Our living room, although much smaller than we have become accustomed to, has a very 'cosy' look about it and as you can see, is well set up for us to enjoy listening to and making music.The best of all is that things have a familiarity about them which makes home feel much more like home after a pretty long time!
We have had a couple of weeks now of 'getting on with it' - plenty of mundane things to see to and a social visit from our landlord and his wife this past Sunday. Naturally, we wanted things to look as 'together' as possible and so have spent quite a bit of time sorting things out like the weeds in the garden and the odd boxes still lurking in unsuspecting corners of the establishment! The visit went off without a hitch and we had some freshly baked bran muffins on hand and a bottle of homemade lemon marmelade to impress them with! Since the lemons came from 'their' tree, we thought it fitting to let them have a little bottle of marmelade!
Admittedly, we were also softening them up for the things that we need them to do, like adding to the power capacity in the garage so that Jo can use his welding machine in there without tripping out the whole of Wanganui! and sorting something out with the dishwasher which continues to produce ugly marked and slightly dodgy looking dishes in spite of my and my friend Kathy's best efforts at attacking the problem with 'everything dishwasher' known to man.
We are now 'registered' with an ex-South African doctor whose books had been officially closed, but whose wife suggested we write a letter of request - the receptionist was somewhat taken aback I think, when I called to find out if there had been a response to our letter - her words were something to the effect of ' Dr Hazelhurst's books were closed sometime ago, but someone seems to have added two new names here - I don't know who did THAT but I suppose you must be in then'!
We have visited the River Market, which is really just a little fleamarket beside the river which happens on a Saturday morning here in Wanganui and has lots of things to buy in the way of plants for the garden and honey and jams - home made tableclothes and placemats and traditional Maori jewellary - plenty of bone carving type things on leather thongs and big chunky bracelets. The usual 'garden notices' like 'fairy corner' - handpainted onto scraps of wood and home knitted bootees and matinee jackets and things. Of course, there is always a trestle table of real junk - plastic, glitter and bright colours, costing next to nothing and threatening to last about four seconds flat. There are also tables of 'stuff' - broken bits of garage equipment like lawnmower blades and boxes with rusty spanners and tap heads tossed in them - there are even boxes and boxes of old LP's - the covers all dog-eared and torn, but I guess someone must buy this stuff, otherwise they wouldn't keep on putting it up for sale!
The South African girls that I have begun to get to know here, have recently completed a 'health and safety food course' - they are now legally able to make and sell boerewors rolls and the like at the market and are thinking along the lines of having other home baked South African delights on sale each Saturday - you know the drill - koeksusters, melktert, hertzoggies, pannekoek, beskuit ens - along with other goods that are not always so easy to find in New Zealand. There is talk of a 'crafts' section to this stall - perhaps I would like to make a contribution there from time to time as the mood takes me. Since we hear that there are approximately 80 South African families living in Wanganui now, this little stall could actually do quite well - even without local interest.
We thoroughly enjoyed the rugby against Australia on Saturday - since the Bokkies weren't playing, we hadn't had too much flack about South African rugby being a kicking game that is spoiling the spectator aspect of the matches, but in any event, we decided that if we were asked, we had supported the referees - (if you didn't watch the game - all the refs were South Africans!)
Things have been stressed with the house issue in SA and so we have been preparing for Jo's trip to SA - he is leaving on Friday and returning on the following Saturday with the court case in between. There is nothing to say here except that it is so sad that there are still people in the world who will attempt to destroy other folks who they don't even know, in an evil and underhand manner, all in the name of money - apart from being angry, we are sad that it has touched us in this way. However, we can only do our very best and are preparing to make the most of the fact that Jo is going to be in SA for a few days and will get to see some of our special people while he is there - of course there are always a few 'loose ends' to tie up, so he can see to as many of those as time allows while he is there.
It will certainly be strange for me to be here in New Zealand while Jo is in South Africa for a week! But, no complaints - there is always so much that I want to do, that I know the time will fly.
There are quite a few lovely photographs which haven't yet appeared on the blog, so hopefully, while Jo is away, I will have time on my hands and can put a whole host of them up for you to enjoy!
Till then, dis al!

Taranaki Pioneer Village

This is the main street of the Taranaki Pioneer village. We called in there last week and ambled around taking photographs and being, for the most part, exceedingly grateful that society has improved a great deal since then!
The brochure reads - " Over the past 30 years volunteers have developed the 10 acre property into a replica village to celebrate Taranaki's pioneers. Most of the buildings are open for viewing, others are being developed and are not yet ready for public display."
We found that most of the buildings have been donated by local folk - and relocated from their original places in the area to this property where they have been painstakingly put back together. The buildings are all 'real' and haven't been dreamt up for the project.

We were very taken with the little church at the village - it can be hired even now for weddings. There is a sign on the door leading into the church which asks that you keep the door closed to keep out the birds!

The barber shop and hairdresser - we particularly liked the dart board on the wall. Is that for the clients waiting for their turn in the chair, or could you hit a triple twenty and get a discount?

Hi-fidelity sound systems in pioneer times - for those who weren't up to the hassle of organising the ivory for a keyboard - after all, there are very few elephants ambling around New Zealand with price tags on their tusks.

Some things like pianos have changed very little in the intervening years - we wonder where the ivory for these keyboards came from and whether all the necessary permits were acquired.

For those of us who dread a visit to the dentist and find the whine of the drill calcifies our vertebrae, we can be exceedingly grateful that we no longer have to endure drilling by a dentist using this foot-powered drill! In my opinion, my teeth could have fallen out of my head before I could comfortably sit through a session here!

We took this picture especially for Claire who is working in Paediatrics in Vancouver - things have no doubt changed dramatically since pioneer times! The golliwog in the cot was somewhat of a surprise since the New Zealanders are over-the-top about being politically correct and golliwogs have recently been in the news as 'not on'.

This picture appears to be the classroom for more senior students - the World Map shows New Zealand slap bang in the middle, so there are two Africa Continents - one on either side!

This pioneer classroom looks a bit disorganised but one must assume that some good education went on there - the map on the wall with two Africas is a little disconcerting though!

We took these two pictures especially for Barbara and Jo-anne - the dock in the Courthouse and the legal statute books which were haphazardly slung on the counter of the police station! One wonders how good the justice system of the day was!

A wooden bathtub! Since the kiwis seem to be able to fashion wood into just about anything, it shouldn't really have come as such a surprise. I wonder how many trips to the kitchen stove it took to fill this tub with hot water!

Apparently, there are some Bothas who remember a telephone, remarkably similar to this one, on the farm outside Rosendal!

This garage looks a little understocked for the major repairs and tune-ups that would be done today but obviously, at the time, did a good enough job to justify it's existence. There was nobody around to ask if there were any vacancies for a mechanic Boeta!

There is a railway 'garage' along the railway tracks - one assumes that trains could be housed there overnight as the need arose!

These stocks are positioned neatly beside the pioneer cop shop - an easy transfer to the cells!

The Tariki Railway Station had a Station Master at one time who was also a Justice of the Peace and so consequently, there were at least two wedding ceremonies performed here!

The main street of the pioneer village has the most magnificent view of the mountain - having such a beautiful, clear day made it just that much better.

A beautiful day working on the roads

There are a couple of 'utes' which are used by all the guys at MWH for going out on site inspections. Some of the guys hate driving in a filthy bakkie and so the said bakkies get a quick scrub-up with the Hamilton acquired water blaster before heading out for a day on the roads near New Plymouth.

We spent the day working between the two mountains - occasionally (and if the sky is clear) you can see both of them on either side of you.

This almost finished wooden house is being

erected beside the State Highway and is positioned (as you can see) right on the road and incidentally on a fairly sharp bend. Since we know that the road is a busy one and carries a fair amount of heavy traffic, we can't understand why anyone would want to build their 'castle' there. Admittedly, the surrounding scenery is spectacular but surely there was a good spot just a bit away from the road itself?

We have often wondered if the farmers who live and work in this fantastic scenery, realise how lucky they are or whether they are mostly concerned about the extra feed that the cows need to get - this lot had just been delivered a tractor load of extra special feed and were hard at work chewing - after a while they were all neatly arranged within the tractor tyre tracks. If you were feeling artistic, you could design the cows in the field by the way you drive the tractor!

Many things in New Zealand have two names - Taranaki is also known as Mount Egmont, but it seems that Taranaki is it's preferred name.

Although we were actually out on the roads working and checking out whether work has been done and which things that have suddenly appeared as a result of the rain need attention, it's hard not to notice how beautiful the scenery is around you! This picture shows you just how spectacular the volcano in the Taranaki area is - apparently there are very few volcanos world wide which have snow covered slopes - Stephanie would be the one to ask about that!

Signs under attack

Some of the signposts in New Zealand are a little overgrown with moss - it seems that it can take hold just about anywhere and if you don't have your finger on the pulse of things, you could find your shoes 'growing' in your cupboard! Most of the signs though, get cleaned from time to time - I just wonder who does that job and what their 'career title' could be - Sign de-mosser? Apparently it is quite a serious thing and I suppose understandably one should be able to read what the sign says if it's to be of any use to anyone - but to be honest, most folks don't even see these signs (below) beside the roads!

Happy Birthday to me!

Here's to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday this year with cards and calls and presents - Thank you! I was concerned that it might be one of the birthdays that one would rather forget, but as it turned out, so many folks made such an effort to make the day special that I enjoyed the day enormously and didn't feel as though we were 13,000 km away from most of my special people!
And yes, for those of you who are curious, the wine in the glass is South African - plonk, but South African!

Friends and neighbours

We have started to make new friends here in Wanganui - Junay(far right) 'met' Mariska (second from the right) on Facebook and the evening this picture was taken, they had met in person for the first time! Mariska and her husband and sons were on a little trip around the North Island and taking a break from the bright lights of Auckland where they have been since their arrival in New Zealand about a year ago. The Top Ten holiday resort in Wanganui is owned and run by Andre and Marti van Schalkwyk - that's Marti on the far left of the picture. She and Andre have been in New Zealand and in Wanganui for the past ten or so years, so are an absolute wealth of information and assistance for new immigrants.

Shouts, brillos and the Bokke!

You no doubt have realised that there has been very little time spent on this blogspot over the past couple of weeks! It's good news really in that all our belongings are now basically de-boxed and de-crated and most have a 'home' in our home! The heap of empty boxes on the back deck was starting to look like they multiply of their own accord while we are asleep, but we were very pleased to hear that Pickfords will be collecting the last of them in the course of next week. There is some damage and some loss in the form of a couple of broken plates and a few 'missing' items - these we will try to claim from insurance for (since we paid so much for the compulsory insurance) one does have to wonder how 'compulsory' the compensation will prove to be though.
Since we have now transferred all our broadband etc over to our desktop computer, the laptop is now sitting quietly in a corner with all our New Zealand photographs on it and so this entry won't have any pictures attached - sorry to all of you who don't ever read any of this and just check out the pictures! Here's hoping we make the time (and remember) to transfer all the photographs over in the next day or so - there are some new pictures to see so there is something to look forward to right there.
We are getting better with the lingo here - initially Jo was battling with the accent as well as the lingo, but he's a real fast learner and the guys at work can no longer fly anything past him for too long!
"Grab your brillo and lets head down for an ale, it's my shout" doesn't faze us anymore - need a translation?
OK - it means: The weather is looking a little inclement and could rain, so make sure you have your umbrella with you and we can meet at the local public establishment for a drink - and I will be prepared to pay for the said drinks."
"We are putting up a roast for tea, but you can bring a plate" means: Please join us for the evening meal which we will supply the main course but bring along an appropriate plate of something else which will go with the said roast" It does NOT mean - bring your own crockery.

There has been a lot of rain recently - not unusual since it is winter and in winter in New Zealand, it rains - it appears to rain in summer too, but that is to be expected when you take into account that the whole of the country is green - VERY green - all year round. The disadvantage to all this wonderful greenness, is that the lawn needs mowing all year round!
Our garden is sadly in need of our attention, but we have been too busy to keep up with this blog, so you can just imagine how much less time there has been for pottering about in the garden! Now that there are really only a couple of boxes to re-organise, it looks like we will be waiting for the next good weather day and hit the garden with a vengence!
Our pianos are still in Auckland - the required 'cites' certificate has apparently been issued and we are doing our best to get the pianos released without the original document - if we are unsuccessful on that front, we will have to wait for 'snail mail' to get the document to the right folks in Auckland and then wait for the pianos to finally be delivered here to us in Wanganui. By the way - the town name is pronounced - wonganooee.
We have been holding the South African flags high - literally. With the rugby last weekend, the guys at the office had stuck a picture up on Jo's door of a Springbok (the deer variety) with the crosshairs of a rifle superimposed. Jo had a LARGE South African flag rolled around a long stick and on arrival at work whipped out the flag with huge aplomb. On Monday morning, after the brilliant win by the Bokke, the office conversation was devoid of anything rugby for at least a few hours! Later in the day apparently, it was conceded that the All Blacks 'made so many mistakes' and all the kiwis would have to keep to their side of the bargain and provide the 'shout' on Friday. In this case, the 'shout' is cake all round - some to celebrate and the rest to mourn. YAY THE BOKKE!!!
It's just so interesting to note that the previous weekend we had been yelling like loons for the All Blacks when they played against Australia - suddenly in the space of a week, we are against the All Blacks with a passion! YAY THE BOKKE!

Happy Birthday Allan! and huge CONGRATULATIONS on your graduation! All of you guys who are reading this and know that Allan is Jo-anne's hubby (the chappie in the family wedding photographs in a skirt) can raise a wee dram with us - we are so proud!
We are going to be going over to friends this evening for a 'barbie' - taking a plate and looking at the weather will no doubt have to have our brillo close by.
Dis al!