An NZ Christmas, much warmer than the UK

Having completed the rabbit hutch, we had time to enjoy the run up to Christmas Day so we fitted in a joint family trip to wander round a private arboretum created over the last fifty years and containing some rare specimens as well as a trip to Te Mata peak by car and Duart House gardens in HN.
Christmas Day saw us at Mass in HN with all the family and we had a lovely dinner of cooked ham and salads on a neighbour's deck with magnificent views towards Napier. The kids loved the rabbit hutch and really enjoyed the day after a walk in Te Mata park to some magnificent redwood trees. It was a loit warmer than UK t about 24C.

Beach Safari to Gannet Colony, Cape Kidnappers

We drove to Clifton to the start of the Beach Safari to Cape Kidnappers to see the gannet colony. What a fabulous trip! You ride on a farm trailer pulled by a 1946 Minneapolis Molin Tractor, petrol not diesel, along the shore for 9Km dodging the tide and rocks and stopping every so often to learn more about the strata or the wonderful birds. At the end of the ride ther is a stiff climb up to the plateau where these graceful and faithful birds nest. We were able to get really close and see their affectionate greetings when they return to the nest as well as hovering against the very stiff breeze. The kids all enjoyed it and it was worth every cent. It should also be noted that although over 60 years old, the tractors started promptly and ran strongly, never missing a beat.

Keirunga Park Miniature Railway

Sunday saw us at Keirunga Park, a short walk from Rachel and Bill's house. This is the location for a superb miniature railway capable of running three scales and having a most imaginative layout with tunnels, and both concrete and wooden viaducts with a total distance of over 800yds. It is truly a wonder to behold and maybe the fifth in the world of such railways able to carry the public. The image shows the founder's diesel-electric loco which looks fabulous and has a "Mars" swivelling red light which exactly models the full scale loco's lamp's motion.

Wellington, A windy city with cable cars and modern trolleybuses

We spent Monday at Woodford House helping Rachel to clear out her stock room and Tuesday in Hastings Christmas shopping.
The first final assembly at the kid's school was cancelled 3 minutes after it started due to heavy rain,(it was outside!) so we attended the second on Tuesday evening in the hall and watched Jack collect his leaving certificate.
Wednesday at 1pm saw us collect the children in two cars to drive to Wellington. The trip was OK after a slight directional error was corrected and we arrived at the highly rated YHA hostel about 6.30pm. The next day saw us at Te Papa the remarkable National Museum after which we took the famous cable car to the Botanical Gardens with remarkable views and an excellent free cable car museum. Wellington is well known for it's public cable car but also for a number of private ones ascending from Oriental Parade and it's modern trolleybuses all being less than two years old. The weather was quite windy in the evenings so we had to wrap up a bit for a stroll.
We left the YHA in good time to visit the Weta Cave which displays the special effestc from Peter Jackson's films such as Lord of the Rings and then travel home via Paraparoumu where we met Bill's remarkable 90 year old Aunty Ruth in her retirement village. It was an easy trip back from there.
Saturday saw us doing project work before taking the kids to a free performance of Amahl and the Night Visitors at Hastings Opera House in the evening.

Cricket, Lovely Cricket

Saturday saw us watching Lucy and her team playing at Guthrie Park. They lost but the two Lucys, R&K, both won player of the day and I took some photos of the team for school. Later we were on gardening duty and I repaired Aldo's wheelbarrow after Bill repaired the puncture, in true NZ No 8 wire fashion, the wire having come from the UK in Bill's toolbox.
Sunday saw us at Maclean Park, Napier to watch the Black Caps play Pakistan in the Test Match, third day. It was a one ticket price with open access to all stands so we were in the shade and comfortable as well as being very relaxed. You could park almost next door and it was a very enjoyable experience.

A Caterpillar experience in a video and a lake walk

We wanted to revisit Rotorua without the Mauri and tacky tourist stuff so we visited the Caterpillar experience. This shows old Caterpillar equipment in very lifelike settings as well as official NZ videos of the fifties which were very interesting on their own being bound up with the countries agricultural and timber history. Better still we were offered a discount and asked to be in a promo video as well as a free lunch. Later we walked round the lake marvelling at the thermal sulphurous pools before coming back through the rose gardens.

A delightful sail on Lake Taupo and a trip to Smash Palace

After coffee in the famous MacDonalds Dakota DC3, we had a delightful sail on the Barbary, a ketch built in California in 1926 with a history including Errol Flynn. There were three other Aussie ladies one of whom had done a lot of travelling in the bush. The sail took us to see some amazing Mauri rock carvings done some 30 years ago in a very inaccessible place.
The next day we had a fantastic trip across the Rangiroro desert road to the Horopito vintage vehicle scrap yard, the largest and oldest in Australasia. They have got parts for seemingly every type of car and could well be useful for UK restorers. The place got its name from a film made there called Smash Palace.

A Santa Parade and NZ Aviation Pioneers at MOTAT

On Saturday, we spent a relaxed day with Chris and Emma following the coastal walkway to Mairangi with a nice lunch and a bus trip back and on Sunday watched the Santa parade in Brown's Bay. The parade,featured hot rods and custom cars, popular here; uniformed groups, cubs with long range water pistols; school groups and lots of Koreans so it took over an hour to pass and created a great buzz in the town. Santa himself arrived in a yellow Mini Moke decorated with tinsle but my photo was too poor to be shown here.
We said goodbye early on Monday morning and went to the transport museum in Auckland(MOTAT), a split site with an ex Melbourne tram connecting the two. I was fascinated with the section on two aviation pioneers. Richard Pearse was a reclusive farmer on South Island who developed a very advanced convertiplane and may have beaten the Wright Bros to first flight but is almost unknown outside NZ. Jean Batten broke many records in the thirties and led a colourful life but sadly also became a recluse. Later we had a pleasant drive in warm sunshine to Taupo.

Kaikohe, Opononi and Dargaville, Stationary engines and sand dunes

We left Paihia and went to Kaikohe and visited the heritage park. This is a collection of relocated old buildings filled with collectibles as well as lots of farm machinery and many stationary engines in various barns and in different states. It was nice to wander round and then make our way west to Opononi where we saw the huge sand dunes across the harbour. After a scenic walk we continued in hot weather to Waipoua forest famous for Kauri trees and stopped to walk to Tane Mahouta the largest tree which dwarfs the others and is about 1500 years old, a magnificent specimen. Later we drove down to Dargaville and went to the museum on a bluff overlooking a huge wide sweep of a river. It was excellent with a good gum diggers section, after which we had dinner at Joe's cafe aand continued through heavy rain to arrive with Chris and Emma at 8pm, another lovely day.

Cape Reinga, Gumdigger's Park and Ninety Mile Beach

We caught the Dune Rider trip to Cape Reinga and after morning tea we went to Gumdigger's Park where Kauri gum was obtained from ancient Kauri trees buried in swampland, the resin coming from a break or wound solidified and could be harvested in worthwhile quantities and used to make solvents. The term gumboots arises from the invention of Wellington boots in rubberized form being used in deep swamps for this job. After this we started the drive up to the Cape. The landscape is very impressive with quite high hills used for pasture, not the low flat area we had expected. The drive was quite exciting in the adapted Hino lorry with coach body that has excellent ground clearance and ramp angles.
Arriving at the car park we walked the half mile along a well made landscaped gravel path to the lighthouse in sunshine and mist so the views were, er, misty. We departed for the best bit of the trip so far, sand boarding at Te Paki sand dunes. We drove through grassy parkland and could see the enormous dunes in front of us so we drove down the narrow twisting tarmac road to come out at the bottom of the dunes, the vehicle following the edge of the dunes along a shallow wide fresh water stream until the sand widened out enough for us to get out and climb the dunes to sand board down. I got out but did not sand board but they are not that fast and I would have a go again. The better boarders sped down the dune and across the hard level base through the shallow water for about 20-30 yds. The distance down the stream to the 90 mile beach was 2 miles and at the sea we turned south to follow the beach out of the water for about 40 miles on hard sand simply following another similar vehicle. It was awesome and legal for buses, but not hire cars! After that we left the 90 mile beach and headed for the Kauri shop where a giant ancient tree section has been cut and formed into a solid staircase inside a shop, awesome again. The next and last item on this superb day trip was a visit to the best fish and chip shop in NZ, where we had the freshest blue nose at Mangonui before arriving back at The Anchorage just fater 6pm, a wonderful day.

Our trip to Northland, First three days

We dropped the kids at school on Monday morning and drove via Taupo where we saw a Dakota aircraft outside MacDonalds, continuing to Tacapuna outside Auckland where we had booked into a holiday park.
Later we had dinner with Roger and Margaret after a walk round the bluff at Devenport. Next day we had a super breakfast at Browns Bay with R&M before continuing North to Whangerei where we stopped for a break and visited the excellent Clapham Clock Museum. We had a personal guided tour and admired the crane like object outside which was in fact a giant sun dial gnomon, see image. Accommodation was at Atlantic Lodge in Paihia, recommended by R&M not far from Russell in the Bay of Islands that we enjoyed so much in Feb.
The next day, Wednesday, we visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds where the treaty of 1840 was signed with the Mauri leaders, putting in perspective the birth of the nation. We enjoyed this very much and after lunch went to nearby Kawakawa an old mining town famous for its Modern Art public loos designed by Austrian artist, Hundertwasser and restored steam railway which goes up the middle of the high street. Luckily we saw a diesel loco hauling a wagon of fire wood along this street, not a common sight these days! I was invited to wander round the workshops to see the renovation in hand. Gabriel, the steam loco was built in 1927 in Bristol by a company called Peckett, part of an order for 5 locos from Sarawak, later cancelled. We finished the day with a stroll along the sea front at Paihia and a look in the earliest church built in NZ, now shared with the catholics, a very interesting day.

Ruby's party

We attended Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes in Havelock North where we had been welcomed in February. Later we helped everybody get ready for Ruby's party which went very well, helped by Rachel's fantastic ice cream cake and other wonderful creations. Star of the show was Harry, a lovely chocolate labrador ,who collected one of the kids with his master. Later we had a bar b cue with Steff and family. Lucy's friend Ellie was also a star with the younger kids. We all had a super day in the lovely NZ sunshine.