Blog for December 2013

Ray decided to go to Rotorua. He wanted to see – from the outside – a house for sale on the peninsula at Lake Okareka.  We had a pleasant drive over the Kaimai, or I should say Mamaku, range.  I always enjoy driving through the forest.  Going through Rotorua city was not as bad as it might have been.  Although we did not go the best way, we did not get lost!  It was good to get out of the bustle and drive up Tarawera road.  We took the first Okareka Loop road, and drove up Acacia Road to the parking place where the Okareka Walkway begins.  We intended doing the walk after looking at the house, which was on Pryce Rd, off Acacia Road.  We walked up Pryce Rd and duly looked at the house.  It was in the perfect situation to see both parts of the lake, and much else besides, being on a height of land.  It was huge.  Could have been three storeys, on different ground levels.  The thought of having to look after that was intimidating, and we had no more desire for it.

We walked along to the end of Acacia Rd, where a huge lodge is situated. An old lady was walking to her mail box, and of course Ray spoke to her.  So began one of our best adventures.  She was walking with a stick and looked fragile.  She asked us how old we thought she was.  I dared not say in her 90s, though her face was, I do believe, even more wrinkled than mine.  She had an attractive face, nevertheless, which is more than can be said of mine!  Ray had the diplomacy to say, “You are over 50!”  She told us she would be 90 this month and was going up to Auckland over Christmas to celebrate her birthday with her family. 

She asked us if we would like to see her property.  It was the one next to the Lodge, very quiet and private, the Lodge being empty most of the time.  We agreed with alacrity. We could not quite make out which part of the grounds was leased, and which her own.  The original house had been taken down after the present one was built by her and her husband in the 1980s.  The part of the acre section where the house stood was definitely free-hold. After admiring the grounds, she offered to show us the house.  We passed her late husband's workshop, which was crammed with bits and pieces like Ray's work bench.  He had been an aircraft engineer, and made things from metal and from wood as a hobby. 

We passed a loom, on which I commented.  She said she was a weaver.  When I said I also was a sometime weaver, she showed me her studio.  There were two more looms in there and all sorts of bits and pieces.  No work on the looms, so I suspect she does not weave any more.  She had a good sewing machine in there too. The studio was on the ground floor, which was even so, up a considerable slope. The living quarters were up a narrow carpeted staircase. The wall-paper in the studio and lobby was an imitation stone wall, unusual, appropriate and attractive.  Upstairs there was a marvellous view of Mt Tarawera from the dining nook in the kitchen.  The lounge and bedrooms opened on to verandas, looking northeast over the undeveloped side of the lake, to the wooded hills. I think that is Maori land though I don't know, with a few farms.  Not as glorious a view as southeast to Tarawera, but beautiful all the same.  Ray wanted to know if she would sell if he came into money.  She would not.  And Ray will not come into money!

Because we knew the Lodge was empty, we knew we could explore the grounds.  Mrs Pickernell, for thus was the lady's name, showed us newspaper clippings about the Lodge.  The overnight price for a couple was well over $7000.  Little wonder it was empty!  It only accommodated three couples at the best of times, having three complete suites as well as all the amenities including a gym.  The gates to the Lodge were of course locked, but we already knew the way around that.

                                                                                                                                                           Some years ago with Janet and Johnny we had found the public footpath to a little park adjacent to the grounds.  The path also gave access to the estate. We spent some time walking around the grounds at the base of the hill at the end of the peninsula.  Mrs Pickernell told us the hill itself was public ground and that we could climb it.  I forget whether she said there was a path to it.  If there was, we could not find it.  We tried a few little paths, but they all ended where grass clippings were dumped or something like that.  Ray did not want to climb the hill anyway, and feared we might get lost if we tried to do so without finding a track.

There were paths and lawns and rock gardens.  There was a waterfall (contrived) and a circular brick area that looked as if it should have a sundial in the centre, but it was in the shade now.  There was the jetty built by Mrs Pickernell's husband George, but extended by the Lodge owners.  The jetty divided a lovely little beach into two unequal segments, the larger belonging to the Lodge and the smaller to the Pickernell place.  A path meandered through the edge of the woods.  Whether there was a boundary of any kind was unclear.  Possibly the hill belonged to the Lodge, but it is unlikely, and the public path at the lake edge was probably mandatory.  Or that is my guess. Having looked over the grounds, we walked around the outside of the lodge itself, peering in the windows.

As we walked back we trespassed around another house for sale with land going down to the lake.  It was not as private as the Pickernell place, and had only one side with a view of the lake.  It did not appeal to me.  By the time we got back to the car, Ray was too tired to do the walkway.  We had a muesli bar each for lunch and a drink of water, and then drove back towards town. 

We stopped at the Outdoor Supplies place just before the main road.  It is a huge place, much bigger than I remembered.  There were a few racks of clothing supposedly reduced 30% - 70%.  They were still expensive, and nothing appealed to me anyway.  I walked around the huge barn looking at other things.  I saw a pure silk top in blue that I would have liked, but I was not about to pay $175 for it, especially as I have to acknowledge that I may never go on a tramping holiday again.

We bought things at the dairy, a Magnum for me and a can of Pepsi for Ray.  We drove into Long Mile Road to find a shady spot to consume them. Then, as we were virtually in the Redwoods, we decided to go for a walk, so drove into the parking area.  We parked next to a German businessman getting out of a campervan.  Ray asked him how he was getting along.  This floored the German, who was unfamiliar with Canadian accents and phraseology, as foreigners so often are when Ray begins to talk to them.  Ray signaled to me that he wanted a little interpretation.  It turned out the German actually spoke very good English.  There ensued an interesting conversation between the three of us. Usually I make myself scarce from these casual conversations that Ray enjoys so much.

We looked in the tourist centre.  That shop always smells good.  We tested some fragrances and Ray went to talk to the saleslady, who it turned out was Welsh.  I surprised her with a Welsh greeting and she responded with “good morning” in Welsh.  Neither of us was capable of carrying the conversation any further!  We walked the lovely paths through the woods, doing the Redwoods Circular Trail.  Because it was cool under the trees, and the ground underfoot was so easy to walk on, Ray was comfortable with it. I felt I could walk for the rest of the day.  At first there were a few noisy Asians being gathered up by their loud-voiced leader, but we soon walked into stillness and quietness.  One day I want to do the Whakarewarewa 8 hour track – but obviously not with Ray!

On the way home, after traversing the hills, we admired once again the broad view as we burst out of the bush, with Maungatautari the focal point. It is certainly impressive.  That view was not possible before they altered the route of the road a few years ago.

Another day, I forget where we had been, we stopped at Kihikihi dairy for a Colossal Cone.  As I stepped out of the car, the bottom corner of the door caught my leg.  Just a tap, I thought.  Not so, I had blood pouring down.  I slapped on a band-aid I had in my pocket without looking at the damage and hoped for the best. The best was not very good. I even had to wash the car carpet when I got home.  I put my socks and pants to soak.  The next morning I had bled in bed, even through to the mattress saver.  Fortunately the saver did its job and the mattress was clean.  So there was much laundering.  I dared to look at my leg and cleaned the wound with an antiseptic wipe.  A little triangle of epidermis had folded back, leaving the flesh exposed.  There did not appear to be any inflammation.  I hoped it stayed that way.  I put on another band-aid and kept my fingers crossed!

Over a week and many bandaids later, we had a walk-about of a day out.  In the car, that is.  We went first to Morrinsville to look at an open house in the Tasman Retirement Village.  Some of the houses in that village have marvellous views of Mt Te Aroha, but by no means all of them.   The open house, newly built, was one with no view at all.  The big attraction of Tasman Village for me was the LDS chapel across the street.  We found out more about the village, and the conditions of living there.  We found out what we really knew already, that it was beyond our means.  Ray was not happy either that it was almost 2 km from the CBD, library and supermarket.  No problem with a car, but we have to visualize being without one sometime in the future. 

From Morrinsville we drove to Te Aroha, with me admiring the mountain all the way as we approached.  The plan had been to walk around the Wetlands, but we had done quite a bit of walking here and there in Morrinsville, and Ray had used up his pep.  Instead we parked the car in the shade off a side street, got a couple of very good hot pies from the dairy, and sat there looking at the flanks of the mountain while we ate.  We were parked near 'The Nunnery', which turned out to be a high class bed and breakfast place.  Ray was taken with it, and would have stayed there that night.  Perhaps some day.

We could not miss out Matamata on the way home.  We had a few things we wanted to do there.  I decided on one more thing to do.  My leg during the day had become red and inflamed.  I went into a pharmacy to see if I could get one of those special dressing that one leaves on for a week and that clears up infection.  I could not get one, but the pharmacist put on a silver-impregnated dressing on and told me to go to the Medical Centre on the way home to see the Practice Nurse.  I did not because it was too late by the time we got back to Putaruru, and I did not want to anyway.  I hoped the silver dressings would do the trick.  I had to buy the whole expensive packet.

That was not the end of the day's outing.  Ray had for some time wanted to buy me some perfume.  I generally do not like perfumes.  I chose not to buy any on offer there at Matamata.  Back at Putaruru the Pharmacy was having a thing on perfumes, a whole table of new ones.  I tried some of the ones on the shelves first, then some at the display table.  By that time I had smelled so many I was confused and anyway had no more space on my sleeves to try anymore.  But at the table there were solutions to both problems!  Smell a bowl of coffee beans to refresh my nose!  And little cards on which to spray a sample of the perfumes.   I finally decided on a perfume called “Green Tea”.  Coffee beans and green tea!  So we came home.

The foregoing happened on a Friday.  On Monday I decided I had better go to the Medical Centre after all. Ended up having to see a doctor too.  She was a lovely young Canadian on working holiday with her family.  She was doing locum work while her husband and children had a holiday! 

I have decided to be more careful around the car!  A few weeks ago I shut the car door on my finger.  Who could be that stupid?  Someone who gets wet falling in a dry lake, perhaps!!! 

We had our usual quiet Christmas.  I had three goals over the three days of Christmas.  Do a jigsaw of Mt Rainier, read a long book I had just bought (second hand of course!) and eat a large chocolate bar.  All goals happily accomplished.  On  Christmas Day I unwrapped my Green Tea!  I still liked it!  All Ray got for Christmas were sachets of lemon verbena leaves, the scent of which he very much likes.  Our lemon verbena shrub died, but I saved many of the dying leaves and dried them.

After Christmas we had a little adventure in Tirau.  We were not popular!  Quite possibly we were not safe either.  We went for a walk along Prospect Ave, my favorite street.  But it is not a favourite place where it ends at the main highway.   We usually avoid that part by using a 'paper road' to the end of County Place, even though these days there are gates at both ends of the one-time lane.  We climbed the gate from Prospect Ave and saw cattle up at the top of the lane.  We did not want to disturb them, and in any case I wanted to find the other end of a little pathway through some woods, that I had previously noticed emerging on County Place.  So we walked through the tall grass, gingerly negotiated a couple of electric fences as we crossed two paddocks, and found the other end of the path through the woods.  

We emerged from the path to be accosted by a lady who had been watching us.  She told us that the cattle were young bulls, and one was particularly vicious.  In effect, we were distinctly warned off crossing that piece of land.  We were also hurried off from where we were standing near the fragile fence between us and the bulls.  The woman had sent her sister by car to check on us,  I think at the other end of the path.  Whether the cattle belonged to the woman or her family I did not make out.  So that is the end of that little walk.  Nothing to stop us walking the little woodland path, I suppose. So long as those women do not see us!    Anyway we emerged at the end of 2013 safe and well and happy.   I wish the same for all of us in 2014.    Love to all from Nan.