Mt Manaia, Whangarei Heads, New Zealand

I didn't get to travel about as much this year in New Zealand as I was busy with family matters.  Fortunately though I did get to spend a couple of days with my friend in Whangarei and we did two big walks which were great fun, although  they wore my legs out!

We walked up Mt Manaia on Thursday 16th March.  The walk took us about three hours return and there were approximately 1067 steps to climb up during the course of the walk!  Mount Manaia is 403 metres above sea level and it is a steady climb all the way up with the views getting more spectacular the higher you get.  

The view of the Mount from the car park.

Yes we really are going to climb all the way up to the top!

The beginning of the walk is well sign posted.

Some sculptures.

It took us longer than the 2 hour return as we spent a bit of time at the top and also stopped for something to eat.

Very important to clean our shoes and boots before we start to protect the Kauri trees.

Wonderful native bush.

A few steps....these ones weren't too steep.

Starting to see the wonderful views.

Gorgeous blue sea.

Some fungi on the tree.

Getting higher.

Peeping through 

Spectacular.  We are almost at the top now.

The  last few steps to climb.

Nearly there...

At the top!  The views were incredible.  You could see the Marsden Point Oil Refinery, Bream Bay and Hauriki Gulf to the South, Whangarei Harbour to the west and to the north the Poor Knights Islands and Northland Coast. 

Lovely clear skies where you can see for miles.

It was so peaceful up here.

Some more views from the top:

Fungi spotted on the way down.

It was nice and cool in the bush, and the trees provided much needed shelter from the heat of the day.

Eventually we got back down - it was much easier coming down than going up!

Pretty flowers.

Yes we really did go right up there!  A thoroughly enjoyable time even if it was exhausting!

Books Read While Away

I was able to get quite a bit of reading done while in New Zealand.  I read three books I had downloaded onto my Kindle - one of them partly on the plane on the way over.  The rest of the books were from my Dad's library and I tried to read a mixture of genres and enjoyed most of them.

Kindle book (image from Google)

Kindle Book (image from Google)

Not books to read if you like 'happy' endings, but I still enjoyed both these Ted Allbeury books and it was the first time I had read any written by him.

This was a little strange, but interesting.  Written by a New Zealander who had first hand experience of what it was like during the Second World War.

Relatively short and easy to read, a little different again.

Kindle book (Google image) 

I am quite enjoying these books, easy paced, different from the series but worth reading in my opinion unless you are expecting the same as the television version.

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, although it did take me a little while to get into it.  Was amazing to read about the drive of the young boys who grew up to establish such a name for themselves with such enthusiasm and belief in what they were doing.

Loved this book!  About the life of a Dunnock and the other animals in the valley.

This was a bit weird - not as good as his other books and it jumped around a bit too much for my liking.  I ended up skimming over sections of it.

My Kindle Saga

Well after much debating, thinking and trying to decide, I finally agreed to have a new Kindle, even though what I really wanted was mine working...  

But with a screen looking like this, and having phoned the Kindle support people I was told that it was not repairable.

So the new one duly arrived.  Yes it is smaller, but it felt almost too small.  The screen felt 'rougher' and when I actually turned it on the screen was too bright to read, so I had to turn the brightness WAY down which then seem to affect the clarity or ease of reading. It certainly didn't feel like reading a proper book, whereas my other kindle was easy on the eye to read and much like reading a book.

I discovered it was not at all easy to use the touch keyboard, the d often came out as an f despite being very careful how I touched the key.  I didn't like how you had to swipe the screen to turn the pages.  That means you HAVE to hold on with one hand and use the other hand to turn the pages, which partly defeated the object of me having a kindle which was to be able to use it completely one handed which I could do with my original keyboard kindle.    It also didn't always recognise my touch - perhaps because of the problem I have with my hand?  I am not sure but I have similar problems with other touch screen items.  

Then to add insult to injury some of the features didn't seem to be available.  The help desk person couldn't work out why either, just suggested it was perhaps because I wasn't connected to Wifi, just using the 3G.  Well later I managed to connect to Wifi and it still didn't make any difference.  Three features, including 'collections' which was obviously one I wanted, was blanked out.  

Now this Kindle WAS NOT cheap and I also had to pay extra to not have adverts on the screen.  I was not happy.  In fact I was very unhappy with it.  I just wanted MY kindle.

Well my husband then discovered there was a repair service offered on Ebay.  The listing showed screens just like mine, it was for a very reasonable price and I figured what did I have to lose?  I packaged the new kindle back up and returned it - even before mine was fixed, that was how much I disliked it.

I sent my kindle off on Tuesday and got it back today!

The screen is perfect, and everything works just how I want it to.  I can hold it one handed and turn the pages with that one hand at an easy click of the side buttons.

I can't recommend the service this person does highly enough and I am so very grateful to have my kindle back again in full working order.   For anyone who needs a screen fixed on their Kindle, this is the Ebay user name of the guy who did mine:  steve15r  

Smashbooking and Decluttering!

Next month I have a 'big' birthday coming up, although of course I am still only really 36 years old!  At least that is my story and I am sticking to it.  I am away for my birthday visiting my parents in New Zealand so my friend thought she would surprise me with an early birthday present which arrived today.

A scrap/smash booking journal.

She knows just what I like and picked the 'botanical' theme.  

Love this - on so many different levels.  Of course 'Come Fly With Me'  written for Frank Sinatra is pretty well known and I have played it many times with various bands I have played in. 

Books and a cup of tea - the perfect combination!

Butterflies - I love butterflies and we have a couple on our house.

Beautiful pages with flowers and designs.

I am going to have fun with this journal.

It has been years since I have done any scrapbooking, and this is a slightly different, looser approach and might give me the inspiration I need to get creative again.

Decluttering:  

I am taking part in a 'Minimalism Game' for the month of February with some friends.  

The aim is to help them finish their decluttering projects and for me to start, getting rid of at least one item on the 1st, two on the 2nd, three on the 3rd and so forth.

I am finding this very difficult and quite overwhelming and never know quite where to start.  Today I had the 'bright idea' to clear under my side of the bed.  Goodness knows why as most of what is under there has no where else it can go so will need to go back again.    I promptly burst into tears at what on earth I was going to do with it all.  There was music, photo albums, books, and other 'stuff'.  I managed to pull myself back together again and made a start.

I emptied one of the plastic boxes and discovered three of the older albums that had belonged to my grandparents were unused, so they have gone in a box for the charity shop along with a plastic leaf folder and a little pencil & pad 'thing'.  

A load of papers went into the recycling and other stuff went straight into the rubbish.

The music has been transferred from an open top plastic box, to the one with the lid (that held the above stuff), so now it is protected.  The remaining photographs and slides fit in a smaller photo box I already had.  So that is one less big box that needs to go back under the bed.  Only small progress, but progress, so I guess it has to count for something.

Gold Finches

Glancing out our rather dirty patio window today I was delighted to see a couple of beautiful Gold Finches visiting the bird feeders again.  The murky wet and damp weather must have brought them in.

The photos aren't brilliant, I had to zoom in quite a bit to take the shots, and it is pretty gloomy out there, but they give a good idea of how pretty these birds are.