Catching Up and Tuis

Another Day Off Work
Tuesday 12 May
We woke to another cooler overcast morning. It had been raining again. We had the heater on for most of the day. There was no work today – there is still difficulty picking enough fruit to keep us going every day. I started catching up on the blog, and Wyn caught up on some reading. I went into town for a newspaper to see the photos of the hailstorm the previous day. The motorhomers decided it was an evening for a BBQ. This wasn’t because the weather was good, but was because it was a day off. There is a shelter shed thing here, and we mostly congregated under that. We’d missed the previous gatherings, so it was good to make it to this one.
The Auditors are Coming
Wednesday 13 May
The weather was better, with sunshine and wind and only a couple of heavy showers all day. It was cooler again though, and the heater was going again first thing. It seemed a good day for a roasty thing for our early afternoon dinner. So we loaded up our new roasting pan with lots of mostly local vegetables, and with beef kebabs from the local butchers and lashings of gravy we had ourselves a lovely little feast.
It was just as well that we were well fuelled up. When we got to work in the afternoon we got the word that the auditors were coming and the pressure was on with the cleaning. Luckily Wednesday is the day we join with our fellow cleaners for an extra good go at the cleaning. So this was just going to have to be an extra extra evening. With the regular cleaning we tend to focus on the basics as well as a bit extra here and there. This was going to have to be a case of a bit extra everywhere. We actually keep the place reasonably clean all the time, which is a big plus. We had all exhausted ourselves by 11pm, so decided that that was enough. It was then back home out the back and straight into the shower to remove the dust, and supper was avocado on toast.
Washing and Work
Thursday 14 May
I was up early to zoom over and fix up a bit of cleaning I’d forgotten to do the previous night. I managed to get a load of washing in and hung out and brought back in before a big rain shower in the early afternoon. I made lunch of scrambled eggs with mushrooms and roast potatoes. Work for the afternoon was packing for me and grading for Wyn. I was happy to be packing as it is a lot less physical than stacking and I’m still getting over a bit of a strain from my full-on stacking day on Sunday. The grading isn’t much fun, requiring intense concentration in one position for long periods of time.
After a run of days we had to do the cleaning, it was nice to be able to finish at 7.30pm with everyone else. Wyn made another of her wonderful pizzas, and chucked in a batch of Anzac biscuits as well. After tea we retired to bed with a hot chocolate and a warm Anzac biscuit to watch another episode of Green Wing.
Tuis at Tanners Point
Friday 15 May
Yikes, it was only 10 degrees inside when we woke up. It was another overcast morning although the sun appeared about 10am and hung around for much of the day. There was no work again today, so it was another catch-up day. After a late lunch of ham and cheese toasted sandwiches we decided a walk would be a good idea. We drove west towards Waihi and turned off towards Tanners Point, another peninsula jutting out into Tauranga Harbour. There is another coastal walk here, some in bush and some across front lawns that have encroached onto the reserve. There were lots of tuis in the trees; we spent some time watching and listening to them. When we got back to the start of the walkway we discovered a sign explaining the efforts the locals were making to restore the birdlife. They had been concerned about the disappearance to the fantails and other native birds, so embarked on a campaign of removing threatening animals and restoring native plants. They have certainly been successful in encouraging the tuis back.
On our way back we discovered the Katikati Produce Market, a small market of food and produce, at the curious time of 4-5.30pm on Fridays. We didn’t have much cash, and it was about to finish and was starting to rain so we only had a quick look. It was Gok night on TV and tea was an Indian/Italian mixture.

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