Rosemary’s Ramblings

February, which sneaked by all too quickly, was a quiet month even for our quiet life-style. I seemed to spend all my time in the garden. This I enjoyed, but it was time-consuming. I had forgotten how full-time it could be in the summer. A newly-made garden in a section that had been left to the weeds was probably harder to keep weed-free than an established, disciplined garden. Things have slowed down out there now. The potatoes have been harvested and stored, the pears have been picked and bottled. Cauliflower and broccoli plants have done their dash and been pulled out. Pea haulms have been pulled out. Zucchini muffins have filled in any gaps in the freezer. We have enjoyed corn on the cob. I have a full freezer with enough vegetables to last until next summer. Tomatoes and capsicum are now doing their thing. I have sown a few vegetables for a winter garden. The new flower beds are chock full of flowers at last. It took them a while to get going, but they finally got the hang of it!

We had one of our little ‘adventures’ on February 26th. Ray wanted to go somewhere but did not know where. I suggested we drive over the dam at Arapuni and go down Oreipunga Road. We were moseying down the road and decided to turn off up a little no-exit road called Makgill Rd. We drove to the top of the road and parked the car. We thought what a marvelous location the farmhouse up there had. Then we started walking back down the road for a bit of exercise, admiring the great view spread out before us. We had just turned around and started back to our car, when up the road came a vehicle. The driver stopped and said, “How’s it going?” or something like that. Caught out trespassing again! I said, “Is this your road?” It was. I told him what we were doing. He did not mind at all and killed his engine and started talking. He could talk. Ray complained he could not get a word in. We had admired a deep wooded gully near the road. He said we were welcome to go down there and walk up the gully. He told us where to leave the road to get to it. I needed no second invitation.

As I went slithering down the steep bank, hanging on to a fence, I inadvertently squashed some young ferns. The scent of crushed young green ferns was so nostalgic. I was carried right back to my childhood when I often crashed through ferns in the course of my ramblings. It made my day. There was a little stream through the gully. The ground around was boggy. The fallen trees and branches were soft and rotten, making it difficult to move dry-shod. I loved it all the same. Ray accidentally stepped in the mud and had a hard time pulling out his foot. To emerge we had to go through some brambles. I got a bit scratched. Climbing up the steep bank back to the road in the sun after the shady gully, Ray did not feel so good. He soon recovered. At the side of the private road to the farm house were old geranium bushes. I broke off a few cuttings, so we may have flowers to remind us of Makgill Road. It bugs me that geraniums can grow and survive the winter neglected in places like that, while in our section, they always freeze and die. I have to take cuttings each autumn to have plants the next summer. We should get a green-house?

February 27th Janet and Johnny came to visit us. We left them to their own devices for half of Sunday while we were in Tokoroa. They did a lot of sleeping, and some running. Johnny is training for his next marathon, and Janet is trying to beat off the onset of osteoporosis. In the afternoon we watched Jonathan’s Big Adventure. The next day, Monday, we drove to Te Aroha and stayed there a couple of nights in our favorite motel. We had adjacent units, and visited a lot between the two.

Although it was late in the day we set out to climb Mt Te Aroha, just about all 950 metres of it, as we were almost at sea level when we started. I love that track up through the bush, but I am sure it was longer and steeper than it used to be! Ray decided discretion was the better part of valour, and turned back after an hour, by which time we had reached the look-out at 350 metres. There are many flights of steps now, made of logs, instead of the old ‘hands and feet’ sections. Janet and I got tired and thought we should be near the top. We could not believe it as another flight of steps came into view, then another and another….and another. In the end we stopped for a muesli bar to renew our energy. I was being stubborn and wanted to reach the top first. I gave up just too soon – unless it was that our new-found energy shortened the way. The top was just ahead. Janet could have gone ahead much faster than I, but stayed back with me. She insisted on being behind, so she could catch me, or at least break my backward descent if I fell. Johnny, who could have galloped up and back twice, stayed with us until near the end, when he went ahead to scout out the alternate track down.

A cold wind was blowing at the top. Johnny could not find the Dog Kennel Flats Track. We did not want to waste time as the sun was heading for the horizon. We started down the service road with its slippery metal surface until we came to Tui Saddle Track. We followed that into the bush. Some of it was steep down, and hard on the legs. Back at the service road we did not take the bush track back to town, because it was too dark. 2½ km along a ‘proper’ road brought us back to town. Ray was getting anxious. I had told him that the round trip could take up to six hours, given my speed of climbing, and I hoped he had heard me. He had. But Janet had not, and said she would not have gone if she had known she was setting out on a 6-hour walk over a mountain! She is really fit, but not used to up and down hill like that.

The following day we did a gentle walk, I think 2 hours, in the bush at the head of Waiorongomai valley. We passed a lot of old mining equipment. We saw the oldest railway rails in New Zealand that are still intact. We saw an incline that seemed incredibly long and steep, up and down which the trucks were winched. It was 400 metres and 25 degrees. We came out overlooking the site of the town of Waiorongomai. It had 1000 dwellings and three hotels, and thought it was going to be the capital city of the area. There is one chimney left. Janet, Johnny and I are looking over that site in the photo in Ray’s entry. After that we drove back to town and walked around the wetlands, and that was our day. The next day we came home via Okoroire and Tirau. The day after day, all too soon, Janet and Johnny left. The Rambler