Day 206 - Rotorua

Rodney has risen (almost). One of the battery connectors had got a bit rusty, and all the shaking and banging around involved in driving down the bumpy lane to Paul's house had broken it. I bought a new one in town yesterday and replaced the broken one (with Pauls help)... and we have ignition - ish. The battery is a bit flat so it isn't starting, but it's making the right trying-to-start noise and I've put the battery on to charge, so fingers crossed!

Yesterday I went into town with Paul in the morning because of dead Rodney, and spent the day mooching around town and cleaning the studio whilst Paul did his practice (I'm just going to put my leg behind my ear... la-di-dah... now I'm going to stand on my hands for a few minutes... and so on). In the evening Paul had a pregnancy class. Linda and I attended, along with Paul's usual group of keen-beans (one of whom was a man) and 2 pregnant women. The practice was made all the more exciting by the fact that one of the pregnant women (possibly the most pregnant I have ever seen) had started having contractions that morning and had turned up to the class anyway! She worked her way through her poses determinedly, with the odd groan that sent Paul running over to check that she wasn't giving birth on the yoga mat.

Today I'm going to weed the lower orchard, do more fruit picking and pray that, once charged, Rodney will start (else I'm cycling to the yoga class)!

Later: Well, that was an interesting evening. Firstly - Rodney works! Yes, that is correct, we have ignition and forward motion - yipee.

It was blowing a gale when I left - the rain dementedly hurling itself to the ground in bucketfulls. Made it to the studio, all good, made it through the hard class without any injuries (how is it possible to sweat so much without moving?). Paul zoomed off for another class, so it's just us girls tonight.

I drove back with Linda following, and halfway down the lane to Paul's house I have to stop - the road is only blocked by a tree! Bugger. We get out of our cars to survey the situation and within seconds are soaked to the skin (yes, unfortunately it's still pissing it down). I look at the tree - it's pretty huge. I give it an experimental shove - it moves not a millimetre. I suddenly remember the chainsaw Paul used for cutting up trees, the one he leaves in the clearing just up the way. Linda runs and gets it and we spend the next 10 minutes shivering, cursing like sailors and trying to get the bloody thing started. No luck; no petrol. Linda yells "the axes!" I look at her, then the tree, then I run off and get the axes. It was a strange situation, let me tell you: it's dark, it's peeing with rain and Linda and I are on a muddy road, either side of a tree, taking it in turns to swing away at this stupid gum tree and yelling like loonies - that tree didn't stand a chance (thank goodness we had a bit of practice at chopping wood!). We cut a section off, heaved it aside, cut another section off, heaved that aside, cut away a few branches, then jumped in our cars and drove to the house, praying no more trees had fallen (we brought the axes just in case). Luckily they hadn't and thankfully I had already prepared a huge bowl of dhal soup and baked some bread earlier, so we were able to laugh about it over a warming meal. Boy, this place really has a monopoly on interesting experiences.