It's a Bucket List Day!

I wanted to go to Ngawi and Cape Palliser as they are on the most southern tip of the North Island. Its only about an hours drive from Martinborough. Ngawi is a small fishing village in very bleak rugged terrain. Many of the houses are in the style of the old fibro bach. It seems generations away from Wellington, just such a short distance away.. Many of the fishing boats are old, and hauled daily out of the water by even older tractors.

I made it to Ngawi.

In fact it seemed that the tractors nearest the road were non functional, but could be scavenged for parts if required.

The sea mist rolls around the bay - reminding me of the little boy and the Pirate ship in the Lotto ad which was filmed at Nagwi. Every now and then it lifts and we can see the mountains of of the South Island.

But not all of it is in aged decay, there obviously is a thriving fishing port here, and some more modern houses. We wind on to Cape Palliser and the Palliser Lighthouse. The road is a bit scary. We pass a sign warning us that "This is an active slip. Do not stop" Fascinating.

The lighthouse keepers had to scramble up a track to the lighthouse, so it is with relief that we find that now there are 252 steps up to the top (and of course 252 back down - which can be just as stressful)

We park the car in the carpark, glancing back at the rocks the waves and the seamist - very atmospheric!

Chris halfway up.

A very handsome lighthouse it is too.

We made it!!

Looking down over the road, the bay and the seamist - which seems below us now.

The rocks are jagged igneous rocks, the colour of basalt.

Looking down to the carpark.

The swell rushes in on the cape

And now we begin the walk down - the scariest bit was having to pass someone coming up, so we waited till this couple made it to the top.

Ethereal Mists roll down the hills to the bay.

Me and the Lighthouse

This series of photos was in a small blowhole area lined with bull kelp which thrashed around in the turbulent water.

There are three sunbathing seals in this photo.

Jagged rocks - not worn away by the seas and smoothed, but hard fractured rocks - thus indicating they are igneous not sedimentary.

Now heading back

The hotel at Lake Ferry is famous for its fish meals. They were very busy, but the meals were very nice (Although I had chicken!)

Lake Ferry is on a widened estuary - you can just see the gap out to the open. Robin studies the information board.

We decided to visit just one vineyard today - Brodies. The wines were OK, grounds lovely. Some folk on a biking tour arrived - note the wine barrel staves  made into a bike rack.

Our view at the camping ground - with misty rainbow.

Final meal with Robin and Chris.

W e headed off on Sunday morning while Robin and Chris headed off to Wellington. In the end we did the whole drive to Gisborne rather than stopping and setting up halfway.Great catchup - we vow to do it on a more regular basis.

Delights of Martinborough

On Tuesday 6th of Feb we headed of with the caravan in tow to Hastings. It was a quiet uneventful trip - no heavy traffic on Waitangi Day - except that 2ate7, the cafe where we  usually have a break had run out of coffee beans so Duncan had to have a tea.  We stayed the night at the Hastings Golf course which has a few caravan plugs there at a cheap price. Being a holiday they had a social competition on so we went up to the clubhouse for dinner and some very nice Trinity Hill wine.

 Next morning we headed off to Martinborough and took ages to set up - which is unusual for us. First of all we couldn't get TV reception because we were under huge trees. Then we were half set up and found the site we were on didn't have water. We can go for a couple of days on our water tanks, but as we were staying 4 days decided to move yet again.

Next morning we went and played golf - I played off the short tees, but with a rest after lunch, didn't feel too bad. Robin and Chris arrived that afternoon, none the worse for wear after their Queen Charlotte  Track. Lots of catching up to do, but we wanted to visit Johner, a favourite Pinot Noir vineyard up the road at Gladstone for a bit of a wine tasting. Then we walked into town to Pinocchio's  for dinner - the food is excellent there.

Duncan and Chris

Gwen and Robin

Robin and Chris were staying in a cabin, so we had them to breakfast next morning at the caravan and then Duncan and Robin went off to play golf and Chris and I went into town to get some antipasto type stuff for dinner. We had to wait for the breadman to arrive - fortunately the bread was worth the wait. We had a 1pm booking at Coney's Wines and had a great tasting and lunch experience there. And yes, the owner was definitely related to Jeremy Coney (cricketer)  - he was very talkative!

We continued on to Luna and Palliser. Palliser used to have the Lighthouse Gin, but it had moved to Te Kairanga. We were surprised to find it closed.

Gorgeous lights at Palliser

In the end the local brewery won out. The guys had a tasting rack. As it had been a fairly hot day I had a low alcohol beer too.

Kicking back at the end of the day.

Partying down South

 Another early friday morning dash to the airport. We meet Heather at the Wellington airport and had a good flight down to Dunedin where Jill picked us up. Gwyndyls  (Rua's mum) arrived shortly after us so we all went back to Gourley street. Our house (BnB) that we were renting 2 doors down wasn't quite ready yet so we went to the supermarket to get supplies for the house and for our contributions to the shared meals. That night we went to Haszards for a shared  mexican type meal and to sit on the new deck. It got a bit cold later so we were ready to get to bed and prepare for the next day.

We were really enchanted by 15 Gourley St - with lots of paintings by Tom and excellent furnishings and interesting objects throughout. We would thoroughly recommend it. (Booked through Holiday Houses)

We took things easy the next day but prepared for the party which started at 5pm. There was momentary chaos as the keg was not pumping!!! I suggested they suck... but fortunately Rua knew the brewery people well enough to get them to come and get it going. They stayed and had a drink too! What service!

Nic waits for the first beer

Of course the evenings are quite long here so we settled in for a drink or two.

Family grouping - Ang, Gwyndls, Duncan Heather and Rach

Rach, Ed (Rua's brother), Bethan and Ella - great family shot.

Millie and Jill talking to the LOGS (Ladies Of Gourley Street)

General shot of partygoers

Tony (Rua's Dad) front of shot.

The meal was quite early - steak, pulled pork and a variety of salads. It was YUM and went without a hitch. Later in the evening we have a sequence of Happy Birthday shots, with accompanying dance moves by Rua!.

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Ruuuua

Happy Birthday to you

Ella made and iced the cake with help from Millie

Half was banana, half was chocolate and a surround of cupcakes.

Jill had wanted a chimenea for the deck so Rua and Ed had manfully assembled this  with just hours to go before the party. Here Ang and Millie enjoy the warmth from it. Duncan had chopped the wood from the pear tree about two years prior.

About 11pm Millie and Bethan turned on the sausage sizzle. Bethan is an early to bed sort of girl so she reallydid well to sizzle with a smile this late.

One of the first people Rua met in Dunedin was Nic (SoNic Smith is his DJ name).

OK and the mother-in law had to get into the act too.  I had just gone around chatting to all the guests, announcing I'm Rua's mother-in-law who are you?? Quite a few had worked at AD Instruments but now moved on. Everyone was very fullsome in their praise of Rua, and very respectful. And this was probably the time that the keg ran out and they had to start drinking their own beer!

We left just after midnight but they partied on for another couple of hours. Millie was also sharing our digs and she came in about 1.30am.
More reading in the garden to start the day and after lunch there was an expedition to an exhibition at the Art Gallery. Heather and I watched a video about art techniques used in the 1400s. The artists were paid on an hourly rate just like tradesmen - a wage which typically included a litre of wine a day.  The work was mainly for churches, and since it was to be viewed mainly by candle-light there was a lot of gold leaf and lapis. We also saw a rather disparate group of paintings by Francis Hodgkin and the stylised black and white koru designs by Gordon Walters.

We had to decide what to do about tea so went down to St Clair to the Esplanade. It has an Italian theme and it was very pleasant.

You can see I got a good view watching those going for their evening walk

Practising those selfies!

Here are a few shots of the house we stayed in:

Lovely pressed tin ceilings

This Artwork of Tom's was a little unsettling - possibly his father

Lovely little collections  on the hutch.

Next morning it was a quick champagne and Croissant Breakfast before being whisked off to the airport for the return flight home.

Rua models a retro shirt given to him by his Mum

Whew! All this jetsetting partying is quite hard for an old person like me.