We took a short break on the shores of Lake Taupō.
We spent a comfortable night at Aspen Court Motel in Taihape. It was warm and had space for both cars.
Today we drive to Putāruru (230 Km away), crossing the Desert Road which has a snowfall warning. We need to do that late enough for the frost to disappear, but before midday to avoid snow.
As a naturally early riser, I realised the best time to charge up the EV was at 5:30 in the morning. No traffic, no competition for the charger. 🤣 I even brought a thermos of tea.
It seemed moving day would never reach its conclusion, but we're now ensconced in a motel in Taihape, having arrived just after full dark.
And that's important because I have trouble driving in the dark because of the glare, especially bad if it's raining.
The rain started at 4 pm today.
Hmmmm, moving day is involving an awful lot of waiting around. We might get away before dark.
We had quite the farewell sunset tonight.
We went to Cobb and Co in Levin for lunch. They actually have a Seniors menu with 2 courses for $35; show your Gold Card for 10% off.
It was the right amount of food and pretty good. I had roast pork followed by Apple Tart.
Ahhh, the delight of a cuppa at 2.30 am, otherwise spent stressing about how our garage stuff will fit into the new place …
Moving house: there is always something else to be cleaned …
Cat's new career as a detective is developing nicely as she solves a decades old murder with almost no clues to work with. Nine Burned Lives (The Cat Caliban Mysteries Book 9) by D.B. Borton also has a very nice twist or two. 📚
Cat Caliban never expected her golden years to be quite so eventful. She races into a burning house to rescue a litter of kittens, only to stumble across a charred human skull.
Mid packing — after an interruption where they spent ages trying to get the van unstuck from soft sand in front our house. Eventually, with the help of several muscly blokes and a 4-wheel drive ute, they managed to free it.
The chaos before the packers arrive.
Today we have three classes of goods: we take them personally in the cars; we use them over the weekend and then they go in the truck; they get packed ready for the truck.
Our neighbour up north has sent an inspirational photo, saying the photo doesn't do the view justice.
They're on a slight hill. We won't see Mt Manaia as they do.
The concept of Death Of A Ghostwriter (Wye Valley Widows Book 1) by Gaynor Torrance was interesting: a chap dies and it turns out 3 current wives are notified … 📚
The execution though wasn't satisfying. I think the book needed a really good editor to bring it into line. Some parts were repetitive, some read like a book for kids. There was a strong narrator voice that felt like telling about the story rather than being engaged.
We don't actually leave for a few days but I decided just before sunset on a sunny and relatively warm afternoon would be a good time to do a farewell visit to the beach.
My bird photography skills have rusted over winter. 😒 🐦
It's pretty chilly this morning.
Our racist government
The English we speak in Aotearoa differs from English in other countries because, in part, our vocabulary contains numerous words sourced from the Māori language. Attempting to remove words sourced from Māori makes as much sense as attempting to remove words sourced from French or Latin.
Education Minister cut Māori words from future junior books, documents reveal:
An Education Ministry report shows [Education Minister Erica ] Stanford decided in October last year to exclude all Māori words except for characters' names from any new books in the Education Ministry's Ready to Read Phonics Plus (RtRPP) series.
The paper showed the decision was driven by concern Māori words were confusing for children learning to read English though evidence of that was mixed.
Another very big milestone with our new house today. 🏡 At 11 am the building inspector visited for the final inspection and by 2.30 pm we had the Code of Compliance certificate.
Next, of course, we received our final invoice from the building company, and now we're fully paid up.
🥳
There's a big list of items the movers won't take that we need to either dispose of or take in the cars.
While we don't need to worry about military weapons, black powder, arsenic or formaldehyde, we do have aerosols, a few bottles of alcohol, boxes of matches, herbicides, essential oils …
I eventually realised that Ellie's infuriating inability to stand up for herself in Book One was because the author left plenty of scope for character development. Ellie Quicke Mysteries Books 1–7 by Veronica Heley. 📚
Meet Ellie Quicke. Devoted cat lady, tea addict, recent widow — and now amateur sleuth!
Over the course of the 7 books I came to really enjoy the series and have happily discovered there are more to read.
