The Year that Was

What had we been doing during 2016?  Going away on club caravan rallies it seems, 12 of them to be exact.    We visited sites up and down SH1 from Raumati to Himitangi, and travelled over the hill to the Wairarapa several times too.  It was a big surprise when I won the (artificial) cow milking competition while camping at Lutz Farm, squeezing those rubber gloves with all the skill of a milk maid.  Not too bad for a townie!

Milk Maid duties

As well as the caravan club rallies, we joined in to the big NZMCA Easter rally held in Levin, nice and close to home for us.  These are always huge, well run, and have great entertainment in the evenings.  We also enjoyed three longer trips way during the year, a couple of weeks apiece, and got to stay at several “new to us” sites.

Easter Rally at Levin

What else?  Several Probus and 60s Up bus trips in the earlier part of the year.  Our Super Leisure Group kept us busy and we had fun meeting up with our friends, going on outings and of course the lunches which are an important part of these days out.  And looking back we discovered that we had  visited eight museums over the year, everything from dinosaurs in Palmerston North, and the Firth Tower Museum in Matamata.

 

Firth Tower

It’s been a great year for train trips too.   We boarded the Spiral Snow Steam Express to National Park in August, and had another steam train  trip, the River City Express to Wanganui in October.  But the ultimate of train travel would have to be our trip on the Ghan travelling right through the middle of Australia in September.  With great service and restaurant food, comfortable carriages, interesting off train excursions, it was certainly the experience of a lifetime.  And to keep in with the rail theme,  returning home after our Aussie Adventure we decided to travel home from Auckland on the Northern Explorer instead of flying the last stretch home.

Ready to board the Ghan train

Robin joined the Menz Shed and enjoys his time spent there. He has also been busy with the Cancer Society, driving patients to hospital for their treatment, and has recently applied to be a driver on the Health Shuttle.  And I’ve been busy with my various groups and sewing up a storm with my quilting projects.

There's been a bit of sadness too, this year, especially when we had to say goodbye to our beloved Birman cat Muffy.  But we let her go knowing that at 20 years of age she had enjoyed a long and happy life.  Muffy came away with us when we embarked on our 3 month South Island Odyssey caravan holiday in 2012 when she was a grand old lady at 16 years old, had many new experiences on that trip.  She is sadly missed.

  

Muffy relaxing  “down south” in Invercargill

Then I had a major health issue – many hospital trips were involved from February to the completion of treatment in August.  Luckily that is all behind us now, so we can happily keep travelling around our beautiful country.  We are looking forward to more safe and happy travels in 2017.

Our Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day at home was a very laid back affair – just as we like it.  We started the day with the family tradition of croissants with ham and cheese – very yummy indeed.  The small hard frozen croissants were left out overnight and just like magic, they increased in size.  When cooked, we filled the with ham sliced off the bone, added cheese, and popped them back into the oven.

Croissants for breakfast

Our Weber BBQ was heating up and Robin prepared the skin on our pork roast to turn it in to delightful indulgent crackle before placing the meat on to cook.  He had to do a bit of surgery as he inserted the probe of the thermometer inside the meat – this tells us when the meat has reached the optimum temperature and is perfectly cooked.

That looks painful

Meanwhile, I was busy doing housewifely chores in the kitchen, doing last minute things for our Christmas lunch.

Plenty to do in the kitchen

We were joined for lunch by our caravan friends Dot and Derek, who brought along various contributions for our meal.  The veggies were cooked, Robin cut the meat, the gravy was made, and we tucked in – it was all absolutely delicious.  And then we toasted each other with a glass of bubbly.  We found just a little room for Christmas Pudding and custard, and sat and chatted, too full to move.

Cooked to perfection

Phone calls had been made, snap chat photos were posted to the cell phone showing the family having fun in Kiwitea.  Then in the late afternoon Robin’s brother, wife and daughter popped around for an hour or two, so it was great to catch up with them too.  And yes, we will be heading away in the caravan shortly, for a leisurely trip with friends.  This will give Robin the chance to show off his Christmas gift of a new coffee mug, brought all the way from England, just for him.

For all those who will be on the roads over Christmas and New Year, we wish you safe and happy travels.

Merry Christmas from New Zealand

Merry Christmas one and all, hope your day is a really special one.  It’s summer down here in the Antipodes, so that means BBQ Christmas Lunch.  Although summer hasn’t quite put in an appearance yet this morning – it’s cloudy with a few sprinkles of rain.  Never mind, we will go with Plan B and stay inside.  There is nice pork roast cooking on the Weber BBQ and it is smelling delicious!  Bon appetite!

It’s a Jungle out there

It’s Friday, and we wanted to get the last minute shopping done.  There is no way, I told Robin, that we should be out and about the shops with crowds of people on Christmas Eve.  Long gone are the days when we were at work all day, and had to squeeze the shopping in on the way home from work, or even worse, in the evenings.

Strawberries were top of the list and we like to get these from “Shirley’s”.  But the rain came down in a deluge during the night, and we wondered how that would affect the picking.  Luckily there were plenty of these luscious summer fruits available, and there were also plenty of customers queued up ready to buy their Christmas strawberries.  They are essential summer eating with a bowl of ice-cream, or on top of a pavlova.

 

Strawberries from Shirley’s Strawberry Patch

Fresh vegetables were next on our list, and we drove into our local market garden shop, “Garden of York”.  Once again, the place was packed, and we patiently waited till a car park became available.  Into the trolley went lettuce, tomatoes and avocado for salads, cauli, broccoli, fresh peas and beans for Christmas lunch, and some fruit.  The queues curled right around the shop and almost out the door – we had never seen so many people!  Looks like they all had the same idea as us, shop on Friday and leave Saturday free for other things.

Garden of York

Lastly we had a quick trip in and out of the supermarket, as fast as we could.  Not much was needed here, milk and cream, but I couldn’t resist a box of cherries.  As we went through the self service checkout, we noticed some cash left behind in the change dispenser.  So my good deed of the day was to race after the elderly lady who was in front of us, and hand her back her money.  There was no way I could let her go home without her cash, and as she thanked me, she admitted that she had forgotten all about it.

So that’s the shopping completed.  Tomorrow we can do some food prep, check out the Weber BBQ, put a bottle of bubbly in the fridge, have a quick tidy up inside the house, and any other small jobs that need doing.  And not have to join the crowds out getting last minute shopping – it’s a jungle out there.  Then we will be all ready for a relaxing Christmas Day on Sunday.

Family Time

It was a damp and misty morning when we loaded the presents into the back of the car – what’s happened to our sunny summer weather?  .  We were off the Kiwitea  to drop the Christmas presents off to the family. 

A misty morning

But we had a couple of stops to make on the way.  First stop was at the very busy Tendertips Asparagus packing shed to purchase a nice big kilo bunch of asparagus to take up to daughter Nicky.  I know she will enjoy that.

Nice fresh asparagus here

Then we stopped at Sanson to purchase six Cream horns as our contribution to lunch.  Viv’s Kitchen was busy, as usual, and our order was carefully packed in boxes for the journey.  The staff are all very pleasant and helpful, and dressed in the style of the 60s – very fetching indeed.

Viv’s Kitchen, the place to go for Cream Horns

The further north we drove, along country roads, the more misty it became.  Soon we reached our destination,  carried the gifts into the house, and placed them under the Christmas tree.  My goodness, there were heaps of presents there already.

 

Emma and the Christmas tree

Cooking smells filled the kitchen, Emma was whipping up a batch of Chocolate Brownies and Chocolate Peppermint Fudge, how yummy.  After a catch up it was lunch time,  and the Cream Horns were quickly demolished.  Then it was time to don our gumboots and do the obligatory walk into the paddock to admire the horses.  It was just as well we had remembered to pack the gumboots in the car.  Emma is very proud of her foal Fire Dancer and we took carrots out to give the horses a treat.

Robin feeding a carrot to Fire Dancer

Soon it was time to pack up and head for home - we had a bag of gifts to take, plus some of that yummy fudge.  As we headed back through Feilding we reflected that it had been a lovely day indeed. 

Feilding clock tower

Just to keep the Neighbors talking

Living in our village, as we do, there is always plenty going on close by.  Not that we are nosy, of course, but you just can’t help noticing.  Visitors come and go, and sadly, because this is a lifestyle/retirement village, ambulances come with regular monotony.  And we gave the neighbours something to talk about several days ago when an ambulance came calling to our home.

 

Parked outside our door

Robin had been feeling off colour for several days, so I rang the doctor’s surgery to hopefully get an urgent appointment.  But when I mentioned “chest pain” they insisted I ring 111 for an ambulance – so I did.  The ambulance arrived very promptly, checked him out and then whisked him away, leaving me to follow in the car.

The Emergency Department staff were wonderful, and soon had him hooked up to monitors, took blood, doctors and nurses came and went, and later in the day he was sent upstairs to the Assessment Ward.  After a very noisy and interrupted overnight stay, he was then sent for a treadmill Stress Test. 

The good news is that he didn’t suffer a heart attack, and there was no sign of angina, so the chest pain was unexplained.  We are so grateful for the medical care received, and realise, that had his heart been damaged as first thought, we could well be facing quite a different Christmas altogether.

As Robin says – he has passed his Warrant of Fitness, and has a document to prove it!

Menz Shed Christmas BBQ

The ladies were invited along to the end of the year Menz Shed Christmas BBQ.  We weren’t too sure if the BBQ would be taking place, as torrential rain fell all morning.  But just like magic, the skies cleared, the sun came out, and everything was looking good in the afternoon for the BBQ.  The blokes gathered under the pergola and presumably spoke about secret Menz Shed business, well away from the ladies.

And the hostess took me inside their home to look at her extensive doll collection.

 

Just some of the doll collection

The BBQ was fired up and the blokes got busy cooking up a storm.  A whole pile of sausages were sizzling away, together with meat patties and chicken kebabs.  Soon the hungry hordes were lining up to fill their plates with barbecued delights, and a great selection of salads.  Followed by a plentiful selection of desserts.  The noise level dropped considerably, as it does, while everyone concentrated on eating their dinner.

Alan and Brian – the men in charge

After our meal there was some serious business – presentation of the “Shedder of the Year”.  The award went to John, a lovely unassuming man who wasn’t expecting this honour in the least.

John was Shedder of the Year

The local Menz Shed is a haven for blokes to potter about, try their hand on some of the machines, and socialize.  But they also undertake community projects and have been working hard over the last few months making sturdy wooden toys for children who would otherwise go without at Christmas.  Over 70 toys, wooden trucks, spinning tops, pencil holders, buses and trolleys have rolled off the work benches.  “Building them was the easy part”, spokesman Paul reported to the local paper, “it’s the finishing and painting which takes the most time”.  These gaily painted gifts will bring joy to deserving  local children.