Covid19 – Week 3

The Harts and Badhams @ home

08.04.2020

So, here we are in Week 3 of the nation-wide lockdown. In our little house on Percy we have 6 people living together.  Our first couple of weeks have gone reasonably well, learning to keep out of each other’s space, learning to respect the quiet times, learning to not eat so much!  Our typical day looks like this:

David up first to have breakfast, followed quickly by the arrival of Nikau (8) and Cleo (2).

Alex arrives soon after but best not talk to her until at least one sip of coffee has slipped through her lips. Rob and I meander in and start our breakfast.  Rob’s breakfast is 1+ as Cleo soon arrives with her spoon in hand with the words “Up, Up”. Comfortably sitting on knee she and Rob eat their muesli and yoghurt in perfect harmony. Newspaper reading has become a popular activity at breakfast time with everyone having their particular part of the paper to read.  Nikau smashes the number crunch and Alex and I do the crossword. David and Rob read every word on the front page and move slowly through the paper.

David off to work, in the truck where he can leave the chaos of family life behind for the stresses of work.  Rob to the paint ladder – he is slowly making his way around the house and it has been a godsend that he had something to do during lockdown. I think the amount of alcohol consumed and domestic disruption would have been far greater if we didn’t have this job to do…  I am no longer engaging in all the lockdown Facebook games that have appeared on my news feed, but have made a decision to phone and actually talk to people. It is far more enjoyable.

Nikau to the daily hour of ‘school’ with me. This has been really fun to do and Nikau is a willing student, until we come to handwriting….. he’s not a fan of it.

 

(It’s annoying I can’t get the photos to align).

Nikau is doing Maths in the photo above with Cleo’s headphones attached!  The letter box is yesterday’s project – not sure why the focus is not right but there you go… in desperate times we put up with the little things.

Everyone is doing daily exercise: biking, walking, backyard cricket, yoga. Lunch is not a casual affair and I fear my waistline is not going in the right direction. Afternoons are spent doing much the same thing but technology is being used a lot. I think we have had a fair dose of Netflix and Neon and Disney. I listen to Jacinda and Ashley Bloomfield’s update at 1pm daily and am always impressed by the calm but assertive nature of our PM. I am proud to be a kiwi at this point in time.  Covid19 has had a large impact upon us and yet still less than many others.  We have work and income, things to do at home, a happy family.

Both Alex and I have not felt that great over the last couple of days.  There are those inner thoughts – “Should I report this? Should I have a test? What if it is Covid19? How do I keep myself away from the family and yet carry on as if nothing is wrong?”  I hope this doesn’t turn out to be prophetic.

Gathered is closed for the forseeable future.  Alex and I are disappointed that some of our competitors have opened up as ‘essential services’.  Selling high-end children’s wear is not essential but again I am reminded to be generous and give people the benefit of doubt.  We have been working on the website and cleaning up our stock on shopify.  It feels a long way away at the moment but I know we are in a good position to re-open when we can.

Today’s project:  digging up the vege garden and getting it ready for when I can actually buy plants..

Families

I have just spent the last couple of hours with Alex going over our business plans.  While we aren’t making any money, we have lots of hope!  I think she has some great ideas and we will now work to see if they can make a difference in developing a more local client base and wider online client base.

Our discussion as always turned to kids.  This week I, like many other people, have had moments of anger and the ‘not again’ thought going round in my head.  Holding Cleo today who is just at 3 months old it is inconceivable that someone would/ could harm a 4 month old baby and yet that is exactly what has hit us.  In my work, I am surrounded by children who are loved but damaged by their families.  Some of our kids have such a narrow view on life because their families are so disengaged or their lives are filled with so much abuse, harm, anger.  Our society is so divided with the haves and the have nots that is hard to know where to start or what to do.  As a teacher, at times I feel so over-whelmed with the level of need, that it is hard to do anything.  Paralysis sets in and it takes a lot to breathe deep and be positive.

Yesterday in South Auckland I saw the excitement and happiness that was the Polyfest.  Yet I know a lot of those kids will also be returning to homes that are less than they need to grow and be well-balanced contributing citizens.  Get a plan in place!

 

 

2018 – LIFE

It is a long time since I have been on this site.  Reading back through my posts has made me think about the importance of keeping a journal of your life.  Yes, you only live once, but remembering the highs and lows of one’s life adds continuous spice to it. So, this is the first blog entry for 2018.  This year is about family, work, study, travel, refurbishing our little wonky home in Percy St.

THE RAPID UPDATE:

a) FAMILY – we lost Dad in 2017 but gained our little Cleo. She is pure joy and much loved.

Cleo, born 1st January, is a wait and see how she develops.  She has the calmest of natures and is, for Alex, an easy baby – if there is such a thing.  She reminds me of her mother as a baby.  Nikau of course, well just look at him. he’s awesome.  The love he has for his little sister is self-evident.

We continue to look after Mum whose health is up and down.  Not quite sure what to think of where she is at.  She is really hard to work with as her thinking is often unclear and she is stubborn!!  Got to love it.  I don’t think she is very happy as life is pretty hard but she gets through the day and is making plans.

All the family are in a relatively good space currently.  Ben has finally seen the light and is making the move this year out of Auckland.  I hope he finds his place in the world and makes his mark.

b) WORK:  Busy busy busy.  Afraid that it is consuming me once again but am trying to keep a life balance by going to the gym 3 times a week.  Have just spent last week at Bland Bay as Camp cook.  I actually enjoy this as it is a good head break for me.  I have lots of students with lots of need.  My big focus this year is learning to delegate and growing the LSA team into a bunch of really highly skilled assistants.  Tracey Aitken and I are heading to Vancouver mid-April to attend a FASD conference and, of course, a few days skiing at Whistler.  Which brings me to the third point on the list…..

c) STUDY:  Busy busy busy. Why do I do this to myself? Have enrolled at AUT to do a post-graduate dip Prac with the intention of doing some work which may lead me into consultancy.  First lecture is next week so will update how this goes then.  My big problem when studying is giving up when time pressures take over. I know I will have to be super focussed on finishing this and maintaining good time management.

d) TRAVEL:  Vancouver, Whistler – April;  Wanaka, September – after that, who knows?

e) REFURB:  This is something that is for me.  I am finally getting to refurbish a house how I want my home to be.  Rob is being amazing at working through this.  We have just started our first big overhaul – the main bathroom.  Upload photos.

Homeward Bound 10 Dec 2016

So the convoy of the truck and the car has now completed 3 legs of our journey northward.  Sad to leave Wanaka – it has been a place of joy for us. We will be back!!  Leg 1 took us back into the horror weather of the West Coast.  Yep, it was windy and wet with sporadic short periods of sun bursting through.  Enjoyed the road though, but driving Little Blue, my Impreza rather than riding. Had to stop in Haast to remind me what a desolate place it is.

The photo above was Wanaka on Friday, 9th December.  Weather not wonderful at that stage but it did clear later on.  This is a view that will remain with us as we head north and until we return again.

Last view of Lake Wanaka and the only photo worth keeping of the Fantail Falls (on the Eastern side of Haast Pass) due to the zillion sandflies that descended like a haze to start eating my lily white legs as soon as I got out of the car!  I should’ve known this would happen.  End result:  I didn’t get out of the car again until I got to Haast where I could run into a shop.

Arrived in Franz Josef to join with lots of tourists.  Spent a great hour soaking in the hot pools.   Ngai Tahu are making a killing:  $27 each!!  The NZMCA camp in FJ is great – away from the bustle of this tiny tourist town.  Rob enjoyed his evening at a local bar watching the Joseph Parker fight once he cottoned onto a local who had a Local’s card.  This effectively meant that instead of paying the tourist price of $18 for a rum & coke, he paid $9.  I think this blatant price gouging and the chronic abuse of tourists is not on. It certainly is not the Kiwi way.

Photo on the left is Bruce Bay.  It was blowing a gale but it felt awesome to be back beside the sea and……. the sun was shining, at least momentarily!  On Sunday morning did a quick walk (about an hour 1/2 return) up to the bottom of the Glacier.  It is magnificent.  You don’t get to enjoy the serenity of the place with helicopters choppering over the top of you but the view is well worth the little hike.

I would guess we are still a good 1 1/2 – 2 kms from the ice line to give you an idea of how massive the glacier is.  The air is tangily clear, the bush pristine and the waterfalls are spectacular as you walk the track to here.

Leg 2 of our travels took us from Franz Josef back to Lake Brunner.  We were initially going to stay around Hokitika but the wind drove us inland.  Iveagh Bay is handy to do a ride over Arthur’s Pass which we did this morning in the pouring rain.  Broken down diesel truck on the steep parts above the rock shelter meant it was very slow trip back.  Just as well because the road was treacherous in the rain.  Will upload photos of this little hike when they eventually upload into my drive from my phone.  So, this afternoon have driven from Iveagh Bay north to the quaint (I use the word with hope deep in my heart!) little town of Murchison.  Since the earthquakes this little town has become a hive of trucks guzzling every which way and I think the locals are over it.  Staying tonight at the Kiwi Park campground – washing, showering etc.  We’re getting there though, tomorrow night we are on the ferry and then we are back in the North Island.

It’s raining, the sandflies are biting, and I’m on a Fast day.  Not a good combination but writing this has eased the grizzling a bit.

Burt Munro Challenge

I have been away from WordPress for far too long!  We have been working in Wanaka, me at cleaning at Elmslie House and Rob working for Civil Construction.  Has been a bit of a plod but we are nearly finished and we have now paid for our USA trip.

Windy Wanaka has proved itself to be just that and the last 6 weeks have been very average.  However the weather here is 100 times better than that which we encountered in Invercargill this last weekend. Our last big but one ‘tick on the bucket list for 2016’ was the Burt Munro Challenge.  Held every year in Invercargill this is a must do for all bikers.  Bikes and riders of every size and description attend from 80 year olds (and that’s just the bikes!) to the very new; vespas to the biggest, meanest road bikes and Hardleys you can imagine.  Oreti Park was awash with campers hoping the weather gods would stay with them.

Friday evening and the it was the classic Burt Munro beach race.  To appreciate this fully you have to know the story of Burt Munro and the Fastest Indian.  The noise was terrific, the skill level and sheer madness of the riders, extreme.  All in all a great afternoon sitting in the sand dunes with a few thousand others.  The weather held too. Onto Saturday  and I did the Toy Run, a ride of about 150kms and we raised a few thousand for the Salvation Army.  Have to say Rob did not pull his bike out of the back at all for the whole weekend…… but I was out there holding my own with a bunch of about 150 riders.  Rob watched the raceway boys at Teretonga Park.

Burt is celebrated all around Invercargill and the bronze sculpture of him in the photo below can be found just outside the Salvation Army building somewhere in central Invercargill.  Police escort through the streets to get to it was a bit of a chortle.

Photos all taken with my cell phone with gloves on and no glasses to see how set up the shot was so apologies for cutting bits off and the lack of focus.  Anyway did most of the ride in fair weather.  Otatatau, Riverton area was the circuit for this.  Thought I was in for a win with the poker run aspect but alas, my prowess with cards went unrewarded yet again.

Saturday evening saw us walking from the camping ground where we were staying (about 1km down the road from the main camp)to the speedway.  The weather was on the turn and it was cold!  Rain tends to be horizontal and accompanied by hail more often than not in Invercargill. The speedway guys are lunacy on gas.  I don’t know how they do it and the side car passengers are even more maniacal.  It was a very entertaining few hours and a good experience.

Saturday night and the truck was rocking like a boat on the waves. There was so much wind it was unbelievable. And then the rain started in earnest.  We were amazed to find the Sunday street races going ahead.  It was freezing and the wind was still at its height.  Overhead the Air New Zealand pilots were struggling to keep their planes straight as they landed in Invercargill.  And still, the racers were going as fast as cut cats. Rob and I sheltered as much as we could from the wind between races and moved out to get closer as we heard the bikes approaching our part of the track.  Side cars, classic bikes, everyone had a go.  Unfortunately the last hour of the races had to be cancelled.  All the tents in the pit lane were destroyed by wind and it was simply too dangerous to continue.  We trudged back to our home on wheels feeling very smug every time we saw a poor rider on their bike trying to get somewhere dry.  Back to Wannas on Monday and guess what, blue sky and sunshine!!  Was it all just a dream?

Blue Pools #2

Another trip up to Makorora and the Blue Pools never fails to remind us we live in a spectacular place.  First 2 photos are of Lake Hawea from about halfway up the lake.  First one, looking back to Hawea village and the second looking north.  Beautiful.

We continued on, 5 of us cramped into our little Impreza. DOC has advertised they didn’t want people walking the track to the Pools because they are doing 1080 drops.  So was surprised to find about 20 cars at the car park when we got to the Blue Pools.  Thank goodness we lathed ourselves in insect repellant because the mozzies were thick and hungry.  The walk down to the pools is gorgeous and only about 10 minutes.

Water was not as clear as our first visit to the pools but still amazing.  We did lots of exploring, stone skimming and gazing.  Water level lower than previously also.  Love the little stone temples everyone makes in the riverbed.

An hour later turned around and headed back to the Makorora tavern for lunch.  Yummy homemade pies and we were entertained by the very large beer bellies and antics of the Dunedin BSA Motorcycle trip who were doing a two day stint over to Haast and back.

Family

They’re here!!  Picked up David early on Saturday afternoon and then Alex and Nikau later on in the evening.  So wonderful to see them all.  After a casual day on Sunday we hit the slopes this morning;  Alex and Nikau to have a lesson, David to watch (dicky knees).  It was good being back on the slopes after 12 days absence and what a difference to Cadrona.  Snow is now really only on piste.  A lot of cloud today and it was quite murky.  Rob and I got a few good runs in at Captains before we headed back to Base to catch up with the learners.

No photo of Alex yet but here is one of the cool dude on his first run down the Skiwi school slope.  Snow gets really slushy early on so we headed back down the hill to have a celebratory drink at Cadrona Hotel.  Awesome day.

 

 

Dinner at Lakeview – good times

Heading back to Cadrona tomorrow morning for Alex and Nikau to have their second lesson.  Hoping to get them whizzing down the hill in no time and to be able to stop at the bottom!

Milford Sound, Southland

Seeing as I have finally mastered the embedding of my own maps from google thought I would start this post with a map of the Milford Road we travelled 2 days ago.  The road has lots of beech forest  on both sides of the road, making seeing a trial – thankfully not too many tourists when we rode but have to imagine that this is not the norm for this road.

Woke on Wednesday morning to another foggy start.  I think this is the norm for this time of year.  We did a brief detour to Manapouri but as the power station is not open (hasn’t been in use for over 15 months – what’s going on there??) we decided not to spend the $460 to do a cruise around Doubtful Sound.  Seen one Sound, seen them all?  Probably not and I hope this isn’t something we come to regret later on.  Anyway decided to head down the road and find the coast.  Travelled through some very sorry little towns.  Rural NZ is not in a good way.  Tuatapere?  Really?  Derelict houses and businesses to the point where I was getting angry that there has been so little care to support rural communities over a long period of time.

Opekuri is a one street village and these are the main buildings on it.  While it is photographic it also tells us a sad tale of neglect and of hope lost.

Headed a few kms down the road to Monkey Island – the place where the Takitimu is said to have beached and a popular campervan stop.  The wind was freezing and while we had initially decided to stay there the cold breeze, straight of the southern ocean proved too much and we eventually headed to Riverton.

Told you I had it sorted but actually we went via Tuatapere, another desolate story although not as bad as Opekuri.

Above photos are of our brief stay at Monkey Island.  You can walk out to it at low tide and gather mussels. Funnily enough, I was not inclined to climb into that water..

On to today.  We rode to Bluff (yes I have to do another map!)

Easy road and fairly uneventful.  Had a great lunch of blue cod and chips at Bluff beside the port, meandered around the Watchman’s Tower at Stirling Point, didn’t get the photo of us at the road signs because it was a bit further over the hill, and rode back to Invercargill to visit the Hammer Hardware to see the Burt Munro exhibition.  What a surprise that was!

It was amazing.  We must have spent nearly 2 hours there, talking to Neville Hayes and viewing his brilliant collection of classic motorbikes and cars.  Saw the green car from ‘The Fastest Indian”  movie as well as the real bikes and memorabilia.  This is well worth a visit if you are down this way.  Wanted to go out to Oreti Beach but we ran out of time.  Thinking about coming back for the annual Burt Munro Challenge in November.  The following photos tell their own story…

and now for the real thing…

Kingston to Milford Sound

Have had a brilliant day biking the Milford Sound Road.  Returned to Te Anau on the smell of an oily rag and thankfully bumped my way into the Caltex on our return.  No traffic to speak of, good sunshine, what else could you ask for?

This was after a fun day yesterday when we travelled from Wanaka, via Cromwell, to Te Anau.  Pulled my bike out at Kingston (major breath-taking beauty place), went to get petrol from the McKeown Station just up the road to find my card wouldn’t work there.  Decided I had enough petrol to get the 66kms down to Mossburn.  Fuel light was bleeping as I drove into the Challenge station at after sailing down a fairly uneventful road only to find the station doesn’t stock premium fuel.  Little panic attack but had no choice but to turn around and head to Lumsden 18kms away.  Limped into yet another McKeown Station (grrr).  Again card didn’t work.  The friendly police officer was not so friendly there and left before I could figure out what to do.  Thank goodness, Lumsden has some friendly open-minded residents and a nice man paid for  my fuel while I raced to a little dairy 100m down the road to get some cash to give to him.  Back on the road, rushed to Te Anau.  Don’t know how many buses I passed but it was certainly more than 20, all coming from Te Anau.

Kingston, southern end of Lake Wakatipu. Can just see the now defunct Kingston Flyer steam engine in background.

Following photos are of Milford Sound from different points:

And these ones were taken at The Chasm, just back up the road from the Sound.  Rob had a problem with pesky keas which meant he didn’t actually walk to the falls.

Stopped on the way back after coming through the Homer tunnel (which is very dark by the way) behind a tour of bikers on BMWs. By the time we stopped to take this photo my fuel gauge was sending alarm signals and we still had 60 kms to go.  Whew, got back okay. Love my little bike.

 

Glenorchy

We might be injured but we can still drive!  Took little Impreza on this fantastic road – we had a really great couple of hours at this little ‘end of the world village’.  Glenorchy is at the top of the Wakatipu Lake and has as its backdrop Mt Hercules and associated mountains.  Spectacular and quintessentially New Zealand Glenorchy lives up to its rep.  If possible we will get back on the bikes, once Rob’s back is playing ball.

Photos above are of Wakatipu from just South of Wilson Bay.  #1 is looking back to the Remarkables, while 2nd and 3rd are looking across at Walter Peak Station.  Travelling up this road gives you a good appreciation of the isolation and serenity of Walter Peak Station.  Paddocks have greened up bringing some relief to the brown of this mountains.

View up to Mt Hercules, Routeburn track country.

Had the pleasure of watching a Japanese couple having wedding photos taken in this beautiful spot. A good day.