The Pains Begin

On the Monday after the bush fires had cast a shadow over us, for me unpleasantness was to come. Pain began to creep into my body to the degree that a booking had been made for me to visit the local GP on the next day. I drove down to St Heliers, was given a prescription for pain killers, paid my $100 (£50) and returned to base.
Despite the pain I kept my promise to drive the girls out to 'Kelly Tarltons Sea World'. It could not have been a worse day. It seemed that every parent in Auckland were taking their children to an indoor activity. Apparently I got a browny point from my grandchildren. There was one parking space and I beat the other guy to it by reversing the big car, tidily into the space at first go.
I struggled round 'Sea World' taking the usual crop of photos from penguins to sea horses.

 The following day the pain was so bad that in the evening Sally called an ambulance to take me to hospital. Waiting times are no better in NZ than they are in the UK. For hours I lay on a trolley in the A and E unit. A canulla was attached, blood was taken, I was X-rayed and CT scanned. Eventually a doctor came, pronounced that nothing was broken and that I had a trapped nerve at the bottom of the spine. A slight change my medication was made and I was taken home by Sally.
One thing to note is that all of this was free as NZ has a reciprical arrangement with Australia and the UK. Also, the ambulance service is funded differently to ours. Whereas our service is privatised so that the fat cats make the profits, in NZ it is a charity whereby the fat cats make contibutions.
For the next two days I stayed in bed. On the third day I managed to get upstairs.
On Sunday Joni and Fiona arrived. They had made a road trip up from Wellington with visiting family who they left at the airport to fly over to Australia and then home. After a brief visit Fiona flew back to Wellington. Joni stayed on as the three of us were to drive back to Wellington.
I paid a further $100 to see the GP and 'Tramadol' was added to the medications. Nothing improved, so Joni ferried me to 'Outpatients' and we were there from 4.30 pm to 7.00 pm.
We sat it out in 'Ambulatory Care'. For most of the time we sat next to a homeless guy. (Yes! They exist in Auckland). He was discharged, but on our way out we saw him coming back in again. The same test of leg movement was made and an ultrasound scan taken. Cheeky Joni now knows more than me about what goes on in my body. Eventually the lady doctor turned me on my face and pulled my right leg back. There was some screaming. A diagnosis of femoratica was pronounced. The treatment did not change.
The next day there was pain, but it was mangeable. The following day (for some reason) we reduced the pain killers and the pain was unmanageable. On Friday there was better pain manageament and I slept well.
I was just about ready for a 10 hour car journey to Wellington. Eleven days of the holiday had been lost. But now we were off.
It was an early start and the plan was to stop for breakfast at the historical settlement of Ohinewai. Unfortunately, there was failure in the announcement of opening times so we pressed on to Huntley. Despite my poor mobility I insisted on sitting at a window overlooking the Waikato River. Joni had to go outside and take me some pictures of the view.

Unknown to me it would be of the Huntley powerstation. This station is said to burn coal and oil. It has been legislated that the cooling water  must be no more than 25 degs centrigrade before returning to the river. The Waikato River is the longest in NZ and of great spiritual significance to the Maori people.
On south we went; leaving the SH1 to by pass the rapidly growing town of Hamilton. Soon we were on one of the best features of NZ; open roads, surrounded by beautiful countryside. We had an occasional glimpse of the railway line that would carry us back to Auckland. It is difficult to chart our way south. Chiefly because Joni did all the driving and secondly because we were quite mindlessly following the SATNav. (It has been questioned that these devices have robbed us of our sense of geography.)
The first of my problems was now to come. We stopped in a small settlement which had a fabulous restaurant. However, as soon as the first piece of delicious food went into my mouth (Sensored). I had to apologise to the staff and explain to the other diners that is was not the food and that it was my meds. Further along, at another township, we pulled into a MacDonalds for an ice-cream. It was thought that I could digest this. Fifteen minutes later it was proved wrong. At this point I must say that given the history of my reaction to pain killers, I carried a little bucket.
As I have explained, I am uncertain of the route or the sequence of events, but we did stop to view the beautiful Lake Taupo.

We were now in volcanoe country. This is Tongariro National Park. From miles away you get a glimpse of the tallest of the volcanoes, Ruepehu. It is so tall that even in the summer there is snow on the summit. 
Soon after we get a glimpse of the more traditional cone shaped one which is Tongariro itself.

Joni and Fiona have made the Tongariro Crossing in the summer and snow board here in the winter.
From here we swung in a south westerly direction back along the SH1 through townships running along the Tasman Sea. At a place called Otaki we turned off to its beach. I am pretty sure of the location as I sat on a bench facing the northern edge of Kapiti Island.

There was time for Joni and Irene to go and explore the beach.

Then we were on the final leg of the journey; passing some beautiful rounded hills, catching the shadows as the day came to an end.

Arrival in Wellington and a rest for us all.

Happy New Year

It is hard to believe that we are five days into 2020. New years eve was a quiet day in and Sally bought delicious fish and chips for our tea at our second temporary accommodation. 
We really had no intention of staying up to watch the new year in but, somehow we were awake at midnight and caught a glimpse of the fireworks on Sky Tower.

Our new year day visit was to a garden centre. We started with lunch. The garden centre shops have a great view over the harbour.

Next we went to Bunnings where Sally bought soil and other stuff. I took a photograph of my watch showing '2020 1 1'

On Tuesday we had a grown ups visit to Sylvia Park shopping centre. The big change since we were there four years ago is that they have a KMart. All the prices are good and I was able to buy a pair of pale blue shorts.
Two of the places that we told Sally that we would like to visit were Maraetai and Cockle Bay. Suddenly we were in the car and off. Maraetai is a reasonable distance from Auckland. It is a quiet little seaside town. There is always plenty of room to park a car along the front. The sea is a lovely green and the beach is golden, but shelly. A row of building which are mainly cafes face the sea and Waiheke Island is not far from the shore. A group of Maori folk were on the short pier and spend ages delighting in jumping into the sea.

After lunch we decided to drive on round the headland. All along were almost private beaches, occupied by a family.

We drove as far as a pair of modern Maori boats.

Opposite was a modern Maori Marae. This something like a village surrounding a meeting hall.

On the way back we called in to Cockle Bay. This was busier than when we visited last time as we are still in school holidays. However, there was still a massive amount of car parking and the beach was not unduly busy. Cockle Bay is what it says; a beach covered in cockles. (There are restrictions covering the taking of cockles.) The water was a beautifully clear with a green hue and fish could easily be seen near the shore.

 Saturday is always shopping. Ian and me went for short walk down by St Heliers. It was far too windy to take Bubbles for his walk on the beach. In fact it was very windy at PAK'nSAVE. Sally managed to lose one bag to the gale force wind.

On Sunday the four adults and the dog went down to Kohi to dog walk and have coffee. Ian then invited us to go to a farmers market at Hobsonville Point. Hobsonville Point is a peninsula that juts out into the Waitemata Harbour, a 20-minute drive northwest of Auckland's CBD. Until 2011 it was a defence base, but it is now being developed for all Aucklanders. (Source: Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities)
 It looks and feels very much like Milton Keynes and has a similar planning philosophy).
We had good fun looking around the market. We sampled and purchased some lovely cheese. The ice lollies were fascinating.

 The cupcakes were very tempting.

 Ferries come in to the pier from Auckland.

While Ian went to get the car we called in to the brewery. It looks like the brewery is in an old hangar.

The front part was full of customers.

Inside was shiny, modern brewing equipment.

 Almost as soon as we got back, at around 3 o'clock the sky suddenly darkened. Smoke from the Australian bush fires had coloured the sky of most of North Island. Unbelievably, over 100 people in Auckland called the authorities to tell them about it.

At 4 o'clock Sally drove us out to Acilles point for a view over the city. The car park was quite full. We even ran into friends of Zoe who had the same idea.

 It stayed dark all evening. Later I had to drive out to our last accommodation to feed the cat. It felt really eerie being alone on the street. No lighting in the house did not help and I felt for the owners coming back to their dark house.
This morning (Monday 6th) the sky is back to normal. The wind is very strong and, apparently, it rained overnight.

Art and Museum and Disaster

On Friday Joni and Fiona drove us into the city of Auckland to visit the art gallery. Appropriately, for Fiona, the main display was of Danish furniture. The aim was to show the inovations that Danish furniture makers came up with, using new materials, after the second world war.

 Of course packs of the earliest Lego were on display.

For some reason art galleries often have interesting views through the windows.

 At the end of the day we watched the sun set over Rangitoto. Aotearoa means, literally, ao=cloud, tea=white, pale, roa=long. That is 'long white cloud'. It does not mean 'Land of the Long White Cloud'. The name was initially used for North Island and we have often seen the long white clouds form over the sea.

 The next day Sally took me, mum, Joni, Fiona and Emily off to the Auckland museum. Emily was particularly interested in the volcano display. Then we went through to see stuff on Pacific Islanders, photos of old Auckland compared to very recent ones and then into a gallery of Cooke's first landing in New Zealand.

 Finally we headed the war memorial gallery on the way out. 

At one point we stood behind two grandparents and their grand children. Joni said that we were waiting for him to press the button. He was shown how to do it. The lift came, he got on, but no one else did. Grandad went off to find him. The lift returned and the little lad got off with an entourage of Maori dancers and warriors.
Outside the sun was shining.

We went home for lunch and spied Benny enjoying a nap in a white plant pot.

Joni and Fiona were keen to have an ice cream at Mövenpick in Mission Bay and so the five of us set off. It is very delicious ice cream. The bay was full of holiday makers enjoying sea, sand and sun. Bubbles had to be content with a walk on a leash.

 Bubbles did get to chase his ball at Madill's farm in Kohi.
Joni and Fiona left for home that night.
The following day was bright but the wind was cold. After doing our shopping in the morning Sally took us to sea the bays at Titirangi. This is on the west coast. The bays were accessed by roads which were at least tarred, but steep and windy. Titirangi was the first beach that we came to. It was very quite, but a typical NZ bay and headlan arrangement. Even here house were perched on top of the steep hill facing the sea.

 On the shore was a vivid pink jellyfish.

We were driven inland and out again to 'French Bay'. This was busier with more facilities and families enjoying time on the beach.

 Sally spotted, on her phone map, a contemporary art gallery nearby. As the wind was still cold we thought that an indoor visit might be good even though our expectations were not high. However, the gallery turned out to be a very modern. Its full name is Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery. It is a well designed building. The lift could hold 43 people and a bench seat. The gallery featured some of the best artist of NZ. The ceramics were particularly interesting.

 As usual I had to find an interesting view of the building.

 Next door there was the 'Deco Eatery Cafe' in the art deco building. This was a good place for coffee before going home.
This morning (30th December) we got up expecting our usual, uneventful day in the place where we were house sitting. This particular morning my routine was slightly different as I chose to turn on the lights above the mirror in the bathroom. They did not come on. I tried other lights and remembered the brief flicker of the bedroom light. I knew that the lighting circuit trip had gone and so I went down the stairs to the basement thinking that this was where they would be. I put my foot on the tiled floor at the bottom and finished up sitting in two inches of water with blood coming out of my left hand.
I knew that we had trouble. I looked around and water was coming down from the edges of the ceiling into the lower rooms. I could not find a stop cock where they would be in the UK. I tried ringing Sally but she was still asleep. In the end I put on sandals and a shirt and dashed down to wake Sally. She drove us up. She knew where the stop cock was and water stopped flowing. While she mopped and put down towels I was sent off to get a better mop and a dehumidifier. To do this I had a 'crash course' in driving an automatic for the first time in four years. It was not really a crash course and I quickly got control. 
Sally called the owners who called their plumber. Their plumber was on holiday on Waiheke Island. Sally called her own plumber. He only had to make two holes in the ceiling to find the pipe that had split. We can go back tonight.