Saturday was my excuse to head off into the hills. This time to a much closer mountain bike trail at Te Miro about 10 miles away. I managed to do 8km and was home in time for a bacon buttie as the girls were just getting up at 11:30. Joined a very social group of cyclists on Monday – whilst demonstrating how to do a perfect jump to his kids Ian managed to do a pirouette on his front wheel before elegantly breaking his collar bone – the arrival of the ambulance to recover a damaged cyclist reminded me of those thoroughly enjoyable Wednesday evenings in Warwickshire.
If you think that this looks a bit like Hobbiton (Lord of the Rings I think) then there is a good reason for this as it was filmed very close by - apparently the Waikato region is as close to the Shire as you are going to get......
The trusty ride-on mower has its last pre-service outing and I managed to get my lap record down to 17 mins 23 seconds a massive 121 seconds off my previous best.
On Sunday we drove down to the SPCA dog home in Te Awamutu to go puppy choosing – they would have come back with all of them given the chance. I just need to work out how to secure our 360m of fencing to stop aforementioned hound becoming a tasty piece of Kiwi road-kill. Options include chicken wire – which will look ugly and take me ages to install, a secure and small compound in the garden or an upmarket ASBO canine collar that gives the dog a friendly reminder (electric shock) whenever it strays too close to the wire I fix around the perimeter of the garden. The gizmo makes a doggie audible beep before it zaps the hound and apparently the dog soon learns that if he does not retrace his paw prints pretty rapidly a zap will shortly follow. It all sounds very Pavlovian!
Please don’t confuse Pavlov with Pavlova – Pavlova is a kiwi invention (1926 in honour of a visiting Russian ballet dancer) involving meringue and cream whilst Pavlov is the guy who rang bells before feeding dogs (possibly with Pavlova). Who says this blog isn’t educational.
Currently re-packing the car for a 5 night trip to Napier – discovered that this useless MPV is a lot smaller than our old Ford Galaxy and what would easily fit into the trusty Ford will not fit into this vehicle. Not only is it small but it is the only vehicle in NZ without a tow hitch so I can’t partake in the traditional Sunday morning kiwi activity of driving around town towing an empty trailer behind me….
Napier has a few gems, it is the world’s most complete Art Deco city – mainly due to the fact that all the previous buildings were destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 – very conveniently at the start of the Art Deco movement. The earthquake also lifted up a huge piece of seabed that is now the airport. Nearby are beaches and vineyards – so I think there will be some haggling about where we spend our days! Watch this space.
Richard
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