A Bonnetful of Bees

Just a little south of Otaki a road runs inland to Otaki Forks, the last few kilometres very narrow and very winding. This is one of the entrances to the walking tracks of the Tararua Ranges. (more…)

Last Saturday’s trip out to Woodhill concluded that evening with me in North Shore Hospital’s emergency unit being treated for a sustained attack of superventricular tachycardia which came on in strength after tea—heart-rate around 215—but the trip was a pleasant one for all that.  I took a small saw with me and removed some of the smaller tree-fall obstructions on the back section, and located a new population of kidney fern, not something I expect to find commonly in a forest as potentially dry as this one.

All was more or less back to normal with my heart rate by this morning and I was sent home again.  Watching the emergency room staff coping with the typical Saturday night bunch of crazies and P takers, heart attacks, old people falling, rugby and car accidents, with police and security floating in and out more or less continuously was vastly interesting, which was good, since I wasn’t getting any sleep, but it left me with a huge admiration for the personal qualities of the staff there.  Well done guys.

Another in the series of long overdue catchup reports that are appearing as the weather gets worse. Miranda used to live in the Ohariu Valley and ride her horse along this very track, so it’s a return to old times, and sometimes expeditions like that have their surprises.

I want to walk the Skyline Track to Karori this year, and I have started planning our October southern expedition, centred primarily on the Tararuas around Mt Holdsworth, but extending south into Otaki Forks and Wellington.

I’ve been trying out a few new ideas, some my own and some originating elsewhere, regarding what to do with the green carpet of feijoa fruit that appears under our bushes this time of year. New recipes for Feijoa Jam, for Lime and Feijoa Jam and for Lime Marmalade.

A wet Sunday and I’m starting to catch up on some of the backlogged track reports.  We walked Waikareiti Track the day after we finished the Waikaremoana track last November.  Waikaremoana is a “sea of rippling waters”.  Waikareiti is a “small rippling water”, and on one of its islands is another lake, Tamaiti, meaning “child”.  We hired a dinghy and visited this small lake.

Cold weather arriving, tomatoes and potatoes with cold-burnt tops, the anaheim chillies and the capsicums are refusing now to grow to any size, the basil has gone yellow-green and flowered everywhere and cabbage white caterpillars are making a meal of my broccoli.  Time for comfort food.  I’ve played around with several recipes for crumpets and finally found one that is (a) simple and (b) tastes and looks like a crumpet should.  That’s probably got possibilities as an advertising slogan—fifty years ago.  Anyhow, here is the recipe for a leisurely Sunday brunch.