Off to Himatangi

It’s Queen’s Birthday long 3 day weekend here in New Zealand, and normally we would be away in the caravan somewhere or other.  But our caravan club is not quite ready to rally yet, so we had a virtual rally and decided to drive up in the car and catch up with our friends from the Wairarapa Caravan Club.  They were staying up the coast at Himatangi Beach Motor Camp. 

We called into the office to let them know we were there, and to find our where the Wairarapa Club was camping for the weekend.  Right down the back of the camp, we were told, and there they are.

We were warmly welcomed by Dave and Rae, and invited inside for a cuppa.  Just look at these cute little coasters, won in a raffle, we were told.

There was plenty to talk about, and lots of catching up to do.  Stories of how we all  fared during lockdown.  And remembering previous trips and rallies, as we tend to do when we get together.

Dave and Rae

Then we popped next door to say hello to Pete and Di, also members of this club.  Pete was having trouble with his TV so Robin pushed a few buttons to get it scanning for the satellite, do hope it fixed the problem.  Other wise there will be no TV for them, they will have to listen to the radio instead. Actually, it was nice to go for a drive somewhere different, and catch up with other people, as we are now able to, after being in our own little bubble of two for so long.

As we were so close to the beach, we couldn’t leave without driving down onto the sand to check it out.  There were cars and people everywhere, and away off the coast we could just make out Mt Egmont.  Sadly, much too hazy to get a decent photo, but take my word, it was there.  It was a bit cold for swimming, but people were fishing, wandering about, playing in the sand, and enjoying the fresh sea air to blow the cobwebs away.   Looks like there has been quite a bit of effort put into rearranging the driftwood into piles on the beach too.

 

Himatangi Beach

On our way homewards we drove over the new Whirokino Bridge, and off to the side was the decommissioned 90 year old Whirokino Trestle bridge.  Demolition has already began, but the old bridge will be used for seismic research into the strength of such structures to withstand earthquakes.  Dr Lucas Hogan of the University of Auckland said the decommissioned bridge created an unprecedented opportunity to do “real life” testing into how a long bridge – the bridge spans 1.1 kilometres – behaved in an earthquake. Very topical at the moment, as there has been several reasonably strong earthquakes centred just out to sea in this area  recently.

The old trestle bridge

Out and About

It felt strange to be out and about on Friday, our first social outing since March.  We were driving down to Plimmerton, about an hour away from home.  The roads were quite busy, cars everywhere as people took the opportunity to get away from home for a while.  It was even stranger walking in to a crowded café where we were meeting for lunch – just look at all those people!  We had to sign in and register upon arrival, but I had decided not to use the pen supplied and had my own tucked away in my bag.  After all – how many strangers had touched it ahead of us?  Lunch was nice, and it was great to catch up with our friends after so long.  We hadn’t seen these friends since December.  There was obviously too much chatting going on as I forgot to take any photos.

After lunch we said our farewells and I told Robin I was happy to go straight home, no stopping off anywhere else.  I felt a bit of a party pooper, but after all, it was our first outing and I was looking forward to returning to the safety of our home.  We drove past the Plimmerton NZMCA site where we have stayed previously once or twice, but the gates are still locked.  What we expected really, as so far only gatherings of up to 10 people are allowed.  Along the way we drove past Kapiti Island, looking rather brooding surrounded by grey skies.

Kapiti Island

Road works have started up again, after being put on hold for the last few months.  New flyovers and bridges are popping up here and there.

Heading close to home we passed by this line of cabbage trees along the road.  Yes, the sky is still grey and cloudy, and the wind was quite a chilly wind, we noticed.

As part of the Covid 19 regulations now that restrictions have eased we have been asked by the government to keep a record of our outings - when, where and who with, in case this information is needed for contact tracing in case of exposure to the virus.  Robin uses an app on his phone while I note down the info on the calendar.  Easy enough to do for peace of mind, after all, it would be hard to remember every little detail further down the track.

This and That

What's been happening at our place these days?  Restrictions have lifted a little and we can go out more, and we have each had a couple of local trips recently.  Robin has been down to get rid of the recyclables – this service had been closed during lockdown and only just reopened.  And I went to our just opened fruit and vegetable market the other day – but I was horrified when an unknown customer patted me on the shoulder to tell me she was right behind me.  Don't touch me, I exclaimed, and she certainly shouldn’t have been so close!  But mostly we have been staying at home, keeping safe.

The Autumn weather continues to be calm and sunny, although the temperatures have certainly dropped overnight.  We decided to cook on the BBQ on Sunday, and had a chicken and baked potatoes cooking away on the Weber.  Mmm, it certainly smelt great while it was cooking away and finished up with lovely crispy skin.  It was delicious!

Chicken for dinner

There's been time for a few jobs to get done.  De-icing the chest freezer didn’t take as long as expected, and what a difference it made.    The ice on the back lawn took all day to finally melt away.

Ice on the lawn

Then our rhubarb garden needed attention.  I wanted the rhubarb lifted, split up, and replanted.  When they were dug up, we found that one side of the raised garden was rotting away, and this required some of Robin’s carpentry skills to fix it. We were still in lockdown, so luckily he found a spare piece of timber he could use.  There was lots of banging, sawing, and screwing long bolts on to the corners, and the job was finally done.  Before we replanted the rhubarb, two buckets of pony poo, courtesy of the Menz Shed, was dug into the garden.  Rhubarb plants love pony poo!  We will have to wait a while for the cut back rhubarb to grown again, but all of the pieces have started growing new leaves, so that's good.

Working in the rhubarb patch

What else?  The fold out clothes line bolted to the back wooden fence  seemed to be getting loose, I informed Robin.  No doubt a load of wet washing is fairly heavy, and I had visions of the whole thing falling down one day soon.  Seems that the bolts needed tightening, and now it is as good as new.  Some shrubs needed trimming back, and several lightbulbs needed replacing.  Have you noticed that these were all “blue” jobs, so all for  Robin to attend to?  But I’ve been extra busy too, cooking up some tasty treats for us both. So he is not really too hard done by.

Zoom, zoom

What do they say about old dogs and new tricks?  We had our caravan club 4zees, Happy Hour, with a difference yesterday.  Our Club President Barry sent out the Zoom invitation to join in at 4.00pm from our homes and I must admit I was wondering how we would all go about it.  Luckily Robin is a lot more au fait with computers than me, and organised both of our small tablets to take part.  Others used their laptops and Pat and Thelma used their phone – although Pat did complain of his arm getting tired with holding the phone up for ages. 

It was certainly a learning cure, what with finding out how to turn the microphone on, how to get different pictures on the screen, and after a few hiccoughs it all worked out surprisingly well.   There were glasses of wine and beer bottles in evidence, and coffee as well.  So nice to catch up with everyone again via this new medium.

All great fun, and we will be repeating the exercise in a couple of weeks time.  Who would have thought that we would be zooming – most of us would not have heard of this term a few months ago.  Just goes to show that old dogs can learn new tricks!

It’s all Non Contact these Days

Who would have thought a couple of months ago that businesses would have to organise themselves to have non contact with customers?  But that is what had to happen once the nasty Covid 19 virus started rampaging around the world.  Under Alert Level 3 the rules for businesses are:

• Customers cannot come onto your premises unless you are a supermarket, dairy, petrol station, pharmacy or permitted health service.
• Your business must be contactless. Your customers can pay online, over the phone or in a contactless way. Delivery or pick-up must also be contactless.

We have had several non contact transactions happen over the last couple of days.  First was getting a service done on our Toyota car, a bit late due to being in Lockdown.  This all went like clockwork, the serviceman drove to our house in a courtesy car, parked it, Robin tossed him the keys for our Toyota, and he drove it down to the workshop.  On returning our car after the service, he parked it in the garage, placed the portable Eftpos machine and our keys on top of our chest freezer and stepped back while Robin dealt with the payment.  All very well thought out, in the old days we would have to have driven two cars down to the workshop, left one behind to be worked on, driven home, then repeated the trip again at the end of the day.

Our second delivery turned out to be rather long winded, and we were not very impressed, although the non contact rules were adhered to.  Showing that TV advertisements work, after being bombarded with ads for pizza we caved in and ordered some for “contactless home delivery”, paying online. It seems that everyone had a hankering for pizza that night and the delivery was running a little late – no problem, we will  just wait till it arrives.  Then we got a phone call to tell us the delivery was at the door.  But it wasn't – who's door had the driver left it at?  A phone call to the pizza place to chase it up, and finally, after a long wait, the pizza boxes were retrieved from the incorrect doorstop and finally delivered to us.  Seems that the delivery man couldn’t work out the address, didn’t realise he had to come into our village, and must have left the delivery in another street.

We were starving hungry but the pizzas were not piping hot by this time, so Robin went on line to give feedback.  And believe it or not, another delivery arrived, we had pizza for Africa!  No, you are not allowed any more just because it’s here, Robin was told firmly, it was packed up and put in the freezer for another day.

Mmm, garlic bread

And lastly, we had a courier delivery today when a parcel arrived.  After ascertaining that we were the correct household, the driver placed the parcel down on the path and walked away - nothing to sign, no personal contact made.  And best of all, the parcel is from my daughter so it must be a little something for Mother’s Day, which is tomorrow.  Aren’t I lucky!

Mother’s Day gift

It must be Sunday

These days it’s hard to know what day it is.  But when Robin cooks bacon and eggs for breakfast, it must be Sunday.  Nothing beats a cooked breakfast on Sunday morning.  With a lovely fresh double yolker egg from our local free range supplier, it certainly was a great start to yet another Lockdown Sunday.

Sunday breakfast

And talking of food, it’s feijoa season at the moment and Paul and Elaine’s trees were covered in fruit.  Would you like some, we were asked?  Yes please, and they were dropped off at the door for us.  Thanks so much, much appreciated.

A big bag of feijoas

It’s pouring with rain at the moment and we have a “Severe Weather Watch Warning” in place.  The gales haven't yet arrived, but are expected tomorrow.  Just as well we are tucked up safely at home, and the heat pump has been replaced, so we are warm and toasty. 

Its a rainy day here today

The country has moved from Level 4 Lockdown to Level 3 on Tuesday, meaning that some businesses can now open if they can operate safely without personal contact.  Take-away shops can also open and there has been a huge rush for burgers and the like, although some businesses have to improve their health and safety plans.  No need for us to rush out for takeaways, there is nothing wrong with home cooking.  Level 3 has been called “Lockdown with Takeaways”!  There are still travel restrictions in place, and oldies like us should still stay safely at home.