the Festive Season 2021 style.

 It was time to get over the fact that we couldn't go to Newcastle for Christmas, and settle for a week in Ohiwa.

Unfortunately we had been half living in the caravan while the kitchen was refurbished, so a lot of things got tossed in at the last minute - including some clothes that struggled to take into account my large seroma. It didn't take us long to set up on T12, and we really enjoyed this site, which has one side which is a bit of a slope - so no neighbours on this side.

Next day Lyn and Heather arrived, and they had a nice spacious unit V19 up the valley. Right, lets get stuck into that champagne.

Apart from Christmas Day we went for a swim each day - one day in the pool before the hoards of visitors with children arrived. The water in the ocean was very pleasantly warm, sometimes with a bit of an undertow.

Drowned rat, back from the sea.

Wednesday, Duncan and I went to do the last shop before Christmas in Opotiki, and then we returned later in the day for a very satisfactory meal at Crossroads - Heather and Duncan had a feast of the local mussels.

We were able to have another rest day on Thursday as Heather and Lyn were cooking our tea.

The afternoon nap - obligatory!

I did a bit of Christmas day cooking prep on Friday, and we had to don or wrist bands to say we were allowed in camp.

Christmas day, and its  a beautiful day!

Heather and Lyn arrive about 10, but the Haszards had their night disturbed by a fire alarm at 1.30, so it is nearly 11.30 by the time they join us. We have mainly gone for fun presents this year - possibly the most unusual being half a bottle of whisky which Heather scored for a very reasonable price after the Ministry of Education Whiskey tasting  sold off half drunk bottles.

Since the Italian Flag is red, white and green, I thought it would combine nicely with Christmas day Long Italian Lunch.

Millie wasn't sure about the rabbit tail headband I gave her.

Heather and Millie

Jill chilling

The hat brigade - Lyn and Alex

Panna Cotta and raspberries with Asti for dessert.

We began lunch with a choice of two salads and garlic bread, followed by Pasta primavera (spring vegetables) and steak perfectly cooked on the BBQ by Duncan.

The Unusual Christmas Quiz was between courses, and the Surrealist Christmas Word game had a couple of really good entries, but the Round up the Reindeer game created a bit of negativity. No one wanted to play.

Alas, the carefully garnered reindeer antlers remained unused.

The reindeer were very sad - but they put on a brave face.

So a winning team was never decided , but as a bonus, I kept all the mask clips which sit on the bridge of your nose and keep your glasses from fogging up. (3D plastic printed, I think Alex).

Next day, it was all action as we packed up and headed home from Ohiwa. 

So that's the festive season for 2021.

Certainly surreal.

 We left Heather to catch her flight at Wellington and headed to our hotel. They had no record of our booking - or payment - but we had an email saying we had done both, We got a pretty run down room, but it had a good view of the Harbour, and since it was only for a short stay we put up with it.

We had a few hours to fill in before going out for dinner, so we went to the Sketcher Shop. I had a lovely young girl serve me there. I told her that I wanted a pair of white shoes and a pair of black sandals - while I was clutching a pair of sparkly sandals. She disappeared out the back for quite a while, but soon we saw a pile of boxes on legs moving towards us. "The courier's just been - lets have a look at these!" At this point I sent Duncan out to walk the streets for a while. Yes I bought these 3!

That night we went to Pravda. Duncan had a $150 voucher from buying so much wine in lockdown so we really enjoyed our night in one of Wellington's best restaurants.

Next morning we were off to the Surrealist Exhibition. Being the first day of the school holidays there were quite a few children there. I suspect the parents/grandparents had not done their research as the little ones were to low to look at the pictures and displays, and maybe they didn't realise that the aim was to poke fun at the conservative mores of the time - and meant that many of the artwork had pornographic overtones!! Much sniggering by the pre-teens.

Just as you are coming out of the exhibition there is a large installation that you walk through which reminded me of my dreams sometimes, when I am trying to do a sum in my head

A string maze of numbers and symbols

After a short sit in the sun we met up with Gwyndyls and Tony at St Johns for lunch.

There are very few people there - except for a film crew making a beer commercial! A good lunch and a very good stream of conversation. Gwyndls works a couple of days at BoxHill which is a ladies clothing store which was on my list of places to visit - if I hadn't been clothes and shoe shopping already. Next time.

We had to be up bright and early next morning so got packed that night  - and we only needed a small bite to eat for tea after our sumptuous lunch.

Southern Excusion

 It was 30th Sep before we could make our trip down to Dunedin instead of the 3rd, to celebrate Alex turning 18. I felt quite nervous travelling after all this time, and once we arrived in Dunedin I found I had packed rather poorly - like putting in a dirty skivvy, and one pair of knickers too few. We only just connected up with Heather  before our flight from Wellington to Dunedin where Jill picked us up and delivered us to our Air BnB. The instructions on the email on how to get in lacked a vital phrase -"Go up the ramp" but we eventually made our way in.

Dinner that night was at Gourley St with a belated (second) birthday cake for Alex.

Adding to the occasion was Jordan and Millie's flatmate Emily.

Next morning we had the use of Jill's car and went into town. I bought a few things for summer, but these days we don't need to buy any thing very dressy. We met Jill at Joe's Garage for morning tea/early lunch.

Then we went to the medical school where Jill has one of her offices. The other one is more on the main campus. I think she is waiting to see how the university gets on with student numbers after COVID.

That night we were off to the Press Club for a posh meal - and to help the hospitality industry - there weren't many people out and about, so we spent up large courtesy of the funding of the occasion by Heather. Millie and Jill sampled a few cocktails.

We think that Jill got the pick of the desserts!

Our waiter was an Italian called Bruno. Waiters in Italy think of it as a vocation, and he was certainly excellent at his job, as well as being very entertaining.

Because no-one down there is a non drinker now we got the bus home - fortunately the bus stop was right outside the restaurant, and the stop right at the end of Gourley street one way and the St where our air BNB was.

Next day we headed off to Kaka Point.

Sadly at that stage not a lot more had been done, but a tank was in, and a daffodil was flourishing! So we signed in with the QR code

We went for a walk along the beach, around the back of the pub and then went to NEUX, the cafe there for lunch.

The cafe is built in the old school there which we were able to wander through - lots of memories and fortunately adult height toilets in the Girls and Boys.

The French Toast was exceptional as it was made with brioche, not bread; and Duncan enjoyed his poke bowl. Heather had the seafood chowder - but it did not rate as highly as our dishes.

Time for a nap before dinner at the air BNB which had some curios features which included this large painting, and the elephant in the loo. I did a tapas theme  for dinner. 

Sunday was our last day there and we went to Starfish for lunch. We've all been there many times before. By now you can imagine we are absolutely stuffed with food, and ready for a light tea as we packed up ready for our early start in the morning.

A great winter getaway.

Use your loaf

 One of the best ways to keep macadamias from going rancid is to put them in a vacuum packed bag and then into a chiller. To this end I bought a small machine in one of Briscoe's many sales that would do this job. I decided I would like to vacuum pack some bread to put in the freezer. There are two buttons - one for vacuum and one for seal. I was a bit panicked when I did the first load, and it will be very interesting to see if the slices will resurrect when I open them. I did get progressively better.

 Then I did some of Duncan's meat balls

Loads of fun, and things to try. And yes I did continue with the diving this week too!

Down on the Farm at Harvest

 Its all go here as we are in harvest season, and we have purchased a few things to make the job a bit easier. The first thing was a nut harvester, which I call the Rolly Rake. We did the first harvest by picking up - (luckily) I had just had surgery and could not help at all, but Duncan's back is pretty well right now.

It doesn't require much pressure at all and the nuts pop in quite easily.  To empty it there is a handy little thing in the side of the bucket.

Sometimes there might be a pesky one with a stalk still on it, but it is a relatively  easy procedure. Next of course was carrying the bucket, which got very heavy once over half full. After some investigation we bought a unit which fits on the back of the mower.

Its turned out to be useful for all sorts of things in the garden. You can take it off the mower and put on a handle and use it as a wheelbarrow. I usually drive it up and down the rows, Dave Mettrick shakes the trees, Sandie is on the Rolly Rake, and Duncan ranges through the A203's which have just about finished, so there is only a few nuts to pick up by hand.

Back to the shed for the dehusking

There is a little bit of sorting to do.

Then we put them into small bags and dry them on a heated clothes rack for a couple of days as the dehusking leaves them quite sticky. But it is important not to heat them up too much or they will go rancid. When we have enough we put them in big bags and store them on a crate in the big shed, where the temperature is very low, but where they can dry out to remove water and make them really rich and tasty.

 This is about 25kg of nuts - from which we would hope to get 12kg of kernel.

I have been making a few  goodies from the A203's we harvested earlier. Dukkah. Chocolate macadamias, and candied macadamias (which also have a bit of cinnamon in them)

Now we are hoping to apply for Organic status with Organic Farms. There is no-one in a pod in Gisborne - they are registering as individuals, which is more expensive and not so easy, so I have offered to convene a pod if necessary. It looks like quite a bit of work! However it will be another year before we sell our crop so we will just take it gradually.

Please remember that Macadamias are best stored in the fridge.