A busy Weekend

Saturday was quite a busy day.  The caravan club was spending the weekend at the Manawatu Caravan Club grounds, and I drove up to join them for morning tea, about a half hour drive away.  It was lovely to catch up with everyone, and as a bonus, one of the member's was celebrating a birthday so cake was provided.  The weather was fine and clear, cold overnight and frosty in the morning.

Joining the caravan club for morning tea

I left the camp ground after morning tea, and drove up to Sanson, another half hour drive away, to meet my daughter Nicky for lunch.  This time, we were trying a "new to us" cafe.  The Church Cafe, as the name suggests, was a former church, and has a lovely calm ambience.

The Church Cafe

With paneled walls, and wooden tables and chairs, it was a warm, cozy and peaceful place to enjoy our lunch.    I had some tasty leek and potatoe soup, and Nicky enjoyed a bowl of wedges.  And with coffee to follow, of course.

Inside The Church Cafe

We had plenty to chat about, what we had been up to, and our sewing projects.  Although Nicky doesn't do quilting, she is a keen dressmaker and creates one of a kind outfits for herself.  And we had things in the boot to swap over when we departed, Nicky had some fruit for me, and I gave her some fabric she had shown an interest in, plus a big bag of coathangers.

On my drive back home I stopped off at Fox's Cottage, my favourite local quilt shop.  I needed another lot of batting, it's interesting how much of this gets used when you are making donation quilts.  And I spoke to Jackie in the shop, who will be free hand quilting my secret birthday quilt for me.

Fox's Cottage

Last stop on the way home was to top up the fuel on my trusty Corolla, I don't like to let the fuel tank get too low.  It was a good day out.

On Sunday I took myself off to the local movies, I was keen to see Jurassic World.  There were only about 8 patrons in the theatre at lunch time, not that it mattered, as we were all engrossed in the unfolding story.  The storyline is "An exhibition braves isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a ground breaking medical breakthrough".  A family group gets rescued by the exhibition when their boat is overturned by one of the prehistoric sea creatures, and they end up on the island too.  Surround sound in the theatre made the roars seemingly coming at me from all sides, as the dinosaurs wrecked havoc on the visitors to the island, tracking them, tossing them in the air, and chewing them up!  It was a lose yourself in the moment sort of movie, and yes, I did enjoy it.  

Sew Wot Tuesday and Goodbye dear friend

 It was a Sew Wot Tuesday with a difference this week, Helen had arranged for us to meet  at Fox's Cottage quilt shop.  This is my favourite LQS and we are always warmly welcomed once we step through the door.

It was a nice sunny Autumn day

Believe it or not, there was not a single item for Show and Tell this week.  But we made up for it by checking out the shop, and most of us purchased a few goodies.  I had a very small list, I needed more pink thread to continue with my machine applique on my secret sewing project.  And I was also looking for some poppy fabric for a border on a small Anzac wall hanging I'm planning.  I didn't care for the several fabric choices with a black background, they looked much too dark for what I wanted.  And then Helen produced a pretty poppy fabric on a lemon background.  Seems this one had fallen behind all the others and was just recently discovered.  That one will suit me nicely, I decided.

My poppy fabric purchase

The staff at Fox's Cottage love it when the Sew Wots come, as there is always plenty of goodies for them to eat as well.   They sat down and joined us for morning tea.

Plenty of morning tea for all

Here we all all, with one absence

That evening I received a very upsetting phone call.  My long time childhood friend Merilyn had passed away suddenly.  That was hard to believe as I had just been chatting to her on the phone in the weekend, and we were talking about us both turning 80 this year.  We met in primary school, and I remember going away on several Christmas camping holidays with her parents.  We grew up, married and had babies, and then she moved down to Dunedin in the South Island.  Over the years we have caught up when she travelled up this way, or we had a South Island caravan trip, writing letters in the early days  and many phone calls.  When we talked, it was just like we had never been apart.  I feel so lucky to have had such a wonderful friend for practically my whole life, and will miss her terribly.  This really hit me hard, as I'm still struggling with losing Robin too.

Merilyn and I at a beach camping holiday

A lifetime of wonderful memories

Another Trip Away

Pre Christmas is such a busy time, isn't it.  We had another caravan trip planned, about 8 days this time, to attend the ICA Christmas Rally, up at Te Aroha and Matamata, quite a drive away for us.  Most of the ICA members live much further north than us, so depending on where the rally is being held, we generally have the longest drive.  Our first stop was at Turangi, a well known fishing area.  There was a tap  on the door, and a lady asked us if we would be interested in a trout fillet.  My goodness, of course we would, and she didn't want any payment for it either.  (I have since found out from another fisherwoman that it is illegal to sell trout in New Zealand – I didn’t know that).  They had obviously had a good day out fishing as we saw her take fish to several other vans as well.  Our dinner that night was already underway, so I carefully wrapped it up and popped it in the freezer to enjoy another night.

Free fish at Turangi

We passed  through Tatuanui, and just had to stop here for a photo.  One of the small silos was masquerading as a can of Dairy Whip Cream outside the Tatua Dairy factory.  Very clever indeed.

Cream, anyone?

The next two nights were spent at Te Aroha (meaning love or affection) and we were one of two caravans amongst 20 or so motorhomes.  It was great to catch up with everyone again – this group only has 3-4 rallies each year.  We were parked up on a freedom camping area, and just about filled it all up with our group. 

Parked up at Te Aroha

We were parked next to a sports ground, used by many locals to exercise their dogs.  We made sure to keep Gemma safely inside away from all the dogs.

Any dogs out there?

I was delighted to discover a quilt shop in Te Aroha.  “Want to have a look?”, Robin inquired as he parked the car outside the shop.  What a silly question, of course I did.  Aroha Quilts was a lovely shop, with a wonderful supply of quilt goodies.  I wasn’t really after anything in particular, but after a good look around, I purchased some more  pink and green fabric for my daughter’s Big Birthday quilt.  This is yet to be started, but I have a good selection of fabrics now.  Also spotted was sock yarn, so two balls of variegated blue was purchased too.

Te Aroha Quilts, and my purchases

Back at the rally, we were sitting outside enjoying the sunshine when a man from one of the nearby houses approached us with a basket of goodies.  His wife makes jams and pickles so he wondered if our group of campers  would be interested.  Yes, I certainly was, I bought a jar of lemon honey and another of passionfruit spread. 

Yummy stuff indeed

Moving on the next day we stopped at Wairere Falls carpark, plenty of room for us to park for lunch.  There were plenty of cars parked up in the middle car park, full of keen walkers and trampers off the climb the tracks to see the Wairere Falls up close.  We took the easy way out and took a photo instead of these magnificent falls, they must be  even more beautiful after heavy rainfall in the ranges.

Wairere Falls in the distance

Even though we are on holiday, the laundry still needs doing.  I took my latest pair of socks (knitted flat on two needles is the way I do them) along to work on while waiting, and waiting….

At the laundromat

Our next stop was two nights at the Matamata Club.  The Maori name Matamata means “headland”.  This was the name of a new pa (village) established in 1830 by Te Waharoa on a ridge of high ground.  These days Matamata is a very wealthy horse breeding town, and is also well known as the area where Hobbiton is situated.  In fact, the Information Centre is a replica Hobbiton House, and is the most photographed info centre in the country.  Tours to Hobbiton are very popular, this is where the Hobbit’s Village was built for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Matamata Information Centre

The catered meal at the Matamata Club was the grand finale to our rally.  Father Christmas and his helpers welcomed us all into the dining room and gave us all a Christmas gift bag.

The meal was wonderful, hot ham, roast lamb, plenty of salads and veggies, plus a huge dish of prawns in a very tasty sauce, I really enjoyed them! A delicious selection of desserts too, with tea and coffee to follow.  But the meal wasn’t over yet, there was the Christmas cake to cut.  The cake was delicious, chock full of fruit, just how I like it.

Merry Christmas to us

It was a wonderful evening, the food was great, and we congratulated the chef and his staff when they popped out to see us all.

Anniversary Trip, shopping and knitting

Our Anniversary Trip was winding down.  But I did have time for a little shopping therapy.  Not much really, I was after some cream  wide backing for a project nearing completion, and while there picked up two half yard cuts of pink and green fabric for my daughter’s upcoming big birthday quilt. Nicky doesn't like “bright – in your face” types of colours so I found a couple of muted shades for her.

Holiday fabric purchases

You know you have arrived in Rotorua when that “rotten egg sulphur smell” hits your nose.  Not all the time, just here and there to catch you off guard.  Rotorua is known for the smell, thermal activity, Maori entertainment, plenty of activities and dining places, hot pools and lakes.  Believe it or not, there are 18 lakes dotted around the area, with Lake Rotorua on the doorstep.

Our last full day in Rotorua turned out to be a bit of a fizzer, so we had to go with Plan B.  Originally, we had planned to visit the Buried Village, a place we had enjoyed 40 years ago on our honeymoon trip.  However, when we arrived at the gates, we discovered that this attraction was closed in the beginning of the week.  Such a shame – it tells the story of Mount Tarawera erupting in 1886.  Over four frightening hours, rocks, ash and mud rained down on the Maori village of Te Wairoa, covering the village with two metres of thick volcanic material.  The eruption also destroyed the famous Pink and White Terraces.  Hopefully, we can visit here on a future trip to Rotorua.

We’ll try again next time

Our Plan B was to visit a few more of the lakes in Rotorua.  The Blue Lake and the Green Lake are side by side, separated by a small isthmus, which had a very convenient lookout spot.  The Blue Lake, Tikitapu, is named as the place where the daughter of a chief lost her sacred greenstone neck ornament.  The lake water appears turquoise blue when seen from above due to the reflection of white rhyolite and pumice on the lake bottom.

The Blue Lake, Tikitapu

The Green Lake, Rotokakahi, is named after the shellfish, kakahi, and appears to be emerald green when seen from above, due to its shallow, sandy bottom.  Privately owned by the local Iwi, this lake is sacred, and no swimming, boating or fishing is allowed.

The Green Lake, Rotokakahi

There was one more lake further up the road to visit, Lake Tarawera.  You can just make out the flat topped mountain in the background.  That is Mt Tarawera which blew it’s top back in 1886 and caused such devastation.  The lake was calm, and boat rides are available across the lake in the weekends.

Lake Tarawera

We headed back into town to find somewhere for lunch.  Our original plan was to eat at the Buried Village Café, but that didn't happen as the whole complex was closed.  Never mind, we found an alternative and enjoyed a burger for him and rosti and smoked salmon for her. 

Cafe lunch

And it wouldn't be a holiday if we didn't get the laundry up to date.  Round and round and round it went.  I must admit that this is the first laundromat we have been to on our travels where we were the only customers, usually these places are full of customers.

It’s that time again

The only hand work I had taken away with me to do was my navy cardigan/jacket.  I picked up the stitches around the neck to make the shawl collar, using those new fangled to me circular needles.  Thinking I knew better, I didn’t count the stitches as I picked them up  and then knitted several rows before deciding to check.  Oh dear, much too many stitches!  So they got unraveled and I started again. 

Knitting the collar

We spent our two week honeymoon here in Rotorua way back in 1983 at what was known as Post Office Cottages, in reality, a block of single story flats.  Robin worked at the Post Office at the time and this holiday accommodation was available to staff members at a very reasonable price.  He could remember what street they were in, but after driving up and down, we just couldn't find them.  Mind you, the flats weren't new 40 years ago, so we imagine they had been demolished and something else built on the site.  Never mind, it was worth a try.

Our Anniversary Trip is over, and we had a wonderful time.  It was an easy trip home, spreading it over a couple of days.  Robin’s knee behaved really well, we weren't quite sure how he would cope with all that driving on the long trip.  The weather was quite mixed, there were a few nice days, but we certainly had our share of wind and rain. Gemma seemed to enjoy her time away too.    The campers next to us saw we had a Birman and were very keen to see her.  They had four Birmans at home!

Gemma in the caravan

Shopping and Voting

I’ve got a very important quilt to make, so I took a trip to my local quilt shop, Fox’s Cottage.

My daughter Nicky has a big birthday coming up, but not for a while, so I’ve got plenty of time to think about it.  After I made her a birthday quilt for her 40th birthday, then her 50th, I presumed she would like another when she turns 60.  Yes she would, she replied excitedly.  We had talked colours and designs, and she had sent me several photos she had found on the internet.  Nothing sharp and pointy she declared!  Nicky would like nine patches, she decided, and rather liked pinks, greens, not too bright and garish, with cream, and would leave the rest up to me. So it was time to go shopping and make a start on gathering some compatible fabrics. 

Shopping trip

A check through my stash should find some smaller pieces which would work well, and I’ll probably need to buy some more later, but these will get me started.  I’m pleased I’ve got plenty of time, so I wont need to be in too much of a rush.  I'll have to decide between alternate blocks and/or sashing and then borders, but that will all fall into place once I start making the blocks.  So exciting to be starting such a special project.

On the drive back home  I stopped off at Lewis Farms to buy some new season asparagus.   The grading machines were busy, clatter clatter, keeping the workers on their toes as they sorted the different grades.  At the height of the season, this place is packed full of workers, busily doing all the various jobs as required.   Many of the seasonal workers come and stay in their motor homes and caravans and park up on the grounds for a small cost - no travel time to work when you are staying on site. 

Grading the asparagus

The farm shops stocks other locally made goods as well, honey, pesto, free range pork products, bread and crackers.  Lewis Farms also grow strawberries and raspberries, and real fruit ice-cream is available, as well as freshly ground coffee.  The shop was bustling with customers so I had a little wait for my coffee fix.

Asparagus and coffee

Saturday was Election Day, time for everyone to have their say and go and vote.  We had voted early, but many people like to enjoy the atmosphere and cast their vote on the actual day.  We watched the TV coverage in the evening, and it was obvious people thought it was time for a change.  Labour was trounced and National will be the new government.  The Special Votes still need to be counted, those from Kiwis overseas, in hospitals, and those who voted outside  of their electorates.  There may well be changes to a few seats, but it seems that overall National will form a government with one or two coalition parties.

Robin’s Monday morning physio classes are going well, and he is noticing improvements to his knee each week.  As I'm still the nominated driver, its coffee time for me while I sit and wait for him to do his exercise circuit.  And a little more sock knitting to pass the time.  We are looking forward to seeing the orthopedic surgeon on Thursday who will hopefully clear Robin to drive again.

Waiting till Robin has completed his physio

A Visit to Annie's

Isn't this such a lovely looking shop?  Heading back north, we stopped at Ashburton once again for an overnight stop.  We whizzed right past Annie's when we were heading south down the island, so I was determined to call in for a visit on our return trip.  And I wasn't disappointed.  Annie’s Country Quilt Store is based in a 100 year old pioneer cottage, and is chocker-block full of delights. 

Annie’s Country Quilt Store

I had forgotten about owner Rachel’s love of egg beaters, and there they are, still hanging up on a rail.

Rachel’s egg beater obsession

Plenty of goodies in this shop

There was such a lot to look at.  I checked out some patterns, looked at lots of lovely fabric, and purchased a couple of gifts, it’s always handy to get them done ahead of time.  Then two lots of fabric for me, I have projects in mind for these.

These two for future projects

My knitting is coming along well.  I’ve passed the armhole shaping on the back of my cardigan/jacket and now I’m about half way up the back yoke.  I’m really pleased with my progress as you may remember I unraveled the back a while ago as I had not cast on enough stitches and was knitting merrily away before I discovered the error.

Nearly finished the back

So how is the South Island  holiday going, you may be wondering?  We stopped of at Waimate, a lovely little town.  Did you know that there are wallabies in Waimate?  Wallabies were introduced from Australia and released for hunting purposes near Waimate in 1874. Fifty years later, they were recognized as a pest, responsible for destroying pasture, native regeneration, damaging fences and displacing stock. They may look cute, but they are an introduced species and are not welcome.

Waimate has unwanted wallabies

Another claim to fame in Waimate is their white horse high up on the hill.  Retired farmer Norman Hayman and his wife Betty spent three months to prepare the ground and lay 1220 concrete slabs, with a huge 2.5 ton precast head. This was  tribute to the hard working Clydesdale horses who worked  the farms.  On a trip to England, Robin and I spent some time checking out several of the UK’s famous white horses on the hills,  each one was quite unique.

The White Horse of Waimate

We stopped to admire the Silo Art back in town.  Waimate artist Bill Scott painted murals on grain silos at Transport Waimate’s Queen Street yard.  The silos were built by hand in 1920 and were the first of their kind in the country.  Hometown hero  WW11 soldier Eric Batchelor was twice awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for conspicuous bravery when he served in Italy.  Beside him is Margaret Cruikshank, the first registered woman doctor in New Zealand.  She practiced in Waimate from 1897 until she fell victim to the 1918 influenza pandemic while treating patients.

Silo Art

The reason I was so keen to stop at Waimate was to visit one of the pubs in my “Great Kiwi Pub Crawl” book, and check out the sad story of Ted’s Bottle at the Waihao Forks Hotel. Ted d’Auvergne was having a farewell drink or two with his mates at the pub, waiting for the train to take him to Burnham Military Camp for training before heading off to war.  Ted heard the train coming, and left an unopened bottle of beer on the bar, calling to the publican to “save it until I get back”.  Ted served for two years in the Middle East, was transferred to Greece, and was killed in May 1941 in the Battle of Crete.  The publican saved Ted’s bottle of Ballins XXXX beer, and it is now stored in a case above the bar, engraved with Ted’s battalion insignia.  Each April on Anzac Day, another poppy is placed inside the case, and the locals drink to Ted and all his fallen comrades.  There is a statue of Ted outside the pub, showing him waiting with his kit bag at the station.

Ted’s Bottle at Waihao Forks Hotel

So that's what we have been getting up to the last few days.  We are cutting our holiday short by two weeks,  as Robin has a problem with  his leg and is up to his second lot of antibiotics.  You can imagine the stress we had trying to find a doctor while on holiday and traveling around.  I felt it was better to be cautious and head home a little earlier than we had planned, but  the earliest ferry booking we could get is in ten days time.