Day 34 – Wet, wet, wet

I forgot to mention in my last post that the weather has turned.  Yep, the title of this post has nothing to do with the 80’s pop band.  Friday, yesterday and today have proved to be quite damp.  The forecast for the next week doesn’t look too pleasant either.  That will teach me for gloating so much!

Still, for winter, I really can not complain.  Now that we have cloud, the night time temperature has risen quite a bit.  The rain that we are getting is of the straight down the way variety.  No wind.

25mm of rain so far today and it is probably raining heavier now than it has at any other point today.

Not much else to report today, we were along the next-door neighbours for a coffee, gibber and cake earlier.  Aidan seems to be getting along fine with her lass.

Onwards to more excitement tomorrow I am sure.  Toodaloo fer noo.

Day 31, 32 & 33 – A month in

So then, time flies when you are unemployed.  I guess that this is officially us at our 1 month marker.  We have managed to do quite a lot in this first month (although the blog might not reflect that very well) and we still have a lot more to do!

Tania and I made our way to the Mount the other day (25th June), another wonderfully sunny day.  Walking to the summit for a look, I had forgotten just how nice the views are from up there.

  (Picture: View from Mount Maunganui)

(Picture: Path leading down from the summit)

We also encountered some very friendly Fantails, either that or they were angry with us disturbing their peace.

 (Picture: Friendly Fantail)

After a couple of Shags we headed back homewards.

(Picture: Pied Shag)

At the Mount I also recorded a little message for those peeps back home, reminding them just how terrible a New Zealand Winter is:-

Later that afternoon, Aidan and I went for a cycle to the Matua Saltmarsh again.  This trip was cut short though when my handlebars came loose.

That night I bumped into Stewarts nephew, Neil (sp?) who succeeded in getting me very drunk.  Needless to say, Friday was pretty much a non-event.

On Saturday, Aidan and I went into town for a few bits and pieces.  Once again I encountered the bloody stupid Give Way rule that only appears to exist in New Zealand.

The rule pretty much amounts to:-

• If you are turning left at an intersection, give way to vehicles coming towards you that are turning right.

This would be fine if it was a clear-cut rule.  But it’s not.  For instance only some people appear to adhere to it.  Take the following example:-

Driving the blue-car, you need to give way to the red-truck.  The New Zealand Road Code also informs you:-

• Note: be aware of the traffic behind you. If you were in the blue car, vehicles travelling behind you may affect whether the truck can turn or not.

So you have to stop to give way to the truck but the vehicles behind you might carry on, therefore not allowing the truck to turn.

This is further clouded by the rule that you should always give way to the right:-

Yep, the red car has right of way in the above instance.  These rules I would have no problem with if everybody stuck to them.  Most people do not seem to care though and turn whenever they like, causing confusion and hesitation for all drivers.

The AA has a good article about this, highlighting the fact that there are 2560 intersection crashes a year in New Zealand and that this stupid rule could be contributing to many of them.  Quote:

“This has been known in official circles for 10 years, but all efforts - by the Minister of Transport Safety, the Ministry of Transport, the Land Transport Agency, Police, local government, the Institution of Professional Engineers, Cyclists Advocates Network, Living Streets Aotearoa and the AA - to change the rule have been voted down by a Cabinet concerned it would be too hard for the public to cope with.”

So are the drivers that are ignoring this rule merely taking it into their own hands to change the driving laws?  Are they all incomers to New Zealand that do not understand the rules?

Seeing as half the population seems to ignore the rules then I would vote that now is maybe the time to change them.

Rant Over.

Day 29 & 30 - Mount

Another two days of sunshine.  I have discovered that the Environment Bay of Plenty Website has a wonderful environmental monitoring network.  Shows you the current wind/gusts as well as averages, historical data and rainfall information.  Kind of strange when you look at the summary for the month and see how many days that there has been absolutely no rain.  No wonder they charge for water here.

Yesterday Tania and I went for a stroll around the base track of the Mount.  We realised that this is probably the first time that either of us have taken this route.  Normally when on holiday we have trekked to the top.  It is a nice leisurely walk around the base if you ignore the hundreds of other people that have the same idea.

 (Picture: Taken from Mount Maunganui)

After that we went and had a cup of coffee with Heather before heading back homewards.

Glad to find out that da auld man received his Fathers Day Card.  Lloyds TSB had flagged the payment for it as fraudulent and suspended my card!

It arrived in one piece though, a masterpiece if I say so myself.

 

Aidan discovered another wasp nest today hiding in one of the bushes (the wasp nest, not him), so it looks like I have two of the damned things to remove.  They both appear to be empty or at least very dormant.

Haircut time again for Aidan, much to his disgust.  Almost to the bone again!

To round off this boring couple of days, I’ll leave you with the Evolution of a Photographer that I discovered the other day:-

  Evolution of a Photographer

Day 26, 27 & 28 – Rotorua, eggs & Tarawera

Well, here we are, the weekend again.

Saturday was a fun, family day out.  We set off to Rotorua to have a look at all the hot mud-pools and geysers.  We took State Highway 36 from Tauranga to Rotorua (approx 1 hour drive) this turned out to be almost off-road/quarry driving at one stage as they are currently upgrading the road at The Mangorewa Gorge.  When you drive into Rotorua you get a distinct smell of sulphur wafting through the air vents, prompting the inevitable, ‘Who farted?’ question.

We headed straight for Whakarewarewa to Te Puia, the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute. 

(Picture:  Aidan at Te Puia)

Aidan hasn’t been here since he was 2 years old so he couldn’t remember much, if anything about the experience.  The full name is Te Whakarewarewatangaoteopetauaawahiao.  Yep none of us could pronounce it first time either.  This apparently means, ‘The gathering place for the war parties of Wahiao’.  What better place to spend your morning?

After walking around the first few mud-pools, Aidan contemplated for a moment before proclaiming that, “It smells like Nan’s egg sandwiches!”

“It smells like Nan’s egg sandwiches”

The largest geyser is known as Pohutu which can erupt up to 30 metres high.

There seems to be lots of spiders and their webs around these parts, much to Tania’s delight.

Before we left, Aidan stumbled across a mirror.  Took a little while before we figured out it was actually a carving and not a mirror:-

Once we left Whakarewarewa we headed towards the Green and Blue lakes to have a picnic.  Turned out that some boating thing was on at the lakes so we drove towards Lake Tarawera instead. 

(Picture: The Blue Lake)

 (Picture: Aidan paddling at Lake Tarawera – Mount tarawera in background) 

After having our picnic and driving about for a bit we headed back towards Tauranga.  This time we took State Highway 33 via Te Puke to avoid the roadworks.  Tania and Aidan both fell asleep on the way back giving me peace and quiet!

Back in Tauranga just in time to watch the sun sinking below the horizon once again.

 (Picture: Tauranga Harbour)

Sunday was a pretty quiet day.  Spoke to the oldies on Skype for a bit and then Tania and Aidan went to Heather’s for tea and I went for a couple of pints at the local pubs.

Similarly, Monday was quiet as well.  Aidan complained of a sore stomach in the morning which seemed to get miraculously better once he didn’t have to go to school.  Did the whole job-hunting thing again and that has been about it.

Day 25 – Coffee, Ginger and Swine

A frosty start to the day today.  The park had a glimmering white sheen to it as did most of the roofs and cars when we got up today.

A nice warm cup of coffee was needed to get going.  The first cup I made resulted in all the granules floating to the top.  Immediately thinking that I had forgotten to boil the kettle, I automatically pushed the button to re-boil, poured the contents of the previous mug down the sink and proceeded to start again.  Nay!  The same happened again.  I stirred and stirred and stirred some more with little progress.  Those pesky granules would not dissipate into the steaming water.  What had gone wrong?  If it had been a new brand of NZ coffee I would have perused the instructions to find my fault, but no, it was Nescafe Instant;  a tried and tested coffee with which I have had no problems before.

Calling Tania to my assistance, she noticed the coffee jar contained more material than previously, her immediate thoughts were that Aidan had filled the coffee receptacle with gravy granules.  Had this been gravy that I had been attempting to make?  After a puzzled look or two at the jar in question as if it were some undiscovered Amazonian frog, we realised that Aidan had indeed topped up the coffee jar.  With coffee.  Coffee destined for a percolator and not of the instant variety!

By the time I got my mug of coffee, the morning frost had thawed and the sun was rapidly warming the ground.

Once the panic of no morning coffee had passed we headed into town. 

 Another day with no clouds

I seem to be settling in quite well to New Zealand life, the people and the community.  So much so that they have started erecting signs in my honour.  I know, it came as a surprise to me as well.

 Says it all really.

Not much else to report I am afraid.  Still haven’t removed the wasp nest yet as I keep remembering about it around about this time of night when I can no longer be bothered with it.  Expect an adrenaline-fuelled stinging post sometime soon.

Away for now to take my medication against the dreaded grice-flu……

Day 23 & 24

Another two days of lovely weather.  It has been down to near-freezing temps through the night but the daytime weather has been great.

Yesterday I thought it was about time I got out and about to take some photos.  I set off in the car with no real plan of where to go.  I started by heading out to the Mount for a couple of snaps.

(Picture: Mount Maunganui)

 

I then headed down the coast towards Te Puke (Great name for a toon!).  Unfortunately it is pronounced Te Pookie, it would be good to be able to say, “I am going te puke”.  Anyway, ended up at the Papamoa Hills Regional Park so I thought I would take a wander to the summit to see what the views are like.  On the ascent I realised just how unfit I am.  As I was striding at a 45 degree angle, sweat pishing from my glands, struggling to make any progress (yet quite determined and proud of my achievement thus far) a bloke went jogging past and wished me a good day!

Nevertheless it was worth it.  The views were stunning.  Me being me, I hadn’t checked the time of day nor the position of the sun,  so it wasn’t exactly optimum conditions to be taking photos.

(Picture: View from Papamoa Hills,

looking towards Mount Maunganui)

 

(Picture: Looking East-ish)

As the day came to a close I thrashed Aidan at Monopoly before he went to bed. 

The swine flu has hit Tauranga.  Must remember to drink more whisky to keep it at bay. 

This Winter weather isn’t doing me any good.  Tania informed me this morning that my nose is peeling!

(Picture: There’s the car…again.)

After I picked Aidan up from school we went cycling to the Matua Saltmarsh.  21 Hectares of coastal wetland that the council have built a walkway around.  We saw a Kingfisher flying past, Aidan nearly ran over some Pukeko’s and I got covered in mud.  Once again I forgot to take the camera.  Maybe tomorrow.

Tonight Aidan managed to drop a glass on the kitchen floor.  I have never seen a glass shatter into so many bits before.  I now have a cut on my hand.  How will I ever survive?

Day 21 & 22

Twas another fine couple of days in Kiwiland. Encountered some heavy showers today but nice and sunny in-between.

NEVER buy Wire Crimpers from The Warehouse. Absolute crap! They only cost $3 but really are about as much use as an electrolysis hair-removal product for somebody with alopecia.

Tuned in the radio stations in the new car last night. Took a while. Interesting fact for the day:- Did you know that New Zealand has more radio stations per head than any other nation? The wireless in the car allows for 18 FM presets and 6 AM presets. They are all full now! 91FM (Hauraki Radio) seems to play a good selection of tunes. Not that Tania likes any of them...

There have been lots of yellow triangles appearing in the middle of the road everywhere recently. I thought that they were planning some roadworks of some sort. Turns out it is where they are putting in blue catseyes. What are the blue catseyes for I hear you scream. They are so the firemen can find the nearest fire hydrant. Simple but effective. Talking of which, Otomoetai Intermediate School was set on fire on Sunday (the other side of the park from us). This is the school that Aidan would go to for year 7. Not a lot of damage due to the bloody loud alarm notifying the whole neighbourhood to the fire.

Today we did a spot of job-hunting before setting off to Waihi for a run to try out the car and scope the place out to see if it is worth taking Aidan some day. Looks like he would enjoy himself. On the way up we stopped off at Waihi Beach where my camera bag nearly ended up underwater, bloody waves! (Pictured: Waihi Beach)

Waihi is one of the gold-mining towns in NZ. It isn't until you see an aerial photo of the place that you realise the scale of the mine (which is in the middle of the town). From the tourist office you can see nothing but the old mining shaft building but if you take a walk up a few steps you can look right down into the mine (which is huu-uuge). We thought we could take Aidan but not tell him about the mine until he sees it. I might tell him to run up the steps so I can get a photo of him and then wait for the reaction. Crappy photo I know and doesn't really do it justice. Look at the size of the buildings at the top and the size of the diggers half way down and you get an idea of the scale of the thing. (Pictured: Da mine.)

Edit --> Just found a better pic on the web

(Martha's Gold Mine in Waihi)

That's pretty much it on the updates front. Oh yeah, killed a White-Tail Speeder-Deeder da night. Perhaps I should start counting the kills... :)

Day 18, 19 & 20

Time for another update. Went out to the Mount for a hurl the other day. It rained non-stop the whole day, weather warnings and all sorts were issued. Didn't really get much else done worth noting.

Spoke to a lot of the family yesterday morning. Phoned Glyn first of all to wish him a happy birthday (hope doo had a good een). After that we got Skype fired up and managed to speak to Midder, Feider, Uncle R and Auntie K before Euan came on for a gibber. (Pictured: Midder & Feider on the telly!)
Lovely sunny t-shirt day again today. We got Terry to come and have a look at the car that we were planning on buying. He reckoned that it all checked out pretty good so we decided to go for it. Managed to get a couple of hundred dollars knocked off the asking price and we now have ourselves a car!! Heather has asked if we want to keep a hold of her car for a bit as they have a lack of parking anyway so we have two cars. (Pictured: The new Pooksmobile!)

Ain't she a beaut!

Now I need to get used to driving an automatic. It does make life easier at traffic lights and the like. Had a dream last night about an old woman in a mobility scooter playing chicken with me. Hopefully it wasn't some sort of premonition...

Day 16 & 17 - Tauranga

Again, a double-post.

Yesterday it rained solid. Rain, rain and more rain. Today it is bright and dry. Tomorrow looks like it is going to be crappy again.

Tania's murderous streak continues. Yesterday she managed to make new coasters, I would indulge you in the nitty gritty details but I am not allowed to until she admits the misdemeanour to her mother...

...today she managed to kill the bird-feeder by dropping it over the balcony! Smoosh! What did it do to her? No-one knows. Like a wonderful 3D jigsaw, I managed to piece it back together again. The bits I could find at least. It will never hang happily swaying in the tree again but at least it can stand up by itself again.

Nothing much else to report at the moment. :(

Edit --> The next door neighbour has just been over for a couple of glasses of wine. She seems like a friendly soul and has a daughter about Aidan's age so we are going to try and get them together to see how the get on.

Day 15 - Tauranga

I woke up this morning, Lucille was not in sight, probably down to the torrential rain shower blocking my vision. Yep, you heard me right, I can stop gloating for the meantime. The rain has come and it has hardly eased all day.

This is of course not your typical Shetland sideyways rain. This stuff comes straight down, only altering its path when it hits the ground and makes an effort to go back up the way again.

Aidans 'walking bus' was duly cancelled due to the weather today so I dropped him off this morning. Just realised it is the class photos tomorrow so I am going to have to go up early to pay for them.

The main task today has been job-hunting and car-hunting. No joy on the job front as yet but we may have a car lined up. We have told the wife that we are going to mull it over and get back to her.

Tania spotted what appears to be a Wasp nest up above the front door. That could explain where the wasp came from that was in the house on our first day or two of being here. As Tania is allergic to the little buggers, I guess it will be down to me to try and get rid of it. Having never been stung by a bee or a wasp then I don't know if I might die or not. My acute allergy to anything else that moves would suggest that I probably am. If there are no updates to the blog for a while then you can surmise that I am indeed allergic to stripy-yellow-stingy things.

Then again, they may have drowned by the time morning comes! Cheers.

Day 13 & 14 - Tauranga

I've combined yesterday and today's events into one post as, well, not very much worth mentioning has happened.

Yesterday I noticed that there appear to be a lot of so-called, 'Power-walkers', here. What's that all about? Why not just jog? Most of these people look like their limbs are attached at opposite ends by some kind of peculiar pulley system. Bill & Ben hanging from a washing line in a storm force 10 would look less ridiculous. How come their legs and arms walk in different directions? I am considering making up a bunch of flyers to hand to them as they go past. Blank with a small note in the middle saying, "Just Jog!".

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day again unlike today which has been overcast and drizzly for most of it. Found out today that the D-Day celebrations took place in Tauranga yesterday. Lots of old aircraft were about but I missed the photo-taking opportunity. Saw a couple of old planes in formation flight today but the camera was in the car and I wouldn't have had a chance to grab it in time.

I awoke this morning to find that Bert (my pet spider in the shower), who has happily been living there for the past few days has been murdered! Some of his legs were lying next to my shower gel whilst his poor lifeless body was lying motionless near the drain. The only people that could have committed this evil crime are Tania or Aidan. Neither are admitting to it! Short of fingerprinting I may never know the truth. Could Bert have committed suicide? Decided that life above a shower was no longer for him?

Tania went to the dentist to get her tooth pulled today. $150 dollars later she is one tooth less and in a lot of pain. Could this be the world harmonising after the death of Bert? Perhaps.

In happier news, we got a bird-feeder today. Very similar to Grandads, but as Aidan pointed out, it has 6 feeding points instead of 4. We have hung it from a tree next to the decking area. Time to wait and see what peculiar birds it attracts.

Signing off for now as Aidan has challenged me to a game of Risk. Cheerio.

Day 12 - Tauranga

Clouds! - Woke up this morning to an overcast sky. Turned out to be not a bad day though. Some black clouds around but the sun has managed to break through most of the day.

Phoned around Midder, Feider and Bro's this morning to let them know that we are still alive.

Took Aidan to the Animal Park up past McLaren Falls today. He thoroughly enjoyed himself with all the emus, ostriches, rabbits, deer, pigs, llamas, peacocks, hens and other critters they had in the Park. When we spoke to the woman that works there he asked if he could take the boar home to be his brother! Turns out that she lived in the UK for 9 years working in IT. She packed it in and now works with animals. Says it all really.



























After that we took Aidan to where my duck-friend resides to have a picnic. He had a great time feeding the ducks, hens and Black Swans.















My NZ driving license turned up today! I can get rid of the temporary one I have been using until now and use my NZ one.

On the way home we stopped by the supermarket to stock up the fridge/freezer. Still haven't got used to the lack of black pudding out here. I may have got the purchase of the year though....

....Deep Sea Cod for only 2 cents!!! Looks like they have weighed it wrong. :) (Picture: My 2 cents worth!)

Day 11 - Tauranga

Another fine sunny day in Kiwiland.

Just checked with Google Earth to see how far me and Aidan walked the other day to get into town. The route we took was about 5 miles. Not bad for the peerie fellow considering he was wearing new shoes as weel.

The essy-kert men dropped aff wir bruck and recycle bins da day. $200-odd dollars a year for the privilege of dumping stuff. This whole recycling thing is a bit of a challenge. Luckily they have sent me three leaflets now (all the same), explaining what and how to recycle. Perhaps sending me just one leaflet would have been slightly better for the environment but never mind (I have since recycled the extra two).


Managed to get Skype fired up today, so any of you that want to get in touch, head over to Skype.com, download Skype and set up an account (free). Once you have done that you can click on the button below to add me to your list of contacts.



Went for a run to McLaren Falls today, just outside Tauranga (Picture: McLaren Falls). Always a good idea for someone to put up a sign to remind you that you could die if you jump off a bridge (Pictured).



After that, took a run up the road to the park nearby. One of the ducks seemed to take a liking for me. Followed me everywhere, I'm not sure if I had some crumbs stuck in my facial hair or ganzie or something. Contemplated roast duck for tea before deciding that I would maybe let the wee guy live to see another day (Picture: My little duck friend).



Really wishing I had more time at the moment to be out and about taking photos. Managed to get a few today but would rather have had a lot more time to snap away.


That's all for now, let's see what tomorrow brings. Toodaloo.

Day 10 - Tauranga

Thursday 4th June - Day 10 already, it seems to have flown past. Looking like it is going to be yet another cracker of a day as well.

Took Aidan to join up with the 'Walking Bus' this morning. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, the school kids can meet up to walk to school together. After they have completed 25 walks to school they get a certificate to say they have done it.

Realised that Aidan has a really short day compared to old Shetty. He starts at 9 has a morning and an afternoon break, an hour for lunch and finishes at 3!! Hardly worth going.

Had to go and look for school books for Aidan today, got him the book on birds as well. One of the birds I spotted was a Silver Eye, they seem to be frequent visitors to the garden.

(Picture: Tauranga Harbour today)

The Wireless router turned up at Bond & Bond today, so we went and picked it up. We popped along the AA as well because when we received our member cards they had printed them with Mr C Craig and Miss T Tania. The wifey had put our first names in to the surname box!

Speaking about maybe taking a run to Rotorua at the weekend but we might just go to the Mount instead. See what the weather is like first.