Monthly Archives: Aug 2022

I lost the count of years until I read the newspaper article about Princess Diana’s death and the significant impact across the countries today. It had been 25 years ago Princess Diana was killed along with Dodi al-Fayed, and the driver. At the same time, the bodyguard survived the high-speed driving that led to a crash in the 200m tunnel (Pont de l’Alma traffic tunnel-Cours Albert 1st) past the Cours de la Reine along the River of Seine.

That day – 31st August recaptured my memory of this significant impact on many people who loved Princess Diana and the Royal Family, which was the highlight of my three months travelling to Europe, England and Ireland. I was due to fly out to Heathrow Airport in a couple of days and raised concern about the delay due to massive crowds heading for the funeral on 6th September 1997.

I, along with other airline passengers – British Airways knew about this. I went ahead as usual before arriving at Heathrow Airport, and the airline flew a circle for about 30 minutes in the sky before landing. Coming out of Heathrow Airport by catching the taxi into the city of London to Shepherd’s Bush (12.5 miles), perfumes of flowers float in the air from Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, which is located 4.1 miles from Shepherd’s Bush. These smells of perfumes from approx 60 million flowers laid surrounding Buckingham Palace between the time of her death and the funeral. The sight of flowers was excellent as I did not walk around there, for I caught a train to Notts where my cousins lived in Newark, Nottinghamshire and stayed with them before 6th September, and I flew out from Birmingham Airport to Dublin, Ireland.

I did not watch Diana’s funeral for a week during my stay in Ireland. I travelled around South Ireland from Dublin to Galway, down to Limerick, Tralee, Killarney, and Cork, via Mallow to Tipperary, Waterford, several villages and back to Dublin. That was my highlight of the Ireland holiday where our ancestors came from.

After my Ireland trip, I flew directly to Heathrow Airport from Dublin via transit airline to Paris, France. I stayed in Paris for a couple days before heading out to Zurich, Switzerland. Yes, more flowers were lying near the Flame of Liberty, Paris, by the tourists and Parisians.

Twenty-five years ago – times flew so quickly since I travelled around the world each year/every two years in the past. My first trip overseas was in 1981, and my last trip overseas was in 2009. Most of the time, I wish to go back and catch up with my cousins and friends overseas, but I see the cost of airfares, accommodations and transport are far too expensive. I count myself lucky because the prices fitted my travel budget in the past, and any leftover cash went back to the saving account. Today I am firmly staying on the ground with my partner, three dogs, our home, gardens, and works as I get older.

What a glorious day so far! Spring is almost here as the weather plays tricks on us each day.

Inspecting the gardens and magnificent cherry flowering trees with bright pink-red colours display in the skies. Hungry Silver Wax-Eye birds (green feather birds) swooped down from one branch to another, drinking nectars from cherry flowers. Oh, what a delight to see drunken birds feed their babies in a safe place in the trees.

Oh, what a wonderful sight to see so many bees and Silver Wax-Eye birds busying around three flowering cherry trees this morning! Oh, there are many bees flying from one flower to another, collecting pollen-nectar for making honey. Hark!

Oh, one more to mention about the glorious sunsets over the last night and tonight!

“I glanced out the window at the signs of spring. The sky was almost blue, the trees were almost budding, the sun was almost bright.” ~ Millard Kaufman

Over the last few weeks in New Zealand, there was so much bad wet weather down in the South Island – the worst hit area are Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast. Many of the residents were stranded due to flooding, massive landslips, road slips and road blocks due to landslips from the mountains, and a couple of bridges collapsed. In Wellington, plenty of landslips, causing cars to collapse on the roadside next to the hilly Wellington city.

“For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green.” ~ J. R. R. Tolkien

We are in late Winter into Spring within a week or two weeks in New Zealand. This year we are experiencing the worst kind of wild and wet weather so far. for the last three to five years, we have not had much Winter rain through the longest drought in Summer. Then this year, we just have a wet and wild weather bomb, but wondering if this kind of weather bomb is just a one-off or to continue through Spring into Summer. We do not have a magic ball to know what the weather will be like here. It would be best to admire flowers blooming in the trees, fields and garden while the birds are busy collecting pollens and seeds for their babies or transferring them to fruit seeds.

“Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade.” ~ Charles Dickens

Harks! Ah! Many fantails fly to greet me when I walk with our three dogs in the fields and gardens. There go many green finches and silver wax eye birds greeting me while they wait for seeds, where I hang up the bird feeder.

“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want—oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heartache, you want it so!” ~ Mark Twain

Blast! Oh, rabbits everywhere and making plenty of holes where I nearly trip over while the dogs chase them out to the hedges or hide under the house and old concrete steps belong to the original house. Curse rabbits! And that’s good to have our three dogs to chase them out or exercise in the fields.

Oh sigh! I have a final project for the gardens and fields this year, or at least I think so. Mmm, let’s wait and see how the weather goes.

Another weekend retreat for us – staff under the Social Service Trust through Winter season 2022. The last time we were here was the first week of April 2022. The very first retreat break was July 2021.

The place we stayed in Flaxmill Bay, near Whitianga, was the best accommodation lodge to stay and wind down to relax. The director used the funding from Well-Being Trust for us, including the director.

The beach is just down the road from the accommodation lodge and is a 5-minutes walking distance. The garden is surrounded by native plants, shrubs and trees where you can hear many birds singing day and night. Fear not for me as I am deaf with a disability myself, and it does not bother me with the rattle noise from birds.

A ferry landing is down further the road to catch a ferry to and from Whitianga. You can walk down to the ferry landing via ferry ride and head to Whitianga within 59 minutes from the Flaxmill Bay Accommodation Lodge. It is much quicker by ferry in under 7 minutes than driving over to Whitianga along the winding road for approximately 33 minutes and 38 minutes on different routes. If you don’t like walking a long way, you can take a car to the ferry landing and park there for 2 minutes or so.

There are several recreation parks, beaches and cafes near Maramaratotora Bay, Cooks Bay, Hahei Beach and Hot Water Beach. The popular recreations are Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach, which many tourists visit.

Walking, relaxing in the lodge or sitting out on the deck where the sun is shining out, having a bbq one evening with mates or staff or even being lazy in bed or sitting around in the lounge reading books, watching tv or playing games. Oh, one more – yes it is friendly accessible for all disabled people/families. Ah! a perfect place for me to do writing (typing) blog, story for the book or admire out there to think about life such as philosophy or to take photography.

Why not spoil yourself with a holiday break or a retreat weekend treat? What are you waiting for?

Left for Papakura area this Saturday morning on such a beautiful fine day. Driving along the newest Waikato expressway (State highway) was delightful, and it was a smooth ride all the way by reducing the time from 1 hour and 30 minutes down to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remember, back to our childhood days, it felt like 2 hours and 30 minutes or less on the winding roads, traffic jams and through rural townships like Huntly. But today, it was brilliant and straightforward from/Eureka to Auckland.

Arriving at Taupiri, it was foggy surrounding the mountain – a special Māori place and, of course, a sacred mountain. The spirit surrounding the mountain gave me something special meaning when I look at this mountain from time to time through travelling to Auckland.

We passed along Rangiriri, Meremere and Mercer as I looked at the Waikato River. It was over flooding the farmland and the wetland reserves due to the rainy month – July. It is undoubtedly a bonus for Aucklanders to conserve water intake instead not from our Waikato River for the last five years. (video clip here) This area reminds me of a story from my great grand aunt Olive about uncle – Charles Watkinson, his wife Sarah Ann and two children – Vera and Sidney lived in Mercer. Charles worked as an engine driver on the river steamer Manuwai along the river.

https://m.facebook.com/631374070348816/photos/is-this-caesar-rooses-manuwai-the-back-of-the-photo-has-port-waikato-written-on-/1052640958222123/

https://digitalnz.org/stories/5acf2ae812575724c7ef6465

Reaching Pōkeno, the famous bacon place and the most significant ice cream scoop, provides a favoured stop by travelling to Auckland. “There are two stores – right next-door to each other – selling scrumptious icecream, as well as other food-on-the-go. The two shops are just as popular as each other, so take your pick. Come with an empty stomach, or icecream-loving friends, though. One of them, Pokeno Takeaways, sells 15-scoop monster cones for $18. Most people opt for more manageable version.” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/five-of-the-best-ice-cream-shops/CA5UBAU2ZBWVIC654CNZC6V3E4/?c_id=6&objectid=11381565

What does Pōkeno mean? “very first inhabitants, and many who have taken up residence since, Pōkeno – meaning a ‘place of refuge’ – has gained the reputation as a safe haven where people can escape the stresses of city life and relax amongst friends and family.” https://www.pokenovillageestate.co.nz/history
Unfortunately, Pōkeno is no longer a quiet local village due to the demand for housing from the Aucklanders, and the population quadrupled in size today. In Greater Auckland, there are no rooms for housing, and the Aucklanders have to seek outside Greater Auckland to buy homes like in Bombay or Pōkeno.

Travelling through Bombay onward to Takanini – the newest area after Papakura. Our family ancestors lived in Papakura for many years since they arrived from England, Ireland and Scotland. Late Great grand aunt Olive lived there until she passed away, and I visited her several times to discuss genealogy. Olive was close to Ann Brown (our grand aunt) until Ann passed away within a month in 1988.

At last, we arrived at the Friend of The Farmer cafe near Ardmore, Takanini and met my partner’s whānau there for the day. What a sight to see the wall of books!