cards – The Vanninis' Manoeuvres

Adventure begins!

Woohoo……we are OFF!

If you didn’t already realise, I was way behind with blog entries over the past month or two but I am now catching up to real time. anyway, back to this entry to catch up.

If only you realised what a mission it has been to get ourselves sorted and organised. We’ve waited and waited and waited, now it’s time to get on out there and reclaim our lives from the stranglehold of Covid.

First of all new passports had to be sorted. Roy’s was easy, all electronically done and the new passport was issued and back in his hands in a few weeks. Mine, on the other hand, was a little bit more difficult. For a start, I travel on my British Passport – yes, I know, I WILL become a NZ citizen soon – which had to be issued from the UK. The form could be done electronically but I had to return my old passport to the UK….why? I have no idea. Not to mention the $100.53 cost for secure postage for the damn thing! Anyway, that went off and we waited, and waited, and waited.

Then magically the new passport arrived. Woohoo. But the old passport would be returned separately, which you think wouldn’t be an issue however I needed to get my returning residents visa transferred to my new passport and to do that I needed a copy of my old passport and the visa within. I could not book our tickets until I had this…or could I? Should I take the risk and just book flights hoping that the old passport would be returned in time and then apply for the transfer?

Meanwhile airfares were rising in price and scarcity week by week. We took the risk…and booked!

If you hadn’t guessed already, we are off to the UK and can not wait.

Callum is excited at the prospect of Grandma and Grandad coming to stay.

We leave NZ this Sunday 5th June and return at the end of October, yes, a decent amount of time away. Departure date is creeping closer and closer and my Returning Residents Visa is still not here which means I may not be able to fly out, but we have faith that it will come through in time. Oh yes, the old passport was returned with the corners of the cover cut off…..I could have done that for them if they had asked. Phew, a few days before departure, the visa came through. Yes folks, I’m allowed back in to NZ!!

You may ask why we are keen to go by a specific date? Well, that is because Callum will be having his third birthday on the 11th June and we really would like to be there after missing his previous two birthdays.

But before we go anywhere, we have to sort out where to leave the van where it will be safe and looked after. Option A fell through, just as well we had options B,C and D just in case, but thankfully only needed option A.1. Many many thanks to Keith for all his help in sorting us out.

The van delivered to its safe parking spot, parked on a concrete pad.

We can go away rest assured knowing that the van will be safe and secure and regularly checked.

Next it’s packing everything we need to take out of the van before heading to Auckland to Antony’s for a week before we fly out. With our suitcases stored at Antony’s it’s an interesting pack of the car with lots of small bags here and there. I’m sure I’ve forgotten something but we will manage…..they have shops for anything we’ve missed.

After parking the van, packing up the car and dropping off the keys, we head to Whangamata to Steve & Leslie’s for the weekend to stay with them and catch up. We hadn’t timed it too well as it was only one night with them before Steve & Les were off to see one of their daughters for a couple of nights. However, we stayed on to cat-sit for the weekend. Of course not a photo was taken, we were far too busy talking!

But what do you know? John & Jude are in town for the weekend on their boat before they too head to Auckland to fly out to Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

We arranged to meet J&J at the Whangamata Club for dinner as we had been there the previous evening with Steve & Les for dinner and quiz night fun, the meal was very good so we returned to try something else.

John & Jude waiting for dinner to be served.

We spent the weekend suitably entertained and returned to the boat for a few games of cards and dinner the following day.

Roy, John and Jude…..and for the record the girls showed the fellas how to win at cards!

Soon it was time for us to head to Auckland, get appointments out of the way, shops for treats for the UK crew, pack our bags and get on our way.

Adiós, ka kite, au revoir, arrivederci, slán, adieu, ciao, sayonara…..or more appropriately tootle-pip! Watch out for updates on our travels in the UK and wherever else we get to over the next 5 months.

Visitors and appointments

It’s always lovely to see family and friends, and over Auckland Anniversary weekend niece Sarah came to visit with her Mum Leslie as well as Sarah’s three boys Ben 15, Asher 13 and Finn 11. A fun day full of laughs are on the cards when they are around and the boys are growing up to be very nice young men.

It just so happened that Antony was also here for the weekend , and as usual the three of us played a few games of cards.

And yes, the sun is shining in Antony’s eyes!

Asher demonstrated his skim boarding skills….and no, Great Aunty Bernice did not want to have a try but thanks for asking!

After cooling off at the beach it was back to base for lunch with everyone.

Antony, Roy, Leslie, Sarah and Finn….Ben & Asher evaded the camera!

Tuesday was Roy’s date with the orthopaedic specialist to see about his arm. The upshot of that is we all agreed not to do anything with it as he has only a 10% reduction in strength and the post op recovery would be months for little appreciable gain. Phew! He will continue with physio though.

After the appointment we met up with friends Glennis & Rob for lunch. We met Glennis about 35 years ago when Roy & I played competitive Scrabble. Over the following few years we all served on the National committee together when Roy was NZ President and I served variously as secretary or treasurer. Roy and I no longer play competitive (or recreational) Scrabble, Glennis does though. Funnily enough we found all our Scrabble sets (yes, there were many) when we cleared out our container last year, some are now in the care of friends Linda & Bill, others were donated to charity.

We had a lovely lunch and catch up with all their family news including about their daughter Rachael who used to babysit Antony & Alexandra when they were little. Rachael now lives in France and we met up with her and her family when we were there in 2010 which you can read about here

Glennis took this photo of the two of us.

During the week camp numbers have dropped dramatically, everyone is back at work and school so it is just the weekends that are very busy.

Simon sent us this gorgeous photo of granddaughter Maria on her (Covid delayed) first day of school last week.

Waitangi weekend and we had more visitors, this time Wade & Lindsay came to stay after Antony had been up for his usual Friday night stay. It was Wade & Lindsay’s 44th wedding anniversary, these days we celebrate such things in a much more sedate manner – we ended up playing cards for most of the time. As the weather was forecast to be a very wet end to the weekend, lots of campers decided to pack up early and leave before they had to deal with wet tents, wet gear and grumpy children! Luckily the rain held off until Sunday morning and we could still sit under the gazebo and play cards, Lindsay was determined to play until she did not come last as she had done in all the previous games!

Just as well they stayed Saturday night and not Sunday night as the weather really turned horrid. Camp emptied out except for a few hardy souls who braved the elements. It rained, and rained, and rained some more, the wind blew and all in all it was not a pleasant night for anyone. Sleep came in brief patches as I woke to the sound of tents flapping and awnings groaning, the sound of rain lashing the van, or the sounds of car doors opening and closing as campers escaped sodden tents and bedding. However, the rain is much needed to refill water tanks and nourish the ground for plants and animals alike. Now it’s just very humid.

We just have one more medical appointment due at the end of the month to clear and then we can start to head north for a while and get some fishing done, something we are both very keen to do.

Now with the promise of border openings and no MIQ on return, we are really looking forward to being able to head off to England so we can spend some quality time with Callum, and his mum & dad too of course. Woohooo.

Merry New Year

Merry salutations of the festive season to you all, we hope it has been all that you wanted. We have settled into routine of life at Shakespear but although I say routine, it is definitely not the same every day as each day brings something or someone new.

Christmas Day came and went and was very uneventful. Antony came up to stay for a couple of days and we had a very relaxed Christmas Day and dinner. It was a very hot day and even though we were under shade for the majority of the day, we all glowed somewhat by early evening. In my usual tradition I did not take a single picture the whole day.

We had the video call from Callum on Christmas evening our time, Christmas morning their time, and it was just delightful to watch Callum open our presents.

Callum showing off his spoils to his TV Grandma and Grandad

One of these days he will get a shock when he discovers that we don’t live in the television.

The advent calendar was dutifully hung ready for the countdown to Christmas.

Callum also hung his stocking ready for Santa to deliver presents, although we are told that he was not overly impressed with the whole Father Christmas idea.

Finds from our container clear out, Antony & Alexandra’s stockings made in 1988 and Ian’s completed 2021. The latter two will be hand delivered sometime in 2022 all going well 🤞

And guess who got a drum kit for Christmas? Watch to the end for his epic conclusion to his performance!!

New Years rolled around very quickly, Antony came up for the weekend and in our usual manner, we were all in bed before midnight letting others see the New Year in. Although it was not an entirely uneventful evening, late afternoon I saw a woman hurriedly running across the camp toward us. She explained that her husband had gone to sit in a chair, the chair collapsed catching one of his fingers in the framework chopping through his finger and bone resulting with it basically amputated only hanging on by a strip of skin!!! She wanted to know where the nearest A&E was, we made the quick decision that it was better to call for yan ambulance. Antony took on the role of lead coordinator ringing the ambulance as I, along with two off duty Rangers, went to see if we could do anything practical. They already had him in the car with his hand tightly wrapped in a towel, with his hand raised above his head, ready to head off to an emergency clinic. He was in pretty good spirits, telling me he felt no pain, hmmm shock had obviously set in, meanwhile Antony was coordinating with the ambulance a meet up point to get the patient to emergency services as quickly as possible and making sure that he was ok. The Rangers headed off to unlock the gate and Antony went off with the patient and his wife Sue in the car as he was now the main point of contact, being instructed what to do and where to meet. They apparently met the ambulance at the Manly Fire Station, where he was duly seen to, given pain medication (pain was starting to kick in by now) and he was taken off by ambulance. Of course in these Covid times, no one could go with him in the ambulance nor go to A&E so before long Antony was returned to the park. Antony got a message from Sue the following day to say thank you for all his help and to say that he had been taken to North Shore Hospital then transferred to Greenlane Hospital for surgery to insert a pin and stitch together his finger. Ouch!! We understand that he now recovering at home, relaxing in front of the TV watching cricket. I

Funnily enough we had just been talking about the fact that our First Aid certificates needed updating as our refresher courses had been delayed due to Covid, however Antony had just renewed his First Aid and was telling us of the extra things he gets training for with the Police (sucking chest wounds, gun shot wounds etc), hence his calm head in this situation. All in all an eventful end to the year.

Here’s to a happy and prosperous 2022, best wishes to you all.

Another week in Christchurch

We arrived in good time at the NZMCA park on the outskirts of Christchurch, parked up and settled ourselves in.

Crossing the Rakaia River en route to Christchurch

We had a few things planned for the week ahead, some of them not so pleasant but things we have to do; think annual accounts as well as some necessary legal commitments. But we can’t complain, the views aren’t too bad.

View to the Southern Alps across the Canterbury Plains.

I will apologise now for the dearth of photos, my excuse is that I just get too carried away talking to even think about taking pictures!!

We had been here and there doing bits & pieces when one day a familiar vehicle rocked up beside us, it was Carol & Glen. We had a great catch up on where we’d been since we last saw them and all their travels as well. A couple of days later another pair of familiar faces arrived, it was Faye & Barry who used to be the camp hosts at Matata. As you can imagine lots of talk and catching up ensued over the next few days.

We were also spending a bit of time with good friends Pat & Sue as they live near by. Pat & Sue welcomed a new grandson earlier in the week so they were busy with grand parenting duties for a few days but we caught up over the next week for lots of talk, shared meals, and we may have also utilised their showering and clothes washing facilities! oh, and we also may have played a few games of cards!

After all our tripping around, the poor RV was looking very dirty, in fact someone asked if we had been off-road driving as it was so muddy and grubby. The trouble we have is finding somewhere where we can wash the van, but a solution was close at hand. There is a Clean Co Truck wash just down the road so on the Friday morning we packed up and went off to clean up our act.

We waited in line with a number of large truck and trailer units before being sent into a bay to get washed. Meanwhile we were warmly greeted by the owners in the reception area where we were offered a cup of tea or coffee whilst we waited along with some of the truck drivers. I must say that we were made very, very welcome and had a lovely time chatting with all the truckies especially hearing about all the different types of trucks and cargo they haul. We can highly recommend Clean Co, they do a great job and are reasonably priced too with branches all around the country.

We returned to Weedons where we emptied the tanks in readiness to leave on Sunday then we spent the rest of the day watching the NZ rowing teams bringing home gold and silver as well as spending some time with Glen & Carol.

Our last night in Christchurch was spent with Pat & Sue, after a few games of cards and dinner we spent the rest of the evening cheering on the NZ women’s rugby 7s and we were thrilled that they brought home the gold.

Sunday morning we were on our way again. We had previously done a recce on easy access fuel stations for both fuel and LPG so we knew exactly where we were going to fill the tanks before heading on out of town. That was easily completed and we were on our way. See you next time Christchurch.

To the South Island

We’ve arrived!

After a very smooth and uneventful crossing on the Bluebridge ferry we docked in Picton at 6am Friday morning. We were quickly unloaded and soon we were on the short drive to Koromiko where there is a wonderful large parking area on grass. We arrived just before 7am. As it was still dark we were mindful of not making too much noise so as not to wake others who were parked here it was out with the torches to find a suitable spot to park, quickly set ourselves up, make a cuppa before heading straight to bed for a couple of hours.

The large park with us parked up in the middle, this is about half of the parking area

One member of the touring party managed to have a good four or five hours sleep whereas I only managed a couple of hours before waking up. I’m sure I’ll crash early.

That afternoon, Friday, Marilyn & David called in for a quick visit along with their friends Salvi & Ann and arranged for us to meet them all the next day in Waikawa not too far from Picton where they were staying.

It’s Saturday and we’re going in to Picton to get the laundry done, check out the surrounds before going to meet up with Marilyn et al for a game of cards. But before we head on out Roy had a repair job to do on the passenger seat in the van as it decided it was going to become difficult to swivel. After a short period of time and only turning the air slightly blue, the job was completed and we could get on our way.

Oh so that is what the ferry looks like in the light of day

Marilyn & David were staying in a camp ground in Waikawa. Regular readers will recognise Marilyn & David as those we met when last in the Uk and we stayed with them on their barrow boat. You can read about that here.

We played 5 crowns, women vs men and of course the women reigned supreme! It’s the first time any of us had played the 6 handed version and it worked really well.

Top: L-R Roy Marilyn and Salvi, below: Ann and David

Soon it was time for us to head back to our van, grab a bite to eat before heading off to bed for another early night. However, the wind scuppered those plans as we were being buffeted by some very strong gusts of wind which kept this member of the touring party awake for some time before the land of nod beckoned.

The parking areas has a book exchange set in an old fridge, someone obviously has a good sense of humour with the fridge plugged in to the electric tree!

Sunday is a day of rest, the weather is a bit dull but we have plenty to keep us occupied, like plan where we head to next. With Easter looming next weekend we probably need to get ourselves sorted somewhere before the crowds arrive.

Roy headed off into Blenheim to check out the museum looking for some of his family history. Roy’s father was born in Blenheim (in 1897) and his grandparents were married there as well, living for some time in the Kenepuru Sounds so there is a bit of family history here in the region.

Time to continue our travels, but we aren’t moving vast distances, it’s now time to travel at a slower pace taking time to explore and enjoy.

Waiotahe

It’s not far over the hill and through the gorge to Waiotahe Beach, apparently Waiotahe is the correct spelling, it was officially changed from Waiotahi in 2015.

John & Jude moved to Jude’s place in Waiotahe last year after John sold the farm on the outskirts of Whakatane. He bought a lovely big boat in Brisbane at the end of last year which they intend to live aboard for most of the year, however, that thing called Covid arrived and has got in the way of bringing the boat across the Tasman. So the boat remains in Brisbane and a very frustrated John is in Waiotahe. But its not a bad place to wait.

Waiotahe (blue dot), not too far from Opotiki

The beach is just lovely with a long stretch of sandy beach.

Looking up to the carved poles at the entrance to the beach access

These lovely clear days only mean one thing, it’s freezing overnight! Thank goodness for a warm van, just a flick of the switch and we have the central heating fired up (powered by gas). Just set the temperature gauge to the required temperature and it cycles on and off and keeps us toasty warm.

John gave me a big tin of buttons to add to my collection. They were sorted into colours before being put away on my button box.

The buttons were his late wife’s collection and added to Mum’s buttons and a few of my own, I think i have enough buttons now to last a very long time!

Whilst we were at Waiotahe, the guttering was being replaced on the house which meant the boards where the guttering was attached had to be sanded and repainted. If only I had access to my photo albums (they’re in storage), where I have photos from 36 years ago of most if my family at Johns house in Tokoroa helping him paint his house, a little bit of history repeating itself. How do I know that it was 36years ago? Because I was pregnant with Antony therefore I was relieved of painting duties up the ladders! This time I was also relieved of painting duties, not as you would think because of recent knee and hip replacements but because even standing on scaffolding I am vertically challenged and I cannot reach, not that I tried.

Happy to leave the painting to these two.

It didn’t take too long before it was all done and the new guttering was put up by the roofing contractor.

A few too many games of 5 Crowns were played over the next week before it was time for us to depart. John put the score sheets through the document shredder otherwise I would have proof that I won the majority of the games played!

The drive from Waiotahe towards Whakatane would have to be one of the best scenic pieces of road in New Zealand, particularly when the Pohutakawa’s are in full bloom.

There is a very good dump station along the road, and as any motorhomer will tell you, never go past a dump station as you don’t know when the next opportunity will arise.

Plenty of room to comfortably pull off the road, do what you have to do and have good clear vision to pull back onto the road.

A new roof over our heads

It’s been a while, a long while in fact, since we’ve packed up everything to move. On Sunday we bade farewell to Shakespear and the awesome team of rangers, volunteers and staff whom we have really got to know over our extended stay here.

The kindness shown to us has been humbling. Throughout the unusual experience of lockdown to then have that combined with being quite seriously ill, we have been overwhelmed with the care and compassion shown to us. It’s been a rather surreal experience in some ways, I have to admit that for the first 5 weeks of lockdown, I was so damn unwell that I think I may have slept the weeks away.

I don’t think we could have been in a better place though, surrounded by nature in all its glory, and the best bit of all? Well, that would have to be the on-site Ranger Bruce who was so kind to us. From donning PPE gear to collect our groceries, to making sure we were safe, to mowing the grass surrounding our van, and to making us laugh.

Oh and all the card games too, once we were at level one.

We left Shakespear late Sunday afternoon, after a final couple of games of 5 Crowns with Bruce and his wife Lianne, to stealth camp outside the repair shop ready for an early morning start Monday morning.

But to backtrack a little, our roof is covered with a butyl rubber coating, it’s an American thing. We have subsequently been told that it shouldn’t be water blasted…..oops, it may have happened here. And repairs were successfully done here

But a few weeks ago, another leak appeared, we think with further degradation of some lifted silicone sealer, a combination of over zealous cleaning and NZ’s intense sun, so it was time to fix it properly once and for all.

We headed off to see Peter Webster at RVRepairs in Albany, we had used peter before so we knew he was very good. I had done lots of research and asked for opinions and kept coming back to one product. On talking with Peter, who had also done lots of research, we had both come up with the same product EternaKote. It’s made by the same people that make the Eternabond tape, a must-have in all good RV repair kits. It’s not a cheap exercise but hey, we are only going to do this once and besides, the product has a 50year warranty so it must be good.

We are very pleased with the results, and it wasn’t as half as expensive as we had budgeted for which was a bonus. Another bonus was when he took two of the solar panels off, he discovered that wiring joints were a bit dodgy, so he fixed those before putting the panels back on. A loose connection may well have been the cause of some strange readings on the solar input that we have noticed recently, we shall monitor this over the weekend and see if there is a noticeable difference.

Tracking cards

Firstly, thank you to Marilyn (NB Waka Huia) for asking the very good question….what are tracking cards?

To give a bit of background information, Shakespear Park is a pest free sanctuary at the end of the Whangaparaoa Peninsular.

Together with New Zealand Defence Force land to the north, most of the Park lies within the Shakespear Open Sanctuary. Although Okoromai Bay and Army Bay are situated within the park realm they are not within the sanctuary.

A 1.7km pest/predator-proof fence (completed March 2011) goes across the peninsular and protects the park’s wildlife which includes resident invertebrates and lizards, along with birds migrating from nearby Tiritiri island sanctuary and many reintroduced species.

Poison airdrops were conducted in July 2011 to eradicate mammalian pests and the park reopened to the public three months later, pest free.

Access to the park for visitors is by road, through the pest proof fence with automated gates opening for vehicles and cyclists with pedestrian access through a side gate.

To ensure that the park is kept free of pests and predators such as possums, cats, dogs, ferrets, rats and the like, extensive monitoring takes place. This is done with a variety means by the way of traps, cameras, lures, and tracking cards.

Tracking cards are basically inked cards which are set into small tunnels with some form of enticement or lure (usually peanut butter with rabbit meat used in every 4th or 5th card) so that when an animal or insect walks across the card, it’s footprints are left behind. Many places use these cards to check on biodiversity and range of animals within their area but at Shakespear they are mainly used to monitor pests.

The card opened up showing the ink pad with some peanut butter in the middle

The cards are set out once a month then collected the following week for analysis, and with over 200 cards being set out in the park you can imagine it is a mammoth job which is done with the aid of a myriad of volunteers. Each volunteer is responsible for a particular line of cards with the Rangers doing the Navy land and any other lines that need to be done.

How do they know where the tunnels are placed? If you have been into the park you will have noticed bits of coloured tape tied to trees or fences. Orange and blue tape is used and these denote either a tracking tunnel or a trap.

Once collected, they are read and species identified by their footprints, then any pests can be targeted in the specific area that they were detected. The following are examples of some of the tracking cards:

Hedgehog footprints, and yes, they are a pest, they raid nests and eat eggs.

Skink footprint and tail print

rat prints

Possum prints

Frog prints

Weta (NZ native insect)

Gecko

Skink, mice, birds and cockroaches

Of course not all prints are of pests and from the last set of prints you will see that you really have to know what you are looking for to sort out what is what.

The Rangers are ably assisted by a great group of dedicated volunteers who not only ensure the Sanctuary is thriving for flora and fauna with an on-site tree nursery as well as monitoring of the many birds that thrive here, but also a safe environment for people to visit as it is also a working farm and open to the public for all sorts of recreational activities from picnicking to windsurfing, swimming, fishing, mountain biking and walking as well as a place for people to camp. We really enjoy being part of the great group of friendly volunteers on the park.

I hope that goes someway to explaining what tracking cards are and the reason why I was driving the ATV from the start to finish of some of the lines last week whilst Bruce put out the cards. The volunteers have a well deserved break over the Christmas/New Year period so I was doing my bit to help out.

Visitors

Whilst we have been housesitting, we have had the opportunity to have a number of our friends come to stay with us. And yes, we have approval of the home owners Jacky & Chris to have our friends and family to stay. Over the past few weeks we have had lots of friends come to stay, it’s almost been like running a Lodge!!

We have mentioned previously that we had Pat & Sue visit for a few days. It was a very relaxing time spent playing cards, rummikub and doing jigsaws. After Pat & Sue left, friends from our Tokoroa days came to stay. We have known Wade & Lindsay for a long time, as in since before marriage, children and life took over. It has been great having them to stay and catching up on each other’s news. They were just into their third night with us and we were having such a lovely relaxing time with them when Lindsay got a phone call from France which was to cut short their stay. Her younger brother and best mate Bruce had suddenly collapsed and died at his home near Toulouse. We were/are in shock. It was a quick pack up of all their gear, phone calls made to family, flights were getting sorted, quickly feed them before they hopped into their car for the evening drive to their home in Hamilton. All done within an hour or so, they were soon on their way to collect what they needed and get a bit of sleep before they flew out to France. We wished them safe travels and our sincere condolences to them and their family at this stressful time. Bruce will be sorely missed.

A day or so later friends Skip & Mindy came to stay for the weekend. We met Skip & Mindy at Shakespear as they are very good volunteers on the park, helping out every Tuesday on Volunteer day as well as many other days. This last week or two has seen them helping out with docking of lambs at Shakespear and at least two of the other Regional Parks. They are an amazing couple and we really enjoy their company so it was lovely that they could come up and stay for a couple of days R&R.

Skip, Mindy and Roy sorting out puzzle pieces.

Next we had Ron & Janet for the weekend. Now these folk are some looooooong time friends, as in Roy & Janet started school together as 5 year olds – just a couple of years ago! And Ron & Janet spent a lot of their teenage years at Roy’s parents place where they all spent quite a bit of time together socialising and generally having a good time along with a few others whom Roy is still in contact with. Roy was also best man at Ron & Jan’s wedding, long before I came upon the scene.

concentrating on playing Sequence

This weekend we are due more visitors…..more on them in the next blog.

Afternoons

On some occasions, the bar across the Whakatane River entrance is deemed too dangerous to cross and today was one of those days. So a day of no fishing, however, I do have one shot of John coming back into the wharf yesterday.

Roy and I headed into town to attend to a few chores and on our way in, we saw a Mirada like ours parked in the Bunnings carpark. This is the first one we have seen like ours with the owners around so we dropped by to say hello. After a bit of a chat, we said that we may well meet up over the winter months somewhere in Northland.

Shopping done, we headed out to the entrance to see for ourselves why the coastguard had labeled the bar ‘unworkable’. We now know why, decent sized waves were breaking over the bar and rolling through the entrance, not a safe place to be.

Today was our turn to host drinkies, so as per usual with our motorhoming life, we set up the table and chairs, prepared a few nibbles and sat down to duly host afternoon drinks with John, Jenny and Julie. The weather has been outstanding whilst we have been here, and it was very pleasant sitting under the awning of the van, telling tall tales.

Julie, John, Roy and Jenny

John and Roy sorting out the important things.

Today was also John’s turn to cook dinner, so whilst he attended to the preparation and cooking of the Bluenose, Roy decided that it had been some time since he had mown a lawn.

Well, sitting on a lawn mower constitutes mowing a lawn does it not? Only one slight hiccough when Roy got too close to a tree and one of his hearing aids got flicked out. A search party was gathered, grid pattern search about to be instigated when lo and behold, John found it! Thank goodness as it would have been a time consuming, not to mention expensive, exercise to have it replaced (see December 31 2011 for a similar exercise!).

After dinner, a few games of Sequence before it was time to hit the hay.

Today, 25th January, and happy birthday to niece Natalie. Hope you are greatly spoilt, as you deserve to be. And today is also the birth day of our friends Anne & Paul’s new grandchild. We trust all goes well for Michaela and Brad for the birth of their much anticipated baby.