Monthly Archives: May 2016

Cold, wintery day. Karola had a doctor’s appointment in the morning. I soldiered on with my diet plans – terribly boring.

Ewe #433, one of the hoggets mated for the first time this year, died last night and so I buried her late morning as the last occupant of the old grave, leaving Henare’s latest “death pit” for later.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—13℃ no rain [81.3]

SwimGym – with Karola, back after her cold.

Today is a test “low-cal” day beginning with 400 calories bacon & egg brunch (no breakfast) and around 400 calorie salmon dinner. Two cups of coffee with a dash of milk during the day, otherwise that’s it. Along with the salmon, drizzled with a tablespoon of cheese sauce, we had “cauliflower rice” – a starch-alternative low-calorie replacement for potato or rice or pasta. Karola cut up cauliflower in her blender then cooked it in a tiny amount of olive oil. So 1½ cups of this cauliflower mixture, ½ a cup of peas, and 1 cup of cabbage. Tasted quite good.

Karola and I went to St Andrews in Hastings for a packed congregation of well-wishers for Diane Arthur’s memorial service at 2:00pm. An amazing cross-section of people there, the Ormond clan of course, and a dozen or so IDS members from the lower North Island.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [82.3]

I spent much of the day, as usual on a Sunday, answering email, paying bills, and other weekly chores.

Yvonne dropped in at lunchtime as planned on her way from Gisborne to home in Fielding and we all went to Pernell for lunch.

Karola finished weeding under the feijoa tree and started spreading mulch under its drip line. I finished emptying and stacking the third apple box of firewood cut by Peter Wiffin some months ago.

Harry called as usual on Sunday evening and we chatted, this time about exercise and diets. Karola kept well away.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—20℃ 0.5mm rain [82.5]

I spent some of the day working on my calorie counting menus, and the rest reading or dozing, hoping to get through my slight cold well before our visit to Wellington planned for next weekend.

Karola did a little weeding outside but she too spent most of the time indoors. She is getting over her cold. Karola also went out and checked her sheep, feeding the lambs some pea straw.

We went to Pernel’s for lunch and I did take Bramble round the orchard, otherwise we had a quiet day.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—20℃ 0.6mm rain [81.9]

SwimGym, again by myself as Karola tries to shrug off her cold.

Karola went out in the morning for the weekend food. I dozed most of the day but did a little research on possible meals and their calorie counts.

Karola did a lot more clearing under the fejoa bushes on a sunny but cold afternoon.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—19℃ 0.1mm rain [82.3]

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—20℃ no rain [82.7]

SwimGym, by myself as Karola has nasty cold.

Haircut at 9:30am then got some food from Countdown – not my favourite supermarket but on reflection there’s not a lot to choose between it and New World. Countdown was closer today.

Cold day so spent mainly inside. At Karola’s request I called the Vets and asked what today’s risk of facial eczema was. They said low so Karla allowed me to release the sheep, penned up in the holding paddock overnight, to go back into the Middle paddock.

Went to the early evening showing of Search For The Wilderpeople, a New Zealand film with Sam Neil in the lead and a fair number of cameo performances from well-known NZ TV. And a horrid “Child Welfare Services” bitch, obviously modelled on Judith Collins. From a book by iconic bushman, Barry Crump. A number of in-jokes I think, like the car yard scenes reminding us of  an early hit New Zealand film, Crash Palace.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—18℃ no rain [82.7]

Nights are getting colder which makes for sounder sleeping.

Our mislaid Barclaycard replacement cards arrived today.

Karola spent the entire evening last night pouring over her sheep records. This morning I went out and yarded them, wrote down all their numbers, and left the two (two, not three) with evidence of facial eczema in the race so Karola could put zinc ointment on them – which she did.

Karola has a nasty cold and I think I am incubating one. Not sure whom to blame, Henare or Geoff Rashbrooke. On the whole I favour Henare who actually turned up complaining of a cold last week and whom we gave LemSip to soothe. Geoff Rashbrooke may have got his cold from us I suppose as it took 24 hours to surface while they were here.

That warning light shaped like an engine – well it keeps coming on after we’ve been driving for a while. Took it to garage who sucked out the error codes and I’m pleased to say that it’s not serious – maybe pre-warning of something major in the emissions control but not serious yet and wouldn’t stop the car getting a WOF either.

After visiting the garage I did do a little shopping. Meanwhile Karola, snuffling and wheezing, put the homestead to rights after our weekend visitors.

Karola’s school friend, Jenny Price, dropped in for a chat and to say she’s going for a holiday to England, to Bishops Waltham. Karola gave her some UK contacts.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [83.0]

SwimGym

I then got distracted by a throw-away comment in an email from Laura. She said she wished she had somewhere to upload family video to – in particular video of her niece & nephew on the zipline aka Flying Fox which they’ve successfully put up at Burleigh. And various things didn’t work – they rot with time as pieces evolve – and I ended up spending all day just replicating a simple website and FTP site in part of my web space in the USA.

Karola was outside all morning checking her sheep. Three ewes now have serious Facial Eczema (in addition to the two that Peter Wiffin dispatched for us) – but according to Peter Arthur it’s a crisis for sheep farmers in Hawkes Bay – worst in decades.

In the afternoon Karola began weeding under her fejoa trees by the ha-ha. She plans to use the mulch we created recently to make a bed for next year’s fruit.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—14℃ 0.5mm rain [82.7]

After breakfast the Rashbrookes took off for the Wairarapa, to Sara’s (Annette’s daughter) birthday party.

We then loaded up the little electric saw bench I’m bequeathing to Graham Harvey, and the old, decrepit chook house (made from an ancient dog kennel). The saw went in the back of the car, the chook house on one of Karola’s little trailers. Karola drove gingerly up to Peter Arthur’s place – we didn’t want the chook house to disintegrate before we got there.

Peter Arthur is ex-owner of Touchwood Books, sponsor of Karola when she joined the IDS, and founding member of Hawkes bay Tree Croppers, early member of Farm Forestry group as well as being a long-time IDS member. Diane, his second wife, died just a few weeks ago after almost two years illness.

We also took some books to Peter from the IDS meeting as his wife’s death meant he missed this years IDS AGM & trip. Peter gave us a pleasant pork casserole and for dessert we had raspberries Karola got this morning from Gagans, the green grocer / vegetable growers on the way to Flaxmere past the Transfer Station and Dog Pound.

We returned late afternoon and the engine warning light came on again. Despite stopping a couple of times to see if that would reset it, it came on again within a few minutes of restarting. The service manual says it’s related to problems with the emission controls.

Henare appeared after dinner, having been to Badminton (the game, not the place), and once more I paid his electricity bill online and he reimbursed me in cash.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—18℃ 3.9mm rain [82.6]

Breakfast, a leisurely affair. Felicity and Karola pickked Fejoas for the Rashbrookes to take back, Later we strolled over to the Quinces, in the north-west corner of the One Acre paddock, and picked up a small carton for the Rashbrookes.

A lingering lunch and then a walk in Pakowhai Park, by the river, wth Bramble. There were lots of dogs and their owners taking a walk in this park designated for dog exercise. There are lots of nnew trees as well as the established one, mostly natives. Pleasant and peaceful except for one group with about 6 dogs, all over-excited.

Later we lit the fire and Karola cooked us a delicious organic roast chicken dinner followed by stuffed baked apple pudding. Afterwards we relaxed by the fire and chatted over Camomile tea.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—19℃ 0.6mm rain [82.4]

SwimGym alone this morning.

Felicity & Geoff arrived mid morning and we immediately took them into town to get my bread and French bread and other gluten-filled pastries for the rest of them. We had a coffee at Taste while we were in the vicinity and Geoff & I braved Rebel Sport so I could buy a Polar H7 heart sensor (with Bluetooth) – my own private one just like the one Jonathan lent me this week.

After a light lunch, munching on the bread and pastries from Ya Bon the French bread baker, we went for a stroll round the orchard, just missing Peter Aethur who said he dropped by at around 2:00pm but could find no signs of Brackenburys,

In the evening we had a hearty spaghetti – venison mince dinner while outside there were showers of welcome rain. And then sat round a flickering warm fire.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—24℃ 5mm rain [81.9]

Stormy night.

Karola had a “facial” first thing and then we took the Subaru in to Stortford Lodge to get its front brake pads replaced and something done to the shocks so it could complete its WOF.

The transfers of funds from Australia to New Zealand has been oddly missing about $21 per transfer – one has to transfer in chunks because of limits per day on how much you can move. It turned out it was just another bank clipping my ticket. The CBA in Australia takes $22AUD per transaction. The transaction to an AUD account in ANZ was routed through ASB bank in New Zealand and they kindly took another NZD$25. Grrrr.

Karola spent much of the day tidying up the cottage garage and then preparing the homestead for the impending Rashbrooke visit.

My password manager, DashLane, suddenly advised me that LinkedIn had been broken into and 11 of my accounts – well Karola’s accounts actually – were now compromised. I use the same password for Karola everywhere which means she can remember it. If each site where she had an account had a different password – best practice – she’d not remember them and would either be locked out or would write them down. So, I spent happy hours changing those 11 accounts to a new password that Karola can remember.

Late afternoon we retrieved the Subaru all WOFfed.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—19℃ no rain [82.3]

SwimGym and today I tried out a new heart monitor Jonathan lent me, a Polar H7 with a chest strap that talks not only to the gym equipment but also to a free Polar app on my iPhone.

I’ve had a minor lower back pain for a week now and it’s not improving so I asked Leah, one of the trainers at the gym, for advice. She took me through three simple stretching exercises and it felt a lot better straight away: the Seal, the Cat Arch, and the Crouch – all much as they sound.

Took away the old DVD writer that no longer works and also an old 250GB external disk that has ceased to respond. Made a bit more room on Karola’s desk and they joined the other electronic rubbish in the homestead sun porch. Reluctantly consigned $200 of unused ink cartridges to the same place. They belonged to the HP 3310 printer that stopped working earlier this year.

After lunch Karola and I took the homestead fridge (also bust) to the dump.

Completed mindmaps of notes on two eBooks I’ve been reading recently, both by BBC science journalist, Michael Mosley. The books being Fast Exercise and Blood Sugar Diet.

https://bickasoft.co.nz/FastExercise/FastExercise.html

https://bickasoft.co.nz/FastDiet-1/FastDiet-1.html

https://bickasoft.co.nz/FastDiet-2/FastDiet-2.html

In the evening we lit a fire and watched the satisfying last two episodes of UK TV drama: Follow The Money.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—18℃ 0.3mm rain [82.5]

Cooler day, almost like the start of winter. Karola took off quite early to get the trailer the new tyres it needed to complete its WOF test. She also called in to the Hastings police station and let them know her passports were mislaid. Karola dropped into CountDown supermarket for some ingredients for Brambles meals and, just across the road, the Cranford Hospice Shop where she’d left some clothes and bags a while ago. They confirmed that they do check all bags for accidentally left items, and no they had not found her passports. Like the police, they said if they found a passport they would immediately attempt to contact the owner.

I pottered all day.

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—15℃ no rain [82.4]

SwimGym

Finished mowing the cottage lawn and surrounds. For the rest of the time worked on emails and the like.

As usual when anticipating the Meticulous Maids visit, Karola spent 2-3 hours tidying the cottage. Then switched to the homestead, making it ready for the Rashbrooke’s visit on Friday.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—23℃ 3.6mm rain [81.6]

Still no rain though most of New Zealand has been wracked with gales and storms.

Pottering around; Karola still searching high and low for her passports. I was inside all day, relaxing and sending emails, except for a brief spell beginning the mowing of the lawn. Karola was continuing her weeding under the rimu. Janet Scott dropped by and we had afternoon tea.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—24℃ no rain [82.4]

A quiet, restful day. Cards, letters, emails, telephone calls, and TXTs for Karola. A very very nice roast lamb dinner in the evening. A delightful TV show on “Wild Australia” from the UK – c/o some friends of ours, of course.

I spent a while setting up a new domain name for Bruce Utting – he fancied an email address of bruce@beek.co.nz – “beek” being the bee keeper name for other bee keepers.

Henare and Scott called in briefly to say Happy Birthday. Karola had long conversations with Annemarie, Gill, and later Bridget.

Karola’s party will be a one joint with me in November, probably up here this time.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—24℃ no rain [82.6]

SwimGym followed by taking Karola’s car in for its WOF and me to the doctors for annual Diabetes check. (Smaller number of tests quarterly). All fine at doctors; the Subaru needs a bit of TLC re brake pads next week. Karola also dropped off the parcel contain ing the flying fox kit (known in USA as a zipline) at the Stortford Lodge post office.

Karola finished off her detailed weeding near and under the rimu on the edge of the homestead lawn.

I learned from Bruce Utting yesterday about an Aussie invention that makes gathering honey from a conventional hive design, called a Langstroth hive, much easier and less disturbing for the bees. It’s called the Flow Hive. Some bee keepers, they sometimes call themselves “beeks”, are very negative it seems primarily because it makes their current toil to get honey from the hives so easy and simple that much of their skill and determination isn’t necessary. Fear of a paradigm shift I suppose.

This is how it works: https://youtu.be/WbMV9qYIXqM

Karola off for a haircut this morning – better than last time I think – and then this afternoon went to a meeting of the local International CLub where the French Ambassador gave a very precise and clear exposition of French attitudes to and relationships with New Zealand in very correct, French-accented English lasting two hours. Karola enjoyed it, along with maybe 100 other Hawkes bay folk including Peter Offenberger.

I continued with my search for the Blue Box containing the old flying fox equipment. I found the equipment in a blue bag – no sign of a box nor of the assembly instructions – and packaged it up for couriering to Bulls. What was left of the afternoon was taken up with re-searching the cottage for Karola’s two passports and putting the stuff back in the store room – the stuff I moved out in order to be able to search for the Blue Box.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—22℃ no rain [83.1]

SwimGym

Karola took the recycling away and dropped off her 2nd Cyclone trailer to have a set of lights added (brake, turn, night) at Newbold AutoElectrics.

In the afternoon we went to see Tobias Taylor again (Spicers in Havelock North) and signed the relevant papers so he can manage a smallish investment for us. Hopefully we have now set, and can forget this for a year or so.

Karola’s Weeding On The Homestead lawn Verge

Karola’s Persimmon – Outside The Cottage bedroom Window

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—23℃ no rain [81.9]

Karola continued her meticulous weeding of the homestead lawn verge near the rimu, full of blackberry and iris and tough clumps of long grass. It’s nearly complete.

Meanwhile I spent some time continuing the search for the flying fox kit we bought a few years ago. We took it down long since after a short life where the grand daughters enjoyed the rides. I believe the kit is all back together in a small blue box, the one it came in, but that may just be the triumph of hope over reason. There are several places that a small blue box could be hiding, some are shown below. My bet is on the Storeroom.

The Homestead Junk Room, Opposite the Kitchen

Karola’s Old Office AKA The Apple Room

Karola’s Current Office In The Homestead Garage Block

The Homestead Garage Itself

The Main Storeroom (In the Homestead Garage Block)

The Main Storeroom Again

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [83.0]

SwimGym

Henare came a bit earlier today and cleaned up the remaining stuff to be mulched. I went into town for regular blood test and some food shopping, returning in time for lunch and just as Henare finished the mornings mulching.

In the afternoon Henare and I tackled the rambling thickets of blackberry – this time I used the tractor to scoop up the vines off the trees and crush a 2-metre high pile of blackberry into something more manageable. Karola continued her painstaking weeding under the rimu and along the lawn edge. After afternoon tea Henare mowed round the circle in front of the homestead and along the eastern side of the homestead – a varied day for him.

A bouquet of flowers arrived for Karola – an early birthday gift from Annemarie.

A Lot of Mulch

This Was All Blackberry

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—23℃ no rain [82.6]

Henare arrived earlier today and he took on the largest blackberry tangles, climbing high on trees, and extremely prickly. I carried on chainsawing the privets and a few other undesirable or dead trees, into firewood sized logs and mulchable branches. In the afternoon Henare mulched up about half the piles of branches, having conquered two trailer-loads of brambles in the morning. Karola, meanwhile, spent all day on clearing blackberry embedded in the grass verges of the homestead lawn. We are all nicely exhausted.

Karola was quite excited this evening, she said:

We have just heard a morepork! Probably the first time we were aware of one since the time Ben took the photo! and perhaps it has been frightened out of its usual haunts buy duck shooting… We often used to hear them on summer nights but it has been a long gap; so I am quite excited to have one again.

Welcome Swallows Actually Using The Perches Provided

The Blackberry Battlefield

Henare With A Trailer-Load Of Blackberry

And Later, A Trailer-Load of Mulch

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—19℃ 0.2mm rain [82.5]

Henare came mid morning and we began the blackberry experience for the second day. Henare and Karola tackled blackberry while I took the chainsaw to the many privet trees that have surreptitiously streaked skywards over the last few years. Privets spread fast and are a noxious weed here. By 2:00pm we were all pretty exhausted but we had a delicious lunch after which I went to sleep and Karola and Henare continued for an hour or so.

What Was Festooned With Blackberry

Privet – Just The Beginning

Beautiful Autumn Colours Of The Liriodendron

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—19℃ no rain [82.5]

SwimGym

Bit of drizzle meant it was slightly damp outside to begin with.

Karola went shopping in the morning. Henare arrived shortly after she returned and I cooked – well, recooked – the lunch. Refried suasages, refired potatoe slices, and fresh(ish) tomatoes.

Henare then went out and dug a humungous new “death pit” sheep cemetery hole in case we have a lot of lamb fatalities in the spring. Later Karola covered it using surplus netting gates – she doesn’t want her lambs to fall in before their time.

I eventually knuckled down to doing Karola’s GST for February/March. Submitted late this evening.

Henare Looks Forward To Ian’s Gourmet meal

The New Sheep Cemetery Hole

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—18℃ 1.2mm rain [82.3]

Henare came late morning having asked yesterday whether we could occupy him today as his usual work has finished for a few days. We decided to focus on clearing blackberry as it seems to have spread widely and is also a major obstacle to getting near many privet saplings.

We cleared along much of the yew hedge on the roadside fence which took about 2 hours. I also looked for the paper wasp nest where I got stung a few times recently – but no sign of it – nary a wasp. Odd. I then went off and got us fish and a few chips for lunch.

At 2:00pm Karola and I were in Havelock North at Tobias Taylor’s offices – the Hawkes bay office of Spicers, financial managers. We had a relaxed chat and asked Tobias to look after a pot of Australian dollars for us – as a sort of emergency fund.

Henare left at 1:30pm just after we left for Havelock North. He expects to return tomorrow to continue the good fight.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—23℃ 1.9mm rain [82.9]

SwimGym as usual on a Wednesday.

A quiet day, Karola beginning her rough draft for her IDS article on the visit to Panikau Station, me to fill in the web log for the last few days.

We did go into town briefly, Karola to order a book from the library relevant to her article, me to continue the search for another sink stopper – the one I got yesterday from Mitre-10 was a smidgen too big. Tried “Steels” but their only similar plug was just like the one I returned to Mitre-10. Later, at home, Karola found the missing plug so alls well that ended well.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—25℃ no rain [83.3]

As hoped, Panton Plumbing sent round a man to check and test our water central heating – a good precaution before winter comes we thought. He bled the radiators and checked they were all working and then, as we requested, checked out the insulation of the plumbing under the cottage. Apparently all is well, the hot water supply isn’t lagged but is carried in plastic pipe and this is quite normal for pipes carrying only occasional hot water to baths, showers and so on. The pipes to the radiators, on the other hand, are all lagged properly. Well that gives us peace of mind that we’re not losing great gobs of heat outside to the underside of the house. While here, at Karola’s request, the plumber cut a small channel in the concrete gully trap cover outside the laundry so that the hot water cylinder relief valve can drip directly into the gully rather than dribbling onto the cover and off into the grass.

We are still pretty tired after the excitement of the IDS trip. Karola did a little shopping in the morning. I started doing the lawn mowing usually done on a Sunday and got about half way through before lunch.

We went to Havelock North to see Tobias Taylor, financial manager for Spicers in Hawkes Bay. He has very swish offices – but what would you expect. What we didn’t expect was that he had set up a meeting for Thursday at 2:00pm, not today. Later he sent an email apologising profusely for getting it wrong. So we didn’t see Tobias today.

On the way home we got yet more food, including last Friday’s GF bread, and picked up my new reading glasses. Afterwards we went to Mitre-10 and Karola decided to have afternoon tea – coffee and a slice of GF carrot cake with cream – we shared one large slice. I was at Mitre-10 to buy a new plug for the kitchen sink – it disappeared while Karola was last in Wellington and I noticed just after Meticulous maids had done the cleaning so it’s likely that they just have put it somewhere that I haven’t looked. Anyway, got a plug that looked just like the one we’ve mislaid – but when we got home we found it didn’t fit, just a couple of mm too large.

I finished the lawn mowing as it began to get dark.

Throughout the day I have been processing the DVDs I bought recently, plugging the gaps in TV series I’ve been watching. This is all going unexpectedly smoothly.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—24℃ no rain [83.3]

SwimGym then straight to Pet2Us to pick up Bramble.

Bills and tax and stuff deferred due to the IDS trip. Karola had huge amounts of washing from before and during our IDS trip to Gisborne.

Wander round orchard with Karola and Bramble. Ewe #327 (another #300) has facial eczema – bad sunburn but still keeping up with the flock so we’ll see what happens.

Meticulous Maids late mid afternoon.

Filled gap in the New Tricks series, Series 5 Episode 3 – the missing episode #34.

Uploaded some clips of the Tasmanian frolics – Eagle glider, Treetops flying fox and segue experiences.

Two Welcome swallows are still trying to have a roost here and have settled on the conduit carrying electrical wires from the PV roof panels – sloppy guano on the cottage verandah steps which Karola keeps washing off with decreasing enthusiasm. I got the tall ladder and went up there and popped a 30mm diameter piece of wood between the conduit and the rafter and to my delight the swallows were repulsed and went and perched on the little wooden pegs I’d provided last year. The pegs were intended then as alternatives to the tops of the cottage kitchen door and french doors. Better still, now the droppings land on the flat board below the perches that I’d put up in hope they’d use it for their nest, rather than on our boots and shoes or firewood.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—24℃ no rain [82.8]

Last day with the IDS trip. We made our own way to the Eastwood Hill Arboretum, south and west of Gisborne, about 45 minutes drive.

Rodney Faulkner, brother of Kirsty and Rodney’s wife Sarah were the main organisers of this trip and it had obviously been a significant amount of work spread over many months. Rodney has been a supporter of the Eastwood Hill Arboretum for over thirty years.  He also organised the very good “Trees for Bees” conference at Eastwood Hill a year or so ago.

Dan Haliday (“Curly Dan” ex Greenleaf Nurseries near Clive) and his wife Monique manage the arboretum – he is curator and director, she is Membership & Education Coordinator.

Much chatting and nilling about for morning tea then three groups set off, each with a guide, to see a few of the delights of the arboretum. Alan Jellyman was our guide initially, he is one of the longest serving supporters of the arboretum; his knowledge of the arboretum trees was encyclopaedic. We didn’t wander very far from the conference centre as there was so much to see and not a lot of time. Then we went with Rodney in a Jeep and trailer – modified for carrying passengers of course – and he took us to see the new “tree cathedral” they have planted. It is the size and outline shape of Westminster Cathedral, The walls are trees, of course, and it will be awesome in 20 – 40 years time. Right now it is a few rows of small trees on a raised and well drained paddock the size of a couple of football pitches.

The New Tree Cathedral – Early Days Yet

The morning climax was the planting of a Wollemi pine, a clone of an extremely rare tree from Australia whose location is secret and remote. The IDS Australian contingent dug the hole and planted the pine.

Wollemi Pine

The morning ended on a high note with a superb gluten-free salmon lunch with salad and new potatoes. We had a last chat with people I particularly like, John & Dorothy Wakeling who have created the Waitakaruru Arboetum and Sculpture Park in a disused quarry just outside Hamilton.

The Sculpture Park at Waitakaruru Arboretum is a former quarry that has been transformed into a magnificent 17.5 hectare garden and arboretum. The rehabilitation started in 1991 to enhance the existing features: rocky outcrops, ponds, flowing water and broad vistas.

Then it was into the car and off back to Wairoa and on down to Napier and home.

Moere Hot Springs, Near Wairoa

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—23℃ no rain [?]