Wot, no pitchers?
Following the photo shoot earlier in the week, Nonie generously lent me her "spare" Nikon D90 camera which I have been blasting away with for the past couple of days. Alas, I don't have a working USB cable for it and the thing in this laptop that looks like a card reader is actually a slot to keep your bus ticket in so no pictures today. I'll put them in later - promise.
On Wednesday I decided to go wandering, safe in the knowledge that I had a GPS in the car in case of overdoing it. So I headed north and left the main road at Puhoi to follow the old main road. Puhoi is now much quieter than it used to be and quite idyllic. So I ventured up the Puhoi Valley. The road quickly became dirt
which took me back a few years and I drove on through rugged sheep country for miles. I was amazed at how flashy some of the houses are out there. After driving for quite a while and wondering if I would get to see the dirt road from the opposite direction as the onl
y way home, I was about to turn around when I came across Ahuroa, a tiny village with a school, a church and a couple of dozen houses. Seemed an odd place to be so maybe I was on the edge of a larger town. No, I wasn't but another couple of kilometres brought me out onto SH16 with the choice of going left to the west coast or right to the east coast. A quick check on the GPS revealed that it thought I was up Reservoir Road (wherever that may be) at a dead end. So much for technology. (I should mention that both east and west coast are about half an hour's drive from where I was). So I turned right towards Warkworth and the Parry Kauri Park where I got to gawp at some of the e
normous kauri trees that made Warkworth a centre of industry in the 19th century. This involved major contact with my current nemesis - stairs - by the million. While I was at it I paid a visit to the settlers' museum there which was one of the best I have ever been to.
The remainder of the day was taken up with sploshing around in the Pacific which was like a millpond. I spent a bit too much time in the water as my left eye spent the whole evening watering, causing me to abandon Bladerunner after about half an hour in favour of going to bed.
I had difficulty waking up yesterday (or maybe I was just reluctant to). It was my first day without chemo so I hoped I would perk up as a result but actually went back to bed "for half an hour" at 8 o'clock and woke up at 10:30. After bumbling around tidying up the place a bit (ie messing about with the ukulele and watching the Al Jazeera news), it was 11:30 by the time I finally hit the road, determined to head to Titirangi. Determined to avoid the motorway, I soon turned up in Helensville which has undergone a remarkable transformation since I was last there. It used to be a bit of a rundown dump with a pub and a quarry and a dozen shuttered shops but it is now obviously thriving but without the Chinese influence so prevalent everywhere else. I must go back for a wander some time but I wanted to get to Titirangi.
But first, a side trip to the gannet colony at Muriwai. Considering the vast stock of shitty memories I have of Muriwai, I have to wonder why I am still drawn to the place. To get rid of the stiff legs from yesterday, I parked by the caff and took the steep path up the hill and spent nearly an hour watching and photographing the birds. By which time it was way too late to go to Titirangi if I wanted to avoid Auckland's bloody awful rush hour traffic so, using the sun rather than the GPS, I meandered back to Red Beach via the country roads.
Quick aside - Georgia has very kindly lent me her Audi for the duration of my trip with the warning that it guzzles gas. So far I am getting 22 mpg out of it which isn't at all bad, even though the gas is twice the price it is in Asheville ($NZ2.10 a litre * 3.71 litres to the US gallon * $1NZ = $0.71US = $US5.53 a gallon for premium).
Despite the short day, I was tired when I got back to the bach so decided to wander over the hill to the surf club for dinner. And a pint. I'd expected to find the place occupied by half a dozen bronze gods bragging about the 15 metre wave they rode for 20 minutes but, instead, the place was packed mostly with people my age and I soon got drawn into conversation with a number of them. I even won a bottle of wine in the raffle. The food wasn't bad either and, purely to boost the club's funds you understand, I washed it down with "more than one" glass of Monteith's pale ale.
Which brings us up to today, Saturday 13th Jan at 10:05 a.m. Today is the grand Ward family petanque tournament so I must get myself ready to face the opposition.
My partner, Simon Ward, and I were knocked out in the second round so the gorgeous trophy will not be gracing my office wall this year.
I suppose I should add some medical info at this stage as that's what the blog is supposed to be about. You may recall the blood test I had done in Waihi a bout a week ago - still haven't had the results. Also, my feet and ankles had swollen up horribly - it seems this is a side effect of glutamine so I have cut down on that a bit and make a point of literally putting my feet up in the evening - the couch here is absolutely perfect for that as it is 6' long and the back cushion comes off to prop my feet up.
which took me back a few years and I drove on through rugged sheep country for miles. I was amazed at how flashy some of the houses are out there. After driving for quite a while and wondering if I would get to see the dirt road from the opposite direction as the onl
y way home, I was about to turn around when I came across Ahuroa, a tiny village with a school, a church and a couple of dozen houses. Seemed an odd place to be so maybe I was on the edge of a larger town. No, I wasn't but another couple of kilometres brought me out onto SH16 with the choice of going left to the west coast or right to the east coast. A quick check on the GPS revealed that it thought I was up Reservoir Road (wherever that may be) at a dead end. So much for technology. (I should mention that both east and west coast are about half an hour's drive from where I was). So I turned right towards Warkworth and the Parry Kauri Park where I got to gawp at some of the e
normous kauri trees that made Warkworth a centre of industry in the 19th century. This involved major contact with my current nemesis - stairs - by the million. While I was at it I paid a visit to the settlers' museum there which was one of the best I have ever been to.The remainder of the day was taken up with sploshing around in the Pacific which was like a millpond. I spent a bit too much time in the water as my left eye spent the whole evening watering, causing me to abandon Bladerunner after about half an hour in favour of going to bed.
I had difficulty waking up yesterday (or maybe I was just reluctant to). It was my first day without chemo so I hoped I would perk up as a result but actually went back to bed "for half an hour" at 8 o'clock and woke up at 10:30. After bumbling around tidying up the place a bit (ie messing about with the ukulele and watching the Al Jazeera news), it was 11:30 by the time I finally hit the road, determined to head to Titirangi. Determined to avoid the motorway, I soon turned up in Helensville which has undergone a remarkable transformation since I was last there. It used to be a bit of a rundown dump with a pub and a quarry and a dozen shuttered shops but it is now obviously thriving but without the Chinese influence so prevalent everywhere else. I must go back for a wander some time but I wanted to get to Titirangi.
But first, a side trip to the gannet colony at Muriwai. Considering the vast stock of shitty memories I have of Muriwai, I have to wonder why I am still drawn to the place. To get rid of the stiff legs from yesterday, I parked by the caff and took the steep path up the hill and spent nearly an hour watching and photographing the birds. By which time it was way too late to go to Titirangi if I wanted to avoid Auckland's bloody awful rush hour traffic so, using the sun rather than the GPS, I meandered back to Red Beach via the country roads.Quick aside - Georgia has very kindly lent me her Audi for the duration of my trip with the warning that it guzzles gas. So far I am getting 22 mpg out of it which isn't at all bad, even though the gas is twice the price it is in Asheville ($NZ2.10 a litre * 3.71 litres to the US gallon * $1NZ = $0.71US = $US5.53 a gallon for premium).
Despite the short day, I was tired when I got back to the bach so decided to wander over the hill to the surf club for dinner. And a pint. I'd expected to find the place occupied by half a dozen bronze gods bragging about the 15 metre wave they rode for 20 minutes but, instead, the place was packed mostly with people my age and I soon got drawn into conversation with a number of them. I even won a bottle of wine in the raffle. The food wasn't bad either and, purely to boost the club's funds you understand, I washed it down with "more than one" glass of Monteith's pale ale.
Which brings us up to today, Saturday 13th Jan at 10:05 a.m. Today is the grand Ward family petanque tournament so I must get myself ready to face the opposition.
My partner, Simon Ward, and I were knocked out in the second round so the gorgeous trophy will not be gracing my office wall this year.
I suppose I should add some medical info at this stage as that's what the blog is supposed to be about. You may recall the blood test I had done in Waihi a bout a week ago - still haven't had the results. Also, my feet and ankles had swollen up horribly - it seems this is a side effect of glutamine so I have cut down on that a bit and make a point of literally putting my feet up in the evening - the couch here is absolutely perfect for that as it is 6' long and the back cushion comes off to prop my feet up.
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