Museum visit

The weather over the past few weeks has been decidedly unpleasant - very wet and very windy and very constant!
Cabin fever sent us out on a 'avencha' and we wandered out with the view to visiting this museum which we have been threatening to do for ages.
The pioneers in New Zealand have, it appears, faced the same struggles which peoples all over the world have faced and have settled themselves, for the most part, as best they could and with all the knowledge which they brought with them from 'home'. The life-size models in most of the exhibits are really well done and we particularly enjoyed the humour which has been so skillfully incorporated into the museum without having any of the pioneering spirit disrespected in any way.


There are so many thoughts which come to mind when one considers why this fellow is looking so incredibly distraught and 'moedeloos' - we, of course, have our own opinions about that. After all, 'as jy rêrig so graag daardie fiets wil ry, dan moet jy maar die gevolge daarvan dra! ' and more to the point - 'as jy dom is, moet jy suffer'!









The chappie up on the wagon has the little guy's teddy bear, by the looks of things - and there is a tantrum going on which Mother is studiously ignoring while she pours herself and farmer Jack a cup of koffie kapitaal!

One of the 'founding mothers' of the Taranaki area spent her life here and although she never married, was right up there with the upliftment of genteel society as a whole and this 'outpost' specifically. As a result, on her passing, a large part of her house and it's contents have been incorporated into this part of the museum and set up (behind glass of course) pretty much exactly as they were in her home. We just so enjoyed the sense of humour which is evident in most of the exhibits - in this case, the child is ruining the train mechanism once and for all!

It was mentioned on the plaque for this exhibit that she was particularly fond of the 'parlour singing' that folks engaged in at the time and it was felt that any exhibit without these fellows would be incomplete. We have our own reasons for being amused by these gentlemen!

We wandered around the museum for a couple of hours and then took shelter in the coffee shop while the weather raged outside - rain and wind and hail!

Definitely worth the visit!

Dis al!

Parikawa Beach north of Kaikoura South Island.

This seascape was finally finished over the weekend to make place on the easel for a painting that I would like to do for the fund-raising auction to take place in October at Eagle Encounters Garden Route.


Although we haven't actually been to this particular beach, I chose this picture because it's fairly representative of west coast beaches in New Zealand - volcanic 'sand' and very green hills alongside. The snow-capped mountains behind are just an added bonus!

Dis al!

Bikes, blossoms, boerewors and braaiers

The 'old' Honda motorcycle is considered to be vintage and Jo was invited to show the bike at a vintage bike event in Palmerston North last weekend. There was an amazing assortment of bikes from all eras and all makes - particularly British and Japanese. However, some folks take these sorts of events painfully seriously, whilst others tend to park their tongues firmly in their cheeks and 'show' a bike like the one pictured here which was standing amongst some quite dramatically impressive bikes of the motorised variety! The card on the front was obviously written by the owner of the bike and reads "Blaze's bike No 500"
I did notice that some show-goers were not amused - which just made me enjoy the situation even more!
(Note that the bike beside this one is parked over a mirror - very serious competitive showing wouldn't you say? A dab or blob of oil on that mirror could put the owner in line for a serious bout of depression or a brush with OCD at the very least!)






Those of you who know me well will know that this having come up unplanned, 'unplanted' and unannounced in an 'empty' bed in the garden was a brilliant surprise and made my day!








Our plum tree has burst into amazing blossoms and I took a couple of photographs with the view to setting up a still life picture for an acrylic painting sometime in the near enough future.

There are two butcheries within striking distance of Wanganui which sell decent enough boerewors - this one is in Stratford and as you can detect by the sign out front, is owned by ex South Africans. Whenever Jo is out and about on the roads in the vicinity of this little town, he calls in for boerewors and a big bag of sliced biltong, which may or may not arrive home intact - depending on how ravenous the purchaser was at the time!

We bought a Cadac portable braaier which folds up and packs away neatly into a bag just big (or is that small) enough to fit into one of the cases on the bike. This means that we can waft off anywhere we fancy and set up the barbeque beside a road somewhere, as we did in this photograph. The blue bag pictured here as well, is a little 'chilly bin' so meat and salads stay cool and fresh. Called in at a local supermarket en-route and bought a couple of fresh, crispy breadrolls and voila - dinner done!

PS - Cadac has only very recently been introduced in Wanganui - the locals are most impressed with the product range.

Dis al!

Going, going.....

Here is the kitchen at Papaiti road where we have spent loads of good times - all the boxes packed up and ready for the long journey back to South Africa.

Interesting that the Hookers removal van which is there to load up all the Thirtle's belongings en-route to a container ship bound for South Africa, is painted in those particular colours and is so reminiscent of the original flag.

I know that Junè will possibly sue me over this picture, but it's just such a fantastic action shot of her wielding that big blower and huffing and puffing all the dust and leaves and other nondescript rubbish out of the big garage at Papaiti road - the quad bikes are loaded and gone so all that remained to do was to give the place a good whip around with a mechanical feather duster.

So here are two pics - with and without me and Junè - no prizes for why. We did try one done by a tame cafe goer who was minding a child in a pram - the wife had no doubt not trusted him to get the order from the cafe right and had gone off to see to that and so we asked if he would take a picture of all of us - Martie (with the pretty pink scarf) reckoned the babe in the stroller could most likely have done a better job - I've given that shot a miss for the purposes of the blog.

A pretty good picture of Le Girls - everyone looks so happy although it's maybe the last time we will 'invade' the Springvale Garden Centre cafe all together.

A chapter in New Zealand closes with Marieta boarding a plane next week to return to her beloved Freestate (and hubby!) - we are going to miss you SO much Maliet! You have been such a good friend - so may the road rise up to meet you and the wind be ever at your back and the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may He hold you in the palm of His hand.

Dis al.

Out with the old.....

And in with the new!

We have 'new' wheels! Acquired on Janet's birthday, blue and with the perfect badge on the front - sure to be a winner!!!

Unsignposted and without any descriptive narrative or fanfare, this driftwood creation stands beside the highway and begs questions like 'who did the artwork?' and 'what's it there for?' etc. No matter - we took a picture of it anyway.







This house stands beside the State Highway near Taumarunui and every time we drive by, we threaten to take a photograph since it's so dilapidated looking and appears to be about to come crashing down at the first mention of a puff of a breeze. However, one of Jo's colleagues who lives in the area, assures us that the house in question has looked the same 'for ever' and is in fact the most marvellous place for a 'kuier' - Sky TV dish and all! Maybe a lick of paint would in fact spoil the ambience and detract from the character.

On the 'big picture' front - we are still in the process. At the moment we are waiting for our police clearance certificates to arrive from SA. It has been so difficult not to become frustrated and disheartened with the tediousness of it all and the lack of communication issues that those of us who are far away all seem to encounter. After waiting for a full three months and having no response from any form of connection with the police clearance folks, we managed to (through a friend here in NZ) get someone in Pretoria to make inquiries as to the progress of our applications. Evidently, the documentation is in fact done and we are now just organising to have it sent here safely and are hoping that with this last step, Immigration NZ can allocate us a case worker and we can move on to the next phase.

It will no doubt be superfluous to mention that when we finally get PR we will be VERY HAPPY! On the other hand, if we don't ever get the aforementioned PR, perhaps selling everything we own besides a keyboard and a bass guitar and opening a bar on a pacific island somewhere is not such a ludicrous idea after all. Most folks we mention the idea to are very quick to offer to join us and work for board and lodging! Who knows, stranger things have been known to happen!

My grandbaby's Daddy tells me that there will be an announcement as to the gender in the next day or so and that I should nag if they don't send a mail post haste. I know that technology being as ingenious as it is, (actually the computer animator being a genius) has this blogspot come up for the soon-to-be-parents as soon as there is a new post - so here is the new post and with it, the reminder to let the grandma know!

Pink or Blue???

Dis al!

Ducks in a row

We were drumming up a welcome cup of coffee the other day and happened to glance out of the window to see this proud mama with her chicks 'trotting' across the entrance to our driveway. Fortunately, the camera wasn't too far away and we managed to capture them for you to see.

Remember this is a residential part of Wanganui-not a farm, pond or lake for miles, so we are quite mystified as to where they came from and where they were so intent on going to!

Nevertheless - I know I said ages ago on this very blog that these creatures pop up wherever there is even the hint of a puddle - so I guess I was 'righter' than I thought!

We have both been somewhat under the weather with the flu bug which has been rife in Wanganui but seem to be over the worst of it now and my voice is back after the laryngitis which snatched it for about four quiet days!

It looks like we are going to acquire a 'new' car - for those of you who don't know, VW is the way we go (if we possibly can) and the Mitsubishi that we have had since we arrived has lost some of it's 'charm' and is about to be traded in for a you guessed it VW. We'll let you see some pictures once the deal is done!

As far as the Mitsi is concerned, an ad currently on TV comes to mind - "You can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter!"

Dis al!

Train trip to Hamilton and back!

We took a 'birthday train trip' to Hamilton and spent the evening with Annelien and Carel - cake and birthday cards and dinner and happy birthday singing made for a special evening - Dankie die Bothas vir die rondry en oplaai en aflaai en saam rugby kyk en koek en sing en ete en geselskap ens! Ons waardeer julle ongelooflik baie!

Annelien and I were tickled by the 'slim' milk to have in our coffee while indulging in this marvellous cake! Oh well - every calorie helps I guess!

Pretty scenery not far from Palmerston North where we got onto the train for our day trip to Hamilton. The mountains in the distance and the fairly clear sky means that the outside temperature is cold enough to make us grateful for the heated train carriages.

We were informed by a fellow traveller that this scenery is 'nothing' - well we thought it was something enough to take a picture of!

There was a lunch time-ish stop for a bite to eat at the Station Cafe at Uhakune - a town which is one of the places to stay when you are skiing on Ruapehu mountain. I thought of you Janet when I saw the menu board - not as spectacular as the one you did overseas, but knew you would appreciate the beautiful printing as well as the 'chalk drawing' of the train.

The Overlander was at one point, going to be shut down, but has been retained and revamped to a degree. There are many train enthusiasts, especially those who are steam fanatics who apparently fought long and hard to keep the lines open and although it's not the Blue train or Rovos Rail by any means, the carriages are comfortable and well heated with a 'take away' buffet car to stave off any hunger pangs along the way.

Sunday morning arrival of the Overlander train at Hamilton station - from Auckland en route to Wellington.

The last carriage on the Overlander train has a scenic back window for photographs like this one. Passengers are requested not to spend more than about twenty minutes in these special seats, but I don't know how many folks actually take much notice of the rules!

This little town has a monument to sheep shearing - one of their residents has held the world sheep shearing title for more than a couple of years and shears something in the region of thirteen sheep in fifteen minutes!

Had we been asked to say which country in the world held the sheep shearing title we have to admit that we would have plumped for Australia so there you go - New Zealand has many surprises!

There are five viaducts between Palmerston North and Hamilton - this is one of the more spectacular of them .

Pretty scenery in spite of a rainy and grey day on the 1st August - we have been interested to see that lots of farmers own 'tonka toys' like the one in this picture. They are also used a whole lot by road construction contractors so we see them often and they never fail to raise a smile because they just look so dinky and cute - we are used to these kinds of vehicles being about ten times larger.

One sees the wintery mountains a lot closer from the train than from the road.

The section of railway line from Taihape to Feilding changes to steam every fortnight - this means that 80 passengers joined the train for that leg of the journey. Some of them had been waiting for a spot for two months! We particularly liked the gum boots on the front of this steam engine!

Thought you might like to see the snowscape now that it's done - apparently, this is the view from the hut where all the Wanganui folks stay when they go skiing. That volcano is evidently not dead!

The four folks trudging up the hill are the commissioners of the painting and their sons - making this a pretty personal painting!

Dis al!