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.

Onemana

Our next stop for the holiday was the Coromandel and the east coast township of Onemana.  Again we booked a house, this time with Alistair and Darryl coming to join us.  The view from the deck was pretty spectacular.

The beach was stunning, but the sea a bit wild at times with rips, so the life guards were there to help anyone who got into trouble.

The pohutukawa trees were also in full bloom and looked beautiful along the beach.




We had some lovely sunrises, this one I saw as Royston and Alistair were up early to go fishing.

And also some amazing moons.  A great relaxing and quite spot to see in the New Year.

Christmas Amongst the Vines

For Christmas we rented a small cottage amongst the vines about 10km outside of Napier.

The owners mainly grow Chardonnay grapes and were in the process of using sheep to leaf pluck the bottom leaves to expose the grapes to the sun.  A before photo...

And then after the sheep had done their work.

Christmas Day lunch comprised of ham, pork pie, cheeses and accompaniments, washed down by a nice bottle of Veuve.

We then watched the sun set over the vines and the windmill, which is used to move cold air and protect the vines.

Playtime...

Another day, another visit from Flynn.  Charlie showing him who's boss...

...and then pretending to be tigers in the grass.

Visiting Anna & Tim

After almost a year, we finally made it back down to visit Anna and Tim to see their latest additions to the household.  Jodie is now 18 months old and already hand on with the animals, feeding the pigs...

...and the cow.

Tim's new venture is a flat bed truck with haib crane, plus a water tank for delivering water to homes and businesses.

They have also done a lot of work on their garden since we last visited.

Royston and Tim headed off up the road to collect a totara log to take into Taupo to be carved into a totem pole.  It wasn't small...this is 7 metres and had to be chainsawed down to fit on the truck.

Tim then let Royston have a play with the haib crane, lifting an old lorry chassis onto the back of the truck.