Midwinter in Whangarei
It’s been a lovely weekend, both days, sunny and warm, even hot at times, yet this is midwinter in NZ. We went for a long walk on Northland NZ’s equivalent of Holkham Beach on Saturday. Breams Bay leads up to Marsden Point, where we cleared in just past NZ’s only oil refinery all those months ago. Around 30km of white sand on which we made a tiny impression at the north end. A bigger impression was made by a young lady on her lively chestnut mare as they galloped beside the surf. Hundreds of live scallops had been washed ashore and black backed gulls were enjoying a squabbling feast. The beach is backed with well-worn dunes that appear to be home to possums and possum hunters judging by the macabre impaling of six carcasses on wooden posts. I wondered why the humans had not made something on their pelts. There is a factory in the middle of Whangarei that takes in road kill and hunters trophies to skin and grind up the rest for dog food.
Back on Zoonie we firstly drank water so we would appreciate the homebrew more. Then came lunch. My favourite female novelist, Sara Alexi, recently published another book which contains her favourite Greek recipes so I made her artichoke stew for the Marina BBQ last Sunday evening. There was some left so I liquidised it in my bullet baby processor and we had the resurrected sauce with pasta and a few shavings of cheese. Rob made the pudding, an assembly job of a little choc muffin, scarved with Greek yoghurt, and topped with vegan coconut yoghurt flavoured with mango and turmeric and no added sugar. The crown was maple flavoured syrup, to make up for the lack of sugar in the yoghurt!!
Yesterday we climbed to the Mt Parihaka lookout, once a strong hold of the Hatea Maori tribe. A vast array of plants are starting to flower; glossy leaved Camellias, rambling jasmine filling the air with their fragrance from flowers in indirect proportion to their size, Busy Lizzies, snowdrops lilies, geraniums and magnolia all bursting forth. You know how I love the steep valley we have to scale, with its busy stream and indigenous forest and the sounds of human activity as good as a millions years away it is an escape to see what NZ once looked like all over the islands. Rob clicked on the torchlight on his iPhone and we crouched down and tiptoed tentatively into the old gold mine. No pit props here, just solid dripping rock and puddles, the single tunnel entrance soon opened out into three dinosaur claws and we turned back to the warm daylight. Maybe we’ll explore a little more sometime.
Down again on the river side a male mallard duck resting with his mate on a part submerged rock slept soundly as the gentle breeze lifted some of his feathers and turned him ever so slightly. At the Dairy Shop we bought Magnums and made them last as long as the remaining walk back to Zoonie.
Zoonie is all back together now and Rob has just booked her launch for this Thursday, wish us luck. A few evenings ago after dark we were sitting in the boat shed doorway enjoying a beer with Mo and looking beyond Zoonie down the ancient river to the floodlit Te Matau a Pohe, Fishhook Bridge. He was telling us about his little boat, a 1944 Hereschoff 28 footer called Rosemary that he is living on while he restores her and works in the boatyard. (photo attached).
In my last blog I included a photo of Andre Rieu’s advertising poster for the film of this year’s 30th Anniversary Concert of the formation of his Johann Strauss Orchestra, held in his home town of Maastricht, Belgium. You may have heard of him. He ticks all my boxes by popularising a variety of music genres and making the performances affordable to us masses. So it wasn’t his fault that it cost us $35 each to see the film of his concert when to attend the live performance was only $17. I might just go onto his website and advise him of that.
In 1917 a baby girl entered the world whose destiny was to marry Jesus. She had a liking for classical music and has been to every single one of Andre’s 30 concerts held in Maastricht. This year she was whisked in a wheelchair to the area infront of the stage really to get her there quickly, then Andre scooped her up for a dance to the Blue Danube Waltz, not bad for a centenarian nun!
One of the musicians, Manu, is a lady with character. A breast cancer survivor, she responded positively when Andre asked if anyone could play the bagpipes. “I can’t but I’ve always wanted to learn,” she replied. She took front stage with her bag and pipes while a Scottish bagpipe orchestra backed her up and a Scottish castle was the backdrop on stage. The concert was a colourful, lively and interactive performance and apparently all can be seen on UTube. If you’re interested a Google of Andre Rieu would send you to his website. I’d love to soak up the atmosphere of a live performance and Rob loved the music, pretty ladies and colourful dresses. What a treat that was.
After All things Fall Apart
After the flood which damaged so many of Zoonie’s systems when she had been ready for sea before and then ‘Things Fell Apart’ we knew we had an uphill struggle again to restore her systems to working order I can now happily report we are nearly there.
We have four issues left to sort out. Whilst researching our fridge compressor on the lovely fast internet in Dickens Rob discovered ours had been installed the wrong way around. So the fan was trying to expel the hot air onto the hull, (and getting it all back) when it should have been sending it out through the two vents provided for it, so it was constantly on and using a lot of electricity.
Secondly we discovered the wiring for the bow prop is crossed over so to turn her bow right we press the port/left side button and vice versa. Well that’s ok if one wants it like that but we feel it best to stick with the old arrangement as when in a close quarters situation there is not a lot of time to ‘remember’ the system has changed and the consequences of getting it wrong would not be pretty.
Thirdly, the new macerator pump for the black (poo) tank does not work for some reason, (can’t say I really blame it, what a job) but we need to get that system working in a world of ever more stringent and necessary environmental regulations.
Finally we need to take Zoonie on a run downriver to some clean, blueish water and test the watermaker. The new assembly came back with part of the high pressure pump mounted on the opposite side to where it had been on the old one. We hope that doesn’t make any difference.
Alex from WMS, our engine people, came aboard first thing last Friday and discovered the engine was not quite in line with the prop shaft. This came from Rob finding it was very hard to turn the prop by hand when one should be able to do it with one finger. A careful nudging of the engine on its adjustable mounts and the desired effect was achieved.
Time was running out to catch enough depth of water in the ebbing tide to get Zoonie back up to the Town Basin. So we split the job and Mo launched her last Friday and then we gently slid her around from the hoist bay onto the pontoon for the night and moved her upriver the next morning, UNDER HER OWN POWER FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE WE ARRIVED LAST NOVEMBER!
A quick radio call to Merv and Jeannie on Meridian Passage on the same pontoon we had been allocated to and they came down and took our lines in the blustery wind and chilly showers. Good friends. So Zoonie Rocks gently to and fro, side to side and feels normal again. No more night time bucket and chuck it and emptying the sink bucket three times a day. Feeling safe working on deck again one of the first things Rob and I did was wash her decks clean of the grit from the yard and the green slime that had formed on her and she looks so much better.
Then came my Birthday. As the hourglass of life ticks on and the sand, and other things, submit to the force of gravity I decided the celebrations this year should be spread out over four days with at least one encounter with a sandy beach, a dinner party with friends and a decadent cake…….
A Moveable Extendable Feast
She waved down at us from her spot at the top of the falls. Bikini clad and very pink the well covered lady had been swimming in one of the swimming holes gauged out by the rushing water that tumbled over Piroa Falls in the Waipu Gorge. The sun was just overhead faceting the various greens of the leaves with silver light and enabling the viewer to look deep into the pale green cloudy pools. It was an exquisitely beautiful area enhanced by the good luck of our arrival coinciding with the sun.
A few miles away, on Langs beach, where we later learned our friend Jeannie had grown up, Rob found a dead gannet, sorry no photo as he told me the next day. I watched a seagull struggling with an invisible infestation of some kind. It strutted up a little creek, dipping its head frequently and scratching and when it tried to fly it just splashed headlong back into the water.
Then a treat, walking hand in hand back along the beach we saw a small number of New Zealand Dunnets, elegant little white beach birds with pale orange chests strutting like Gucci models on a sandy catwalk.
Hunger and curiosity drew us into the Cove bar at Waipu Cove for beer and pizza before going home.
That evening a thunder storm moved towards the Basin with flashes of white light searing through the windows. Suddenly an almighty bang and I looked across at the control panel hoping to see the tiny red lights still showing and that my next email to Clare at our insurers would not be a report of our electrics being blown by a lightning strike. Rob was more pragmatic, “The mast of the aluminium boat next to us is taller and a much better conductor than us hun.”
But it reminded me that on the night I was born England suffered a massive storm which caused the river at Lynton on the north Devon coast to be filled with water from a burst dam and finding its original course and taking out to sea with it all that was in its path including cars and houses.
Monday was my Birthday and we idled through some shops in town after opening my lovely presents and calling home. A quick pint and pot of chips in Dickens and then back home to see ‘Our Kind of Traitor’ and another episode of Fargo over a bottle of Prosecco to round off the evening.
Tuesday included a hospital visit for the district nurse to change Rob’s PICC dressing and a trip to the cinema to see Hampstead. After the film we had a snack meal in a Turkish Restaurant that has become an enjoyable haunt for us. Their falafel salad, Turkish coffee and baklava makes a pretty good meal I can tell you. I want to ask them about the situation in Turkey now but they are always so busy.
Yesterday was the last day of my mini festival and as the forecast was so favourable we took a gentle four hour return trip up to Whangarei Falls and back. It brought back memories of the children finding their Golden Kiwis when they were here at Easter. Half way back we met an Australian couple over for two weeks and in their hired Maui campervan supping coffee. They asked us to join them and that’s partly why the walk took so long.
Merv and Jeannie came aboard in the evening bringing with them some crayfish their son had caught and we relished the delicate flavour before my curry and decadent birthday cake. It was one of those evenings we knew we’d enjoy and sharing anecdotes of our past lives was just pure fun.
Next week we have a busy one with visits to the hospital every day, the most telling being Thursday when Rob checks in at 7.30am for his TOE and again at 1.00pm for a chat with the Infectious Diseases Doctor. We should have more news for you then and let’s hope it is positive.