Not a real busy couple of days as it turned out, so I'll lump them together in one post.

Tuesday, October 7th
 We gather in the morning in Fielding.  The Manawatu club wants us to visit the Rugby Museum there.  We did watch the NZ All Black team lose, just barely, to South Africa.  They kind of looked like UNL - not ready to play the first half of the game and then catch-up the second half.  But not quite enough.  Our hosts, Barry and Joyce did their best to explain the game.  And we tried to keep up with it.  Much better than "net ball" played by women.  It looked like basketball except the players couldn't dribble, and once near the basket (no backboard) the defense had to keep 3 feet from the shooter, so they just lobbed the ball through the net.  The announcers seemed to think that this was great playing.  Whatever.

Anyway, we arrived at the museum and toured it, David tried to look interested, but was not all that successful.  Joy was better at it.  Never really could get excited about looking at old sports equipment, jerseys, and grainy photos.  But we have to remember that rugby is a national religion here.  Our Manawatu hosts worked hard to make it all work for us.  And we thank them for that.

 

Manawatu Team Jersey

Lunch at a local golf course.  Then Barry shows us the inner workings of one of his supermarkets, known as "New World".  Actually, he's sold it to the family trust now.  They have another in a different city.  He employs about 200 people in the store.  Seeing the back room activity and how they manage grocery products was very interesting.  We visited everything from the flower arranger to the air handling equipment on the roof.  These supermarkets are very close to what we find in our best stores at home, say HyVee or Bakers.  Now this was quite interesting to Joy and I.  No photos as they are very competition conscious.

That evening, our hosts son and daughter-in-law arrived from the South Island, on their way to the family "holiday home" on a lake where the son had some remodeling work to complete - to oversee the tradesmen.  Later they intend to return to the South Island to look for a new home.  They've just come back to NZ from a stay in England.  It was great to meet more of Barry's and Joyce's  family.


Wednesday, October 8th

Dreary and windy again.  Today our home hosts get a respite, and we are hosted by our day hosts, Elaine and Graham.  Our first stop is in the small town of Ashhurst where we gather to venture up into the rugged hills to see a wind farm and one of the units in particular.  First we gather in a park in the town what offers a good view of the several wind farms that run together.  Our guide and commentator is a technician from the Vesta company.  You can see some of their units in Iowa.  The rain has stopped.  After a description of the various units and their power potentials we caravan up to the wind farm itself and enter the restricted area for a real close-up of one of the units.  They stand on a high ridge.  The hillside is rugged, with sheep grazing among the towers.  And now the winds are gale force.  The wind howls around our cars and the huge structure.  We can barely hear our guide from the Vesta company explain what we are seeing.  Fortunately, he gave us a good explanation at a viewing site down in the much quieter valley.  Now for photo ops.  If the weather had been better, we'd have great views of the valley stretching out below.  As it is, it's somewhat ethereal with the clouds scudding by and the winds whipping at us.




We return to Ashhurst and are are supposed to have a picnic lunch at the town park before starting out on tours.  Starts fine, but by the time we finish lunch, the wind is up and it's raining again.


Now the best part at this point was a surprise to everyone.  It turns out that a local Maori woodcarver, Kraig Kawana uses half the structure as a studio.  He's carving panels that will mount on a structure on the highway that welcomes people to the Manawatu River gorge.  His work is beautiful, and he has an easy way of explaining what he does and what the various carved pieces mean.  They will be on the entrance to the structure, meant as a Maori welcome to visitors to the gorge.

After lunch, we are to explore the river gorge.  With the wind and rain it'll be a simple driving tour.  But we decide to give it a try anyway.  The road twists and turns as it climbs up the hills.  Still the wind howls about our car.  Down into the gorge, which would have been spectacular on a good day.  As it is, it's shrouded in clouds, and a light, wind-blown rain.  We stop for coffee in the small town of Woodville.  An odd place.  Most every shop is closed for the day.  It's about 2:30 PM.  At one shop, the owner closes the door and turns the card to "closed" as we approach.  Apparently, they roll up the sidewalks early in Woodville.  We do find a coffee shop, and manage to get our coffee just before they begin closing up.  How bizarre.

End of travels.  We gather at Barry and Joyce's home with our day hosts, Elaine and Graham, where Joyce has prepared a marvelous dinner.  What a great evening, weather notwithstanding.