Coach House Museum

Our weekend was spent at a caravan rally in the grounds of the Coach House Museum in Feilding.  As with a lot of collections, there was some overflow items displayed outside.  Such as this huge contraption on the grass behind our caravan.  What on earth was it, I wondered?

In the museum carpark for the weekend

Seems this was a stationary thresher, manufactured in USA, and known as the Tin Mill.  Used for threshing wheat, oats and barley, it was towed from farm to farm by a traction engine and powered with a long belt.  This monster needed 9 or more men to work the machine.

Tin Mill Threshing Machine

Inside the museum was a treasure trove of all thing to do with farming and agriculture.  A grand selection of carriages, gigs, carts, plows, all sorts of horse drawn implements.  Even a few early cars which would have been the envy of all in the area at the time.   Shearing, milking, and blacksmith tools, and a great array of John Deere tractors.

Gigs and carts

From the sheep’s back, wool bales

Four motor homes and four caravans spent the weekend in the museum carpark, and it was great to welcome prospective members Helen and Stuart.  There was plenty of room for our group, as well as many spare car parks available for visitors to the museum.

Another visit was arranged for us, this time to the beautiful Bloomsberry Cottage, built in 1877, just three years after the town of Feilding was founded.

Bloomsberry Cottage

This has been a labour of love for the current owners, painting, renovating, and transforming the house and huge garden.  The lady of the house gave us a tour through her home, downstairs first then up the beautifully carved kauri staircase.  Kauri trees do not grow this far south, so all the timber was  transported from Northland by boat then overland from Foxton by bullock cart.

Kauri staircase

Garden views

We had a very pleasant weekend indeed.  Some went to visit the Kimbolton Country Fair, and we stayed behind and caught up with the grand-daughters and their dad.  Our first time rally attendees went exploring the area on their electric bikes.  There were 4zees and morning teas as usual, nice sunny weather and plenty of time to catch up with each other’s news since the previous rally.  All good fun indeed!

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.

Our Tiny Garden

We’re not great gardeners, by any means, but it’s a real thrill when we have veggies to pick straight from the garden.  At the moment we have some butter beans and tomatoes just starting to produce.

Yes, we know, it’s hardly enough to keep the wolf from the door, but these little lovelies are growing in our garden, so that’s exciting.

And we have a fine crop of rhubarb growing, which seems to take care of itself. Our home grown rhubarb went very nicely in a baked rhubarb sponge pudding I whipped up for dinner last evening.

Christmas Outing with SLG Friends

Our last SLG outing for the year was held on Tuesday – where has the year gone to, we wondered?  Calvin arranged our outing, and we met first at his and Helen’s lovely home for a festive morning tea.  And a look around their lovely garden, our hosts are great gardeners and it really shows.

Inside the house Helen had her Christmas decorations on display, lovingly collected over the years.  Plenty of Santa's, of course,  and we were intrigued by the Christmas trains.  With a flick of a switch, the sound effects started, they could even blow smoke from the chimneys, we were told.

Santa’s trains and car

Now in a positively festive mood, we continued on our way to the Upper Hutt Cossie Club for Christmas Lunch, where Calvin had reserved a table for our group.

Not only a very reasonably priced lunch, but we were also entertained while we ate.  All sorts of music, some Christmas songs of course, with others encompassing a good variety of well known tunes from over the years.

Lunchtime entertainment at the Cossie Club

Our meals were hot ham served with plenty of veggies, followed by pavlova and fruit salad, all for the grand sum of $18, with free entertainment.  You certainly can’t beat that price.  Any drinks, of course, were extra.

Our group always has plenty to talk about.  We discussed our respective Christmas plans, reminisced about outings we had been on, members who were no longer with us, wished each other well, and when mid afternoon rolled around, made our way home. 

We have the longest distance of our group to travel home, and there were plenty of road works around.  The massive job of building the road through Transmission Gully is making a good start.   The 27 kilometre four-lane motorway will run from MacKay's Crossing in Paekakariki to Linden, through Transmission Gully. Four interchanges and two new link roads will connect the route to MacKay's, SH58, eastern Porirua and Kenepuru. The Transmission Gully motorway is scheduled to be open for traffic in 2020.

Work on Transmission Gully, Paekakariki end

Work continues on the walkway around the Pauatahanui Inlet, and is being constructed in stages, it appears. 

Working on the Pauatahanui Inlet Walkway

There is another major job under way,  from Peka Peka to Otaki.  There is plenty happening just north of  Otaki, including moving part of the railway line.  We always watch with interest as we pass to and fro to see how things are progressing on this ongoing project.

Work at Otaki

Roadworks not withstanding, we made it safely back home.  What to have for dinner, was the next question?  Just something light,  we decided, we were still full from our pre-Christmas Lunch.

Spring has Arrived

September heralds the arrival of Spring down here in the Southern Hemisphere.  Our winter was not too bad this year, yes, we have had cold spells, wind and rain, plus a little snow on the back ranges, but overall I think winter was fairly mild.  Wonder what that means for summer this year?  As long as we get some sunshine to coincide with caravan holidays, we will be happy.

Someone who is a little unhappy lately is Robin, he has come down with some sort of lurgy, coughing, spluttering, aches and pains.  According to the Medical Centre when he went for his (unrelated) blood pressure check-up last week, it seems lots of patents who have recently returned from Australia have been presenting with the same symptoms.  Probably something picked up in the air flights, we all know that the circulating air picks up all sorts of bugs from travelers.  With a lot of TLC he is slowly coming right.

And this is a sign of Spring – our Kowhai tree is dripping with golden yellow blossoms.  We brought this tree as a young self sown sapling from our garden in Upper Hutt when we relocated to Levin five years ago (is it really that long?) and it has grown well in the back garden.

Chatterley Manor and Winston Churchill

While we are camping in the back paddock of Chatterley Manor, and there is nothing wrong with that – the front of the property is quite something and looks very grand indeed.  As well as being a B&B, it is also a wedding venue, with guest accommodation.  We were invited to walk around the gardens, so we did.

The rose garden was very pretty, and there are sculptures al through the gardens.  The rustic green cow contrasted nicely with the rather elegant moose.

Animal sculptures

The owner’s three little poodles rushed out barking loudly to see what we were up to as we slowly walked around the garden – and then, warning duty done, happily went back inside again.

Chatterley Manor

On our travels around town we followed a truck driver under instruction - we hadn't seen one of these before.  The small truck was well loaded up with concrete blocks.

After lamenting the hot sticky weather for the last wee while, things have certainly changed.  Yesterday everything went pear-shaped with a huge storm pounding large parts of the country.  Rain and powerful winds caused flooded homes, roads closed, roofs lifted off homes, many people evacuated, storm surges, and goodness knows what else, it was hard to keep up with all the warnings.  SH6 between Franz Joseph and Fox Glacier was closed due to slips and downed power lines trapping about 115 tourists who spent the night in their cars.  And even more people trapped in Haast as slips closed West Coast highways.  Whew- luckily we weren’t on the West Coast yesterday,  we are still safely tucked up in the back paddock at Chatterley Manor.

The wind had dropped a little in our area this morning but it was still raining and very wet underfoot, and the temperature was down to 14degC.  No sight-seeing today we decided, but we took ourselves off to the movies instead.  We saw “Darkest Hour”, the story of Winston Churchill and his early turbulent time as Prime Minister while German war machine rolls across Europe, with the threat of invasion of the United Kingdom.  It was a very strong portrayal of Churchill,  with the powerful words of his great speeches ringing out which did so much to rally the nation.

Senior prices are always welcome when we go to the movies, but that wasn’t the only benefit.  Free morning tea was nicely set out on a table, with freshly brewed coffee and locally baked biscuits available for theatre patrons. 

 

Free morning tea as well

While we were engrossed in the film the wind seems to have died down and the rain had stopped.  Christchurch seemed to get off with lesser damage than a lot of other areas, but there will be a lot of clean up still to take place in the badly hit areas.

Next Stop - the Lignite Pit

It was a single night stop only at Tuapeka Mouth, and not a single camper called in to join us.  But the neighbours were friendly, and the blokes driving their utes or tractors all gave us a cheery wave as they drove up the road passing the church where we were camped.  We back-tracked down the eastern side of the Clutha River, crossing over the river at Clydevale – driving over one of those single lane bridges with a passing bay in the middle. 

Crossing the Clutha River

We called briefly into Gore to use the dump station, then carried on to Asher Road to stay a couple of nights at the Lignite Pit and Café.  Several people had recommended this intriguing sounding CAP (charges apply parking) so it was top of our list for this area.  Luckily we had phoned ahead as there were only two power sites – although there is plenty of room for those who wish to go off power.

Lunch at the café sounded like a good idea before we went exploring, and we ordered  hot roast pork sandwich (actually served in a bread roll) for him, and seafood chowder for her.  All very tasty, and just a light meal required in the evening.

Lunch at the café

And to walk off our lunch, we went through the red gate to see how an open cast  lignite mine can transformed to a thing of beauty.  There is a $2 charge for this, but no charge for campers, we were told.

It is beautiful serene place, with insects happily buzzing around the flowering bushes, and plenty of water fowl in the lake, and resting on the banks.  A group of young swans were making quite a racket as the busily flapped their wings on the lake, practicing their takeoff technique perhaps?

Plenty of birdlife around

There were paths everywhere, little bridges here and there, and seats scattered around for people to sit and relax while looking out over the lake.  The garden started as a dream for Dave and Maria Sanderson back in 2004, when the family got in a digger and started to remove the rubbish from the flooded lignite pit.  Seven years of hard work and love later, they have transformed the disused lignite pit into the nature friendly habitat is it today.  Barry and Maree are now the new owners of The Lignite Pit Café and Secret Garden.   Maree was looking for a wedding venue for her and Barry and came across this tranquil garden and decided the easiest way to book the wedding venue was to buy it.

More views of the lake

So what actually is lignite, you are probably wondering.  It is the lowest quality of coal, formed at the depth of 1km, and found in Otago and Southland.  The lignite coal deposits were first worked in 1904, tunneling to start, then the mine progressed to open cast mining.  A pump was necessary to deal with the oncoming water in the pit.  When lignite sales dropped considerably and it was no longer viable to continue, the pit closed in 1971.  The  pump was turned off and water filled the pit.

Rail cart used for lignite

Barnacle Bill’s and Cairns City Tour

With a name like Barnacle Bill’s Seafood Inn – how can it not be a great place to eat?  After a lazy day on Monday following our epic Daintree coach trip, we walked down town in the early evening to dine al fresco.  After reading all the holiday brochures and glossy mags, this restaurant was on my list of places to visit.  And for the Early Bird Diner there was a discount of 20% off the total bill, so that really suited a couple of OAPs.

Barnacle Bill’s Seafood Inn

It was always going to be fish for me, and Robin toyed with the idea of pork belly.  But then we both ordered the same, Karumba, which was “Bill's famous combination of baked fillet of barramundi, topped with prawns, avocado puree and Hollandaise sauce, served with vegetables and potatoes.”  Doesn’t that sound nice, and it tasted great too.

Dining at Barnacle Bill’s

We had sensibly decided “no dessert” but that idea went out the window when the young waitress brought over a tray of desserts, all looking gorgeous,  to temp us with.  So we ordered boysenberry cheesecake for him and chocolate profiteroles for her, with coffee to follow.  Just as well we were getting 20% off the total account!  And for those diners with unlimited funds, I discovered just the thing, a whole tank of these just waiting to be called up for dinner. 

Australian crayfish

Although Tuesday was an allocated spare day, we decided to fill it instead and  booked ourselves on the Half Day Cairns City Sights Tour.

First stop was a whistle-stop tour of the Cairns Museum where our group was split into two groups and shown around, starting with the history and stories if the indigenous people.  The settlers arrived, and various ventures to support themselves followed.  Gold mining brought many into the region, and later on, sugar cane plantations thrived, as they do to this day.  This was hard work indeed, all done by hand back in the early days.

 

Examples of cane cutting machetes, and single room accommodation for workers

Then we went to view the amazing stained glass windows at St Monica’s Cathedral.   The Peace Windows are in the front of the building and were designed and made by Gerry Cummins and Jill Stehn celebrate the fifty years of peace in the Pacific region since the end of World War Two.  The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first in naval history in which ships did not fire at each other. It was a battle of aircraft carriers and aircraft. As such it became the precursor to modern-day missile warfare.

The Creation Windows by the same artists run down the main part of the building, with twelve panels each side, telling the story of creation and evolution.  Amazing indeed, and need to be seen to be fully appreciated, the photos do not do them justice.

Creation and Evolution

On next to the Botanic Gardens where we enjoyed a Devonshire Tea. Being on a bus tour, we only had time to see a tiny bit.

Cairns Botanic Gardens

Then we headed off to look through the Conservatory.  Lots of lovely lush plants and trees there to admire, along with the butterflies fluttering by.

Seen inside the Conservatory

Back in the coach we went to get driven up a windy hill to “Cairn’s best scenic lookout”.  We weren’t the only ones on the road – local cyclists use this road as a training ground, biking slowly up the hill with muscles screaming, then whizzing down again, as quick as lightning.

From the scenic lookout

Once down off the hill we drove up the busy road, up another hill and Lower Barron Gorge National Park.  Here we saw, away in the distance, Cairn’s underground power station, as we walked across the long bridge.

River looking downstream, and waterfall running down the side of the gorge

We stopped at looked as a bunch of young kayakers jumped in the water and started paddling ferociously.  One of the elderly passengers from the bus remarked that the last time she visited the gorge, her and her husband went white water rafting.  That must have been many years ago, I imagine.

Young kayakers on the water

Our final stop of the day was at Palm Cove, a very trendy holiday destination Palm Cove, full of hotels, cafes, restaurants and shops.  Rather like Cairns, really, on a much smaller scale.

Palm Cove Jetty

The beach, and island off shore

Robin found the rather crowded  motor camp just over the road

That was our last stop of the trip, then it was time to head back to Cairns and drop everyone back at their various hotels.  And what a great afternoon it was – our informative driver Coral took us to all sorts of places we wouldn’t have discovered on our own.