News From Tutukaka

I have been back from Australia for over a month now and it feels like longer than that.  It felt like summer was still here when I first got back but now that has all changed - warmer clothes are creeping in, and so are the heavier duty bed clothes.
On a more personal note,  I was still getting used to John having a job before I left but I think we have both got used to the new way of life now.

                                                 Here he is at his desk in the marina office. It is almost like a flight tower because the staff have to see what is going on all over the marina.  Through the window you can see our car park all fenced off by the company "Total Marine" who are doing the marina upgrade. We have to walk right around the perimeter to get from E pier to the office building which makes it quite a long way at present.

Outside the office building.  When we say we are "going to Tim's " for dinner it is at that pizzerea.  The laundry and 'Ladies' and 'Gents' and 'Telephone' are all off to the right under the office rooms.  

The biggest thing happening here at the moment is the marina upgrade.  All the old wooden piers are past their use and are of concern in the event of bad storms and tsunamis.  So we are getting the latest floating piers with full length fingers and longer poles that pin it all in place. There are five of them and each takes about a month to complete.

The pier we are on was the first to be done.  When I first got back from Australia it was to find our boat located somewhere else and the work under way dismantling the old "E Sreet."  The workmen chain saw it into pieces and crane it out of the water piece by piece. Everyone is impressed with their performance and they certainly seem to be a "Class Act" with both the dismantling and the assembling of the new.

The last of the old E Pier.

Up on the carpark the old bits and the new bits are stored within the fenced off enclosure.  Here the first of the new bits is being put on the crane to go into the water.

The first bits of the new E pier being pushed in to place .

All done ! We can go back now.

Owners and marina staff getting the boats off  D Pier and over to E so work can get started on D.

Me and "Irrepressible" proudly in our posh new berth.  We went in nose first this time to take advantage of the sun and better view.

John standing at the end of the deseted D Pier jsut before they started work there.

John spends a lot of time wandering around the site and was given this outfit by the workmen.  Go, JW !



Doreen's Visit to Australia

I had an unexpected trip over to Australia during April.  John and Leigh are reasonably new in their jobs and  they were having difficulty arranging for someone to be home for Chloe and Katie during the New South Wales school holidays so they asked if we could help out.  Unfortunately, John could not get away because he is also reasonably new in his situation as the marina manager  -  especially with the marina upgrade about to get started, so I went over on my own.

I began the time with a week in Brisbane so I could catch up with the Masons and the Knights and meet
Ange and Zane's little Ella, our newest grandchild, at  last.  She is every bit as adorable as what they all said she is.  Here we are getting aquainted.

 

After Rick, Kerrie, Sophie and Toby picked me up from the airport we joined Ange, Zane, Liam, James and Ella for lunch. I was treated by being driven in the Mason's newest family addition  -  the new car.  Lovely. 

Rick and James showing us the back

....and Kerrie showing the front.

The Brisbane grandchildren all together posing for me outside the restaurant.

I had a great time staying with the Knights during the working week and it felt like old times doing the day-care and kindy runs, not to mention the Chermside runs. 

James holding Court at the day-care centre. (It wasn't officially his day there that day which is why he is set apart.)

Liam organised a puppet show for us all one evening after he and James had spent the day making the puppets.  The teddies were a captive audience. 

I spent the last couple of nights in Brisbane at the Mason's house and it was nice to be able to be part of their

lives for a little while, too. 

I heard Sophie playing her cello. She is doing so well  -  greatly improved since we were in Brisbane around Oct. last year. It is encouraging me to try harder with my violin.

Then on the Saturday we spent the morning watching Toby's soccer team win their first match of the season.  Toby scored one of his team's three goals.  Great stuff, Tobes. 

Saturday afternoon found Kerrie, Sophie and I at Chermside - wish they had something like that in Whangarei. We all found things to buy! Sunday dawned -  my last day and also Toby's birthday. The Knights came over and we all enjoyed a barbecue lunch. There is a pic of Toby below holding his gift from Grandma Linda.

There was time in the afternoon for us to take a drive around the Brighton, Sangate Shorncliffe area - there are changes but it is not greatly different to how it was when we lived there.

Then it was time to drop me off at the airport for my flight to Sydney.

It was getting late by the time I arrived in Sydey and in no time I was at French's Forest and settling in to become part of the O'Dowd household  for the next three weeks. Chloe very kindly let me have the use of her room - thank you Chloe.  It has a lovely comfortable bed. 

It did not take long to establish a sort of routine while there was just myself and the girls. We got out for a walk on most days and we discovered the usefulness of the  local buses which got us back and forwards to the Waringal Mall on more than one occasion. There were neighborhood children to play with although at one stage most of them seemed to be away somewhere.  Chloe went away with a friend and her family to a holiday bach somewhere north of Newcastle so there was just Katie and me for a little bit.

On the first weekend the adults were able to catch up better.  John and Leigh took me out and about showing me around the lovely part of Sydney that they live in.  They are handy to the coast and the great beaches.  Manley is vibrant with people having a good time.  Lots of great places to have lunch.  Here we are at one of them.

It was a lovely day that day and people were surfing and swimming as if it was still the height of the summer.

Here I am with the girls

There was a lovely 5 day break over Easter which encompassed Anzac Day and Labour Day. John took the girls to the Easter Show and they came back loaded down with Show Bags with all sorts in them.  Rather a lot of lollies but they came in useful when Chloe was looking for something to treat her classmates with when her birthday arrived.

I gor rather used to being in a large house during my stay in Sydney - it doesn't take  long.  One thing I do miss with being on a boat is a nice dining room so it was good to have a family meal in style in John and Leigh's one.

Chloe's birthday was the same day that Prince WIlliam and Kate Middleton got married.  Because of the school holidays it was hard to arrange a party for Chloe so we had a family birthday with cup-cake birthday cake and settled down to watching the wedding. Chloe managed to have her party a week later - I had gone home by then but they tell me it was a great success.

I had to be at the airport by 4.30 early Saturday morning.  John kindly took me in  -  we had to set out alarms for 3.30am.

I had a good flight home and having been away for 4 weeks altogether there was a lot to catch up on.

This posting is getting very large so I shall tell you all about being back in Tutukaka next time.

Thank you everyone for making my stay in Australia a great time to remember.

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."    

Visit to Brisbane

As usual it's been a long time between blogs and although the last one was titled "mid winter blues" it's now the middle of October and still feels like mid winter and in fact, the last ten days have probably been worse than anything we had in the middle of winter with gales, heavy rain and even hail.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  The big event of the last few months was our visit to Brisbane.

We left Tutukaka on 8 September for a long overdue visit to see the rest of the family.  Our flight left at around 6.30am so we left here at 1.00am and drove to Auckland for the early start. The flight was uneventful  with the airline service down at it's usual level of mediocrity although Brisbane airport seemed much friendlier than I remember on previous visits.  We were met at the airport by Rick looking a mere shadow of his former self having lost what looked to be quite a lot of weight. When we arrived at Kerrie and Rick's place we found Kerrie looking very trim as well and as it turned out that was the inspiration I needed to do something about my figure.

Rick and Kerrie

After Tutukaka the weather was great, warm and sunny around 25C although there were a few cooler days when I put jeans and a long sleeved shirt back on but all in all it was a big step up from Northland.

It was at the Mason's that I learned their new bodies had been acquired with a combination of healthy eating and exercise (both of which had been in short supply in my life in recent times) and before I knew it I had got sucked into the regime and was starting to watch the kilos drop off.  So far I've dropped a couple of clothes sizes but still have a long way to go.  Watch this space.

After a week with Kerrie and Rick we moved over to Ange and Zane's new house for a week with them and the boys.  Liam was doing a gardening project at day care and I was employed to help him transfer his gardening skills into his own place.

The week with the Knights went all to quickly and then it was back to the Mason's to look after their house for a week while they were on holiday in Vanuatu.  And a very nice, quiet, relaxing week it was too.  The weather wasn't great with lots of rain but still quite warm.  All very nice.

 Me relaxing on the Mason's patio.

After the Mason's returned from their holiday, Leigh , John and the girls arrived from Sydney for a few days and we moved back to the Knights place for the last week of our holiday.  By now we were getting good at packing and unpacking!  It was great to have the whole family together in one place for the first time in almost three years and as might be expected there were several family BBQ's and lots of photo ops.

A rare family photo of us all.

All six grandchildren.

James had lost interest by this time!

Ange and Zane (and ???)

John & Leigh (courtesy O'Dowd blog).

Chloe, Katie and Granddad.

James (am I cute or not?).

Liam

By now the weather was really nice again and it was back into shorts and T shirts and outdoor dining.

 Lunch at Woody Point Tavern.

And a few days before the end of the holiday Ange and James took us up to Maroochydore for a visit to the Sunshine Plaze.  On the way home we stopped of at Caloundra for a paddle.

James and Granddad at Caloundra.

Caloundra Beach

And all too soon it was all over and back to Tutukaka.  Well, I came back but Doreen stayed on for another ten days to help Ange with the boys as Zane had gone to NZ for a wedding and then on to Sydney on business.

Mid Winter Blues

We're now past the shortest day and well into winter which is not my favourite time on the boat to be perfectly honest. It's not that it's cold on board, in fact most of the time Doreen says I have it too hot, it's more that I can't do the things I really enjoy like fishing as often as I would like. This year hasn't been quite as bad I guess...the weather hasn't really been too bad and I've had plenty to occupy me as Chairman of the marina management board. There are a lot of changes going on like the marina replacement and staff changes and it's involved quite a lot of time and effort (which I am enjoying).

The photo above has absolutely nothing to do with mid winter, it was taken at Doreen's 65th birthday dinner at the Pizzeria but I've only just got the photos off of Nigel's phone.

At the moment I have the boat all to myself again as Doreen is staying with Erin in Whangarei for a few days while Erin does some house / dog sitting for friends.

And next week Doreen will have the boat to herself as I'm flying down to Picton with a friend to help him bring a 60 foot launch up to Auckland for its new owner. If the weather allows I think we will do the trip without any stops which will take about four days so it's not exactly a fun cruise. I'm quite looking forward to it all the same. More birthday pics.

There isn't really much other news, I'm only posting this because I'm bored really! A few of us got together and watched the All Blacks thrash the Springboks last night...great game, bring on the Wallabies!

Till next time - JW

Visit to Sydney

Since John and Leigh returned to Australia from the UK we have been keen to catch up with them and see their new home in French's Forest, Sydney. With Leigh's 40th birthday looming up on the 13th July it seemed to be the best time to go over. John W. rang John O' to check that it would be all right - which it was (hoping that their furniture had arrived on schedule from the UK) so I booked a plane fare. John felt that he could not go at this time because the Trust was in the last stages of interviewing and selecting a new Manager who would be started in the new job almost straight away. From John O' we learnt that Kerrie and Leigh and Sophie would be coming down from Sydney to surprise Leigh as well so we contrived to keep my arrival to ourselves and hopefully surprise everyone. This we managed to do. Chloe and and Katie were speechless to see me wander over to their table with their father - they thought they were only at the airport for something to eat! Then when we arrived at the house it was Leigh's turn - oh, it is great fun making surprises!

The next day (Sat.12th) John had booked us in at the hairdressers in the morning so he could get off on his own to collect Kerrie and Angela and Sophie. When Leigh and I arrived at the hotel to meet John as arranged - there he was with Kerrie and Leigh all booking in. More stunned Leigh! We had a wonderful lunch all together at Darling Harbour then I taxied home leaving the young things to dress up and party that evening. I had a very enjoyable evening with John's sister Kerrie who was the official babysitter. Sunday (Leigh's actual birthday) arrived and when John, Leigh Kerrie and Angela arrived after checking out of the hotel we had the opening of presents time and then we all went to lunch at a favourite pub venue. John had to take Kerrie, Angela and Sophie to the airport from there. It had been wonderful being all together after so long. All the females of three generations were pressent that weekend. During the week Chloe and Katie had to go to school and Leigh and John kept me busy looking around their new patch. They are in a lovely part of Sydney, so close to nice beaches and good shopping and transport. There really is a forest in French's Forest and it looks great. I stayed for another weekend and all too soo it was Monday again and time to go home.
A big thank you to John O' for the what must have been the nerve-racking planning orchestrating all our arrivals and for your wonderful generosity.