Flax plants are something else! (Hy sal my nie wen nie!)

Although this is a photograph of a random flax plant and not the one that was flourishing in front of the big stone in our garden, it gives you a good idea of the task which we tackled and which very nearly got the better of us. Much research, a whole morning cutting the leaves back (which incidentally are an absolute haven for snails) and then a couple of hours exposing as much of the root structure as possible. (This exercise having been tackled over two seperate weekends - which meant that the bugger was sprouting again by the second one. I'm sure that if you sat there and stared, you could watch the thing grow!)

After a fair amount of digging and chopping, the roots were open enough to take a strong, nylon rope around them, with a view to pulling them out. You can forget tugging such a plant out - the only option, dear blog followers, is to attach your rope to your 'ute' (kiwi for bakkie folks) and driving the thing away slowly. To no avail! The rope, pictured here, is not your common or garden flimsy piece of string - this is a really 'fris' nylon one - as you see, it snapped before the flax roots even moved a smidgen! Undaunted, we reattached the repaired rope (more than once) and gave it another couple of heaves!

No go! The next step - of course, was to open the roots up a bit more and get the spade down really deep and make a little lift.  This picture gives you an idea about what the south african spade (cleaned up and sterilised in South Africa, to satisfy the fellows of MAF and dutifully inscribed with the words - Afrikaner, made in Sheffield England )- did. Bugger all! and now lies in two sad and sorry pieces in the garage!

So - right - now for the big guns. Jo has a 'fancy' (kiwis use the word 'flash' here) tow rope in the back of the work ute - apparently it has breaking strength of 7 tons (kiwis spell that word 'tonnes' and pronounce it to rhyme with 'cons' )





One end of the tow rope attached to the ute.

The other end around the 'spade smashing roots'! VOILA!!!

Now, we did consider, before the decision to uproot the flax was made, whether we would be inclined to use the plant for the myriad of projects which the local maori have done in their history. It's a dying art apparently, but we have decided to give these skills a miss - we have enough hobbies as it is.

Cradles and mats and skirts - gorgeous for the traditional meetings and celebrations at the marai (meeting house), but not for us 'bloody foreigners'!  So the flax has been dispensed with - not without much fuss and bluster!

I forget where I found this, but it's a rose called "South Africa" - quite splendid we thought! 

 Dis al!

Ohope Beach (for the non-map-literate: right side coast of NZ North island; nearest biggish place - Whakatane)

Ohope Beach when the tide is out  - space for a really big sky and miles of uncluttered sand.

Some relaxed pedalling along the firmer sand makes a change from the streets around Wanganui

Guitars are always part of the holiday - just for 'sommer'!

Dis al!

Ohope Beach Easter weekend

Easter weekend spent at Ohope Beach was a fantastic success! The weather was at her absolute best - the most spectacular we have seen since we arrived (which is just over three years ago!) and the decision to schlep the van all the way to Ohope was really worth it. The brochures all wax lyrical about the 11km of uninterrupted beach - and indeed, it turned out to be exactly as we had envisioned! When the tide is out, bike rides on the beach are a great way to get some exercise and when the tide is in, the streets along the coast are long and safe and flat! The volcanic sand found on the west coast is not in evidence here and although the beach sand isn't white or even golden, it's still less jarring on the eye than the black shimmer-and-burn-your-feet variety we have in our part of the world.

Early morning and late evening strolls along the beach make for a relaxing time and with the holiday park just behind the dunes, a braai and a glass of good ole South African wine in hand, you have a perfect late summer evening before turning in with the sound of the waves lulling you off to sleep. Pure bliss!

There is an abundance of seabird life - the majority of which are these fellows - strutting their stuff or soaring and squealing overhead. It appears that there are at least three different sub species of seagulls in the vicinity - these two being of the large and cantankerous variety! They have plenty of opportunity to pick up scraps - fisherman are dotted along the shore pretty well most of the time and bits of bait and scraps of fish fins are snapped up with maximum fuss and flutter!

'Adopted' granddaughters Jackie and Helena taking it easy at their new holiday accommodation! We played cards and rode our bikes and strolled along the beach having Conversations of Great Importance - searching out the biggest words we could find. Onomatapoeia being a really choice one! There was also boogie boarding in the waves and arab springs on the beach - watersliding into the icy pool at the holiday park and licking of yummy icecreams under our large sunhats - (the sun was out and Very Fierce.) while the gentlemen took the boat out into the deep sea and fished for our dinner! 

Chores have to be done, even on holiday, and everyone takes their turn. 'Little Joe' has his most concentrated face on in this picture while he tackles the dishes!  

And a smile to make homecoming easier! Hope you all had a lovely Easter. Dis al!