WOMAD New Plymouth 2013

We've just returned from our third WOMAD weekend. New Zealand's WOMAD event is held in New Plymouth each March and provides a eclectic mix of music and dance events. The festival runs from for three days - Friday afternoon till midnight, Saturday midday to midnight and Sunday midday to 11pm.

Crowd at the main stage

Along with thousands of others we camp at the racecourse which is next door to the Brooklands Park where WOMAD is held. After setting up our campsite we picked up our wristbands and programmes and spent some time planning which acts we would go to see. There are five stages running with performances generally running for an hour. It's not possible to see all acts so it takes a bit of planning to try and catch the ones you're most interested in. The first year we went we played it by ear and missed out on some great acts. We've got better at it!

This year the standout acts on Friday night were Hugh Masekala followed by Shunsuke Kimura and Etsuro Ono. After an enjoyable first evening we headed off to the campsite while Fly My Pretties were playing on the main stage. Saturday dawned bright and sunny and we had a lazy morning including a swim down at the beach before packing up some supplies and getting back to music listening / watching at midday.

We started the day with a fun performance from Newtown Rocksteady - great to see a Wellington bank performing and they got the crowd rocking. The next great act for the afternoon was The Correspondents from the UK. Their live act is great to see with Mr Bruce (the lead) dancing like a crazy man. The other act that we really enjoyed was Lau. These guys were billed as Scottish folk artists which didn't particularly appeal. In reality they were great - amusing, good music and fun.

Sunday dawned.... wet. Ugh! The weather forecasters were right for once. With jackets on and spare clothes we followed the crowd to get the final day of WOMAD started. For us the day started on the main stage with the Melbourne Ska Orchestra. Considering the weather was fairly rubbish these guys got the crowd jumping (watch the beginning of the video at the link I've provided and it was pretty similar to that).

Melbourne Ska Orchestra on the main stage (in the rain)

The other act that we particularly enjoyed was Abigail Washburn and Kai Welch. They were joined near the end of their act by the guys from Lau.

Abigail Washburn and Kai Welch with Lau on the Chimney stage

Our evening ended with a repeat performance from the Correspondents.

Of course there plenty of other performers who were very good. I've just mentioned the ones that were the highlights for us. After a great weekend of music / performance and a few drinks and yummy food we packed up camp on Monday and headed for home - in the rain.

Queensland holiday - final instalment

We'd been told, when we were planning this holiday, that you couldn't just turn up to a camping area in a national park in Queensland. You need to have pre-booked and paid for your site before arriving at a campground. On the Thursday afternoon we rang the number to book a campsite on Inskip Peninsula only to find that the booking system was out of action, had been unavailable all week and there was no expected date for it be up and running again. We were advised to just turn up and find a campsite then contact the ranger to sort out payment. So we did just that. We headed through Rainbow Beach and made our way to one of four camping areas out on Inskip Peninsula. There was plenty of room so we found a suitable spot and set up the tents. It was about a 15 second walk to get onto the beach. Fantastic!

 

We doubled back to Rainbow Beach to sort out paying for the campsite and to purchase some firewood.

Rainbow Beach looking down towards the coloured sands

View from the sand dune just along from Rainbow Beach

Coloured sands - much more dramatic when you're there

We stayed at this campsite for a week and spent our days pretty lazily. One morning after breakfast we wandered along to the end of the peninsula to watch cars boarding the barge for Fraser Island. After checking with the crew we found we were able to go across on the barge at no cost so we hopped on. We weren't very prepared for this - no shoes, no water, no food - just what we stood up in. For me that was my bikini, sarong and hat.

View from the barge looking back at Fraser Island.

A couple of days later we got ourselves better organised and hopped back on the barge to spend the day out on Fraser Island. We walked around the coast for a couple of hours, had a picnic lunch and a swim before heading back towards where the barge would pick us up again.

View from our picnic spot on Fraser Island looking back at the mainland

Goanna on Fraser Island

View from Fraser Island back to Inskip Peninsula

The most delightful thing about both our trips out to Fraser Island were the pods of dolphins we saw. There were several pods and some came very close to the shore - almost within arms reach when we were swimming.

Dolphins

The camping areas on Inskip are pretty basic. There are composting toilets and there is rubbish disposal and that's it. You're not allowed to collect firewood and you need to bring all your water in with you. Rainbow Beach is just down the road and has cafes, supermarkets, takeaways, etc. We had some great meals cooking over the fire and using our little gas stove. A week after we arrived it was time to pack up and head for Brisbane and our flight home. We'd had fantastic weather for the week so didn't mind the torrential rain we encountered on our drive back down to Brisbane. With an early check-in time at Brisbane Airport we had booked ourselves into a cheap hotel out by the airport. The shower was complete luxury after a week of beach camping. The next morning we were up early and off to the airport after having had a wonderful relaxing holiday in the sun.

If you're thinking of heading to Queensland I can recommend the company we booked our car through. For $582 (Australian dollars) we had a medium-sized car (Camry) for two weeks with unlimited kms and a wide area we could travel within (which we only went outside a little!). We had great service from the pickup at the airport right through to collecting and returning the car. The only issue we had with the car was the alarm malfunctioning in the early hours of the morning at the Inskip campsite. That was soon solved with a quick disconnection of the horn.

Queensland holiday - part 1

The recent October school holidays provided us with the opportunity to escape Wellington's miserable spring (hah!) weather and head for warmer climes. This was to be a relaxing holiday in the sun on a shoestring budget. We sorted out flights and a cheapo rental car and that was the organising finished. NZ school holidays had a week overlap with Queensland and New South Wales holidays so we were expecting that camp grounds, etc could be pretty busy.

We flew into Brisbane on the morning flight, picked up the rental car then headed to the second hand shops to get some supplies. After visiting three shops we had what we needed - a fry pan, a pot, cutlery, crockery and a bowl. We'd brought our tents and a little gas cooker so we were all set. We spent our first night at a holiday park in Kingscliff. This was our most expensive camping night at $55 (ouch!). The place was pretty chocka but there was a little corner for our tents so we set ourselves up for the night and used the gas bbq to cook our dinner.

The holiday park was right on the beach so a dip in the sea before breakfast was a great way to start the first full day of our holiday. With the weather forecast for the coast looking less than ideal and all the warnings about the busyness expected due to school holidays we made the call to head inland. So, after breakfast we packed up and headed to our next destination - Border Ranges National Park. While our holiday was primarily in Queensland, this park is over the border in New South Wales.

We stopped and had lunch at the Murwillumbah Services club. I'd been there before a couple of times with my parents so I was on familiar ground. After lunch we carried on and into the Border Ranges National Park. Here's the view of one of the worlds largest calderas.

The lump in the middle is Mt Warning and that's about the centre of the caldera. It's the biggest erosion caldera in the southern hemisphere.

We camped for two nights in the Sheepstation Creek campground within the National Park. Fees to camp here were $16 / night - a nice price after paying through the nose at Kingscliff. After numerous warnings about how busy all the campgrounds would be we were pleasantly surprised to find that there was plenty of room. Here's our site.

On our second day there we headed off for a walk around the Rosewood Loop track. The following are a few nature shots we took while on the walk.

Sheepstation Creek

Rather large, interesting tree

Waterfall (obviously)

Two freaking snakes - mating or fighting?

Another freaking snake

Seriously?!? We weren't expecting to see any snakes on our trip so to see three in one day was a little daunting.  All three were within a metre or so of the track we were walking on.

Reptile with legs for a change

Here's a short video of those snakes.

The next day we packed up and headed further west. On checking our comprehensive resources (a freebie tourist map of South East Queensland) we decided to head for the Coolmunda Conservation Park thinking we might find a spot in the park to camp. Sadly when we got there it was all fenced off and didn't look particularly attractive so we headed back towards the main road and booked in for the night at the Lake Coolmunda Caravan Park. This was about as attractive as the conservation park was but did have the advantage of having hot showers. It cost us $30 for the night. The park itself is sandwiched between the railway line and the Cunningham Highway. Nice! Only one train went through in the middle of the night. Anyway, here's a couple of photos.

Campsite at Lake Coolmunda

View of Lake Coolmunda from the campground

I think that's enough for the first episode. I'll get to work on the next one and post that in the next day or so.

Wellington Anniversay Weekend 2012

With the opportunity of a long weekend to have some fun on, we headed up to Kuratau on the Friday night after work. We had spent days looking at the weather forecast and it looked like Saturday was the best weather day so that day was chosen for completing the Tongariro Crossing (with the kids). We drove to the end of the track and caught a shuttle to the start of the track. It was an early start (after a late night) as we were meeting the shuttle at 7am. Bleary-eyed we were dropped off at the Mangatepopo car park at 7:45 and were quickly underway (with hundreds of other people).

This walk is one of the most popular in New Zealand and it is normal for over 1000 people to walk the track each day during the summer months. The walk itself is 19.4kms long and it's estimated to take 6-8 hours to complete. It's not a difficult walk for anyone with a reasonable level of fitness. One positive is that you tend to complete all the uphill parts in the morning and the rest of the day is spent descending. The walk starts off with quite a flat walk and then you climb the Devil's Staircase. That name made it sound daunting but it was simply a series of steps and climbs to reach a plateau.

Once on the plateau we made the choice to deviate from the main walk and climb to the summit of Mt Ngauruhoe. This is a steep climb and there is a lot of scree. Plenty of people were making hard work of the climb going up the scree slopes but we made the choice to traverse across to a rock ridge which took us the majority of the way.

Once up the main climb the majority of people headed straight for the crater. We had carried out some research and realised the crater isn't actually the summit so we initially ignored the crater and walked to the summit itself - past an active steam vent. Here I am at the summit (it was a little windy and quite cold!).

The view from the summit was awesome. We had a clear view across to Mt Ruapehu as well as a stunning view of Mt Tongariro and the Blue Lake itself.



After the obligatory photo session at the summit, we descended a bit before climbing up to the crater. The volcano itself is considered to be one of the most active in New Zealand and it has tended to erupt every 9 years or so historically - although the last time there was any significant activity was in 1976.

The cold wind was getting annoying so we descended back down to the main Crossing track and found a sunny spot for a lunch break. The descent was a lot of fun as we ran straight down the scree slope. It only took 20 minutes to get back down. Here is the view looking back at Ngauruhoe with Ruapehu in the distance.

After lunch we carried on walking to the Red Crater then the Emerald Lakes.

After another quick break at the lakes we continued with the descent back down to the carpark.

All up, the walk took about 10 hours including the diversion up to Mt Ngauruhoe. That was pretty good time considering we had a 6-year-old and a 9-year-old along for the trip.

You definitely need to pick your day to do this walk. Even if it seems to be a perfect day you should still go fully prepared with food, water and plenty of warm clothing (and sunscreen). It's common for the weather to change in this area.

Also, there are plenty of transport operators in the area who can provide a shuttle to assist with transportation. We chose Alpine Hot Bus who met us at the carpark at the end of the track, where we left our vehicle, and dropped us off at the start point. Other operators will drop you off at the start and pick you up at the end - we decided against this as we didn't want to have time constraints to adhere to.

First week home alone in my empty nest

Well, that's the end of the first week on my own at home. My son and his girlfriend have settled in to their new home - everything is unpacked and in its place. The bonus is probably that they are only five minutes up the road maybe things would be different if they were further away? It's real nice that both my boys (and their girlfriends) are within a very easy drive (and it's even walkable).

So how did my first week go? Really well. I am loving the freedom to cook all the foods I love without needing to consider others (does that make me selfish?). I thought I might have felt lonely without them here but it's actually been ok. It's quite nice that I don't have to "check in" with anybody and I am finding I can be more spontaneous. The downside is there is no-one to boss around and no-one to share the chores. hahaha What a bind having to always be the one to empty the dishwasher! Mind you it took about 4 days to have enough dishes to be bothered putting the dishwasher through.

I am on track with my List - I bought a pattern and fabric today - not for the dress I want to sew but a top. I am waiting for winter fabrics to come into the store before sewing the dress but thought I would get creative and start with a top for now. That will be a task for me to do one evening this week. I have found my next new recipe to try - Chicken and Pesto fettuccine which is on the menu plan for this week. And talking of the menu plan - this is the plan for the week :
Monday - kedgeree
Tuesday - steak
Wednesday - chicken and pesto fettuccine
Thursday - fish curry
Friday - grilled chicken
Saturday - crumbed fish
Sunday - birthday dinner for my son so will let him choose

All meals will use vegetables from the garden wherever possible. I have zuchinni starting to flourish, sweetcorn, potatoes and beans to supplement vegetables bought yesterday.

I continue to struggle with broodiness of my chooks - three out of four are currently broody so I am down to 1 egg a day again. How annoying! I am on the lookout for a cage I can segregate the broody ones into. I get the feeling this will continue to happen - maybe I chose dud chooks? hahaha I figure they are following their natural instincts - but it's a bit annoying when I am looking for them to supply me with eggs not produce more offspring.

Gulp! What a bad blogger I am!

It has been a long time since I last posted on this blog - and I have no good reason for that, apart from my normal routines being disrupted by Christmas. But I am now back - better than ever after having spent a relaxing time at home over Christmas and New Year.

With such a long break from writing I am a bit lost as to what to blog about first. I know I still haven't blogged with the result of my No spend month (and that was in November). I don't have all the figures with me right now so that will need to wait for another time.

A few people have asked after my chooks - my de-brooding exercise was relatively successful. After two days of being blocked out of their nesting boxes three out of four chooks started laying again - yay! Sadly last week one chook decided that being broody was a good thing so now I have two chooks laying and two chooks being broody. I will let it slide for now as I am still getting two eggs a day but as soon as that changes I will be back to de-brooding mode again. The positive thing is that the eggs we are getting are bigger than they used to be.

The countdown is seriously on for my son and his girlfriend moving out of my home and into their house. We are all very excited about that. Once they have moved out I will be continuing with my decluttering exercise. I thought I would be able to do this over the Christmas break but decided it would be easier once I have the house to myself and less furniture, etc to work around.

I did spend some time over Christmas getting some chores done that I wouldn't normally have time for. I have a large garden window in my kitchen (with a very deep sill) which needed to be sanded back and repainted. I have put that off for ages as I couldn't be bothered dealing with the mess that would create. But I bit the bullet and got stuck into that on a rainy Wellington day (ah, Wellington in the summer!). I think it stills needs one more coat of paint to be honest so plan to do that this weekend. Even as it is, it looks much better than before. The old paint had started to degrade and was flaking off in places - plus it was more yellow than white!

I also spent some time working in my garden. My pea crop this year has been a bit of a disaster. I'm not entirely sure why but some of it can be put down to the cats digging up the peas!!! Sometimes I think I need to devote one of my raised beds to be the cat toilet but knowing my little monsters they would ignore it and continue to dig up my seeds and seedlings! Other things have been more successful. My corn is coming along really well and my zucchinis and scallopinis are flowering madly so they will be producing pretty soon. I have chillis and capsicums growing in my greenhouse - they are growing well but something is munching on their leaves. I'm not too sure what is doing that right now but have sprayed them with a garlic / soapy mixture so hopefully that will get rid of whatever is eating them. I also have lettuce in the greenhouse so that is coming in handy for dinners. My "orchard" is still in its infancy - I got one cherry off my cherry tree and one raspberry off the raspberry bush. To be fair the cherry tree was planted a year ago so is still very young and the raspberry bush is probably about six months old.

I'll be posting some ideas for frugal, yummy meals for one soon so keep an eye out for that. Hope you are all having a great start to 2010 - I know I am.

More changes afoot!

Apologies for the lack of posting recently - there has been a lot going on around here.

The most fantastic news is that in about a month's time my youngest son and his girlfriend will be moving into their very own house. That means I will officially be an empty-nester! They are moving out on 22nd January. We are all very excited (mega-excited!) about the move. The house they have bought is perfect for first-home-buyers - it's a lovely 3-bedroomed house on a small section.

I have decided that I will spend my spare time (hahahaha, not a lot of that) de-cluttering my house. I made a start on the weekend when I cleaned out one of my two bookcases. I now have two big boxes of books to donate to a charity store and three bags of magazines are ready for recycling. Plus the bonus for my son is that there is now an empty bookcase looking for a home. I love the feeling I get when doing a big clean-out so I am looking forward to sorting through the rest of my house.

I know I still haven't posted with the summary of my no-spend month from November but will get that sorted very soon.

Update on no-spend month - one week to go

With one week to go I thought it was timely to report on how the no-spend thing is going for me. As previous posts show there were some minor slips earlier in November but overall it's gone pretty well.

Until Sunday anyway.

We did go out for dinner as discussed in a previous blog entry, for my eldest son's birthday. Five of us had a wonderful meal at the Southern Cross in Wellington - this place was chosen because they do stone-grill which is a favourite of the birthday boy. To be honest I like stone-grill too - it's one way of ensuring your steak is cooked exactly how you would like. The evening was quite mild so we sat out in the garden bar. We enjoyed watching people who had turned up for the Sunday night free dancing lessons. None of us were game to join in but it was interested to watch.

The evening cost about $250 (eek!) but was worth every cent. That was for five adults including our drinks so not bad overall. After dinner we went home for birthday cake as shown below. Just so everyone is aware, my son just turned 23 but it's a bit of a family joke to have kiddie birthday cakes - last year was a race-track and this year the theme was Batman. My youngest son's girlfriend did a wonderful job with shaping and decorating the cake.



I will draw up a report at the end of the month showing exactly what was spent and maybe some tips on how to "not spend".

One small slip and a big one looming

Today I confess that I bought my breakfast from a cafe - $7.50! It was delicious but it felt so wrong to be eating it. To explain how this came about...... I went to the gym at 5:30am (this is normal for me so don't panic on that!), drove to town and arrived at work too early to get in (7:30am). I then realised that I had an 8am meeting, a 9am meeting and a 10am meeting - no time for breakfast at work which is what I usually do. So I ducked next door to work and had some yummy scrambled eggs on toast with peppermint tea. Maybe this is a justified spend? Or maybe I should have planned things better.

The upcoming big issue is that it's my son's birthday on Monday. I planned ahead on this one and bought his gift last month and thought I was very clever. What I hadn't planned on was his birthday dinner. The way I work birthdays is to let my sons decide what they would like to do for their birthday dinner. I thought I could set things up for a dinner at home - food of his choice. But, when I broached the subject he was dead set on eating out at a stonegrill place. I very subtly tried to sway him but he was firm about what he wanted. So I have agreed - what an indulgent mother I am (some would say over-indulgent). But, you know, it is a long time since we were all out together for a meal (probably February!) so that is what we will do.

The warmth of spring is here!

As anyone who lives here in Wellington will tell you, the title of this post is untrue. We did have a brief period of spring-like weather quickly followed by an extended wintry blast (included snow in the central North Island).

Lucky old me escaped from Wellington's weather to experience some lovely spring weather when I travelled to Australia a week or so ago.

It was wonderful to have some respite and be able to laze in the sun on the beach. My parents were on holiday and staying in a 2-bedroom apartment on the Gold Coast in Queensland - at a little place called Kirra. Our days started early (5am!) with a cup of tea and a walk of an hour or so on the beach. This was followed with breakfast and any chores before heading to the beach for a spot of sunbathing. We visited several surf clubs, sports clubs and RSLs (Returned and Services League) for drinks, meals and a little play on the pokie machines. The following picture is of the high-rise apartments of Surfers Paradise at about 5:45am as the sun was coming up on one of our beach walks.



We did have one day of wet weather but had planned to do a trip inland to see a natural formation called the Natural Arch (a very original name!). The picture below shows where the stream enters the arch having eroded a hole in the rock over the years.


While I was only away for 6 days it was a nice break and great to see and feel the sun. Spending time with my parents was fun and it was sad when I had to head for home (and back to the rain and wind!).

Maybe spring in Wellington will arrive soon! Sure hope so.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Today I've been thinking about my Dad - Father's Day tends to do that to me.

I reckon overall Dad's have a pretty thankless task. I certainly didn't grow up as a Daddy's girl. Our family was very much traditional in that, while we children were young, Dad was the breadwinner and he certainly ruled the roost. Woe betide making a noise when the News was on the tv each night. I still get into trouble every Sunday when I ring Mum and Dad as I always manage to ring when the footy is on. :)

When we were growing up, one look from Dad and you knew when you were in trouble. And I remember the phrase "You just wait till your father gets home!" being said to me on numerous occasions.

But, you know, Dad was always fair and I know he loved us all equally and I respect him for that.

Here's a photo of my Dad with me last March. Love you Dad! Have a great Father's Day.

Changes are afoot

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. There have been some changes happening in our household. The Optimist is moving on so this is, obviously, resulting in a number of changes. Our separation is very amicable - which is proving hard to get our heads around. We kept feeling like we should be shouting and arguing but we're not. All of which is a good thing.

In some ways I am quite excited about what the future holds at the same time as feeling sad that our marriage didn't work for us. Those who know me well know I am a strong person and very independent. I've accepted the situation and am now in "planning mode". Our home will be quieter and slightly emptier. I've re-hashed my budget and re-set my goals. We've worked well together to separate various accounts, etc and now we will embark on our separate lives.

I'll be back blogging properly very soon so watch this space.

Mother's Day

Today, in New Zealand, we are celebrating Mother's Day. This got me to thinking about my Mum and how I should show her my appreciation and love. In the past I've sent gifts, flowers and cards and I'm sure Mum appreciated those. This year I've decided to do something different by posting this entry to my blog.

Here's a photo of Mum and I taken last year at my wedding. Isn't she beautiful?



My Mum was born in England but moved to New Zealand when she was in her teens. She married my Dad and had three children - I'm the dreaded middle child! I caused my parents quite a bit of grief through the teenage years but, at no time, did my mother give up on me. She has been there in my darkest hours but also in those times of celebration.

In many ways I am similar to my Mum - very practical, a straight talker, caring and honest. My parents are frugal by nature and I am surprised I didn't "get frugality" earlier than I have. Their basic belief is that you don't buy something unless it is both needed and you have the money for it. If only I have stuck to that over the years. Never mind, now I get it.

Anyway, back to my Mum. She has always supported me in my decisions and been there to provide advice and, at times, a shoulder to lean on.

Mum was the first person I discussed the idea of this blog with. I was quite nervous at the idea of getting this blog off the ground and Mum was the person I went to to discuss the idea, toss up ideas for names and decide on some of the initial topics.

So, Mum, this blog entry is for you - I love you and thank you for all your support and love over the years.