My mum always said that her fingers were as green as they looked. Despite her best efforts (and the chivvying of her husband and children to do the same) our family garden looked, at best, tidy, at worst overgrown and weedy. Her gardening DNA strand runs through me like a buttercup root runs through a […]
Tag: Ohakune
The Mills
Travel anywhere in New Zealand and you’ll see evidence of our primary industries. Cows graze in fields and amble along purpose-built tracks, through tunnels under roads towards milking sheds; sheep dot hillsides and crowd into farmyards, awaiting a haircut (if you’re lucky you’ll catch them between the two). On the roads trucks carrying towering piles […]
Passing The Brush
We’ve just finished painting four rooms in our house. On the basis that two of them were the laundry that runs into the hallway leading to the bedroom (the third room) some may quibble with the figure but, whichever way you count, by the time we’d finished it felt like four hundred rooms. I […]
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
Although we’re rarely sitting-on-our-arses-doing-nothing types, we’re not always up for a long walk at this time of the year. We might do a quick blat around the block or a shorter walk up the mountain, but if the weather isn’t particularly good we’re just as likely to look out of the window and think, nah, […]
Hiking With Joe
Hiking boots on, poles in hand, I wonder why one of my favourite walks on Mt Ruapehu is so named. Finally, a couple of weeks ago I remembered to look it up when I got home. Turns out Joe Blyth was one of the inaugural members of the Tongariro National Park Board, skied the mountain […]
Weathering
Here in Ohakune we’re on our fourth day of solid rain. We’re not alone – storms have swept across the country and I wonder if we should rename New Zealand the Soggy Isles. There have even been mini-tornadoes in some areas, trees being tossed aside like cocktail sticks and rooves ripped away. We’re paying for […]
A Quick Exit?
Ohakune has a fire siren. I’m not sure if that’s the correct name for it but it’s a siren that sounds to call volunteer firefighters, on which rural New Zealand relies, to attend an incident. It’s been a bit busy lately, primarily grass fires in the summer heat. I learned the other day that it […]
Arrival
These islands evaded the Covid bullet for a long time, access to the country controlled and any incursion stamped out, mostly before it left managed isolation. Then Omicron arrived, pushing its way through the border like a Russian tank. It took advantage of being the only overseas tourist and romped through cities and across mountains […]
Reflections
One of our regular walks (Waitonga Falls: https://purplehippo.blog/2020/06/12/on-the-mountain-waitonga-falls/ ) provided us with a pleasant surprise on Christmas Eve. As it had the day before, the sun shone from a clear blue sky, so we left early for a quick walk before its heat made anything more than a snail’s pace unbearable. Within the trees it […]
In Praise of the Practical
We paid a flying visit to Ohakune last weekend, a one night stay as we hired a van to take up the last pieces of furniture we’ve given up trying to fit in the new place in Wellington. The house felt stuffy, probably because it was lunchtime on a warm day and we’re unused to […]
Tracy Annenberg 