Visit to Marlbourough

After 4 years of paying for the storage of our household furniture in Nelson we decided that the best option is to take delivery of it and get rid of it.  If we find ourselves back in a  house it would be quite nice to have a change anyway.  So having reached this decision we phoned Dave and Bev who agreed to put us up where they are in Anakiwa and then went ahead and booked for the car on the inter-island ferry and were off the next day.

It was a very pleasant trip away  -  we should do it more often.  A long way, though.  We were on the road by 5am and arrived at Dave and Bev's after dark.

Dave and Bev live in a lovely spot right by the Anakiwa Outward Bound School. Their house is very nice and very comfortable and it was a pleasure to stay there with them.
It is a resonably long drive to go to Blenheim - very windy through the Queen Charlotte Drive and even further to go to Nelson which has its hilly windy parts as well.  But it is all very pretty and one does adapt to it fairly quickly. The days started with great walks, usually on the Queen Charlotte Track which passes little bays along  the way.
We manged to catch up with Tim and his fiancee Nicole, Kelly and baby Tyrone, and Hayley came and stayed at the house a few times while we were there.

Dave and Bev enjoying their semi-retirement. They  have become quite keen to learn to play the guitar and we were amazed at how well they can play after the short time it has been since they started.  

The top picture is of the Outward Bound School and  the lower one is of the jetty which is in front of their boathouse which I understand is about 4 years old.We discovered that we could take delivery of the furniture to an auction house in Nelson but they could not take it for a week so we simply had to wait.

It was no harship, though with  plenty to do or not to do depending on how energetic one felt.  We spent a day out fishing, calling in at this lodge for some lunch first.

We managed to get our quota this day of 3 cod each.  John managerd to get a snapper.

We went in to Blenheim to on the Tuesday (22nd Feb) where Bev went to the gym in the morning and Dave and Kelly went swimming while John and I took Tyrone for a walk in his pushchair  -  mainly around the Warehouse. After tthat we all had lunch at Subway. 

After lunch Kelly took Tyrone home and the rest of us went to the movies and saw "The King's Speech."  It was excellent but upon coming out of the theatre we heard about the earthquake disaster in Christchurch which by then had not long happened. Really shocking news. We spent a  lot of time glued to the TV news trying to keep up with it all and recognise the places we knew. It is hard to imagine that Christchurch will ever get back to being the city that we knew. 

By Monday the 28th Feb we were able to take delivery of our stored belongings and with the help of Dave and Bev managed to get it all unpacked and sorted in 2 days.  The biggest problem was the volume of the stuff we wanted to keep which would NOT fit in our Suzuki car. To cut a long story short  -  we bought a light truck literally off the side of the road at Linkwater subject to it getting a Warrant, which it did the next day.  So we were able to keep what we wanted to and transport it ourselves to Tutukaka.  We thought we should have another set of wheels anyway. It needed a cleanup  -  lots of sweeping out and disinfectant to get rid of the rural animal smell in the back.!!

Here we are on Wednesday night (30th Feb) having a roast dinner with the saved Royal Albert dinner set and silver cutlery - all shined up for the occasion.

 

  We were up really early the next day to get 5am ferry crossing  -  luckily we were able to book the truck on the same trip home that we had with the car.  The truck is not greatly comfortable so we stopped overnight at Taupo which seemed to be quite crowded as if it was the height of the tourist season.

Truck got home all right but it is not as "nippy" as the car.  Nigel has had it in his garage checking it over and it needed a new tyre and badly needed balancing and it needs a good service but apparently it will live.

  So we are back in Tutukaka facing the changes here.  While we were away the Marina Manager of about a year resigned.  At the Trust meeting just after we got back the members all declared that there was no time to train up a new manager before the marina upgrade happens so they all thought John should take on the job for a year to see it all through.   Ok, says John,  then I shall resign as Chairman but they would not have that.  So he is now the new manager answerable to himself as Chairman of the Trust. He started work this morning ( 14th March) dressed in the Marina Staff uniform.   So much for retirement.  

What a year so far

This is our first posting for the year.  In fact I see that we have not managed to make any report since the one about our Brisbane visit.
A lot has happened since then .
Our new grand-daughter Ella arrived and although we have not met yet we look forward to that time. In the meantime her Mum keeps us up to date with her  progress.

We did not go away at Christmas time but it was quite pleasant staying in the marina and we met a lot of people stopping over here for a night or two.  Our marina is a popular half way place for those on their way to the lovely Bay of Islands and Whangaroa Harbour to spend their holiday. 

It was actually quite busy over that time and we and other people living in the marina were useful for finding berths for those that arrived after the the office was closed.                                                                       



However, we have not been idle. We have been out on fishing trips mainly on Ken's boat which has the capacity to take up to 6 people away comfortably for a few days. The fishing has not been great but we always get enough and a bit to give away. Some things that come on the bait have us in despair though.

We cut this shark free  -  don't want him on board !


 

At one time the water seemed to be infested with these things  -  Moray Eels.  They twist up like this and are really hard to get off the hook  -  especially when you don't want to get near their teeth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

         Familly Tree research has been put on the backburner but I hope to get back to it soon.  I am  trying to trace what happened to the 16 children of pioneer Great-grandfather Clements and so far it has been rewarding.  I have met a number of very nice and very helpful second cousins along the way.

         John had to stand down as Chairman of the Tutukaka Marina Trust because he had completed his term but was promptly voted back in so he continues as before. The Trust has been busy arranging the upgrade for the marina.   

 

        The summer has not been entirely idyllic.  There has been problem flooding and Tutukaka was cut off at one stage because of cliff faces giving way and covering the road with soil and trees.  There was a leap tide at that time as well.  Here is a pic showing the muddy water from the wash off the land and the really high tide that made us actually have to walk downhill off the jetty to go ashore

 

        A number of funerals all seemed to happen withing a very short space of each other. A member of our pier ( E Street) died from cancer.  Another was for a local woman who drove into the creek on the way to Whangarei - a result of the flooding and dangerous road.

        We have our sail boat on the  market. We are now satisfied that the sailing box has been properly "ticked"  so when it sells we would like to buy a roomier launch with better creature comfort seeing we seem to have become permanent "live-aboards."