After the storm at Simpsons Beach the weather changed for the better. Really better! We’d been at Simpsons Beach for 5 days and it was time to move on. We packed up with our usual lack of urgency – or more specifically my lack of urgency. And finally we headed out, north to Kuaotunu on the coast before the big hill over to Coromandel. By the time we had a walk on the beach at Kuaotunu the afternoon was well advanced. Continue reading
Back in July, the rains came at Simpsons Beach. Not 40 days and 40 nights but more one night and most of the next day. In the end water was running everywhere. Down the paddock where we were parked, off Suzi’s awning, off Suzi’s roof, off the hills. It got to the stage of wondering how much more could run off everywhere without some consequences. We’d been running a bit short on fresh water and it took a long time for it to dawn on me that Continue reading
After the exertions of biking to Cooks Beach, we passed a fairly cold day doing not much back at Simpsons Beach. It was the start of July, and there wasn’t much sun to be seen. We were struggling to make much power, despite having 515 watts of solar panels. I kept blaming winter although I was starting to suspect our batteries. The next day we decided to head off in the car with our picnic basket Continue reading
This is our 400th post to this blog thing. That’s from back in May 2008. I never imagined still being going 400 posts and 4 years on. The average of less than 100 per year shows my shortcomings as a blogger – I think I’m supposed to aim for a post per day. My usual excuse is about either being busy working or being busy relaxing. It is interesting to see which posts have been the most read ones. Continue reading
We had a rest day after the exertions of walking the length of Simpsons Beach – where we were parked up almost on the beach. Then we dug out of biking gear and headed out to Whitianga and the ferry across the Whitianga Harbour entrance to the other side. Called Ferry Landing in another delightfully unimaginative bit of naming. From there we headed off on our bikes; over a low saddle and down to the beach on the other side facing Mercury Bay. Continue reading
We had tried to find some motel minding work to occupy ourselves in the depths of winter. But without success. We’d tried every motel in the Bay of Plenty and Hamilton. The only interest had been from places where we’d have needed to be available for later stints as well – more regular sort of minding. There was no takers for one-off minding assignments. So we had some time to ourselves before needing to be south by mid-August. The Coromandel called, Continue reading
So that was Hamilton in June. Interesting and cold. From there we headed north, via Paeroa where we borrowed some power to get properly charged up again. Somehow we didn’t seem to be making enough electricity or storing enough, or something. I kept putting it down to winter. We parked up at Wyn’s friends place at Matatoke south of Thames. Wyn was going to stay there for the week while I was off to Dunedin to catch up with my children. Continue reading
After exploring Hamilton’s lake and gardens on the Saturday, we set out on the Sunday to check out Hamilton’s river. The Waikato river slices through the middle of the city. Although I suppose the city was built around the Waikato River. It would have been the transport system in the early days. Hamilton is a bit of a stand-out as NZ cities go, in that it is not on the sea. It is about 4th equal in size and a long way ahead of any other inland city – maybe Palmy North? Continue reading
I think I’m a binge blogger – nothing for ages sometimes, then lots of catching up. It’s not how blogs are supposed to be blogged, and I try to be more regular but I fail regularly. Which must get annoying for anyone trying to keep an eye on us – checking to see if I’ve woken from my slumbers. If you like, you can be spared the checking by getting an email notification when a new post gets posted. Continue reading
Back in June we were pleased to have gone to the Field Days on the Thursday. Friday was cold and foggy, and we sat it out. Saturday we set out to explore some of Hamilton. It had always been somewhere we passed through or bypassed. We figured it was time to see some of it. We needed a bit of a walk so found our way to the lake – Lake Rotoroa aka Hamilton Lake. There is a track right around with views of houses and parks – and the lake. Continue reading
We’d heard about National Field Days for a few years now, and sort of thought about maybe going. We were in Tauranga, planning on heading towards Waihi and Thames. Then we woke up on the first Wednesday of the Field Days this year and decided in a short space of time to go see what it is all about. Field Days are a sort of souped up A&P Show – agricultural heaven. Lots of farm stuff and animal stuff. Continue reading
Currently this blog is experiencing a few technical issues. It’s all my fault – I fiddled with things! I’m trying to get photos and galleries under control, and am sort of getting there. Yesterday I even managed to sort out the slideshow function that was on offer on some pages/posts. And got it to work! And on only my third try! Normally things like that seem to take about 37 attempts. Continue reading
We finally got ourselves out of the packhouse camp in early June. We beat the threatened rain with memories of our very wet departure last year. We drove as far as Tauranga Airport where we parked up for a couple of days. We watched Wyn’s grandson rugby game and next day went with him to Kaituna Cut on a fishing outing. Kaituna Cut is a popular location on the beach between Papamoa and Makatu. Continue reading
Life was good at the kiwifruit packhouse camp. This year the sun shone and the Tuis sang. With only a couple of wet spells the grass accessways within the camp mostly stayed firm. We set our privacy room up early in April once we decided we were staying put. This extra sides for the awning can be a pain to put up but it does provide appreciated extra room when we’re parked up like this. Plus with the pallets for flooring it keeps us off the grass. Continue reading
We enjoyed lovely weather throughout the kiwifruit packing season this year. Last year it rained and rained. This year it sunned and sunned. Even when the season got busy later on in May we still found opportunities to get down to the beach. This is one of the advantages of night shift. The eastern end of the sweep of sand from Mt Maunganui to Papamoa was a favourite – and almost deserted. Continue reading
