21 – 27 February
Leigh, The Encore ~ 26 – 27 February
This is where the story turns sad my friends.
After a great three days in Paihia I was packing in the morning to leave for our last night in The Northlands and I knocked my toe badly on a suitcase. I strapped it up and we set off. It really hurt a lot.
I’m jumping forward at this point (I’ll return to Leigh in a moment) because as soon as we landed in Christchurch on 27 Feb our taxi dropped me at the hospital and Craig went onto our motel with our bags. We landed at 3.20 pm. By 6.50 pm I’d been discharged from CC hospital with an X-ray of my very broken toe and a protective shoe. All that effort since 3 Jan (yes I did knock it in Mexico but it wasn’t as bad as this), all those cancelled activities, slowly building myself back up to walking six miles a day and I’d set myself back eight weeks by packing. Packing!!! 😡. I have to say the service was amazing and I’ve not paid a thing except for some extremely strong pain killers. Thank you to the lovely people at CC hospital 🙏 x
It was a long journey from Paihia to Leigh, detours, damage, etc again but we got there and went to The Leigh Sawmill for dinner. I was hobbling pretty badly and they gave me lots of ice in a takeaway box so after eating I’m afraid we just went home, I iced my foot and we went to bed worried about reaching Auckland for our flight as everyone everywhere kept telling us it was impossible to go south…
We gave ourselves six hours to do a 90 minute journey which of course included dropping off our car in the remote hotel car park! Lucky we did as we reached the airport only two hours before take off.
A little bit of “celeb” spotting at the airport – this one’s for Dad who loves Escape to the Chateau. Checking in just in front of us we’re Dick and Angel and their mini entourage! I subtly tried to take a couple of pics for Dad…Hopefully there will be an episode or two in the future where they mention NZ.
Not sure I got away with being subtle!
Another amazing Air NZ lounge (we hadn’t eaten and were starving so we absolutely went crazy – I had five courses 😆) then got on the plane and when I could feel my toe swelling that’s when I decided it was sensible to go to hospital.
We loved the Bay of Islands and Northlands, I’m only sorry we didn’t get to see and do more and we wish all the communities all our very best and hope things get back to as normal as possible as quickly as possible.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🕺 🪩
According to Google there are 55 songs that mention legs, feet or toes and I’m going to ignore all of them. This song was playing in a place we stopped in Paihia, it’s by Tears for Fears, a band I was OBSESSED with for many of my teenage years and I even briefly dated a guy in Cambridge because he looked like Curt Smith whom I adored! I eventually got to see them at Camp Bestival with Craig, Lizzie, The Ev and Cass Cass Cass in 2016. It was the first time they’d played in over 20 years. A fine moment.
It’s not my favourite by a long stretch (the brilliant Change probably is but I shouldn’t be made to choose one!) but it’s good, I heard it in Paihia and it’s about as fitting as my usual tenuous links to song tracks! Here’s Head Over Heels from the great album Songs from the Big Chair (1985).
Paihia ~ 23 – 25 February
25 February
We were up early for our “super cruise” around the Bay of Islands but when we reached the pier they’d had to cancel it as none of the tour coaches could get up from further south after further rain so there weren’t enough people… we were disappointed but they booked us onto an afternoon cruise which sounded exactly like the one we’d booked but with four less hours on a particular island we were going to walk around.
We headed back to the room and my usually fluffy 🦧became a very snappy 🐊 so I decided we needed a little break and I took myself off for a very chilled 75 minute round trip walk to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds where the locals were tricked into handing over their land to us Brits. Another proud moment in our amazing imperial colonial history. It was a lovely walk around a bay but I didn’t go into the grounds, I just walked back.
It was then time to take our boat trip and Craig had managed to get loads of work done so he was happy again.
The Bay of Islands is aptly named; it contains 144 islands, of which the largest is Urupukapuka which is where we were headed for an hour after a trip around the bay and through the Hole in the Rock. It was stunning. No need for commentary, here’s some pictures.
Back on dry land in Paihia we headed out for dinner. Aunty Shirley and Uncle Paul had been here a couple of weeks ago (clearly it’s the season for our families to be visiting NZ!) and recommended a Thai restaurant where a robot served your dinner! I obviously wanted to go but conceded to Craig’s desire for a curry next door to the Thai only to find that Robbie (not his actual name) was working there too. Result.
Not only was that brilliant but Craig didn’t realise he’d ordered a pitcher of cider! The curry was great even though what we ordered tasted nothing like we were used to – Max, I’m afraid that whilst the lamb madras was delicious it was NOT a lamb madras and you’d have been very disappointed!
Another successful night out!
🪩💃🏼 MORNING DISCO 🕺 🪩
This one is for Cassie…
There are plenty of options here, songs by James Bay, the Bay City Rollers (whom I’ve sung on stage with on a night out with Lizzie!!), plenty about islands in the sun, etc but with Cassie as your niece there can “be only one”…
It is of course Dolly and Kenny with Islands in the Stream (1983). Grab your hairbrushes and singalong people!
24 February
After a lazy morning we hiked up a hill forest trail. My foot is still not 100% (I can feel some pain right now) but seriously I’m at least two sizes bigger than when we left and enough is enough!!
It was pretty steep and I’m very out of shape so it took some time but it was really peaceful, we were surrounded by birds and lots of insects communicating with each other (probably saying, jeez these hikers are NOISY, can you hear the smaller one panting and wheezing?!) but when we finally reached the top it was worth it. And there was a bench. Fab.
Inspired into action, once we were back we jumped into the car and drove a couple of miles to Haruru Falls where we were the only people for some time so Craig got his drone out. I really liked the noise (not of the drone) and the fact the falls were at most two minutes from the car park 😆. We stayed about 45 minutes then headed back.
We were clearly in action mode so we jumped onto the foot passenger ferry to Russell which you can drive to in an hour or pay £7 return and get to by ferry in 15 minutes. It was bloomin windy!
What a lovely place! We went straight for a well deserved drink along the sea front at The Duke of Marlborough which turns out to be the oldest pub in NZ. It was reminiscent of Langass Lodge, a fancy place we stay on the Isle of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides when we’ve saved up our pennies for long enough. It was a bit bizarre really, a Scottish hunting lodge on a beach in The Bay of Islands but the G&T was good so who cares?!
Craig wanted to go on another walk (turns out he wanted somewhere quieter to fly his drone) so we set off to Long Beach, a bay that Craig had looked up. It wasn’t too far and again, it was worth it.
After a rest we headed back via a tiny wood and we got over excited thinking we’d seen a kiwi but it turned out to be a Weka, another flightless NZ bird also known as a Māori Hen. We’re not bird specialists as you can probably tell!
We went for a sunset drink and dinner at a lovely place called Butterfish before catching the very last ferry back to Paihia at 10pm then going to sleep after our very busy day!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
When you Google famous singers named Russell one dominates the results. There isn’t a hope in hell I would play one of his songs. He and his mate Michael Ball can do one…
Much more interestingly this guy came up. Leon Russell. Now I don’t know him but he looks like a dude and his fans include Clapton Neil Young and I reckon they have pretty decent taste so I looked up some songs and found one called The Ballad of Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1971). Well, it was clearly a sign as Craig’s Tickety Tok name is Maddogsandenglishtan so here’s to you Leon Russell, thank you for not reducing me to playing one of that Russell’s songs 🙏.
23 February
It took us well over four hours to get to Paihia and that is excluding our stop in Whangerei for food. Detours and evidence of destruction everywhere. It was a very windy slow road through mountains rather than a straight road up the centre but we were simply pleased to be able to get here!
Checked into the fab Austria Motel – room number one (called Vienna of course) is the best; we’re at the front of the property on the first floor (that’s second floor to you Americans!) with a 240 degree balcony and a tiny glimpse of the sea. Oodles of room, spotlessly clean, comfy bed and powerful shower – heaven. It’s about a minute from the seafront if you dawdle.
Our landlord Reid gave us some ideas of where to go and what to see and after a ten minute walk along the front (it’s not a large place) we headed to the Swordfish club – members only but Reid is a member so we were allowed in.
We had one of those great unplanned nights. Cheap as you like drinks, decent food and… wait for it… a free quiz. Erm hello!!!
Despite being the smallest team by some way, despite having worked our way through many of the fine (well, maybe not fine but very cheap) libations on offer and despite scoring zero on round one (Sarah will get this reference – local quiz for local people Lordship Lane type questions) we placed exactly mid table scoring an impressive 9/10 on two rounds. We got an honourable mention from the Quiz Master as “the lovely English couple at the back” and stumbled home. Fantastic.
Sorry, no photos but plenty to come from the next day or so…
Leigh ~ 21 – 23 February
After a great couple of hours in the Star Alliance lounge and a “quick” 13 hour flight we touched down at 5.30 am in New Zealand. Loved flying with Air NZ. Clearly we were very concerned about what’s been going on and hoped that things were being sorted so that the lovely New Zealanders and their beautiful country would be OK (as I write this 11,000 are still without power and the damage will take months and in some cases years to sort 😞 The rain isn’t stopping in some places and the damage continues).
We had a stressful time finding our hire car, I won’t bore you but it was in a hotel car park two miles from the airport and we had to check in over the phone!! Luckily the first thing we did when we landed was get a local sim for Craig’s phone otherwise we’d still be at the airport!!! It took over two hours to get it 😡.
We were supposed to be staying in Baylys Beach (in the west of the Northlands) but I’d been in touch with our landlady the week before – she said the road was impassable and the beach had been washed away and not to travel there so I’d switched to stay in Leigh (on the east) where we’d already booked for our last night up here.
The evidence of the cyclone was everywhere and we made slow progress (detours, roadworks, etc) but arrived intact at Leigh Central Coastel (coastal motel!) and luckily our very lovely room was ready early and they let us in.
Clearly I went straight out to buy milk and made a cup of tea (thank you Thara for the PG Tips!) whilst Craig was straight out onto our veranda for a snooze in the sun then we headed off to explore this tiny lovely place. It’s a small community, everyone we passed said hello, smiled, there wasn’t a single piece of litter anywhere and they’d all pulled together to clear storm damage. You could see trees had been cut up and piled neatly, paths bushed with debris pushed to the side but you couldn’t mistake the fact the cyclone had been through.
It’s a tiny, gorgeous place.
After a chilled afternoon we ate fish and chips at 5pm then fell asleep – neither of us had slept brilliantly on the plane.
Next day we went on the local glass bottom boat around Goat Island. The storm had churned everything up so you couldn’t see anything below but it was a lovely little boat trip anyway.
Craig’s sister Tracey and her partner John had been to the area a few weeks before so on her recommendation we headed to Matakana Village and I whilst I wouldn’t normally order, never mind rave about a salad, this amazing thing is the most delicious salad I’ve ever eaten – chicken and all sorts of yummy things in a Parmesan basket! 😋
Then we headed to Matheson Bay, had a walk, took a couple of pics and headed back.
After another cup of tea and a few minutes relaxing, we walked ten minutes down the road with a torch for the return journey as we planned to be out late. The Leigh Sawmill is an institution in The Northlands. For a tiny place (the pub itself isn’t actually very small but Leigh is!) it has attracted some big bands, none of which I’d ever heard of but I’m assured they’re big!
We felt very sad for the place as a couple left as we arrived then it was just us until closing so we did our civic duty, bought lots of drinks, chatted to the staff then went home and slept well! We’re told it will be busy on Sunday when we’re back again so we’re looking forward to that.
We woke up, packed, waived farewell to lovely Leigh and set off for Paihia which would normally take about 2.5 hours but we were expecting detours and delays, which there were.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
This one is for the Gen Y-ers…
There are probably hundreds of great songs I could choose for this but for some reason I can’t get Lee Ryan out of my head 😳! For those not in the know, Lee is a member of a boyband called Blue. He went on to notoriety as a love rat on some “celeb” reality show a number of years ago. I kept thinking, there must be a better match than Lee for Leigh but then I thought, no, All Rise (2001) as a song title could be symbolic for the communities in NZ that are trying to get back on their feet. It’s tenuous but you must be getting used to that by now. The lyrics are terrible and actually have nothing to do with anything inspirational but the tune is catchy and whilst Lee might be a little 💩 Duncan seems like a lovely guy. “I rest my case” for this choice. So, here we go:
“So step back ’cause you don’t know this cat
I know deep down that you don’t want me to react
I’ll lay low, leavin’ all my options open
The decision of the jury has not been spoken”
🙄😬🙄