Winding Down 2025

We’ve spent a bit of time travelling out from Palmerston North as we wind down the year. Sunday, we went with our friends over to the Wairapa to visit a couple of wineries, have a nice lunch and enjoy the scenery. I’s about a 2 hour drive, made all the easier for a new 12km stretch of road over the Taraua’s. The road used to wind through the Manawatū Gorge, in some places literally hanging off the side of the cliff over the river. It was frequently closed due to slips (landslides) and it finally closed for good in 2017. It took a bunch of years for government to make its mind where the replacement road should go and it was finally completed last year.

Our first stop was at a small boutique winery called Oak Estate. this was a small winery that has its main business as a bistro. We were lucky to get there when we did as they don’t do wine tasting anytime between 12:30 and 2:30. We had a great time with the guy behind the bar, he was really knowledgable about the wines and ended up giving us a lot more tastings than was advertised. Of course we bought a couple bottles of wine. Our next stop was Napier, famous for its art deco architecture that’s survived numerous earthquakes and continues to be absolutely stunning. Our friends Spencer and Penny know the area quite well and took us to a beautiful little café for lunch. We wandered around after lunch checked out a few shops and then made our way to the next winery stop, a more commercial winery called Black Oak. Lovely little courtyard setting and decent wine. One of their Chardonay’s was delicious, so of course we added another bottle to the days haul. Our last stop was the Te Mata lookout near Havelock North. It was a beautiful day you get a fantastic panoramic view over Napier, Napier Bay, and the Wairapa.

Monday and Tuesday brought the wind and some rain, but mostly wind. On Tuesday, Cathy and I woke up with no power, not a surprised given the wind storm. We’d been planning a drive to Whaganui, a little of an hour west of Palmerston North so no real issue. It’s weird, the times we lived here and the multiple visits back, we’d never visited Whaganui. It sits on the west coast of the North Island on the Tasman Sea at the top of the Taranaki Bight. We went for a drive out to the beach for a short walk, but the winds were blowing across the beach, east to west and the sand driving into our faces cut the walk short. Other than the sand, watching the ocean waves and feeling the power of the wind reminded us of home 😄! We had a good wander around the downtown area and found a nice cafe for lunch. It was well worth a visit and may next time we come to the area, we’ll spend a few days there. When we got back to our AirBnB, still no power and a large tree had come down across the drive, but it had already been cleared up enough to get through. We did get power back about an hour later so all good.

This brings us to the last day of 2025, the end of the 1st quarter of the 21st century. 25 years ago we were at anchor on our first Westerly Ketch, named Loon Echo, in Torrent Bay at the top of the South Island of New Zealand. It was pouring rain and we had hoped that we would be able to set of our fireworks on the beach, but that was not too happen. Among the other things that didn’t happen was the world didn’t end when the year clicked over to 2000, planes didn’t fall out of the sky, power systems didn’t crash, in fact not much happened at all.

Looking back on 2025, it’s been a year of change for Cathy and I as we settle into our life on land and finally retire. It’s been a year of global turmoil that seems almost unprecedented. Wars, genocide, political upheaval are the top of mind issues, but there has also been some good news. AI is coming into its own, and despite the downsides, its benefits in healthcare are enormous. We’ve also seen a slight tipping of the balance with energy production. More power was generated by renewable resources globally than by coal. A step in the right direction. I’m sincerely glad 2025 is almost behind us, only a few hours left and I hope that 2026 brings significant POSITIVE change. Like the picture at the beginning of this post shows, lets hope the little truck leaving 2025 turns into a big truck bringing hope and peace in 2026.

To everyone reading along with these ramblings, thank you, and may you, your friends, and families have a wonderful year ahead.

Till next year……