All in a Days Work

It's early morning at the Bowie's house in Pongaroa, having looked in Bruce's gun cupboard someone was up early bagging some game for the evening meal.

Meanwhile the rest of us were out mustering sheep so that. they could be drenched.
Chris was in his element as the sheep were sent up the race for him to administer the treatment.

Meanwhile I was trying my best to catch 4 black face sheep in a mob of 425 and then carry them to another yard! It's not easy I ended up wrestling with one on the floor. I had him but how do you stand up without letting him go?

We finished at 4.30 and it was time for a beer and a most enjoyable one it was too. I don't know quite how much use we were but we all really enjoyed the day. Even if I did get the quad stuck in a creek and our herding skills weren't great.
Thank heavens for Stubbs, Jazz and Tangy we couldn't have done it without them.
They are dogs by the way.

What about dinner I hear you say, well we ate well that night thanks to........

We all ate well and the beers flowed.

I woke up here!

After a drive from Napier we ended up in Pongaroa via the metropolis that is Dannevirk. We had just enough time to drop our bags off and accompany our genial host to the Pongaroa Hotel, formally the Pongaroa Tavern.

We conveniently got there just in time to watch the Super 14 rugby, Blues v Crusaders. After several pitchers of DB Gold and a delicious steak meal we rturned in the dark to the Bowies residence for more beer and rugby.

After a good nights sleep we awoke to the spectacular views from the house on the hill.

A lazy day planned, a walk up the hill, a ride on the quad and lunch on the deck.
I can think of worst ways to spend a Saturday morning!
Afternoon and we are off to Wahi Falls and then on to Akitio to have a look at the Bowies beach house and a stroll on the sand.

Wahi Falls above, Chris decided to try to walk along the top!

Akitio Beach above site of the Bowie's beach house.

Quite a full on Sunday now for a more laid back Monday, mustering and drenching sheep. Chris was in his element. It was a bit of fun but really quite hard work.

Time goes too quickly tomorrow it's off to Wellington and our flight to Queenstown and all that that brings!

Rotorua and the rain!

After some glorious days up in the Bay of Islands where the sun shone and we all managed to get sunburn whilst on the water watching dolphins. We find ourselves in Rotorua in the rain! The long drive from Russell via the Coromondel peninsular with an overnight stop in Thames was hard going but we eventually made it.

The Sunkist in Thames, above, was our first taste of backpacker accomodation and it was a great place to stay and a bit of fun.
Anyway back to Rotorua and the rain, we booked a trip on the Duck, a world war 2 apmphibious transport that took us around the town and onto two of the lakes.......it poured down most of the way.

Then it was rafting and the rain didn't matter at all! We got soaked! But what fun we had, it was a great day out in the rain.
Oh and did I mention that we caught up with the All Blacks Rugby Roadshow and the Web Ellis Trophy.
Rain or no rain we had fun in Rotorua!

Hurray! The Flight Socks Work!

Someone wiser than me once told me that at my age I should wear flight socks if I wanted to fly long haul, Me wearing stockings I thought. Well I suppose if it mean't that I could get to the land of the Long White Cloud then it was worth the embarassment, afterall who would know that I was even wearing them.

So the journey began, socks and all we left Heathrow on the 5990 mile, eleven and a half hour flight to Hong Kong our halfway point and on arrival we celebrated with a well deserved if a little expensive round of G&T's.
A 3 hour transit time turned into 4 hours due to a delay to the Auckland flight but we were soon on our way, ahead of us another 10 hours and 4987 mile marathon.
The flight was made more bearable after I found the TV series ' An Idiot Abroad' and other movies.

Anyway we all arrived safe and well to start our adventure, we were whisked away from the airport by the most miserable taxi driver in the southern hemisphere. After dropping off our bags we headed into Auckland for a meal on the harbour front and a few beers, I say beers.... we ended up in a bar with it's own micro brewery.
Not knowing what to order Chris decided upon 'Old Fort' a very dark beer that tasted like a mixture of wood and metal! Our second choice was not much better 'Gold Rush', it was a bit lighter in colour and a slightly less like drinking wood shavings!

We were all falling asleep in the bar so we called our trusty taxi driver friend and made our way back to the motel ready for a good nights sleep (that didn't work, jetlag and all) and our trip north in the morning.

Oh yes back to the socks, they were much like any other socks, they were just as smelly as any socks that hadn't been changed for 2 days! although we did all arrive in New Zealand safe and well so I suppose they were a success?

Illuminate Bath

A cold Saturday night in January and strange things are happening in the centlre of Bath! There are butterflies fluttering around the windows of the tourist information centre in the Abbey Churchyard whilst there is a photoshoot going on in the upstairs room.
Meanbwhile a group of children chased coloured lights as they moved across the flagstones. A mysterious phone box had appeared outside the Pump Rooms, Mickey Mouse climbed on the walls of the Roman Baths and blue smoke was rising from beneath the pavement in Bath Street.
Were we being invaded by. aliens or was I dreaming? No it was some of the exhibits on show in the Illuminate Bath light show. A great way to spend an hour or so in the centre of Bath on a winters evening

Volendam & Marken

A visit to anywhere with Jack is always interrupted every few steps by people stopping us and taking his photo ....sometimes they even ask if it ok to do so.
Yesterday it was coach loads of Japanese tourists at Kinderdijk and it was the same today at Marken. We should put a barrel round his neck and make a collection!


As you ca see above he always draws a crowd. He doesn't seem to mind at all he just poses in the way that only he can and takes it in his stride. It's all in a days work for Jack.



The Marina at Marken above is where we caught the ferry across to Volendam, Jack of course was chauffeured around the bay in the Land Rover to meet us as we disembarked, after all he needs some privacy! He was soon surrounded by admirers who wanted to touch and photograph him but he didn't mind he just carried on being Jack.


When all of the tourists had boarded their aptly named coach and sped back to their hotels Jack was still just being Jack.



The most photographed dog in the world!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Windmills and Clogs

A visit to a clog museum? Boring you might think but think again. There were all types of inventive uses for the wooden shoe. A roller clog as in the picture, high heeled clogs, carved traditional wedding clogs. Not to mention the smugglers clogs.... The soles are carved with the heel at the front and the toe at the back so that if they did leave any footprints they would lead the revenue in the wrong direction!
Who would have thought that it would be this interesting in a wooden shoe factory!























- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Kraaierslaan,Noordwijk,The Netherlands