04 January 2014

What Happened in 2013 - Part 5

We came home from our travels to find that the house sitters had not been very energetic.  The garden was an overgrown mess.  In the house they had used many items in the pantry, which is OK, but not replaced them, which is not OK.  A nice wooden bowl had been broken and many things had been moved.  There are still a few possessions that we have not located, and one or two of theirs have appeared.  Oh well, the house had not been left empty and the chickens had been fed.  Of course we had been spoiled last year by Ted and Susan, who must be the world's most perfect house sitters.

Our bantam, Beryl, had gone broody just before we got home, so we let her sit on 10 eggs.  She hatched 4 of them and we had 3 black chicks and 1 white one.  They have all gone to Richard and Tansy in Christchurch and are growing well.

This year we planted only garlic varieties that grew well last season and the crop is shaping well.  We had plenty of rain in the Spring, when the garlic wants moisture, and plenty more rain in the summer, when we would prefer a dry spell.  Fingers crossed that we get a decent crop when they are ready to pull.

We had a visit from Viv Winterburn (nee Pezzey).  Our parents were great friends and my brother, Nigel, had managed to keep in touch.  When he knew Viv was planning a visit to NZ he sensibly directed her towards us.  We enjoyed her visit very much.  She and Eve got on particularly well.  I abandoned my work for 2 days and the three of us went over the Takaka Hill to Golden Bay to show Viv Waikoropupu Springs, the seals on Wharariki Beach, and a little bit of Farewell Spit.

We have hosted our first wwoofer (wwoof = willing workers on organic farms).  Miriam was from Stuttgart.  The host provides full board accommodation and the worker delivers 4 or 5 hours work per day.  The weather was not nice while Miriam was here, and it was Christmas holiday time, so we weren't working very hard.  Eve found some indoor tasks and Miriam has achieved the almost impossible and created order and tidiness in the cellar.  We have several enquiries from prospective wwoofers for 2014.

2013 was a year of granddaughters.  Eve has two more, Ellyssa (born 2 May) and Leila (born 27 August).  Bill is due to become a Grampa in January 2014.

Elaine, Matthew and Leila

One of them even joined us for Christmas dinner.  Matthew (Eve's son) and Elaine brought little Leila with them.  We also had Miriam, Kate from next door, Kate's mother Challis and Lee, who was living on Kate's property at the time.  So we sat down 8 to dinner plus the baby.  As always, the barbecue roasted the turkey perfectly.

The year ended on a sad note.  "Uncle Arty's", a Washbourn family holiday home burnt down on 28 December.  We aren't blood members of the family, but June Washbourn was my godmother and Liza and Jo, the next generation, are very good friends.  The first holiday Eve and I had together was at Uncle Arty's in Golden Bay, so it has a strong romantic attachment for us.  We were booked for another stay at the end of January.  Fortunately no people were hurt in the blaze, which merited the front page of the Nelson Mail and was even reported in the Christchurch Press.

03 January 2014

What Happened in 2013 - Part 4: Hawaii

We only had one night in Seattle, and the idea that we would spend the afternoon sightseeing morphed into a stroll round Chinatown, where the hostel was located.  The hostel directed us to a very good and astonishingly cheap restaurant for our evening meal and then it was early to bed because we had to catch the first train in the morning to the airport.

The hostel had advertised itself as convenient to the airport train, and it did not exaggerate.  We had to cross the road at the first corner and descend the steps to the platform.  It was an arrangement I'd not seen before; the 'station' was shared by the light rail, which we rode, and the city buses.

Our train was on time and we were delivered to the airport, which despite the unsocial earliness of the hour was already teeming.  Crowds surged around the Alaska Air automatic check-in kiosks, but we didn't have to wait long to get to one.  Then a hitch.  For a reason I cannot now remember we had to enter our address and the machine rejected our NZ postcode.  There is indeed a desk with actual humans to resolve such little difficulties, but it had a huge queue, which did not seem to be moving at all.  We had no option but to join it, with the risk approaching fast that we might miss our flight.  To our relief an Alaska Air employee came down the line to see what issues people had.  He grasped the problem at once.  The "fix" was to check in at a kiosk but not to attempt to pay the machine for our checked bags.  Instead, go to the bag drop and pay there.

So we did not miss the 'plane and we flew to Honolulu for the Golden Oldies hockey festival.

We are members of the International Harlequins team.  Bill plays and Eve supports, encourages and defends our gear.  We both socialise, which is the principal objective of the event.  The team is currently managed from Calgary, so we were listed in the programme as a Canadian team.  I have often described these festivals as "a week-long party with hockey breaks."  It started with a welcome cocktail party and finished with a formal dinner.  There were three days of games in between.  No scores are ever recorded - it's purely for the fun of it.

Not that the hockey isn't important.  We do try to play a reasonable game and to score more goals than the opposition.  Since no hockey is played in Hawaii we were warned to bring ALL our gear, as none would be available locally.  Sadly, the organisers did not understand the requirements of the game properly and the pitches were terrible.  By the second day of games they had been mown shorter and were merely 'bad'.  But give them credit for fashioning very serviceable goals from plastic pipe and whatever netting was to hand.

Our hotel was just across the road from Waikiki Beach.  We trod the sands and swam in the sea.  There was a modest swell, but not many people were trying to surf.

Sunset over Waikiki
On Monday night the sky was aflame.  The picture was from our hotel balcony.  That's Waikiki Beach just behind the palm trees.

There are no games on Tuesday and Thursday to let our not-so-youthful bodies recover.  One of these is always a 'picnic day', when all the teams are bussed to a nice place to eat, drink, socialise and drink some more.

Eve Heritage, Bill Heritage and Bella Whippy (nee Heritage)
One of our particular friends is Bella from the Fiji Invitational Veterans.  She has been attending these festivals for about as long as I have.  She was born Isobel Heritage and we have tried hard to find a link between our families.  To no avail.  But we pretend nevertheless that we are cousins.

One of the entertainments organised at this picnic was a relay race that involved removing a ribbon tied to a goat's tail and he next member of the team had to reattach it.  I imagine this can be fun if you have had enough to drink.  One contestant made it a memorable event by competing in a lime-green mankini.  I do not intend to post my photographs of this, one of which appears to depict a very unhealthy interest in the goat.

On our free day, Eve and I went on a guided tour of the island.  There are heaps of tours (tourism is BIG business in Honolulu), but very few offer anything like an introduction to the local natural history.  There was only one that suited our timing so we took it.  We gained insights into the coffee and cocoa industries, and visited the Waimea Valley Audubon Center, where the rare Hawaiian Moorhen was known to breed.  And we actually saw one.  Tick!

Shama Thrush
The reserve also contained plenty of commoner birds, like this one, which is much more colourful than the moorhen.  Our guide was pretty knowledgable about the trees, as well, in the center's delightful botanical gardens.  The reserve was on the North Shore of Oahu.

The tour included a shrimp lunch from one of several specialist cafes beside the road.  The chili shrimps were superb.  The cafes cluster by a large area where the shrimps are bred in large ponds.  In the nearest pond were several Hawaiian Stilts, even rarer birds than the moorhen.  TICK!

The same evening most of the Harlequins went on a dinner cruise.  The evening was balmy, the food was very good for a buffet, the band was fine and the dancers gave us examples of dancing styles from Hawaii and several other Pacific Island groups.  It should have been a great evening, but it was totally spoiled for me by the incessant badgering to get the audience involved.  This started on the bus from the hotel, when the courier had us rehearsing a "bus number one war cry" or some such nonsense.  Dear cruise company, I am an adult and I do not need level one lessons in how to enjoy myself.

The only organised festival activity on the Saturday is the finale dinner, so that is another day for a free choice.  Eve and I went to the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve.

Hanauma Bay
Getting there was a single bus ride from near the hotel.  Entering the nature preserve required money and the compulsory viewing of a video about safety in the water - for both bathers and the marine wildlife.  I think the dangers to swimmers were rather exaggerated.  As you can see from the picture there is plenty of sheltered water because the waves break on the reef quite well out.

A few more dollars rented snorkelling gear.  Eve is a very good swimmer but this was her first use of a mask and snorkel.  The water was so shallow it was very difficult to avoid kicking or handling the rocks.  There was not much coral, but the other life was great.  We saw many species of fish - good sized ones, too.  We also saw a turtle; the first wild one I've encountered.  And I saw my first octopus, but it withdrew into a crevice before I could show it to Eve.

Eve was hooked on this.  She immediately made it clear that she would like a snorkelling kit for Christmas, and a tropical holiday to use it in 2014.  So mask, snorkel and flippers were under the Christmas tree and very soon I'd better start researching island resorts.


What Happened in 2013 - Part 3: Vancouver Island

2013 was Eve's first visit to Canada.  I'm an old hand at Canada and had previously been to many of the places we saw on the mainland.  Somehow I had never got to Vancouver Island, despite the very positive comments so many folk had given it.

Getting there was a breeze.  You take the bus from downtown Vancouver all the way to Victoria.  The bus has to go a long way to the ferry terminal.  The driver then appeared to ignore all the traffic directions, but drove us onto the correct ferry.  No struggling with baggage on gangways.  All we had to do was find a seat with a view and, at the end of the crossing, find our way back to the bus.

The hotel we had selected in Victoria was inexpensive, but not altogether convenient.  First, it was well out of the city centre and second, it had no proper dining room.  What it did have was a bar operated by a third party.  As a bar it was pleasant enough, with good beers and patrons who welcomed us in their midst.  But the bar menu was an unimaginative selection of burgers.  It did not open at all in the morning, and the hotel could only manage a very basic 'breakfast in a bag' to take to our room.  (In fairness to the Howard Johnson Hotel, it was adequate and healthy and only $2.)

So we got to know the local buses pretty well in our searches for a good dinner.

Our itinerary allowed us 3 nights and 2 full days on the island, which is hopelessly inadequate.  We have seen only a tiny fraction of the sights.

Day One - Butchart Gardens

Every gardener should pay a visit.  The gardens were established by the wife of a local businessman and are still owned by the family.

We got there by local bus, using a very inexpensive day pass.  The driver of the first bus gave us admirably clear and accurate directions when we had to change.  The return journey was even better - we were picked up at the Gardens by an express going directly to the city centre.

The Butcharts employ 50 gardeners and the result is a floral treat of great beauty at any time of the year.

A tuberous begonia

The Sunken Garden

A small sample of the mass of dahlias on show

I've left out photographs of the several acres of ground devoted to raising seedlings, the fountain with ever-changing displays, the merry-go-round, and several thousand other gorgeous plants.  There were even water lilies in full bloom in September.

Needless to say, Eve was in her element, and full of admiration for the designers and cultivators of the gardens.  They (the gardens, not the cultivators) are not a cheap excursion, but certainly worth every cent.  Even the gift shop was memorable for its huge range of garden-related merchandise and the assistants' knowledge - even to which seeds could be legally taken into New Zealand.

All the tourist literature recommended Barb's Fish and Chips on Fisherman's Wharf.  No wonder Barb can afford all that advertising - the prices were scandalously high.  So we ate Mexican from a nearby competitor.

Day Two - Lakes

When we had arrived to pick up our Rent-a-Wreck car in the evening of day One the office was unattended.  We waited for 10 minutes and it was still unattended.  But we have a phone!  The number must have switched through to a cellphone because we made contact straight away.  The lady was embarrassingly apologetic, gave us a free insurance waiver and late return.  "Tell you what.  You keep it overnight and I'll run you down to the ferry terminal in the morning."

So we had wheels for the day.

Our first destination was Swan Lake, which was not really an appropriate name that day because we saw a lot of wildlife, but no swans.  It was a very pleasant reserve and a nice meander around the paths.  We had chosen this lake for its birding reputation.  We each carried binoculars and I had my camera attached to a monopod, purchased expressly for these situations.

Part of the lake edge
There was an otter in the distance but you cannot see it in the photograph.  There were also grebes at extreme binocular range.  I thought they were the red-necked species.

Belted Kingfisher
I was close enough for the bird to notice me, but far enough away that I had to use full zoom.  The sharpness of the image is due to the monopod reducing camera-shake.

Spotted Towhee
No, I don't know how this little bird (20% larger than a sparrow) got its surname.  Another coup for the monopod.

There were a couple of joggers circuiting the lake at a pace we could not match on bicycles, but not many other people.  Just before we completed our walk we met another birder armed with similar bird-spying equipment.  We had a most enjoyable chat with Cheryl Redhead, took each other's photos and are still in e-mail contact.  She was able to identify the distant grebes as pied-billed.  I emailed her a photo of a couple of LBJs (little brown jobs), that are only slightly less annoying to the birder than the very common birds-you-can-hear-but-not-see.  Even with a good photograph and a good field guide I couldn't identify them. They turned out to be young brown-headed cowbirds.  "Common bird, but tricky juvenile id." So I don't feel too bad about being stumped.

In the afternoon we visited Thetis Lake.  There weren't many birds here, but plenty of people swimming, walking their dogs or, like us, just walking.


We returned to Fisherman's Wharf on our last evening and studied the quaint houseboats and the tourist vessel designed to imitate a pirate ship.  We ate slightly less expensive fish and chips from one of Barb's competitors, whose scraps had attracted two seals so close you could almost touch them.

The following morning the rental car lady was as good as her word and delivered us to the ferry terminal.  The plan was that we would have lovely views of the islands on our way to Seattle, but th weather let us down.  There was thick mist, which only eased slightly during the journey.  Never mind, we met some very pleasant fellow travellers and conversation passed the time.