Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 6, 2011

hidden gem

The East Coast has a hidden gem that is one of the most delightful places in the country – Eastwoodhill Aboretum.

My mother-in-law is a volunteer for Friends of Eastwoodhill and because my two children spend so much time with her in the holidays ( 🙂 ) they have come to know Eastwoodhill well. So have I over the years and I have grown to love the changing of the seasons there – from visits in summer with shorts and tshirts to autumn with camera clicking with the cacaphony of cascading colours (hold back on the alliteration girl!) to winter with a brisk walk around to get the warmth pumping right through to spring again with the gorgeous daffodil walk.

You can choose a series of walks to do – all colour signposted as you walk – from the easy red or blue through to the more energetic green, which takes you to the highest points of the walk or the yello, which gives you the beautiful panoramic view you see here:

sorry, taken with point and shoot, not the fancy camera!

The coolest thing this time was doing the native tree walk (red I think). We saw a few kauri and I remembered taking a photo of the children a few years ago at a kauri tree. Well… here they both are! All the trees have a GPS number so we’ll have to get that and take photos for the next 50 years!

Sarah and Lachlan - summer 2006?

same tree 2011?

The vision of Eastwoodhill Arboretum is to “to foster understanding and appreciation of nature by education, research and enjoyment of our unique plant collection” which drives public participation and appreciation of the Arboretum.

The botanical collection planted by Douglas Cook is regarded as the largest and most comprehensive collection of Northern Hemisphere trees south of the equator, encompassing an area of 135 hectares.

This collection could never be imported today due to stringent bio-security restrictions, hence its great value to New Zealand and the wider world. This value has been recognised with the acknowledgement of Eastwoodhill as the ‘National Arboretum of New Zealand’ (this is all from its website).

A variety of walking tracks cover the whole arboretum, catering for all levels of fitness and mobility, and guided walking and four-wheel drive tours are offered as well as accommodation, team building and catering and conference facilities. Within the arboretum is the Homestead Garden, a formal garden cared for by a group of dedicated volunteers. The Arboretum is one of the top visitor destinations in Gisborne and attracts more than 8000 visitors annually.

Become a Friend!

Leave a Comment

Posted in Family, Rural | Tags: ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 5, 2011

Hone, you are a loser

Having just popped on stuff.co.nz to update my news for the morning – I am seething at this story.

Hone Harawira is quoted as saying people should acknowledge the positive aspects of Osama bin Laden’s life rather than celebrating his death.  Despite what the media said, his family, his tribe, his people are mourning, they mourn for a man who fought for the rights, the land and the freedom of his people, Harawira told TVNZ’s Te Karere on Monday.

THIS MAN LED A TERRORIST ACT THAT KILLED MORE THAN 5000 PEOPLE!  Celebrate their lives Hone.

Leave a Comment

Posted in media

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 5, 2011

go Mr McGill

Good news and another step up the politicial ladder for my friend Paul McGill.

Current Nuffield Scholar, former Kellogg’s Scholar, convenor of this year’s Grand Final of The National Bank Young Farmer Contest in Masterton….. he’s now also president of Wairarapa Federated Farmers.

A name to remember in the future? No. A name to know now 🙂

Photo taken of Paul for Young Country magazine

Wairarapa region gets a new president

Following the Wairarapa AGM on Monday 2 May, Paul McGill was elected as the new president after Anders Crofoot decided not to seek re-election after four years as president. 

Mr McGill was Wairarapa’s Grain & Seed chairperson and a successor will be determined in the coming weeks. Mr Crofoot will remain on the executive doing policy work.

Mr McGill is the property manager at Mayfield Farms, a 380 hectare 50/50 land finishing and arable block near Masterton.

“Filling Anders boots is no easy task, but I welcome the challenge. Wairarapa is doing some great policy work here and I want to continue this work and grow our regional membership,” Mr McGill said.

The other changes following the Wairarapa AGM was the appointment of Stephen Pound as the Meat & Fibre Chair who replaces Alan Stuart.

Of particular note was the retirement of Murray Schofield, who has put in more than 20 years of service for Federated Farmers, most recently on the Wairarapa executive and as the rural fire representative.

4 Comments

Posted in Rural | Tags: ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 3, 2011

video of storm damage at Ocean Beach

A friend posted this video on YouTube:

I don’t know how to put the video itself, so there’s the link!

4 Comments

Posted in Family

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 3, 2011

help is on the way

Agriculture Minister David Carter today announced farmers hit by the storm in Hawke’s Bay last week are to get assistance from the Government.

He says pasture loss and damage to farm infrastructure is serious enough to declare a medium-level adverse event in the area, triggering government relief measures.  The Minister visited the devastated area at the weekend.

“Whole hillsides have collapsed in places, with some of the hardest hit coastal farms having lost up to 60 percent of soil on paddocks.  It is likely to be spring/summer before permanent fences can be erected.

“Assistance will come through Enhanced Taskforce Green for the initial clean up, along with funding for the East Coast Rural Support Trust to assist farmers under stress, and with practical help such as feeding and moving stock.  Welfare support and farm management advice is also available.

“Many of these farms have had a hard time through successive droughts and will now have significant costs to restore farm infrastructure. They will also have issues with feeding stock in the medium term until pasture covers returns.”

Over the weekend, Mayor Peter Butler, the Hon David Carter – Minister of Agriculture, and Wairarapa MP, John Hayes, surveyed the damage to affected farmland while flying over the area. They then landed to talk to affected farmers at Blackhead Beach. Photo supplied by the CHB District Council.

Mr Carter (in today’s press release) urged farmers who need assistance or advice to talk to the East Coast Rural Support Trust.

Federated Farmers has welcomed the news saying the help is practical and advisory in nature and very few farmers, if any, will quality for direct welfare support.

“There are probably about 100 farms that have been heavily damaged by this recent storm activity while the rain continues to fall,” says Kevin Mitchell, Federated Famers Hawke’s Bay provincial president.

“It’s going to take some time for the worst affected to recover.  This is due to the level of damage done to farm infrastructure like fences, races, tracks and even dams.  The biggest impact has been to pasture, which is the engine room of any farm.

“Yet I need to dispel the notion that farmers will be getting social welfare cheques.  Any form of welfare assistance is subject to strict means testing and I don’t know of any farmer who will qualify.

“It’s really important people realise that we’re in business but like with any other form of emergency affecting businesses, the Government is making practical assistance available so that we can recover on our own two feet.

“The biggest gain to farmers with this announcement is Enhanced Taskforce Green, via Work and Income New Zealand.   Given farm recovery is urgent it means we will get assistance with temporary workers, while those
workers will get practical and fulfilling experience.”

Storm damage. Supplied by the CHB District Council (the photo, not the damage).

1 Comment

Posted in Family

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | May 3, 2011

and the rain fell

Coastal Hawke’s Bay farmers are reporting up to and in some cases over 500mm – some say it was hard to calculate how much rain fell because rain gauges couldn’t keep up with the deluge.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council automatic weather stations recorded upwards of 200mm on more than a dozen sites throughout the region.

While we apparently had about 100mm here at Takapau – it was a vastly different story towards the coast from late on the 25th until the morning of the 28th.  Some would have been forgiven for getting out their arks on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The gauge at the Maraetoara River at Waimarama Road recorded 209mm on Tues and 173mm on Wednesday (382mm).

Other stark HBRC rainfall figures, which are now understandable given the level of destruction the storm left in its wake, were Omakere with 193mm and 159mm (352mm) and Ben Nevis with  135mm and 149mm (284). Ben Nevis (not the South Island or the original Scottish version) is about midway between Wanstead and Aramoana as the crow flies. Aramoana is one of the coastal settlements that has been cut off for days.

Moteo had 257mm over the two days, Glengarry 223mm, Kaiwaka 239mm, Ngahere 265mm, Te Pohue 201mm. Moving north of Napier… Kotemaori 263mm, Pukeorapa Station 304mm, Ardkeen 195mm, Marumaru 166mm, Cricklewood 170mm – the list goes on.

By the second day, we were starting to find the grim pictures of huge hillsides stripped of every inch of grass and top soil. Huge landslides across roads and tracks – some farmers reporting at least half of their farms had disappeared. Terrible scars on every single face. Like Cyclone Bola in Gisborne in 1988 all over again. The scars from that storm remain – it wouldn’t be a surprise for coastal Hawke’s Bay farmers to still be reeling from this storm in many years.

These photos of Gilbraltar Rd leading from Pourerere to Aramoana were passed on to me on email. They were sent on email (not to me) by Mark Warren who farms near this area.

One farmer I know of, near Porangahau, received 480mm in his rain gauge but wasn’t as badly hit as others in terms of damage. But he’s already looking forward – new grass seed has already gone on.

1 Comment

Posted in Family, Rural

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | April 29, 2011

Happily ever after (via Homepaddock)

Reading this blog from HP as I get ready to don my frock and tiara (well, I would if the entire Hawke’s Bay area hadn’t sold out of them) for a wedding party this evening. Well said HP.

Dear Kate and William In fairytales, couples marry and live happily ever after. In real life it's not quite that easy. When making the vows most think only of the better, not realising that often it comes only after, and sometimes because of, the worse. You won't have some of the pressure many others face in ordinary day to day life. But you'll have others, not least that of being in the public eye. Today your marriage ceremony is expected to be … Read More

via Homepaddock

1 Comment

Posted in Family

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | April 29, 2011

10yr old killed

So sad. My daughter is 10. I know so many kids who frequently ride on the back of utes or on trailers.

Goodness knows I did it hundreds of times when I was a kid.

But this is just so preventable. She probably just wasn’t hanging on. Or there was a bit of a bump and everyone else was laughing.

My thoughts are with the family of this girl and with the person driving the ute. See this story from the stuff website.

A 10-year-old girl has been killed after falling off the back of a Toyota ute in North Canterbury.

The girl fell from a farmer’s ute on Lyndon Rd near Waiau, about 120kms north of Christchurch early this afternoon.

Canterbury Road Policing Manager Inspector Al Stewart said the farmer had been moving stock, and there were a number of children on the back of his ute.

As he came back onto the road, the 10-year-old girl fell from the vehicle and died.

The fatality brings the number of roads deaths in Canterbury this year to eight, double the total this time last year.

Stewart said the accident was totally preventable.

1 Comment

Posted in Rural

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | April 28, 2011

have to say I agree…

This today from Gisborne Federated Farmers….

Proposed National Policy Statement threatens farming

Farmers on the east coast of the North Island, only just recovering from several seasons of drought, could be dealt a crippling blow if a planned Government policy on managing biodiversity goes ahead unchanged. 

“Farmers care about biodiversity but what we’re up against is poor policy making that makes the importance of farm pasture a distant second to regenerating native scrubland,” says Hamish Cave, Federated Farmers Gisborne-Wairoa provincial president.

“The Ministry for the Environment’s (MfE) proposed national policy statement (NPS) on managing native biodiversity sounds innocent enough, but it would force councils to introduce rules limiting our ability to clear regenerating scrubland.

“I’m not being melodramatic, but this could shut down farming not just on the East Coast but in other parts of New Zealand. 

“Someone has not thought through this very well.  We need to clear regenerating scrubland from pasture because that’s what our stock feed upon and it’s our stock that helps pay for the likes of healthcare and education. 

“The flow on effect to support businesses could be significant over time, leading to further depopulation of rural towns much like Wairoa.

“While we hear about supporting an export led recovery from one part of Government, another part seems hell-bent on shutting down farming.

“Late last week, 90 farmers met in Wairoa to discuss this NPS as they were worried.  This follows on from a similar meeting in Taranaki earlier that week, where, I understand, 70 farmers expressed the same concerns.

“Farmers care about protecting quality native vegetation but quality and not quantity is the key word here.

 “Federated Farmers was a driving force behind the QEII National Trust’s formation 34 years ago.  That now has more than 111,000 hectares voluntarily protected – not far off Egmont and Tongariro National Park’s combined. Policy makers have to understand that farms, just like cities, are modified working landscapes.  We must balance protection with productive sustainable farming and on the east coast, this means farmers having to manage regenerating manuka and kanuka.

“It’s time MfE officials put on their gumboots and talked to farmers about what will work and what won’t.  It’s also time we get due recognition for being the front line fighting weed and animal pests that provides real benefits to our native fauna and flora. 

“Gisborne-Wairoa farmers have given me a strong mandate to oppose this NPS and we’ll be taking this mandate direct to Government,” Mr Cave concluded.

Leave a Comment

Posted in Environmental, Rural | Tags: , ,

Posted by: rivettingkatetaylor | April 20, 2011

My husband calls me….

Only ever having had the nickname Riv or Pop (goes with Rivett as in rivettingkatetaylor…. thanks Jim Hopkins) the story of a woman in Oz who’s just been told her nickname means vagina made me laugh.

Not in Spanish or some other well-spoken language, but for one-third of the population of  the Philippines (whoops, corrected that, one l and two p – like my friend Bruce who always gets sent two emails from me… one to trelinnoe and one to Trellinoe – just in case).

Poor lawyer Kristen Perry (pah – the story is about her personalised number plate but the plate in question is on her porsche, poor thing) has long been called Kiki (like the bird on Enid Blyton’s Sea of Adventure I am reading the kids at the moment…. concentrate Kate! Focus.)

A stuff website story goes on to say…

It had been a term of endearment which had cemented links with her Greek heritage and first adorned her cars more than five years ago following a loving gift from her husband.

But the nickname Kiki, given to lawyer Kristen Perry before she could even walk, has now put her in hot water with New South Wales’ Roads and Traffic Authority because her number plate also translates into a term for female genitals in the Filipino language of Tagalog.

“I rang my father last night and said: ‘Do you know you have been calling me vagina all my life?’,” she said.

“He just said ‘What?’ He was appalled.”

Mrs Perry has been left flabbergasted after being sent a “please explain”, the RTA threatening to confiscate the number plate if she did not “show cause” within a fortnight.

An RTA spokeswoman said one person had complained that the plates were insulting to the Filipino language so Mrs Perry and another motorist, who also had “Kiki” featured, were issued notices.

“I have always been called Kiki by my family, many of my friends call me that,” Mrs Perry said.

“I think it is just so funny.”

Mrs Perry said Kiki was a shortening of her name in the Greek language and the number plates were given to her by her husband, Steven, five years ago – first on a Mini before she upgraded to a Porsche.

And she did not take long to reply to the RTA.

“I have never been advised by anyone who speaks the Tagalog language that my name or number plate offends them,” she wrote.

“… it has been my name since birth and your letter calling my name ‘offensive’ is disturbing.”

Mrs Perry said although some parts of the complaint were “hilarious” it was also “really sad” it had reached a stage where her plates could be taken.

The RTA spokeswoman said that “by law, the content of personalised plates must not carry offensive language, religious or sexual content”.

My kids think rivettingkatetaylor should get a personalised plate.

K8SL8.

And indeed, I usually am.

Leave a Comment

Posted in general

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Categories