Shopping for Christmas

On Thursday Jill and I went to town on the bus to do our Christmas shopping. In discussions with our family we have agreed to restrict our spending to a small amount this year for economic reasons.

We had a nice time wandering around the centre of Hamilton visiting the main shops for the things Jill had considered for Christmas presents, and had lunch in town. I should explain that because of parking we usually don’t go near the centre of the town but visit the two suburban malls instead, but this time we went to town.

Our day was successful and Jill was able to get almost everything she wanted, and within budget. Well done Jill! I occasionally suggested things but was mainly the donkey of burden.

So that’s another job completed!

Today I painted my front fence – another line through my list.

Work waiting

This year we seem to have had 9 months of winter, and that’s just for us in Hamilton where we normally get a mild climate – not too cold and not too hot. In the South Island (we’re North Island) they have had a very much colder winter than us with excessive amounts of snow, rain and cold winds almost every month from about mid-March to late November. Glad I don’t live down there!

I am mentioning the long winter this year because as spring is supposed to be here we have had enough bad weather to prevent me from doing chores outside, which means that I have begun to run out of things to do inside and was getting depressed with boredom. Not really depressed in the real sense of course.

So this week, now that we are beginning to get long and hot sunny days, I sat down and made a list of everything I could think of that needed doing, and began to work through the list.

The picture above is my list, deliberately blurred, with some items already crossed off. Things like: washing the car on Sunday, mowing the lawns on Monday, removing finished plants from the front flower garden on Tuesday and today water blasted clean our white-painted brick wall on the front of the section, getting it ready to paint. Of course these things were only the time-consuming jobs as I did other things too.

So at last we can make progress. The plants in the vege and flower gardens are finally starting to grow and summer promises to be just around the corner. Just to inform, in the southern hemisphere September to November is spring, December to February is Summer and March to May is autumn, and winter follows. At least that’s the way it’s mean to be, but not this year.

So progress is now being made around the gardens, in part thanks to the weather and my list and now I feel much better.

An afternoon stroll at the Hamilton Gardens

Icebergs in New Zealand waters

Over the last few days icebergs have been discovered floating up from Antarctica towards New Zealand.

Although this happened a couple of years ago at about this time it is not normal for it to happen and for the ice to travel this far. This time it is estimated that about 100 are on their way here. It will be interesting to see how many actually make it to our coast before they melt and disappear in the warmer ocean waters.

For press information see the TVNZ news item here.
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/icebergs-edge-close-nz-shores-3169853

Maori Carving pole, Tokoroa

Tokoroa Maori Meeting House

Painting on the town's water storage facility

Farm land near Tokoroa

Kinleith Pulp and Paper Mill in the distance,

photo taken from the water reservoir hill lookout.

Tokoroa 2

Tokoroa is surrounded by dairy farms and planted pine forests. It is possible that many of the forestry workers come from Tokoroa.

Down the highway lies the Kinleith pulp and paper mill (see photos above) belonging to Carter Holt Harvey. It is the largest of four mills that they operate and is staffed by about 450 employees and 280 additional contractors who mainly live in Tokoroa.

Kinleith is named after the Kinleith Paper Mills on the Water of Leith in Scotland.
(Click to enlarge photos)

Part of the Tokoroa shopping centre

One of severalA Maori carvings on

the footpath in the shopping area

Another Maori carving, this time featuring

a local rugby player in his colours. The

team is the Waikato team, my team

One of the Tokoroa water reservoirs

with Murals painted around it

Looking over Tokoroa from the water tower hill lookout

Tokoroa (Click to enlarge photos)

After visiting Putaruru last week Jill and I decided to also visit Tokoroa which is another town about 20 minutes further south.

As we haven’t visited Tokoroa for some years we were pleasantly surprised to see the progress the town has made in this time, especially as a near by large mill had large redundancies of staff, most of whom lived in Tokoroa. I expected to see the town greatly ‘emaciated’ in a similar way that Putaruru seemed to be, and to our surprise it seems to be booming!

The name ‘Tokoroa’ appears to be derived from the name of a great Maori fighting Chief who lived nearby before the early European settlers and was killed during a battle with another tribe.

Tokoroa has a population of about 15,000 people, about 55% of them Maori, or Pacific Islanders who have migrated to New Zealand.

Above are some of the photos I took during our visit to Tokoroa.

Mural on an old railway building

The old Post Office building

The HOP Wall (Hands On Putaruru)

One of the shopping streets in town

The now-unused railway station

Putaruru (Click to enlarge pictures)

Putaruru is a Maori name meaning “Home of the Owl.” “Puta” means “home” and “ruru” means “owl.”

Today Jill and I decided that we would visit Putaruru, a small town located in the heart of the South Waikato District. The population is approximately 6000.

From Putaruru you can head south to Taupo, west to Waitomo, north to Hamilton or east to Rotorua and Tauranga – all within an hour. Most travellers heading North or South will more than likely pass through Putaruru.

During our visit we walked around the shops, had lunch and I took several photos of the area, some of which I show here.

One of the most prominent buildings in this town is one designed in the 1960’s and originally used as the town’s Post Office, but since the Government closed most of New Zealand’s post offices and put the agencies out to private businesses (usually book shops) this building was no longer used for this.

I did not find any useful information about this building’s use since then but feel sad that the town has chosen to let it sit unused, to become a derelict. In fact I feel that the town Mayor and Councillors should feel ashamed that they have allowed this to happen to such a fine and interesting building.

Though Putaruru have a website called “Pride in Putaruru,” during our visit I felt sad that the town seemed to be in a state of decline. When I was younger an Aunt, Uncle and cousins lived here and we visited often. The town then was reasonably thriving, but the railway station is now closed and needs to be demolished, and we spotted several once-thriving large businesses which had closed down.

They do have a timber museum which is well worth a look, and Putaruru is within easy distance of other places of interest including the Arapuni dam and power station on the Waikato River, and see the view of it from across a swing bridge. Also while walking along the well-paved footpaths in the shopping areas there was Mosaic Pavement Art which was really attractive and worth seeing. This beautified the shopping area.

I really do hope that Putaruru again becomes a place of activity and success. Best wishes to you for the future.