Homeward Bound

Home again after our sojourn in the South.

We are reluctant to admit this but the weather there was almost certainly just as bad as anywhere else in the country. The Met Office is saying that December weather was the worst on record. So we had the dubious satisfaction of knowing that whatever the conditions it was probably just as bad as anywhere else!

Plenty of time to talk to relations and friends down South, in Te Anau,Southland, most of whom seemed to remember our faces – even if some of them marvelled at my increased girth – which I put down to my mother-in-law’s good cooking of course. I managed to see off the bug that had invaded my lungs over the last 3 months of they ear, with the aid of the usual antibiotics, so I can breathe easy at night, and Betty can get some sleep as well.

We met up with Cambridges [from round the corner- that wasn’t too hard], the Sims from Queenstown [Graham, Lynne – who came bearing an enormous bunch of roses from her garden, and Daniel], and Templetons [ Glenda and Gary – whose interesting email address is “gargle” etc – I leave you to work that out!] These all came on the day before Christmas to avoid the expected rush. We had a great combined meal followed by the usual exchange of gifts – and the discovery in the back of Mum Sim’s cabinet of a bottle of cherry brandy. This was demolished with glee – indeed there was much more glee at the end than at the beginning! She has no idea how long it had been there but we told her it was not something she should worry about any more.

We had a relatively quiet Christmas day – indeed the only relatives were Margaret and John, but on the Wednesday, the junior Garretts showed up for another round of pass the parcel. All four boys we can report are now taller than their grandmother, and streaking up to their father’s height. Jacob is getting oil under his fingernails at a country Engineering Work Shop, Sam has completed his diploma at Lincoln Uni, whilst Isaac and Ben are making waves at High School. Lorraine is holding down a full time Paramedic job, whilst John continues to run his little corner of DOC from their town base. We paid them a visit in Invercargill to inspect the “new” house, which it has emerged, is actually the old Holloway house, 401 Herbert St, built by Joe and Sylvia when they married. We had Noelene [Holloway] Gill come down and give everyone an historic places tour: “That is the original front door – which we never used except when the Queen visited. The coal range stood there….. etc etc”. Both Bert, my father and Phil my uncle, Sylvia’s brothers, had their wedding receptions at the house so we’d seen photos of it as background to those events. It is quite a nice idea to think that the younger Garretts are going to be the ones to renovate and restore the old place – solidly built in brick and plaster. Mum Sim was pleased to see that John had the deer’s head mounted in their lounge complete with little plaque saying that George Sim had shot it and where and when. John wanted us to admire his double garage and sleepout he’d built where the very old dairy and bottling shed had stood in the days when it was part of a dairy farm! Now it’s in the middle of town! Betty took Mum away to see her aunt in the nursing home for an hour, whilst we got on with gossiping about Holloways – Alyse in particular. Noelene had brought down [from 250 Herbert St] a box of videotapes for me as a bequest from Alyse [ahead of time] and a pile of jewellery to pass on to Trish on the same understanding. Alyse is in a Rest Home at Wyndham, and her things are stored with Noelene. I have since found amongst the tapes, one of “The Isle of Man” which is very good, and transferred it to DVD, for the future.

New Year’s Eve was enlivened by a loud bang as a missile went through the front room window – thoroughly alarming everyone. We dashed outside to see who had been so silly, but no one was there. The police we called but nothing could be done. We couldn’t even find the stone or bottle that had caused the damage. John Cambridge in true “Mr Fixit” style had it replaced the next day by the glazier.

We visited Tuatapere for the New Year’s Day Sports. Twice round the Ring to meet everyone else in the district used to be the rule and so it proved on the day. Even some Motueka people – the younger Ashcrofts back home from Alistair’s place here.

On the way in, we were lucky to find the Knowlers at home in their newly renovated and enlarged home at Clifden. It is nearly completed except for flooring. Also there were Carmen and her man, Alistair, so it was good to catch up on them too.

The day before leaving, John took us up the Mavora Lakes for a look, as the weather was improving. It was as beautiful and peaceful as ever, with all the native bush and birds about. We stopped at Bruce and Linda Kempthorne’s place on the way back – they are up that same road.

Our last morning finished with a look at the Wildlife Park with Margaret feeding the birds, letting us into the aviaries for photo shots. We were keen to see the baby brown teal – so rare now and being readied for transport to a safe release somewhere. Also on show were the possibly even rarer Orange-fronted parakeets - smaller than the red-crowned – with a yellow crown and orange patch above the nostrils. Just released onto Chalky Island last year, they have done extremely well away from the nasty stoats and possums, breeding successfully and spreading over much of the island already. Not all conservation news is bad.

We headed for Dunedin after that, to stay in the new house built by Rob and Vicki. We were the first house guests, and shared an evening meal with JB Munro and Val, who had been hosts to Vicki and Rob whilst the building process was on. Our bed was a foldout couch but very comfortable. The facilities are truly top notch – with everything thought out well, even the solar water heating and double glazing. There is much to do with landscaping of course, but they have years to do that!

We elected to go inland from Outram, via Middlemarch, across the Otago peneplain with all its switchback hills, and across the Moonlight Road to MacCraes Flat where the whole hill has been removed to extract gold from the quartz in the schist, and so to Dunback and Palmerston and the Main highway again.

We stopped as usual with Phil at Rushbrook, Leeston, and went off next day with one his geese from the freezer to share with everyone back here. We called on Marion McLean to catch up on their experiences looking after our place here whilst we were away. Then we moved on to see Robert and Maria at the Rest Home in Harewood Road. He looked a little better, having lost some weight [needed] and being able to get some movement into his ankle. The ulcer on his foot is healing at last. There is hope for further improvement.

Back home to piles of mail, and email too. AND some warmer weather!