Tuesday 29 May 2018

Cold crispy mornings...


We are starting to get some real cold crispy mornings here. If you check out this link you can see from our local webcams what it's like here.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Sunday 27 May 2018

It's hibernation time...




One of my favourite appliances is our crockpot or slow cooker as some may call it. Every week for the last month we've had soup simmering away in it each Sunday. As Sunday is usually my first day off each week I usually throw either a pork hock or bacon pieces, in this case I put in bacon pieces, 1/4 pumpkin, 1 carrot, 1/2 packet soup mix, 1 packet Maggi pumpkin soup and half a chopped onion. I leave it all day and then we have it for dinner, anything left over gets put in tupperware containers and popped into the freezer for those nights when we don't feel like cooking. As it's gradually getting colder here and we're having more overcast gray skies and rain this is a nice meal to enjoy. I think tonight's overnight coldest temperature is meant to get to about 4 deg celsius. May be time to put the electric blanket on the bed soon.

Other news:

  • Sold my Mazda 6 car finally so now I only have my Nissan Tiida (much more economical).
  • We've been stuck with a nasty flu for the last week, cough, sneezing, blocked noses - the usual winter ailment. Thank goodness it's lemon season cos juice goes awfully well with honey and warm water.
  • We may be moving up north to Kerikeri, one of places we visited recently - the other half is trying to work his way through paperwork so he can transfer from one company to another - watch this space.


What's happening with you?

Friday 25 May 2018

The Old Oak, Mangonui



I have a thing for old buildings - this one in particular is from 1861 and is a registered heritage building. Now a boutique hotel with 6 bedrooms but it was once owned by John McIntosh when the district was seeing a decline in the Whaling industry but even so it bought lots of people from nearby Flax and Kauri mills as well as crew from boats passing through.

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, PAColl-5462. McNeish, James :Photographs and negatives of hotels in New Zealand. [Collection], circa 1910


According to the website alot of work has been done over the years to renovate and restore the establishment to what it is today including re-piling and renovating.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

Monday 21 May 2018

A walk around Whangarei Falls


This is one place we enjoyed seeing. The Whangarei Falls is just out of the city - very popular spot and well organized as we found when we arrived there as parking attendants showed us where to park our car and were friendly and helpful.


We decided to walk around from the start to finish which took us roughly about 20 minutes along a very easy loop walkway past the impressive waterfall.


And as you can see someone wanted his photo taken in front of the falls.....

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Friday 18 May 2018

Crisp fine Autumn morning



I'm enjoying this fine crisp Autumn morning. Pilot Bay here in Mount Maunganui is normally a hive of activity but at the moments it's quietened down as it gets cooler. I have one down with some sort of weird flu and I'm hoping the rest of us don't get it. How's your week been?

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

Wednesday 16 May 2018

Farmland at the Houhora Heads


This is Autumn in the far north of NZ. Houhora Heads is on State Highway 1 on the way to Cape Reinga. An old water hole sits in this paddock for the cattle to drink out of.

Unfortunately here in NZ there are various farms that are in a bad way, some sort of virus is affecting cows so sadly they have to be destroyed. It must be terribly stressful financially to have this happen.

As for us, we may have some news to share shortly...

Monday 14 May 2018

Making headway...


Photo taken last Friday morning at McLaren Falls, Tauranga - at the start of Autumn.

Well...lots going on here. For about 5 years now I've been working on all sides of my family tree, and believe me there are lots and lots of sides to go through. After getting a DNA test done last year I've found out that I have Armenian, Scottish, Irish, British, Scandavian (Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish), Polish, Filipino etc. For my mum's mother's side I had assumed they were only Scottish and Irish. After spending 5 years trying to find something out in the weekend I made headway and ended up going through various Scottish royalty through to English/French/Hungarian royalty back to 1st century Norway.

Now I'm working on the Polish Jewish side...

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Friday 11 May 2018

Those gray skies are coming...


This shot I took when we were driving along one of the main roads near where we live one evening. It's part of the main highway that links Tauranga City to Mount Maunganui, Te Puke and Whakatane.

We have another major storm coming this weekend no doubt with loads of rain and potential flooding for many areas. Thankfully we are in an apartment with good drainage so we never have any problems here but I have a work colleague whose brother lives in Reporoa, another town near Rotorua and in the last storm the region got lashed with, his house was flooded and deemed unrepairable it was so bad. I'm hoping this one is gone quickly...

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

Wednesday 9 May 2018

It's a sea of red in Bethlehem


At one of our shopping centres here in Tauranga there is a suburb called Bethlehem, much like the place in Judea. I was driving past this morning and outside one area of the shopping mall there was a sea of red leafy trees just beginning to lose their leaves. I thought it was quite pretty...

Monday 7 May 2018

Colours are changing...


Colours are changing, days getting shorter and temperatures cooler. Think I need to get back up to our local McLaren Falls Park soon...

Thursday 3 May 2018

Mangonui Fish and Chip Shop



This place is one of my favourite Northland scenes. The Mangonui Fish Shop has won awards over the years for making the best fish and chips in NZ. Located overlooking the Mangonui harbour on the way to Cable Bay then Pahia this place certainly has a peaceful atmosphere - and with scenery like this who wouldn't want to enjoy a nice quiet lunch there.

Linking up with Skywatch Friday.

Cobden Observation Post

  We've been living in Greymouth nearly 2 years now and we finally got to complete this walk to the Cobden WW2 Observation Post . It too...