A Weekend with the Cassidys

This weekend we had Paul and Dorothy staying with us on the last leg of their New Zealand holiday. We spent a very relaxing weekend with them before they headed home.

On the final day of their trip we headed off to the Zoo, and made the most of the wonderful weather.  There was a (relatively) new area created solely for local species, with large open aviaries, include one with several Kea.

The Garden...A Work In Progress Vol 3

We took delivery of 3 cubic metres of black mulch on Thursday afternoon. We spent Friday morning moving it around to the back of the house and spreading it around our planting.






We decided to start moving and spreading the mulch at 7am as this avoided the hottest part of the day. The results were pretty spectacular, after 3 hours of hard work.









We're now planning our next planting, as some areas look very empty. The next trip to the nursery will have to wait now until summer is over, as it's just too hot to plant at the moment.

Sunsets

 We've had some spectacular sunsets since moving into our new house and this one was one of the best yet.

Charlie was so impressed he decided that he wanted to get into the photo too...

The Garden...A Work In Progress Vol 2

Since our return from holiday we have spent 3 days visiting nurseries, spending our Christmas money from parents on two car loads of native plants, then in the garden planting and staining the deck.  This is at the bottom of the deck with native trees, shrubs and grasses.

 

The lily corner - canna lilies in the ground and a poor knights lily in the wine barrel tub.  The top half of the deck has been stained, just the base to do at some point.

Down the side of the deck we have planted nikau palms and bromeliads.

Whilst in the bottom corner we have the start of a fernery, along with cabbage trees and flaxes.  A few more spaces to fill, along with mulching the whole area and putting some stepping stones for a path way through.

Heavyweights of Rock - Matakana

This evening we headed up to the Matakana Country Park for the Heavyweights of Rock concert.  The first band on the line up was the Australian band King Canons, who were very good but the crowd was still quiet.

They soon livened up for I Am Giant, a predominantly Kiwi band though based in London.

The next act was Kiwi rapper David Dallas, not really our kind of music but he was very good and kept the crowd going.

Six60 are one of the biggest NZ bands at the moment and got a massive response from the crowd throughout their set.

The final headlining act was Shihad, probably NZ's biggest rock band for the past 10 years or so, and they rocked the tent.  This is the view from the back across the crowd.

Oputere and Peninsula Reserve

Today we had a bit of an explore around the area and headed north to the next beach, Oputere - this is pretty much the last beach on the Coromandel east coast that hasn't been developed as there is a reserve which spans the back of the beach.  The walk from the car takes you past the estuary and through forest.

The only thing nearby is a campsite which we plan to use at some point in the future as the beach was stunning.

We spent some time enjoying the New Year's sunshine and watching the surfers catching the waves.

The next stop of the day was the Peninsula Reserve, back near Onemana.  The rugged forestry road eventually ended at the lookout point down to Whangamata beach - a very popular New Year's spot.

Happy New Year from both of us.