Beach Time
Filed under: Beaches in New Zealand, Hubby's Views, Life in New Zealand
I’ve learnt to relax about time since we came to NZ.
In the UK I’d always be wearing a watch and needing to keep an eye on the time. Time to be somewhere, do something, time to get somewhere else – especially during the working week. Much like Alice in Wonderlands mad march hare – mustn’t be late!
Holiday’s always used to be down time, where I didn’t wear a watch ‘cos I’m on holiday and the time generally didn’t matter.
So having moved to NZ and got used to people being more relaxed here, I stopped wearing my watch. While of course mobile phones are everywhere, and I’m hardly without mine these days, there is still some symbolism for me in not wearing a watch.
So today in talking with Avalon about some other people saying they haven’t got time to do stuff, I was pondering beach time as we drove back from Riversdale.
Beach Time, it’s a bit like Island Time for anyone who has been to the smaller south Pacific islands.
It goes something like this;
- What time is it? – time to head to the beach
- What time is it? – time to head into the surf
- What time is it? – time to dry off and read a book
- What time is it? – time to apply more sunblock
- What time is it? – time to turn over and continue reading my book
- What time is it? – time to have a snooze
- What time is it? – time to head back into the water
- What time is it? – time to get some ice cream
- What time is it? – time to go back and get some coffee
- What time is it? – time to catch some more waves
What time is it? – who cares, we’re at the beach!
Progress on the Rimutaka Hill Road.
It’s scarily impressive to be honest. Diggers are perched high up on the hill, cutting a way through the sharpest bends. Sometimes it really does look as if they are about to go hurtling down the hill and end up somewhere in the valley.
These photos were actually taken a few weeks ago:
These are taken from the summit looking south towards Wellington.
This is looking up towards the summit, traveling from Wellington (The weather was crap that day!):
And a Closer view of what they are doing – not that it makes much sense to my untrained, un-engineering eye.
Sorry the photos aren’t the greatest – they are taken on an iPhone !
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25,000 guests? – Of course, come right this way.
Martinborough had its twice annual Rotary fair last weekend, and for the first time in a while the Wairarapa delivered decent weather. So rather than donning galoshers and a storm coat, we headed out in shorts, t-shirt & a lather of sun block.
The first time we went was exciting and an early start – a two hour drive from Wellington to get there before many of the crowds, so that we could get a BBQ’d steak sandwich breakfast and not have to park in Featherston.
We have a slightly more relaxed approach to the fair these days. It’s still a special breakfast at home in the morning, but now only a 15 minute drive to our side of town. You can tell there’s something special happening in Martinborough, on account of seeing more than three other vehicles on the road as you drive there.
Still I get the impression the fair is unofficially starting earlier & earlier each year. I was over hearing someone in a café during the week say they intended to be there by 7:00am, and be all done before 8:30am so they could go home and have breakfast. If it gets any earlier, they’ll have to turn it into a Christmas fair. By 2pm some stall holders were packing up. While that’s not a surprise from the food stalls who have run out of stuff to cook or sell, it was a surprise for other stalls. You might have thought they had something more important to get to, like the rugby sevens back in Wellington.
The fair is less crowded of an afternoon. It’s hot, it’s dry, the pub beckons, as does the beach, the wineries, the ice cream stall or anywhere with air conditioning really. So it’s easier wandering around all the stalls in the afternoon. You can tell some of the stall holders are wilting a little though, as you politely cough and they wake up from an afternoon nap in the deckchairs. Which is perfectly fine, since by the time we get home, it’s either time for a nap ourselves, or a dive in the pool to cool off. All told it took about three hours to work our way round everything. I tend to walk around the event in circles (well, squares actually), since the whole town centre is symmetrical and I just can’t get my sense of direction stable. Circles is less confusing.
There’s normally something new to discover, so this years hot tips are;
‘home made’ fudge (looking identical & in identical packaging, so I don’t know whose home it came from!) is out. Only three stalls selling it this year instead of the 50 there seemed to be last year.
Hats are still in – of course. But then I’m of the ‘I have a hat and one head, how many more hats do I need?’ school of thought.
The BNZ bank has really good air conditioning – although they’re only open until lunch time for you to get cash out.
The (small) supermarket doesn’t jack up its prices because it’s fair weekend. Unlike many of the cafés who charge an extra 15% – 20%. Still, given that it was Waitangi day and Bank Holiday surcharges apply I don’t think they won quite so much this year.
We’ll be back next weekend, time to sample some new local wines in the village winery. We’ll park in the square, take all of ten minutes to visit every open shop, and just appreciate how nice it can be to wander round Martinborough on it’s usual tranquil day.
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Views of a morning walk.
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And talking of christmas trees…
On Saturday night we went to Cuckoo in Greytown - home of the best pizzas in the Wairarapa (and a cook who doesn’t mind making the wonderful Eggs Napoli breakfast dish – minus the bread and with an extra egg- at any time of day because I can’t eat Pizza!).
Cuckoo has recently been taken over – the owners Tim and Chelsea having skipped off to Melbourne - so no more visions of Tim frenetically running round the place. But the menu remains the same and is well worth a visit. Most people visiting Greytown go to the White Swan because its well known. However its pretty crap – so forget that and go have a decent meal at Cuckoo.
Getting back to the point – while in there – we took a photo of thier christmas tree. The New Owners (Brian and Janine) certainly have a great sense of humour. For all those people who like are a fish out of water doing a southern hemisphere chistmas – I thought you might enjoy it:
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The unseen Wairarapa Coast
I spend a lot of time at the beach, considering that we actually live about 90 minutes drive away. This is I’m sure not a shock to most people. We have just got back from 4 days away, staying at The Dunes in Riversdale – where we always go. (I an a true believer of the premise: If it ain’t broke – don’t fix it).
However, as the weather was not the greatest (this does not generally bother me – the beach in bad weather is still soothing to the soul), we decided to actually get up off our backsides and go exploring.
So we took a trip further north up the coast to take a look at Matakoina. A local friend of ours has a caravan up there, and had told us it was worth a look. The only reason its taken so long is that – well – we like Riversdale – which defianltely ain’t broke.
So anyway – here’s what we found – the photos don’t really do it justice – but that’s because I’m not a photographer.
That hill is a sand dune believe it or not.
A spectacular rocky beach with waves crashing over the rocks in the distance.
Wish we had room to stick this pet rock in the car 
Rock Pools
Crashing Waves
The Pefect Starter Bach
Really Strange Rock Formations
Looking back (South) towards Castlepoint.
Castlepoint
Castlepoint Lighthouse
And finally – the sun setting at Riversdale.
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Commuting to Auckland
Filed under: Hubby's Views, Jobs & Work, Life in New Zealand
Having tried our inaugral flight into Masterton a number of months ago, I had to go up to Auckland for the day last week. So I decided to try out the Masterton commuter flight.
Now, I had to pay $600 for the return trip booked a week in advance, although looking now for just over a week in advance and you can get the same flights for $350 – at that price very comparable for the WLG-AKL flights. Either way, when you factor in parking, petrol etc. even a $600 return flight is better than driving into Wellington.
So what does the time table for the day look like?
0630 leave home - about the same time I’d leave to get the train into Wellington.
0650 arrive at airport, park, walk to terminal building, check-in, drink some tea, have a comfort break, read some of my book generally use up spare time 
0700 start boarding board plane
0701 finish boarding plane
0705 plane takes off
0815 arrive Auckland airport (early!)
~0900 arrive Auckland CBD
(1800-ish leave Auckland CBD – now I typically leave earlier than 1800 as traffic starts building from approx 1600 making the taxi journey too time consuming at over an hour – ha! how relative ‘bad traffic’ becomes when you are in NZ!)
1900 flight leaves Auckland
2015 Arrive Masterton
2016 disembark plane, walk through arrivals hall, walk out into carpark, start car
2017 drive out of car park
2030 arrive home.
Which makes for a slightly long day, however if I tried to get an 0700 flight from Wellington to get me into Auckland for the same time, I’d have to leave home by about 0430 to allow enough time to drive, park, check-in and wait in the departure lounge! Plus getting a 1700 flight back would have me home by about the same time, only I’d get two hours less work done up in Auckland. On this occasion it meant I could have a (business) lunch with a colleague.
Now because we’re in a small plane we’re also not flying as high, about 20,000 feet. So after levelling out from take off at Masterton – there’s an immediate view of Tongariro ahead, and the Pacific coast to the right. Which just makes you wonder why you’re on a flight to Auckland instead of heading to the beach – but ho hum.
The really good views this time were actually on the flight back. Like these of Tongariro;
And this;
oh, and this rather good view;
Windy Wellington
Filed under: Hubby's Views, Life in New Zealand, Things to do
We spotted this at the St James’s theatre the other day;
Which of course should be compared with the wind during Toast Martinborough the other weekend, where honking big tractors were used as anchors for the marques;
Toast Martinborough 2009 – the aftermath.
Bloody hell I ache all over today.
It’s a good ache mind you – it means I had a great time and went dancing – not something you get a lot of chance to do in the back of beyond.
Toast Martinborough is one of the three days a year that the tumbleweed strewn streets of Martinborough become packed with people. In this case, 99% drunken people staggering from vineyard to vineyard in a pretty spectacular “Pub Crawl”. It is a truly brilliant day out, and I think it’s one of the “most do’s” for anyone living in the lower north island.
The Wairarapa is a major wine growing area in New Zealand – and Martinborough is the epicentre (though it has to be said that some of the other wineries in the region are definitely better than some of the Martinborough ones). That being said – it was the town of Martinborough that decided to have the festival – and they do it exceeding well.
11 Wineries this year – we skipped 3 cos the bus drivers went the wrong way or missed stops which was a bit annoying. This year the biggest problem was gale force winds – which made getting around a bit tricky (and was pretty miserable for those not tanked up on masses of alcohol – I was driving). Every time we have been before the biggest issue of the day was getting out of the scorchin sun. Yesterdays issue was finding some space out of the wind.
Elvis at Alana Estate
My favourites of the day:
Best Food:
Salute’s Lamb Croquettes at Palliser winery
Best Band
The Jedi Knights playing at Tirohana, and of course The Beat Girls at Palliser for giving us something to really “boogie-oogie” to (that is NOT my word!)
Best Coffee
Ripe at Martinborough Vineyard – because it was there when I needed defrosting the most.
Most Outrageous food rip-off
The Crayfish at Alana Estate. It is a mark of how sorry hubby felt for me that he (unknown to me) swapped enough Festival Franks for a small piece of seafood to have allowed our group a glass of wine each.
Best Customer Service (in the end).
Ruth Pretty Catering. I ordered a Coq Au Vin pie (had them before – they are delish) and got a steak and kidney. Took it back and they replaced it – with a steak and \Kidney. Took it back again and they finally worked out they had mixed up some trays – so they took a fresh tray our and got me a piping hot Coc Au Vin pie. They were lovely and apologetic and took the time to sort me out even though it was a huge event and they were really busy.
Best Wines (from the general view of the group)
Alana Estate. (Which is up for sale if you have a few million lurking under the sofa cushions).
All in all – as ever it was a great day out. Despite the vast quantities of alcohol consumed – its always a friendly event. No fights, just fun. I do have some tips for people thinking about going though.
- Become a Friend.
Friends get to buy 6 tickets before they go on general release. It’s a must if you really want to go. It costs $120 for the first year, and $75 a year after that. With tickets at about $60 it makes it expensive if there’s only 2 of you, but when you know there’s a group going – it’s worth it.
- Buy Festival Franks in stages.
You cannot get refunds on your Franks. Only franks are taken on the day- you buy them with real cash or EftPOS. Each of the vineyards has “banks” so its best to remember to take out small quantities and then you are not left with unusable money at the end of the day. You can always buy bottles of wine back at the square with any leftover – but why should you?
- End up at Palliser.
This should always be your last stop – its where the Beat Girls play and its the best for a good party atmosphere.
- Don’t be stupid and Drink & Drive.
Drink Driving doesn’t always have the same bad rap here as it does back home – here many people think its acceptable. It’s not. And every road out of town has a breathalyser stop on it. Don’t be an arse. If you are the driver – don’t be tempted just soak up the atmosphere and make notes about the antics of your drunken companions.
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Carterton’s Best Kept Secret Garden.
I actually think its a shame that so many people ignore Carterton as a possible place to move to when they consider living in the Wairarapa. The thinking generally goes like this:
- Ill go to Featherston because the commute to Welly is shorter.
- Ill go to Greytown because its posh.
- Ill go to Masterton because its the only place in the area with a population bigger than 10.
But even though I have unashamedly fallen in love with this place – even after 4 years here – I am still discovering some amazing hidden gems. Carterton’s biggest fault is that it doesn’t really like to show itself off.
Last weekend we went to the Italian Day at Richmond Gardens. This is a private house, that opens its doors once a year to the public (and at other times by appointment.). Once in off the street you would not know you were in New Zealand. And it is at the end of a very normal New Zealand town street. A true secret garden.
You can find contact details here, and they also sell their Topiary Box and bay trees – which I may well buy one of for the herb garden my dad is going to build me real soon.
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