Tuesday 17th to Sunday 29th July - Cats, trees, goats and waterfalls

Tuesday 17^th July – SPCA volunteering

Interesting time at volunteering today. During the last week, for certain reasons that I can’t go into, one of the main call takers at the centre has resigned.  Along with some other predicted resignations and promotions, this will leave the call centre short-staffed. The Manager, Kevin, has approached all the volunteers, myself included, to ask about our plans and to inform us that some paid jobs will be advertised within the next week or two, consisting of casual roles, part-time or full-time positions. Hmmmm, I’d only said to Simon the other day how nice it would be if I could get some part-time work that let me carry on with my voluntary projects whilst bringing in a little money for us. I think I’ll sleep on it and keep an eye on my inbox! Interesting times…

Cat on a mat

Meanwhile, it has only taken three days for Lulu to figure out where the food is coming from and which house has the heating on… She’s made herself quite at home today. It’s nice to have a cat in the house again.

Trapped under a cat.... it's been a while

Wednesday 18^th July – Hunua volunteering

The beautiful countryside and New Zealand weather made me stop in my tracks again on my morning commute today. As I rolled over the Bombay Hills, a carpet of fog hung mysteriously in the valley below. 

I guess possums can climb trees but why make it so hard for them?!

It nearly made me late for my day’s tramping. I covered quite a distance today and saw some bait stations hung in some very bizarre places (left). 

Having collected a great deal of weight in bait, me and one other were stuck in the car park by the falls for ages waiting for our lift out. I thought I might as well get some more pictures of the stunning falls:

 

Saturday 21^st July – Kauri day at the Botanic gardens and Nathan Homestead 

There’s a very virulent pathogen attacking one of the most majestic and long-living trees in New Zealand, the Kauri. There’s a long proper Latin name for the pathogen, but in laymen’s terms it’s called Kauri dieback disease.  It enters the trees underground into their root systems so by the time a tree is showing any symptoms, a great deal of harm has already done, and the tree is effectively starved to death.  The disease is spread by long-living spores relocated in the soil. Just a pinhead of soil can contain 10,000 of these spores!  Whilst the scientists try to find a cure, Auckland council has closed the majority of tracks that go anywhere near Kauri trees to try and prevent humans being responsible for assisting the spread.

A bit of science for you.....

Today the council had organised a full day of activities to raise public awareness of the disease and the lengths they are taking to confront it. This consisted of a couple of hours in the morning at the botanic gardens which was more family-friendly, getting children to understand the importance of the trees to the whole ecosystem and planting some seedlings.

This cat will curl up anywhere!

Instead of attending this part of the day, I had arranged to meet a fellow Wednesday tramper, Robin, and her daughter Jessica for lunch in the cafe at the gardens.  After a tasty bite to eat we made our way over to Nathan Homestead where there was a joint presentation from five scientists.  They were able to explain more about the disease before each describing their specific research roles and the potential for prevention and treatment. It was fascinating. I got right into it, taking detailed notes, my mind buzzing with unanswered questions about the research. I can fully understand the importance of people like me cleaning our walking boots and equipment fully each time we go tramping, but that seems to be just one part of the issue.  Our beloved Hunua Ranges are still free of this disease and long may that situation remain. Further drastic action may be required in the not too distant future to prevent it spreading further.

 

Sunday 22^nd July – CRC Speedshow at the ASB showgrounds, Auckland

The weather was looking questionable, but not to be deterred we drove up to the City in the afternoon to attend this car show. We weren’t sure what to expect but there was a good mix of exhibits inside and live action out in the arena. We got to inspect some famous vehicles from TV and the big screen – like Bond cars (below) and the DeLorean from Back to the Future. 

The Lotus Espirit from 'The Spy Who Loved Me'

The DeLorean with a Jurassic Park car and Herbie in the background and, below, the controls inside

 

Then there were some super cars (Porsche 911, right) before we moved through to some custom-built trucks and muscle cars that had to be seen to be believed.

 

A gold car and, below, the crushed velvet gold interior!

 

There was also a chance to start dreaming about the potential to return to our on-the-road lifestyle by checking out some beautiful cars and caravan combinations.

Look at this beautiful matching combination

 

Time for a coffee and a sit down to watch some professional drivers and races in the live action arena. These guys showed us some extreme close-quarters driving and somehow managed to never touch. 

The original Stig (right) being interviewed

There was also an interview with the original Stig, Perry McCarthy, who was giving some competition winners a driving lesson. At the end of the session they introduced a jet car, warning that it would be loud. Despite the warning, the volume as a jet of flame burst out of the rear of the car still made me jump out of my skin! 

Jet car - can't be that loud, right?

 

The jets afterburner fired repeatedly, forcing the car to crawl slowly about 100m across the tarmac. No, I’m not sure what all that noise and bother was about either!

200 Crown Points and level 2 achieved... whatever that means?!

Thursday 26^th July – time to celebrate some personal achievements!

Despite wondering if it will ever come in useful in my life, I am still persevering with my daily Spanish commitment on Duo Lingo. It won’t mean much to you, but I have reached the milestone of achieving 200 crown points which basically means that I have completed 200 different categories and levels. I’ll have to find someone to talk Spanish with before it all falls out of my head.

It was time for my next weigh-in at the gym, where I got shock news again! However, this time in a good way – according to the evil scales I have lost 2.5 kg of fat!! I may have been working hard and trying to eat a little more healthily, but I was still very pleasantly surprised by that.  I was given a new program to keep me motivated. 

I put in my application to volunteer for a week on Tiritiri Matangi Island, an NZ bird super-haven, and even opened us a savings account, so a very productive day all round!

  

Saturday 28^th July – meeting Simpson Junior

There is a long-standing annual tradition for rural families and schools in New Zealand called ‘Calf Club’.  The idea behind it is to teach children the responsibility of caring for a young farm animal which culminates in a series of events in September or October, when the kids bring their lamb, calf kid or chick along for judging in competitions. Today, I popped over to Angie’s to meet their new addition for this year. Angie and her son Callum have cared for a chicken and a calf before, but this year it is their first time to house a goat. Meet five-day-old Simpson Junior. 

They have built him a lovely pen in the garden with a cosy shelter full of hay but as it was a little nippy outside they let him inside the house while we had a cup of tea. It looks like they will have to keep an eye on him in case his taste in furniture gets worse:

 

But he also gets tired very quickly and enjoyed having a doze on my foot. Extremely cute.

Sunday 29^th July – Waitawa Regional Park

This weekend’s ‘getting Simon out of the house’’ activity took us to Waitawa Regional Park.  

I had missed exploring the reserve during tree planting sessions, but we timed it just right today to enjoy some sunny views and walk along the wharf where there were plenty of people fishing. Just in time before the dark clouds gathered and doused us with rain.

 

I was sent these pics of Studsy and Ralph who have both successfully made it into the ‘Retired Police Dogs Calendar’ for 2019/2020. Glad they’re both still doing so well.

Tuesday 10th to Monday 16th July – the end of the World Cup dream and a spot of paintballing

Tuesday 10^th July – SPCA. 

We’ve come to an agreement that I will get into the call centre earlier so that I can leave early to beat the worst of the traffic home.  Clearly, I don’t know how long the traffic jams have been as bad as this, but it seems to be a major issue for all Aucklanders. People are considering leaving jobs and employers are having to let people work from home wherever possible. The infrastructure to support this many people just isn't in place.

Wednesday 11^th July – Hunua. 

For the first time since joining the group, I was responsible for another human on a tramp today. I was paired up with a friend of one of Willow’s daughters who has been travelling for the last six months or so. This gave us plenty to talk about, though she gets credit for roughing it much more than us – she hitch-hiked from Perth to Brisbane in six days and stayed in Byron for a month, sleeping out in a tent!  We had lots of extra volunteers today, so we achieved a lot.  We were both carrying a lot of weight in bait by the time we returned to the hut.

The Edwards had returned from an epic trip back to the UK. Their first since they moved to NZ three years ago.  Nick was staying over at ours for a meeting at Continuous early next morning and this gave us the opportunity to have a night out and try the quiz at The Blacksmith in Takanini. I caught up with Simon and his colleagues who’d started straight from the office. A table was booked for the group for 6pm and despite getting our food orders in before 630pm we were still waiting for our food when the quiz started at 730pm!!  The service was terrible.  Apparently, there were too many of us, making it difficult and meaning that smaller groups who had arrived after us were getting their meals before us. The quiz however, was well organised but went on a little late for the workers. We were leaving as the scores were being read out. It was enough for us just to know that we hadn’t come last, or first, or in fact right in the middle – which was a shame, because all of those teams won a prize of some description. Not sure that we’ll be returning to the Blacksmith for a while, well maybe just for liquid refreshment, rather than food!

               

Thursday 12^th July – England’s first Semi-Final in 28 years!

Watching Gareth singing his heart out for the National Anthem in his waistcoat.... whilst alone and sitting in the dark!

Now that was a good goal.... shame we stopped playing afterwards...

England vs Croatia. I was on my own sitting in the dark for this one. Simon and Nick had to be at the office for 6am for their meeting, so I’m not sure how much they got to watch. England played well during the first half but came back onto the field a completely different and sub-standard squad for the second half. Having been in the lead for the entire first half, they let Croatia equalise to take it to extra time before the Croats slotted home a second great goal to reach their first World Cup final EVER!

I remember how painful it was to be knocked out on penalties at Italia 1990.  Back then, Croatia in its current form didn’t even exist.  I didn’t feel too sad about it this time. If we’d played well and been knocked out through bad luck I would have been upset, but to be honest, the better team won. We’ll be cheering on Croatia against France in the final. Be better to have been knocked out by the winners and France have won it relatively recently so let’s hope for some new blood!

I think I mentioned some vibration coming from Simon’s car at certain speeds ever since we bought it. Well, the situation had STILL not been resolved, so I had taken responsibility for getting it rectified.  I had (eventually) managed to book the car back in with the dealer in Penrose. On arrival there was a bit of a disagreement whether we’d failed to turn up for a previous appointment or not, but I think that’s down to mis-communication between them and Simon. I’ve been chasing them by email, so I’ve got proof of how hard I’ve had to persevere to get the car booked in again.  This was part of our deal when we bought the car back in April – the next service was included and, despite having been returned to them two or three times, they are still to resolve the wheel balance issue that gets irritating at certain speeds. I made it clear with them today- I would rather we leave the car with them, however long it takes to fix the issue, rather than having to return yet again.  Still in the hope that the car would be finished today, I walked to Penrose train station and topped up my AT-Hop card to go and explore the City for the day. I got talking to a random local after I saved his paper ticket from blowing away. These Kiwis are so friendly, I love the fact that it’s easy to get into conversation with a complete stranger. That is, until I discovered that he was on his way to a Christian conference in the City and we got into discussion about religion and life in general.  We found out that we were very different people, but he still gave me a card inviting Simon and I to attend his ‘life church’. Hmmm, he may be waiting for our attendance for some time

Reaching the City, I made the most of a beautiful day by walking the length of the harbour. 

A historical marker on Queen's Wharf commemorating the arrival of the first European settlers there in 1842

The view across Judges' Bay

I made enquiries with some ferry providers about some day trips out to the islands I would like to visit and had a general mooch about. I walked miles!  I had a tasty burrito for lunch and carried on wandering. Getting to mid-afternoon, I stopped for a coffee and received a call from the garage just before I was due to chase them up.  No, the car wouldn’t be ready today, so there was no point me stringing out my trip to Auckland any longer. I got back on the train and headed south, jumping off at Takanini where I walked to meet Simon at his office and drag him away from his desk.

Friday 13^th July – an extra shift at bird rescue.

I hadn’t offered my services at bird rescue today because Simon would need my car to get in to work. But when he came up with the plan that I should drop him at his office this morning, I thought I may as well head in seeing as I’d be halfway there and they’d sent out a heart-wrenching email, about how worried they were that no volunteers were going to turn up. I was in such good time, I stopped to enjoy the sunrise and get some images of the fog rolling into Manakau Harbour from Waikowhai Park viewpoint.

The fog rolling in along the water at Waikowhai Park Viewpoint

When I reached Bird Rescue it turned out that there were four of us, so no cause for panic after all and we were finished nice and early, even after having time to do a spring-clean. 

I headed home for lunch and then to the gym. Then I got a call from the dealer – Si’s car is STILL not ready. They really are a useless company that we won’t be buying from again. It turns out that absolutely nothing was done on the car yesterday because they were waiting for a part to be delivered. As a result, the service has been completed today which hasn’t left sufficient time for them to remove and re-fit all four tyres to sort out the wheel balance issue. I thought it best to just leave the car with them rather than collecting it and having to take it back again on Monday. Luckily I’ve got some reliable wheels for us to use and Simon managed to get a lift home with a colleague.

Saturday 14^th July – Action Day!

Today it was time for something different.  A spot of Paintball. Off we went to Asylum paintball at ‘Spookers’, which is approximately 20 minutes away and consists of lots of dilapidated outbuildings on a large amount of land which used to be a mental health hospital.  We had been invited by Steve and Shane as a result of them winning day passes for being ‘distinctly average’ during one of their possum hunts! It was very nice of them to invite us. We had ten players in total – Steve, Huihana, Shane, Daniel, Daren, Linda and her two kids, Michaela and Cameron, and Simon and I. Here we are looking super-keen and not very painty before the day began:

There were numerous arenas with different cover and game options.

Simon (above) and I (below) starting to look the part...?

In our first arena, after a couple of warm-up games, we progressed to a ‘win the flag competition’. The flag positioned in the middle had to be captured and returned to your team’s base to win the game. Our team having been beaten in the first round, were keen to equal the score. I saw Steve doing what I thought was a stealth dive to the finish line with the flag in his possession. It turned out to be more of a falling over and injuring his shoulder kind of a move, which sadly saw Steve’s day on the paintball field at an end (right).

We moved to other arenas and swapped the teams around now we had a four against five situation.  Simon having been a semi-professional player in our former life was ultra-competitive so took charge of his all-women team of me, Huihana and Linda (below) and we romped home to victory for the next few games.

Simon and his dream-team of girlies

Simon getting shot directly in the face has since become the Facebook wallpaper for Asylum Paintball!

After four hours, and several thousand paintballs purchased later, we all agreed that our bodies had taken about as much as we’d like.  I received a stinging shot to the top of my unprotected head in the last game that made my eyes water and we had all started to compare bruises that were gradually appearing. I had a couple of doozeys on my left thigh that still remain weeks later.
 

We’d all agreed that it would be nice to follow up the paintball with a relaxing hot spa at the Miranda Hot Springs, officially the largest hot water spa pool in the Southern hemisphere, as stated on this sign:  

I had been wanting to visit there since we’d arrived and it was even better to be attending with a group to not only have a swim but test the barbecue facilities as well.  We’d stopped in to a supermarket to purchase our food contribution for the evening, so by the time we arrived at Miranda with Steve and Huihana it was dusk.

The temperature of the pool is maintained at a constant warmth that means once you’ve entered the water, it is difficult to persuade yourself to leave again. We played a round of catch whilst dinner was being cooked and had another gentler bathe in the pool after some BBQ food. It was really busy that night.

Our day wasn’t done, we drove back to Huihana and Steve’s to play darts into the night. An awesome day and a privilege to spend it with such lovely new friends.

Tom curled up on the sofa

Sunday 15^th July – An mighty flood.

The Hurrells departed on holiday for Steve’s 60^th Birthday to Australia very early in the morning, leaving me in charge of their two cats, Lulu and Tom. They have 24-hour access to the large garage with a cosy sofa, water and food.  All I had to do was go and put down some meat for them twice a day and check on their welfare.  They seem to be doing alright....

They both like a fuss so I tried explaining to them that they are welcome to come and visit us up at the cottage if they were feeling neglected. I’m not sure they understood.

The driveway disappearing under the water

Thank goodness we had our active day yesterday. Today was a complete washout.  I managed to get out to the gym early and luckily we had no further plans to go anywhere as the water level on the drive continued to rise. I knew it was bad when I pointed out a duck was swimming along where the drive should be!