The PlodFest

 Just a quick Blog to record the 70th birthday of Murray Kemp - aka Plod. He had - way before COVID - promised that he would get all the family together in a Bavarian Tavern (in Germany). But a few weddings and several babies had occurred in the intervening years, so he decided he would have to settle for a party in his back-yard. And just as well, as he had a major heart attack and cardiac surgery in Waikato,  a couple of months before the event. But still it was a Bavarian Tavern theme, and even an um-pah band (Gisborne City Brass). All the family was there. Such a pleasant afternoon with live music, great food and wine or beer.

The Nut Trip.

 Next morning we are off to pick up our nuts from Whynut We have just over 70kg from 212kg of Nut in shell. But our recovery rate is extremely high. We would expect about 2.8kg of rejects, but we had 0.63Kg of rejects. Sue at Whynut is extremely complimentary.

This is the total rejects that we can't use.

These have been rejected because of bits of skin remaining, but we can easily scrape this off and use these ones at home.

We head off to New Plymouth where we drop our nuts off to (a very talkative) Bill and Christine at emacadamia who process the nuts into products. They impress on us the fact that it will only be for one year - but  we are no sooner heading on our way home when we get an email saying the nuts are so  good, they would like to be  first in the queue for our nuts next year.

However we have had a long day and stay a night in Hawera, where we sample possibly the only two highlights of the town - the water tower, and a very good Indian meal.

Next day, the long trip back to Gisborne, but feeling quietly pleased with our harvest. We save 8kg for our own use.

But wait, there's more..

  The final day of the wedding festivities is a picnic at "Tickle Park". They have brioche buns which are superb with the bacon.

Claudia does gymnastics with her second cousins, once removed, Freya, Bonnie and Sunday, but there was no one of Theo's age, so he just climbed trees - along with the crows!

We finished the jigsaw back at the Haszards unit  - Claudia squidging the last few bit in. Time for a nap until it is time for dinner at the local hotel. (Unfortunately I have reached my limit, and cannot even finish a glass of Chardonnay - let alone a meal!)

At 1.05am a text floated in  saying our nuts were ready to pick up. Fortunately Duncan and I slept on until the alarm went as we had to catch out airport shuttle at 6am.

Coolum Caprice in the early morning sunlight.

Rua and Jill had to leave Coolum at 4 am. Jill said that if they were out of pastries at the lounge then their plane must have been delayed.

Jill and Rua must have made their connections.

We had put in for upgrades on the return trip, but there was only one available, and Duncan graciously let me accept it so I could catch up on a bit of sleep.