Whangerei and Whareora

WEDNESDAY

Sparrow peep and Bede and I have been to Pataua North beach to watch the sun rise. Superb little holiday village and wonderful beach spot. Lots of good pics.

Norm Gavin's brother is currently down at Noto deer hunting where they accessed the reserve by helicopter. So we don't get to meet Norm. Irene Gavin's mother has come out to the farm at Whareoara for the morning so it is a great time of catching up. Currently 9:30 and it is a hive of activity as a wide extended family swap notes and catch up. more later!

TUESDAY

Family- heaven or hell ! In this case heaven! Growing up as an only child with only rare forays out to extended family it has been an incredible experience driving up to Whangerei with wife Coral and my aunt and uncle to meet first and second cousins for the first time. Also it was great to meet Whitney and Darien - Gavin and Jolen's two lovely daughters and my third cousins (I think- I'm not strong on genealogies!)

My generation is spread out across 45 years. Doug in Melbourne was born is 1929, Penny the bride of the moment was born in 1974. Peter (blue shirt on left) who we have travelled here to meet was born in 1935 and his family emigrated soon after to NZ . One wonders how many people can be squeezed into a small farmhouse but Gavin (Peter's second son) and wife Jolene are doing a pretty good job!

Peter recently suffered a major stroke but he is recovering well and his- in-laws brought him down here to catch up with everybody. Jolene has spent the day cooking up a storm with endless cups of tea and heaps of food on the table Gavin worked in the cow shed in the evening milking nearly 300 cows in a 32 unit dairy.

It was an awesome sight watching 32 bovines lined up side by side at 45 degrees in a herringbone bails with 32 setS of teat cups milking away at one time. Also good to take a brief spin up the paddocks with Gavin as he shifted some cattle around. I can't get over the lush pastures with its high stocking rate. It seems the pasture is ploughed and replanted annually which would keep it fresh.

MONDAY

First day anywhere new can be a tad bewildering. However I coped better than expected. Picked up the hire car, bought a prepaid pack for Coral's mobile (mine is network locked because it is prepaid), "discovered" the organ I will be playing and engaged in some quality practice time. And enjoy some more sleep. I didn't find driving here stressful soon finding my way around.

We finished enjoying dinner out with Helen our hospitable host. We had planned on eating at Valentine's but they were booked out so it was Pizza Hut instead :)

SUNDAY

Good trip to the airport courtesy of Terry and Donna.

We were impressed with the service from Air NZ We went to the desk to check in then collected a wheelchair for Coral- were so well looked after. It was a quick and painless trip through Customs and security. I even got to tag along behind and dodge all the queues because we were together on the one ticket!

Well apart from dum dum me having a two-ring binder of music in my carry- on luggage. Ended up with security guy doing a manual search of my bags! The x ray of the folder had them worried because sharp blades can be stashed in the spine of such things But the security guy was very light-hearted about it all.

I really appreciated the coaching Graham gave me in overseas travel when we flew to NZ two years ago to cycle the South Island. Coral is very experienced too after her Europe trip last year.
So good to get in the transit lounge to find Uncle Alan and Aunt Rosemary (parents of the bride) - like all of us getting older but still bright and cheery. I found it awesome looking out the plate glass windows of the ''sterile area" (I love the terminology) planes, tarmac vehicles- activity everywhere. Boarding the plane again we were so well looked after . Coral was identified early and a hostess came looking for her to board her first.

We taxied out ahead of time and were soon airborn. Initially I thought pda's would be banned for the duration of the flight however once we had climbed to cruising altitude non- transmitting devices were allowed. The lights of Brisbane were magic out to the left hand side.

Dinner was most enjoyable polenta with a vegetarian wrap of some sort for Coral & chicken something-or-other for me with a tasty Merlot wine.

NZ is always fussy about bio- security. Not surprising for a country so heavily dependant on primary industry. Last time Graham and I had our tents very thoroughly checked. This time at Hamitons new terminal Alan and Rosemary had the ''red aisle" treatment. Equine influenza is still a very real threat in Queensland and Alan and Rosemary had just left their farm to travel to NZ.

The drive into Hamilton took us right past the Icepack cold stores where the local Senior Station Officer was killed and several fire fighters seriously injured Saturday afternoon in a massive explosion. Clouds of smoke were still rising in the glare of flood lights a night later as a ladder truck hosed down the remaining fires in the Cold stores.