Ngaroma

Now there's a placename you will be familiar with.

If you were to google Ngaroma

you will come up with not much;

a natural cosmetic company called Naturally NgaRoma

which used to be in Ngaroma but has since moved;

some road maps;

and the annual rainfall in Ngaroma

(The link is here cause it probably is the most interesting).

Ngaroma is not anywhere I can describe

other than generally, non-specifically just a little

north of the central North Island.

They farm sheeps and beefs and deers there.

The people are straight forward, salt of the earthers and,

frankly you have to ask,

what was I doing there?

Well we have a pest eradication project in
the Rangitoto Range (above) planned for next year so

my workmate Hazelnut who is responsible for community consultation
organized a community open house in Ngaroma.

We like to see what the community has to say about our efforts

to protect agriculture in their neighbourhood

by killing as many TB toting possums as we can.

Some people think we are trying to kill anything that moves

but really the poison we use can only kill animals

of a certain size,

of possum in size in fact.

Anyway this is not what I'm posting about.

 When you travel around the back country
there are interesting and special people resident
in many of the locations you may stumble upon.
Now these people are not always that evident until you stick around for a bit
or are welcomed into the community
or are turning up to tell people something they will want to discuss.

As Hazelnut and I drove into Ngaroma
(Ngaroma doesn't actually have a grouping of buildings
so as you'd know you were in Ngaroma)

 we flew passed a swanndri coated figure waving to us
from the side of the narrow road.
She was such an apparition that
I actually checked my rear vision mirror to see if she wasn't a ghost.
She wasn't.

We carried on, arriving at the Ngaroma hall
(Very nice hall, ideally suited for weddings and lazy BBQs)
and with a view like this who can complain
(that house across the road is for sale if you are interested)

But within 30 minutes the weather kicked in
and two solid hours of rain started.
Solid rain means heavy, relentless rain
the redeeming grace was that it was pretty warm.
Except that I left my car windows open a wee bit.

Our Ngaroma ghost lady arrived just before the rain did.
She proved to be very, very interesting.

I do enjoy in a curious way talking to people
who have mental health issues
(except my uncle cause that is way too close to home).
The Ngaroma ghost lady appears to have lost the plot in 1984.
Though it is entirely possible she helped call the 1984 election
which saw Prime Minister/dictator Robert Muldoon disposed
in favour of some of my favourite politicians.
I suspect not.
The Ngaroma ghost lady had plenty of theories
about lots of key events in New Zealand history.
It turns out that one of my committee members is responsible for
the Crewe murders of 1970
Thank goodness I wasn't born then or I may have been implicated myself.
This feeling of guilt has probably contributed to his cocaine habit.

The Nagroma ghost lady spun some pretty fantabulous yarns.
Most involving police drug squads and sky hawk planes.
Much of what she had to say was based in truth and reality
but in her head had spun out to the extreme.
All the same, she was quite fun to chat to
and when I gave her a ride home
she seemed to appreciate it.

You can never tell who you will meet in small towns.
The Ngaroma ghost lady was a treat to meet unexpectedly.
Should you wander off the beat track and to Ngaroma,
I'm sure she will be there and
will fill you in on the local drug gangs and
the bad habits of the locals.

helicopters

A week or so ago

I headed out with the Vector boys

and Shell, my admin wonder,

to see a pre-feed aerial drop.

Whats a pre-feed I hear you say?

Well now that I work for TBfree New Zealand 

I'm all about eradicating bovine tuberculous in our cattle and deer,

which means I'm also all about ridding New Zealand of TB carrying possums, wild pigs, 

ferrets and the odd rat and hedgehog.

Mainly it's possums.

Those things are disease ridden nasties who go and 'kiss' cattle 

and before you know it you have cows with TB and

there is no cure.

You know what that means.

Anyway we headed out to see what the vector boys do at the crack of dawn,

except we got there at about 11am 

and bought yummy pies with us.

Cause that's how we roll.

The reason why there are aerial drops is because the country

that is being targeted for the subsequent 1080 toxin drop

is quite lumpy and inaccessible.

Basically we would prefer to put trappers in but 

they can't dangle down cliffs,

or make it through endless blackberry thorny bushes

that look like this

Ok this isn't the best representation of scrappy NZ bush

but it is what the trappers have to deal with to get traps in.

So this is why we fly helicopters over the hilly gullies.

So this Huey helicopter is about to land and pick up 

a bucket full of pre-feed.

Pre-feed is lovely yummy pellets that are dropped 

so in a fortnight when the 1080 toxin is dropped the possums,

who are silly creatures* gobble it all up.

Look Jane! The helicopter is taking off!

Look Dick!  The helicopter is coming back!

Look Jane! The helicopter is taking off!

Ok so that's pretty much what happens here.

The helicopter flies away,

flys an area on GPS grid lines,

flies back 

and then does it all over again until the area is done.

The helicopter on this day was away for about 50 minutes at a time.

This is where we were.
Except that we weren't.
The boys brought the wrong map.
Good thing they knew where to go!
We could have been stuck in the bush a million miles from anywhere.

Luckily the boys had the contractors there.
TBfree New Zealand contractors out the bulk of the pest control.
These guys are the ones who have to come up with
creative ways of making their way through the thick, dense bush to trap possums.
They get a fair few if the price is right.

* Yes I am aware that the possums we have in New Zealand originated in Australia.

Grand Final 2013 - getting there

It's Grand Final time again.

It was Grand Final time,

last week,

which seems about five minutes ago.

My fulla and I headed off on a sunny Friday morning

from Christchurch to Picton.

The weather was fine and we made good time.

We got to Blenheim (the town before the Picton harbour)

and discovered my work credit card wouldn't work.

No worries.

This was followed closely by a txt from the 

Interislander Ferry people 

letting us know that our ferry was delayed due to extreme weather.

Long story short.

Our 6:30pm sailing finally left at 10:30am the next morning.

We took a wander around Picton.

You sure can't mistake the toilets in Picton.

For some reason I posted on Facebook

that we were delayed and voila!

We got a phone call from lovely Claude to say 

come and stay with her family. 

Being polite and naive we really believed we would be sailing soon.

Gosh the ferry people said we would.

We had a 1:30am, 6:25am and finally a 10:30am sailing.

Our hosts thought we were a hoot.

They knew better.

They use the ferries all the time.

We set out early to make sure we were at the front of the car queue.

So that meant breakfast on the road.

Chicken sandwiches.

I love rotisserie chickens.

While waiting in line,

my fulla bumped into his mate from home.

They hadn't seen each other for about five years so 

a catch up was in order.

Culturally this requires sharing food.

Thank goodness for a handy dandy fruit loaf on hand.

We set out on peaceful seas.

Through the Marlborough Sounds and out into 

Cook Strait.

I now hate Cook Strait.

For goodness sake, I have traveling on these ferries

since I was a baby.

My Poppa would take me and Punky Pete across

in the highest of seas and let us run wild

while he propped up the bar and

yarned with his old railways mates.

This was the day I was introduced to sea sickness.

I puked.

I never puke.

My fulla took his sweet time to get a sick bag for me

but I held on,

then I puked and felt so much better.

we stayed with my super uncle for the night

then headed off to Auckland.

We got a flat tire on the very heavy trailer.

Thank goodness for my fulla cause

in  all seriousness I would have sat down and 

cried if I had been alone.

I couldn't even figure out how the jack worked.

And it was already dusk.

And I was super tired.

But my husband saved the day.

We hadn't even got near Auckland.

It was already a long week.

First Nat Com of the year

Yep it rolls around thrice times a year and the dates seem to get closer and closer together.

Basically we get together the seven Young Farmers Regional Chairs and 

a few of the Vice-Chairs so that they can tell us, 

the National Organisation what’s going on out there in the nether regions of Nu Zild.

Plus we help them develop their understanding of what the National organisation is up to, 

have reporting from committees and 

throw in a high profile speaker and a smidge of leadership training – 

this is mostly done by osmosis.

This Nat Coms speaker was the Honourable Nathan Guy, Minister for Primary Industries and 

the general consensus was that Nathan is pretty damn cool and, 

thank goodness there is someone nearer our age and is calm, cool and collected.  

Plus he tweets his own tweets.

This Nat Com was really positive.  

Run by our Young Farmers Board members, 

Cam Lewis took the helm to guide us through the agenda effectively and efficiently.  

We try to make the agenda manageable so a bunch of farmers can sit for two days

in an enclosed environment.  

Though we do make sure there are windows. 

This Nat Com was held at Cam’s family asparagus farm near Levin.  

The farm was a great location, Levin, however was a cautious ok.  

May have been the train tracks that were about 10 meters from our motel rooms.

At the end of the day, Nat Com is the engine of New Zealand Young Farmers.  

The discussions that start in the meeting room continue 

as the friendships continue after the Nat Com guys go back to their home Regions.  

last week

was a big one.

Four days away,

launches, seminars, meetings and too many flights

and not enough airpoints dollars.

The Southern Alps covered in winter snow

The last meeting I attended was

organised by Rural Women NZ.

Rural Women is an old school organisation that came from

the wives of Federated Farmer's members who were over

sitting around while the men did their talking about important things.

These wives cleaved off to organise themselves into a rather successful lobby group

focusing on rural issues that affect families, women and children.

Effectively the ones that Feds over look.

Rural Women have really made an impact on the

social landscape of rural communities in NZ

with a number of changes in legislation.

The meeting I invited myself to on behalf of Young Farmers

was about animal violence and domestic violence.

So with that in mind the

SPCA, Womens' Refuge, Vet Association and the Police

were also there.

The conversation was long and got side tracked

about SPCA getting a Memorandum of Understanding

with the Police that the Police should take advantage of the newish

animal abuse legislation when they can.

Of course the SPCA want to make the most of the changes

but for domestic violence it's an ideal opportunity

to get supporting evidence if not charges

to stop violence in a home.

The purpose of the meeting was for Rural Women et al

to try and figure out how to make it easier for

women* to leave violent or potentially violent

home environments.

Often the abuser use pets and stock as 'pawns' or 'hostages'

to keep women under their thumbs, afraid and stuck.

How can you leave your animals behind knowing

that they may bear the brunt of your abuser's anger.

Animals in the past have been killed in heinous ways

as a result of domestic violence escapes.

Another thing that came up was that the pattern bruising from a beating

on a corpse of a human and an animal are very similar.

Anyway it was an interesting conversation

that was very impassioned.

As per usual in discussions in the rural sector

there was little discussion about promotion and education.

I would imagine as an abused woman,

I would find it easier to talk about my dog being beaten

than me.

I not sure I would be able to admit I was being beaten.

If my neighbours understood that animal abuse and person abuse

go hand in hand,

then they can have an alarm to ask questions around

to make it easier for the abused to be helped.

After all if a person is willing to punch a cow in the shed

then they are fine with punching the cow in the kitchen.

(that little pearler didn't go over so well when I said it in the meeting).

Rural Women has started to form a plan

and will go back with a structured way of helping women.

Cause that's what they do.

And then I met Jolly Hockeysticks Jo for dinner

and flew home.

On my way home, the south Wairarapa coast

and a big scratch on the outside of the plane window *sigh*

* Obviously Rural Women focus on women but domestic violence has a million different faces and ways of expression.

on the road

again....

Well in the air cause Palmerston North is far, far away and

over the sea from Leeston.

That's the plane I took.

Not a very big plane I know,

it does the trick though.

It's really early in the morning

and I'm in a motel in Palmerston North.

I spend so much time in or around Palmerston North

I should just move here.

Except I can't because that would be insane

because I can't quite figure out why people want to live

in or around Palmerston North

other than they own farms.

I'm in or around Palmerston North

this time because last night was the

Rural Business Network meeting for the Manawatu Hub.

I'm not entirely sure what makes the RBN totally work

but there is a synergy there that is a little magic.

Getting people together,

espcially farmers and then getting them to interact,

to include others,

to connect and share experiences is never easy.

To have meetings that mean something to every one attending

is something special

and we seem to be able to do it.

Regularly.

Last night we asked Tom Phillips of

Pasture to Plate blog ,

one of not many rural New Zealand focused blogs

to explain himself.

Tom is really great.

He spent eons living overseas and has now returned to old NZed

to work for the Centre for Excellence (in Farm Management)

at Massey University.

Tom spends a fair bit of time talking up the whole social media thing,

but from a what it can do for you farmer person perspective.

We also had our own Simon Hunt of Hildale Farms

who tweets and had him explain why he does so.

Also Stacey Cottril of BLACK SHEEP DESIGN

(had to put that in caps cause I accidentally called Stacey's design company Black Dog.

Stacey mentioned that I had done this, rightly so and commented that I needed

a communications agency to help. 

And yes I do. 

But if you were in the comms business would you not jump on the opportunity

to give that a nudge with an offer of help, paid help

or a plan and proposal?

It is just me that sees an opportunity here???

This is a very long bracketted sentence.

Yet another example of my amateur commincations skills)

Stacey gave us a brush up on what different social media do.

Richard Morrison recently sert up an intranet for his farming business

so discussed the hows and whys of doing that.

A good interactive evening for all that attended.

I do have to say how much I like getting picked up

and driven places.

Totally love it when I need to go to places that are up the back of beyond

that I've never been too.

Like the very lovely Orlando Country.

Spudnik picked me up and

we headed over to Feilding to pick up Gazzarama.

Spud and Gazza are both great guys

who are very generous with their time and talents

(that's a Mormon sentence if there ever was)

and nothing is too hard or too far away for them.

I love it that there are good, keen men like them

out there in the wilds being generous, thoughtful and kind.

I'm off to the Wellington now for the PICA launch tonight.

Must remember to shave my legs.

Wellington in the sun

When the weather is good in Wellington,

it's a wonderfully, beautiful place.

And today the weather was fantastic.

I got to Wellington in time

to do a phone interview with Richard 'eye gouger' Loe

on his radio programme right before the noon news.

Ideal timing.

It was three minutes with three decent soundbites

on the Rural Business Network.

I met Jolly and had a quick lunch.

She was quick cause she was half way through her

mail round at the council when I arrived.

(the square outside the Council buildings,

Jolly and I did not have lunch here)

 

And I needed a quick lunch because

I was meeting Heather Roy at 3pm.

 

Heather is an unemployed former Member of Parliament.

She's been out of a job since Saturday

and she did retire so it's not like she lost the election.

 

It was good to catch up with Heather

as a normal person.

MPs are not normal people.

They are hyper busy, into everything,

kind of celebrities who phones go off all the time

and have randoms interrupting conversations.

 

Heather and I met at Foxglove

which was the perfect place on such a fiercely sunny day.

 

After a luxury afternoon

I jumped into the rental car

and headed to Palmerston North

to have a dinner meeting with the boys of the

Rural Business Network.

The drive took longer than I thought it would
but I made it to the Cooperage in time.
Parked brilliantly, leaving a safety margin of a metre
between me and the curb.

In the middle of the RBN strat meeting
I needed to sneak off for a Stake Public Affairs skype meeting.
Ah tu meke pretty much.

Tomorrow?
Well back to Wellington for a five hour
meeting about a NZQA review of all the ag qualifications in the market.
Hmmmmm I wanna go home!

Shattered

I am absolutely exhausted,

well clearly not absolutely

otherwise I'd be asleep and not blogging right now.

Even though I have only been back

in the South Island for

one day 

I will be leaving again at 12.35pm.

And as usual I haven't started packing.

I have ten minutes to blog

and two hours to pack and answer work emails

and solve last minute problems.

I'm off to Auckland for a work weekend

but a kind of cruisey for me work weekend.

Firstly cruisey cause Nessie will be there

and she can be the bad cop.

Secondly cause Duncy Monkey will be there

and he can be my sanity life raft.

Thirdly cause Spudnik will be there

and he and I will make sure the desired outcomes are in place.

Fourthly because I plan on coming home with a big list of to dos

and a big list of dones.

I am a tragic soul when I get excited about having a big to do list!

But it will be a list of get things sorted, finalised and put away.

Yes! It's National Committee meeting weekend.

That magical weekend that happens only twice a year

when all the good and not so good boys and girls

who make up the Young Farmers leadership

get together to plan and resolve things for the organisation.

I'm not sure they realise that they are the actual deciders

of where and how things happen in our organisation,

but they will after this weekend.

Ohh there will be some good arguments and

a few tantrums I'm sure.

This Nat Com is at the beach in sub-tropical North Auckland.

Tomorrow we are touring a steel and wire making factory,

an abattoir killing line and will end the day at Fonterra head offices.

High heels and dead animals only go together on fashion runways really

but we'll see if I can work it tomorrow.

Photos, I promise.

Rural Business Network

Oh my gosh!

Last night we held the pilot meeting for

the Rural Business Network

for the Manawatu/Rangitiki area.

Holee!

I had 29 confirmed and 60 turned up.

I only catered for 40!

But there seemed to be plenty of food

so I guess my menu choices may not have been popular.

My focus was finger food you pop in your mouth in one go.

We had Greig Shearer from C-Dax speak

and he is amazing.

Really interesting opinions on

information on farms, who should or could control that

and the impact of letting your information wander off

to be controlled by someone else

like google or a supermarket chain.

"Greig joins C-DAX with 30 years experience in the agricultural sector, primarily within the dairy industry on both sides of the Tasman, most recently leading the development and sale of Kapiti Fine Foods to Fonterra. Prior to joining Kapiti Fine Foods, Greig worked for Bonlac Foods and Bonland Dairies in Melbourne leading the international division prior to his departure"

His greatest success?

To get Kapiti cheeses on Air France.

Selling kiwi Camembert to the French,

that's what we like.

Did I tell you 60 people came last night?

I can't decided if I'm thrilled or shocked.

They were 60 really engaged, hungry people.

I think the RBN will be like the rain on parched soil,

very much needed and absorbed into the fabric of farmer's lives rather rapidly.

Thrilled cause if this is how the RBN will continue then we are on to a winner.

Shocked because the need for farmer, agri-sector network

is so needed.

I hadn't realised how much it was.

Thanks to Gazza and William for being the connectors for this event.

Next meeting 31 Jan 2012.

Next event

My life is just a conveyer belt of events,

Next one is....

today in Palmerston North

we will have holding the pilot meeting for

the Rural Business Network

for the Manwatu/Rangitiki

and other assorted regions.

My! What is the Rural Business Network?

I hear you say.

Well gosh!

It's a business network for rural people.

Y'know like farmers and stuff.

We have farmers and fencers,

bankers and bull sellers,

sales reps and people who have jobs that start with S

coming along to Wharerata

(apparently a poshish venue at Massey Uni, we will see tonight,

ooo I'm kind of excited)

and we get to nibble on yummy little nibbles

(I chose them, made sure we had beef).

Greig Shearer from C-Dax will speak.

I so hope he is good cause that's what I've been told.

And I will speak,

I sure hope I'm good, cause I'll be told if I'm not.

There's lots of help for this one.

William, Gazza, Mel - I think you've met Gaz before.

We have Elaine who I thought was called Eileen all day yesterday.

She'll take our focus group.

Hmmm focus groups....

so fun.

I'll try to remember to take photos

but it is in Palmerston North

dubbed suicide capital of New Zealand

by John Cleese.

It's not really... I think.

I'm planning on getting my nails done.

Such a treat being in a big town

with shops and stuff.

Ohakune

Is a place.

To be fair Ohakune

is a place I have spent some time

albeit when I was under 10.

My memories of Ohakune are

visiting my Pop at his house

where he lived with my Nana.

They moved there because Nana's sister

Aunty Nola lived there with her family

and they owned the service station/garage

My Pop had worked for the railways

so they had never really settled anywhere.

Ohakune was as good as anywhere.

I remember pasting PVA glue on my hands with my cousins,

waiting for it to dry and pealing it off.

We had stolen my uncle's model glue to do it.

My cousins where older and bad influences.

 I remember being dragged up the mountain to Whakapapa

when it was just a snowy field

that much older 2nd and 3rd cousins

worked at grooming the field ready for skiing.

Back then you drove as far as you could then walked.

I hated that cold, cold walk.

I spent that time imagining myself as a Russian princess

escaping across the steeps,

through blizzards and hip deep snow

and not in a Doctor Zhivago way.

There was hip deep snow but

I wasn't very tall at the time

or now.

Anyway enough about parental neglect.

On Sunday Shauny and I went to Ohakune for lunch.

I had to drag him out of the house

so he took his revenge by taking the back road home.

Funtimes in the ute with Shaun.

He did try to scare me on the gravel road

but I was talking at the time

and kept doing so

and he didn't notice that I was less than impressed.

I did wonder that if we came off the road in a grizzly crash

who would find us.

And came up with no-one.

On the way we stopped at Shaun's dad's place

in a valley where most of the family still live.

And of course I can't remember the name of.

We had a pleasant chat about neighbours, logging gang things,

broken machinery, forestry, theft, renegade sheep, theft,

probably rugby because THE RUGBY WORLD CUP final was that night.

Then we headed home,

with a stop for final game supplies.

By the time we got home,

there was enough time to cook and eat dinner

(parmesan crusted chicken breasts)

and then it was all on.

I had forgotten how tormenting final games were.

The All Blacks against France.

Scrappy, fraught game but a win none the less.

All Blacks 8-7.

Phew!

I don't think Shaun would have liked me crying on his couch had we lost.

Happiness and peace descended upon New Zealand

as the audience in Eden Park erupted into flames

with excitement.



'haps

I left Napier on a warmish Friday last week.

Heading south to Woodville

so I could visit a shop called 

Frocking ... something...

a dress shop anyway.

I heard about this Suzie Johnson and

her revamp of an entire town.

The town is Shannon so anything would have helped.

And now she is working on Woodville.

Suzie started a shop called Oosh Lala

selling clothes that suit Kiwi lasses

Big boobs, big hips, shapely lasses are we.

The Woodville shop had some nice clothes

with nice prices but by the time I had got to Woodville

a loo was more on my mind than a changing room.

Ah the powers of a women's bladder.

I held on all the way over the Saddle Road to Feilding

and threw myself on Massickses mercy before we went to lunch.

Finally after two days of cold food

I got a decent meal at Focal Point in Feilding.

A delicious beef salad,

light but filling,

tasty and wholesome.

Massicks did too.

He has a bad case of hero worship of me.

It's ok though he can usually keep a lid on it.

I must admit I did kind of choose the beef salad

because I was have a need to eat the appropriate food

when I'm with people who grow that particular thing.

Since I was lunching with a beef farmer and

a Beef+LambNZ Extension Manager

my compulsion was great.

They, however had seafood chowder.

After an hour of chatting about the Rural Business Network,

luckily this was the reason for the meeting

otherwise that would have been a very long social chat,

I jumped in the giant car

and took a new-to-me back road coming out at Vinegar Hill

and State Highway One.

Took a right and headed north to...

Taihape!

I have no problem admitting that I had to txt Shauny for directions to his house

even though he had already given them to me.

He had been having a contractor's nightmare afternoon.

Not long after lunch the newish drill started jamming while he was seeding lucerne at Ohakune.

I was just did a search for a seed drill image

but I will assume you are as unappreciative of farm machinery

as I am so I haven't embarrassed myself by adding an image here

because it will be the wrong one,

for sure.

But here is a paddock Shauny seeded previously,

not at Ohakune though.

Anyway Shauny was a little, tiny bit tense

and told me where to go..

to his house in the hills

and that he would be home at some point.

All I can say is thank goodness he had family photos up

in the lounge and Young Farmer shirts on the line,

otherwise I could have been in anyone's unlocked house.

By the time I had been to the supermarket,

chatted to Dae for 45 minutes,

driven up winding roads

it was beautifully dusky.

So I took advantage of that and snapped a photo or two

of the view from Shauny's house.

I love gum trees,

almost as much as cabbage trees.

I can't say I exactly waited for Shauny.

It was more like relaxed and watched TV.

I miss watching TV.

It's been so long since I've just blobbed out in front of the box.

I was so relaxed I couldn't be bothered cooking dinner.

It was dark by the time Shauny got home

and he had to go back to seed the paddock the next morning

and contractors are do it til its done kind of people.

Saturday morning I woke to an empty house and

the clouds rolling down the hills

So I escaped back to Taihape

happily spending three hours wandering the shops.

Ok I mean an hour in the shops and one hour each in cafes.

Highly recommend Soul Food cafe

(on the right side when you are heading south through Taihape).

Looks ordinary but I was working on the ethnic food theory

that if the locals were eating there it would be good food.

And it was.

I love corn fritters and

Soul Food cafe does gluten free ones.

Love that!

Other highlights of Saturday

were that I had the awkward situation of being in a shop

and breaking something.

While buying a silicon baking mat

I knocked over a little glass oil and vinegar bottle set.

The lovely shop lady,

who turned out to be Shauny's stepmum,

was nice enough to not make me pay for it.

Other highlight was the amazingly accurate drips from shop eaves

that dropped directly down my cleavage.

Not so highlighty.

Oh I remember the highlight,

baking and Shauny coming home for a good long chat

that had us laughing.

He is a good mate,

just to clarify.

it's not quite Taihape...yet

Sorry it's been ages since I've blogged.

Too busy.

Where to begin...

at the beginning...

Flew to Napier Wednesday last week,

thought I'd booked a little zippy car but instead

stood in the car park clicking the

key clicky thing

in the direction of the little zippy cars

but no joy.

I was with the Boss

who was rolling his eyes

because this is what I had been upgraded to.

 How was I meant to know this is an XR6?

Cars are a foreign language to me.
However the cost of petrol is a common language across the world
and $125 to fill it was a case of blue language.

The Boss and I enjoyed a really interesting conversation

with Neils from AgResearch about mental health on farms. 
Not great, I'm afraid.

Then onto Hastings A&P Showgrounds

to host the first pilot meeting for the Rural Business Network.

(don't worry there will be more about that later).

I am so challenged when it comes to parking.

I truly loathe carparks.

That was fun doing the old networking thing with the

Hawkes Bay Chamber of Commerce

and wide eyed (non) young farmers.

Excellent feedback from the farmers

even if there was an almighty thunder storm

while we were in the marquee

overlooking the equestrian arena.

During the feedback session I ran

it was cold, cold, cold.

We could see our breath hanging in the air

as we nibbled club sandwiches

and got down to business.

We saw the farmers off,

the Boss and I went dinner with some guys from Palmerston North.

We knew them, it wasn't super random,

maybe just a little bit.

We went to some restaurant in Hastings with cold mashed potatoes.

Not good.

The next day, Thursday

not that warm in Napier.

Do you see a theme?

Stormy cold in the marquee,

cold mashed potatoes,

cool weather in the not sunny Napier.

Can you?

Wasn't actually that cold,

seriously

coming from the South Island I know about cold.

Well more than they do in the Hawkes Bay,

but not as much as Nessie in Central Otago.

I was busy in Napier though.

Bought new shoes,

found the best hot chocolate I've had in an age,

had lunch with a lush

and dinner with April.

Lunch was at Shed 2 near the port of Napier.

A marginal steak sandwich was had,

the lush supplied good conversation and interesting tidbits

and brought his dogs along.

Mostly I liked the view...

Afterwards I hid in the giant car for warmth

and watched the catch be brought in.

I was most fascinated to see how the crane

maneuvered around the park cars

including mine.

My slow and gradually warmer afternoon with nothing much to do

involved a walk along the port watching boats

and you will just have to look at the photo sideways

cause there's an error with downloading photos from my camera to laptop

And would you believe I was still late to pick up April for dinner.

Ok with the photo above that's not a surprise.

I did sneak in a blissful nap,

a totally comatose nap.

April has been exiled to Hastings

from cosmopolitan, bustling Wellington

as all others who have Masters in Library Science are exiled to small, provincial towns*.

Let's just say jobs are few and far between for those in the library sector.

April was delightful and gave up a pivotal episode of Dr Who

so I was very privileged to have her company.

I only hope she has been able to catch up with that

it sounded quite exciting

even to me a non-telly watching people.

And that was my time in Napier/Hastings.

* Provincial is entirely different to rural towns such as Leeston.

Taihape

Have I posted about Taihape before?

Taihape gets a lot of hassles...

for being Taihape,

I guess.

But it is the destination for my Labour weekend.

Well via the Hawkes Bay A&P Show!

Yes I know I live in the South Island

and the Hawkes Bay and Taihape

are in the central North Island

but heck it's the

Hawkes Bay Show!

I have no idea what the weekend holds

but between the Hawkes Bay Show!

and staying with Shauny in Taihape

something will pan out.

Now if I can be bothered to pack.....

holidays

here's a question for you....

has anyone,

in all of history,

knowingly gone to Taihape for a holiday?

because that's what I'm planning for October.

Before you ask have I lost my mind,

it gets weirder.

I'm going to take a holiday in Taihape

for a week

and while I'm there I will

bake chocolate chip cookies,

go possum trapping,

learn to drive a tractor

though possibly not a brand new multi hundred thousand dollar one,

probably go to the pub and rugby club,

though I'm sure there is other nightlife to be had

they have a McDonalds after all.

And you never know we might just visit

Hunterville and Mangaweka.

Mostly the deal is

I'll go hide out from the world at Shauny's place

and he will keep the world at bay.

And he has a brand new log burner

and high speed internet.

Hmmm how to get there....

Do I get up and make pancakes now or
wait until I meet Ali von der Bar for brunch?