Goodbye Lazuli, Hello ????

It was a wee bit sad to say goodbye to Lazuli.  We had owned the Holden Astra since 1996 and she had given us good and faithful service.  Hardly missing a beat, and over all those years, not a great deal had gone wrong with her.  But Robin thought it was time she went and started looking around for a replacement.  If there is one thing I hate, it is looking around car yards.  So he started hanging about the local car yards, kicking tyres or whatever it is prospective buyers do.  Then I had to go down and see what he had found.  If it was up to me, I would have kept the car for a few more years, after all, it seemed fine to me.  But then – what do I know about cars?  Not much, really.  A few days later we took Lazuli down to the car yard and left her behind.

Goodbye, Lazuli

Forms were signed, and keys handed over.  Then the sales girl presented us with a big bunch of lilies and a box of chocolates.

A thank you for buying the car

The new (to us) purchase is a 2009 Toyota Corolla Hatch Diesel car, painted pale blue called “Shimmer”. 

Let’s take it home

“What shall we call the new car”, I wondered aloud, “Let’s call her Shimmer”.  Well, that went down like a wet balloon.  Why do we have to call it anything – it’s only a car, was the reply.  I’m not listening, she will be Shimmer to me!

Our new car

We still have the Toyota Landcruiser 4WD of course, what else would we tow the caravan with.  That car doesn’t have a name, but then, it’s a blokes car,isn’t it.

Quick – get the Plumber

What a disaster – the hot water stopped running last night – although there was no problem with the cold tap.  What to do?  We’ll sleep on  it and sort it out in the morning.  Sadly, a miracle didn’t happen overnight and the hot water still refused to run.  We have only been in our new home since March, so certainly didn’t expect any problems like this.  Robin contacted the building contractors bright and early in the morning, and they promised to send a plumber around sometime during the day.

The friendly young plumber turned up after lunch, and said that he was the one who did the plumbing work on our house.  Up in the attic he went.  There was not much room to manoeuvre, and he had to tread carefully on the ceiling joists.  Out came his wrenches and he then proceeded to undo the pipes leading out of the hot water cylinder.  He didn’t really know what was wrong,  perhaps the filter had clogged up.  Nope – that wasn’t the problem.  A few more joints were undone and he got his answer. The rubber non return valve had perished and needed replacing.

What’s the problem here?

With all the recent earthquakes happening, I was a bit worried about the hot water cylinder being up in the attic.  “No worries”, he said.  “See that wooden tray”, he said, “which the cylinder stands on?  I made that myself, it’s solid as anything and much better than what the builders would do.  Your cylinder is well braced with strapping, and it won’t move”.  That was reassuring to know.  

Hot water cylinder sitting on it’s special flooring

I climbed back down the attic stairs to run the hot taps.  After an initial splutter, the hot water came gushing out.  Great, that crisis is now over.   

Probus Club morning

Now we are members of the local club with our very own name badges, the only other requirement was to pay the fees.  In fact, we only paid half price, since we joined mid year.  The Probus Club movement began in Britain in 1965, with New Zealand's first  clubs forming in 1974.  Worldwide there are about 4000 Probus clubs that collectively host more than 300,000 members. The Probus clubs pride themselves on their independence and freedom from the responsibilities of service clubs, it's all about friendship, fellowship and having a good time.  Perfect for people like us moving to a new area.

Members who celebrate birthdays in the current month are called to the front and presented with a little gift – Robin was one of the birthday people this month.  In fact, he was the only fellow, the others were all ladies.  Wonder if he can be persuaded to share those sweets with me?

Happy Birthday, later in the month

Another couple sitting at our table were celebrating their 64th Wedding Anniversary – that’s certainly is something to celebrate.  And by a strange coincidence we are almost in-laws.  One of their sons was previously married to one of my sisters!  Just goes to show what a small world it is, doesn’t it.

The first speaker was club member Dave who told of the trials and tribulations he and his wife Dianne had running the local  Motor Camp for 15 years.  The land for the camp was donated by Mr Playford, and we knew the camp as Playford Park for many years, although it is now known as Levin Motor Camp and Holiday Park.  Dave told tall tales of the antics that sports teams and school groups often got up to.  Search and Rescue teams occasionally made the camp their base, and of course caravan clubs like ours were regular visitors.  Although accidents will always happen, it was sad to hear the stories of malicious damage that often took place, plus the occasional suicide.  Dave did mention the fun and fellowship that caravan clubs share amongst themselves, so his stories were not all doom and gloom.

Our second speaker was Pam Hardy from United Travel.  She told us about two trips she had done recently, the first escorting a small group through Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa.  Pam had invested in a super-dooper camera and had some amazing close up animal shots which were circulated around the tables.  Her second trip was a solo voyage to Istanbul, Turkey.  Such amazing architecture, and Pam was especially thrilled to view the Blue Mosque.  The mosque is known as the Blue Mosque because of blue tiles surrounding the walls of interior design.  It was built between 1609 and 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I.

 The Blue Mosque, Istanbul

Pam also purchased some genuine hand made Turkish carpets and they were exquisite, although there was a collective gasp around the hall when she told us what they cost.  Made with silk, they were soft and lustrous and just invited a tender touch or two.  Any traveller keen to take one of these hand made beauties home as a memento would have to allow extra funds for their purchase, the genuine ones don’t come cheap. 

A beautiful hand made silk carpet

After having our horizons well and truly broadened, and mixing and mingling with other members, it was time to head home for lunch.  Probus meetings are certainly an interesting way to spend the morning.

First day of Spring

Winter has been a bit of a non event here in New Zealand this year.  Climate Scientist Jim Salinger says the country has so far experienced its warmest winter since reliable records began in the 1860s.  August has behaved like September with temperatures almost 2 degrees C above normal.  This makes us wonder what sort of summer lies in store for us.

There is just a little snow cover on the Tararua Ranges behind our village – it is not called Range View Villas for nothing.

Snow on the ranges

With their Mum turning 90 in a couple of months, Robin and his brother Gary have been trying to find a suitable venue for her special birthday lunch.  We stopped for coffee at one possibility and I was really taken with a whole line of glorious Magnolia trees in full blossom growing on the adjacent property.   Even a non gardening type like me could see there were several different varieties.  So pretty – with blossoms like this, it certainly is Spring.

Magnolia trees

Sadly, that particular restaurant (with such a beautiful outlook) would have trouble coping with a large family group so close to Christmas, so we had to widen our search for another venue.  While driving along we passed a group of alpacas quietly going about their business.  These animals have such expressive faces, we just had to stop the car and take some photos.

Who is that taking my photo?

With new growth everywhere, flowering bulbs in gardens, and lambs in the paddocks, it looks like Spring has well and truly sprung.  Daylight Saving commences on the last Sunday in September, so  it will be Summer before we know it.

Busy in the Back Yard

Flushed with success after constructing our kitset raised veggie garden, in which the boards just slotted together, Robin decided to make another raised garden.  But this time, it was quite a different task altogether.  The triangular garden in the corner was not so  easy, nothing was cut-to-size and delivered this time.  This was a real blokes job and involved a trip to the lumber yard to purchase macrocarpa boards, plus a copious supply of long galvanised self tapping bolts to hold it all together.  Then the serious business of measuring and cutting.  “Measure twice and cut once” is the mantra of home handymen and quilters alike.

Cutting the boards to size

I was helping as required, holding the timber when needed, or keeping well out of the way as the long boards were swung around and put in place.  The electric drill made short work of putting those bolts in place.

Putting the bolts in

Then came the all important job of filling the garden up with soil.  Luckily, we had soil to spare – two large piles  left over from when the workmen came to do our extra concreting jobs.  Backwards and forwards Robin trudged with barrow loads of soil.  He had made a ramp out of an extra length of timber, which made it so much easier to tip the soil into the new garden. 

 

  Adding the soil

We have planted out a couple of baby Kowhai trees which we potted up from our previous garden.  Also taken were some Iris tubers, a gift from a friend many years ago – we couldn’t leave them behind.  We were surprised that these have survived so well all these months.  With the addition of a few more shrubs (natives, we decided) and a covering of bark chips to keep the weeds down, our easy care garden will soon be finished.   Less time doing gardening means more time to go caravanning – that’s our philosophy, anyway!

Transplanted kowhai tree and iris tubers

Beer for Breakfast and Weasel Coffee after Dinner

It wasn’t really beer,  but some nice hot toast made from the loaf of beer bread I made yesterday.  And very nice it was too.   I used a bottle of Robin’s Tui East Indian Pale Ale beer, flour, baking powder and a little salt, mixed it all around, put the mixture in a loaf tin and baked it for an hour.  The fizzy beer made the dough rise well, and the loaf turned out well cooked, with a nice crusty top.  It couldn’t have been more simple – in fact, so simple, even a husband could make it.

Robin’s  favourite beer - Tui

After dinner we decided it was finally time to face the “weasel” coffee from Vietnam and give it a try.  Weasel coffee is quite highly prized  over there.  Robin’s sister Kaye has been living and working in Vietnam for the last year or two, and brought a packet of this delicacy back for Robin when she had a fleeting visit home recently.

Weasel coffee from Vietnam

Coffee beans are fed to weasels, or in the case of Vietnam which has no native weasels, civet cats.  The coffee beans pass through the animals gut and is excreted, gathered up, washed (we hope), roasted, ground, packaged, and bought by eager customers.  We brewed a cup each using the dinky little Vietnamese coffee filter.

Filtering our weasel coffee

So what did we think of coffee made from beans going in one end of a civet and pooped out the other?  Actually, not too bad at all.  We added cream and a little sugar, and it was certainly tasty enough, just like brewed coffee anywhere.  We just won’t reflect on the journey those coffee beans have taken.

Jubilee Fire Museum, Masterton

Situated adjacent to the Wool Shed Museum (which we visited on Sunday) is the Jubilee Fire Museum.  This small museum declares it “celebrates a bygone era in fire fighting services”.  Pride of place is the Jubilee horse drawn fire appliance, a magnificent example of Victorian engineering.  Purchased by the Masterton Borough Council in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, the town’s first fire engine was named the Jubilee Fire Engine in recognition of this milestone.

Jubilee Fire Engine

The Jubilee appliance is a horse drawn Shand Mason steam pump, which can deliver 300 gallons (1440 litres) of water per minute. The engine was fired by coal, which burned in an under-slung fire bucket.  Fires were a major hazard to the early settlers, with fire spreading rapidly between houses and commercial buildings all constructed of native timber.  The Jubilee had a long and active working life, remaining in active service until 1925 when a motorised appliance was purchased.

 

The museum has various fire fighting  photos, uniforms  and memorabilia scattered around.  (Did you know that Robin worked for the NZ Fire Service for 5 years as a Contracts Manager purchasing the new style gold coloured protective clothing for fire fighters?)   I particularly liked the fireman sliding down the pole, dressed in his long woollen underwear. He’s off to save the town from burning down!

Down the pole