The beach, barbecue, and better blues notes

Otaki beach after a full moon low tide with Emily, baby Bonnie, Sarah, Tony, and Gregg

 The full moon gave us a very low tide and Carla was able to gather an abundance of pipi clams for a barbecue. Gregg grilled a lot of them with apple cider basting that was yummy. I had gone out for another sea fishing jaunt but the conditions were not favorable this time, and as I jumped out of the boat to help us get in from the fishing I took a spill in the surf and moments later realized that I had lost my eyeglasses in the surf. After hours of searching and no luck I made up two signs with Gregg's help to post on the beach in case anyone found the eyeglasses washed up, but still no luck. Perhaps there will be a new kind of sea glass, with wire frames, that will turn up in the driftwood pile years from now.

barbecue fun with Danny, Sarah, Haki, and Carla

Carla's marae "before"

Carla's marae "after"

 These shots have been in the blog before but for fun I put them side by side here. The marae is now fully loaded once again with all the appointments of home and office.

Gregg telling stories at home, he said he needs another haircut.

Gregg's apple press, recently hand sanded and waxed by MBHIII

The apple picking bags just power washed and ready for the big picking weekend coming up.

Rainbow bolt shooting out of Gregg and Carla's

The driftwood wall at Te Horo beach made for great beach combing. 

 My dad had his bladder and prostrate removed early on Tuesday April 10th. His bladder was full of cancer and fortunately the cancer seems to have been contained to the bladder. I had given a lot of thought to going home early in part so I could be there with mom and dad when he left the hospital. Recent exchanges with my family however suggests that Dad came through the surgery really well. Mom is coping quite well too. Dad has been out of the ICU for a couple of days and is walking quite a bit. It is likely to be several more days before they let him go home, but my sense of things now is that I can stick it out here in New Zealand until May 10th as originally planned. I am off to the island of Kapiti, about 3 miles off the coast and nearby, tomorrow. It is primarily a bird sanctuary, a dedicated nature preserve. Carla made the arrangements for the boat permit and visitor reservations. Her dad Maurice is visiting and will go with us. He is probably the healthiest 90 year old I have ever met. I'll hopefully get a lot of good pictures that I can post here in the near future.

Traveling on the train can be a lot of fun with unexpected treats like a mandolin player

Two day trip up Mt Hector

Biking the ten miles up into the Otaki Gorge to reach the trail head for Mt Hector

 I decided to take advantage of a good weather forecast and bike the ten miles up into the Otaki Gorge above Gregg and Carla's home. Biking with the 50 pound backpack made it a challenging ride up into the gorge where there are several places where the road edge has no railing and it drops virtually straight down into the river more than a hundred feet below. So I felt encouraged to pay attention, especially because many of these sections are narrow and only allow one vehicle to travel at a time. In another section the stream has to be forded but thankfully is only about a half foot deep. I left my hut fees for the absent caretaker and locked the bike and helmet to a tree and began my tramp up into the high country.

The first hobbit house along the trail

 The tramper must spend a couple of hours working through the lower elevations of 'bush' before getting above the tree line. I reached Field Hut while no one was there at 4pm and decided to push on through the next few hours to make it to the second hut, Kime, before it got dark. The bush is varied and in some places would be very dangerous to leave the well worn trail as the bush either side is nearly impenetrable with heavy vine growth, and thick trees where the ridge falls away steeply on both sides. The tree growth is very jungle like with great berths below some trunks that the local hobbits have taken advantage of and set up home. The furnishings inside are quite simple and serviceable- for hobbits that is, well, and probably the visiting dwarf that comes up through the undergrowth from time to time. If you happen to chance a meeting with a hobbit as I did you would do well to remember that they do not appreciate photographic intrusions into their private quarters without a proper advanced notice of visitation. I was frankly thanked to put my camera away after the second photo was taken. Appologies were accepted and I pushed on with advice to not linger in the tussock meadow as a small storm appeared to be likely.

The second hobbit house along the trail.

It's like a jungle in the reaches of the lower mountains

The interior of the first hut- Field, along the trail

My destination for the night is up in the clouds

 The tramping went well until the last hour the first day. The wind picked up and the cloud descended with rain spitting sideways. Fortunately I had a good amount of warm gear and was able to keep from getting too cold before reaching the hut and a dry place to spend the night. I had carried my tent with my just in case, but did not have to use it.

Early morning view to the south the second day, coming down from Mt Hector

 The next morning was clear to the summit of Mt Hector, the high point of the Southern Crossing. I was up early and on the summit just after sunrise.

View to the north, including the coastline just north of Otaki on the far left

Panorama from the summit of Mt Hector looking west toward the Pacific, with Kapiti Island 

The long exposed alpine ridge that I traveled the evening before with lots of wind and sideways rain

On the summit of Mt Hector with the view to the south at about 8am my second day

Otaki Forks and the alluvial flood plain that Otaki sits on, with the big Tasman Sea stretching to the horizon westward

 It felt like a long tramp out from the summit of Hector, and then the 10 mile bike ride up and out of the gorge to get back to Gregg and Carla's. Well worth the effort, but my legs showed me they were not used to that level of exertion and remained very sore for the next three days. Now I am back to normal with some great photos and a better sense of this part of New Zealand.

Kime Hut, the high hut where I spent the night with five others and then went up to the summit for the sunrise.

Sunrise at Kime Hut

Alpine cat walk at about 4000' to keep trampers drier and protect the tussock meadow.

Arts and Framing

Among some of the art venues I took in this past month was the National Portrait show. Below are three examples of New Zealand's impressive realism portraiture. 

Detail from "The Other Sister" by Sofia Minson

Detail from "Tom" by Andre Bronnimann 

Detail of "I Live, I Die" by Peter Miller

 Below is an example of the many creative treatments to the sidewalks here.

 I worked with Gregg and his crew of two other men getting all the prebuilt wall frames into place for Cathy Tracy's new home.

 Cuba street is always a fun space to visit, with its  wide open space, colorful mall and street performances.

 I was able to replace a cable on the bike derailed and then get enough gears to make it reasonable to tackle the sometimes steep grade up into the Otaki Gorge. With its steep drop offs I had to be very attentive, as most places do not have any significant barrier for anyone loosing control and leaving the edge of the road. In some places the drop off is nearly straight down and more than a hundred feet down to the river.

 The giant fern tree is common in this area along the gorge, and these fronds are not even fully grown.

Lots of mountainous terrain here, which makes for a very active watershed into the Otaki River.

 The neighbors have a few doves that frequent the yard here to forage for bugs. As long as I moved slowly they were cool with my presence.

 There are lots of creative garden spaces here in New Zealand, and they really like to find good second uses to everything they have.

 Above is the "tunnel" through the plentiful growth here on the Otaki Gorge Road.

Saba, from the Canadian Maritimes, the Ice Breaker sales woman who convinced me to buy a pure merino wool pullover for my next trip here into the high country. 

 Squash continues to bloom here while several pumpkins and squash are already quite large.

Closing with a caption of connection. Reminders and lessons for reaching out for personal growth.

Taking time to smell the ice plants

 Here are a couple of 'nosey' neighbors. Only the first caption reveals a neighbor who is also often noisy. I have taken their lead as of late to remain mindful of what is on the ground about my feet. Partly so that I can keep the floors in the house cleaner! Which is why Gregg and Carla always wear um boots, "Welly's", or crocs so that the fertilizers stay outside helping the apples to grow.

 It had been a rainy few days, with the result that once the weather broke there were a lot of rainbows, for me I set a personal record of seeing seven in two days, mostly while traveling along the coast by train. This one was just when I got off the train in Waikanae. You may be able to see the second bow that did not quite make it into fullness before the rainbow was gone.

 Gregg finished the last coat of urethane on the marae, it is a big room, 1250square feet, the largest I have ever sanded. It was also in the worst shape with decades of chemical spills, hard wear with very significant gouging and cupping. Gregg did a great job of repairing the many holes in the floor, mostly from the pipe chases that supplied the various fluids and gases needed when it was a school chemistry lab. Now Gregg and Carla will decide what goes back in.
The garden continues to go strong, especially with all the rain lately. Everey night I get to pick the freshest salad greens, and always include several nasturtium blossoms.

This is the flower of the ice plant, prevalent along the seashore here. below is the floor frame Gregg and Tony put together last week for Cathy Tracy's new home. Occasionally I get to pitch in, and I will probably get to do a lot with gluing and screwing the plywood deck in place today (Sunday). We are hoping for some sunshine to dry out the framing a bit.