Andrew "The Boss" Taylor grinding up a hill.

Andrew "The Boss" Taylor grinding up a hill.
Originally uploaded by m0rehu.

This is a great photo of Andrew putting in the hard yards on our day in the Redwoods on Sunday. Myself, Leigh, Thomas, Lucy, Margaret, Andrew, Tine and her sister, Brian, Michael and Hamish and Scotty and Faith went to the Redwoods for MTB and trailwalking. There are many new tracks there that I had never ridden before and they were wonderful - lots more drop downs and technical stuff and plenty of opportunity to get some air. Every one had a great time as you can see by clicking here and looking at the

photos. Hamish slashed his calf on his big chain ring and then bust his rear deraillieur. We had to take it off, shorten the chain and make temporary repairs, which we did well with a little help from a passing bike afficianado!

Maraenui Clubhouse

On Sunday had the first bike ride in a couple of weeks. Andrew, Lea and I rode from home to the club house in Maraenui where we were joined by Leigh and Margaret who drove up. We were hosted by Bev and Ted who had a Swiss visitor. Pete was there and cooked a breakfast of bacon, french toast, grilled bananas and tomatoes for all of us on the awesome BBQ in the photo. We also had coffee made from water boiled in the thermette! After breakfast someone had to drive the car back so that Marg and Lea could bike so Andrew and Lea had to bike back without my company! More coffee and a spa completed the final day before work started again.

McNaught's Comet

Comet
Originally uploaded by m0rehu.

This photo is the first in a set of 14 that tracks the path of McNaught's Comet on the evening of 19 January from my front gate. The different colours are because I tried different shutter speeds. Click here to see the full set.

Northland Holiday Site

DSC01844
Originally uploaded by m0rehu.

This is the view of our private beach from our bach where we stayed with Kurt and Hine and Kurt's old buddy, Matt. Waitapu came with Lucy, Sam, Leigh and I. Unfortunately Thomas had to stay at home for work! The bay is called East Bay which is just east of Tauranga Bay at the mouth of the Whangaroa Harbour. It is immediately west of Mahinepua and slightly more west of Matauri Bay.

We had 9 days there with it raining on 2 of them. The rest of the time was perfect apart from the fact that there are no fish anywhere near here. We fished off rocks at all different times of the day and different tides, with different baits, with berley, with and without sinkers and we fished off kayaks in 2 different bays, we surfcasted off 2 beaches and Kurt, Matt and Hine went out in Bill Hall's boat. We put back 7-8 small snapper, lots of hiwihiwi, caught one kahawai for bait, one octopus and one small trevally which we turned into raw fish.

This was a magic spot and was a great holiday with excellent company.

The highlights were hanging out, watching Sam get turfed out of the kayak twice in big waves in an attempt to go fishing with me off the far point in the photo and persisting so that he was successful on the third attempt, trying to fish, visiting Bill at his great house in Tauranga Bay and hanging out.

Click here to view the full set of photos.

Sam has a great set of photos from the trip. I will put a link. In the meantime I am sure if you go to his site from the sidebar here he should have a link already.

McNaught's Comet

The comet as viewed from our gateway on Thursday evening.

Bathing Beauties

Spa pool is now working! Note the beautiful staining of the timber! oh, and the two bathers!

Alien Visitor

Mat from San Francisco arrived and dined on mussels and BBQ steak and fine red wine. We met him when we stayed with Kurt and Hine in San Francisco and it's great to catch up with him again. We are all about to head to Matauri Bay for 10 days. I feel the anticipation you are feeling for the photos and stories from Tai Tokerau. You'll just have to wait!

Spa Pool

Spa pool construction took only two days because it was approached in typical bull-at-a-gate manner. The main reason why it went so well because Lucy was an awesome apprentice. She lugged bits of wood and measured and squared accurately. She also came up with clever ways of covering up my mistakes.

I was particularly impressed with the development of my 'builder's crack' as the job progressed. It resulted in the fine creation pictured here.



The final two photographs show the almost finished creation and the view you get when sitting in it!

Night Time View

And the view from the deck at night is just as awesome! Full moon over the sea at Hanaia.

Mud and Golf

Proof I did the slide! That's me in the white T Shirt.

Yesterday Lucy and I had a round of golf. We have joined the local club which might force us to play a bit more often. I warned Lucy that I would thrash her, which I did over the first 9 holes by 3 shots. Unfortunately there were another 9 holes to go and Lucy just pipped me by 3 shots! This gave us a tied score, but somehow I still had to buy lunch. The embarrassing bit was that we shot 127! At least there is a lot of room for improvement.

The Opotiki Mud Slide

Before, during and after shots of Lucy and me at the Opotiki Mud Slide.

Summer, Summer, Summer!

Summer might finally be here! This is the awesome view from our deck this morning.

Look Ma, no brakes!

The Tuesday night cycling has become a must-do event for a lot of people in town. Jarod has done a great job running a hassle-free regular event. It is usually road biking, but he has introduced a MTB even over the festive season. There is talk of having both each week - Tuesday and Thursday!

The MTB track is quite tough with lots of gravel and paddock with some short steep up and downhills across Roger's farm. This is me heading down one of the steep, tricky bits. Apparently, I can be seen touching my brakes which is something I claim that I don't do! He must have photoshopped that bit in!

Who Says I Don't Do My Bit In The Kitchen?

Who Says I Don't Do My Bit In The Kitchen?
Originally uploaded by m0rehu.

Bacon and pancakes were the ideal brunch for the whanau for New Year's Day.

Feeling much better today. As well, it rained most of the day so not much to do other than read and tutu with the mountain bike.

Te Tau Hau

Kurt's birthday was great and Lucy, Phil and I carried out the Abraham tradition of air guitaring Cracker's Happy Birthday to Me! Drank a few beers and finished off with a couple of whiskeys and got home at a reasonable hour. Therefore, I couldn't understand why I woke feeling how I did. Room spinning, cold sweat and severe nausea. Typical for 2006 to end up like this on the final day.

However, there was no time to feel sorry as I had to head to Maraenui to pick up our spa pool from Bev and Ted. The big excitement was driving Ted's SUV back towing this huge trailer!

I then spent most of the last day of 2006 sleeping hoping that people who were invited up for a BBQ didn't turn up!

However, we ended up having a BBQ with Mum and Dad and Marg. Sam's girlfriend, Juanita, turned up with him after work at about 10.30 as well. It is quite unusual seeing the new year in without knocking back a few drinks and laring up a bit. It does make you feel better on the first day of the new year though!

It was a quiet night and the photos show us relaxing by the brazier and enjoying Thomas' choice of music - The White Stripes.

Mangakirikiri Meander 2

Photos from Andrew as promised.

Amber is in the first leading me and Nicole and Tim.

The second has Wilson leading a dismounting Anthony.

The third has Amber, me, Nicole,Tim, Jo, Wilson and Anthony (Ithink)

Good News

Good news for my many readers. I have now lifted the restriction to access for comments (I think). So comment away.

Mangakirikiri Meander

Have just finished a relaxing ride down the Mangakirikiri Stream. I was out for 5 hours in total but only 3 hours of that was cycling as we had a lot of rests. Leigh came to the gate and returned as she has a lot of housework to do. Andrew, his daughters Amber and Nicole, his nephews Anthony and Tim (see the Whirinaki post) and their friends from Wellington from Florida, Winston and Jo and I carried on down the stream and the long haul home against the wind down the Pakihi and Otara Roads.

The neat thing was seeing the young fellas really enjoying the downhill single track adventure through mudholes and the 40+ creek crossings. They gave everything a go and even gave things a second and third go if they did not have a successful crossing first time up. It's an awesome ride which riders of all abilities can manage.

I didn't take my camera as last time I took a spill in the creek. Andrew took his and I hope to receive some shots to post here for your enjoyment.

Don't forget to click on comments at the end of a posting and make a contribution to this widely read blog! The only rule is that you have to make respectful comments about me. Anything goes for anybody else! Also, feel free to click on the link on the right side to flickr to see photos that support my insightful (inciteful?) comments! You can also link to other people's blogs on the sidebar.

Have a great new year!

Maraenui Fishing

Friday was a great day as I was once again the weighmaster for the Maraenui Kura fishing tournament. It's a real community/whanau event which raised over $10,000 for the local kura. The amazing thing is that most people who buy a ticket don't even fish; they see it as a koha to the school and a chance to win a great spot prize.

I really enjoy the day talking with Robin and Ani Mohi and catching up with kaumatua Eric Koopu and Charlie Poihipi and the local kuia. Unfortunately, every year there is always another one missing.

Fishing went well with all prizes being claimed. The winning snapper was 2.4k as was the winning kahawai. There were at least 15 kahawai over 2kg. The winning shark was 22kg. I had a beautiful cold beer with Eric afterwards and he sent me on my way with a huge tray of beautiful venison steaks.

I dropped into Ted and Bev's new place at Maraenui, had a couple more cold beers, unloaded some of the venison and arranged to pick up their unwanted spa pool on Sunday.

Another perfect day in paradise.

Mid Life Crisis?

Despite what many other people are saying I would like to emphatically state that I do not ascribe to the belief that Kurt is having a mid life crisis. One fact, however, is that today!!!!! he turns 40!!! I am sure that this has nothing to do with the Blue Tonka Toy he bought himself for his birthday. Some of us believe that a use may be found at some time for this vehicle. In the meantime Kurt looks cool in it!!

Ra whanau ki a koe, e hoa!