Blogs from Karamea, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania

18/02/10 Back to Pohara to walk the short Grove track - an amazing landscape of limestone formations - then back over Takaka Hill to Motueka, through the Motueka Valley, stopping at McLeans Reserve - free camping site by the river. 19/02/10 Backtracked to the road to Mt Arthur where we walked in to Flora Hut. The road up there was so steep they had concreted part of it. Then down to Murchison via the Porika and Braeburn tracks. We booked into one of the old pubs in Murchison, then drove to Six Mile where the original power station for Murchison was built. Everything is still all intact. There is an hour walk around the site, up to the dam and weir at the top. 20/10/10 Met Garth P at 9am to take him over the New ... read more

Monday, February 15th After our morning exercise we started to work on the seats for our canoe. We had bought two camp-chairs for the canvas and seat-backs and proceeded to build two wooden frames that fit into the canoe at the correct height and position. It look some planning and problem solving to get the shape and position just right, but by the end of the day we had the two frames pretty much sorted. Just before noon we drove to the medical centre. Ferdi had to see the doctor so that he could get a refill on his prescription. It’s a total money making scheme. We had to part with $100, more than double what we paid on our last visit to the same centre and the same doctor! Makes no sense, but we had ... read more

Friday, February 12th We woke before dawn, dragged from our deep sleep by the sound of our alarm clock. We dressed, brushed our teeth, then set off for Westport before the sun peaked over the hills surrounding Wangapeka Valley. An hour and a half later we dropped the Boesman at the garage in Westport for a minor service and to get its WOF done. We had an hour and a half to kill and we were starving. We had burgers for breakfast then walked around the still sleeping town. Most of the businesses only opened after 9am, but luckily the Mitre 10 was open so we had a leisurely stroll through the shop. We got a foam roller to help apply the last layer of resin perfectly as well as a few more disposable brushes. Back ... read more

Wednesday, February 3rd The last day of our diet dawned sunny and hot. There was no spring in Karamea this year. It went from winter straight into summer in a matter of days. All we could think about though, was the end of our diet and the promise of a meal without rice. Before we started the diet we had taken front and side pictures of our mid-sections, because without a scale we thought pictures might tell us if we’d improved visually. Looking at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pics we saw that Talita had lost her boobs and butt, while Ferdi lost a bit around the waist and under the boobs. Both of us, unfortunately, still had our bellies intact. Seems these will have to be destroyed with another diet session or some serious exercise. Ferdi ... read more

Thursday, January 28th The human body is a truly amazing thing. Ferdi’s wounded thumb is already almost as good as new. He doesn’t even have to keep it covered anymore. Anyway, this morning, just as Ferdi walked out the cabin with his toothbrush in his mouth, Paddy arrived. We hadn’t seen him for a few days, which was a little unusual. We’d decided that if he didn’t visit today we’d drive out to his place this afternoon. Turns out he missed us (not that he’d admit it in so many words, but we knew) so he came for a cuppa. Talita showed off her flute skills, but when Paddy took the flute for a play he said that the flute had “lost it”, meaning the sound it produced was not up to his standards. He said ... read more