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.

changes

So who knew being married

sucked up all your time?

Anyone?

We don't even have kids!

One husband and my life as I knew it has disappeared.

 

 

Fortuitously my fulla has headed back down South

to spend a few weeks revisiting his life as a commercial fisherman.

So now I have sometime on my hands,

in theory.

 

I'm one of those people who believe that life is one

big ball of wax.

That the lines between your real life identity and work identity

are somewhat blurred.

Well that has come to a screaming halt for me.

Now my work and my home life are almost never the twain shall meet.

 

This is causing some problems cause plenty of things

I got involved in extracurricularly

were reasonably related to my work

and still are.

 

Part of the reason is now I live in town,

technically a city but it's Hamilton

so as large as it gets it's never going to be a city.

The other part is that my husband is just so much more interesting

to me than things like my blog.

So with three weeks apart

I'm going to get back into the practice of blogging.

 

It's funny how nearly everything in our life

is so reliant on being a habit.

Good or bad,

 we have to work at making something part of our life.

 

At the moment I'm trying to remove the habit of eat processed sugar.

Yes that means chocolate,

which is not agreeing with me like it used to

so I'm trying to scrap that.

Emphasis on trying.

 

Anyway I will be making it a habit to blog

(and listening to 80s music at work,

and blogging the mystery that is my job,

and not eating process sugar,

and rural stuff)

 

 

 

P.S. Does any think it is ridiculous to add a salutation at the beginning of every single email in an ongoing exchange?  I mean when we are talking in person we don't say "hi" every time we start speaking.  Imagine that......

Hi Sara, could you pass me the salt please?

Hi Kama, sure thing.  Do you want the pepper too?

Hi Sara, yeah that would be great.  This is a really great meal.

Hi Kama, thanks babe, I tried a new recipe and this one has prunes in it.

Hi Sara, oh is that the interesting taste?!?

Hi Kama, yeah.  I thought you might need some help later on, you know with your tummy troubles.

Hi Sara, well that was thoughtful but I think prunes may be a step too far.

Hi Kama, the prunes or the loo?

Hi Sara, both.

*Please note this conversation is completely fictional and I would never sneak prunes into any one's meal unless they were under one year of age, nor would my husband and I discuss his toilet habits at the dinner table.