Gone bush - May 2020

White Island/Moutothora

On the very day that the country stepped down to Level 3, we packed the car and headed to our friends' place in Whakatane.  This would allow the painter to start work at Bev's. So we were now in a new 'bubble' with Ollie, Snow their daughter, Katelyn.  Oh, and our favourite springer spaniel Max!

We spent some time at the beach collecting pipis

Climbing mountains

And, of course, fishing

A friend who lives in the middle of nowhere, quite literally, contacted us to check if we would be available to look after his place for a week or so.  Ummm, yeah, we seemed to be at a bit of a loose end, so off went on our next adventure.  This one was going to be an example of 'social distancing' in its purest form.  Pohokura is not a particularly easy place to get to so we were pleasantly surprised that the road was in fairly good condition compared to the last time we journeyed in.

Rainbow connection

We spent our days walking the hills and forest, checking and re-setting traps and recording the rats and stoats we managed to slaughter.

This was a fairly typical day for us

And these were our typical views

Every day we took our rifle for a walk and never managed any meat for the table.  We only saw three deer.  To be fair, it was totally the wrong time of year for hunting.  We did see a bit of pig sign too.

We weren't too disappointed as we were just enjoying the freedom of the bush after being so cooped up during Level 4

This beautiful moss looks like snow!

And no matter where we are in the big wide world, James always manages to hit his head on something ....

For James's birthday, he got an all expenses paid visit to the local spa.  He was happy!

The view from the 'bath house'

Wild horses on the road out