May 2025

I've spent the last couple of weeks in Mohua (Golden Bay).  A work opportunity came up that was too good to turn down, and at a perfect time in terms of my shoulder healing.  Luckily a fairly good time to leave the garden to its winter slumber, though I wish the weeds also got that memo.  I suppose no hurry to sort them out.

             

Before I left, we managed to complete all the self-wicking beds.  No mean achievement given that there are 11 half-IBCs and 3 blue barrels, and each one took 5 full wheelbarrows of soil/compost.  It's been great to use up the delicious compost that's been sitting in the big compost bed since long before we went to Australia.  Heaps of topsoil is left over from the original raised beds that will have to find a home somewhere.  

The self-wicking beds are all planted up too.  2 are full of Karyn's strawberries, 2 have raspberries (self-supporting varieties), and the rest are accommodating whitecurrants, NZ cranberry (Chilean guava), gooseberries, redcurrant cuttings, and 3 blueberries in the half barrels.  Peter will grow spuds in 2 and breed White Cloud Mountain Minnows in another.  The last one is spare but probably not for long.  

                                   

The vege garden had been planted fairly late in spring, delayed by being out of NZ, but it's managed to crop reasonably well.  There are still perpetual leeks and walking onions, and the yacon is hanging in there until it succumbs to a big frost.  The Verdia is producing lettuces, greens and celery, and some herbs.  I bit the bullet and dug up the skirrets, not really knowing what I'd find.  Only a small crop but they were sweet, chewy, and tasty after being blanched and roasted in butter.  Probably not a big thing going forward for me, but I replanted the base plant so it can remain a curiosity for another season.  Gotta love a weird vegetable!  I decided to go ahead with a proper winter garden, and commandeered Karyn's bed, which had been emptied of its bounty and fertilised with compost.  There are now heaps of red onions, spinach, bok choy, beetroot, and mizuna seedlings planted up, and carrot and parsnip seeds sown.  I'm interested to see how well they grow, and therefore how worthwhile it is to create a future winter garden.  I won't plant garlic as it seems to find its own way into my flower garden.

The drive to Tākaka takes about 3.5 hours, and I included a recharge stop in Motueka to ensure the car made it over the Tākaka hill.  It's a long way for work, but a beautiful route and you could never tire of the view from the hill saddle, looking out over Tasman Bay and Golden Bay, both arms of the Tasman Sea.  

                    

                                             

I was staying in the gorgeous Ligar Bay, a few km along the coast from Pōhara.  It's a breathtakingly scenic route to the health facility in Tākaka, and includes a section of road crossed by Little Blue penguins.  I was lucky enough to come across a little blue whilst driving home from a birth one night.  There wasn't any other traffic so I could spend a while happily watching it.  The photos of Ligar Bay are taken from the site of the Abel Tasman monument.  Tasman was the first Pākehā to arrive in Aotearoa on 18th December, 1642.  The monument tells us that '...the story has been lost, with the passage of time, and the truth remains forever suspended in the seas of time'.

          

I revisited Te Waikoropupū Springs, where we'd been previously with Marcus and family many moons ago.  These are the largest freshwater springs in NZ and an extremely serene place to contemplate the meaning of life.  The springs are recognised for their spectacular colour and clarity, estimated at approx 76cms, close to that of optically pure water.  To local māori, Te Waikoropupū is a taonga (treasure) and is considered wahi tapu (sacred), to be held in high cultural and spiritual regard.  Legend has it that Waikoropupū is the home of Huriawa, one of three main taniwha of Aotearoa.  Huriawa is a diver of land and sea and is believed to rest beneath the surface of the springs.

                 

                                                 

On a day off, I took the road to Collingwood, which welcomed visitors that day with a double rainbow.  It's a quirky little place in a stunning location.  On my return journey, I stopped off at Milnthorpe Park Scenic Reserve on a tip-off from my colleague, Ruth.  It's a coastal conservation area featuring a network of walking tracks.  The photos show one of the wetland zones within the regenerating vegetation, and Milnthorpe Beach, just north of the Parapara Inlet.  It was an exquisitely beautiful walk, and getting lost just added to the joy.

 

Labyrinth Rocks Park was also a fab find. In a fairy-tale other-worldly location, maze-like pathways weave through gnarly limestone outcrops and lush native bush.  Locals hide little toys and figurines for children to scavenger hunt.  It's another place where getting lost is part of the experience.

I have been booked for a few more weeks of work here in Golden Bay - plenty of opportunity to see more of the local sights.  A couple of my old neighbours (and previous yoga buddies), Helen and Kate, moved to Pōhara with their respective partners.  Obviously, I bumped into Kate on day one as she works in the Primary Health unit too.  It was lovely to catch up with them both and will be good to see more of them when I'm back.  Such a small world!

Plans are afoot for my (special) birthday holiday in Rarotonga.  Where better than Aitutaki, the world's most beautiful lagoon, to celebrate the arrival of my sixth decade?  There are other activities like sea scooter snorkeling and paddle boarding to check out.  Researching the options is ramping up anticipatory excitement and providing a raison d'etre for those extra working hours, and it's great to have some happy sunshine to look forward to in winter 🌞

  

 

April 2025

Autumn is peaking, meaning fresh sunny days, longer chilly nights and glorious colours.  The last summer hues in flower form still lend their radiance to the colour scheme. Most mornings bring striking light and shade contrasts.  Lots of leaves await being swept up and the last of the season's crops are being consumed and processed.  There are a million other gardening jobs on the list, several of which require 2 functioning shoulders.    

                                                          

Luckily, I'm blessed with friends who are willing and able to help out.  Jane helped me with the heavy lifting part of wintering down the beehives.  I was suspicious that the middle of the 3 colonies wouldn't survive, and sure enough, no bees and no honey in that hive.  I didn't expect that the outside hive had suffered a similar fate, but there it was.  Lots of wasps were in it, but I don't know whether they created the demise or just invaded later for the spoils.  Happily, the last colony was proper buzzing.  It was inspected, and we inserted the miticide strips and ensured they had plenty of supplies for winter.  

              

Karyn has been a true garden fairy, trimming hedges and digging up corn stalks and weeds and numerous other little tasks along the way.  She also gifted some strawberry runners that had gone wild in her garden beds - 86 of them!  Several were squeezed into the Verdia, and the rest were planted separately for future transfer to a self-wicking bed. 

        Recently harvested crops have been sorted.  The quince tree didn't look healthy, but it still produced a good supply of big fruits.  They were peeled, sliced and blanched and are now in the freezer, likely to be used in smoothies.   There are 3 sweet chestnut trees on the property, 2 of which are big enough to produce abundant nuts, and the 3rd probably will join them next year.  Billy helped to pick them, climbing up into the trees to shake down as many as possible.   The fig tree is overloaded with fruit (again) and is still actively fruiting.  The tree is huge now, but will receive a Karyn-style haircut in winter.  The photo shows figs foraged from the 2 fig trees in the pocket park next to Sam and Molly's house.  The fig and ricotta with honey on toast was Ben's creation for Hayley's and my breakfast.  Yum!  

                                   

Feijoas are just starting to drop.  This year I'm down to one tree (from 4) so obviously expecting a smaller volume than usual.  Unfortunately, this is the first year the tree has underproduced volume-wise (of course), but the fruits are big and bonny.  The single bottle gourd will be seasoned and dried, then crafted into something fabulous.  Probably a musical instrument or a set of spoons.  When I work out how.

    Mushroom season is in full stride.  Molly kicked off with a very generous gift of Porcini mushrooms, harvested from her secret location that may or may not be military property.  I had plenty to pass on some of my stash to Craig, a fellow mushroom-lover.  Then Peter and Billy found field mushrooms in the paddock, and I've just devoured the Birch Boletes (Molly's favourites) from our driveway.  Molly's been my mushroom guru - I wouldn't eat any without her sage advice, and her enthusiasm is contagious.  

         

The last crops of the season are on their way.  The yacon and Baby Bear pumpkin are awaiting a decent frost - any day soon.  There are heaps of still-green persimmons that I heartily hope will turn into delicious orange lanterns in time.  And all the citrus trees - orange, mandarin, tangelo and lemon - are festooned with young fruit.  Karyn thinks the lemon could use more fertiliser, so off to Bunnings I'll go!  

                             

The newest compost pile in one of the garden beds is breaking down nicely, but is far from being closed down.  Hopefully, it'll make good base layers for the self-wicking beds when they're ready to be filled.  My shoulder is delaying progress on this as I'm not yet up to shovelling.  The soil pile created from the previous horse arena raised beds is now hosting a cracking patch of weeds that needs urgent attention.  They should be easy enough to pull up.  Peter wants to use some self-wicking beds for potatoes and for breeding White Cloud Mountain Minnows.  Research suggests they should work for these.

                                                  

The sheep are looking pretty awesome these days.  As in, they all shed their wool and not a bad hair day among them.  They do like to pose too.  Hawkesbury looks big enough to service his flock of ewes, so here's to the pitter-patter of tiny hooves later this year.  

                                                         

We took advantage of the eased outdoor fire restrictions (and Billy's muscles) to burn a whole heap of rubbish and random junk.  It was a quick and efficient fire and deeply satisfying to get rid of burnable stuff.  There is definitely more of a sense of less clutter around the place.

                       

Bumble bees continue to frequent the abutilon, diving in and out of the bright orange flowers and getting covered in pollen.  So cute, and such a shame they're reluctant to stay still for a photo.  The joy they bring is in stark contrast to the sight of wasps, which are also having a good year.

                                                   

The three 20-litre demijohns of wine (elderberry, rhubarb and cranberry) have been racked.  All are on the verge of being drinkable - definitely so far so good.  The next racking in a few weeks should provide a better prediction of potential quality, so fingers crossed they mature properly.  There's always the option of converting dodgy (or otherwise) wine into vodka with my new air still.  Just a case of getting round to learning how that works with a trial run.  Luckily, Molly can also be my spirit-guru.  Guessing I'll need all the help I can get.  

                                                        

Billy flew out of Christchurch, so I got to spend another few days there, staying with Lucas and Laura for a couple of nights, then with Hayley and Ben.  It was lovely to catch up with everyone, and there were no car dramas en route this time.  Billy landed safely in Munich and then headed into Italy, where he'll be au-pairing for the foreseeable - at least long enough to avoid the southern hemisphere winter.     

It's less than 3 weeks before my sick note runs out.  This non-working life thing is a bloody luxury that will be hard to relinquish when the time comes.  Fortunately, the world is my oyster for work opportunities, so maybe something will grab my attention.  In the meantime, there's always the lottery! 

 

March 2025

                                        

Rachel and Geoff flew into NZ from Australia, where they'd had a ball holidaying in Melbourne and Tasmania.  They were staying with friends in Auckland when I flew up to meet them.  I'd hired a car from Budget Rentals, and it's fair to say this vehicle was at Budget Rentals' budget end.  It had a huge dent in the boot and had more than 300,000 kms on the clock, which made the extra bodywork insurance I'd taken out seem quite unnecessary.  However, it was perfectly reliable and probably a security advantage to be a real old dunger.

  

        

We were booked into a motel in Paeroa for 3 nights.  It's the home of NZ's iconic soft drink L&P (Lemon & Paeroa) and is also renowned for its numerous antique/second-hand stores.  We spent the first relaxing day wandering around and exploring the shops.  On the 2nd day, we went to the small town of Te Aroha.  Geoff hired a bike and cycled along a stretch of the Hauraki Rail Trail, while me and Rach drove over.  Te Aroha has hot pools and mineral spas and it'd have been rude not to partake of the waters.  After a decent bubbling soak we had a wander around the town's sculpture trail, created by artist Adrian Worsley from recycled, reused and reclaimed scrap materials.  

                                                                        The next day we headed out to the Karangahake Gorge and did the Window Walk - beautiful scenery and spectacular mining remnants including disused gold mining tunnels.  Torches were needed for parts of the route.

From here we headed to the small town of Opoutere on the east coast at the base of the the Coromandel.  Geoff's friend Brian has a sweet little bach with a fantastic sea view, sometimes rented with AirBnb, but ours for another few nights.  Wow! How lucky were we?  We swam in the sea twice a day and did a local walk up Maungaruawahine Pa hill for an elevated view of the sandspit, harbour and outlying islands, and across the harbour to the sister Pa.  The spit is a breeding ground for several endangered species of native sea birds, including the NZ Dotterel.  A fantastic slice of unspoilt kiwi heaven.  Our last trip out was to Whangamata and a final dip in the sea at Onemana Beach.  This stunning beach has magnificent waves and is frequented by surfers.  As non-surfers, our only option was to 'body-surf' those waves, and much joy was had.  Then, as Geoff would say: "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye".  On this occasion the 'someone' was me and I cracked my clavicle.  A particularly phenomenal wave upended me and dumped me down on my head and right shoulder onto the sandy sea bed.  The fracture wasn't identified until I went to ED a couple of days later.  It's complex and distal and I've also stuffed my AC joint, but I'll probably get away without surgery.  I've been signed off work for 2 months and will start physio next week.  It's the first bone I've ever broken, and though it's sore and activity-restricting (no beekeeping😬) it could have been way worse.  

                                                                  Meanwhile, time waits for no tomato, and the first batch has been converted into loads of jars of tomato sauce using my (Annabel Langbein's) usual recipe.  I've since picked another batch, some of which will be made into tomato chutney and the rest gifted.  I've also harvested the 6 silverbeet plants - note to self, that's at least a year's supply.  I blanched the stalks and sliced the leaves before freezing them in several bags.  Those leaves can be added to smoothies and all cuts can go into soups.

Madame Cholet is like a jungle, and hidden within were massive aubergines.  What treasure!  Plenty to eat, freeze and gift.  I'll make a few batches of ratatouille with the next harvest, as there are also plenty of courgettes and peppers.  There are a million more tomatoes, heaps of basil and numerous Carolina Reaper chillis to fully ripen before I can even think about wintering down the tunnel house.

Feijoas are fattening up, as are figs and persimmons.  The orchard trees will all need a serious prune in winter, and hopefully, there'll be a better crop of stone fruit next season.  The fruit cage project also needs attention but will have to wait until my shoulder heals.  The same for hedge trimming.  I can do some gardening - like one-armed weeding and raking up debris - just not too much at once.  

                                                                     We've recently returned from a trip to Christchurch for Sam's graduation.  It was Bracken's first long trip and the poor little mite was sick 3 times on the way there.  It was also a challenging test for driving the EV.  A temporary lack of EV charging facilities in Kaikoura meant we had to plan carefully.  The weather conditions weren't in our favour, using up more kms of available power than predicted, and I had to drive like a nana to get us as far as Cheviot to recharge.  There were more challenges on the way home - all in all, a steep EV learning curve.

Luckily we were only a few minutes late to the graduation ceremony.  Me and Molly whooped loudly when Sam was called to the stage to receive his parchment, and afterwards we celebrated with dinner at 'Smokey T's'.  He plans to follow up with a Masters degree later this year. 

Billy is working on the grape harvest again this year.  He's driving the gondolas and his hours are 3am - 3pm every day.  It'll be over soon, after less than 4 weeks.  He has plans to au pair in Italy from mid-April, so will have a bit of time off between jobs.  Lucas and Laura are still waiting for the final paperwork before they can move into their new Rolleston home.  Hopefully just a few more weeks.

We're making a big effort to sort out our worldly goods and get rid of excess 'stuff' that doesn't serve us that has been stock-piling over the last few years.  The process will be ably assisted by the few weeks off work that the universe is now insisting upon.  I'd planned to take a break anyway, but my dodgy shoulder will ensure I'm not lured back to work too soon.  On that note, I'd better at least get on with some gardening before I'm thwarted by the 5 days of rain that is forecast this week.  Onward and upward...