My lack of posts throughout May was to simply due to the sheer expense and consequential stress the month managed to bring.

A puncture on the return journey from Matakana at the beginning of the month was to set the bad luck rolling, this alone resulting in the need for two new car tyres to get the car through its WOF (Warrant of Fitness, like an MOT, but spelt different). On returning home that night, we prepared some food to cook, only to see the little blue flame of the gas stove flicker out and not re-ignite until I refilled the gas cylinder next morning. We also opened a bill for our quarterly rates payment that evening. It was abundantly clear: May was not going to be cheap; The fifth month of 2009 was certainly not going to be a bargain; A humongous saving; A deal to bite one’s arm off for.

No! It was going to be f~@$ing* expensive! The car breaking down and costing $500 to fix the following weekend confirmed our fate.

Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever lived in the New Zealand rain forest at this time of year, but I can tell you: It can be cold and May was cold! Exceptionally cold apparently, with people stating it to be as cold as winter gets here (kind of good, as I’ve had a test run for winter now!). We became extremely grateful for our log burner during this time. We loved the log burner – it kept us warm. Until one night it started leaking smoke into the living room! So that was out of action for about six days until a sweep could come round and investigate. Yes, exactly: more expense! More notes prised from our cold little hands!

The sweep (sadly not a soot-faced little oik) explained that the cowl (no relation!) was broken and we needed a new one. The seemingly bargain price of $60 for a sweep took a $75 leap upwards.

Three weeks since the puncture and we tried to pour ourselves a glass of water. Nothing happened. Our home uses water collected from the rain, saved in a tank, so we went and checked the tank. Glumly, we discovered it was empty. We had not got round to clearing the gutters of all the rotten leaves and had therefore not got round to re-connecting the downpipes to the tank. Basically, we had not gotten round to collecting any water. A somewhat more deserved expense, this time, but still an expense!

Jen’s mother kindly offered to have us stay for the night, so we could shower in the morning, so we jumped in the second car to head over. Now that car wouldn’t start! By now we had had enough and just left it sitting there on the drive for a few days, until, nearing the end of the mother of all disastrous months, I went and gave it a good long try. Finally getting it started, it felt like things were starting to wear off.

Thankfully, the remaining costs of the month were kept to a relative low. They truly were a mean and nasty four weeks and I’m glad they are over. I know they are over because the 31st (exactly four weeks since the puncture!) brought me some kind fortune: I was called and offered a new job. A great job. A job I can’t wait to start…

*_flipping

It’s been a little quiet around here for the last few days. The first reason for this is that a friend and I have been busy setting up a new project: WollyDong.com. The other is that it was my 28th birthday last Saturday and we headed out of town for the weekend and up north to a place called Matakana.

Matakana, situated in Rodney District, is a small village just off a roundabout by a river. We stopped for a cream tea and a rest before heading through the rain into the village. We were fortunate enough to turn up during the weekly Farmer’s Market, which was pretty cool. Loads of local people selling locally made foods, drinks, sauces, you name it! We invested in some Feijoa, lime and chili sauce. Excellent on pizzas!

We stayed up the road in Leigh, in the Leigh Sawmill Cafe to be exact. The rooms were nice and big, with a tidy ensuite. I always love it when a lodge has a shower floor, rather than a step in shower, and that’s precisely what our room at the Sawmill had. It’s probably just an excuse not to worry about getting the bathroom floor wet more than anything else, but I love shower floors!

We rested our wet and tired souls for an hour or so in the afternoon, before heading for a wine taste at Heron’s Flight. We were served by the drummer from Kiwi band The Brunettes, which meant the chat was pretty interesting. He knew a fair bit about the wine as well!

We headed back to the Sawmill and, after establishing that we really should have booked a table, the cafe and micro brewery served us up some excellent pizzas, wedges and risotto. The beer was pretty good too!

The next day, we had a quick look at Goat Island before breakfast. The island is a protected area with no fishing allowed. This results in quite a lot of fish hanging out and you often see them leaping out of the water in front of you. We then spent the afternoon having a wander round Tawharanui Reserve, which turned into a bit of a long trek after we passed through the first field of bullocks and decided that we couldn’t do that again!

All in all, a good weekend. I feel I must apologise for the somewhat briefness of my descriptions on here. The reasons for this are because I plan to launch a proper travel review site very soon and I want to review Matakana properly on there as my first location. All in good time, all in good time…

I couldn’t get up this morning. Well, actually, I could. I did. But it wasn’t easy. It was flipping hard.

The reason for my slackness was because I, unlike you, spent the Easter weekend on Waiheke Island. ‘Where’s that?’ you ask. In terms of The World, it’s here:

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It’s pretty great too, as far as islands go. Don’t get me wrong; I love islands, but I always find myself getting more and more upset when what looks like the island’s most interesting road ends up a ‘NO EXIT’. It’s an island repetoire of mine: I’ll spot a road and think ‘Let’s go up there’, only to find it’s a dead end. Or not a road at all. I used to do it on Guernsey all the time. Even on my tenth visit.

We caught the car ferry out to Waiheke from Half Moon Bay in East Auckland on Thursday night. It chugged along at about 3 knots, taking about 75 minutes to complete the whopping 20 odd kilometre journey. We noticed as we departed the ferry that we had been just two cars from The Mad Butcher, on his way out for the weekend, so I put the slowed ferry time down to the humungus amount of carcasses that must have been stored in his boot. Long weekend, an’ all…

We stayed at the rather friendly Punga Lodge, which dealt us one complimentary breakfast, a host of afternoon teas, a seemingly private spa pool (I didn’t see anyone else using it!) and a bed. We were also a short walk from Oneroa, which meant we could hit The Lazy Lounge for a couple of drinks and then walk home. Although this proved a little risky on ‘Good Friday’ as the little kiddies were out in their rusty Skyline performing drive-by paintballings. You missed.

The friendliness of the staff at View East vineyard made us want to return for a bit more than a wine taste and a coffee, but sadly time eluded us. We had to fit in the paddling of Punga Lodge’s twin-kayak round Oneroa Bay, a trip up to the World War II tunnels of Stony Batter, a meet up with GU2’s old Head of News Naomi and my sister-in-law’s birthday lunch at Mudbrick vineyard. We also narrowly missed out on seeing Ethan Hawke and Scarlett Johansson’s arrival at Te Whau vineyard, but as he’s grown up a bit since Explorers I didn’t think I would recognise him. Plus alpacas are way more interesting to look at.

All of this fantastic weekend was carried out without my camera, so a return visit will likely happen at some point. And then I can take some photos. And enjoy all over again…