G’day; this is for you Northern hemisphere people who have
cold Christmasses:
An Xmas ‘Down Under’
On Christmas morning after the present-giving ritual was over,
the washing up done and everyone was ready, the Chief Cook filled
the picnic box with goodies and after a final check of everything
we all piled into the car and we were off on a leisurely drive
down the almost deserted Kiwi Christmas roads. The paddocks
(fields) looked rejuvenated after the heavy showers on Christmas
Eve, and after the previous several week’s drought. We soon
turned off the highway and the countryside became even more
rural, with cows, sheep, and deer all over the place. Presently
we turned into a side road, and after we had passed the sawmill
the asphalt road top gave out and we were on gravel, but wide
enough for two cars to pass. Soon there were orchards either
side of the road which was compacted by the dosing of old sump
oil the orchardists had put on it to cut down the dust from
travellers like us. We noted that the apples were now of a size
easily visible and were busily ripening for the harvest in
February.
We came to a lovely green place marked “Eve’s Valley Reserve”,
turned onto the grass and parked in the shade among the trees in
a little clearing. We could hear the a stream close by burbling
away like they do in NZ, and among the short grass was a random
pattern of varieties of wildflowers. As we made up our salad
rolls and opened the ice-cold bottle of Bernadino Spumante (very
similar and just as good as the Italian Asti Spumante) we heard a
chorus of tuis, bell birds, some European blackbirds, thrushes
and chaffinches Then a whoosh of wings accompanied the flight of
two big native pigeons which flew over the clearing. The aural
entertainment continued when we had packed up the remains of our
picnic and entered the bush (forest) by one of the narrow tracks
that would be hard for a newcomer to find, but once found were
hard to lose. Our track was wide enough for only one person, but
we filed through on a carpet of many years leaves, for only two
NZ trees loose their leaves in the autumn. The bush had a
distinctive but pleasant scent, and whilst we were watching a tui
feeding on honey-dew nectar on one of the native beeches, a
little pair of fantails joined us, and followed us across the
bubbling stream and through the bush, amusing us with their
continual aerobatics, for they caught on the wing the small
flying insects we disturbed by our passage. Although the
overhead canopy of leaves was close, the bright sunlight broke
through occasionally, dappling the thick green ferns either side
of the path in all their variety and lit up the mosses. We
admired the variety of trees; totara, rimu, matai, kowhai,
fuschia and many more. Eventually the path led us over a wooden
bridge spanning a wider creek and into the open. None of us
had much to say as we walked over the grass in the warm sunshine
and back to our waiting car, which we turned for home. The New
Zealand bush often has that effect on people. But it had been a
very pleasant Christmas lunch and we looked forward to the
traditional dinner, much later, of roast turkey, ham, fresh
peas, beans, potatoes, carrots, and kumera etc, all from our
garden (which the Chief Cook assiduously cultivates) with a
bottle of one of the local Nelson wines,(about 12 wineries within
30km radius of our place) and flambE9 Christmas pud followed by
a liqueur as we listened to the Queen’s Christmas message.
And a very happy New Year to you all as I raise my glass and bid
you, “Cheers”;
/\
/ / John Burgess,
/ /
/ //\ @John_Burgess2
/ / \ \
/ (___)
(_________)
