Snippets of nothing really.

On Tuesday morning this week the early morning traffic into Hamilton was beyond anything we could ever have imagined - bumper to bumper from the Flagstaff roundabout all the way into town. Long periods of sitting perfectly still and plenty of 'idiots' with nowhere to go, since the snarl up was going (or rather not going) in both directions. The Waikato radio station eventually filled us in as to the crisis - we had assumed it was some sort of crisis since there had been several police cars and 'unmarked' law enforcement vehicles driving like lunatics between the two lanes of traffic - all flashing lights and wailing sirens and all heading into town.
You have to also remember that the city lies on the 'other side' of the river so although the bridges into town are usually a bit of a snarl up at peak hours, Tuesday was totally beyond belief and once we finally got over the river, traffic was all diverted away from the usual main route.
Apparently, a body had been discovered in the middle of the road, close to one of the bridges and near to the Pizza Hut 'restaurant' at about 2.30am and the powers that be had simply closed off huge sections of the city so the forensics guys could do their jobs and any evidence could be preserved. We saw on the news on telly later that evening that a marquee had been erected around the body and it appeared that at least four blocks in all directions had been closed to traffic for the entire day. Evidently, there had been some sort of altercation in the area late on Monday night, but at this point we only know that this one fellow didn't come out of it alive.
It was just incredible to us to see how much disruption there was to basically the entire city and although we were only an hour or so late, there were people who were delayed even more than that. I would imagine that if you had been planning some sort of illegal activity, Tuesday was definitely the day to do it - it looked like surely every cop or 'almost cop' in Hamilton was involved in one way or another with the whole event and kept him or herself busy in the city centre for the entire day. It did make the national news in the evening, but we still don't know what exactly happened or any of the grisley details.
So, there you go, all is not perfect even in Paradise! ( I am referring here to the fact that my favourite morning chat show host, Paul Henry, signs off with 'have a marvellous day in Paradise')
Speaking of Paul Henry - he has a few real pet hates - one of them being the camper vans that are so prevalent in New Zealand - usually European tourists it seems, who, according to Paul Henry, drive like absolute idiots, hold up all the traffic, break all the rules any decent human being would keep to and so on and so on ad infinitum! He got himself into a bit of trouble the other day for saying on national TV - "bloody campervans - arrrrrses"
We gather that Paul Henry is really quite popular amongst lots of kiwis - although he is certainly controversial - I guess that's what makes for good TV! He was not too sure how to react about a week ago when his dear old Mum, who lives in the "home for the bewildered" in Auckland, decided that at 78, she was going to do the bungy-jump type number which all the madcaps do off the Auckland tower. I kid you not, there was dear old Olive Henry - kitted out in her bright yellow and red jumpsuit, her spectacles firmly on her nose under her grey/white curls and all sorts of strapping and cliphooks and goodymegads attached to her, leaping sedately off the Auckland tower, having downed a large glass of port at 7am! She was quite breathless and giggly when it was all over (not one of those upside down leaps, but a sort of graceful step out into the wild blue yonder whilst being held up by ropes and strapping and such like). Olive said it was "wonderful" and although she had said before she actually did it, that if she chickened out someone should just push her! she didn't need any encouragement and with one ladylike step into nothing, became a local celebrity in that instant. The "home for the bewildered inmates" (as Paul calls the old folks at the home for the elderly) were sort of attractively arranged in the background when dear old Olive did a follow up interview the next day and it looked to me like some of them were just plain pissed off with all the attention that dear old Olive was getting - and all for being just totally daft! So there you go - even if dear old Olive isn't a born and bred kiwi (she hails from the UK originally and still has a really broad English accent) it seems to me that being daft comes either with old age, or living in New Zealand - or, I suspect, a combination of the two! What is clearly apparent to me, is that Paul Henry is a product of a feisty old dame who never worried what anyone thought of her and so it goes without saying that her offspring could well be an outspoken and to-hell -with-all -of -you type of chap!
There were three Maori chaps on the couch in the studio this morning and because I wasn't actually sitting watching the programme, I was not sure what they were talking about when referring to being "Ay bees" - I stood around until the interviewer mentioned the "All Blacks" rugby team - hellooooo!
Dis al!

Spesiaal vir Alta en Sarel!

Nou ja, julle tweetjies! Ons het so lekker gekuier op Skype gister en ek voel nou so skuldig dat Sarel alles in die Ingels moet eers lees en dan vertaal, dat ek nou ekstra spesiaal vir julle twee hierdie blog possie doen! Eintlik is hierdie dan nou spesiaal vir Alta want Sarel is nogal verskriklik oulik met die Ingels saam (dis hoekom hy die vertaal werk altyd moet doen of hoe?)
Vir die in my gesin wat wel hierdie lees - julle moet mooi verstaan dat ek omtrent uitgetrap is oor die feit dat ek blykbaar ALLES net in Engels doen en daar is vele meer Bothas en hulle afhangendes en aangelapdes, wat die blog lees as enige ander. So dit is nou die rede hoekom hierdie in Afrikaans geskryf is!
Ons het gister weer in die kerk 'opgetree' met die musiekgroep saam - baie goed gegaan alhoewel dit 'n bietjie frustrerend was met die klank stelsel - die is eintlik net nie groot genoeg om almal behoorlik te kan hanteer nie en bo en behalwe dit, was die ouens wat gister daar gewerk het, bietjie minder ervare as die outjie wat dit gewoonlik doen. Dit het veroorsaak dat snaakse dinge gebeur het - skielik hard of sag, 'n baie steurende 'hum' met tye ens - maar die ergste van alles was die laaste lied wat dromme nodig gehad het en die is toe nooit 'aangeswitch' nie - wel eintlik, so halfpad deur die liedjie het die dromme skielik BAIE hard gehappen! Die dromme is mos hierdie nuwe elektoniese goed wat baie snaaks lyk so dit help nie dat die drommer slaan en tekere gaan nie - daar gebeur mos boggeroll tot die nou ingeplug is en dan ook aangeswitch is! As mens nie daaroor bietjie kan lag nie het ons rerig groot probleme!
Die groepie is erg bekommerd dat ons Hamilton dalk gaan verlaat, maar weereens - daar het julle dit - dit is nie ons besluit nie en as ons Wanganui toe moet trek, dan sal hulle mos 'n plan sien om aan te gaan as hulle nou rerig wil. Ons is seker dat hulle sal kan regkom - daar is baie ouens wat die ding kan doen en hulle moet net ingespan word.
Ek en Jo het vanoggend met een van die 'koppe' in Hamilton gepraat - dit blyk asof dit vir almal die beste gaan wees as ons wel nou al Wanganui toe trek - daar is baie meer sekuriteit werksgewys daar en ons wil nie te veel moeilikheid soek met ons 'groot prentjie' dinge nie. Die feit bly staan dat ons in NZ is as gevolg van die werk by MWH en ons moet vir ten minste twee jaar by die maatskappy bly. As hulle dit nodig vind om ons te moet verplaas, dan gaan ons dit so doen. As ons eers oor twee jaar iets anders wil doen, kan ons dan kyk - vir nou is ons baie bly om voort te gaan met die 'avontuur' ! Ons ondervindinge in die verlede het ons altwee gewys dat ons redelik maklik aanpas by enige plekkie en ons is nie vol tjol met sulke dinge nie! Wie weet - dalk bly ons verskriklik, vreeslik lekker in Wanganui! Dit is ook, after all, 'n klein dorpie in vergelyking met Hamilton en ons is mos klein dorpies gewoond!
Ons is bietjie bekommerd oor die Jeugmusiek groepie - hulle is rerig baie onervare en het 'n paar mense nodig wat saam met hulle sal kan optree tot hulle self genoeg kan doen - maar dit is nou ook dieselfde situasie - ek is seker daar moet onder die gemeente IEMAND wees wat ons ou werkies kan doen en die spul kan oorvat. Ongelukkig, kan ons nie veel daaromtrent doen nie, so ons het besluit ons gaan nie slaapelose nagte daaroor he nie - hopelik sal dit nie net stop nie, daar is rerig potensiaal onder die kinders.
Verder, soos daar by julle in Suid Afrika, is die winter sterk oppad - die oggende is koud met ryp so nou en dan en deur die loop van die dag word dit so 15 grade rond - nie te woes koud nie, darem nie minus veertien nie, maar genoeg om die verwarmers aan te sit en 'n warm baadjie orals saam te sleep. Die wereld hier is bietjie meer geskik vir die koue - al die winkels is lekker warm en die meeste plekke het outematiese deure ens laat daar nie wawyd oop deure staan wat al die warm lug lat uitglip nie.
Ons is nou druk besig om te dink oor alles wat gereel moet word dat ons ons 'container' afgelaai kan kry waar dit moet gebeur - dit help mos niks as alles hier afgepak is en dan oor 'n week Wanganui toe moet gaan nie. Hopelik sal ons 'n ou plekkie gereel kry voor ons die 'container' afgehandel kry en dan kan hulle dit sommer direk van Auckland na die nuwe huisie toe vat. Vir julle wat noggie gaan kyk het op Google nie, Wanganui is so 250 km van Hamilton af, so dis nie sommer vir kom gou gou soentoe vat nie - veral dinge soos motorfietse en klaviere nie. Die ou dingetjies wat ons hier gekry het, sal ons self moet vat soentoe - 'n waentjie kry of watewwer en self dit sleep. Ons sal ook seker 'n 'terugbesorg' partytjie moet hou - 'n rooster hier en 'n stoel daar en eetgery die kant toe en linne daai kant toe - mense het ons geweldig baie uitgehelp met goeters so die moet alles terug gaan na hulle wettige eienaars toe. Die ou Duitser (dis nou Oom Altzheimer - dommie!) het nie so erg ingetree nie lat ons 'n paar wynglase vir die ou gee wat ons die tuimeldroeer geleen het nie so hopelik sal almal weer hulle eie goed terug kry! Die meeste van die groter goeters moet terug na die kerk se garage vir boemelaars gaan, so dis nou baie maklik - hopelik sal ou Cor net hier opdaag met die lorrietjie en ons sal vinnig alles daarop kan sit en daar gat hy. Elke week is daar mense wat goed nodig kry en ons weet dat van hulle glad nie eers 'n 'container' hettie - hulle is hier met hulle kinders en hulle tassietjies en dis dit - oor en uit. Dit gaan heelwat beter vir hulle as hulle darem 'n ou bedtjie en 'n stoeltjie het as hulle beginne werk soek. Ai - dis vir ons moeilik om te verstaan dat mense rerig dinge so doen, maar nou ja ons het seker nie al die inligting nie.
Ons stuur vir julle almal baie groete - stuur so nou en dan vir ons 'n ou e-possie - ons geniet dit so baie om enigiets van julle kant af te hoor - anders, kan julle rerig 'comments' op hierdie blog sit - net so lekker om te kry. Onthou net, julle moet eers 'n gratis adres he by of Yahoo of so iets dan kan julle volgelaars van ons blog word!
Ons hou heerlik avontuur al is dinge bietjie deurmekaar op die oomblik! Moenie stressie - ons doen nie!
Dis al!

A very welcome letter!

This morning a letter arrived which opens with " Dear Mr Botha. We are pleased to advise that we have received documents from Allied Pickfords (Bloemfontein) covering a shipment of 254 packages of personal effects which are due to arrive at the port of AUCKLAND on or about 30/05/09"
We had no idea that we had as many as 254 packages - it did look like an enormous heap when it left Wolmarasstad in January - luckily, we have an inventory listing each and every one so no doubt we will be able to vouch for all 254 of them - here's hoping they are all in pristine condition and are all there! Four will certainly be very easy to spot - two upright pianos and two motorcycles - that leaves a nice round 250 packages to get from Auckland port to our home - wherever that might be.
We are going to be going to the Johnny Clegg concert in Auckland on the 1st June in any event so could possibly combine that with all the things that need to be signed and seen to with regard to customs and so on while we are in the vicinity.
Today, things are looking really like we will be bidding farewell to lovely Hamilton and heading South to Wanganui.
There is a home for lease right on the sea - on a little cliff overlooking Kai Iwi beach and about 15km out of Wanganui - we have made some enquiries and will keep everyone posted. We haven't seen inside the house apart from the photographs available on the website, but it looks really promising so hold thumbs!
If any of you are feeling so inclined - take a look at Trade Me - real estate - houses to rent - Wanganui - Kai Iwi and you should be able to see the photos of the house and the view!
Dis al!

Wanganui

Wanganui from the Elevator on the hill beside the town.

Castlecliff Beach Wanganui.

There is a distinct possibility that we are going to be transferred to Wanganui - on the West coast of New Zealand and a much smaller and older town than Hamilton. We considered getting iffy about the whole idea since we are just beginning to find our feet (sort of) in Hamilton and have begun to meet people and feel a little at home. On the other hand, the nature of 'adventures' is the fact that you never really know for sure what is around the next corner, so we took a trip down to Wanganui to check the town out and meet a couple of the guys who work for MWH there. We are also well aware of the fact that our container has not yet arrived, we don't have school-going children and give all the appearances of being extremely flexible!

Wnganui is one of the first towns to be established in New Zealand ( I'm talking about the English arriving and doing the 'establishing') so parts of the town are extremely old indeed. At the moment there are few houses to rent - most people preferring to own their properties. There are however, some which come up from time to time apparently and so we are hoping that if we do move there, we will find something suitable.

Wanganui is built around the longest navigable river on the North Island and since it is also right on the coast, has quite a few pretty beaches. This side of the island, does have the black volcanic sand which we don't yet consider to be all that 'pretty' for want of a better word, but that being said, the ocean is still the ocean and the photo which we've included here gives you an idea of the sand and all the driftwood which this particular beach is known for. It was also a very gloomy, windy and cold day, so we admit that we probably didn't get to see Wanganui in her best light.

The elevator is very interesting and was apparently built so that the residential area on the hill behind it could be developed with the added draw card of it being easily accessible to town - by means of the elevator. We took the river and town photos from the lookout at the top of the elevator and these photos give you an idea of the size of the town and it's layout beside the river.

We estimate that Wanganui is probably about the size of one of the bigger towns on the platteland in South Africa - not quite a city, but bigger by far than a dorp!

We'll keep you posted as to the developments!

Dis al.

Snow on the North Island

Ruapehu takes its name from the active volcano Mount Ruapehu (rua meaning 'pit' and pehu 'to explode') and is the highest mountain in the North Island - Ruapehu is New Zealand's most famous volcano and it is considered to be sacred by the local Maori. The only glacier in the North Island is found here and the volcano's crater lake is one of only three in the world which is surrounded by snow and ice. The volcano is actually still active and the tourist guide books assure us that there are very sophisticated risk management procedures and early warning systems in place - it looked fairly safe last weekend so we took a closer look!

We were returning to Hamilton from Wanganui which is on the West coast of New Zealand and decided to take a slight detour so that we could see this spectacular 'mountain'. The Bayview Chateau which you can see in the pictures, is a four star establishment and we would imagine would run to a few hundred dollars per person per night - a bit beyond our means at the

moment!

Candyland Sweetmaking Demonstration

Once you are armed with your ticket, this little tin soldier slides into the woodwork allowing you to enter the factory. Tiered seating arranged to one side of the factory floor lets you see the lassie with her microphone and protective gloves who talks about the goodies on the table beside her. The big blue bag on the table is Cadbury's chocolate, acquired in these big 24kg blocks - evidently much cheaper to 'import' from the experts than to make from scratch. There are 12 blocks in each pack and they have the Cadbury logo on them just like the little slabs which we can buy in the shops - only a whole lot bigger! This is melted down and used to coat nuts, raisins, kiwi fruit - whatever takes your fancy really.

The table that this guy is working on is heated so that the goo stays gooey while he adds colour and flavour - on this day, the flavour he was adding was passionfruit and he divided this lot into yellow, orange and red.

Plenty of mixing and faffing about while the lassie with the microphone talked about the biggest lollipop in the world and the Guiness Book of Records and so on. From the hot table, the lollipop goo gets placed on the stretchers - first outside the cage and then inside on the white machine with 'arms' that you can see there (the picture of the stretching process on the machine didn't come out very well so doesn't appear here!)

This table is also heated, otherwise it all cools too quickly and becomes brittle. The stretching continues once the coloured stripes have been added until you end up with a long sausage shape. Once the whole caboodle is thin enough, some of the mile long candy is fashioned into good old fashioned candy canes - some straight and some with their Little Bo Peep hooks on the end - and the rest is handed to the enthusiastic audience to make their own lollipops with. Because you have to work so quickly, most of the kiddies need a bit of assistance from the big people, but for the most part, everyone ended up with passable lollipops.

This is a model of the huge lollipop which was part of the Guiness Book of Records story - it was made and donated to the Auckland Childrens' Hospital, where it stood outside the main entrance for a couple of months until it was decided (for health and safety reasons) to remove it, since it was not only becoming covered in all sorts of undesirable beasties and bugs, but also had loads of little teeth marks at about pre-schooler and toddler height!

It was great fun being a kid again for an hour or so and once that was over, we reverted to being big people again and worked on consuming the Baileys Fudge within the required three weeks! Dis al!

The Candyland Shop

The wall outside the Candyland factory is clearly painted to attract little people! Once inside, there is a lovely display - all fairytale style and gingerbread house look with the caption "The sweetest place on earth" - we won't argue.

There is definitely some allowance made for those of us who are taller than 1 metre - the Baileys fudge pictured here is clearly not designed for the kids and on sampling it, we decided that in spite of the price, we should try our utmost to try to 'consume within three weeks of purchase' - it wasn't easy I tell you!

We are quite convinced that there is scientific proof that chocolate is in fact very good for you - we have all heard about the positive effects a decent chocolate can have on the most gloomy of moods!

We browsed around the shop at Candyland while we waited for the tour to begin - apparently, this factory is one of the only working examples of the old fashioned sweet making factories left anywhere - this particular site was a cheese factory until some time in the seventies. When there was talk of demolishing the place, the present owner bought it all up and refurbished it with sweet making machinery - apparently that took two years to acquire all the right stuff - and Candyland has been going strong ever since.

Watch this space! - (give us a chance mate!)

Nou ja - nou is die kat uit die sak - net toe ek dink almal wag met groot afwagting vir die volgende 'blog post' en nie 'n idee sal he waaroor dit sal gaan nie - daar weet julle nou almal, die volgende 'briefie' oor die lekkergoed fabriek moet gaan!
Ons het verskriklik baie fotos daar geneem en omdat dit alles so interessant was en omdat ons so SKULDIG oor al die swieties voel, sal ek dit alleen op die blog sit!
Ons voel nie oor swieties skuldig nie - net die wat gekoep en gevreet is!
Soos die titel aandui - watch this space!
Dis al!

Not the whole truth

Ek sien niks word gese oor die besoek aan die lekkergoedfabriek, Candyland, net voor die Woodlands besoek nie, en ook nie oor die $20 (R100)se lekkergoed wat jy (oops!) gekoop het nie. (sorrie dit was nie jy nie but I was forced by the voices in my head) Mmmmmm.

Was /is baie lekker!!

Woodlands Estate - just outside Hamilton

Saturday began with promises of cold, wet and gloomy weather and so we decided to take a little trip out of Hamilton and visit the Woodlands Estate just outside the city. The gardens surrounding the old homestead are truly spectacular and for the most part, are donning the Autumn shades which are so prevalent in New Zealand at the moment. We wandered around the gardens of the estate and took a couple of photographs to give you an idea of how pretty it is there.

This old bench stands sedately beside the lake and although it really looks as though it must be on it's last legs and will surely crumble into a heap of woodchips very soon, Jo tried it (a little gingerly, I admit) and assures me that it is surprisingly sturdy and strong in spite of it's appearance! Some of the trees in the gardens are clearly extremely old and some of them sport plaques giving their botanical names and so on - the titles of these plaques is something to the effect of 'outstanding tree' - and we found many of these dotted around the gardens.

The lake at the estate has it's quota of ducks - they were all paddling about in blissful ignorance of the fact that the duck shooting season had opened in New Zealand - just a day before we were there! although we would assume that these guys are pretty safe from big and little boys skulking around armed with 'duck whistles', retriever dogs and guns! The gardens have meandering paths which twist and turn and on rounding one corner, we came across this clipped piece of garden art. It's clearly not a maze but perhaps it's a remnant of days gone by when this estate was in it's heyday.

Evidently, there are two full time gardeners who work here at Woodlands Estate and there is one 'paid part- timer' and a whole team of volunteers who spend hours in the gardens creating the serene and well maintained acres - there are literally hundreds of high maintenance sections - plenty of roses and huge areas of trimmed lawns surrounded by manicured hedges - some of which are at least three metres high. The flowers on the right above, are surely some sort of lily reminicsent of the inca or tiger lilies which I know - they are a bit past their prime, but still pretty spectacular.

Hopefully, if you click on the picture above left, you can read about the history of the estate.

We took this picture below left for all of us who have Scottish connections - don't these little guys look amazing all kitted out in their kilts, sporrans and velvet jackets! Below right is the main house, which was being prepared to host a Bridal Show - there were ladies buzzing about inside setting up videos, tables of tempting delights to consider when planning a wedding and of course masses of amazing floral arrangements in every room. We were particularly struck by how large and spacious the 'entertaining areas' of the house are in direct contrast to the upstairs which houses two bedrooms and a nursery - pokey and cramped in spite of being so attractively decorated.

In the drawing room, there is a little old organ - the pump variety and when I was offered the chance of giving it a whirl, didn't have to be invited twice. For the size of the instrument, it produces a surprisingly rich and big sound!

There is a cricket oval in the grounds of the estate and the victorian clubhouse sports a cafe/restaurant which we visited for a bite to eat and something warm to drink. The restaurant has a baby grand piano as part of the interesting decor and it was of course not enough to just check out the make of the piano - the owner of the restaurant chatted away to us about pianos in general and this one in particular until we both had a go on it. The artwork displayed on the piano is certainly varied - who would have imagined that you could place three noses beside a hinged horse and a little gollywog boy?

The restaurant is not the sort of place that one would visit on a regular basis - very avante garde and expensive, but has a lovely atmosphere, a talkative friendly owner and good cuisine!

Dis al!

For the Forrest family!

Here and there we see things that seem so incredibly familiar - like for example the name of this street just outside Cambridge. This photograph was specially commissioned after we had stopped beside the sign on Saturday, all set to take the snap, when the camera decided that there was no way that a single photograph was going to be added to the eighty something that we had already taken that day. Needless to say, I was very disappointed, since I have been aiming to get this onto film for this blog for quite a while now! Every time we have been in the area, we have either registered too late that the street is still there (!) or alternatively, we have not had the trusty camera with us. On that occasion, having the batteries die on us was very frustrating and once again we came home without the picture. Yesterday, Jo was in the area in the course of his work travels and stopped specially - armed with the work camera and took the photo - a matter of self defence I think, since he must be so tired of me whining on and on about how much I want to post this on our blog. Thanks Jo!