The Passing of a Queen

 One of the first things I did when I first went to the UK and London was to visit Buckingham Palace.  There was nothing like seeing the Queen's residence/office in person rather than in a picture or on TV.  It didn't disapppoint although the failure of the Queen to greet me as one of the colonials was a let down.  Not that I expected it.  

A few years later we made the trek out to Windsor to see the castle.  It was neat to have a look around some parts of it, but not the private quarters.  I was surprised about how few visitors there were.  Again it felt like a privilege to see such a grand place with a history that went back centuries.

The Queen's death on the 8th of September 2022 came as a bit of a surprise although at 96 years of age it was expected at some point.  Remarkably, only two days prior she had received her new Prime Minister, Liz Truss.  A photo of her showed her to be very frail.  In the previous months she had looked a much diminished version of herself.  Nonetheless she was still working up to the very end.  Amazing!

I was surprised at my own reaction to her death.  While not grief stricken in any way I did have this strange sense of loss.  Even Bev felt some of that loss.  I guess while she has had minimal impact on my life she has been this stable presence in a world which has changed considerably during my lifetime and certainly in her lifetime.  I have known no other King or Queen in my lifetime up to this date, with me having been born in the year of her coronation.

Her funeral was broadcast live on TV1 (19 September) and I had not intended to watch it that evening.  However, Bev suggested that we do so and so I did.  Bev slept through most of the proceeding which included nearly an hour and a half what was happening around the streets as well pictures of Westminster Abbey filling up with the invited guests.  Apparently some were seated about three hours before the service and others such as Prime Ministers and Presidents a little later.  President Biden managed to arrive late but had to wait to be seated as more important people were seated first.  Many of the Prime Ministers and other leaders were transported on a bus.  

The Queen was conveyed from Buckingham Palace to the Abbey on a gun carriage that was first used around beginning of the 20th century and was put aside for such Royal occasions.  The pageantry was something to behold.  Soldiers in their dress uniforms, bear hats and all accompanied the queen as she proceeded down The Mall followed by her children and male grandchildren. The spectacle kept me absorbed.  The precision, the timing and commentary made for an absorbing watch.  The atmosphere if you were there would have been amazing.  

The funeral service itself was in two parts, the first with all the dignatories was conducted in the Abbey.  The second part was the commital which was to be conducted at St Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle.  It was Christian service first and foremost.  There was no formal eulogy although she was spoken about as a devout Christian. Despite that the service was beautiful.  The signing by the choir outstanding and at the end of each hymn there was soaring sound from the trumpets.  If it was that good on the small screen, it would have been amazing to be there in person.

After the funeral she was transported on the gun carriage back up The Mall to the Wellington Arch in Hyde Park.  That took about an hour.  The gun carriage was pulled by Naval ratings who clearly took their responsibilities seriously.  Again the family marched behind the gun carriage.  It was led out from Westminster Abbey by the Mounties with New Zealand and Australia service people in the lead.  There there were a range of other military units marching in front of it.  From the air it looked stunning.  I stayed up until the coffin was transferred to the hearse for the long trip to Windsor Castle which was to take about two hours.  It was about 1am before I got to bed or was it just after midnight.

There were moments in the ceremony where it was a little poignant and while not tearful I felt the sadness that her family must have felt. 

The next morning I decided to see the St Georges commital whcih was a shorter affair to which our PM was invited along with other realm leaders.  There were again touching moments. 

The Brits know how to do ceremony extremely well and the organisation to make it all happen with such precision was something to behold.  The ceremonial military marching was led by a Warrant Officer who apparently was in charge of making it work.  There must have been days and days practice to get the precision required.  If only they could make the country run that way where cooperation is required along with good leadership.  In the UK it seems to be sorely lacking. 

I just the love the fact that process of accession to the throne is seamless.  The Queen dies and the next in line (Prince Charles) becomes King.  That saying: "The Queen is dead, long live the King" is so true.  And Charles seems to have stepped up to the plate.  He will be a very different monarch but I hope that he has the same dedication to service to that of the late Queen.

The event will live on in my mind for the rest of my life. 

A Martinborough Weekend

Castlepoint Lighthouse with Castlerock in the background

 I have decided to resurrect this blog for events shorter events that take place.  This one is about a weekend break in Martinborugh during winter. 

Our friend Trudy had headed overseas and has kindly offered to lend her house to us and other friends to ensure that it is occupied.  

The weekend we had selected was not looking so good with rain predicted for much of the weekend.  It was going to be a bit chilly as well.  We headed over the Remutakas on Friday, remarkably Wellington was overcast but fine but on getting to the hill road it became a little misty and drizzly.  Going down the eastern side the hill was obscured by cloud and mist and it was a surreal feeling of having the road seeming to be likely to lead us over a precipice as we wound our way down the hill.  It was very beautiful and gave a different view of the road as it seemed to be the only bit that was not enveloped in the mist.  

It was drizzling when we arrived in Martinborough and we anticipated the house being cold but the lovely next door neighbors had turned on the heat pump.  We sat and enjoyed our books until it was time to wander down the road to Medici Cafe where we had a lovely meal and couple of glasses of wine.  It was a bit chilly but very nice being in the wood smoke tinged air.  It really felt like winter. 

On Saturday the gloom remained.  We drove to Featherston where we visited the local fromagerie C'est Cheese and also got some reasonably priced vegetables from Saturday market.  Our next stop was Greytown for a coffee and a bite to eat.  While I had another coffee and read my book Bev headed off in search of little shops to browse.  It is a nice routine for us both.  

I had never been to Castlepoint, a village on the east coast out from Masterton.  It is about an 80 kilometre drive through iconic Wairarapa country side, which is hilly and suitable for cattle and sheep.  It is hard to believe that before Europeans arrived it would have been largely covered in mature forest.  

I have been in Wellington for nineteen years and it is the first time I had been there.  Apart from a pub about five kilometres out of the village there is only a store come café with a small resident population and what seems to be a few baches.  

It is very beautiful in a raw sort of way.  It can be very wild and windy.  There is a lighthouse and surf beach.  The beach also used to have the Castlepoint races in summer (I am not sure if they have continued).  We were lucky that there was very little wind although it was gloomy due to cloud cover.  There were afew people around; mostly surfers and a few visitors like us.  We climbed the path to the lighthouse and had a wonderful view of the surrounding area.  On the seaward side of the little peninisular were cliffs and one brave soul was fishing off the cliff.  

We wandered down to the surf beach and saw lots of black clad surfers enjoying what seemed to be a very congested area with rather good surfing waves.   How they don't collide with each other really does amaze me.  

By the time we left Castlepoint the light was beginning to fade,  By the time we got back to Martinborough it was dark and wet.  I was cooking our meal so after lighting the fire I got the meal on.  Trudy's place heated up really quickly which was nice.  While it was cooking we listened to some music  enjoying a glass of wine in front of the fire and continued to do so after eating.  

We returned to Wellington the following day to see one of a number French films we had booked to see.  

It was a lovely weekend despite the weather.  

A Waikato long weekend - Queens Birthday 2022

New Plymouth Coastal Cycleway

I had been trying to get to Hamilton to drop off a whole lot of photos for nearly year.  Each time I had a plan to do so either work work interfered or a lockdown would interfere.  

Now that Omicron was in the community the country was open and the only thing stopping us from doing things was fear of catching it.  We decided that Queen's Birthday Weekend was a good one for travelling and that we would travel to Hamilton via New Plymouth (Oakura) leaving on Thursday so that we kept out of the madness of leaving the capital and getting caught in tail back at Otaki.  

We left a bit later than intended.  It was raining but squeaky windscreen wipers made for a less than pleasant drive.  We stopped for lunch at Otaki before driving  to Oakura through New Plymouth.  It was dark and damp when we arrived but we managed to stay dry getting into our AirBnB accommodation.  

After a glass of wine and having heated up the place a bit we went down to the beach to a pizza place we had seen on an earlier visit when we had tried to eat but it was fully booked out.  The food and setting was wonderful but the dark of the night meant no nice view of the sea beyond.

The next day we took ourselves down to the beach as the rain held off and in fact there was a little sun around making it very pleasant.  Bev is taking a little teddy around where she takes photos of him in the places we visit.  Afterwards it was a quick visit to the petrol station for relatively cheap petrol (at least better than some other places) before having a little stop looking along the coastal path for another photo opportunity.  The sun remained out making it very pleasant.

The journey took us along the coast, over Mt Messenger (there is tunnel you go through) to Mokau where we stopped briefly to take a photo.  It is very rugged and beautiful along that coast. It is probably more than two decades since I traveled that coast.

We called into Piopio to visit the toilets and noted how wet it had been, with flooding still apparent.  

Flooding in Piopio

Part of the purpose of the trip was to call in on my 101 year old aunt.  We spent a wonderful couple of hours with Ngaere, who despite her fraility, was still sharp and living alone in her house of forty or so years.  

We then headed to Hamilton to spend a couple of nights with my sister Lois and her husband John.  They were very good hosts and we drank some wine and caught up on what we had been doing over the past few months. 

Saturday dawned cold and clear.  I was not feeling the best and had been to the doctor before coming up to Hamilton.  While there I got a message to say that due to some of the medication I was taking my electrolytes were out of balance so needed to drop the amount I was taking.  The consequence of that was that my energy levels were not so good and I was unsure as to how far I could ride.  Fortunately for the most part the route was fairly flat although it was no so flat the closer we got to Cambridge at which point, much to Bev's disappointment I said I was unwilling to ride much further.  

A glance at the might Waikato

We retraced our steps and then went into the Botanic Gardens which is close to Lois and John's and spent an hour or so exploring a number of the special gardens.  There were a couple of new special gardens that had been developed since I lived in Hamilton. It really is a wonderful asset that the city has developed. 

The next day we packed up the car and drove to Karangahake Gorge where we planned to do a bike ride along the path that goes from Paeroa to Waihi.  The weather was rather chilly (not surprising since it was June) and overcast with a bit of moisture threatening.  It is nice easy bike ride and the only glitch was the lack of somewhere decent to eat when we got to Waihi.  We found some food but not quite what I wanted.  

After we returned to Karangahake, we drove to Pauanui to stay with our friends who have retired there.  It rained for much of the time that we were there.  We had a little outing in the pouring rain for a coffee then went out for dinner that night.  We spent the afternoon watching TV, the film CODA which was on Apple TV.  Everyone except me managed to have a nap. 

Fortuitously, the next day it had cleared and we had a nice run back to Wellington.  We covered quite a bit of ground during the weekend but it was a lot of fun and it was nice traveling again. 

The wild Tasman crashing across the cycleway

 

Coffee stop - Tamahere

The Waikato countyside on a perfect day

Hamilton Gardens

Getting ready to cycle Karangahake

Weir near Wahi