A Dose of Donna and Playing the Patience Game
Our third late season cyclone is dumping her load of rain over us at the moment. After what seemed like a couple of weeks of exquisite weather with cold nights and warm, clear blue days from the Antarctic, Cyclone Donna will have passed by tomorrow and we should be back to fine weather.
Wise and experienced New Zealanders have not yet left for the Tropics preferring the risk of a southern ocean gale up their tails to heading headlong into another spinning top of low pressure off the equator.
With the family safely back home it was time to turn our attention back to Zoonie’s post flood refit.
The INZ Immigration Service is dragging its heels over our Visitor Visa Application. The right hand in Auckland does not seem to know what their left hand in Beijing is doing and vice versa. We had our full medicals a month ago and we know they have received the reports, but they are denying it. We have been playing a lot of Patience recently, both literally and metaphorically.
A refreshing bit of routine maintenance recently was to cut out a weak link in the anchor chain and have the old section re-galvanised. Then we got a foundry to weld a new link on to join the two sections back together. I suggested we have it load tested so that we would not worry about it breaking in the event of hanging on to our anchor in a gale. Our 10mm chain should take a load of 1.35 tons without breaking. Benny tested the link to 1.95tons and it didn’t ping!
Rob found coffee cream liqueur in the engine when he dipped the oil and the engine was running below its usual oil pressure. Two changes of oil and it was back to normal and it seems the oil pressure sensor is at fault, so that is on order.
The large cream cat infront of us, of Gunboat design, left the other morning while the dew was still on the windows and the marina has many spaces in it now. Soon the Happy Hour on Tuesdays at the Love Mussel will be attended by a handful of folk staying over the winter. Some are resident, others planning a good spell back home and a sadder story is a couple on a big green yacht from Rotterdam, whose lady has been diagnosed with dementia and their yacht has rotten, leaking decks which need replacing.
The other evening we dined with our Austrian friends Hannes and Sabine on their elegant Amel yacht Cayenne. There was another couple there too, from South Africa and we aired countless topics of conversation until Rob looked at his watch, “Do you know it’s nearly 2.00am!”
I carefully guided a very merry and giggly hubby back around the quay. It seemed best to physically hold him by the waist as his course was not at all direct. When we came to the canopy bridge it crossed my mind it would be better to sling him over my shoulder to prevent him sinking in the river just a few metres from where Zoonie nearly sank, but I thought better of it. I think we woke up around 11.00am the next morning! That really was a good evening.
Rob surgically removed the motor and compressor of the watermaker recently and they are being tested in Auckland. We have the go ahead from the insurers for a lift out and a new bow prop, so soon we will make our way across the river to Riverside Drive Marina for the lift where we have been invited to stay with our American friends Gail and Tony on board Cetacea, their spacious sailing ‘ship’. That sounds like more fun.
The evenings are drawing in now so to entertain us we have been watching the old series The Thorn Birds and the original Poldark of 2003 vintage. What a pleasure they have been. Last night we watched ‘Gunfighter’ with Gregory Peck and filmed in 1950. It had been restored and was in mint black and white condition.
A couple of Fiji based marina owners came down recently and laid on a lovely, ticketed evening of dinner, talks and entertainment for us. We thought we’ll be going there next year anyway and besides it’s an evening out. They certainly make Fiji sound a nice place to visit and the local Maori Haka group came and performed for us. They came mostly from one family and one young lady sang the Maori song made famous by Kiri te Kanawa.
Just for a change we walked up the hill to the Maori encampment around the Parihaka Lookout the other day. A steep climb and descent we felt would be good exercise. The valley through which we ascended was tucked away from habitations and roads and the only sounds were the birds as we climbed past Rimu, Tawa and Kauri trees growing in healthy abundance. It was easy to imagine groups of Maori hunting amongst the trees centuries before the first Europeans arrived.
As we sat on the riverside in the sunlight we reflected on how pleased we were that the family explored this area while they were with us. Clouds of gold leaf pollen glistened in the sunlight as it fell from the Pohutukawa trees onto the water surface, having been released by sparrows nibbling the seeds above.
Runners huffed and puffed their way towards an uncertain victory and a young mother, her nerves jangling, as she guided her toddler along the stone wall river bank opposite.
This evening we are dining out with Gail and Tony who have just returned from their South Island Sabbatical and will be bursting with news. We are loving the life here, as much socialising as we want, saying ‘hello’ to everyone who comes down the ramp onto this courtesy pontoon if we are sitting in the cockpit. A little lad in the clubhouse the other day said “You from a boat or a house?” He seemed pleased when I said a boat, but numerous families are moving ashore, either permanently seeking a future here or for the winter, to give them a bit more room.
For us Zoonie is fine while she is in the water, cosy and homely does it for us.
A Dark Day for the UK.
We grieve from Zoonie for the loss of so many lives, adults and children, in Manchester at the music concert and think of their families and friends in their pain and suffering. Good for the Mancunians providing their kindness and generosity by taking care of dazed children after the event. Where there is violence and tragedy somewhere there is also kindness and care.
From a young man with no future or love of young people to an old man with a universal love for children, Roger Moore. He was a gentleman English Actor who graced our screens for half a century and gave us a refreshingly different take on James Bond before himself taking up the cause of disadvantaged children. His final acting role was as ambassador to UNICEF. Heart throb of mine from his ‘Saint’ days!
So for these two reasons our Union flag is flying gracefully at half-mast. Soon it may be in use for ‘Rugby Reasons’ as the Irish and Lions Tour is starting soon and we are going to the match here in Whangarei at the Toll Stadium to watch The Lions v The Barbarians. Bit excited about that!
I am pleased to report that Rob is now over his flu which had kept him below happy puppy level for around 10 days. He fitted the new cooker recently which required us to go to The Woodshed, a boat builders on the other side of the river, to find a thin piece of marine ply as the new cooker is a little narrower than the old one.
We squeezed through the doorway to find a fine naked hull of a very old sailing yacht being slowly restored. The young gentleman working in there told us she is Fern II and was built in 1899 at Shoreham Sussex, where my father worked at Metal Box for 16 years from 1953, and is constructed in teak and pitch pine. Apparently an American lady tried sailing her to Hawaii but abandoned her in Tonga where she lay for many years before being brought here for her rebuild.
One corner of the shed was full with her internal parts and the new wood including one massive timber which had grown in a natural curve, “That’s going to be her new stem” the young man said with pride. We won’t be around to see her relaunch, but that will be a proud day for her owners.
The weather recently has been sliding inexorably towards winter. Last Sunday night the temperature here dropped to freezing outside with a frost in the morning and in the saloon it was 2’ when I emerged from our nest. Daytime weather has been fine sunny days interspersed with depressions coming up from the southern ocean dumping lots of rain and forcing the birds to stay in the trees.
A Sniff of the famous.
Jordan Luck is a favourite New Zealand singer, a bit like Rod Stewart in looks and his appeal to women of all ages. The Butter Factory here managed to get him to come and perform for one night and we went online for the tickets. We had good seats, on high stools by the mixer deck and were absorbed by the two previous groups when I smelled cigarette smoke in close proximity. Hmm, guess it’s not illegal to smoke in public here. “He’s standing right next to you,” Rob whispered in my ear. Never really know what to do when sharing the same few square metres with someone famous like Jimmy Carter, Dave Allen, Sir Ian McKenna, Princess Anne and now Jordan Luck but I managed a smile and “Hi” as he puffed away in preparation for his performance.
Towards the end of the concert many folk were tiddled and becoming lively so we slipped out just before the rest fell onto the streets.
Most yachts who are heading north for the season have left and Ke Ama II left the next morning before the condensation had dried off our windows and mist still hung in the valleys beside the river. She is a 70+foot beauty and is skippered by the fiancée of Naylene who used to sail on her and now works in the office. She is under sail and for sale at $3.5 million and we watched her video promoting the sale. Much was filmed from a helicopter while she was in Vanuatu last year and she really is luxurious on the inside and beautiful outside.
In the evenings we have been watching films and tv series including ‘Victoria’, ‘The Hateful Eight’ (I wonder if it’s a sequel to The Magnificent Seven, it was a bloodthirsty film and the 8 main characters lived up to their adjectives!) We are getting near the end of Billions at the moment, Damien Lewis being a naughty boy with Hedge Funds, and it is coming to a neat conclusion.
The Kentuckian with Burt Lancaster, The Gunfighter with Gregory Peck (another minor heartthrob) and The Butler, an amazing story of the life of a Butler in the White House have also helped fill our long dark evenings.
Every six months here a car has to go through a WoF (warrant of fitness) test and Vicky failed her test at the Govt WoF workshop. Two bulbs and a slightly frayed driver’s seat belt seemed easy enough to cure. Oh no, not so. Fords (and this lot are definitely of the Frauds breed) located a second hand seat belt, a new one would have been over $1000, and we waited for over two hours while they supposedly replaced our present one. $541 later for removing a seatbelt, we got back in the car to move off and Rob said with a desperate tone, “This is the original seat belt!!” That’s a pretty big bill for not doing a job don’t you think. The mechanic had failed to tell the guy in reception that the replacement was in worse condition than the original.
Well, reception guy refunded our money and the mechanic then removed our seatbelt to send it to Auckland to have it re-webbed. That removal took another one and a half hours so we went for a wander and found a delightful little Indian restaurant in the industrial part of Whangarei called the Divine and had a tasty small portion of curry each.
We then took Vicky, or she took us, to Auto-Tech to have the airbag warning light replaced. Oooh a real can of worms there. As soon as the mechanic got it working by installing a bulb, there wasn’t one there before, it showed up 6 other faults to do with the airbags. It transpires the Control Module that allows the airbags to function was at fault and the airbags are fine. We smelled a rat. Possibly the last owner knew that the faults would not show up if the seatbelt was in place and the air bag warning light bulb had been removed.
A new Control Module will be $1000 so we have feelers out for a second hand one of those including with our friend Stein in Norway where he says Volvo parts are cheap. Fingers crossed. As a very last resort we reason that the cost of a new one is probably equivalent to a month car rental and as we need wheels we feel the cost is the value of being mobile.
Recently we had the good fortune to have a Norwegian yacht alongside us, Lovinda Too. Sven, Irene and their friend Hans come from the Stavanger part of Norway and are typical warm and friendly people. We spent enjoyable evenings on eachothers’ floating homes, including Hans birthday supper on Zoonie complete with cake and black skull and crossbones candles, they seemed appropriate.
Last year Lovinda was on her way to Australia across the Tasman Sea with Sven and Hans aboard when something mighty and mechanical snapped her rudder off. (A Russian sub was apparently in the area at the time). Sven phoned Irene in Norway who contacted the coastguard who in turn instigated a rescue.
A Chinese ship picked them up and their yacht insurers, the same as ours, contacted their agent out here, again the same guy who has been so helpful to us too. He contacted a local fisherman who went and towed Lovinda in to Marsden and on up the river where she has spent a year on the hard. A new rudder was fabricated in Sweden and shipped out here and she joined us just after she was re-launched.
Two days before they were due to leave they asked us if we would like to join them on a trip to the Kauri Museum and as you know how fond of trees I am you will understand we jumped at the chance.
Rob drove and I sat in the back between Hans and Irene for the pretty drive through unfamiliar countryside. This is a museum of world standard and it is vast. The physical and photographic history of rural New Zealand from the early settlers to the present day.
It’s hard to know where to begin and the photos largely speak for themselves but what was new to me was Kauri Gum, like amber that was mined and exported for countless uses. One photo shows Kauri Hair which is warm gum spun into lovely blond hair. I am not sure but I guess the process was a little like spinning candy floss and maybe it was worn as a hair piece.
There was a whole gum room full with collections and ornaments and jewellery all made out of gum. That was impressive. Kauri gum was in the ground for the finding but some foresters bled the trees until they died which soon became a frowned upon activity. There is no demand for gum now and ironically although the ground gum has been mined to 12 feet down there is much more at lower depths.
There were real kauri logs, one photo shows Rob standing infront of one to give an idea of scale and in the sawmill the colossal saw blades required to cut the trees were in working order and nodding up and down like engine pistons, the only difference from when they worked in the industry was the logs did not move forward through the blades as they cut so it was a constant display. Only the giant Californian redwoods, the Sequoias of South West North America are bigger.
As you know I am the proud owner of kauri salad servers that are 43,000 years old, well they are made from bog kauri which first came to light, literally, as the boggy land was drained for the purpose of dairy farming. As the land shrank down so the logs emerged. But even more impressive than this, in the museum is a sheet of kauri that looks like wood but is in fact fossilised wood over 30,000,000 years old. Now that’s old.
Mannekins and domestic scenes.
They actually built a life size boarding house in the museum. Styled on a classic NZ homestead but of course there were always two floors to accommodate numerous guest rooms. I resist calling them bedrooms as this is just one of their purposes. More like early business centres they were also studies for journalists, labs for scientists and surveyors, store rooms for gum merchants, workshops for seamstresses and dressmakers and there were even banks, assay offices and post offices. Downstairs there was always a piano in one of the large reception rooms and the dining room for evening entertainment.
Understandably they were the hub and social centre of many small towns and their demise must have been something of a loss to the locals and visitors alike. But the world moves on and a mobile population using cars and vans could cover long distances with greater speed and ease, get the day’s work done and return home.
The rooms displaying cameo scenes in the photos are actual scale replicas of real rooms in the Matakohe area with genuine artefacts from their homes and the physiognomy of the mannequins is based on their photographic appearance. I stood for ages taking in the intricate details of their daily lives, do you see the little lad stealing a sweetmeat from the sideboard?
They were of course made possible with the use of photography and I had to show you the photo taken by her father of little Bess, helping her mum on washday in what is an unguarded scene of domestic routine.
Returning Friends
Tony and Gail are back from their tour of the South Island and a few days ago we visited the Waipu Cave. Following guidelines we wore walking shoes but what we really needed was sandals to wear in water as there was a stream to cross at the entrance before we could penetrate 175 metres into the cave wearing head torches and see the longest stalagmite in NZ and many glow worms.
Instead we did a hike along the McKenzie Walkway through native woodland to a ridge which gave us fabulous views over the countryside right back to Whangarei Heads and those high craggy hills at the entrance to the river. And we will return better equipped to the caves another time and revisit the museum as you just cannot take it all in in one visit.
We are looking forward to the Barbarians v Lions match which is walking distance from here next Saturday and then on Tuesday 6th June 2017 Zoonie will be lifted at Riverside Marina and we will stay aboard Cetacea for the few days the re-wiring work should take.
Apparently the marina will fill with boats next weekend as people come for the match and we are wondering if we should dress up for the occasion. Watch this space!