February 4th 2020: Don't stop me now.

Excited for tomorrow. We'll be going to Queen, performing in Wellington. Because of that the music this week will of course be a clip of Queen with Adam Lambert.

Bad weather. It's always like that in January and Kiwi's keep forgetting. Every year they ask themselves why summer is so bad, even prompting a local to ask on our Community facebook page: "Can someone who believes in God ask him where the heck our summer is?" It won't be long before the discussion about moving the summer holiday forward will pop up again. Like I said, every year it's the same, but then again, they don't like change so maybe they like complaining?

Nevertheless, we usually have four seasons in one day, and beautiful sunsets will come by more then often.

Wellington day (the days the first settler ship arrived in Wellington in 1840) was conveniently on a Monday this year, so we had a long weekend. We decided to join our friends Marya and Roger at Lake Taupo. This is Mount Tauhara on the other side of the lake, locals say it looks like a sleeping lady. I guess through a bottle everything looks different.

In the morning a quail family came begging for food, which Marya provided plenty.

And the water looked lovely.

Even better on the water. Unfortunately I was not allowed to fish as I did not have a license. A local Iwi is trying to protect the trout population and sets the rules for fishing. It's almost like the Netherlands.....

Hot, hot,hot, so Nienke took a plunge to cool of. Lake Taupo is quite cold, especially further from the shore line where it's about 186 m. deep. For those who can't remember, Lake Taupo is actually a caldera with a surface of 616 square km. The Taupo volcano erupted around 200 AD and was so violent that the effects were noticed by the Romans and Chinese. Pretty brave lady ay?

Found a nice spot with a waterfall and some hot pools, steam hanging above the lake.

Our friends have a couple of these jet skies, you know, those things that annoy you when you are trying to have a nap or want to read a book. I guess it makes them feel young again. Not my cup of tea though. My wife, being 5 years younger than me was quite attracted to these race machines.

After a few instructions Nienke is addicted too!

Playing on the water is nice, but you have to bring in the boat again afterwards. Bit of a hassle.

Nienke has been paddle boarding as well. I have to say, she is standing up pretty straight ay?

Nice to see Nienke relaxed. She's been working full on at the Council and a weekend break like this is just the right recipe for work stress.

Meanwhile in Te Horo Beach, our house sitters have been creating beach art. They were only with the four of them, but after receiving lots of positive reactions they will soon return for a new session.

Looked even better with the sun set behind it.

The problem with hay making is that there are only a few hay makers left doing smaller jobs like life style properties.. You've all seen the big round bales in green plastic lying around in huge paddocks. That kind of machinery is not fit for our small farm and even if it was, the owners would not be interested in our small enterprise. So we are dependent on a few hay makers with somewhat dated machinery. Trying to get hold of them is one thing, getting them to your property is a whole different story. They've got so much work and the weather is important too, that you just have to be happy if they come at all, and getting a date is a bonus. Anyway, I happened to be home when they finally came and had to bring in 172 bales on my own (well, Nienke helped me with the last 20 or so when she came back from work early).

Even our own paddocks produced a nice amount of bales this year. The photo above is from the road side.

Stanley, the 65 year old Massey Ferguson 35 and my trusty partner was still running very smoothly.

Soon both hays sheds were completely chokka. Likely enough food for our cows. We are going to get 2 new calves soon. The male Friesian/Hereforder cross we have at the moment is going to be chopped up as he is showing unwanted signs of testosteron overload. Besides, 3 is more than enough, the grass is not growing very fast in summer so we may have to give them some hay on the side. Our neighbour lost one cow. She, being quite hungry, breached the fence and went out looting in the neighbourhood. Probably ate a few things she should not have as she died on his driveway.

Probably one of the last fires for now. With everything turning dry as, fires are not allowed anymore. With the Australian bush fires in mind I think more people than ever will keep to the rules this year.

Funny pic of one of the chicks hiding under mum's feathers.

Maartje came over with 2 of her sisters from the Netherlands. She even offered to cook for us and helped cleaning up. Ideal guests! Nice evening too! Tomorrow again?

The fight against rabbits is ongoing. This is just to show you how big the holes are. A big entrance and then 3 channels going in different directions. Like a commune. This one was even small compared to the ones on my neighbours property, you can easily crawl into some of them. I may have to catch a ferret, domesticate it and teach it to hunt rabbits.

I am preparing the build of a new fence here for all our young chickens. The Kune Kune's  showed very briefly some interest in my activities, but soon showed concentration problems and went for an after breakfast nap.

That's what you get when you are  that lazy, fenced in completely.

And then suddenly we had an amazing day again. It being a Friday we logically extended our Friday afternoon drinks into a BBQ. Taught the Kiwi's how to have a real BBQ, with charcoal.

Meanwhile the ladies were entertaining Tia, the grandchild of the group.

Trevor in the role of the BBQ master chef.

Familiar scenes of joy.

Nienke posing with Janet and Trevor.

Thanks Jane, lovely picture, one for on the chimney.

And of course we had to end up around the fire, with a nice selection of '70's music in the background.

The young Bantam chickens in their new environment. I build a bigger coop for them too. All of recycled materials and left overs from the roof. The only thing I bought was  an aluminium door that automatically closes at 9 pm and opens again at 7 pm. Very clever. Ferrets and stouts can't get in during the night.

Not sure what we are going to do with the little rooster, it already has a comb and a nice layer of feathers on his legs. Haven't heard it crowing yet. Friends are not very interested, so it will probably 'coq-au-vin' for this little guy.
Right, time to prepare for tomorrow as 'The show must go on'.

January 13th 2020: Edu-chicken wishes you a happy New Year

'Been there, done that'. Actually, it was the 9th time I walked the Pinnacles track. The Wairarapa is just a nice region to visit for a day from Kapiti. So when we had Noor and Livia over we decided to enjoy the nice weather by having a look at the Pinnacles and the seal colony in Cape Palliser.

Because it was holiday season we had to wait 15 minutes to take this picture. A group of Chinese tourists was making pictures of every possible combination of friends and every possible angle. Only after Livia refused to be in a picture with lady dressed in bright pink and yellow (probably to scare the snakes of) they realised we wanted to make a picture as well. Click, click, done and on our ways again. Behind us several of the Chinese group discovered a few not previously photographed square cm of rock and eagerly started clicking away again.

They moved the track a bit, but having been there so often, we just followed the stream in order to cool of a bit.

Around New Year there are always a lot of young seals at Cape Palliser. Just lovely to watch. So we brought our picnic and settled down like pensioners...... Until the wind blew Noors food in my face. Time to grab the camera and look for some photogenic seal pups.

Just a selection of the many cuties lying around. Don't worry, these were taken with a 55-250 lens.

'What are you waking me up for?'

Beach side resort.

A mum with 5 pups, wow.

We told the girls to be aware of sleeping seals in the shrubbery. They kept their distance!

Noor is studying to do a entry test for the Medical university in the Netherlands, so I gave something to practise with. A medical puzzle.

Our New Years party always starts with Rutgers 'oliebollen'. He is a true 'oliebollen' chef. Already famous all over the North island for his creations. It did not last long before his stall was crowded with hungry people. For the Kiwi's, an 'oliebol' is a deep-fried raisin bun topped with powdered sugar. Normally eaten once a year on New Years eve in the Netherlands, preferably in the snow!

A well deserved break from the all preparations.

With around 35 guests and stunning weather it was just a perfect night.

A small selection of the amazing food people brought in, from hare-pie to Maroccan meatballs and from a delicious deer-dish to amazing eclairs. Not surprisingly had quite a bit of food left over and enjoyed that over the next days.

Our good old rusty fire pit is still working well.

Even organised a nice sunset again.

Yum, yum, the last oliebollen have been confiscated by the youngsters.

And when 'Paradise by the dashboard light" is on, the ladies can't sit still anymore and just have to dance! Alcohol has got nothing to do with this.

And then it is time for fireworks. A very special one this time as this was a box of fireworks left here by our amazing friend Ruben, who unfortunately passed away in October. So we took the time to commemorate Ruben and to think of Sabien and her children who now live in the Netherlands.

The next day some die-hards presented themselves at breakfast. By that time the group had been reduced to about 10.

And when it was time for the traditional New Years dive only a few real heroes were left. Granted, the weather had turned into a colder breeze and the sun had taken a holiday.

Brrrrrr

And how proud we are, next year in Scheveningen with the famous Unox beanie on.

Nienke and Livia had decided to go to 'Alice in Wonderland' in the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, but because they had not seen the movie yet I got them to see 'Alice in Wonderland' in 3D. I remembered our 10 year old TV had this feature and I could even locate the 3D glasses to go with it.

Livia and Nienke working on some Oamaru stone creations.

Yes, you are not mistaken. A nice sweater and the fire is on. Where has the summer gone?

Ah, there it is. Our private walkway to the beach. The agaphantus is starting to blossom.

Although many people living on the coast are worried about the effects of climate chance our beach is still growing. May have to build a jetty so we can launch here.

And probably picture no. 2659 of a sunset from our house, but every time it's beautiful again.

Had a few very windy nights and that always means a few macrocarpa trees will lose some limbs.

Opportunity for me to get my toys out again and have some fun. Too much firewood now, I may have to build a new shed. A famous saying here in NZ, 'a man never has enough sheds'.

With Noor now gone to Bali playing Mah Yong in the evening had changed a bit. With 3 it's not as much fun as with 4. We really need to find some Kiwi's who can play this. By the way, this combination is ugly. My poor grandparents (I inherited this beautiful ivory/bamboo set) would be horrified.

We caught another ferret. Not so strange they are around, as there are heaps of rabbits everywhere. If only we could come to an agreement with these creatures; stay of the chickens, our pet rabbits, the quails, fantails, silver eyes and pheasants ...... He would not and now he is sleeping on the wrong side of the grass.

So if you want to be a self respected painter you have to own a scaffolding. So I bought one. A nice aluminium one as all steel rusts beach side and steel is so much heavier. I need it to paint our own house. Nienke and I have dug our trenches and negotiations about the colours have started. We'll keep you informed.

Summer means fruit salad to me, lots of it. This batch was made for Liesbeth and Guy who came to visit with her parents. Great evening again and again way to much food. The next morning our chickens asked why they could not get some desert wine with their tiramisu.

'Ouderwets gezellig' (not possible to translate).

Talking about chickens. Meet edu-chicken. She is the sole survivor of our old batch. Our five new hyliners (for the Dutchies: Barnevelders) were pretty stupid. Almost never tried any food scraps we gave them. A real 'wat de boer niet kent dat vret-ie niet' (what the farmer doesn't recognise, he won't eat) mentality. They had not produced eggs either. So we introduced the old hen to the new ones. A very brief struggle to establish the pecking order was all it took. Now edu-chicken has taught them to lay eggs, split and eat the many apples on the ground and eat our scraps. Wonder women.

Meanwhile on the other side the young Bantam chickens are growing. One of the 'chickens' appears to be a walking alarm clock, also know locally as a rooster. Nienke has heard it crowing twice now and immediately issued a fatwa It looks like the rooster is doomed.
OK, that's it for now. Summer goes hand in hand with music, and we have several concerts coming up, WOMAD, Queen in Wellington and the Jordan Luck band (from the in NZ world famous band the Exponents with Why does love do that to me). We'll therefore end with some music. It's a song from the Canadian band the Eastpointers. Their new CD has just arrived from Australia (ordered it a month ago). It's one of Nienkes favourites.