Knightshayes Court

We had one more place to visit on our way back to Duston. Knightshayes Court was quite close to our campsite and we knew that this place had significant gardens.


Knightshayes Court - Visitor information - National Trust

We started with the kitchen garden. It was walled, covered a hectare and was growing a huge range of vegetables and fruit that supplied their on-site restaurant. Any surplus is sold at a local farmers' market. This garden is still in the process of being restored, having fallen into disrepair in the late 1960s. There is also a programme in place to grow and nurture a range of heritage vegetables and fruit trees that are in danger of being lost to gardens for ever. The herb gardens were impressive too, with separate beds for medicinal and culinary varieties. Flowers were being grown for picking as well as supplying food for their bees.






There was still plenty to see. The house, built in the 1870s was huge as were the formal and woodland gardens that surround it. We could have easily spent far more time than the three hours we were there and it is a place we could very easily return to again.

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Dartmoor National Park

As we headed away from St Germans with a promise to return again if we are back in the UK we headed up towards Dartmoor National Park. Nigel had helps choose a route that would take us all the way across it, and in the process giving us magnificent views out over Cornwall. Before getting to the Park area we drove through Tavistock and decided to take a break and perhaps find some food for our evening meal and breakfast the next morning. So you can imagine our delight at finding a farmers market selling lots of local produce. We got some fresh vegs, eggs, meat, bread and cider. Plenty for a good camping meal. The Official website of Tavistock Farmers' Market

 

The moors were certainly well worth the effort of driving across. We stopped at a spot with excellent views and climbed up to a high point (Mt Caxton I think). We could see as far as Plymouth and the Tamar toll bridge at Saltash.

We continued on our way, through Princetown where there is a prison and on to find Castle Drogo, another National Trust property. This is a castle built in the early 20th century by a businessman who unfortunately only lived a few short years after it was finally completed, as building had been interrupted by WW1. Castle Drogo - Visitor information - National Trust

A campsite was our next destination and there seemed to be several in the area. We found one at Tedburn St Mary. We had a lovely meal using our farmer's market food, cooked on our little burners before retiring for the night. We woke in the early hours of the morning to rain, the first during our whole week away. It was intermittent and still managed to pack up in the dry and head off on our trip back to Duston.

 

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Jessica has fixed blogging problem with pics!!

After an afternoon of some frustration Jessica has managed to buy an app for the iPad which will now allow me to add photos to my blog. Of course it wasn't just a matter of buying the app. iTunes thought we were in NZ and wouldn't allow us to buy in the UK. After over an hour later she finally managed to let her allow it to buy in the UK though I don't think she is even sure how she did it. We are not asking any questions. The main issue is that it is now working.

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St Germans & Cornwall

St Germans, Cornwall

Our friends in this small Cornish village were pleased to see us and we quickly integrated ourselves into the household. Venetia was having a girls night in, many of the group had originally met through a play group when their children we young so I could easily relate to that concept! Nigel and Stephen were banished to the local pub for a meal and then they later retreated to the yacht club and hatched plans for the following day's sailing expedition. By 11pm they returned as the girls were all heading home after an evening full of good food, wine and conversation.

Morning brought preparations for our trip out on Stella, Nigel's 25 foot yacht which Stephen and I were going to join him for an overnight trip. We needed to wait until nearly midday when the tide would be right. St Germans is well up a tidal river west of Plymouth. Venetia had chosen not to join us, preferring to stay home and catch up with one or two bits and pieces. She had had a busy weekend with the festival at Port Elliot, home of Lord Elliot, and a place she works as a steward for 100 days a year when the manor house is open to the public Home - Port Eliot

We had a fantastic day motoring, and with some sailing down the river, passed Plymouth and out into the English Channel. The weather was sunny but not quite as windy as a yachty might prefer but this did not detract from enjoying ourselves. This is such a wonderful waterway providing plenty of space for all those wanting to be out on the water. This area is also home to a naval base, called Devonport, and we saw a submarine berthed up and the following day a warship that we had to keep out its path. That night we moored in the Mayfair Marina, and before bedding down for the night, enjoyed A lovely meal in the marina restaurant.

XThe next morning we were able to sail back up the river as there was quite a wind behind us and we caught high tide at St Germans at mid day again.

 

That afternoon Venetia had made plans to take us to visit this amazing country house at Lanhydrock.

It took some time to make our way through this huge building, part of the National Trust. The kitchen and associated rooms showed just how the land and gentry lived in earlier times. It was easy to see how the 80 staff would be needed to keep such a place going.

Lanhydrock - Visitor information - National Trust

 

 

We returned back to St Germans in time to enjoy a lovely meal with Nigel and Venetia before settling down for the evening to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

 

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Cheddar

Cheddar was on our list of possible spots to visit so we decided to head in that direction before we would go onto St German's in Cornwall, our destination by late afternoon. As we were getting closer to Cheddar we saw Wells, and somewhere I remembered someone telling me that was a good place to visit. So in we went and we were disappointed. It was a beautiful town, with a market day in full swing. Even the town crier was present and in full voice. Swans, of the sculptural type were obviously of some significance as there were many of them in various places.Next stop was Cheddar and I really wasn't sure what to expect. Mostly cheese I thought so we weren't prepared for the large numbers of tourists in this narrow limestone gorge. Cheese is an important player in this gorge, as the cheddar has been aged in the caves for centuries it is the caves and all the adventure tourism that goes with caving that is biggest attraction. We walked through the village and eventually found the cheddar factory and were able to see the cheese being made as well as doing tastings and of course there was plenty to purchase. The video showing the complete process (it takes seven hours) felt very familiar using all the terminology Sherry had used during her cheese making classes. This is the only cheese that can be truly called cheddar and it continues to be hand made in the traditional way. Some of it is matured in the caves for 11 months.

Home Link for Cheddar website

We had arranged to be in St Germans just out of Plymouth by around 5pm, so after consulting our paper map (we were not trusting Garmin to get us there on the main roads) to get us on the M5 so we could make faster time than the smaller roads as the speed limit is 80mph. Once on this road we made excellent progress and arrived on time.


 

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Bath

We started the day with breakfast at the cafe attached to our camping ground. Another beautiful day dawned and it wouldn't surprise me if it was even hotter than yesterday. Our plan was to spend the day in Bath, and after some directions from a local re the nearest Park and Ride (bus) we headed off. Unfortunately we weren't very good at following the drawing on the paper serviette he gave us and we resorted to 'Garmin'' our Satnav. Unfortunately she was not behaving and took us down loads of country lanes. We eventually found our park but not before seeing lots of the English countryside. We kept reminding ourselves that it isthe journey not the destination that is important. We had a lovely time in Bath and saw and did all the touristy activities. The Roman Bath House is a must see for anyone visiting this area. We also managed to see the Fashion museum and they had a special display of royal clothing through the ages as part of the Diamond Jubilee. Tonight we have cooked our own meal on our single camp burner, after visiting Sainsbury's in Bradford on Avon for supplies. It is a glorious evening to be sitting outside listening to the birds and viewing the local surrounds. All I all a good day.

Camping

Yesterday saw us heading off on our first adventure. We hired a car and headed south with Cornwall being our destination to visit friends (and Watson family).   We are incorporating it with a spot of camping and our first "pitch" was Merkins Farm Camp, a delightful spot close to Bradford on Avon and only 8 miles from Bath our sightseeing destination for today. On the way we made a small detour and visited Avebury, a World Heritage Park that has stone henges similar to the more familiar Stongehenge. There are stone circles but the stones are smaller  but still date back to a similar time period. It was certainly being well patronized yesterday even for a Monday though it was the first day of the school holidays and it had it had finally stopped raining. In fact it was down right hot at 27 degrees. This is not the only attraction at this site as last year the BBC was involved with The Manor Reborn, a  programme they created from the project. They were looking for a manor house to redecorate and this one, owned by the The National Trust was a blank canvas and perfect for the film company. They came  in and decorated each room in a different period that the house had lived through.  The rooms ranged from Tudor to 1930s. Now the Manor House is an attraction in itself and is great as it is interactive. You can touch or sit on all objects and even lie on the beds! My favourite part was the walled kitchen gardens. A huge effort had been made here not only by the BBC team but by volunteers though the National Trust. What a shame we aren't here longer! The other gardens were well worth seeing too and included more walled gardens and an orchard. After pitching our tent on this lovely wee camping ground, we headed to the local pub, The Plough, for tea as it was getting on in the day and we had no desire to start cooking at this stage. It was a very friendly place, and full of locals, many of them farmers, having a pint either before or after their tea and talking about the weather. Most of this was about how they were all busy making hay while the sun shone. Even the field beside our camping spot has cut grass drying and the appropriate machinery for turning it is close by. (Still no photos sorry. Am beginning to think we should have bought a notebook instead of an iPad!) Yesterday saw us heading off on our first adventure. We hired a car and headed south with Cornwall being our destination to visit friends (and Watson family).   We are incorporating it with a spot of camping and our first "pitch" was Merkins Farm Camp, a delightful spot close to Bradford on Avon and only 8 miles from Bath our sightseeing destination for today. On the way we made a small detour and visited Avebury, a World Heritage Park that has stone henges similar to the more familiar Stongehenge. There are stone circles but the stones are smaller  but still date back to a similar time period. It was certainly being well patronized yesterday even for a Monday though it was the first day of the school holidays and it had it had finally stopped raining. In fact it was down right hot at 27 degrees. This is not the only attraction at this site as last year the BBC was involved with The Manor Reborn, a  programme they created from the project. They were looking for a manor house to redecorate and this one, owned by the The National Trust was a blank canvas and perfect for the film company. They came  in and decorated each room in a different period that the house had lived through.  The rooms ranged from Tudor to 1930s. Now the Manor House is an attraction in itself and is great as it is interactive. You can touch or sit on all objects and even lie on the beds! My favourite part was the walled kitchen gardens. A huge effort had been made here not only by the BBC team but by volunteers though the National Trust. What a shame we aren't here longer! The other gardens were well worth seeing too and included more walled gardens and an orchard. After pitching our tent on this lovely wee camping ground, we headed to the local pub, The Plough, for tea as it was getting on in the day and we had no desire to start cooking at this stage. It was a very friendly place, and full of locals, many of them farmers, having a pint either before or after their tea and talking about the weather. Most of this was about how they were all busy making hay while the sun shone. Even the field beside our camping spot has cut grass drying and the appropriate machinery for turning it is close by. (Still no photos sorry. Am beginning to think we should have bought a notebook instead of an iPad!)

A busy day or two!

Well those work clothes have come in very handy. Andrew took Friday off and we have spent two days working on their house with them. The two bedrooms they are working on need the old plaster removed, taking it back to the bare bricks. It creates a very big mess. Today was spent just doing the main bedroom. It has been great being able to help them as we have saved them days of work. The main bedroom is now already to start lining up with gib board. All the plaster and dust has been taken out in bags to the waste/dump station (even that was an experience that most tourists wouldn't get to see) and all the dust is cleaned up. The dust was the worst aspect I think. It penetrated everything. The shower before tea was a must for us all. Actually it is a great way to beat jet lag. We are so tired at night time it is straight to sleep all night!!Tomorrow we get a day off. We are booked in for a traditional pub Sunday lunch. Rosie and Huw are coming to join us so that will be good to catch up them them. Rosie went through Uni with Jess and she is living here too.

 

 

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Border control

After mentally preparing ourselves for a very long wait on arrival at Heathrow we couldn't believe how quickly we were processed. In fact the official had us moved up so quickly to officer to process us I was still getting our passports out of my bag. Unbelievable really. We waited longer for our luggage at the carousel. Of course we had Jessica coming to pick us up and had told her not to be too early!! By the time she arrived at 7:30 we had had our first coffee. Our flight was very good. We were on an Airbus and were seated in the upper deck. The service as always on Singapore Airlines was excellent but it is such a long way. We did manage some sleep which meant that we did manage to stay awake all day which so when we did go to bed at 9pm we slept all night. The one activity we did do during the day was that Jessica took us shopping for work clothes!! They obviously had big plans for us. Their new house is lovely but they have plans for redecorating most of the house. It is a 1930s vintage and much of it needs a major redo starting with gibbing some of the walls. Right up Stephen's alley. (no photos sorry - I don't seem to be able to add them when I am using the iPad. Any one with any ideas?).

The day of the big journey

Well the day of the big journey has finally arrived. My sister Barbara got us to the airport in plenty of time as she had to be at work by 9am. My brother Fraser had driven us up to Christchurch yesterday afternoon as we have left both the car and the bus on his farm at Mayfield, while we are away. The bus had been there since Sunday when we called in on our way to Geraldine after spending Saturday on the Coast. From what I can gather we were lucky to get back on Sunday as there was a large slip later in the day. Just as well we left early.I should think Mum and Dad were pleased to see us go on Tuesday. We seemed to fill their house, mostly with washing! We had brought back anything from the bus that looked like it needed a wash and though the day was sunny there was not a loot of drying. Add to that our suitcases that needed to be packed, plus me with my nose in both the computer and the iPad as I needed to get the July edition of the Herb Society newsletter finished and published before we left.I now feel quite calm sitting here on the plane writing this post for my blog. We are flying with Singapore Airlines and the first leg of the journey is very comfortable,even in economy. The plane would only be a third full I would say so we have been able to spread ourselves over three seats which is great. We get to have a six hour stopover in Singapore and then it is onwards and upwards to Heathrow. We arrive at 6am and Jessica is going to collect us. We have told her not to be there too early as we suspect that it could be very busy with long queues at border control. Time will tell.I would have to say I am loving this iPad. It is so portable and every day I am getting better at using it. I have written this post in the notebook and hopefully I will be able to copy and paste it to my blog when I am connected to the Internet!

 

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Happy Birthday Eva

Saturday took us over Arthur's Pass to Greymouth.  My very good friend Shirley had organised a  party for her mother's 90th and we really wanted to be part of it. It took a little organisation on our part as this was also the weekend we needed to park up the bus before we head to the UK. So we went as far as Glentunnel on Friday evening, having left our jobs and camp site at Breezes Road early in the afternoon. (Still trying to keep to the rule of finding the campsite before dark.)
There is a lovely little camp at Glentunnel and they were happy for us to leave the bus there overnight on Saturday while we hoofed it over the hill.
Our accommodation for the night was at Noah's Ark, a fantastic Backpackers and, just around the corner from Shirley's place in Greymouth. Our room was the Zebra Room and it was all decked out in zebra colours and paraphernalia. We would highly recommend it to anyone looking for this type of accommodation.  Noah's Ark Backpackers

The birthday party was a huge success. I know that Shirley had been worried because her mum had been very sick with the flu only ten days earlier but she had rallied around and pulled out of it. The venue was the Runanga School hall, a very poignant choice as Eva had taught at Runanga School for many years, the Greening clan had attended school there, and both Shirley and Jim had had teaching stints as well. In fact Shirley has come back from living in Israel for many years and now too has another job there.

Tamar (Shirley's daughter) had travelled from Israel to be here and she was responsible for making most of the afternoon tea. And what a spread it was. She is a trained pastry chef and she, along with her two friends, had spent three days making all this beautiful food for her Nana's birthday.

About a 100 family and friends had come from near and far to be there, (Israel, Australia, the North Island and many parts of the Mainland.) It was a time for talking and reminiscing, cousins to reconnect (or meet) and celebrate 90 years.

We were glad we had made the effort.

A Tale of Two Cities

It wasn’t until we were driving Yaldhurst Road this afternoon on our way to Glentunnel that I realised the state of the roads was very obvious. We have been driving around on the East side of the city for the best part of two weeks and the roads can only be described as terrible.  In fact I wonder how the police decide who are the drunk drivers and who aren’t!!! It is literally a matter of weaving your way down the street to avoid the humps and bumps. Many of the man-holes have had asphalt built up to them to try and smooth the way which only disguises the problem.
Road works are an occupational hazard. I tried to plan a trip from Eastgate to The Palms by looking at the map. (Our GPS is useless on a good day!) I lost count of the detours I made. Bridges are an interesting experience with most of them no well above the height of the road - some have very steep accesses. Across town it is hard to imagine (well going by the roads) that an earthquake has ever been. 
Those who will be profiting most of all from all of this must be road management and their associated signs and the companies supplying the fencing.  I beat they never in their wildest dreams thought there would be this much demand for their products pre 4 September.

The photos don't do justice to showing the state of the roads but the following selection give a taster. 

United Nations

It was a big day yesterday with a full house on base (20). This included a group of Ywammers (Youth With a Mission) based in Matamata and they are from five different countries - Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium as NZ (including two from Invercargill)!! as well as a new crew of five from Ireland. Add to that Peter from Singapore and Kim from Korea plus few of us from good old NZ.  The group from YWAM had just been in Fiji doing some voluntary work for about 6 weeks so we knew that they would be keen for some good traditional food. So roast chicken and all the trimmings was for the mains and rolled pav (eat your heart out Jimmy) fruit salad and ice cream followed for dessert. As there was a married couple in the YWAM group celebrating their 2nd wedding anniversary, chocolate cake and coffee completed the meal. Everyone was suitably impressed.  It had been a twelve hour day in the kitchen though as lunches and morning teas for the week had also had to been organised and then of course it was there was a lot of cleaning up at the end of the meal.

Stephen had been promoted to foreman (it doesn't take long if you show any skill base!!) and given his own van and the group of Irish to help him.  They were a fun group and full of talk but also excellent workers. They made great progress on the house at Lyttelton. 

A Broken CIty

 

Sunday morning saw us heading off in the car to do a few messages and to then visit some family and friends. As we headed across town we decided that it was a good time to take a look at the city centre. In my first year at Teachers College I was in a hostel in Latimer Square so that was our starting point. The hostel, Morley House had long gone (actually they pulled it down after we had been in it a year!!!) and its replacement was still there but not looking too good either.

As it was such a lovely day we decided to walk around a very extended block - into Worcester, along Gloucester, down Oxford Terrace, along Cashel and back to Madras and our car.

What a sad and broken city it is. There were many people out doing what we were doing and for such a lovely day the mood was sombre and it was surprising quiet, except for the sound of a few demolition companies working. We were able to get right up to the corner of the Square and Colombo Street and had a very good view of the Cathedral.  From our view point it still looks very much intact. As I write this post, there is yet another report on the radio about whether it should be demolished or rebuilt. Personally I think it is too soon to make that decision. There are plenty of our buildings to demolish or rebuild. Let the City Fathers work on those first. Fence it for safety reasons and a tourist attraction for the next few years and then decide. If we look at Europe after WW2, it was many many years before some of their historic buildings were rebuilt.  We moved on around towards the Bridge of Remembrance and it is still standing but the old CHCH public library is well supported with huge steel bracing.

Cashel Street looked inviting but it too didn't have the hustle and busy of a city centre on a sunny Sunday afternoon. There were a couple of buskers playing the violin and their mournful tunes certainly added to the sad  atmosphere. A good irish jig would have been better.

The following photos are a collection of what we took and give you a glimpse of what we saw.