Wandering around Woodville

The big white bus was full of 60 Up members all happy to be having a “Big Day Out” in Woodville yesterday.  Our favourite bus driver Peter soon had us all aboard and settled down as we headed north, taking us through the Manawatu Gorge.  Yes, the gorge was now open, Peter assured me.  This stretch of road often suffers from slips and was closed after heavy rain for a few days in June.  Then in July it was closed again for a day or so when a large tanker was left hanging over the guard rail.  The driver of the tanker hung in the cab in a "life-threatening position"  for 30 minutes before he was rescued.  No wonder many drivers approach this road with fear and trepidation!  Luckily our bus trip was safe and uneventful and once through the gorge it was just a short drive to Woodville.

A crane arrives in the gorge to lift the truck from the ledge. Photo: Warwick Smith/Fairfax NZ

Our first stop was to the Gottfried Lindauer Replica Studio, a gifted artist who had quite a connection to Woodville.  Born in Bohemia, he studied at the Vienna Academy of Art.  To avoid being drafted to the Austrian military service he left for Germany and in 1874 boarded a boat to New Zealand. He soon specialised in portraits of the Maori race, and many prominent Maori chiefs commissioned his work, in which he recorded their facial tattoos, clothing, ornaments and weapons.  In 1890 he built a house and studio on four hectares of land on Pinfold Road, living there until his death in 1926, at the age of 87.  The replica studio contains reproductions of many of his paintings. I could only take a photo of an overview of the interior, I was told, and not to focus on any one particular painting.

Inside the Gottfried Lindauer Replica Studio

  Statue of the great painter outside the studio

Morning Tea was next, at Cafe 88.    Most climbed back on the bus for the short ride, but we decided on a brisk walk up the main street, arriving well before the bus arrived.  As we were happily tucking into our coffees and date scones, our fellow passengers were waiting to be served, with the queue stretching out the door and onto the footpath.  

 

Bruce and Robin ready to enjoy their date scones

We had an hour or so to fill in before lunch, but that wasn’t hard to do.  Woodville has quite an assortment of antique and second hand shops, some better set out than others, offering all sorts of articles from by-gone days, so we were happy to potter around.  And what’s this - another cafe with such a cute name, especially for someone like me who is very fond of piggies.  We’re going there next time, I declared.

Great name for a cafe

Another lazy Sunday

I fear that Robin is starting to get a little cabin crazy as he is checking the calendar to see how long it is till we hit the road again.   He will just have to be patient as it’s only another couple of weeks till we go away with our caravan buddies again.  Meanwhile, we are enjoying a lazy Sunday at home.  The day started, as Sundays really should, with a bacon and egg breakfast, cooked by the man of the house.

The birds are enjoying a free meal outside on the bird feeder.  What could be more tasty to the little native silver-eyes than a concoction of dripping, chopped apple and bread crusts, a big spoon of honey, and wild bird seed?  We love to see then hanging upside down as they peck away at the hardened mixture.  And any bits which drop off onto the lawn are quickly swooped on by the sparrows.

Silver-eyes having their Sunday Brunch

And over the back fence we have views of the Tararua Ranges with their wintery covering of snow.  What a pretty sight this is, one I never tire of.

  Peeping over our roof

And yet another view

Contractors have been at work lately over our back fence, cutting back and trimming trees that are planted along the road side behind our village, and in some cases, removing them completely.  As these trees act as a “noise  filter” from the traffic on the busy road behind us, we were concerned about the trees being removed, so enquiries were made.  After many telephone calls and being passed around from one department to another, we finally had an answer.  The trees are part of the beautification strip, and invasive cherry trees have been removed, others which were encroaching onto neighbouring properties were cut back, and the road reserve cleared as people had been dumping rubbish there.  So the trees were not planted for the benefit of our village at all – and sadly we now have big gaps over the fence which previously was filled with lovely foliage.  Birds love these large trees, and generally trill all day from up high – we hope the remaining ones are sufficient for their Spring nesting activities.

Kyrewood – lambs and horses

After eating (and thoroughly enjoying) our rather large cream horns on Sunday Robin decided to drive the long way home via Palmerston North.  He wanted to check out a motor camp that we had been told was somewhere near Awahuri on SH3.  Perhaps it would be suitable for a future caravan club rally, we hoped – it is always good to go somewhere different.  The road sign appeared while we were tootling along, so we had to back up a little, turn around, and drive up the side road.  What a surprise, it wasn’t a stand alone motor camp, but an equestrian centre which offers caravan parking as a sideline.

Kyrewood Equestrian Centre is registered and accredited to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA.  It is accredited to deliver equine courses up to Level 4, and is the only Private Training Establishment in the North Island, and one of only three in the whole of New Zealand accredited to this level.  Students from both New Zealand and overseas come to study and stay on site.

Kyrewood Equestrian Centre

We were directed down the drive to the camping area and one of the staff came to help us with our enquiries.  Yes, it would be suitable to hold a rally here – but the large grassed area would make it better suited to a summer rally.  Power points, toilets, showers and kitchen facilities are available, and there is room for us all to meet inside in the evenings, if required.  A suggestion will be made to the committee to hold a future rally here.

Camping area in the back paddock

We were invited to have a look around, an offer which we gladly accepted.  There were several little hand fed motherless lambs on the decking of the student accommodation, wearing little white coats to keep them cosy and warm.  How cute is that!

Staff member showing us the little lambs

And of course, being an Equestrian Centre, there were horses galore - the centre has over 50 horses, we were told.  As well as all the horses, there were young people, mainly girls,  but a few males dotted here and there, all dressed in their jodhpurs and riding hats.

Help – they are walking up to me!

These are saddled and ready to go

This would certainly be an interesting place to hold a weekend rally, there seems to be so much going on, and quite different to the places we generally stay at.  Let’s hope that Kyrewood gets added to the rally schedule next year.

Mission accomplished, we headed for home.  And what’s this we saw when we drove into our village?  Look’s like someone has had a “whoopsy” and backed into their neighbours letter box! 

Who came off second best, the car or the letter box?

Cream Horns for Lunch

Sunday is just the right day for a “Sunday Drive”, wouldn’t you say?  And with a lunch out added into the equation – there was no holding us back.  Where to? We settled on Sanson – about 50kms up SH1.  It dates from the Crown’s sale of the Sandon block in the late 1860s.  In 1868 a group of men got together in the Hutt Valley, near Wellington. They were eager to take advantage of Government policies aimed at getting “the small farmer” onto his own block of land.  The township was named Sanson, after Henry Sanson, the secretary of the Hutt Small Farm Association, and this slight name change caused much confusion over the years.  Sanson was the terminus of a tramway which ran from a junction with the railway line at Himatangi from 1883 until 1945, and thrives from its location at a junction of state highways 1 and 3, being a  popular stop for people travelling on the state highways.

We were keen to have lunch at “Viv’s Kitchen”, world famous in Sanson.  This cafe has a huge image of a cream horn on top of the building, which we noticed and generally commented on as we drove through Sanson, usually towing the caravan behind us.  “One day,” we promised ourselves.  Imagine our dismay when the we noticed that not only the cream horn sign was gone, but the cafe building was empty and deserted.  But all was not lost – Viv and her staff had moved premises further along the road.

Viv’s Kitchen was busy with people “doing lunch” like us, so we found ourselves a table and checked out the menu.  We decided on something small and savoury from the hot cabinet, just so we could finally indulge in one of those huge cream horns.  And they were delicious!

The famous cream horns from Viv’s Kitchen

Tucked away in a corner of the cafe is “Nana Ruth’s Corner”, dedicated to the memory of Viv’s Mum.  What a lovely thought.

Nana Ruth’s Corner

We needed a bit of exercise after our lunch so crossed over the road to the local weekly market.  Stalls galore, and I was after some fresh veggies.  I couldn’t go wrong with buying a couple of smallish pumpkins at only $1 each, could I?  Perhaps I’ll be cooking up another big pot of pumpkin soup soon.

At the Sanson Markets

Robin decided to drive the long way home through Palmerston North as he wanted to check out a new venue for caravan club rallies.  Yes, we did find it…..more later.

It looks like a Whirling Dervish

After finding out “all about Pesto” our SLG friends were in need of sustenance and a sit down.  Just as well we had a table booked for lunch not too far away at Salt and Pepper Cafe.  The staff must have heard that our group can sometimes get a little vocal, and seated us out on the covered deck.  Which was very nice really, we were nice and private and had the deck to ourselves.  We are not really that noisy, but when all of us get talking, the sound scale does go up a notch or two.  What to order generally takes a bit of pondering, and discussion, and finally we had all decided what took our fancy.  There was no second choice for Les, if lambs fry and bacon is on the menu, that’s what he is having – and he did!  We were all pleased with our choices, with Robin and Calvin both ordering the most delicious pork belly open sandwiches. 

Look at those plates!

We had one more visit to make after lunch, and I took our group to look through the Cordall factory, another small local business which manufactures cords, elastic, tape and bungy cords.  The owner showed us around and related how the spools of cord get threaded up onto the machines and woven into these various products.  The spindles go round and round at incredible speed, just like the Whirling Dervishes of olden times.

Making cords

Shoe laces are another product and this old vintage machine came up from quake ridden Christchurch.  It is the only one of it’s kind in the country and has a very important job – putting aglets on shoelaces.  That’s what the plastic or metal sleeves at the end of shoelaces are called – aglets, or aiglets.  These tiny things have several functions: they prevent the lace ends from fraying, they make the laces easier to hold, and they make them easier to pass through the eyelets.  And that rather strange word often comes up in crossword puzzles, I’m told.

This machine puts the aglets onto shoelaces

Another product made here is cord for electric fence gates which incorporates stainless steel wire.  We watched as large spools of stainless steel wire were wound onto smaller spindles which will then be threaded up onto the machines to make the cord.

Stainless steel wire

More machinery going nineteen to the dozen

It was a very interesting short tour, and once again, our group of friends were not aware that this took place in Levin.  Products are made to order, and any excess is sold in the shop.  There are all sorts of elastic, cords and tape for the home sewer like me – it is a real delight to have such an interesting little shop on my doorstep.  And I found exactly what I was looking for to complete a project.

Lots of stock to rummage through

Our friends came back to our home for afternoon tea and even more chatter before they all headed off on their journeys homeward.  We had a great day together, and they were certainly surprised to learn of two quite different industries we have here in Levin. 

All about Pesto

Tucked away in a rural corner of Levin is a secret that not many people know.  This is where the family run Genoese factory produces fresh basil pesto.  The basil is grown on the family farm in Fiji, where the warm tropical climate ensures a year round crop, and the hand picked herbs are flown into New Zealand twice weekly.

Picking basil in Fiji

I had arranged to take our SLG friends for a factory tour and we were welcomed by Ron, the “founding father” of the company.  Before we could enter the food preparation part of the factory, we had to comply with Health and Safety regulations and don hairnets.  In Robin’s case, he needed another one to cover his beard.

Ready to see how it is done

Pesto is a traditional recipe made from fresh basil leaves, olive oil, parmesan cheese and pine nuts.  The fresh basil is put through the washing process several times to ensure it is perfectly clean, before moving on to the next step of the process.

Washing the basil

The parmesan cheese arrives in large blocks and need to be finely grated before being added to the mixture..

Grating the parmesan cheese

The ingredients are mixed in the correct proportions of basil, olive oil, cheese and pine nuts and come out the other end packaged in pots of delicious fresh bright green pesto.

Pots of fresh pesto

At the end of our tour we were invited for a tasting.  We tried the original pesto, which we were assured, is delicious on pasta, potatoes, meat, fish and chicken, in fact, you are limited by your imagination.  Do check on the company website here to get ideas on how to use this product.  The company also makes a chunky pesto dip, a tomatoe dip, and olive tapenade.  All delicious and we made sure we gave them all a thorough “taste test”.

Ron preparing for our pesto tasting

It was a very interesting tour and my knowledge has expanded from someone who didn’t even know what basil looked like to someone who is now a convert to pesto!  Thanks very much to Ron and his team at Genoese for a very interesting insight into the manufacture of basil pesto.

Goodbye from Ron at Genoese

Fire Officer Kerry at 60s Up Meeting

Fire Safety in the home was the theme of the talk at our 60s Up meeting – very appropriate as we are in the depths of winter.  Our speaker Kerry O’Keefe had the dual title of Fire Risk Management Officer and Specialist Fire Investigator, so was admirably qualified to talk to our members about this important subject.  Kerry told us that he became a fire fighter not long after the best friend of his little four year old son had died in a house fire.  The little boy had been playing with matches and set his room on fire.  Not knowing what to do, he then hid under his bed while the house burned down around him.   Kerry’s son said to him, “Dad, if you were a fireman you could have saved him”.  What a sad story, but Kerry has been fighting fires ever since.

 Fire Officer Kerry O’Keefe

Kerry’s talk was full of common sense good advice.   Such as having fire alarms in all bedrooms, not just the main one.  And for those hard of hearing, consider an alarm that also comes with strobe lighting.  And don’t waste your money buying those cheap $10 alarms either, a good quality one selling at $40 contains a long life photo electric battery which will last for 10 years.  He talked to us about having an escape plan, and leaving the keys in deadbolts while we were at home.  People have died while trying to find their keys and insert them in locks in the dead of night with toxic smoke swirling around.

Most fires happen in the kitchen, and the advice was never to leave a frying pan alone on the stove top.  If your pan does catch fire, turn the stove off at the wall and smother it quickly with something like a bread board, oven tray, or tea towel – a fire needs oxygen to continue burning.

Overloaded plug boards are also dangerous – it it feels warm to the touch it is overloaded!  And electric blankets are another area of concern.  They are not made to be slept on while the power is on.  How many of us have felt cold in the middle of the night and switched the blanket on?  Yes, I was only one of many who admitted to that.  Robin worked for the New Zealand Fire Service for some years in their Head Office, and related that most fire fighters would not allow their family members to have electric blankets – what does that tell you? 

It was a very interesting and informative talk.  Can I do without my electric blanket?  No, but I can make sure that I switch it off before climbing into bed.  (And don’t tell Robin – but I always rather like a man in uniform.)