Some Vintage Beauties

I had a girls day out yesterday, meeting in the Vintage Car Club rooms, for a day of stitching.  These walls of these very macho surroundings were covered in all sorts of motoring memorabilia.  Such as this hub cap collection, donated by one of the members.

Hub Cap collection

While my group of ladies were stitching away, there seemed to be all sorts of things happening out in the car park.  Cars were arriving, motors were revving, and a crowd of excited people were gathering.  The Vintage Car Club members were assembling before heading off on an outing.   Being nosy, I wandered outside to have a look.

I don’t know too much about cars, and this one didn’t look nearly as vintage as some of the others.  But rather glamorous with the white wall tyres and gleaming paintwork.

These two looked decidedly vintage. and like all the cars, beautifully presented.

While I was walking around admiring all the cars, this delightful car rumbled up.  What a beauty, for a not very interested car person, I was most impressed.  A Model T Ford, he told me.  But he didn’t offer to whisk me away on a vintage car jaunt, (he probably had his wife with him) so I went back inside to get on with my stitching.  I could just imagine me sitting there like someone really important,  with the wind blowing  in my hair.  Never mind, dreams are free!

Model T Ford

Nga Manu Nature Reserve

Last week we took our SLG friends to visit Nga Manu Nature Reserve in Waikanae – it was my turn to organise our outing this month.  It had been many years  since we had last been here, so it was certainly time for a return visit.  The reserve was the long held dream of zoo keeper Peter McKenzie, he used part of his inheritance from grandfather  (Sir John McKenzie, founder of the McKenzie’s chain stores and one of New Zealand’s early philanthropists), he decided to gift one-third of it for the establishment of Nga Manu, and the dream became a possibility.

A charitable trust, Nga Manu Nature Reserve has become a sanctuary for up to 60 different bird species, many free to come and go as they please. It plays an important role in wildlife breeding programmes, working alongside DOC and the SPCA to provide recovery care for injured native birds.

Just as well we are all OAPs as the entry price for seniors was quite reduced.  Our lot couldn’t possible start their day before they all had a cup of coffee (self service).  The only trouble was that some of them had trouble opening the little packets to put in the mugs and held up the queue!

Who is having trouble making their cuppa?

Walking through the aviaries we came face to face with a Kaka enjoying his breakfast.  The kaka is a large forest parrot and feeds on a wide range of fruit, insects and nectar.  His neighbour, the Kakariki,  a small parrot with  bright green plumage and the red pattern on its head was also enjoying the morning sun shine.

 

Kaka and Kakariki

Then we played “spot the tuatara” as we peered into an enclosure, and found one sitting still, as they do, basking in the sunshine.  There were several young ones in another enclosure, but they we too small for us to spot as they hid amongst the greenery.  Tuatara are the only surviving members of the order Sphenodontia, which was well represented by many species during the age of the dinosaurs, some 200 million years ago. All species except the tuatara declined and eventually became extinct about 60 million years ago.

 

Tuatara, a modern day dinosaur

Yvonne was surrounded with ducks and a couple of pukekos when she started to share the duck food around. 

Yvonne feeding the ducks

Three of us walked up the hill to the Lookout.  From here we had great views over the reserve, and waving back at us were our friends down on the flat ground.  The reserve is set in the remains of lowland swamp forest and is full of native birds flying free.

View from the Lookout

We couldn’t leave without a group photo, and arranged ourselves around the swan sculpture.  Many thanks to Trish for doing the honours – we couldn't find a passing stranger to take our photo for us.

 

From here we drove to Harrisons Garden Centre to have lunch at their café.  I had a moment of panic when I found out they didn’t have our lunch booking for a table for eight, despite having made a booking earlier.  Luckily, the staff soon pushed some tables together for our group, and we settled down for a leisurely lunch. 

Lunch at Harrisons Garden Centre

We had a lovely day out with our SLG friends, the weather was excellent, the food and company were great, and it was fun to catch up again with everyone.

Generator to the Rescue

Our caravan batteries decided enough was enough during our weekend away at Oroua Downs School and stopped working.  So Robin made an early morning trip back home to collect our Honda generator to charge them up again. With the generator chugging away for a couple of hours, it soon brought the battery charge back up.  The batteries haven’t misbehaved before, but we have had this caravan about five years so they could be due for replacement.

Generator to the rescue

There was a  strange colourful caravan parked up at the school.   It was the Tooth Booth, a caravan fitted out as a travelling dental clinic.  In my school days, most primary schools had a dental clinic building on site.  I certainly remember those foot operated dental drills which seem to take forever as we sat there in fear!  When one of our class mates was called over to the clinic, they came back clutching the name of the next pupil to go to the “Murder House”.  We all hoped it wasn’t our name on that piece of paper.  There was no escape, sooner or later you got your turn to visit the dental nurse.

The Tooth Booth

The weekend weather was nice and sunny, and we spent some time outside under the shade.   On Saturday evening Geoff and Eileen had booked a table for us at The Wines in Himitangi,  a fairly casual place which was doing a roaring trade.  Orders of steak, burgers and fish were delivered to our table, and Robin was the only one who opted for a plate of ribs.

Ribs for Robin

It was a nice warm evening and there were groups of people enjoying themselves outside.  The place was decorated with plenty of motor bike memorabilia, and there was quite a crowd of bikers outside.

As one was leaving we saw him lift a small dog up onto the bike.  Off I went with my camera for a closer look.  And there was four year old Millie, or maybe he said Minnie,  happily settled into her seat on the bike.  The owner had his helmet on and I couldn’t quite make out her name.   Now four years old, the little terrier has been riding around since she was a little pup of four months, the owner told me.

Biker dog

As the night wore on, the juke box was cranked up loud and we could hardly hear ourselves talk.  The final straw was the arrival of the Party Bus, full with noisy young women who could well have been just a little intoxicated!  Time for our group of OAPs getting back to our vans, we decided.

Juke Box

The temperatures were still very mild back at the school grounds so we spent a very pleasant hour or two sitting outside in the evening twilight putting the world to rights.  There is always plenty to chat about when we get together.  Many thanks to Barry and Diane who brought along some apples to share from their trees.  Most gratefully accepted and I’m sure there will be plenty of apple delights on the menu this week, and in the freezer too for later. 

Off to Oroua Downs and Sad News

Here we go again, away to take part in another Caravan Club weekend rally.  Not too far away, just 32 kms up SH1 to Oroua Downs School.  Schools do not allow entry to their grounds till after the pupils have all departed, so we stopped for an hour at Foxton  and met up with fellow members filling in time too.

It was while we were here that we became aware of the terrible events unfolding in Christchurch.  Shooters had been on a rampage in two mosques in Christchurch, schools and businesses were in lockdown, and by the early evening 49 people were confirmed dead.  48 people with gunshot wounds had been treated at Christchurch Hospital, with others going to other health facilities around the city.  Patients ranged from young children to adults, with minor to critical injuries.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called the shootings a terrorist attack.  "It is clear that this is one of New Zealand's darkest days," she said. "This is an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence."  What a sad way to start the weekend.

Oroua Downs in a small farming community just north of Foxton.  The name means:  Ō: place of; roua: dredging for shellfish.

Seems that this will be a small attendance this weekend, with several of our members away on various holiday trips.  Small numbers or not, we are sure to have fun.  Rally Family Geoff and Eileen have some plans in place for us.

Rembrandt Remastered Art Exhibition

We enjoyed several hours of culture looking through this exhibition at the Te Awahou Niewe Stroon Museum at Foxton recently.  This museum sits close by de Molen, a full size operational 17th century replica Dutch windmill is open to the public, not visiting this time, just a quick snap as we walked into the museum.

Windmill and Museum

As we were local library card holders, the entry fee was only $2 each.  The full price of $5 seemed very reasonable too, we thought.  No photos were allowed to be taken inside.

The Rembrandt Remastered exhibition brought 57 digitally remastered life sized paintings, looking as they would have when they left Rembrandt's studio 400 years ago.  We particularly enjoyed seeing The Night watch as we had viewed this painting some years ago at  Rijks Museum  during our whizz-bang European bus tour.  It is a group portrait of the Militia Company under the command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq.  The primary purpose of these guardsmen was to serve as defenders of their cities, guarding gates, policing streets, putting out fires, and generally maintaining order throughout the city.

The exhibition consisted mainly of portraits, but sprinkled here and there were several charming landscapes.  Groups of people were there at the same time of us to enjoy the art, including a couple with a seemingly never ending stream of children.  The young boys didn’t know quite what to do when they came face to face with the huge painting of a reclining nude woman!  It was a life-sized depiction of the character Danaë from Greek mythology, the mother of Perseus. She is presumably depicted as welcoming Zeus, who impregnated her in the form of a shower of gold.  Although the artist's wife Saskia was the original model for Danaë, Rembrandt later changed the figure's face to that of his mistress Geertje Dircx.

We didn’t realize that Rembrandt was declared bankrupt in 1656 and had to endure the forced sale of his paintings, prints, drawings and the contents of his house.  And sadly, when he died in 1669 he was buried in an unknown rented grave.  While the location of his grave is still unknown, historians believe it is located along the northern wall of Westerkerk, one of the city’s most notable churches.  A memorial plaque inside of the church honours the great painter. Rembrandt’s son Titus van Rijn and his lover Hendrickje Stoffels are also buried here.

There was an added bonus to our day out – by showing our exhibition entrance wristbands at the museum café we got 10% off the cost of our purchase.  A good reason to stay for lunch, and my smoked fish pie was delicious!

 

“The Beast” launches in Foxton

The Levin Menz Shed blokes were out in force, joining the crowd of about 1000 people gathered around the Manawatū Marine Boating Club in Foxton Beach on Thursday to watch  The Beast take to the water.  The monster boat was built for New Zealand jeweller, entrepreneur and philanthropist Sir Michael Hill and is 39.5m long and 12m wide.  It was built by Profab Engineering in Palmerston North and can sleep up to 22 people. 

The previous day the boat was maneuvered on to the boat ramp and put on to airbags to wait for high tide. The boat launched about midday on Thursday to cheers from onlookers.

Profab owner Carl Ferguson said it took 22 months to build the boat prior to shipping it from Palmerston North, and it is one of the largest boats constructed in New Zealand.  After two years of working on the catamaran, he was relieved the boat was finally at sea.  The Beast will travel to Wellington for some finishing touches, and then the crew will take it to Auckland. 

We returned to the Boating Club today to catch a glimpse of The Beast without all the crowds of launch day.  And there she was, not a pretty boat by any means, with her name painted very discretely on the side.

Running Boards and Chinese for Lunch

Our Jeep finally has running boards fitted – this makes getting in and out of the vehicle so much easier.  The job was efficiently done at Brent Body Motors in Palmerston North.   There has been a real saga about these running boards.  Robin originally purchased a set overseas (at a very competitive price) and because some companies in USA will not ship to New Zealand, had to get them sent to a distribution centre.  They arrived safely but………would you believe it, they were just a little oversize and our parcel could not/would not be sent to us.  After many emails back and forth between the distribution centre and the couriers, there was nothing for it but arrange to send our order back, and ask for a refund.  Then we had an email saying that the oversize aspect could be waived, and our parcel sent on to us!  Too late, it had already been returned to sender.

Anyway, the running boards were finally purchased and fitted locally, and Robin seems very pleased.

We decided to treat ourselves and  had lunch at  China Town.  This is very reasonably priced, is always busy and offers lots of  interesting dishes to help yourself.  Another excellent point is that many local Chinese eat here, so that certainly shows that the food is very good.  Mind you, the Chinese people seem to order off the menu, while most of the other customers are happy to serve themselves from the buffet.

It was a good day out in nice sunny weather, with several jobs being ticked off our “to do” list, and a lovely lunch.  At only $15 each it was certainly value for money, with soup, desserts and coffee included in the price