New beginnings and one sad Mum ...

Mt Ruapehu through the toe toe . .

Last weekend I drove my youngest daughter to Wellington to begin her new life at University. We went as far as Fielding Sat to stay with my cousin Theresa and family, then on to Wellington on Sunday. It is a 7 hour drive from home through really pretty countryside most of the way. I chose to go down through National Park and back on the Desert rd, both trips on either side of the mountains. In the middle of the North Island are 3 large mountains and the biggest lake (Taupo) in NZ - a volcanic region with both Ruapehu and Ngaruahoe both letting off steam now and then. The weather was great both days, I just wish I had felt more like taking photos, instead I cried most of the way home - thank goodness for sunglasses ! Ellena is my baby and it has been just her and I for the last 10yrs - I miss her. . She has worked so hard and has wanted to go to Uni in the capital city for most of her High school years.

In the pic above Ruapehu towers over the small ski resort town of Ohakune - this place is very busy in the winter with many chalets and places to stay - not alot of snow on the mountain at this time of the year.

The Wanganui river winds its way from its beginning on the mountains all the way down to the west coast - through the King Country region I grew up in. I was shocked to see how small it is now compared to when I was a child - there is a dam controlling the water flow further up really reducing the amount of water flowing down - a real shame as there are some amazing rapids along the river and it is a wonderful place to canoe on.

Bee hives belonging to a commercial beekeeper in the King Country - I saw his hives alot along the road through to the mountains - he is one of the few who paints his hives all the same colour - I think they look good.

We Build Everywhere !

This was taken with a flash last evening, looking through the small window of my TopBar hive at the comb the bees have built on the inside of the perspex, most of it is full of honey. They are doing so amazingly well these bees, I might even manage a small piece of comb to squeeze the honwy out of and keep the wax - the wax is so lovely, smells divine and is clean as clean. I am so pleased I have allowed these bees to live as naturally as possible, they seem to go about their business unperturbed about anything. I am going to dust them with icing sugar in autumn and treat with ApiVarLife, the organic varroa treatment, then leave them for the winter with enough stores - it will be interesting to see how they go compared to my Langstrothe, which I will treat with conventional strips as it is a much larger hive.