big kid didn't seem to mind, they were having a ball.

After all the exertion we went inside for a rest and something to warm us up again. It wasn't long before they were at it again though! More photos tomorrow from the next day when it snowed - my first time in the snow when it was actually snowing! Even I was excited about that.

Maroondah Reservoir, Victoria

2008-09-14T22:38:00.005+12:00

We stopped on our way to Marysville at this beautiful reservoir, it was so pretty with the clouds covering the tops of the mountains. After looking at these photos of the Maroondah Reservoir I wish now we had had more time to explore it, it looks like there is a lot more to see.

Holiday in the Snow

2008-09-14T21:48:00.004+12:00

While in Melbourne visiting my grandson we all drove to Marysville for a four day holiday in the snow. Marysville is about a 20 min drive from Lake Mountain Resort where we had two full days in the snow at -2 degrees (celsius), whatever was I thinking! No, really I had a great time and even did a bit of tobogganing but mainly I was the photographer who developed a frozen camera finger! This is a photo of me and Liam that my son took - great isn't it?

CT Scan

2008-09-14T15:05:00.003+12:00

My CT-head scan didn't show anything abnormal (okay I'm expecting a few jokes about that so fire away) so that's a load off my mind. However, I still have the headache although my eyes are nearly back to normal, I now just have to wait to be seen by the Neurology department which my doctor informs me could be anything upto a year or more.

Melbourne 2-3 August

2008-09-06T00:13:00.004+12:00

So now I've arrived and unpacked a few goodies for Liam from his cousins back home, this is him in his Ben10 outfit with his Ben10 watch & a Ben10 toy. He was so excited he talked non-stop!

The next day we took a drive down to Williamstown for the day, unfortunately this was one of the days it rained while I was there so we didn't stay long. Have a look here for some great photos of Williamstown, I was disappointed I didn't get to have a really good look around but it was also terribly cold! These are a few I did take of the children's playground and beach on the
Esplanade.

And yipee it's Spring - a lovely tree on the street where they live.

Auckland to Melbourne

2008-09-04T17:58:00.004+12:00

I left Auckland on the 2nd of August and as usual it was raining! DH tells me it rained the whole time I was away so I didn't miss anything. The weather in Melbourne wasn't too bad, sunny days but cold with the odd rainy day. Here's the first lot of photos from my trip.
At the Airport waiting to leave.

Coastline of NZ

The sun was just coming up as we left but we were going backwards in time so it look a long time! Because of bad weather we climbed higher than usual and all the way we were above the clouds that stretched to the horizon like cottonwool!

The coastline of Australia

Coming in to land at Melbourne.

Schmap NZ

2008-09-04T17:04:00.004+12:00

I was excited recently to find out that one of my photos was chosen to be included in the second version of the online Schmap of NZ - it's the one of the Vaughan Homestead in the Long Bay Regional Park (#9 of 10 in the widget on the right).

Fun in the Snow Two

2008-09-02T18:07:00.002+12:00

Fun in the snow.

2008-09-02T12:50:00.004+12:00

This is the first of a few videos I took while I was in Australia, mainly of my son, d-i-l and grandson Liam aged 3 yrs when we went tobogganing in the snow.

Hello Folks!

2008-08-30T21:28:00.002+12:00

I'm back from Melbourne with lots of photos & movies to post. I had the best & worst time over the last month! It was great to spend time with my gorgeous little grandson Liam & his parents but at the same time the Aussies tried to kill me off with some sort of horrible bug that laid me low for the last 2 weeks!
Never the one to give in though, the doctor has given me a good dose of antibiotics to get me to my feet again, so here I am.
While I was away my ct-scan (head only) appointment arrived so I had that on Thursday, unfortunately it seems they didn't find anything much so my parents were right after all - I'm brainless!
The answer to my question 'did you find anything' was 'no, not really' which could mean anything I guess but I'm looking on the bright side for the next ten days while I wait for the final results.
Photos coming very soon.

I'm still here!

2008-08-01T17:54:00.004+12:00

Well, between the optometrist, the dentist, the osteopath and the doctor they still can't come up with the reason for my headache! It's been 4 months now and it hasn't let up at all. Currently I'm on medication to keep it in check while I wait to have a scan, no letter from the hospital yet!
The good news is that early tomorrow morning I fly to Melbourne to spend 3 weeks with my son & grandson which I'm really looking forward to. I hope to take lots of photos and with a bit of luck I might be able to post some of them while I'm there.
In the meantime here's a few of Harry when we took him to feed the ducks at the Manawa Wetlands, while we there we were caught in a hailstorm but luckily there was a pergola for us to shelter under.

Autumn Splendour

2008-05-27T12:04:00.007+12:00

Sunday before last was such a beautiful day we decided to go for a walk in Cornwall Park and to have lunch in the Kiosk there - along with just about half of Auckland I reckon! Everyone was out walking their dogs, or jogging or just relaxing in the sun with their families. If anyone loves herbal teas like I do then I found a new one which is absolutely divine, it's called 'Sweet Sunday' and is made from currants, rhubarb, peach, strawberries & rose petals. It's available from the Tea Total Cafe in Milford amongst dozens of other herbal teas, they also have mail order.

These are just a few of the photos I took.

Travel/Non-Fiction Books

2008-05-27T10:45:00.001+12:00

Thanks for the recommendations Pam, I've noted them all and will go looking for them right now. Yes, I have read 'A Parrot in a Pepper Tree' by Chris Stewart but I'm still waiting for the first one, must be quite popular but I think I'm next on the list at the library. The rest I haven't heard of, I'm especially interested in the one about the NZ family who went to live in France.

These are the names of the books written by the authors I mentioned yesterday:-

Peter Kerr

Snowball Oranges: One Mallorcan Winter
Manana Manana: One Mallorcan Summer
Viva Mallorca!: One Mallorcan Autumn
A Basketful of Snowflakes: One Mallorcan Spring
From Paella to Porridge

Carol Drinkwater

The Olive Farm
The Olive Season
The Olive Harvest
The Olive Route

Yesterday I picked up 'McCarthy's Bar' by Pete McCarthy, a journey of discovery in the West of Ireland, which so far is quite entertaining!

Audio Books

2008-05-26T17:53:00.001+12:00

I found a nice little CD/Cassette player over the weekend, I can also carry it around the house if I want so I'm all set up for lots of reading over the winter.

I like reading a series if I can get them but the earlier books in a series sometimes aren't available on CD or cassette so I'm putting as many as I can onto my iPod to save for after I've read the normal books. After Annie Hawes' series I have another lot by Carol Drinkwater, a well known actress who married a Frenchman and went to live on an olive farm in France. Another two series by Peter Kerr a Scotsman who went to live on Mallorca and Chris Stewart who moved to Spain are both excellent series.

If anyone has read or knows of any other series of Travel/Non-Fiction books they think are good please let me know about them.

I also have these lined up to be ordered soon:-

A Piano in the Pyrenees and Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks.

Shooting Caterpillars in Spain by Alex Browning

The Year of the Cornflake and Green Behind the Ears by Faith Addis

And Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons and Eating up Italy by Matthew Fort look like they might be interesting too.

Eyes and iPods

2008-05-24T00:47:00.001+12:00

I'm not sure my eyes are getting better, some days they seem to be fine and others they ache all day and the headaches come and go, seems like I should be making another appointment with the optometrist - so I did, for Friday!

Anyway, on to more pleasant things. I managed to pick up a nice little iPod Docking Station today, not the one I wanted but nevertheless I'm happy. Speaking of which I'm off to bed to listen to Neil Diamond's new album on it! Cute isn't it.

Thanks for all you comments everyone, I appreciate the concern. I haven't tried the Podcasts yet Sharon but I will get to them eventually when I see something that looks interesting.

Yes it's me!

2008-05-22T21:43:00.004+12:00

You may have wondered why I've been awol for all these weeks, well even if you haven't I'm going to tell you anyway.

A few months ago I started getting small sharp pains in my head that would last just for a minute or so but were so bad it brought tears to my eyes. They gradually turned into bad headaches and then my eyes started aching and itching and if I didn't know better I would have said I had the flu without any other symptoms.

I didn't know who to go to first, the doctor, the dentist or the optometrist! I opted for the optometrist and had every eye test including a new one I hadn't had before for glaucoma. Verdict - $900 later - eyes perfectly healthy all round except for needing new glasses which I hadn't had for 5 years.

Then I went to the doctor (my doctor's locum) who didn't seem too concerned about it being anything other than my eyes, he gave me eye drops and I had a blood test for infection which turned out to be negative. So what to do - I decided to limit my computer time to no more than an hour two or three times a day to see if that would help! So what to do with my time, housework was never my forte! If the computer was the problem then reading would be just as bad so then I had a brainwave and went racing down to our local library and took out a couple of audio books! These I can listen to while do all sorts of things including walking and shopping. So now I'm getting plenty of walking in but with not having the time to download and edit photos for my blog I don't take my camera with me much anymore.

I didn't have much luck with an old Walkman I picked up off Trade Me for $5, it works okay but it's rather large to lug around in your pocket as it's only for playing cassettes. Then another brainwave (I should get sore eyes more often) I Googled 'can you listen to audio books on an iPod' and came up with this great website:-

http://aldoblog.com/audiobooks/

Everything I ever wanted to know about how to use audio books on an iPod. DH very generously shouted me an iPod Nano for my birthday (not until November, with a bit of luck he will have forgotten by then) and away I went. I found that iTunes have audio books you can download straight to your iPod but they aren't exactly cheap. I'm able to get them from my local library but they don't have a great selection of the sort I like to read/listen to - Travel Non-Fiction. I have found a few that are on CD which are easily sent to my iPod but cassettes are another story, no show getting them onto the computer/iPod unfortunately. I've just finished reading/listening to a great little series written by Englishwoman Annie Hawes about her time in Liguria Italy where she bought a house and settled into the Italian way of life. Very interesting if you ever need to know about the Italian psyche and their way of life (which I did because youngest son is married to an Aussie whose parents are Italian). These books are read by Rula Lenska, an English actress some of you may know, and to my ear she speaks perfect Italian, but then what do I know! Very entertaining books which are:-

Extra Virgin: Amongst the Olive Groves of Liguria

Ripe for the Picking

Journey to the South: A Calabrian Homecoming

And the latest one:

A Handful of Honey: Away to the Palm Groves of Morocco and Algeria

So that's my latest doings, my eyes are slowly getting better and hopefully I will be able to spend a few hours on updating my blog from time to time very soon. Tomorrow I'm off to look at an iPod Docking Station so I don't have to have the earphones on when I'm at home - ain't technology wonderful? I like the look of this one but I doubt I'll find one in NZ somehow!

Still here

2008-04-02T21:45:00.001+13:00

I've been skiving off lately having a bit of a rest, well trying to but not succeeding! Last Thursday I caught the bus from New Lynn to Takapuna (on the North Shore of Auckland) and it took 1 hr 35 mins to wend it's way through goodness knows where, just as well I took Harry Potter to keep me company! I was going to babysit Harry for the afternoon and we had such a good time together. We played golf and softball and soccer and did a bit of piracy on the High Seas to top it off!

I'll be posting a layout or two from the day on my other blog so keep an eye out.

Blog Readers

2008-03-28T18:53:00.002+13:00

Webfrau left me this comment:-
"Interesting Dawn. I subscribe to your blog using bloglines. I used to be able to read your posts and see the photos. In the ones that you've done with livewriter the photos are no longer visible in my feed - I have to go to the actual blog to see them. I've noticed a few blogs where the photos have disappeared and I bet this is why. A different feed format."

I've tried Google Reader and have no problems seeing the photos posted by Windows Live Writer Webfrau, perhaps you'd like to give that a go?

Anyone else having problems with their Blog Readers and posts using Live Writer similar to Webfrau's?

Yea for Windows Live Writer....

2008-03-26T11:34:00.001+13:00

....it's a winner! It lets you do the whole thing offline, change the size of your photos if you wish, plus anything else then you just click on 'publish' and it's done - couldn't be easier. After a bit of fiddling and twiddling with the photo size it's now just how I like it.

Testing Windows Live Writer

2008-03-26T11:05:00.002+13:00

I've just found this new free programme to write your blog pages offline so giving it a go, it's called Windows Live Writer.

Test of 'insert photo' - yes I like the shadow, wonder what size it will show up as when published? This is DD Justine with her very pregnant friend Emma, and this is Emma's daughter. Emma very kindly took the photos of the Whanau for us.

Okay, let's publish and see what it looks like.

Picnic at Wood Bay

2008-03-25T20:23:00.008+13:00

Justine's last day in town so we had a picnic at Lauren & Becky's local beach. We had the whole beach to ourselves for awhile until another picnic of people arrived. The more energetic ones had a game of soccer - my excuse was that someone had to take the photos! Had a lovely time until the council arrived with a big truck to drain out a blocked manhole on the beach - phew - time to go home! Justine's plane leaves tomorrow at 6.50am so up at 3am - don't ring Justine! We'll all miss you, have a safe trip home to Macau.

Man at work!

2008-03-25T16:34:00.002+13:00

Now I ask you! Would you buy a car off this man?

Family BBQ

2008-03-24T18:22:00.010+13:00

We had a lovely family get together for Justine's birthday on Sunday at Scott & Kelly's place. The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful time except for little Harry - he had picked up some sort of nasty virus the day before and so he slept most of the day! I did take a couple of photos of him when he was up so I've inserted that into the family photo (click on photo to get a better view).

The Whanau

Back left: stepbro, dad, brother, stepdad, stepbro, c-i-l
Middle left: s-i-l, stepmum, mum, Justine, s-i-l, s-i-l, cousin
Front left: niece, niece, niece, 2nd cousin, nephew (insert)
Missing: brother & stepbrother who both live in Australia

Party Time!

2008-03-23T11:11:00.015+13:00

The Big 40! Justine in party mode. She's living & working in Macau (China) hence the red Cheongsam.

And this is me (& her father) wearing the same sort of dress many years ago, so many that I can't remember when! It was more of a Hawaiian theme that night.

I can't believe I gave birth to a blonde blue-eyed baby - and 40 years ago, I remember it like it was yesterday!

Last of the Zoo photos

2008-03-20T21:36:00.002+13:00

My word grandma what big teeth you have!

Harry had a ball that day, I think his mother fed him a kilo of sugar for breakfast!!

Justine home for a quick visit

2008-03-20T00:58:00.004+13:00

DD Justine lives & works in Macau so we haven't seen her for 15 months! She's here for a week for her 40th birthday celebrations, here's the first of I hope many photos.

From the left: SiL, StepMum, Justine, Dad, Mum, Harry, Brother.

I was going to take a whole lot of photos of the airport while I was there but we arrived after her plane landed and in all the excitement I forgot except for these two! This is Auckland's International Airport.

We went to Lauren & Becky's place for dinner, didn't stay long as it's a school night and Justine was dropping off!

After a 10 hr flight it looks like jet lag has set in!

Meeting Aunty Justine at the Airport

2008-03-19T17:36:00.002+13:00