The other side of the mountain

Oh Yay!!  I have news.  Yesterday I went to the other side of the mountain.  And, believe me, it felt so good.  That tight feeling I was getting in the pit of my stomach, that terrible locked in feeling I get from time to time, that need for big spaces around me has gone.  Probably only for the time being.  But gone all the same.  

I thought I'd been longing for a good cup of coffee but when it came down to it what I wanted most, what I missed most during our Lockdown, was a drive in the countryside.  Cups of coffee have been available for the past week or so but I was determined to not be an old age rebel and to stay home like our leaders had instructed.   But when my daughter offered to take me to town and to be the one to venture out of the car for a coffee for me, I jumped at the chance and asked to go to Dargaville.  She thought I was nuts to choose to go to Dargaville but it was Mother's Day so I had my way.

Once we were on the road, the call of the back roads was too much and I asked her to take me the long way round so I could see more of the countryside.  The day seemed brighter to me than it really was, I was quite surprised to see the clouds in this photo, all I saw was my hills of home and sunshine.

Dargaville was like a ghost-town, the only places open were the service stations, the supermarkets and the one cafe I like to frequent.  Their large windows opening to the street allowed them to operate in a safe, non-contact way.  I just had to take a photo of the waiter's huge smile as I talked to him from the car.

It seems most of the takeaway meals they have been serving have been taken away by customers to eat at home as they were very short on take aways utensils.  Which we didn't know about when I ordered soup and my daughter requested a salad.  We ate our meals along the bank of the river with small wooden spoons.  And the hills of home in the background.  Nothing could have been better.

 The Dargaville seagulls have been doing it hard with no people around.

Fence toppers

My housekeeping turned up a post in Drafts from a couple of years ago. I took these at the Maritime Museum in Dargaville.  I'll go back next time I'm in Dargaville and see if they are still there or if they were part of a specific exhibition.  My brother, Peter, used to mow lawns for neighbours back in the days of these push blade mowers. I guess you'd call them vintage mowers now.  Bet he wishes he'd come up with this idea!

Easy access

I have a new phone, courtesy of my son-in-law.  So although, to me, it appears to have all the bells and whistles, I guess it is already outdated. I've only had it a couple of weeks but it's made me cross a couple of times already.  OK, you're right, it hasn't made me cross.  I've got cross because I haven't been able to figure something out.  No matter how many times I check the settings, I still can't hear it when it rings.  Annoying.  And I find getting messages about emails and Facebook all a bit too "instant" for my liking.  

When I was at Jock's funeral (see previous post) at the weekend I was tempted and checked my messages when I went back to the car to get my camera.  Damn!  And double damn, I should not have done that.  It's not good to receive bad news when you are already feeling emotional.  It could have waited until I had been duly respectful to Jock.  I know my limits and knew I wouldn't be able to cope with the catching up with old friends and family that would follow the burial.  

AS I just said, I know myself and a well established behaviour for me is to skulk off by myself when I need to process something.  So that's what I did although I knew I wasn't up to driving home just yet.  So I headed out towards the coast where Jock used to live, in search of a place that fitted my mood.  

Before I left I took a few photos of the Northern Wairoa River as it winds through Dargaville, with the mountains of home in the background.  It's a muddy, muddy river and that day was a beautiful chocolate brown which I didn't manage to capture.

And one in the other direction of the river as it heads towards Pouto and the sea.  

 

I knew when I took the road down to the beach at Mahuta that I wouldn't be able to go too far as a four wheel drive vehicle is needed to access the beach.  I'd forgotten about the heather that grows on the roadside.            

             

                               

I didn't go much further than the spot where I took this next photo.  The road turns rather quickly to sand and grows very narrow.  You can see it snaking its way out to the beach in the middle of the photo, to the left of where I was standing. 

 

I am so lucky to know of lovely, wild, untamed places like this, the kind of place I need when life seems a little bit harder than it needs to be.  When I need to shout out loud, "Oh, come on, life!  Not now!  Give me a break!"

It's amazing how much good a little time in such a place does for me.  I enjoyed my drive back home stopping to take a few more photos further up the river.   If you look carefully you might be able to make out the old railway line which runs between the road and river.  These days there is no rail service but the line can be explored on converted golf carts.  Must do that one day soon.  When summer comes perhaps.  It's far too cold right now.        

Field days

Yesterday my friend, Chris and I enjoyed the sights and sounds of the Northland Field Days about an hour's drive away in Dargaville.   They have been a three day annual event since 1985.  I think the first time I attended was in the late 80s - time for another visit to see what had changed.  

Back in the day there were 80 exhibitors and it was considered a roaring success.   It has grown into the second largest agricultural event of its type in New Zealand with over 550 exhibitors and 25,000 visitors taking in the cutting edge agricultural technology and innovation.

The National Field Days are so crowded it's hard to wander at your own pace and take in the sights.  Not so at the local event.  

photo courtesy of http://northlandfielddays.co.nz/ (with the hills of home in the background)

It's not all agricultural, I couldn't list all the different sort of exhibitions that were there.  You could buy the latest in window cleaning technology or accept an offer of free lunch,  an angus beef sandwich or brown rice salad accompanied by a bottle of cold sparkling water.  It was hot and a cold drink much needed.  Have a free hearing test perhaps or plan an overseas trip.  Oh, and hey, why not have a little chat about a facelift while you are here!

Down one end of the field there were noisy tractors and motor bikes, at the other the sheep dog trials were underway while helicopter rides were operating in the next paddock.  There were many activities for children from racing miniature tractors to buggy rides behind these beautiful clydesdales.

 

We didn't see any of the politicians who were in attendance, taking advantage of the dense gathering of Northland businesses and Northland citizens.

Thanks for the idea for the day out, Chris. 

In the last six months or so I've joined a Seniors photo group.  We meet monthly to learn and share tips.  This month we are concentrating on portraits.  I'd got the horses while at the show, so on the way home I stopped to see if I could find any interested cows. 

Such beauty!

The far side

 Yesterday my friend, Chris and I ventured to the west coast on the far side of my hills of home.   It had been a cold and frosty morning, the perfect sort of day for a long drive.  When I lived on the peninsula south of Dargaville I knew the Northern Wairoa River looks best on that sort of day, too.  It's not called the upside down river for nothing - most of the time the mud appears to be on the top of the water.  But catch it on the right day and its quite lovely.  See the deep V in the Uppity Downities in the distance?  I've finally discovered which road takes you closest to that part of the mountain.   We didn't stop for a close up photo.  Next time.

Looking south down river:

We were headed for Opononi and Rawene but stopped by the entrance to the Tane Mahuta track in the Waipoua Forest to have our picnic lunch.  (It was still pretty chilly in the shade in the forest.)  Tane Mahuta is a kauri tree, so famous it has its own name.  It is more than 50 metres tall, measures13.7 metres around its trunk and is estimated to be between 1200 and 2000 years old.

But it wasn't Tane Mahuta that had my attention.  It was the dead trunk of another kauri standing in front of a healthy tree opposite the entrance to the forest.  We'd noticed several other dead kauri along the way, too.  Of course, we've heard about kauri dieback disease, a microscopic disease new to our country which has these beautiful ancient trees under threat of extinction.  This was the first time I've noticed the impact the disease is having.

It just seems impossible that one of the  largest and longest-lived trees in the world could disappear.  They can grow to more than 60metres high and live for 2000 years or more. Northland would be a very different place without them. 

Thousands have died from the disease in the last 10 years.  The scarey thing is there is no known way to treat it.  As you can see, the cursed disease is already at work in Waipoua Forest.

Signs

There's no quick way to travel by road from where I live to the west coast.  It's the same distance to the east coast but the road is quite different.  But it can be an enjoyable trip in good company, especially with the driver is happy to stop to let me get out of the car to take photos.  

 Yesterday Chris had an appointment to keep so we only made this one stop but commented a couple of times we would stop here or there on the way back home.  We were headed for TeKopuru, south of Dargaville, where I lived from 1977 - 1980.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered the appointment was right next door to the farm where I had lived.

However, we had arrived in Dargaville earlier than expected and wasted some time (and camera battery) with a comfort stop in the brightly painted conveniences by the river.

The seagulls must know winter is approaching, they were lazily soaking up the sunshine while they can. 

One was still on duty though.  It landed practically at my feet and waited patiently.  Only to be disappointed that it wasn't yet lunch time. 

To fill a bit of time we wandered into the second hand shop over the road. 

Now I know it's not nice to be uncharitable but the signs in this shop were just too good (or bad) not to share.  We had to negotiate our way around this sign to enter the shop:

And this one took up most of the wall on our left:

Getting the picture.? I thought I was but I hadn't reckoned on the owner's determination to convey their message:

(Yes, that's a cobweb adorning that one!)

 

There were signs everywhere.  I haven't cropped any of these shots and they were all fired off pretty quickly while avoiding the owner.  (He caught up with me as we were about to leave.  No, not taking a photo, just to chew my ear about a local tourist attraction.)

Terms of trade were hard to miss.

  (Someone overlooked underling the NO in that one.)

 

Some were a bit confusing:

Except where there was a discount. And what does this one mean "Were new" or "Were $69"?

I've never seen so much marker pen.

 

(Fond of mice, you think?)

And the goods that were being so carefully guarded?  You've seen a few and here are a few more:

 

 (Oh oh, here he comes!)

Time is getting on, he's probably waiting to put out the closed sign.

And to think I'd used up my battery and didn't get any photos of the old farm.

Thanks for a great day out, Chris.  It's so good having a mate with a similar sense of the ridiculous.