28. Miscellaneous Snippets III

Well the weather here is going mental.

In the height of summer, I was expecting hot dry days for at least a couple of months. To be honest we have had a fair few of them, and I am on my second bottle of suncream for the season. But we have also had a fair few storms, proper ones with thunder and lightening. The other day a storm stuck around directly over the bungalow, you couldn't hear yourself speak during the thunder. I wouldn't have wanted to be out on the bike in the middle of a paddock in it.

In one storm I was in the middle of cooking my supper and the power went out. I had to go out to the car port where we keep the quads and use the BBQ that was also sheltering in there. I had previously thought that a BBQ with a gas ring was ridiculous, but I eat my words because it proved very useful for cooking my spaghetti bolognese al fresco-ish. That being said it wasn't the cleanliest of kitchens.

At the moment it is warm and sunny, shorts and t-shirt weather at 7:20 pm. But wind the clock back an hour, and it was raining as hard as I have ever seen rain fall. In about fifteen minutes we had half an inch of it. The windows were no longer transparent. It was like being in a car wash, I half expected a big yellow brush to roll down the patio doors lathering them up and giving them a good scrubbing. A couple of minutes into the downpour I remembered all my washing was hanging on the line outside. It is inside now, dripping onto the carpet. 

A random hail storm also came by a week or two ago. It got quite haily (yes that is a word) pretty quickly. Here is a poor quality clip of it:

In other news, I saw the funniest thing I have ever seen the other day. It could well have been a 'you-had-to-be-there' moment but I am going to continue anyway. You may remember 'Ginger' the cow who had stomach lesions (featured in post 18. 'Miscellaneous Snippets II). Here she is looking still far too skinny, but you can't see every bone in her body like a few months ago.

To properly explain what happened, I have used my considerable computer skills on paint, and created a cross between a diagram and a comic strip. You can click on the image to enlarge it.

 I can confirm that both participating parties are in good health, except the bull who has a severely bruised ego.


For Christmas, my Dad got my the brilliant present of a days fly fishing with a guide, coach and general expert who goes by the name of 'Squid.' I had booked my days sport for today, but when I rang to confirm last night, he told me that he had had an accident and would not be able to give me the full guide today. It emerged that he had a had a boating accident that resulted in a sore leg, possibly fractured arm and his boat at the bottom of the Waitaki river. I still went along for a couple of hours in which, with his help, I perfected my casting technique and also improved the speed in which I can untangle my line!
It turns out that he is a massive legend and an excellent instructor. At the start he mostly said things like "Well you've ballsed that up." and "Stop dicking around and think about what you are doing." I did just that and by the end he just kept on saying "Beautiful, beautiful. Look at that. Beautiful." Which bodes well for me, but not for Kiwi trout. We will be heading out to the water again sometime in the next month to catch something.


I have two weeks off work starting this Sunday. During my time off I will be undertaking what I am billing as 'the mother of all road-trips.'

In my 1991 Nissan Avenir 'Gavin', I will be driving from my bungalow approximately 1000 miles up the wild West Coast, onto a ferry, and then up the North Island to Matamata. Why that particular small town I hear you ask? Well at Matamata, there be hobbits! (Excuse my geekiness - http://www.hobbitontours.com/.)

From there, depending on how fed up of driving I am, I will then either travel North West towards the top of the North Island or head North East to the Bay of Plenty, or go South East to Hawke's Bay. I am still very much in the planning stage.

I am undecided whether to take my laptop and using hostel internet, blog whilst I travel, or save it all for when I return.

Either way rest assured, the next few blogs will about:

It is going to be like a Top Gear special, except I am travelling solo. And if the car breaks down, I do not have the skills to fix it. Nor do I have a film crew following me in a Range Rover,  just have my trusty compact Olympus camera, which I am surprised to find still fully functioning.

It will be a challenge. One does not simply drive to the North Island. The black gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep... But I can't wait to get going!

Speak soon.