Birthdays, Beaches and Bluebells
You would think that Ruby would have been busting to open her little stack of presents on her eighth birthday but having been told she must wait until daddy had returned from a business trip to Canada and a mystery guest had arrived she was more than happy to spend the morning in the kitchen with mummy, making and playing with SLIME. Pink slime and blue slime and very satisfying it was too. Rolling it up, slapping it down, flattening it out to a thin area like skin that could be thrown into the air and allowed to drop catching a large bubble of air. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that give pleasure isn’t it.
We spent our few remaining days walking along the lovely beaches and through the fabulous countryside of Dorset. Badbury Rings was on the list and nearby Kingston Lacy where the children embarked on a Chocolate Easter Egg Competition through the bluebell wood on a fine sunny day. Willow twig dragonflies hanging in a tree and we had to count how many there were and we learned the colloquial names for bumblebees-dumbledores, beetles and ants-biddles and emmets and bluebells-greygoles.
Kingston Lacy House started under crown ownership, then in 1603 James the first gave it to his friend Sir Charles Blount whose son sold it to the first of the Bankes family to own it in 1636. The estate has been in the care of the National Trust since 1982 after the death of the last owner Henry John Ralph Bankes. At the time it was the largest bequest the NT had ever received because it came with the rest of the family’s estate including 8000 acres of farm, parkland and gardens, 12 farms and the magnificent but sadly ruined Corfe Castle.
William John Bankes was a colourful owner in the nineteenth century sending back riches of art and architecture, including an Egyptian obelisk, from Europe. Multi-talented he was a significant explorer and adventurer in his time but sadly for him spent much of his adult life living in Italy, banished from his homeland and beloved KL upon threat of execution because of his homosexuality.
His mother’s sister, Maria Bankes Woodley Riddell was talented as a poet and she was also Robert Burns chief benefactor, a nice link with our visit to his home in Alloway, Ayrshire.
We left our southern family waving at the living room window as Emily drove us to catch our London bound bus early on a Sunday morning. A year seems a long time to wait before we see them again.
It was much warmer than last time for our visit to Isabella Plantation in Richmond Park with Sue. The early flowers were nearly over and some of the trees were getting ready to ping open their leaf buds. It was a nice place to start our three day chat about the past year.
Sue made a delicious pie for supper, mushrooms, chestnuts and stilton cheese in a gravy of stout under a filo pastry crust.
The next day we spent wandering around London; a ride down the river to Tower Bridge and a lengthy wander around St Katherine’s Docks. I have included the plaque about the docks for your interest. Looking across the water towards the old warehouses imagine the tea clippers, including the Cutty Sark now happily restored and located over the river at Greenwich, moored alongside off-loading their valuable cargoes of tea after their race against eachother back from Africa and India. Exciting days for a ship named after the lady’s Scottish shift or petticoat and another nice link, tying up loose ends with granny knots!
We lunched at The Dickens Inn before checking out Covent Garden. Now when Emily was little we used to come to London once a year or so for a little delve into history, look at the sights and culture and take in a show or concert, she was five when I first took her to Les Miserables. At Covent Garden we would marvel at the sword swallowers, fire eaters, the beautiful ladies about to be chopped up while standing in a box and the jugglers and knife throwers etc etc. So what has happened? Health and Safety? A ban on skittles? #Me Too? Instead there were three male performers, all Escapologists!
Inside there was also a talented quintet playing with gusto which never fail to entertain. By the time we got to Trafalgar Square we were killing time for the show in the evening. The area was busy but the traffic was light because of the road blocks caused by the Extinction Rebellion protesters that went on over a period of days and have been highly successful in raising awareness of the need for action from the government down.
One of Nelson’s giant lions cradled a little girl like the Lyle’s Golden Syrup tin logo of the sleeping lion surrounded by bees ‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness.’ In the far distance the tower of Big Ben is shrouded and the hands of the clock still. The Great Bell known as Big Ben is silent for the safety of the workers, imagine that sounding right by your ear just as you are about to bed in a dressed block of stone. The restoration work should be completed in 2021 and I can’t wait to see and hear the result.
After a snack at Waterstone’s coffee shop we wandered up Charing Cross Road to the Phoenix Theatre for a performance of Come from Away, music and lyrics by Irene Sankoff and David Hein; a story about the people involved when 35 planes were grounded at the airport on Newfoundland near Gander for five days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. It is based on the real life changing experiences of numerous people performed by fewer than 20 actors who each took on different characters’ personas by simply changing a jacket or cap or sitting on a different arrangement of the chairs on the stage.
The chairs could be arranged as if for a meeting, or on a school bus or aeroplane, or in a café. An imaginative use of stage props, powerful energy of the performers from start to finish, there was no interval – how could you interrupt such momentum? The enthusiasm and teamwork of the cast made dropping off to sleep (as I am ashamed to admit I did in The Lion King) an absolute impossibility. My preferred stage performances are based on real life and facts.
The next day our coach crawled from Victoria towards Golders Green because as well as the Extinction Rebellion Protesters, The Bereaved Parents and Anti Knife Crime campaigners had closed Westminster Bridge to protest at the Government’s insufficient response to the dramatic rise in knife crime (40,000 between 2017-2018) and killings since ‘stop and search’ practices were curtailed, and due to police officers resigning. Although those are just two reasons in a complex and growing problem. There are aspects of British society that appear to be out of control so you can see the need for ‘people action.’
Back in beautiful rural Rutland with our northern family we were just in time to help Charly, Christine, Richard and Milo celebrate Charly’s Birthday with lunch at a thatched 17th century pub, The Blue Ball at Braunston followed by tea at home.
Jonty brought his cocktail making skills and a car full with bottles, glasses, lemons and limes to the lunchtime Easter Saturday BBQ in Charly and Tom’s back garden and by the evening, if you can believe this, I was according to Rob starting to slur my words. A little cocktail can pack a punch so times 6 or so, to be honest I lost count.
Little Zoonie, our circa 1962 Heron Dinghy is now safely tucked away in the garage at Richard’s workplace and having just squeezed his birthday celebrations into the very end of our trip we are now ready for a Monday flight tomorrow across the world to resume our adventure.
Healthwise Rob’s back is much better, my foot is fully recovered as is my hand after treating the keratosis with Efudix. My frozen shoulder is responding to the exercises and I now know to resume them on the other shoulder as soon as the first arm pain starts. Our osteopath, ‘Fan’ told me that it is a 100% cert my other shoulder will try and freeze at some time, so by starting the exercises at the first signs I can prevent the stiff shoulder part. So it’s all good.
Preparing to Leave New Zealand
Jeannie kindly invited us to stay in her late mum, Alaine’s house for four nights while Zoonie was on the hard, so we commuted daily giving us time for Rob to polish her hull and I anti-fouled the propeller, shaft and skeg. Not much to do so we took our time before ‘splashing’ back into the water and spending one night at anchor near the hoist just to make sure everything was sound and Rob’s replacement log impellor skin fitting, for the boat speed and water temperature, was watertight.
Then back up to the hive of Whangarei in the Town Basin and two weeks of shared farewell diners, walks and social get togethers with our friends. At the Farewell Dinner organised by Brian and Sharron at the marina office some members of the local Haka group gave us a professional performance. They are worthy of mention as they have performed all over the world, including London and I just love the cultural connection with their history through dance.
A senior lady told us about Sir Hector Busby aka Heke-nuku-mai-nga-iwi Puhipi or just plain old Hec. Part Pakeha and part Maori he was a master mariner and waka (sacred ocean going canoe) builder constructing 26 in his lifetime. He gave of his knowledge freely without expectation of reward and was a leader in the revival of traditional Polynesian navigation and ocean voyaging using wayfinding techniques. Quite a man. So their next song was dedicated to him. The lady must have known his situation because he died four days later on the 11th March.
A request was received on board from Jeannie and Merv for our assistance in moving Jeannie’s piano from Alaine’s to Jeannie’s beautiful new living space in their home just around the corner. Rob flew into action imparting his knowledge based on experience from his past life on what promised to become a Laurel and Hardy experience. Eric came along from Scoots to lend a hand so we had a team of four hauliers and Rob as foreman. The two wheeled trolley, not much bigger than a roller skate, had Rob scratching his chin since it wasn’t quite what he’d ordered, but then Merv came to the rescue saying his third leg could take the load while we mere mortals pushed and shoved.
As it was the exercise was completed with surprisingly little blue air and we all sank onto the kitchen high stools for a welcome coffee and cake.
Parihaka occupied a large place in my mind as I wanted to climb and descend three more times before we leave and the lovely area forever remains in my memory. One of those little havens of natural wildlife that will hopefully survive the environmental storm that lies ahead as I believe many places will.
I stumbled through the doorway into Specsavers, obviously due for another eye test almost exactly two years to the day since the last one. “Good news is your eyes will not get much worse now”, doesn’t sound like good news put like that does it except that the upcoming financial outlay on new specs might be the last.
“We have a new test, a scan of your entire inner eye,” this 12 acres of avocado plantation owning optometrist said with glee. The grainy horizontal lines reminded me of how the seabed can look on the chart plotter. As I watched him scan the line a little dip appeared below which lay the macula. “A correlation between the degeneration of the macular and Alzheimer’s Disease has been found but yours is in perfect order.” Phew, it looked like a good place to drop the anchor to me.
Rob and I volunteered to take some school uniforms and games kits up to Vanuatu for a post disaster trust called Byond. We would deliver them to the Sharm charity in Luganville for distribution to local schools and maybe establish a nice connection with some niVanuatu folk. Gail from Cetacea helped us bring three big boxes to Zoonie in her car and they now occupy the forward heads, which hopefully we can do without for the voyage.
Andrew in Vanuatu Immigration was happy to receive our photographed inward documents and wished us a safe sail north to them.
Hugh and Hera from their little boat Shama, who have previously loaned us their car when we were both in Marsden Cove, are now moored in the Basin and hoping to buy a section of land and settle down. They came aboard one evening and in the conversation told us about the yacht that was on route from Napier on the north shore of the south island to Opua just north of Marsden when it befell a double whammy.
Firstly a rogue wave laid Supermolli flat and then moments after she recovered a humpback whale surfaced at the bow and punched a dent into the starboard side. The seawater up the exhaust pipe meant she couldn’t use her engine so she had a tow into Marsden where she now sits in the hard stand area with chalk marks that you can just see in the photo marking where she will need a new steel plate. A glassfibre or wooden boat would not have fared so well.
Our farewells said I sounded the fog horn as Rob steered Zoonie past the office and Naylene emerged to return the gesture. Bowie barked his goodbye and his owner waved somehow suspecting we were leaving and the bridge lifted over Zoonie’s deck for the last time.
At the end of her two year refit Cetacea was making her way back up river after a first shakedown with Gail and Tony delighted they had finally made it out of their berth. Somehow we sense that we will see them and Jeannie and Merv and no doubt more of our down under friends again sometime in the future.
For now our next night would be at anchor in peaceful Urquharts Bay making sure the water maker worked and the batteries charged ok and just easing ourselves away from all that has been dear to us here over the past two and a half years.
The next morning we came across 7 little blue penguins in two separate groups while making our way to Marsden Marina and after securing Zoonie on her berth we spent the afternoon wandering over familiar ground along the beach to One Tree Point to the sound of paddling seagulls, calling oyster catchers and a flock of white spoonbills sifting the waterline sand with side to side movements of their heads. There were many kingfishers busy feeding too.
Yesterday we were preparing supper for Neville and Sharon, you may remember Neville sailed his wooden hulled Golden Hind ‘Doumar’ from the UK back in the early 1980’s to take up his career as a GP. We pass her each time we go ashore from our berth. Neville wrote a book about his difficult voyage titled ‘Doumar and the Doctor’ and his work to get the book publicised in the UK is on-going.
With the Cranks Aubergine bake mellowing ready for a bake in the oven we set off to visit the Marsden Point Oil Refinery Visitor Centre having passed it numerous times and now running out of time. It is New Zealand’s only oil refinery and you may recall the overland pipeline to the airport was broken a while back by a tractor driver trying to extract bog kauri from a lifestyle section between here and Auckland. Well Air New Zealand is suing the refinery for loss of earnings while the culprit seems to have disappeared into oblivion.
The nice lady at the desk told us all this, she has retired twice but keeps bouncing back. She has worked in the oil industry for 42 years, many of them at Marsden and has five sons who all live in Australia. We watched two films about the refinery, one is quite modern and soon to be replaced and the other is out of the archives. Under the big film screen is an even bigger model of the refinery, and lights illuminated sections to fit in with the film commentary.
It is amazing what one can get out of a litre of crude oil; From the top down
46 mls refinery fuel
2 mls sulphur (sold for fertilizer)
120 mls bitumen & fuel oils
177 mls jet fuel
370 mls diesel
210 mls 91 octane petrol
75 mls 96 octane petrol
Crude oil arrives by sea from the Middle and Far East and New Plymouth on the homeland. Much of the refined oil including the aviation fuel travels along the 170 kilometre pipeline to Auckland.
As often happens the pockets of nature that lie within the confines of industrial areas, in this case on the beach and land around the refinery, wildlife thrives away from the regular intrusion of humans and the rare New Zealand Dotteril for example is monitored by specialist refinery staff.
We saw a few as we made our way across open ground back to the marina road and felt optimistic for their future.
Weather wise there is a system whizzing around to the north, it gave the yachts at anchor in North Minerva Reef a stormy night last week, and it is moving slowly to the east. Another low is creeping up the Tasman and when it passes North Cape around next weekend we will be looking to leave on Monday 3rd June, the Queen’s Birthday in New Zealand.