Monthly Archives: May 2011

Death In All Directions

Karola out in the sunny but cold weather trying to get as much of her planting done before we go to Wellington tomorrow. She also put her sheep – for now running as one flock – on the lawn for a bit of a browse.

The farm gates are locked (combination lock on a cable) and I bought maize so that the geese have enough while we’re away. I also bought a $40 very sharp knife with a bowed blade.

One of the wether lambs not sent to the works has always been unthrifty – in fact we had several like that this year – well #034 just got much worse and couldn’t get up etc so, after our usual suspects, Mark and Gary, were unobtainable and not wanting a slowly dying lamb lying around the place when Laurie comes to mind the sheep, I dispatched it. Apart from shooting a badly hurt and ill sheep with a gun borrowed from Adam Ladbrook years ago, I have never dispatched a sheep before even though the Bendall’s of my school holiday stays did show me how it was done with a “sharp knife” (see above).

This evening Karola went to fetch Mark so he could come and take the lamb for dog food – waste not want not etc. I think Karola is a little excited because her 11 lambs sent to the works yesterday fetched $115 – $144 dollars each.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather:0°C—17°C; 0.1 mm rain [83.3] 06:30

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Yippee – Another Cottage Hurdle Jumped

SwimGym – brrr it was cold getting there.

Then after a quick but hearty breakfast we spent the morning getting some sheep to market. First it was “piglet” (#104) and his hefty companion, wether #630. To my surprise and delight, with Karola tempting them with sheep nuts, they got into the trailer without a fuss. Off to Stortford Lodge to the Monday sale. Next it was eleven wether lambs to Progressive Meats (well actually on the books of “Lean Meats”). The plant was unusually quiet and we had no trouble either getting the lambs into the trailer or up the steep ramp at the works – except that I had to lift each one to send it on its way.

Meticulous Maids came after lunch.

Robert Russell e-mailed late afternoon: $88 for “piglet” – which is OK for meat but not for breeding and an amazing $160 for the wether #630. I would have expected the other way round and rather less.

Karola planted another 15 trees.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Big news today: first that Karen Hurren, the regional archaeologist with the NZ Historic Places Trust, had finished her assessment of our request and sent it off to head office for their review. So, maybe they will be able to fast-track our simple request through in less than three months plus 15 days. The late afternoon even better news was an email saying head office had granted authority today. Whew, so now we have to wait for 15 days, the mandatory “cooling off” period, and we can begin – assuming of course that the Council grant us the 15–metre resource consent. The resource consent has to be decided in about 15 days at normal speed so should be here much sooner.

Les is geeing up the builder and moving man; thinks that maybe we could aim to get going around 20th June. That would be wonderful.

Weather:0°C—17°C; 0.1 mm rain [82.7] 06:30

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Beech Tree Branch Closed

Lambs on the lawn under the big oak again. Karola continues her tree planting and clearing in preparation. She also penned up the lambs due for market tomorrow, and piglet and #630. Piglet sensed that she had some sheep nuts and in his excitement gave her a healthy bunt – it was not appreciated.

Small by recent standards but still substantial, a large branch of the english beech fell off today. No wind, no rain (in last 24 hours at least), it had lost most of its leaves – and while it was hollow there was plenty of wood still to sustain it so heaven knows why caused it to choose today to fall off.

We put the stock crate on the trailer ready for tomorrow. Karola rang her stock agent, Robert Russell, and he confirmed we were on for tomorrow.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather:-1°C—16°C; no rain [83.2] 06:30

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Saturday

Day started sunny and mild but deteriorated as the day progressed. Karola got her ewe lambs onto the lawn under the big oak; otherwise it was a pretty quiet day. Karola spent several hours out with her tree planting under the oaks along the main drive; I stayed in the warm.

A Maori guy, Len (06-879-8322), and his son from Flaxmere drove in and asked Karola for some apple firewood. She agreed they could take a little. And maybe if we take out more Braeburns this winter he could come and cut up and salvage some of those before they get burned.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather:0°C—18°C; no rain [83.3] 06:30

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More T’s Crossed and I’s Dotted

SwimGym. Karola to doctors for regular maintenance. Later, lunch at Cornucopia Taste. Generally a nice day, not too cool and sunny.

Karola moved the ewe lambs (and 7 male lambs not selected for this week’s prize) into the Back paddock. She drafted out “piglet” (#104) and his friend #630 from the ewes and put them with the “lambs to go” in the Totara paddock. Ewes went back into the Front paddock.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Karola took the re-signed “affected parties” documents from Craig vernon and also from Janet Scott back in to Les Clapcott.

Weather:3°C—21°C; 0.1 mm rain [82.5] 06:30

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Another Week Vanishes

Wet day but mild. Programming and tree planting continued.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Karola got the necessary signing from Janet Scott’s daughter Helen, although with a certain amount of bad grace.

Weather:9°C—20°C; 20 mm rain [82.2] 06:30

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Simon Says Do That

SwimGym for both of us this morning. Re flu: Karola is slightly improved and I am greatly recovered – from about 3:00 am as I recall.

Robert Russell came at 9:20 am and chose 11 of our not-so-fine 2011 ram lambs for the works next week. Sadly (for me) “piglet” and #630 are scheduled to go to the sale yards on Monday too. Lambs to slaughter etc: (plus piglet and #630) are: #004, #011, #018, #022, #025, #028, #029, #030, #031, #032, #044.

Good news of Gill and Ben reaching sunny Shropshire.

I retrieved the tractor from HB Tractor Dismantlers and they’d given it a good annual service – including putting on a gear knob, replacing the water cap and other little things that show they care.

Karola did more tree planting.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Karola got the necessary signing from Craig Vernon and has begun negotiations for Janet Scott’s daughter to amend her signing (due Janet’s broken wrist) so that it will be accepted by the Council.

Simon came round, talked to Karola and had a look at the proposed cottage site – part of the resource consent process. Simon was happy with it and said we’d have no trouble getting the consent.

Weather:6°C—19°C; 1.7 mm rain [82.5] 06:30

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Cold Or Flu, How Do You Do

Now it’s my turn for the cold. Got up at 1:30 am and programmed the night away till 5:30 am then sleep-ish till 6:18 am as usual. In contrast Karola says she had a reasonable night’s sleep.

Karola and I went to Taradale to the Jobcentre to register her for her superannuation. Basically the online forms we filled in were used to retype the information into another computer system while we waited. Anyway, despite not having all the documentation we were advised to bring, Karola still got on the books and will be getting her ‘super’ backdated to her birthday earlier this month. There are dire threats however that I must apply to UK for pension so that NZ can subtract it from the standard fortnightly amount. I’d never thought of having a UK government pension.

Early evening we rounded up the lambs and drafted them into male and female – with one scrawny male lamb going with the ewe lambs to avoid pulling down the look of the other 17. Robert Russell is coming tomorrow morning to look at the 17 with a view to selling most of them to Progressive Meats in a few days time.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Mid morning we took the archaeological documents, two copies, to Les in Mahora for a final check we hadn’t missed anything out. Les has “primed the pump” as best he can and so maybe, just maybe, the usual “three months” for consideration can be brought down to a week. That still leaves 15 working days of “cooling off period” so that anyone wh wants to can object, so we’re not quite there yet.

Les rang earlier to say we needed more signatures on our “affected persons” documents so Karola will be off doing that tomorrow once she’s finished with Robert Russell.

Weather:3°C—18°C; 0.1 mm rain [82.4] 06:30

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Gill & Ben Off To The UK Till July

SwimGym for me only today. We’ve both got heavy colds, Karola much worse than me. Karola still went out clearing ground for more tree planting but I stayed in the warm.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Elizabeth P the archaeologist sent her report and the form requesting authorisation through this morning and we reviewed it a couple of times. This evening we think we have a good final version and I’ve made three signed copies – two to go to the NZ Historic Places Trust. We may pas it by Les tomorrow morning just to check for last minute suggestions.

Weather:4°C—11°C; 0.1 mm rain [81.9] 06:30

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Up Stumps And Left

Gritchy cold sort of day. Karola planted more trees and we pulled out / cut up a large tangle of Robinia stumps that threatened to be in her tree-planting way.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather:3°C—18°C; 0.2 mm rain [82.6] 06:30

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Flights Booked For Christmas

Quite a horrid day outside – cold and overcast though without any wind. Karola kept on planting, 24 trees today. I kept on computing with Bridget – she only gets half an hour here and there because of her children of course.

Bridget has booked her flights to Nelson for the family walk next Christmas and I booked for Karola and me and Anna, Felix, and Barnaby.

The Cottage Refurbishment

No report today from Elizabeth, but an e-mail at the end of the afternoon saying she hadn’t been able to get on to the NZAA site and register our project so would have to try again on Monday.

Weather:6°C—17°C; no rain [82.0] 06:30

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Elizabeth P Potters Archaeologically

SwimGym then Elizabeth came then, around 1:30pm, Karola and I went into town for lunch and a bit of shopping. Met Ade White in “Cornucopia Taste”, and, briefly, his madly anti-GE daughter Kate. Ade had been babysitting for Kate while she rabble-roused and he was exhausted.

In the morning Bridget helped with organising things for our dynastic walking holiday planned for between Christmas and New year in the Abel Tasman National Park. Five days and 40km but with lots of distractions and optional bits for the tinier ones. Anna and Felix and Barney, and Bridget and Chris and Natalie and Alex, and Karola and me. It’s going to cost a fortune but a once-in-a-lifetime adventure in the making here.

Karola continued tree planting from mid afternoon until well dark.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Elizabeth came around 9:00 am and says we’ll have her report tomorrow. She fossicked around in the cottage for an hour or so. No major revelations but I can see she’s motivated to stick around, expensively, for the smallest potential artifacts. Hmmm.

Weather:2°C—18°C; no rain [82.0] 06:30

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Zero Degrees and a Frost

Zero degrees and a frost last night. Cloudless sunny day and warm in the sun during the middle of the day.

Karola was out planting trees in the afternoon; I kept to my programming. Karola had a short dental appointment mid afternoon.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today except that I rang Elizabeth and she plans to come here tomorrow morning.

Weather:2°C—18°C; no rain [81.4] 06:30

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Cold Winter Weather

SwimGym. Breakfast at The Coffee Club – OK breakfast but way too much and way way too expensive.

Haircut at 9:45am; doctor for normal quarterly checkup at 10:30am, regular blood test after that. All hunky dory.

Early afternoon Bernadette and Cyril Ormond dropped by for tea and a chat. They, Mahia Ormond cousins of Karola’s, were on their way back to Wairoa.

I then took the tractor to Kerry, HB Tractor Dismantlers, to get a replacement starter switch, to get the mini-fork straightened, and for a bit of a service.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today

Weather:_0°C—13°C; no rain [81.8] 06:30

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Another Dead Lamb

After a long period when he wasn’t thrifty, ram lamb #013 died today and was instantly turned into dog tucker for Mark Hendery’s dog. Mark came over this morning to dispatch and butcher the lamb and also to dig us another hole or two for possible future deaths. We also moved some old Robinea logs near the chook house with the tractor and Karola carted off a trailer load of smaller branches.

Alan Ladbrook came round to catch up; we haven’t talked for ages; and he is off to see how best to operate the orchard for the coming season. We’re not sure if Willie Thow meant it when he threatened to walk off after one of his three official lease years – it’s the end of his first year next week.

Karola took Mark home to Napier after lunch and spent the afternoon in Napier and Hastings. I spent much of the day carefully reviewing Bridget’s programming and being delighted that almost every time I thought I’d found a mistake, she had it covered.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today

Weather:8°C—20°C; 2.8 mm rain [82.0] 06:30

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What Winds Horatio, What Winds

Very windy day, gale force gusts and a few smaller branches off trees.

Made good progress with Bridget on our Apple Mac application.

Sent off the signed contract with Mannering Irrigation Services to install Karola’s orchard water meter, as required by law. Contract had to be in place by 18th May.

Graham Whiu (06-839-7701), a large Maori gentleman, rolled up looking for a telephone having been stopped by the police in Oak Avenue doing 120km/h. He professed interest in the history of Karamu and said he was going to be a multi-millionaire in two days time. Strange person. He made his call and eventually I think someone came to pick him up, he being barred from driving after irritating the policeman a lot, according to his own testimony.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Les sent through the letter he received today from NZHPT and he can now submit our package to the council for resource consent, which is very good news.

Weather:15°C—18°C; no rain [82.5] 06:30

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Ewe-Lamb’s Delight – A Smelly Old Ram

SwimGym, then, apart from much counting of sheep it was a quiet day. Karola sorting stuff inside mainly. Me programming except for a couple of hours moving more logs. There seem to be 38 ewes, piglet and the wether in the Front paddock and 41 lambs in the Totara paddock. One ewe lamb somehow got in with the ewes – very interested in piglet – so she may have a lamb too this year. Her number is: #043. She is back with the lambs now.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing new to report today.

Weather:11°C—21°C; no rain [82.1] 06:30

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Who’s 65 Today – Goldcard Girl!

Went into Hastings for food and to get Karola’s birthday gift from her favourite hardware shop, Fear’s.

I did 5 -6 runs with the tractor in the afternoon, moving logs sawn up by Tricky Trees to the wood piles down by the 121 entrance. Karola was out weeding nettles and after a while she came and helped.

Karola had her sheep ready by 3:00 pm but Mobile Shearing didn’t turn up till 4:30 pm, finishing crutching the ewes and lambs around 7:00 pm in the dark. The Mobile Shearing truck has electric shearing gear and a light, of course, run from a petrol generator.

Karola’s “Candlelit Supper” was a splendid dinner beginning with whitebait fritters, then a beef caserole with peas, potatoes, carrots, and beans of several sorts. Pudding was creme brulle and chocolate pudding and ice cream and cream and pears. Coffee and cheese followed. Scrumptious. We were sharing it with Elizabeth and Peter Ormond and Margy and Ian Maxwell. A good time was had by all.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing new to report today.

Weather:9°C—21°C; no rain [81.9] 05:30

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Day Before Birthday

SwimGym then a lazy day. Expected Mobile Shearing to do some crutching in the morning but that was put off till tomorrow afternoon. Light lunch at Cornucopia Taste, picked up the bread, and came home. More programming with Bridget. Anna sent Karola a very nice birthday card – she has a knack for that.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing new to report today.

Weather:9°C—23°C; no rain [81.5] 06:30

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Nice Autumn Breezes

Rather a nice day. Routine fasting blood test for me in the morning so ravenous for breakfast.

Programming all day for me. Karola went to Napier and visited Rowena.

.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing new to report today.

Weather:8°C—25°C; no rain [81.3] 06:30

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No Tree Too Tricky

SwimGym then we took small trailer load of sawn-up oak to Janet Scott next door.

In the afternoon Tricky Trees turned up – they were working over the road at the Hills’ in the morning. Over here they made quick work of: the dead Liriodendron near the front gate, four Robinea along the drive that are shading out our Titokes, the snapped off Alder up in the Island paddock, and a bit of tidying up and mulching as well. We also got a truckload of mulch from their work in the morning, which is good.

I had to resend the scanned pages of water consents to John Jones – all 12 at once was too much for their mail system, allegedly. And I called the regional council and got the correction to our permits that we received a while back but can’t just put our finger on. “every 7 days” became “every four weeks”.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing new to report today.

Weather:13°C—19°C; 0.1 mm rain [81.7] 06:30

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Water Meters Matters

Inside all day; quite cold.

John Jones, brother of Chris Jones and related to the Hills across the road, rang and then came round to asses our need for a water meter. By law Karola has to have a contract to fit a water meter by 18th May so we’re cutting it fine. John made lots of very expensive sounding whistles and groans and he’s now off to make an estimate for the least fancy, least expensive meter he can. A meter needs several feet of unimpeded pipe either side of the sensors and so John’s suggestion is to take the pipe from the pump out through the back of the pump shed, through the meter, and then back in through the wall again.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Karola couriered over to Napier with documents for Elizabeth Pishief to get her teeth into – the title and such.

Les spoke again today to Kathryn Hurren and she said she’d checked with her people and yes we could put a note to the effect that Karamu had no recorded contact or significance with Maori so we don’t need to “consult with local iwi”. This too is progress.

Weather:10°C—17°C; no rain [82.0] 06:30

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Elizabeth, Archaeologist, Is Hired

SwimGym.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Checked that the hourly rate charged by Elizabeth Pishief was reasonable – turns out the other local authorised archaeologist, Kathryn Barr, charges $155 an hour plus GST so with Elizabeth at $100 an hour plus GST we should consider ourselves fortunate. So I rang and asked her to begin. She expects to reach a major checkpoint – when Karola and I will consider whether it’s worth continuing – by 19th May.

Talked to Les about the NZHPT letter. Les then talked to Kathryn Hurren and afterwards sent a package of extra information to Alison in Wellington.

I also discussed the cottage bearers with Les. He had had the plans changed to use the existing bearers as we always wanted and sent me the revised foundation plans plus a sketch of the current foundations made by Carl Barker. This is progress.

Weather:7°C—21°C; no rain [82.1] 06:30

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Sunday Autumn Sunday

Much of the day was beautiful sunshine and cool without much breeze. Karola loaded up a trailer with the wood I’d cut previously. She let her ewes out onto the lawn just for the day. I did admin stuff inside.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Forwarded scanned copy of the NZHPT letter to Les noting that, after I reread it carefully, it may be that all Alison is needing before she’ll give us the letter we need for the resource consent submission is the details of our submission – the plans of the cottage and the site. Not 100% sure but here’s hoping. That still means many weeks yet before we can go ahead with resource consent.

Weather:9°C—23°C; no rain [82.5] 06:30

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Programming In The Warm

Nothing outside today apart from an hour more chainsawing for exercise. The bits of oak branch that are left are really too big and hard for my little chainsaw. Karola looked over her sheep but otherwise it was too damp for anything serious outside.

The very good news however is that Anna says she’s booked her tickets to come out with the boys 16th Dec, leaving 4th Jan. Frabjous, frabjous.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Letter from NZHPT today – supposedly the letter for the submission to the Resource Consent committee. It was instead a sort of form letter thanking us for getting them involved so early and suggesting we get back to them when our plans are more concrete, when we know where we intend to move the cottage to, and when the archaeological assessment has been done. Spitting tacks I am. We showed her the new site, we had the site plan on the table but she showed no interest in it, her (Alison’s) brief at the meeting being the buildings. We showed Elizabeth the site. We told them we had building planning permission and were wanting urgently to get on with the cottage move before the ground got too wet. I am not best pleased!

Weather:13°C—19°C; 4.8 mm rain [82.0] 06:30

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Pottering On A Friday

SwimGym. Wintery day. Lunch in Hastings, otherwise just pottering around – me computing stuff – Karola tidying and sorting.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather:11°C—16°C; 7.5 mm rain [82.3] 06:30

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Cambridge For Nicky Thomson’s Funeral

Left around 8:00 am, drove to Cambridge, funeral at 1:00 pm – many of Karola’s cousins were there, including the Mungatapu crowd (Nicky’s sisters) of course. Left around 4:00 pm, quick walk in Cambridge park, 1 km round the duck pond, then back home by 7:30 pm.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Elizabeth Pishief e-mailed her outline for what she is offering to do by way of archaeological research and monitoring for us – at $100 an hour, around $12,000 more or less. I was flabbergasted. This for a process designed to stop developers digging up Maori pa remains but where our site has no recorded Maori presence whatsoever and the cottage barely comes within the legal net for properties with dwellings built before 1900. Flabbergasted.

Weather:7°C—22°C; 0.1 mm rain [81.9] 06:30

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Elizabeth Pishief: An Archaeologist Calls

SwimGym. Otherwise a quiet day of programming – well reading manuals online anyway.

The Cottage Refurbishment

In the afternoon Elizabeth Pishief visited; she’s the archaeologist who will monitor the cottage sites – the ‘to’ and the ‘from’. Karola spent the afternoon showing her round. Next she’ll send us a proposal for her activities and a rough estimate.

Weather:9°C—20°C; no rain [82.3] 06:30

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An Inside Sort of Day

Karola put the ewes on the lawn today, now the rain has become more intermittent. Karola and I separately went round the sheep and the lambs. No obvious casualties. I also went round the orchard to check out what;s been happening there. Not an apple on any tree. Still some of the sun-reflecting groundsheets to be rolled up. Soggy underfoot from rain but not churned into mud like the Scott’s next door who are picking a late apple crop ankle deep in water.

I spent the day doing inside stuff: Karola’s GST, provisional tax payments, bills and the like. I did spend an hour outside chainsawing up most of the oak tree branch that finally fel out of the big oak tree last week.

Karola went off for lunch with her school friend Cynthia Chalmers and they together visited Jane M in the Atawhai rest home before having lunch in Taradale.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather:13°C—21°C; no rain [82.3] 06:30

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Dreary – But It’s Nice To Be Home

SwimGym after a a lapse while we were in Queenstown. Rainy day and I spent all day indulging myself on programming while Karola tidied and sorted stuff. meticulous Maids came in the morning and de-grimed the place.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Les forwarded an e-mail from Kathryn saying that she and Alison were working on a letter for us today for our resource consent submission.

Weather:15°C—17°C; 19.4mm rain [82.0] 06:30

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Back To Hastings Via Wellington

Refreshed from our unbroken sleep we enjoyed the morning strole around the Queenstown Gardens, mature trees and gardens set on a little peninsula 5 minutes from Queenstown downtown. Margaret Barker, current president of the NZ chapter of the IDS and owner of Larnach Castle in Dunedin, kindly offered us a ride to the Gardens from the motel and then on to the airport to catch our midday flight to Wellington. That way we had no problems with storing our luggage etc.

The flights home were uneventful and, apart from the saga of Karola’s missing Longines watch and the missing Napier airport car parking ticket – both resolved happily once we got home – it was effortless.

The Cottage Refurbishment

Nothing to report today.

Weather:11°C—18°C; 0.1mm rain [?] 06:30

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