Next Stop Parawai

I met a dear elderly lady a week or so ago, & got to catch up with her again yesterday. A history lesson & walk served with a cup of tea. My favourite 🥰 I’ve been parked on her driveway for a few days now, & so enjoying hearing her knowledge of the past, in this area. She is quite the gardener I’ve discovered, with a full half acre of vegetable gardens & fruit trees.

Huge beetroot grow here

She showed me a place called The Booms, where the kauri logs used to be floated down the river, managed by building dams at certain points, then offloaded to be stored until needed, perhaps made into a raft to be floated to Auckland, or hauled by bullock to the mill. Sadly the place is aBupa rest home now, & a school rugby field, so there’s nothing to show what was there.

Massive rhubarb too

And then we discovered the ex Mayors house, or mansion should I say. It was palatial! We couldn’t go inside, as it’s a private residence now. There’s a Douglas fir tree out on the front lawn, behind the picket fence, who’s girth is so vast you could make a large door out of it using one slab, & the height of several large doors. I didn’t take a photo of said magnificent specimen, as we were too close to it. I might try to do that today.

Apparently Thames is one of the first European settlements in anew Zealand.

The ex Mayors house

The dear lady also has quite a collection of rocks, not the least of them being some petrified wood & some actual gold from the South Island, Greymouth to be precise. Apparently gold is worth more of left intact these days. Like a rock with your tea? ☕️ I’ll get a pic today if I can. She’s got some others to show me too, dear sweet thing. 

Petrified wood door stop 😂 

Next weekend is Hobbiton, & I’m very excited about that experience, then I’m heading south to catch-up with some friends & rellies, while I carry out a special project. I can’t quite believe that I’m going south when it’s so perilously frigid, but the dry cold will be ok.. I think. And there’s always a fire in a house to be found, to warm the creaky joints😉

The uncut side of the rock.

But first some surprising things are happening. Wheels are turning in unexpected ways. More details to follow as I wait & make some decisions.