Marine Mural

Marine Mural Carey's Boatyard Picton.

On Sunday we went out for a walk to photograph the mural painted on the side of Carey's Boatyard on the waterfront in Picton. The building has been empty for a little while ,even though many quite large ships were built in here, there had been some talk of the building being demolished.
On Monday morning the bulldozers were busy at work bringing down the whole building!
There was a date on the mural 1932 painted by C.W. Padday, so it has been gracing the walls for a long time. I imagine it must have been very much brighter and more colourful.

My World for this week It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar,Sandy, Wren, Louise and fishing guy.

Waipapa Bay - Crayfish and Camping.

My World for this week.



Waipapa Bay, Crayfish and Camping.
Although I am basically retired from taxi driving, I still am on call for when the company is extra busy, such as when a Cruise Ship is in the Port of Picton. A week or two ago I was called and asked to take the taxi to pickup 4 people from the Cruise Ship and take them to Blenheim to the Omaka Aviation heritage Centre, a wonderful place full of interesting collections of WW! aircraft and memorabilia that is set out in tableau's that bring the scenes to life. I have taken many people there but have not actually done the tour myself, but I must one of these days.
I met the 2 couples from the cruise ship that turned out to be people from Jamaca, the first people from this Nation I have ever met. It is bad that my preconceived idea of what Jamacian folk were like was based on a Harry Belafonte image, these people were not at all deepest black but ranged from white to light brown, and although later they did sing to me they were not Calypso singers!
As we drove through to Blenheim we talked about just what they might like to see and do while in Blenheim. It was decided that a visit to the beautiful Pollard Park to stroll through the rose garden and the scented gardens along the stream would be a nice start before going inside at the Aviation Centre.
After a lovely stroll together around the park taking hundreds of photos, we drove on to Omaka for them to enjoy the Aviation show, aafter which they intended for me to take them around several winerys to sample the local wines. I sat in the sun and read my book while they went arond the acres of floor space full of the most interesting memorabilia that fascinated them for well over an hour.
When they came out of all they could think of was Crayfish, our New Zealand Lobster, I think someone in the Centre must have mentioned these yummy crayfish to them, they said take them to where they could have a Crayfish meal. I thought and realized that I couldn't take them to any resturant with any assurances of there being fresh Crayfish in stock as they are very expensive. So I suggested that we go for an hours drive down the Kaikoura coast to where Crayfish are caught and sold on the side of the road by fisherman and also in a small store at the Waipapa Bay Camping Gound. Surprisingly my new Jamacian freinds were all for going to Waipapa Bay immediately.
We had the most enjoyable drive down the Kaikoura coast past lots of farms with sheep and cattle that interested them and we saw Fur Seals on the rocks along the coast, we talked the whole way, they told me about Jamaca and I told them a little of New Zealand, they sang me a nice song, we were very cheerful. Finally we arrived at Waipapa Bay, there in front of us was the giant metal Crayfish on the roof of the small store at the Camping Ground. Lots more photographs were taken before I took them in to meet Sherryl, the best freind of my stepdaughter Leigh, who sells these seafoods. I left them to buy a crayfish for lunch while I had a coffee and a chat with Sherryl. These wonderful people wanted to buy me a whole craffish to have for lunch with them, but at $65 each I said it was too much but thankyou. However I said, most people only eat the tails of Crayfish and just throw away the body part that takes some work to extract the meat, so if they didn't want the bodies I would be most happy to nibble them and show them how to go about doing so.
They sat in the sun and enjoyed their meals, when I joined them it was to find 4 whole bodies of Crayfish waiting for me! Yummy I dived straight in and showed them how to snap a hard bony leg to winkle out the delious meat and then how to open all the bony sections within the body to be able to eat lots of the sweetest tastiest meat in the Crayfish. One of the men had a good go at it and enjoyed his body while I ate everybody elses! What a feast we all had, and then licked out fingers! This was a very popular pasttime, while we were eating every table was full of people doing the same as us.
We then had the hour and a half long drive back to the Cruise ship, we were feeling very replete and happy, still chatting merrily and singing songs now and again, I made such good time that we were able to stop and have a quick wine tasting at Montana Brancott Winery, where they bought several bottles to take home with them. Igot them back to the ship just in time, after nearly 7 hours together it was hard to say goodbye to them. it was only after they left I realised I had no photos to add to my blog, as I knew I would write up this nice story of our great day, so I rushed home to Erle and said soon as we have a free few days we must take the caravan down to Waipapa Bay to the Camping gound there so we could get photos and also so I could buy us each a Crayfish for our dinner, it took a couple of weeks before we wer free to do so and the weather was just right to enjoy the holiday. This week we have been to Waipapa Bay and camped in the best little coastal camping ground around.It is set right on the beach with high brooding Limestone cliffs towering above, protecting this small bay from the worst of the weather, apparently the Maori's use to live in the bay years ago and high up within the cliffs there are ancient burial caves, making the climbing of these cliffs forbidden.
The Camp is not overly equipped, just a toilet block with showers and laundry facility, all very natural, but we had our caravan with kitchen etc so needed no more, electricity was available to us so we were content.
After we had explored all around the camp and the beach we bought our Crayfish for dinner which we sat outside int the evening sun and enjoyed very much.
The following day we wandered along the beach searching for Paua and other small sea creatures on the rocks and in the small pools left by the tide, getting ourselves pretty wet while doing so, but we quickly dried in the sunshine. I found this natural sea sculpture on the beach and couldn't resist photographing it.

Check out the many other My World Meme posts . It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar,Sandy, Wren, Louise and fishing guy. 'My World'. http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/My World

A Stunning senior moment.

Very True!
A little laugh for the day.

"A S' Echo Cafe bar

The 'A S' Echo.

The 'A S' Echo is an old Scow built in New Zealand in 1905, it worked mainly as coastal freight transport around New Zealand, then later from Wellington to Blenheim, via the Opawa River.
During the second world war the Echo was commisioned in to the Navy to assist with the War effort in the Pacific. After the War it returned to to its transportation dutes between Wellington and Blenheim, until 1965 when the Echo was retired from duty and sailed around to Picton Harbour and slowly transformed into a tourist attraction. It is now a Cafe and Bar, moored permanently within the Harbour. I really enjoy sitting up on the upper deck with a glass of wine or a hot coffee, watching the boats moving out on the water. Inside the Echo there are many historic photos showing its varied life.

My World This is my latest posting for the My World meme . It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar,Sandy, Wren, Louise and fishing guy. Here is part of 'My World'. http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/My World do have a look at the other wonderful postings from around the world.

This business is currently For Sale, a great opportunity for a hard working couple wishing to move to Picton.

White's Bay

My World This is my latest posting for the My World meme . It is hosted by Klaus, Ivar,Sandy, Wren, Louise and fishing guy. Here is part of 'My World'. http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/
My World
White's Bay.



White's Bay is part of the Port Underwood Sound, the outer edge of the Marlborough Sounds, The name comes from a man who apparently jumped ship and lived alone in this beautiful bay many years ago during the Whaling and Sealing era, before the area was colonized. It is where the original Telephone cable came across to the South Island from the North island, an operator used to live in this old Cable Station building, which is now days used as a caretakers cottage for a small coastal camping ground.
There is a lovely sandy beach and as the sea bed slopes gentle out to sea, it is a very safe swimming beach for young and old, plus there is a very active Lifesaving group on duty on weekends and public holidays.
This evening as I took the photos there was a forest fire in a pine plantation, so there was lots of smoke in the air, and a helicopter with a monsoon bucket flew in to full up with sea water to assist with putting the fire out.