The Flip'n Bear Café

On the way back from Miranda we did a bit of sight-seeing (well you would, wouldn't you?)  which I'll blog on in due course and then we stopped for coffee and a bite to eat at The Flip'n Bear Café near Katikati.  The café had a wonderful setting and lots of atmosphere.  We were the only customers and the service is slow which suited us because we wanted to see and photograph the Short-finned Eels Anguilla australis in the river running nearby.  

The outside deck - surrounded by native forest

A comfortable interior with bears a plenty

The 'ah' factor

And a Manic Pancake Eater (by our standards the pancake was too huge to finish although I know that my friends in California will not be impressed.

The Sky is Blue Today

The sky was solid blue all day yesterday and it's the same this morning.  So I've decided that I'm going to have a blue background to my blog in celebration.  I'm not sure how long it will last but, hey, I'm feeling adventurous this morning.

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE

It's a beautiful morning with not a cloud in the sky nor a care in the world (well perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration).  The cicadas are making their usual din and the Fantails are tweeting merrily in the trees adjacent to The Cottage.  Two lots of washing are drying - perhaps even dry by now -  and I've spent most of the morning on the phone and computer catching up with the parts of the world I inhabit.

I woke up early when Mike got up to get ready for the second day of the tournament he's playing in.   Given that I'd got to bed at 0130 after the Mission Concert,  surprisingly I don't even feel tired today.

The Mission Concert is one of the events in Hawkes Bay each year with the 25,000 tickets being sold almost as soon as they are released.  I have no idea how much money it brings into the community here but given that even a basic ticket costs (so I was told) $120 it makes the Winery the odd bob or two after all the wine has been sold as well.  Friends let their house at $1000 a night and moved out for a couple of nights.

My night out (from 1530 to 0030!) was a Christmas present from The Family.  It was the whole works with everything from champagne, the meal, priority seating, and after-concert hospitality all included in the ticket.  It was the sort of thing upon which, even for all that hospitality and Sting and the New Zealand Philharmonic Orchestra, I could never have spent that sort of money.  It was a wonderful experience with Martin and Wendy and a group of friends I don't see often enough.  I may never go again but I will certainly never forget last night.

24601 with better perks

Drinks and canapés on the terrace

We know where you're going!  Why can't ladies go without a companion?

Settling in

Dinner

Eats and drinks

Our own 'glasss' to take to the seats

Some of the 25,000

Just couldn't resist

Even sting needs support

And whilst everyone queues to escape....

...we retire to finish dinner.

Reflections

Today I'm having a quiet day.  The third lot of washing's in the machine and Mike's gone to the Te Mata Croquet Tournament.  I'm not playing this year because tonight's the Mission Concert with Sting and the New Zealand Philharmonic Orchestra.   We are to be there at about 4pm for dinner and the full works. Good weather, pleeeeease!   I arrived home late yesterday afternoon and emptied The Handbag and my cases.  Wendy came down and we caught up on the news of the previous 10 days before Mike arrived to stay for the weekend.

So today and tomorrow I shall be relaxing, reflecting and taking stock.

Over the last year or more I've read a lot about the Bar-tailed Godwit (Maori: Kuaka) on Katherine DeChevalle's Blog, The Last Visible Dog.  The Godwit is not only and amazing and fascinating bird but it is also a New Zealand icon.  Anyway I learned from Katherine's Blog about Miranda.  So, as you know from my recent posts, I went to Miranda for the 'Miranda Experience'.   I would recommend it unreservedly. 

This sculpture is at the entrance to the Miranda Shorebird Centre:

Old Chevak is the settlement in Alaska on the tundra where the Godwits from Miranda go to breed during for the New Zealand winter (which is, of course, the Alaskan summer).

Miranda: The Birds

We all arrived at Miranda and, as it was high tide on the Firth of Thames we went straight to the Miranda Shorebird Centre's hide at the edge of the intertidal area.  This is the time when the shorebirds feed and rest nearest to the shore and where they can best be observed.  Having said that they were still a fair distance away and despite the 20x zoom (equivalent to a 660mm lens) on my camera the results leave a lot to be desired. 

Wrybills

Oystercatchers and Godwits resting

Wrybill and feeding Pied Stilt

Pied Stilt and Welcome Swallows

Welcome Swallow in flight - I've tried for 6 years to capture Swallows in flight

Pied Stilt

Pied Stilts

Wrybills in flight

Resting Godwits (note one to right of centre front in rufous phase

Godwits (note one to left of centre front in rufous phase) and a few gulls (taken through a telescope)

You Are Old, Father William

For the last few days I've had the words "you are old........said"  in my brain and Eclectic Friend and I have been struggling to put it into context and I kept forgetting to Google it.  This morning I remembered and just as I was about to put it into Google I remembered the first line.  I couldn't recall much more so Google supplied the answer.  However having read it I decided it would make an amusing post before I set off for home.

Father Willam by Lewis Carroll

"You are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head--
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

"In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."

"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door--
Pray, what is the reason of that?"

"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his gray locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment -- one shilling the box --
Allow me to sell you a couple?"

"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak--
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"

"In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw
Has lasted the rest of my life."

"You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose--
What made you so awfully clever?"

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down-stairs!"

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for the progress that Jaz has made this week.

I am thankful, too, for the opportunities I've been given so far this week to try new things and see new places and meet new friends. 

Kayaking

James and Yuko took me under their wing on Monday.  I had never been kayaking and the opportunity to wander up the Waimapu River at Tauranga was one not to be missed.  It was not, I have to admit, executed without incident.

Setting off upstream

Recent floods have left the river blocked in places and careful negotiation of the hazards was needed

At the end of the journey was a huge swimming hole with a rope swing between the (very high) trees

Which both of the youngsters tried - I didn't!

Returning - a quiet journey.  Almost......

On the return journey we had to negotiate a couple of fallen trees which were blocking all but about a metre of the river which it was possible to get man and kayak through successfully with a very small area adjacent where the tree was out of the water sufficiently for a kayak to pass but not the occupant however low he or she should lean back.  I was, of course, the one who managed to misjudge the fast-flowing current sufficiently to go under the low bit and consequently end up in the water.  The river was deeper than I was tall with a very steep adjacent bank so I had to swim for the other side. Next time I'll wear togs!  Fortunately James and Yuko rescued the kayak and brought it over to me.  The weather was so hot that the rest of the journey was actually rather pleasant.

The photos were taken by James with whom copyright rests.

Catching Up at Miranda

I seem to have been away from Blogland for ages.  Oh, I've just looked.  I have been away from Blogland for ages.  I've so much to blog about and so little time at the moment that it might take me ages to catch up.  I have been pondering, mind you, on lots of things these last few days and I've realised that Blogland is really quite important to me.  Not in itself, of course, but in the friendships I have made in this world of cross-over between reality and something a little removed from reality.  

Today I'm at Miranda on the Firth of Thames in the Waikato.  It is a wetland of international significance for migratory shorebirds.  The Miranda Shorebird Centre operated by the Miranda Naturalists' Trust has accommodation and a visitor centre.  The time to come to see the birds is at high tide when they are feeding and resting and the tidal edge and are within viewing distance through the telescopes at the hide.

I have lots of material, including the shorebirds here,  to post from the last week or more since I left home and I'm not due home until Friday evening when Mike and Sandra (friends from Gisborne) will probably already be ensconced in The Cottage.  So it may be a few more days before I'm back in Blogland properly.

In the meatime here are the photos of the Miranda Centre and the unit I'm staying in.  It is excellent and inexpensive.  If you want a few days relaxing in the area I would recommend it.

Frightful Friday: Almost The End

Well I think that the name for this post might have been an inspired choice.  We were on the lawns and under way by 0800.  Play finished 12 hours later.  The heat on the lawns this afternoon was incredible.  Officially Tauranga on the coast 40 minutes away got to 27℃ with 100% humidity but on the croquet lawns the temperature must have soared into the 30s and it was almost unbearable for many.  Even heat-loving me found it hot.

The croquet?  Well that was another matter.  I played as well as I have ever done but was totally outclassed by the world-class players I was up against.  I was not alone!  Some of the best players I normally meet at tournaments fared no better than I fared.   

When we got back to the motel Zoe and her boyfriend had cooked dinner for the gang.  We had just started eating when one of our number collapsed.  I phoned for an ambulance within 30 seconds of it happening and within 4 minutes or so the paramedics with the ambulance were here.  Given that we are in rural NZ that was pretty impressive.  So now at getting on for midnight I am sitting in the motel having been up since 0515 waiting for a call from the hospital 40 minutes drive away to go and collect either the patient and the person who accompanied her or just the latter and bring them back.  It could be a very long night.

The lawns at 0800 look unlikely from where I am at the moment.

Update:

I never managed to post that last night.  All's well this morning.  More soon (I hope!).