Clive & Melanie Morris - Narrowboat Folkies

We have now been in New Zealand for two weeks!  We have been very lazy really, just enjoying relaxing at Lindsey's and not really doing a great deal. Well when all said and done, we have plenty of time!  We were just discussing this very thing yesterday and agreed that at the moment we are just "living" here, as we do at home on the boat, its just a change of scenery and its nice and warm.  However early in the New Year we will be "going on holiday" when we set off in the campervan to explor South Island.  We had been planning to set off towards the end of January however we have learned that Le Caballo Blanco, the Spanish Riding School  show is coming to Auckland on February 5th and we would really like to go to that, if we can get tickets, so the trip South might have to wait a week or two!

Lindsey has been made an Executive Councillor of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand and had to go to Wellington for a meeting at the weekend.  Clive drove her to the airport on Friday evening.  I had been invited by Lindsey's sister Philippa to attend a "Conversazione"! Basically a group of ladies having a get together over a meal which is brought by the attendees!  They do this on a regular basis and the one I was going to was at Belinda's house.  Clive and Lindsey dropped me off at Mary's house (we've met her a couple of times at the pub quiz) as she was driving me to Belinda's, picking Philly and Ann up on the way.

We arrived at Belinda's house to find it beautifully decked out for Christmas and the table looking absolutely lovely.  There was a beautifully decorated

tree in the lounge and the hearth was very festive too, the trouble with it all was the fact that it was 21 degrees outside and bright sunshine!  The evening kicked off with a glass of sparkling wine and the most awesome dip with toast fingers!  I was introduced to everyone, some of whom I had met at the quiz but also a couple of ladies I hadn't met before; our hostess, Belinda and another friend Karen.  I asked how they had all got together and ws informed that they all used to work at the same clinic when Philippa first came out to New Zealand in 1985 and they have been friends ever since.  Lindsey joined the throng when she moved out here in 1991 and Mary joined them about five years ago. 

Cheryl, Belinda (our hostess) Karen, Philippa, Ann and Mary

We were invited to sit down at the table and our starter was served.  This consisted of chilli prawns which Philly and Ann had brought with them and cooked on the barbecue, served on a bed of salad.  This was followed by roast turkey, which Belinda had cooked and roast vegetables provided by Cheryl. After this came the most delicious Christmas pudding with brandy butter which Mary had made.  We rounded it all off with rum balls, shortbread stars and mini mince pies, all in all a feast fit for a queen!  I had a really lovely evening and was very glad that Philly had invited me.  Clive on the other hand got lost on the way home from the airport but finally got home and spent the rest of the evening in with the dog!  Bless! (Actually I suspect he was glad of a bit of peace and quiet!)

The following day, Saturday, I received a phonecall from one of Lindsey's neighbours, Janet just as we were about to head off on a shopping expedition.  She asked if we knew it was Clevedon Christmas Carnival that afternoon!  We had actually heard about it but didn't know any details.  It was due to start at 3.00pm and the road through Clevedon would be shut a short while before that.  By this time it was 2.15pm and we realised that we might be cutting it a bit fine to get through Clevedon before the parade so we decided to go and watch it first.

We got a ringside seat so to speak as we parked Lindsey's van in one of the herring bone parking spots, lifted the tail gate and sat on a big cushion which Lindsey had put in the van for a third passenger (more on that later!) and had a great view of the main street down which the parade would be coming.  The tail gate also made an excellent sunshade!  It soon started and the parade was led by the local Fire Brigade in their bright shiny red fire engine.  There were pipers, floats made up of the various local organisations, VW Beetles, one painted with The Love Bug with the hood open and the boot filled with sunflowers which were being handed out to the onlookers.  There were children from the local school and playgroups and even a pirate ship.  It was all very colourful and very jolly. Finally Santa put in an appearance complete with red suit, fur trim and wellies - he must have been hot, the sun was beating down and it must have been in the mid 20s!!  A bit of a bizarre sight really and not a bit like Christmas as we know it but of course the Kiwis don't know any different, their Christmas's are always warm and sunny because of course it is the beginning of the Summer here!

Santa in the sunshine!

There will be more photos of the parade in the gallery.

Once the parade had travelled the full length of the main street it turned around and came back down again so we got to see all the floats again.  All in all it was a good fun and we were pleased we had gone to watch it.  The road soon opened again and we headed off to Papakura and the supermarket.

We had another lazy day on Sunday and Clive was waiting for a call from Lindsey to tell him what time her plane got into Auckland so that he knew what time to set off to collect her.  She phoned from Wellington around 5.00pm to say that her plane would be landing around 6.30pm.  However one of her fellow Executive Members who was standing nearby and overheard her making the arrangements butted in and offered to give her a lift as he was heading in the same direction!  Excellent - in that case I'll have a Speights, said Clive!

Speights, New Zealand Beer

Our daughter Vicki introduced Clive to Speights when we first came to New Zealand in 2000 when Vicki was over here on a sort of gap year.  She absolutely loves it and has now discovered a source in East Anglia where she can get it occasionally!  I'm not a beer drinker at all but I have to say it is rather good, especially on a hot Summer's day!

There has been one thing that has marred our trip to New Zealand so far - I have been plagued by Sandflies!  They are very tiny little black flies which pack a mighty punch! You don't realise they are there until you feel their bite, which is a quite intense burning sensation!  You may recall that in back in the Summer in East Anglia I had a nasty reaction to a bite by a "superfly" which resulted in cellulitis and a trip to A&E!  Up until then I have never had a bad reaction to an insect bite but I certainly am now!  All the bites I have recieved from sandflies and there are many, have swollen up, gone red and then proceeded to ooze clear yellow fluid - not a pretty sight!  I have been covering myself with cream and taking antihistamines so far but yesterday we went and got some advice from a pharmacist in Papakura and she recommended a strong insect repellant called Bushman's plus which evidently repels mosquitoes, sandflies, ticks and leeches!!!  Prevention is better than cure she said.  So from now on, every time I go out I will be well slathered with this strong smelling repellant - nice!

On Monday it rained!  Its the first rain we have seen in the whole two weeks since we arrived, well apart from a very, very light drizzle which lasted for about five minutes one day!  This was real rain, it was pounding down on Lindsey's corrugated roof and sounded incredible!  It was quite welcome though as we needed it to replenish the water supply (all the houses in New Zealand have a water tank which gathers rainwater from the roofs) and also to water the garden!  However by the time Lindsey got home from work it had stopped and the sun was shining once more.  She asked me if I fancied going for a walk - I did!

We set off with the dog and turned right out of Lindsey's gate and our route took us through her neighbour's land.  Janet was outside giving her gorgeous horse, Red, a bath.  He was gleaming in the sunshine.  Janet keeps goats and we can see them in the fields across from Lindsey's house.  She had one small kid in a paddock by himself and asked if I would like to feed him, naturally I said yes!

Feeding Ollie!

He is so cute but I had to keep a very firm hold on that bottle, he was really strong and kept grabbing at it and pulling!  Once he had drunk the bottle dry we said goodbye to Janet and continued with our walk.  We went through the field full of goats, passed a row of bee hives all pleasantly humming and climbed higher and higher up the hill.  When we got to the top and looked back we had a wonderful view of Lindsey's lovely house surrounded by all the trees and shrubs that she has planted over the years, nestled in the bottom of the valley.

Lindsey's House

Needless to say, by the time we got back to the house we had both been bitten yet again by sandflies, even though I had worn my jeans and socks and shoes they had still managed to get at my legs somehow! Lindsey also had streaming eyes and kept sneezing - she suffers from hayfever and we had walked back through the meadow!

On Tuesday Clive and I headed into Papakura to find a shop selling Christmassy things.  It is the pub quiz again tomorrow night and its the Christmas party so all the teams have to tart themselves up in fancy dress etc.  Last year Grey Matter (our team) won the prize for best dressed team, they all went as angels!!  This year we are just going to be Christmassy with reindeer antlers, a mini Christmas tree for the table, tinsel and festive sweeties too.  It should be fun.  I must just point out too that Grey Matter is made up of six women and Clive!  One person stopped him on the way out of the pub last week and told him he was lucky to have so many girlfriends!

When Lindsey got home last night we started making plans for December 25th!  Lindsey has never hosted Christmas Day before but as we are here she has decided it would be a good idea to have everyone over for dinner.  The first thing was to organise the Christmas tree!  She has a small one in a pot in the garden, it has spent quite a while on its side as it must have blown over at some point and she hadn't noticed.  It has now put on a growth spurt so last night she repotted it and it will be brought inside shortly and bedecked with golden baubles and tinsel ready for Christmas Day.

Clive and I wanted to be able to give Lindsey a hand around the place whilst we were here, considering she lives here alone and there is quite a lot to do.  There are still parts of the house exterior that need painting and gardening to do plus possibly starting a veggie patch.  She also has a very large garage where the campervan and the ride-on mower live and she said yesterday how it desperately needs tidying up. So after Lindsey had gone to work this morning he set to getting it all cleared out, organised and swept clean.  He's enjoying himself doing it and I'm sure Lindsey will be delighted.  My contribution thus far has been to have dinner ready for Lindsey each evening and keep the kitchen clean and tidy also I have managed to suss out how to work Lindsey's very high tech new oven!  Even though she has an instruction book it has remained a total mystery to her and she hasn't used it so far (its quite a while since it was installed!).  Through trial and error I have managed to get to grips with it and even managed to grill some pork chops for dinner last night - quite an achievement, it really is complicated!  She also has an induction hob which I am learning to love - if ever I live in a house again I'm having one of these!

Well that's about it for now but don't go away, there will be another bulletin next week.