The end of an era

On Monday morning we got an early morning phone call to say my aunty had died. It was a shock as although she was in her 80's there was nothing to indicate she was ready go and her daughter who rang was quite distressed.

 

Aunty Colleen was Mum's youngest sister,  just 13 months

younger than her. They were very close and our two families

spent a lot of time together as we were growing up.

 On Tuesday we loaded the car and left for the West Coast.
Greymouth to be specific. My GKB decided we would do
 the trip in two days, he's over driving long trips if he
 doesn't need to.

 

The funeral was just what Aunty Colleen would have liked, a good send off for her. Not too much fuss and a good family gathering.

All of the families were represented apart from the Aussie branch who couldn't make it so it was a great time of cousins catching up.

Our lovely aunty was the last of her family of six siblings,

so she ended an era which started before the first World War.

We all loved her dearly and she will be sadly missed.

Notown Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church of St Lawrence O'Toole.

The church was built in 1866 in Notown on the West Coast of New Zealand. Later it was moved to Ngahere and after it was replaced

 it was moved to Shantytown (museum village) in the 1960's.

A beautiful little church, lovingly restored and 

still used as a wedding venue in the old pioneer town.

I haven't had a church to share 
for a long time so thought I would 
share this with inSPIREd Sunday

Pike River Mine

Several of you asked about the relevance of the manikins at the entrance to the Pike River Mine in my last post. Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia explaining about the explosions that occurred at the mine in Nov. 2010. I've written a bit of an update further down.

The Pike River Mine disaster was a coal mining accident that began on 19 November 2010 in the Pike River Mine, 46 kilometres (29 mi) northeast of Greymouth, in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island. A methane explosion occurred in the mine at approximately 3:44 pm (NZDT, UTC+13). At the time of the explosion 31 miners and contractors were present in the mine. Two miners managed to walk from the mine; they were treated for moderate injuries and released from Greymouth Hospital the next day. The remaining 16 miners and 13 contractors,^[2] often referred to as the twenty-nine,^[3] were believed to be at least 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) from the mine's entrance.^[4]
Following a second explosion on 24 November at 2:37 pm, the 29 remaining men were believed by police to be dead.^[5] Police Superintendent Gary Knowles, officer in command of the rescue operation (Operation Pike) said he believed that "based on that explosion, no one survived."^[6] A third explosion occurred at 3:39 pm on 26 November 2010,^[7] and a fourth explosion occurred just before 2 pm on 28 November 2010.^[8] According to the new mine owner, Solid Energy, the bodies of the 29 miners who died there may never be recovered.

It was a very tragic time for the people of the coast which is a relatively small community with most people probably knowing someone concerned in the disaster. The families of the miners have been campaigning ever since to have the remains of their men brought out so they could be given decent burials but the government hasn't allowed that to happen. They said the mine had to be sealed up without anyone being able to go in to see if it was even possible to do. The families put up the 29 manikins to remind the drivers of vehicles, private and commercial but especially those employed to do the sealing, that there are still the remains of 29 men waiting be brought out. Although I haven't seen them myself I believe it is quite an eerie sight (my brother's words, his photo) and quite an emotional place to be.

Just after we had been there at Easter there was a stay put on the sealing which gave the families time to breathe and regroup so

 to speak. Tonight on the news we learnt that new footage

 from inside the mine has been released and it looks like the

 area where the men were thought to have been may not have

 been affected by fire as was first thought. So now we wait and

 see what happens. Personally I think they should go in and have

 a look and maybe bring about some sort of closure for everyone, not only the families but everyone around the country. 

According to a recent poll 39% of the people agree with me.

Punakaiki

On the Sunday of our reunion we decided to head up to Punakaiki and the blowholes after we had finished our lunch. All the planned stuff was finished and now it was time to relax and do some sightseeing. It was a lovely day, maybe a bit chilly but for Easter on the Coast it was magnificent - the weather really put on a good performance for us. Some of the family went out to the Pike River Mine to have a look at the memorial to the miners who lost their lives in the 2010 explosion and others joined us for an excursion up the coast road. We drove along beside the Tasman Sea.

I have put a lot of pictures up so I hope you don't get too bored, I'm going to mostly let them speak for themselves with maybe the occasional interruption from me :)

looking south and... 

...north on the Coast Road.

At Punakaiki.

The Pancake rocks.

Shags.

All of the blowholes were really blowing well, 

these two pics are of the Chimney Pot 

(that's it at the bottom of the picture just off centre)...

...and although it might not look it we could

 have done with umbrellas here :)

That is nikau palm forest just behind and on

 the hill at the back is ancient beech forest.

Some family and people shots.

DIL trying to replicate the Maori weaving below.

Nikau Palms.

Refreshments before we headed to our daughters holiday

 accommodation for a pizza tea by the beach with just 

our branch of the family...

...where we were treated to a beautiful sunset over the Tasman Sea.

When I was growing up Punakaiki was not "discovered" and my uncle and aunty had a bach (crib, holiday house) on the river here. We spent wonderful summer weekends here with our cousins, in and on the river, at the beach and running around the pancake rocks. It is quite interesting to see how it has been developed and made safe for tourists where we just used to run free but that is progress and it is a great natural asset for the area.

I hope you enjoyed looking at where 

a little piece of my heart still resides.

joining Debbie today for: 
Friday Foto Friends 

Diana

On 'The Coast' for Easter

Meet and greet.

At the cemetery.

Shantytown.

The main meal.

Heading up the coast road.

What do these photos have in common? 

They were all taken at our recent family reunion.

joining in the fun at

Five on Friday

Diana

Two intrepid walkers - on a road trip #2

Hello there. Here we are back on the road again.

Make yourself a pot of tea, or coffee, put your feet up

and join Sis and me on the next part of our journey.

When I left you last we had had a break in Otira for lunch 

and now we are headed to the West Coast.

Once you cross over the mountain the landscape changes dramatically. The West Coast is a very narrow strip of land on the coast, bounded by mountains and the sea and we drive through ancient, beech forest to reach it. Rainforest. 

But today the sun is shining and as we drive north up the coast we are in our shirtsleeves. Definitely overdressed. Once we are over the Taramakau River bridge we are almost there. This is a road/rail bridge which throws some people, like my GKB when he first drove on it, but we grew up with it so no problems there. :)

We booked in at the camping ground and decided not to have a cuppa but to go and visit our aunty, who is still living in Greymouth, and have one with her. She was out. Oh well, we had other places to go in connection with our reunion next year. The hotel PR lady was next. She was away for the day! A restaurateur we wanted to speak to. He was finished for the day! We weren't having much luck. I  guess that is what happens when you do things on the spur of the moment. Let's try aunty again on the way back to the camping ground. Aah, finally, she was home and we had a nice visit - and finally too, a hot cup of tea.

We bought fish and chips for tea and ate them back at the camping ground and then decided to go for a walk on the beach. These are not sandy beaches and neither are they beaches I would swim in, the Tasman Sea is too rough and rugged for me. But they are enjoyable to walk on. Not that we went far as the wind was coming up, making it a bit cool and unpleasant. It's winter, remember.

The camping ground is at the beach, leave the grounds heading west, cross a narrow track/road and you're in the flax and grass that borders the beach. As we were heading back we saw a large bird run across the grass in front of us - then another one. A pair of wekas. Weka - also known as wood hen or Maori hen. They had no fear and posed for us before calling to each other and disappearing into the scrub again. But as luck would have it none of my photos turned out so this is a photo of a postcard with a Weka on it. The photo is taken by Dave Foster. We also saw these on the roadsides as we were travelling on the West Coast side.

Weka, by Dave Foster

With the wind getting up and darkness falling we decided to have showers and call it a night. It was 7:30pm! We read and chatted and planned a programme for the reunion, but mostly we read. I couldn't believe how tired I felt. Sometime in the early hours of the morning I woke up, then there was an almighty thunderclap. Sis reckons it was the lightening that woke me. With the thunder came the rain, and did it rain. The West Coast of the South Island gets torrential rain and I hadn't experienced it for a long time

 - welcome home :)

It was still raining when we left in the morning about 10:00am. We caught up with the people who had been away the day before and decided to have a cooked breakfast before we headed off. Above is the view out of the tearooms window as we ate.

And this is what it was like as we were leaving Kumara and heading back towards the mountains, with no let up as we headed into Otira where there was a beautiful rainbow. We drove right into it and I decided to enjoy the moment instead of trying to capture it.

Can you see though, how it is coming down between the mountains and therefore having nowhere to disappear to.

It was a long haul up the mountain behind two large trucks, I think our top speed was about 15 kpm and we kept waiting for the engine to cut out. Eventually we came to a short passing  bay but it was long enough for us and we made a run for it. Through the passes on the Canterbury side the sun was out and it was a pleasant trip through to Christchurch. Another overnight stay and then we headed back to Otago and the meeting I had to be home for that evening.

**************

I hope you've enjoyed our road trip.

I'm joining Amy, and others, for

Five on Friday

so why don't you pop over for a look as well.

Diana

By the way, don't ask me what mountain I crossed, I don't know to be honest, just that it is part of the Southern Alps . Growing up if we were going to Christchurch we were going  'over the hill'. We drove up the mountain, or took the railcar, and went through the passes but it has never occurred to me to find out which mountain we crossed. We knew the name of the passes, that sufficed. Maybe I should find out!

I am a 'Coaster'

I am not a native southerner,

I am a 'Coaster'.

That is, I hail from the West Coast of the South Island. 

It is a rugged area with three main towns, 

and a quite a few smaller towns 

(which might be called villages in another land).

I am a small town girl.

Taramakau River on the West Coast

It is quite a beautiful area.

It is also quite a depressed area in that

 there are not a lot of job opportunities. 

Some of us left to get on in life.

The natives are very parochial 

and once a 'coaster', always a 'coaster'.

part of the CBD of my home town

So when I met and married my GKB 

we ended up living in his home town, 

which is a city. Not large by world standards,

 a provincial city, but it was mind boggling to me.

We were also further south 

and it took me a long time to acclimatise. 

But this is a beautiful city, 

and I now love living here. 

I just wish it were a little warmer!!

I'd like to show you a few photo's we took 

a few years ago of some 

of the buildings about the city.

First Church, Presbyterian

Apartments, the front building was a church in another life

Apartments and business premises

Flats and offices

Business premises and flats near the CBD

Back of the Town Hall and clock

Restaurant and apartments

You will see that there are a lot of architectural styles,

we also have more modern concrete and glass structures

and it all adds to the richness, beauty

 and diversity of our lovely city. 

I hope you've enjoyed having a little look around 

where I live. 

No, that's not quite right, this is our city 

but we live in a small town on the edge. 

Just 20 minutes in the car.

We were a borough in our own right when

 I moved here but now we are a suburb

and the boundaries are getting blurred.

I'm going to wish you all a goodnight now and go to bed. 

It is getting late on a Saturday night, yawnnnn.

Have a great week,

Diana