An Angel In The Wild: The Love Boat

28th March

We've just been off on a very big adventure indeed. Sometimes our adventures are spontaneous affairs, other times they are meticulously planned & booked months in advance. Our journey to Masterton took us through Woodville where we finally solved a long standing puzzle. For years we had been trying to find the road we pulled in to on a whim- where we gathered the most beautiful hawthorn berries, just out of Dannevirke. We've even driven around all the possible roads a couple of times but still with no luck. We looked up a book map & we wandered down road after road using google earth, but still we were none the wiser. In the end we decided there was nothing to be done but surrender to the eternal mystery... when quite suddenly I cried "There it is!!!!" as we were leaving Woodville. Oh- wrong town.

We had all the other details right, just not the town itself. Unfortunately since our last visit things have got pretty overgrown & so the time spent with the hawthorn was not quite as marvelous as our first encounter. Phew, we can put that one to bed now.

Our next stop was a much anticipated visit here at Bear Flag Books & Retro.

We do so love this zany little shop that spills all manner of memorabilia out on to the street on a daily basis.

Best to keep your elbows in & your wits about you.

Because I am quite sure you wouldn't want to dislodge anything & have it all fall on your head.

I like to shuffle around the skinny corridors observing closely so as not to miss the many spots of classic humour.

Or the teeniest of treasures.

After a coffee next door at Strada & a lovely time in Moore Wilson's just down the road, we headed out of Masterton & up towards Mt Holdsworth to our Canopy Camping destination.

Our stay at 'The Love Boat' was one of the meticulously planned kind of adventures. It sounded like so much fun & read as a delightful restoration project- giving new life to an old fishing boat lugged up from Picton.

I'm not sure which adage to use "The proof of the pudding is in the eating" or "Fish & visitors- both go off in three days". Or perhaps there were just a lot of mixed metaphors blowing in the wind. This we do know- it was a memorable visit indeed!!

And the surrounding hills were steep & magnificent.

We had a lot of fun but nothing was quite as it should have been including the smell of old rotten stinky fish that seeped in to everyTHING including our hair...

And then there was the most unfortunate realization that the interior was terribly familiar- so much like Sunray Avenue Rob's old family home in Titirangi that his mother had designed back in the early 1960's. I hated staying there as it too had some deep seated peculiar odours.

Lovely linen & nice comfy bed.

I managed to miss my step & trip down in to here bruising my shoulder when we first walked in. The bath mat kept us more alert to the hazard from then on.

This looked like a lovely little path way...

All we had to do apparently was to listen for the river & follow the sound. Um, but which way do we go?

Rocks & water either way.

Eventually we chose to turn left, but still we were confused as there was no obvious pathway & we had to push our way between pampas grass (cutty grass) & tutin (poisonous!), while balancing from boulder to boulder.

Ah there you are river! So how exactly would we plop ourselves down & have a nice little picnic we wondered. There was nowhere even for me to perch while Rob swam in the freezing, but refreshing water. I tried to wander across to the other side but the entire river bed is also full of rounded boulders.

Rob managed two lovely swims in the river though during our stay & helped me to cross over the next day without falling in, so I could see what was on the other side!

From this side there is public access- well sort of, as you have to walk quite some distance from a car park way up here, having travelled for miles down as unsealed road.

Yes, beautiful!

We had just enough sunshine & light to sit outside for a cider before it got chilly.

Very fortunately the figs back home were in full fruit so we made ourselves a delicious salad for the first night. Two strange little mismatched stools, one of which couldn't be parked properly as the fridge was in the way meant that eating was a little awkward.

Are you alright over there Rob?

Lovely setting at night under a clear sky so that we were able to lie in the bath together & stargaze.

I profound scarcity of water did make things quite uncomfortable as we were constantly having to assess our next move.

Next day we headed south to Greytown, passing mullein along the way.

And being ecstatic to find the wild blackberry that we had met on a previous trip.

Rubus laciniatus (a wild blackberry) growing along the roadside in full fruit! A few years ago I asked about this plant in the Plant id group & someone suggested that the early Italian settlers brought this bramble out with them for winemaking! Once cooked they taste like fruity blackberries. "Rubus laciniatus: A species that's been given various English names, including Parsley-leaved Bramble, Fern-leaved Bramble, Evergreen Blackberry, and Cutleaf Evergreen Blackberry. (French: Ronce laciniée. Dutch: Peterseliebraam.)"

These brambles are pretty mean & vicious & like any blackberry, fully occupy the space, but the fruit is really nice when cooked so worth the trouble to pick.

Just down the road- clever!

Rock extraction across the valley. Amazing how all that rock can be present just beneath the surface & you'd never know. Well not until you went to dig a hole to plant a tree.

Anyway on this first morning we headed in to a bustling Greytown with lots going on & visitors all over the place. Superb landscaping around this church in the middle of town.

Ah, our beloved Linden trees.

Perfect that the Linden guardians should frame a shop called GRACE.

Wonderful old building but not an original- the classic old church was brought in from Fordell near Whanganui in 2009.

Linden seeds occupying the porch.

With JOY just down the road.

Lovely lunch at Main Street Deli Cafe.

Just passing by.

A grand presence in the town- Blackwells & Sons.

A beautifully presented business.

And so worth a wander around.

Clever.

Just a few blocks back from the main road is a glorious little orchard.

Molewood orchard in Mole street!

A few years ago we happened to be visiting in the time of the come & pick your own apple season.

So back we came again.

Picnic where you like!

If you're not worn out by the huge job of caring for an orchard- being amongst the trees is a joyful & wonderful privilege.

This year the pear block was opened up to the public too.

Tree ripened pears are so delicious.

Lovely to see so many families coming in together to participate such a joyful experience.

On our journey back to the Love Boat we saw a sign that indicated that if we headed up the road we would arrive at the Tararua Forest Park, so we hung left & went to see what was there.

As it turned out we found the most beautiful forest park with vibrant healthy trees (lots of native beech) & a range of great walks on incredibly well maintained tracks.

All these trees a-glow over the river are beech.

Plenty of options.

And an abundance of coprosma grandifolia along the way.

Handy spot for a picnic down on the Donnelly's Flats loop track.

Kidney fern with spores.

Kidney fern collar.

Such a fascinating diversity of ferns in the Tararuas.

As we left the Love Boat on the Monday morning we headed back through Greytown, heading to the Remutakas & down in to Upper Hutt. There's a dear little antique place in the main street that has the sweetest cottage garden so we stopped so that I could take a photo.

There are some unique markers in Greytown like this bench seat that enshrines the notion that Only God Can Make A Tree.

Just across the road is Cuckoo.

We love Cuckoo & have eaten here a couple of times. And had the loveliest heart felt chats with Ian.

As I looked across I realised that I was seeing the strangest sight- an elder tree in the middle of town covered in bunches of ripe berries- even in late March.

We crossed the road to investigate & discovered Ian's work shoes having a break on their own.

Cuckoo was shut so we decided that Ian wouldn't mind if we borrowed the pink chair so that we could reach up to pick a few elderberries.

Quite soon Ian rushed out wondering who on earth was stealing his pink chair! Just us Ian- remember us! And yes he did so next he offered to find us a ladder.

And at that moment I looked down to see a violet in bloom. We discussed why elderberries are so valuable as an immune support through winter & then off Ian went to attend to his pizza dough.