Category Archives: around home
Settling In – Napier
It’s a little strange going back to work after a year, but not too much of a shock really. After a good few months of looking for a suitable job, I took one as a process engineer at a pulp mill just north of Napier (in the Hawke’s Bay region – east coast of the North Island). The company just happens to own the mountain-bike park next door, so that’s quite attractive; also the commute by bike is a pretty good one (a bit flat, but very scenic around the bay) – I’ve ridden to & from work five days out of the two weeks so far.
There’s plenty to learn and discover – so many new faces at work, yet another new process to get my head around, and a whole new city and surrounds. I get the impression that the area was one of the first in the country to set up a rather extensive network of cycle trails – so I’ve done a bit of riding on those visiting the few people I know in the area, as I try to familiarise myself with my new home.
Speaking of new homes, I move into a share-house tomorrow and will keep my eye on the market for a suitable house to buy. I’m starting to get a idea of where I’d like to buy and what I would like in a house – so it’ll just be a case of waiting for something suitable to come along.
With all that going on, I’ve not done anything terribly exciting – but have ridden around a bit in the sun (for the middle of winter, it’s shockingly warm compared to what I’m used to) and taken the odd photo. So that’s about all I have to share.
Looking around the Bay from outside the motel work put me in for my first two weeks – very handy. That’s pretty much half of my commute around there – tough alright.
Looking over to Mahia Peninsula and the top of Hawke Bay.
Port Napier (from which our pulp is exported) and the only hill in Napier – this end is called Bluff Hill, the other (out of shot) – Hospital Hill.
Looking south from the hill over Napier and on to Cape Kidnappers – the southern most part of Hawke Bay.
Over Ahuriri Estuary at dusk – on the other side of the motel.
The public space along the Pacific waterfront is rather long – this a small part near the centre of the city.
In this part is also the much-photographed statue of Pania of the Reef.
Another view from Bluff Hill over Marine Parade.
A cathedral apparently – a bit different to those I’m more used to.
The Six Sisters – also on Marine Parade – remind me of being in San Francisco for some reason.
Farewell South Island
With the gradual erosion of my bank account balances, a suitable opportunity to rejoin the workforce was most welcome. As such, since I got the phone call offering me a job on the last day of the June sojourn to the West Coast, July was rather quiet as I sorted details and prepared for the move north. There definitely was not much biking as a rather frigid few weeks set in and I couldn’t get motivated to re-ride gravel roads that were no longer new to me. But there was plenty more to do and think about.
Having been back in NZ for eight months, it was bigger trips away that got more coverage here. Understandably too, as there were a fair few highlights there – mostly notable surviving the 2015 Kiwi Brevet (1150 km around the top of the South Island was a great re-introduction to NZ); the big training rides for the brevet; a couple of trips to the North Island with short bike tours, a fantastic wedding, and visiting family & friends; a quick trip to Sydney to see family; and two trips to Westport to see Adele in her new home (the Heaphy Trail was the highlight of the riding). But the time, between those trips, with Mum & Dad in their new home was just as good – plenty to do and many places to explore.
The local beach, a short distance from home, was always good for a walk in the, frequent, sun.
Waikouaiti Beach
Further around the beach towards to estuary mouth
Out on my twenty kilometre loop – looking out across Waikouaiti and Hawkesbury Lagoon and over the Pacific.
As I trained a little bit for the Brevet, my eyes turned to the myriad of gravel roads slightly inland. I was surprised by the quality of the gravel road riding out there – wonderful scenery and pretty much deserted too.
Out riding in the hills of coastal East Otago.
At the end of one of my favourite gravel roads to ride, a station – remove a letter and you can anagram my name.
Looking over Karitane village to Waikouaiti Beach.
There was even the odd local event to go along to, sit in the sun and drink wine at.
A day at the local races.
My twenty kilometre loop came over that saddle and was a great rush down that hill.
The facilities are looking a little long in the tooth.
Another recurring route on the bike was north to Palmerston, avoiding the highway, and then on past Trotters Gorge to Moeraki.
On one of the few trips to the fishing village of Moeraki – where there is a uncanningly fantastic restaurant, with plenty of seafood, naturally.
The decor is somewhat eclectic – this historic hand-drier reminding me of Polimeri (my workplace in the UK actually still had these!).
Now that Mum & Dad have a much bigger section there was always plenty to do around home – particularly outside. I went a little way towards earning my keep by washing the exterior of the house, repeatedly mowing the lawns, replacing paving stones, picking apples & pears, carting & stacking dry firewood, and finally by wielding a chainsaw an awful lot cutting trees down & into burnable pieces. The weather often played fair and it was always nice to be outside – even on those crisp days close to freezing.
It looks a little different now that winter has arrived and many of the trees have been dealt to by a chainsaw to let some more light in.
So a great few months at home spending time with Mum & Dad. Nice to have that time before I dive into seeing if I can get used to a life that will be more settled &, dare I say it, normal than the preceding six years. We’ll see.
NZ Ploughing Championships
More curious than particularly interested, one Sunday afternoon I found myself with Dad visiting the New Zealand Ploughing Championships – after all, it was only fifteen minutes’ drive from home.
It turned out to be a very warm autumn afternoon and good fun wandering around with Dad as he tried to explain some of the complexities of ploughing. With my slight interest in old tractors, previously documented, the best part of the afternoon was looking at many fine examples of old machinery as Dad regaled me of tales along the lines of: “so-and-so used to have one of those” or “I drove one of those in [insert far-flung place I never knew Dad worked in]” or “the only time I ploughed was driving one of those”.
Other highlights were the steamed-up traction engines powering a thresher while some guys bagged whatever it was processing, and (for the comedy value) a group of war equipment enthusiasts tearing around a field/paddock in an APC and old military Jeeps and Land Rovers while their colleagues fired very loud blanks from a field gun and various machine guns.
We didn’t actually watch a lot of tractor ploughing (it’s not much of a spectator sport), but the horse ploughing was fascinating. The control that the drivers had over their teams of horses (numbering from one horse to six horses) while following twenty metres behind was quite impressive – as was the ability of a large team of horses to turn on a dime to head back in the opposite direction.
A worthwhile Sunday afternoon out which we quite enjoyed.
