Masterton is in the Wairarapa, just over one hours drive northwards of Wellington. I've spent a lot of time in the area as it's where Mum grew up and where my grandparents lived.
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This place is about as close as home gets for me; its where all my stuff is stored, where I go back to when I’m in NZ and Masterton is where many of our family (on Mums side) still live.
This visit was made all the more special because a horse truck was arriving to offload my horse, Millie, the night we arrived.
Since I left NZ nearly eight years ago, Millie has been kindly looked after by various people, both friends and friends of friends. While I’m incredibly grateful to those who had her, I was pretty thrilled to have her back and very grateful to Mum and Paul for offering to look after her for me.
I’d not seen Millie for five years so it was pretty special for me. Not so special for her on the other hand, she was just wondering where on earth she was! We literally arrived the same time as the truck and I couldn’t find any of my horse gear. I asked to borrow Euans camera case strap to use as a lead rope (with Mark in the background not helping at all by saying “ohhh, don’t say yes or the horses will have won already…..!”) and the answer I got was a resounding “NO!”. So the yellow rope had to suffice.
There is a bit of history associated with Millie. My Grandfather bred and raced Thoroughbreds in the 1960s, 70s and 80s and bred, trained and raced Millies mother (nicknamed Puffy), grandmother and auntie. At age six, I learnt to ride on Millies mother when she was at home for a few months resting from racing. My Grandfather gifted Puffy to me (I renamed her Poof) when I was 12 and after she’d been retired from racing. Poof was the only horse (of quite a few) that I kept and took with me when I went to University. I bred Poof to a Quarter Horse stallion in 1993 and Millie was born in 1994. I broke Millie in and rode her for a few years until I left for the UK in 2001. When I left NZ, I still had Millies mother (Poof) and she went to live in Masterton with Mum and Paul and lived until she was 27.
We stayed in Masterton for Christmas, had a great time catching up with friends and family and made the most of being in one place. This is longest period of time we’ve had in one place since we left the UK eight months ago.
Christmas was a ball and the air rifle that Paul was given as a gift provided hours of entertainment.
I have to say that, despite it being Pauls present, Mark and Euan were the main users with one spotting and the other shooting the target set up in the garden at the end of the lawn. I suggested that Mums trees and shrubs might take a battering but the guys were pretty insulted at the lack of confidence in their target shooting. It looks, feels and kicks like a serious rifle and the sights needed to be calibrated so a serious(!) looking contraption was set up to keep the gun steady
I had a few shots but left the guys to it, they were actually quite good.
It was quite funny when friends of Mum and Pauls came over with their two daughters and Anna, tall, beautifully dressed and very elegant, was right in there.
Mark and Anna took turns spotting and shooting. We thought is was hilarious and loved the combination of high heels, short skirt, wine glass and rifle. It was all taken very seriously… Anna came back inside and announced to her family that she was going to join the Territorials, an announcement that had her father and sister in hysterics. She was dead serious and said she’d been thinking about it for ages.
The weather was glorious for most of the time we were in Masterton and we had plenty to do around the area. We spent a day at Castle Point, a coastal beach about 70km east of Masterton
and had a picnic lunch before heading off to look at the lighthouse and Castle Point itself.
This is the view back from the point. We wondered why the lighthouse had been built back from the point but once we were up there we could see why. The whole point consists of a mass of layers of crushed and whole shells and, towards the end of the point, is rather unstable.
The side of the point facing the ocean had a steep drop off and is ideal for fishing.
These rocks are not for jumping off but someone who I will not name jumped off about 5 years ago (some of you might be able to guess who). When the sea is calm, it is OK to jump but not so easy getting back up. On the other hand, if it’s rough, you’d get slammed into the rock cliffs. While the sea was calm, the individual in the below photo didn’t think about the getting back up part when he jumped and had to swim back around the point - not a short distance. I know for a fact that his mother (who was wondering where he was) was absolutely furious when she found out. I’ve included this photo as I think it’s a great photo but rest assured, it is not Euan doing the jumping!
A far cry from the above photo, this ledge might look higher than it is but it was still very narrow and there was a steep 6ft drop. When I hesitated going up, Euan said “don’t worry, go on, it’s not that high, away you go”. Hopefully I called his bluff as I scampered across the ledge then said “come on!”. I’m sure he was cursing me. I think I’ve mentioned something about Euans balance (or lack of!) before??!
This is the view of the lighthouse facing up along the point.
There is great fishing off the coast at Castle Point and there are some large boats that go out
This made us laugh - a pole with loads of jandals (flip flops) nailed to it entitled "Home of lost soles". Another quirky piece of Kiwiana
Back at home that evening we enjoyed being able to BBQ dinner outside on the decking
then eat al fresco on the lawn (joined by the horse)
When we were around the house Millie joined us and spent most of the time munching the lawn. It was quite funny when she saw her reflection in the windows of the house and neighed but her trying to climb up on the decking to say hello to the 'other horse' wasn’t so funny! We were a bit worried she might try to bust through the window when we weren't there but she decided to go around the side of the house to see where the other horse was instead and just stood on the bottom step of the back door
Thankfully Mum and Paul are pretty chilled about having a horse in the garden and only when Millie took a fancy to a camellia by the back door did we have to distract her but she really only hung out there if someone else was there too. Euan was a willing target and spent a long time talking to her, sitting on the step while she dozed or gave him whiskery horse kisses. In this photo, believe it or not, Euan is asking Millie a quiz question off the bottom of a beer bottle cap. She turned to me with this look of complete puzzlement.
In fact, if you wanted to know where someone was, you just went looking for Millie. She was content to chill out with Euan when he was fixing the wheelbarrow tyre. I love this photo. Euans busy fixing the puncture, Paul is telling a story (or instructing) and Millie is happily gazing at her reflection in the window!
We caught up with many relatives on Mums side of the family and Andrew, Mums cousin, took Euan and I up the back of his farm to get a view over the Wairarapa. Andrew has lived here all his life and remembers winters so cold he had to ski down the road to get home. Apparently there was enough snow to cover the fences.
The view was great but I was pretty stoked to be on a motorbike again, even if it was a farm bike. Thankfully the battery in Andrews ute was flat so I suggested that we take the 4-wheeler and the motorbike. No ulterior motives of course!
It was Andrew who brought us round these fresh crayfish, caught by his son David off the southern Wairarapa coast. They were absolutely divine and, thinking I had a high chance, I offered to eat Euans half if he didn’t like it but he wasn’t sharing!
Another day, we had lunch at the Gladstone winery not far from Masterton. It’s amazing just how much land is now planted in grapes around here. The Wairarapa is a huge basin so very dry and hot and some decent Pinot Noirs are produced along with award winning Chardonnays. We visited a few of the vineyards on a mini wine tour.
There is a river up the road from Mum and Pauls place so we went there for a swim on a particularly hot day and the water was so cool and clear. Rather cold but we were encouraged in there by the swarms of sand flies that seemed to enjoy landing on us with intent to bite. For some reason, they left Mum alone.
When we got home it was still really hot so we thought it only fair to give Millie a wash.
Another night we went round to friends of Mum and Pauls, Fiona and Doug, for dinner. Doug and Fiona have doves that look lovely but are a real pain. They keep coming around the house, roosting in the porch and pooing everywhere so they’ve adopted different techniques to try and get rid of them. One was to hang a stuffed seagull from the balcony ceiling
another was to use Rosie the dog
and the final attempt was a decoy falcon. None of these tactics worked and the doves are happily multiplying and continuing to make a nuisance of themselves. They currently roost in the shed as Starlings have taken over the dove cote…
Doug and Fiona have a pet deer called Poppy who really thinks she should live with people and is very friendly
but even I drew the line at deer kisses. When we left she ran up and down the fence line wanting clearly to follow us.
What we enjoyed a lot in Masterton was just being useful. I think Mum wondered why on earth I was bothering to hand-saw off the large Macrocarpa branches in the paddock above head level when they weren’t bothering anyone, or why we were insistent on cutting up logs with the chain saw and numerous other things.
On a final note, anyone thinking of getting a horse (or who has a child that wants a horse) should know exactly how much crap they produce. This was two days worth…
Needless to say, after all the above, we didn’t want to leave Masterton and kept delaying our departure, making excuse after excuse why we had to stay. It got to the point where we were running the risk of not being able to see any of the North Island so it was with great reluctance, considerable sadness and upset (me) that we drove down the drive. In the rear vision mirror I could see Millie hanging her head over the gate of the paddock at the end of the drive undoubtedly wondering why we hadn’t taken her out with us when we went out there that morning.
View Larger Map
This place is about as close as home gets for me; its where all my stuff is stored, where I go back to when I’m in NZ and Masterton is where many of our family (on Mums side) still live.
This visit was made all the more special because a horse truck was arriving to offload my horse, Millie, the night we arrived.
Since I left NZ nearly eight years ago, Millie has been kindly looked after by various people, both friends and friends of friends. While I’m incredibly grateful to those who had her, I was pretty thrilled to have her back and very grateful to Mum and Paul for offering to look after her for me.
I’d not seen Millie for five years so it was pretty special for me. Not so special for her on the other hand, she was just wondering where on earth she was! We literally arrived the same time as the truck and I couldn’t find any of my horse gear. I asked to borrow Euans camera case strap to use as a lead rope (with Mark in the background not helping at all by saying “ohhh, don’t say yes or the horses will have won already…..!”) and the answer I got was a resounding “NO!”. So the yellow rope had to suffice.
There is a bit of history associated with Millie. My Grandfather bred and raced Thoroughbreds in the 1960s, 70s and 80s and bred, trained and raced Millies mother (nicknamed Puffy), grandmother and auntie. At age six, I learnt to ride on Millies mother when she was at home for a few months resting from racing. My Grandfather gifted Puffy to me (I renamed her Poof) when I was 12 and after she’d been retired from racing. Poof was the only horse (of quite a few) that I kept and took with me when I went to University. I bred Poof to a Quarter Horse stallion in 1993 and Millie was born in 1994. I broke Millie in and rode her for a few years until I left for the UK in 2001. When I left NZ, I still had Millies mother (Poof) and she went to live in Masterton with Mum and Paul and lived until she was 27.
We stayed in Masterton for Christmas, had a great time catching up with friends and family and made the most of being in one place. This is longest period of time we’ve had in one place since we left the UK eight months ago.
Christmas was a ball and the air rifle that Paul was given as a gift provided hours of entertainment.
I have to say that, despite it being Pauls present, Mark and Euan were the main users with one spotting and the other shooting the target set up in the garden at the end of the lawn. I suggested that Mums trees and shrubs might take a battering but the guys were pretty insulted at the lack of confidence in their target shooting. It looks, feels and kicks like a serious rifle and the sights needed to be calibrated so a serious(!) looking contraption was set up to keep the gun steady
I had a few shots but left the guys to it, they were actually quite good.
It was quite funny when friends of Mum and Pauls came over with their two daughters and Anna, tall, beautifully dressed and very elegant, was right in there.
Mark and Anna took turns spotting and shooting. We thought is was hilarious and loved the combination of high heels, short skirt, wine glass and rifle. It was all taken very seriously… Anna came back inside and announced to her family that she was going to join the Territorials, an announcement that had her father and sister in hysterics. She was dead serious and said she’d been thinking about it for ages.
The weather was glorious for most of the time we were in Masterton and we had plenty to do around the area. We spent a day at Castle Point, a coastal beach about 70km east of Masterton
and had a picnic lunch before heading off to look at the lighthouse and Castle Point itself.
This is the view back from the point. We wondered why the lighthouse had been built back from the point but once we were up there we could see why. The whole point consists of a mass of layers of crushed and whole shells and, towards the end of the point, is rather unstable.
The side of the point facing the ocean had a steep drop off and is ideal for fishing.
These rocks are not for jumping off but someone who I will not name jumped off about 5 years ago (some of you might be able to guess who). When the sea is calm, it is OK to jump but not so easy getting back up. On the other hand, if it’s rough, you’d get slammed into the rock cliffs. While the sea was calm, the individual in the below photo didn’t think about the getting back up part when he jumped and had to swim back around the point - not a short distance. I know for a fact that his mother (who was wondering where he was) was absolutely furious when she found out. I’ve included this photo as I think it’s a great photo but rest assured, it is not Euan doing the jumping!
A far cry from the above photo, this ledge might look higher than it is but it was still very narrow and there was a steep 6ft drop. When I hesitated going up, Euan said “don’t worry, go on, it’s not that high, away you go”. Hopefully I called his bluff as I scampered across the ledge then said “come on!”. I’m sure he was cursing me. I think I’ve mentioned something about Euans balance (or lack of!) before??!
This is the view of the lighthouse facing up along the point.
There is great fishing off the coast at Castle Point and there are some large boats that go out
This made us laugh - a pole with loads of jandals (flip flops) nailed to it entitled "Home of lost soles". Another quirky piece of Kiwiana
Back at home that evening we enjoyed being able to BBQ dinner outside on the decking
then eat al fresco on the lawn (joined by the horse)
When we were around the house Millie joined us and spent most of the time munching the lawn. It was quite funny when she saw her reflection in the windows of the house and neighed but her trying to climb up on the decking to say hello to the 'other horse' wasn’t so funny! We were a bit worried she might try to bust through the window when we weren't there but she decided to go around the side of the house to see where the other horse was instead and just stood on the bottom step of the back door
Thankfully Mum and Paul are pretty chilled about having a horse in the garden and only when Millie took a fancy to a camellia by the back door did we have to distract her but she really only hung out there if someone else was there too. Euan was a willing target and spent a long time talking to her, sitting on the step while she dozed or gave him whiskery horse kisses. In this photo, believe it or not, Euan is asking Millie a quiz question off the bottom of a beer bottle cap. She turned to me with this look of complete puzzlement.
In fact, if you wanted to know where someone was, you just went looking for Millie. She was content to chill out with Euan when he was fixing the wheelbarrow tyre. I love this photo. Euans busy fixing the puncture, Paul is telling a story (or instructing) and Millie is happily gazing at her reflection in the window!
We caught up with many relatives on Mums side of the family and Andrew, Mums cousin, took Euan and I up the back of his farm to get a view over the Wairarapa. Andrew has lived here all his life and remembers winters so cold he had to ski down the road to get home. Apparently there was enough snow to cover the fences.
The view was great but I was pretty stoked to be on a motorbike again, even if it was a farm bike. Thankfully the battery in Andrews ute was flat so I suggested that we take the 4-wheeler and the motorbike. No ulterior motives of course!
It was Andrew who brought us round these fresh crayfish, caught by his son David off the southern Wairarapa coast. They were absolutely divine and, thinking I had a high chance, I offered to eat Euans half if he didn’t like it but he wasn’t sharing!
Another day, we had lunch at the Gladstone winery not far from Masterton. It’s amazing just how much land is now planted in grapes around here. The Wairarapa is a huge basin so very dry and hot and some decent Pinot Noirs are produced along with award winning Chardonnays. We visited a few of the vineyards on a mini wine tour.
There is a river up the road from Mum and Pauls place so we went there for a swim on a particularly hot day and the water was so cool and clear. Rather cold but we were encouraged in there by the swarms of sand flies that seemed to enjoy landing on us with intent to bite. For some reason, they left Mum alone.
When we got home it was still really hot so we thought it only fair to give Millie a wash.
Another night we went round to friends of Mum and Pauls, Fiona and Doug, for dinner. Doug and Fiona have doves that look lovely but are a real pain. They keep coming around the house, roosting in the porch and pooing everywhere so they’ve adopted different techniques to try and get rid of them. One was to hang a stuffed seagull from the balcony ceiling
another was to use Rosie the dog
and the final attempt was a decoy falcon. None of these tactics worked and the doves are happily multiplying and continuing to make a nuisance of themselves. They currently roost in the shed as Starlings have taken over the dove cote…
Doug and Fiona have a pet deer called Poppy who really thinks she should live with people and is very friendly
but even I drew the line at deer kisses. When we left she ran up and down the fence line wanting clearly to follow us.
What we enjoyed a lot in Masterton was just being useful. I think Mum wondered why on earth I was bothering to hand-saw off the large Macrocarpa branches in the paddock above head level when they weren’t bothering anyone, or why we were insistent on cutting up logs with the chain saw and numerous other things.
On a final note, anyone thinking of getting a horse (or who has a child that wants a horse) should know exactly how much crap they produce. This was two days worth…
Needless to say, after all the above, we didn’t want to leave Masterton and kept delaying our departure, making excuse after excuse why we had to stay. It got to the point where we were running the risk of not being able to see any of the North Island so it was with great reluctance, considerable sadness and upset (me) that we drove down the drive. In the rear vision mirror I could see Millie hanging her head over the gate of the paddock at the end of the drive undoubtedly wondering why we hadn’t taken her out with us when we went out there that morning.
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