New Zealand trip

17th August 2012,

We flew out to New Zealand for a quick visit to see family and friends.

After seeing the knee specialist and been given the ok for another 12 months . It was off to visit a few friends in the North Island. With only 3 weeks to sort things out the time sure went quick.
John got the clearance from the surgeon to be allowed to fly out to NZ on the condition that he keep his foot elevated all the time and not do anything silly. This we promised to do and flew out the next day  . We sure were lucky with that.
When we arrived back in Waikanae we stayed parked up under the carport for a week. It sure felt strange living in the bus under the carport at home. Thank's Brian and Tash .

After visiting family in the area and making sure John could manage to get in and out of the bus without to many problems with his broken ankle. It worked out very well. We got a piece of timber and thanks to Brian who smoothed it off for us. John was able to sit in the passengers seat with his right leg supported up on the dash to keep it elevated.
Margaret was smiling all the way as she finally got to drive the bus and it was fun without having John trying to jump in the drivers seat before she could get to it and have a turn. I think it must be a male thing driving all the time. Us women like to drive  sometimes too, you guys.

Made out way to Levin and stayed the night on a friends small farm Jan & Val. It was wonderful to catch up with all the news and about the motorhome rally's that they had been too.

Then onto New Plymouth where we caught up with our grandson Liam . He is now six years old and doing very well at school.

We spent 3 nights at Uruiti on a beef farm with friends Jack & June. With John not being able to move around he had to rest. Sorry Jack that your best plans for John to help you with some work on the farm did not happen. Next time we promise we will help you. At least now we have you connected to skype.
Hope you have some success in finding another farm soon.

From here we decided to go the back way to Taupo.After leaving Uriti we travelled north and turned right at a place called Ahititi and headed to Ohura  What a beautiful drive through
this area. You have to be aware of the logging trucks . Luckily for us we only came across one and there was room for us to move off the side of the road. 1/4 of this road is unsealed so you have to be very careful as the road in some places  was very narrow. But the scenery made it well worth while.  We always try to drive on different roads that we have not been on before , this makes it a great way to see our beautiful country.

We stopped at  Ohura for lunch then off to Motuoapa  where we met up with Johns old boss Noel and Lyn. Once again it was great catching up with all the news as it had been quite a while since we saw Noel. They said that they were keeping track of us via the blog which pleased us heaps.
We ended up staying parked outside Noels home, after a few drinks it was no more driving for me. It is great being able have a few drinks and know your bed it just outside waiting for you. You can relax and this is one thing we did while we were in NZ.

In the morning it was a leisurely drive to Taupo and set up camp at the new  NZMCA park over at the Taupo Airport, and waited for Pete and Barb (Day'N'Lu) and Marg and Rob  to arrive in their motorhomes.
What a wonderful place to park , very quiet and sheltered area, with just the odd plane taking off but that did not worry us.

As we had plenty of time before Barb and Pete arrived we made a trip into Taupo.  We brought two pairs of ski gloves for Glen and Anne back in Aussie . Yes they do get cold sometimes in Queensland especially at 5.30am when it time to go milking and you have to go and get the cows in with a frost on the ground.
In the 9 months that we have been away we both noticed that the price of meat had gone up, that was in Pak N Save. Brought some lambs  fry and bacon for a shared tea that night.Barb did a lovely fish quiche and the other Marg did roasted veggies. . Marg (Robs wife) had never had  lambs fry  before, so it was a new experience and I must say she did enjoy it and wanted the recipe . Good on you Marg for trying something different.





John , Pete , Marg, Barb, and Rob  at happy hour

  A wonderful night was had with a few drinks and a game of Sequence .
The morning brought a lovely sunny day in Taupo. Pete decided to have a go at making some scones .
Here is Pete with his lovely chefs hat on. They turned out very well and with  sausage rolls I did in the bus oven it was lunch fit for a king.

This was our second week back in NZ and the time sure went quick. Back to Waikanae we went on Sunday to once again park up under the car port. The weather had decided to do it's normal thing and rain and blow.

Tuesday evening we went to the Ulysses meeting at the club. It was good to see and hear all about the local rides that they had been on. We sure did miss riding the BMW. So John just started it up and enjoyed the sound of it for 5 minutes.lol.

                                                  John, Marg, Glenys and Ian (Margs Brother)

Just before we arrived home on 29th June my niece  Kelly and Michael Lilly became proud parents of a little boy named Arthur  Llewellyn . The little man decided to arrive 5 weeks early but all is good.

The day he went home from hospital

Michael Lilly also became The 2012 National Bank Young Farmer of the Year in May . It was a wonderful year for the couple . They got married in April last year , Then with Michael winning the young farmer of the year and then to top it if off the little Arthur arriving.A great triple act. Well done to you both.




Michael  Lilly  The 2012 National Bank Young Farmers champion with family and friends.

  Back to Aussie we came on our next adventure on the 7th October. We stayed with friends Anne and Keith in Brisbane on the way to NZ and on the way back. It was finally great to meet Annes husband  Keith.  After talking to him on the phone many times , we had a few glasses of wine and some good laughs. Keith took John out for a ride around Brisbane in his tow truck on a couple of  "pick up jobs"  (cars).
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                                                        John at Cairns airport waiting for ride home

We arrived back in Cairns to find that the Curlews that were sitting on two eggs at the farm were due to hatch. Yes we saw it had hatched in the wee hours of the night. ( apparently this is what they do). They hatched on Thursday morning.  She had layed her eggs right outside the sunroom so that we had full view of her. What a wonderful sight. Anne feeds them mince so they have become quite tame.

After visiting Cairns Base hospital again, the plaster and stitches  removed and we were told to come back in 4 weeks time to have the pin taken out . This is going to happen on the 25th October, yah. Once we have the clearance from the hosptial, we are driving down to Victoria to met up with Peter and Barb Arthurs who are going to be travelling around Aussie with us in their caravan. So looking forward to this.




Female Curlew showing us her two eggs

 





Mother & baby waiting for number  2 to arrive

 


One day old curlew chick

 


Mother curlew being very protective

 


Baby curlew a couple of days old . Photo taken through tinted windows from sunroom

 Only one baby curlew hatched the other egg was a dud and this is common we were told.

Here are some other photos that we have recently taken.




Mount Hypipimee, An extinct volcano where the core has been replaced with a very deep lake

 

Here are some photos of us doing folk art on Tuesday. Johns favourite day as it is a shared lunch. All sorts of nice yummy things for lunch.
We are painting a gingerbread Christmas decoration Margs in the front.



Shirley, Renel and Anne doing folk art

  It is interesting to see that we have had a lot of people check out our blog. For those that have done this many thanks . Hope you have found it interesting . Please let us know what you think. Would love to hear from you and maybe meet up with you on the road somewhere and share a cuppa.
Our next update we hope will be more interesting for you especially with us about to start touring around Aussie.