Thursday 19th to Friday 27th April – Ralph update, submitting Visa applications and ANZAC day

Thursday - Simon’s police certificate has finally arrived! Oh, and he’s a ‘no trace’ too, of course, so we can get his Visa application in as soon as possible now.

I took my car back to the garage as planned and a mechanic took it out for a drive to find… absolutely nothing wrong with it! Frustrating. But when the engine is warm it doesn’t have the problem. We agreed that I would use up the rest of the fuel in the tank and replace it with premium unleaded to see if the problem goes away. If not, I will have to book it in overnight with the garage so that they can try it out with a cold engine.

Having mentioned Ralph’s leg issues back in the UK I have failed to mention the fact that the vets discovered a major issue with one of his cruciate ligaments. In summary, it was completely knackered and meant he needed an operation. On Monday Ralph was admitted to hospital to be knocked out and have a metal plate inserted into his rear right leg to fix the issue. Today, he has been allowed home to rest and recuperate. Here he is, looking suitably sorry for his poor self.

I feel terrible that I can’t be there. Not only because I should be there for him, but also due to the responsibility and after-care this has enforced Simon’s parents with! We now find out that he must be totally rested for SIX weeks, during which he must not jump, run, go up and down any steps, and must be supported with a towel to be carried outside to go to the toilet.  What a trial for them all?! Oh, and then there’s the cost. In excess of £3000 and with a course of hydrotherapy to be added to that total once he has recovered from the initial op. Ralph isn’t the only one in pain after that!

Saturday – In return for our lovely dinner at the Hurrells a couple of weeks ago, we did our first NZ dinner party night at ours (left).

Not only inviting Trish and Steve, but Simon extended the offer to Geoff and Jules who we’d met when Nick was over. Well, as he increased the number of diners, it was only fair that he made the main meal, a lasagna. Trish brought lots of treats like cheese and bread for the starter and we all gorged ourselves.  We had a pleasant evening chatting, but it didn’t progress into any games or craziness. Maybe it was a little tame for our first effort.  Could do better!

Sunday – I managed to stir myself in time for body balance at the gym, after which I persuaded Simon to join me for a drive to the Hunua falls. Having concluded that I would be too far ‘off-piste’ when I am volunteering there to get to see the waterfall, it seemed like a good opportunity to see them whilst the weather allowed. The benefit for Simon being that it was a very short walk from the car park, across a bridge to get to the base of the falls:

I played around with some of my camera settings to try to get some of those photographs where the water looks like it is still flowing. How did I do?

 

A stunning kingfisher sitting on the phone lines

Most importantly for today though, was to finally submit Simon’s Visa application now we had all of the necessary paperwork. But I managed to mess up in the process. Convinced that I could add payment details but then be able to amend the application afterwards, imagine the expression on my face when Simon’s application disappeared from the screen and could not be accessed by us anymore. Off it went to NZ immigration before Simon had a chance to add his qualifications. I had to take responsibility and eat a couple of portions of humble pie. It means that Simon will have to ring immigration tomorrow to attempt to rectify the situation. Oops!

Monday – The immigration website had estimated that Visa applications are being processed in roughly twenty working days at the moment. Not too bad, we can wait a month. So, it was eye-opening when Simon rang them today to correct my error and discovered that they currently have two-month backlog!! Oh dear, this may take longer than we expected…

I finally got my golden owl on Duo Lingo

Tuesday – I’m still progressing with my Spanish lessons on Duo Lingo. A significant milestone today – I completed every different section up to level one! No, I’m not sure what the significance of that is either or, in fact, how many levels there are in total, but it’s progress nonetheless.

I went on a voyage of discovery today.  Firstly, I stopped off at Totara Park, a park near to the Botanic Gardens with panoramic views of the city:

Panoramic view from the top of the hill in Totara Park

 

Then I made my way to Massey University in Albany (left), which is north of Auckland.  The reason for this was to do a recce before attending a lecture there that I am interested in that evening.  















I had time prior to the lecture to do another important recce in finding Brown’s Bay.  As luck would have it, I managed to get a cancellation spot on that marine mammal medic training I mentioned and so I am doing my project Jonah training here on Saturday:

Above and below: views of Brown Bay

I’ve even managed to borrow a wetsuit from Steve instead of having to hire one for the practical session (right). 




This links conveniently into my lecture tonight back at Massey Uni at 7pm lecture – ‘Welfare Science at Whale Mass Strandings – responsible or irresponsible?’.  The scientist taking the lecture was Dr Karen Stockin who was originally from the UK where she studied biology at Plymouth University before specialising in marine mammals and heading to NZ ten years ago to do her PHD. It was a very interesting lecture, especially when she explained a project she is putting together soon involving satellite tracking, micro-chipping and using video cameras to start obtaining data in relation to the length and quality of marine mammals’ lives post re-flotation. Maybe this is something that I could help with?  As drinks and snacks were put on afterwards, I took the opportunity to hang around and speak to Dr Stockin, so that I could volunteer my services.  She gave me her email address so that I could get in touch afterwards, but whether I will ever hear back from her I do not know. I’m really looking forward to the training on the weekend now and had a fascinating evening.

Wednesday 25^th April – ANZAC day.

In the UK we have remembrance Sunday, here they have ANZAC Day (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) which is always a bank holiday. The custom is for everyone, young and old, to attend a dawn parade in their local town or city to pay their respects to those who have served and or given their lives in all the World’s conflicts.  I had agreed to join the Hurrell family for the event and had a terrible night’s sleep worrying about whether I would wake up in time.  This meant that I was awake by 350am, but at least I didn’t sleep through my alarm! It was completely pitch-black outside, I took the last free seat in the Hurrell’s car for a lift into town where we walked to the Town Hall.  We were clearly a little late as the ceremony had already begun and we’d missed the march to the hall. However, we were just in time to hear the last post being played and be present for the two minutes’ silence. The rain just about held off until after the bagpipes played as the procession marched off site:

We were back at the Hurrell’s house by 630am and I was quick to accept the offer of bacon and eggs for breakfast after which I stayed for a couple of cups of tea and a chin-wag. Feeling suitably dozy, I sloped back off to join Simon in the cottage for an easy morning.

But the Bank Holiday had brought us such a lovely day that I managed to persuade Simon to go out for a drive to Manakau Heads and its lighthouse (right). This is out west from us, so no driving on the motorway required, just a pleasant tour along some winding country roads.  The views of the bays and green hillsides around were stunning:

We also visited Big Bay (below) before heading back to the house.