This weekend is a public holiday here - Labour Day, this is the start of summer in New Zealand. Steph, Mike, Nigel and I took oursleves off for a walk around Battle Hill Park. This is a reserve that is owned by the local council but was originally the site of a battle between the Maori and white settlers. Now it is a large country park with various routes that walkers and horse riders can use. After our last walk to the seal colony we have learnt our lesson with length of walks out here - we opted for the short 1 hour walk thinking it would take us at least 2 hours!
As you can see from the photo it is set in rolling countryside and full of sheep and possum traps. In Australia possums are an endangered species whilst over here in NZ they are rodents and everyone tries their hardest to kill the little blitters - they make great slippers apparently! Whatever walk you atempt in NZ it is never just a quick jaunt around a forest track - as you can see from the photo it is uphill and down dale - just as you get to the top of one hill its time to go down the other side and up yet another hill. All we could hear was sheep and lambs bleating, the odd Tui birds and Steph at the back moaning about another f......laming hill! This was the easy track - good job we didn't attempt the 4 hour one - we'd still be up there.
When we finally got back to the car park the Shepherd was rounding up several of the sheep for a short back and sides, they all went in looking like Bob Marley but came out looking like Telly Savalas.
On our way home from our road trip last Thursday Nigel and I stopped at a war memorial the other side of the Rimutaka mountain range. It was quite a strange little place, during World War I it had been a staging post for NZ soldiers before they left for Europe, part of their toughening up was a forced march over the range down into Wellington Harbour. In world War II it had been home to a Japanese Prisoner of War camp where the local folk had looked after them extremely well despite them being the enemy.
There are 2 unusual trees growing in the small park area, one is a Gallipoli Pine tree brought home in WWI by local soldiers, the other is an offshoot of a Camphor tree that had survived the nuclear blast at Nagasaki. Whilst we stood looking at the memorials I felt the ground shake under my feet - Nigel was mooching about at the time and didn't feel it. I mentioned to him that I thought we had just had an earthquake - I think he thought I was mad! But later on when we checked the local Earthquake Drums online they had indeed registered a quake. So now it is official - I have felt my first earthquake - even if it was just a small one!
One final thing I have to mention - remember our trip to 'Rotten Roa'? Well upon our return all our dirty laundry was duly washed - fabric conditioned and hung on the line. Whilst partaking of afternoon tea Victor decided to do the ironing, after about 10 seconds we were all looking round the room wondering who to blame for the 'strange aroma'. We have since discovered that you can take the girl out of Rotarua but you can't take Rotarua out of the girl's clothes.
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