Plants of Locko……

…… were looking beautiful today. It wasn’t the brightest or warmest, but Locko Park House was looking lovely, and many flowers were in bloom.

The arboretum walk was beautiful and calm.  Lots of gorgeous coloured rhododendrons.

Mahonia japonica

Where the dogs go……

Pine cone. Must find out what kind.

Paper birch (with ladybird).

Redwood bark.

Acer palmatum.

Knobbly lime tree.

Araucaria araucana bark at the bottom of the tree. I love this effect.

Drifts of hostas. Not a slug in sight. The bastards……

Perennial cornflowers.

Lily of the Valley.

Nekkid woman on the terrace.

50 Things……

…… to do before you are 11 and three-quarters. The latest study by Play England showed a third of parents will not let children do ‘risky activities’ like climbing trees. In an effort to give both parents and children more confidence the National Trust have created a list of ’50 things to do before you are 11 ¾’.

A report commissioned by the National Trust found children today spend fewer than ten per cent of their playtime in wild places. Dame Fiona Reynolds, the Director General of the Trust, said children need to reconnect with nature by playing the games generations before them have enjoyed.

“Getting outdoors and closer to nature has all sorts of benefits for our children. It keeps them fit, they can learn about the world around them and most of all its fun. That’s why it’s so worrying that so many children today don’t have the opportunity to experience the outdoors and nature. Building a den, picking flowers, climbing trees – the outdoors is a treasure trove, rich in imagination. It brings huge benefits that we believe every child should have the opportunity to experience. And there are huge costs when they don‘t. As a nation we need to do everything we can to make it easy and safe for our children to get outdoors. We want to move the debate on and encourage people and organisations to think about how we take practical steps to reconnect children with the natural world and inspire them to get outdoors.”

Bloody hell – do kids seriously not do these things anymore?! See the full list below. What have you done?:

1. Climb a tree
2. Roll down a really big hill
3. Camp out in the wild
4. Build a den
5. Skim a stone
6. Run around in the rain
7. Fly a kite
8. Catch a fish with a net
9. Eat an apple straight from a tree
10. Play conkers
11. Throw some snow
12. Hunt for treasure on the beach
13. Make a mud pie
14. Dam a stream
15. Go sledging
16. Bury someone in the sand
17. Set up a snail race
18. Balance on a fallen tree
19. Swing on a rope swing
20. Make a mud slide
21. Eat blackberries growing in the wild
22. Take a look inside a tree
23. Visit an island
24. Feel like you’re flying in the wind
25. Make a grass trumpet
26. Hunt for fossils and bones
27. Watch the sun wake up
28. Climb a huge hill
29. Get behind a waterfall
30. Feed a bird from your hand
31. Hunt for bugs
32. Find some frogspawn
33. Catch a butterfly in a net
34. Track wild animals
35. Discover what’s in a pond
36. Call an owl
37. Check out the crazy creatures in a rock pool
38. Bring up a butterfly
39. Catch a crab
40. Go on a nature walk at night
41. Plant it, grow it, eat it
42. Go wild swimming
43. Go rafting
44. Light a fire without matches
45. Find your way with a map and compass
46. Try bouldering
47. Cook on a campfire
48. Try abseiling
49. Find a geocache
50. Canoe down a river

I think I can safely say I’ve done all but no44, and no50 was sea kayaking, rather than going down a river. And in all fairness, when I was a kid, geocaching was possibly up there with the hovercars/living in space of the future. We didn’t even own a TV before I was 11.

In the wilds…

… we are this evening. We have a lovely log cabin in Keldy Forest, complete with hot tub. Late afternoon we went for a bike ride. Well, Rob rode. I squeaked. The brakes need a clean. The peace and tranquillity of the forest was regularly shattered by the screaming of my brakes. Despite the noise, we saw several pheasants, loads of birds and two deer. On the balcony of the cabin, Rob put loads of birdseed, so we’ve been visited by sparrows, chaffinches, great tits, blue tits and a nuthatch. All watched warily by a feral cat.

Update: we are home now, but I can thoroughly recommend staying there!  Loads of wildlife, a short drive from all good wee places in the North York Moors National Park.  I particularly liked being able to come back after a day out walking or whatever and lie in the hot-tub with a glass of wine watching the stars.  We had absolutely gorgeous weather for March and it was a fantastic birthday treat. Had an amazing birthday dinner at a pub in Hartoft (Blacksmiths Arms). I had venison carpaccio on rocket with parmesan and balsamic drizzle, followed by half a honey roast duckling with a black cherry sauce and vegetables.  Rob had smoked salmon (which was lovely) and the best steak I have ever tasted.  We were both stuffed and lay in comfy chairs by the fire before rolling out to the car to go back to our log cabin, where I wallowed in the hot tub for hours with a bottle of wine.  What a fab way to spend my birthday.

Penguins in Jumpers……

…… are cute.  Get knitting guys.  Anyone who’s got spare wool (who isn’t donating it to a, ahem, cause next weekend), can put it to good use by knitting these wee guys a jumper.

Since the Rena hit the Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga, there’s a awful lot of seabirds washed up onshore covered in oil and needing help.  These little blue penguins aren’t the only ones affected – dotterels, albatrosses and storm petrels are amongst the species affected.  For those of us not in NZ – just remember that your local wildlife rescue centre may need jumpers for animals and birds that have been taken in.

 

The Holiday revisited, part seven……

……Thursday 5th – Friday 6th November

Day 18

The Overlander at Ohakune

The Longest Day.  We arose at 5.30am, showered and lugged our bags down the many many steps from Bobby and Clare’s house to the car, where we drove blearily to the rail station in Wellington.  My sleep-fogged brain registered that Bobby only had to pay $8 to park in the middle of town for the whole day. $8! To park for a whole day in the capital city?! Marvellous.  One coffee and cinnamon scroll later, we hopped on the Overlander for our 12 hour journey up North Island to Auckland.  If anyone thinks that planning this the day before flying back to the UK, a word of advice.  Don’t.  It was the stupidest idea ever in the history of bad travel planning.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice train journey with beautiful views, but TWELVE hours of it was enough to make me wish I’d flown or driven.  Anyway – the views are all a bit weather dependent, and we left Wellington in drizzle, so the Kapiti coast was not looking its best.  We did see Ruapehu and Tongariro, the Raurimu Spiral was a feat of railway engineering and mostly the scenery was green and worth looking at, but TWELVE HOURS.  The other thing I forgot was that most trains enter cities and towns through the grimy industrial bits.  Hmm.  We landed in Auckland at about 7.30pm and decided that we could do with the exercise, so we walked up Queen Street to our apartment (nearly to K Road).  Bloody hell, it was a long way dragging a wheely suitcase, but I needed the exercise.  Apartment was small and not as nice as the first one, but it was only for one night.  We walked back to Vivace for our final evening meal in NZ (I’m not counting the food in the airport the next evening).  It was very good food – I had veal with asparagus and some really nice sauce of some description.  We downed a bottle of Freefall Pinot Gris between us, had cheesecake, and wandered back up the street stuffed and tipsy.

Day 19

Lookout!

The lovely staff at Bianco off Queen let us leave our luggage with them after we had checked out, so we left it and went to the Zoo!!  We spent all day there – the weather was brilliant, and all the animals were out.  The Africa enclosure looked a bit sad and dusty (one lonely zebra) but the meerkats were great.  You can climb down under the meerkat enclosures and go through tunnels, popping your head up (in a Perspex dome) in their enclosure.  We saw everything and were hot dusty and tired by the time we caught the bus back to Queen Street.  We collected out luggage and headed off to catch the airport bus.  Not much to say about waiting in the international departure lounge at Auckland airport.  You could be anywhere.  We took off at 11.45pm on the Friday and landed at Heathrow at 1.35pm on Saturday, having eaten the usual airline food and watched a wide selection of movies.

So that’s it folks – the big trip was over.  We liked it.  We’ll be going back

The Holiday revisited, part four……

……Friday 30th – Saturday 31st October

Day 12

The Whale Watch trip got cancelled due to untranquil seas.  To be fair, we didn’t think it looked too bad (based on numerous dive trips in hairy weather) but hey, it wasn’t our call.  It was a bit grey and drizzly, on and off, so we rebooked for the 7am start trip the next day.  We thought we’d get up at the crack of dawn, check out and park up at the whale place and go and do the early sailing, then head north to Blenheim.  So, what to do in Kaikoura on a drizzly day?  Llamas anyone?  We headed off for second breakfast and then walked along the main street.  That didn’t take very long, so we wandered along the steep pebbly beach and watched the waves for a bit.  Fair undertow. And lots of lovely rounded sea-worn pebbles, mostly either black or white.  Also lots of lovely worn driftwood.  We drove back to Point Kean to look at the seals and seabirds.  The tide was out, so we had a wander round the headland and found a big dead seal wedged in a crack above the huge tideline.  On the way back to town, I spotted fields which had big clumps of wild arum lilies, which were beautiful.  We had a relatively quiet night in a nice bar in town before weaving home for an early night.

Day 13

Whales are go!  We got up at stupid-o’clock and had a light brekkie before checking out and heading over to Whale Watch. Grabbed a coffee and then were bussed across to the wharf to a rather swish looking twin hulled catamaran.  It looked like a 3m swell outside the breakwater.  Not bad.  Until you discover that you can’t go outside whilst the boat is underway (it’s a bit bouncy).  And they try to chat to you about whales and get you to look at some graphics on a big flat-screen tv.  The guy two rows behind started throwing up about 5 minutes in.  He wasn’t quiet about it – in fact, it was loud and I think he threw up his breakfast and all his dinners from the last week.  Then other people started vomiting.  I felt generally ok until the woman next to me went white, then green, then grabbed a sick bag and started throwing up. That was it for me – I can’t stand the sight, sound or smell of other people being sick.  So I lost my brekkie. I’ve never been seasick, and I’ve been out in boats in some fairly hideous weather (including the tail end of a cyclone) so I was a bit pissed off.  The crew stopped the boat every so often and used hydrophones to locate sperm whales coming up from the deeps.  Eventually, we found one – Old Nick – who bobbed about on the surface for about 5 mins then did the classic tail up and slipped into the depths.  We saw loads of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters.  The albatrosses were amazing – vast white wings, gliding without effort across the waves.  I was impressed.

Back on dry land, we headed north, stopping at Ohau Point to look down the cliff on a seal colony – complete with some little seals!  Sweet but stinky.  The drive north to Blenheim was pretty – hilly and windy (after the coastal bit) and then lots of vineyards as we got closer to Blenheim.

Blenheim – the only town I’ve ever seen that has a roundabout with a railway line through it.  What’s that all about then?!  We stayed in a fairly unremarkable hotel (Heartland Hotel) on a corner of Seymour Square.  It was about 2 minutes walk over into the main town shopping area, and as was traditional in the UK many many moons ago, almost everything closed at noon on a Saturday.  We arrived abut 1pm, so it was like a ghost town, apart from the obligatory emo skateboarding kids hanging around benches.  We had dinner in a very nice Chinese restaurant – I had prawns and sweet chilli sauce and then salt and pepper squid.  Rob had spring rolls and then becuase he couldn’t remember exactly what he ordered, he started eating the main course the waitress gave him, which turned out to be the wrong one.  She came and gave him his actual main and took the wrong one away, and then returned it stating that chef said he might as well have it.  The course sizes were enormous – one main would really have done both of us.  There was tonnes of food left over and it all looked a bit silly.  The couple at the table next to us thought it was hilarious.

Early night, as we needed to drop the car off in Picton at 9am the next day (no idea why I organised it that way).

The Holiday revisited, part three……

……Monday 26th – Thursday 29th October

Day 8

Picked up the car – a free upgrade on the basis that they didn’t have the manual gear budget car that I’d booked.  A snazzy 2l Ford Focus with air con and cruise control!  Huzzah.  Rob was well chuffed.  After a swift trip to Foodtown for essential supplies (diet coke and Cheezles, but couldn’t locate chillies) we checked out and headed over to Arrowtown for a last visit (for a while anyway).  Had a cuppa and general nattering – Rob managed to get one photo of us all paying attention and looking in the right direction.  After hugs and kisses (and snot) we said goodbye and headed off north towards Cromwell (home of the big fruit) and Highway 8.  I love the countryside north of Cromwell, especially heading over the Lindis Pass.  We just bimbled along, occasionally stopping.  It peed with rain all the way to Lake Tekapo.  We did a detour up to Mount Cook village, past the Hermitage to the visitor centre.  They’ve got a new exhibit area there (or at least I don’t remember it last time) and it was really interesting, with lots of information about the geology and flora and fauna.  They also had all the memorial books, with an entry for each person who’s died on the mountain.  Sobering reading.  Lots of people.  The coffee shop here was the only place I had a horrid coffee on the entire trip (flat white mmmmm) Disappointingly, Aoraki declined to peek out from behind the curtain of rain AGAIN.  Foiled.  I am perhaps destined not to see it.  Lake Pukaki was very blue (in the drizzle).  We headed off as the weather was turning worse and the forecast was snow down to 500m.

Lake Tekapo was also a milky blue as we drove into the YHA carpark.  Well, what we could see through the steady drizzle.  This was Rob’s least favourite part of the holiday – I made him stay in a youth hostel.  I quite liked it, and you always meet interesting people. It was basic, but fine, IMHO.  We went for a wander along the lake shore (bloody freezing) and for a wander around the main village area (the dead zone).  Following a delicious stir-fry, we and several other people settled down to watch a movie, but I bailed really early as I was knackered.  Rob stayed up and drank gin with random strangers, including a German psychiatrist who looked far too young to have qualified as a psych (clearly I’m getting old).  I’d have loved it to be a clear night, as Tekapo’s supposed to be the best place in NZ for spectacular stargazing, and you can do tours at the observatory on the hill outside town.  But it was not to be.

Day 9

Up early, brekkie and a quick wander along the lake shore.  Again, it was bloody freezing and it had snowed up at the observatory overnight.  There were loads of lupins not quite yet in flower.  It must be spectacular when they’re all out.  We also found some pine trees with ginormous pine cones (like fat pint glass size) and lots of dog rose, yarrow and mullein.  We headed off to Geraldine, which was quite a nice wee town with a reasonable assortment of shops and some nice (and not so nice) looking houses.  It also had a drive-thru post box, which I thought was the height of idleness, but kinda cool.  We had lunch sat on the riverbank below the Rakaia Gorge bridge – absolutely gorgeous views of the very blue river and cliffs.  Most impressive.

And so to Christchurch and Hotel So.  So small.  So odd.  So difficult to fit two people and two suitcases in the room (without one of us stepping into the bathroom).  And what a bathroom.  People, if you’re going to stay at Hotel So with your partner, let’s hope that you’re not shy about having a poo, cos the walls are frosted glass and the bathroom is IN the bedroom.  To be fair, I did know this when I booked it – I just thought it might be novel for two nights. And the glass shower wall next to the bed means you can do Tales of the Unexpected intro dancing whilst your partner switches the in-shower “mood lighting” through a range of colours.  Most entertaining.  Rob hated it.  He hated the sunrise lamp, which comes on at some point before your alarm time to mimic the sun rising (there’s no window) and then the TV comes on with a “natural landscapes” channel (DVD of a babbling brook or suchlike).  I was dimly aware of the light level increasing, which was ok, but was then thoroughly awoken by Rob banging about trying to work out how to turn it off and turning everything else on in the process.  Lots of electronic beeping.  Noise.  Lights.  I’m glad I wear earplugs.  We slept.  Sort of.  I think Rob’s dislike of Hotel So trumped his dislike of Lake Tekapo YHA.  I was doing well in the hotel booking stakes.

Prior to this we did go out and wander around the city centre and botanic gardens.  Loved the botanic gardens.  Hated the city centre (the suburbs on the way in had looked much nicer).

Day 10

A full day in Christchurch.  We decided to grab breakfast (flat white and raisin toast) and drive off to Sumner, Lyttleton, Governor’s Bay and across Bank’s Peninsula to Akaroa on the grounds that neither of us wanted to spend a day in Christchurch.  We just tootled along, the road curving in and out of lovely wee bays, and occasionally diverting off up narrow roads to god knows where that had HUGE drop-offs into hell and no crash barriers.  Darwinism is alive and well in NZ for the careless driver.  Absolutely stunning drive, ending in Akaroa at about 2.30pm for fish and chips, which were also stunning.  A grand day out, ending in a light dinner at Hotel So’s cafe bar, Cafe What and an early night, cos I had a sore throat and felt crap.

Day 11

Up early and out into the pissing rain heading north to Kaikoura.  Stopped and Kaiapoi for brunch and food shopping at New World.  More Cheezles were bought – they’re rather addictive.  We like them.  Noticed that New World supermarkets don’t have trolley parks, they have trundler parks.  Trundlers.  I decided that I quite liked that and that it amused me (I am easily amused).  The search for chillies continued, including a search in a fruit and veg shop, but no success.  We’d had problems finding them earlier in the trip, which was odd.

We took a detour off the coastal road on the Alpine Pacific Highway (?!) which meant that we bimbled along through countryside with beautiful scenery inland and the roads to progressively smaller and windier.  The bit back down to the main coast highway was fantastic, and we stopped just before we got into Kaikoura to look at a fat seal lolling on a rock.  Little did we know that this was the first of many seals, and that they were stinky.

Kaikoura is beautiful, with rather spectacular mountains lurking in the background.  Sadly they were obscured (mostly) by thick cloud and heavy rain.  Stayed in the Alpine Pacific Motel and I have to say, I thought it was lovely (so did Rob).  Basic, modern, clean, everything you needed for a short stay and excellent mountain views to boot (apart from the thick rainclouds).  And two hot tubs and a pool just outside our room!

We headed off for Whale Watch to book a trip – they were advising that the forecast was not good and that cancellations may occur, but we booked for the afternoon trip on Friday, and hoped that the weather gods would be kind, as we only had one full day in Kaikoura.  However, all would not be lost if we couldn’t go, as one of the other premier touristy things to do in Kaikoura is llama trekking.  The brochure promised me that I would fall in love with my new woolly friend and “Llamas – Dolphins of the Land” would be thrilling.  Now I’ve got a sneaking fondness for llamas and alpacas but not even with the greatest stretch of the imagination could I liken the woolly grumps to the most intelligent mammal of the sea.  How we laughed.  I was still chuckling about it days later.

Drove out to Point Kean and had a gander at more seals.  They reek, and not in a fishy way.  The sea was being fairly spectacular and we couldn’t tell if the tide was coming in or out, so we didn’t go wandering too far round the rocky base of the cliffs, but poked about in rockpools and looked at the seal and bird life.  Pied shags airing their wings like old rags, black oystercatchers guddling for food and petulant sounding gulls.

Kaikoura New World failed on the chillies score, but succeeded in having trundlers, so I could live with that.  Trundlers and llamas.  What more could I want?  Relatively early night still feeling snotty and shivery.

The Holiday revisited, part 1……

……Monday 19th – Wednesday 21st October 2009

Day 1

Flew into Auckland from Heathrow via Hong Kong.  Having done this trip in a variety of combinations and routes over the years, I can safely say that having a two hour stopoff in HK is a shit idea.  Having a few days off somewhere en route is much better.  However, time and money did not allow…… Anyhoo.  Auckland.  Knackered. Got airport bus into the CBD to Chifley Suites on Albert Street, several blocks back from the wharf.  Very very nice and would recommend this to anyone.  My Expedia-fu had worked well, and I landed us with a really neat apartment with a decent kitchenette and lounge and two big flat screen tv’s. Woo!  We went out to get some food and wandered round town for ages, ending up in Foodtown for our shopping.  Came back via a nice bar on the wharf (Degree) and had tea.  Collapsed on sofas and died.

Day 2

Up to Foodtown again cos we’d forgotten most of what we’d actually needed in our jet lagged fuzz.  Came back to the apartment and dropped it off and went back down to the waterfront to catch the free bus to Kelly Tarlton’s (aquarium and antarctic experience).  Rob liked this bus.  It was shaped like a shark.  I kid you not.  Drove out along Tamaki Drive to the place and went in to see penguins and sharks and all sorts.  I really liked the sea horses.  Rob liked the sharks.  We both liked the penguins, and you go on a wee ride in an snowcat through their enclosure.  They smelled of fish, although I’m not sure why we were surprised by this.  The penguins who were shedding their juvenile plumage looked exceedingly grumpy.

When we came back to the CBD, we walked up to the Sky Tower and went up it. Fantastic views from the viewing decks: Rangitoto, Waiheke, One Tree Hill, Mt Eden, North Shore…all spread out in front of us.  It was really good – sat and had a coffee and just looked out across the city.  Rob couldn’t get over how few people there were about for such a huge city.   We decided that, providing the weather was ok, tomorrow we would catch the ferry to Rangitoto Island and walk to the summit, to be followed by dinner with Ngare.  Fell asleep early again (lightweight).

Day 3

Rangitoto Island.  This volcano is about 600 or 700 years old and sits in the Hauraki Gulf – it’s got a very distinctive shape, fantastic tree life,  wierd lava fields and some really neat baches.  We were also treated to a group of children on an outing doing kapa haka whilst waiting for the ferry back, which was interesting to watch, although I didn’t understand a word of it.  The climb up started at a steady pace and the sun was baking, especially across some of the lava field areas.  Further up, the climb got much steeped and the soil was different.  We saw fantails and heard tui (which Rob describes as the R2D2 bird).  At the top, the 360 degree view around was amazing, and we sat up there and ate our lunch. We wandered down through forests of pohutukawa and tree ferns and ventured to the lava tubes.  I’m not known for my love of dark enclosed spaces, but Rob had brought his torch, so in we went.  It was dark and damp and that’s about all I can say about it.  There were loads of spider webs everywhere, but I couldn’t find any spiders (and I did look).

Got back and had a shower before meeting Ngare and her other half for a fantastic dinner at Vivace.  Had a fantastic salmon salad and the wine was good too, although I failed to note what it was (except that it was pinot gris).  Made a mental note to try to have dinner there on our last night before leaving NZ.  To bed slightly drunk, and off to Queenstown in the morning, with vague hopes that my google-fu would not let me down on the accommodation I’d booked (and Rob’s hopes that all the accommodation was going to be as nice as this). Haha.

 

(If you’re reading this on Facebook, you won’t get all the links – you’ll need to visit my blog for that, which is where this post originated).

Green Porno…….

As I have posted somewhere before, Isabella Rossellini is bonkers, but brilliant. Here are some new offerings from Green Porno (and no, it’s not actually porn).

Cows. They’re cool.