Sunday afternoon on Kai Iwi beach

From the barbeque area and parking along the top of the ridge beside Kai Iwi beach, you can look down on the beach itself and one of the smaller rivers that flow into the sea from further inland. After some initial concern about how to get the quad bikes down onto the beach, we discovered this fairly new bridge over the little river and having taken a fairly roundabout route, were able to access the beach via the bridge. It is a very tight squeeze but the quads made it by millimetres. From the end of the bridge we took a right turn - and barring being trapped by an incoming tide, one can ride for miles and miles.

This is the terrain beside the beach - here you can see another one of the small rivers which empty out into the ocean along Kai Iwi beach.

Hennie and Marieta have two quad bikes and a scrambler and invited us to join them for the afternoon. Our bikes are somewhat inappropriate for this kind of adventure so we were most appreciative that Hennie hauled out his scrambler for the afternoon, freeing up a quad bike for us to share. It was quite a different experience to be flying along the beach without a helmet on and hanging on for dear life behind a sworn enemy of all things quad bike! We absolutely stand by our contention that quad bikes have to be banned from motor bike rallys, but for a 'jol' on a deserted beach on a late summer Sunday afternoon - they do the job very nicely thank you!

We found that for the most part, the beach is completely deserted and you can stroll or ride or whatever you feel like for miles and miles without coming across another soul. It was a particularly lovely day and although the wind got up a bit later in the afternoon, the weather was good enough for us to decide to host a 'farewell to summer' barbeque at the same beach the next weekend! Like all good things, we knew the lovely weather would be coming to an end and wintery, cold and blustery days would soon be replacing the idyllic days we have enjoyed for the past couple of months.

There were a couple of scrambler bikes in the group and the yellow one featured here, has just emerged from a complete dunking in the ocean after the driver failed to anticipate the possibility of the water hiding huge holes into which a bike can easily fall! Needless to say, the bike needed quite a bit of coaxing before the engine would fire up but to our amazement, it wasn't too long before the rider was buzzing along in his very wet, new boots! We happened to witness the dunking of rider and bike and admit that although we were slightly concerned, the disappearance of the rider, and I really mean total disappearance, was actually hysterically funny! This yellow scrambler is not Hennie's one - it was Ruan who took the dunking on his almost brand new out of the box yellow 'submarine'!

Kai Iwi beach is about 15 km out of Wangaui and is where we first thought about renting a house - in fact, if you squint at this photograph, you should just be able to make out a few houses perched on the top of the 'mountains' in the distance. The one we very nearly took was 'second from the front'! In retrospect, it was the best decision to live in town and we were right in assuming that folks aren't too eager to travel the 15km for a music lesson each week.

All in all, a marvellous relaxing afternoon.

Dis al!

Random stuff!

We are busy and happy with life here in Wanganui and know that an update on this blog is somewhat overdue - here are a few random pictures taken over the past couple of weeks and which we thought might interest you! Winter is fiercely en-route and we are now in the process of putting away all the summer gear and hauling out the winter woolies and hunting out the hearty beef stew and hot pudding with custard recipes! In between, we have our documentation for Permanent Residence to get in order, so there is plenty to keep us busy and out of trouble!

Jo and Allan chuckling about something or other - Allan works alongside Jo and has been really great while Jo learns the ropes - although the work is much the same as he is used to, things are CALLED different names and are regularly reduced to acronyms which can be most irritating and very frustrating for the new guys on the block. As you can see from this photograph, Allan is a fair bit taller than Jo and he has to be one of the very few people in the world that Jo looks up to!!!

Is it just me, or does that product name and country of origin sound somewhat suspect? We have no trouble believing that this is the world's most durable outdoor clothing, but to be very honest, we haven't had much occasion to see any swazi folks complete with what look like zulu shields wandering about here.

Admittedly, it's a very striking and eye-catching product label - it certainly caught our attention!

These fluffy, tame and very domesticated alpacas (I thought they were all llamas) are quite a big deal here in New Zealand and people farm them for their wool. Apparently they are of the camel family - I suppose if you look at their mouths, that makes sense - and they are incredibly hardy and cope well with the cold weather in winter here. They do however, spit vehemently when provoked! Not a pretty thought.

This particular one fascinated me, since I wonder how he can see through all that fluff over his eyes!

Now there are 'starter packs' and 'starter packs' - let's be honest. It was just interesting to me to see that if this is a route that I chose to explore, having abandoned the idea of teaching music, I could acquire a couple of young heifers and a bull and would have all the support and expertise at my beck and call! Although, practically speaking, our 'garden' here in Tawhero isn't up to scratch for this sort of enterprise - we would have to move again!!!

We thought that this limo (had it been red or purple of course) could well have been Melinda's first choice for her wedding last month. The interior boasts every gadget and luxury known to man and we surmise that hiring it would cost a few dollars.

The cafe on the corner with tables on the pavement is very popular with tourists and bikers alike - this view of the centre of Wanganui is taken from the window of the conference room where we hold our SA church services each week. If you look really closely, you might just be able to make out the hanging baskets of flowers which adorn each and every building in town - when they are in full bloom the picture is really quite spectacular. This idea was apparently started in Wanganui some years ago and has been adopted by many New Zealand towns.

Dis al!

Easter weekend in Wanganui

Just thought you would like to see this sunset picture we took the other evening from our garden - the photograph doesn't really do the scene justice, but pretty all the same.

The Big Braai at Cooks Gardens in Wanganui on Easter Saturday, followed by a concert by Bok van Blerk.




Of course our esteemed 'mare' Michael Laws was in attendance - he was part of the whole vision right from the beginning when SAMCA was launched last year at the Top Ten Holiday Park. He gave a short and encouraging speech about South Africans adding so much to the kiwi culture and how much we are valued here in New Zealand! It was brilliant that he managed to put his money where his mouth was and got the Wanganui council on board to the tune of a good few thousand dollars towards this event. The idea being that we 'put Wanganui on the map'.

The deputy High Commissioner from the South African Embassy in Wellington - all things embassy related (apart from the police clearance certificates) can now be done in Wellington. Up until very recently, all the embassy issues were handled by the Embassy in Canberra, Australia. It was good of him to show up and make a speech.

Not usually seen in Wanganui!

There was live music all day in the build up to the big braai - plenty of stalls to visit with loads of traditional South African fare. Stallholders came from as far away as Auckland and not only sold lots of goods, but handed out flyers advertising their wares and giving the promise that they have an 'on line' shopping facility and will courier goods to you anywhere in New Zealand!

Each 'Braai Spot' ticket entitled you to six folks around a braai - provided by the organisers and yours to take home with you after the event. (The braai not the guests!) Great hilarity watching everyone pulling out all the 'bits' from the cardboard boxes, poring over the assembly instructions and getting the show on the road as it were. The final result pictured here in the form of our little part of the Big Braai.

Cooks Gardens in Wangaui - the venue for the Big Braai and Bok van Blerk concert. Expats from all over New Zealand came to spend the weekend in our little town and most of those we spoke to reckoned Wanganui is such 'a cute little town'!

Bok van Blerk - the one they all came to see, of 'De La Rey' fame. The concert was loud and proudly South African - to the degree that Pierre told us that he had had a complaint to the noise control chappies in Wanganui. The concert was over on the dot of ten pm - after which anyone with a complaint would have had a leg to stand on! The crowd was disappointed that their baying for encores fell on deaf ears apparently - however, as we knew, there was little choice in the matter!

All in all, a very successful day with a large contingent of new Wanganui admirers!

Dis al!