Late Start and unusual boat

It was Sunday…. “ET phone home”.  Not much has happened to dear old mum during the week.  She did run out of her pain relief medication at the end of last week and didn’t get to see the doctor for a new prescription until Friday.  The drugs must have almost been flushed from her system as she had some powerful dreams during the last two nights.

We pottered around on the boat until noon and then went to the Greyhound for the Sunday roast.  The meals were of the usual high standard and we staggered back to Waiouru with bloated bellies.  The plan was to take advantage of the good weather and move to a mooring near Brinklow Village.  The weather forecast is for high winds tonight and tomorrow so we don’t want to be moored near or under any large trees.

On leaving the mooring at Hawkesbury Junction we noticed the name of the boat moored two in front of us.

The Tui is a native New Zealand song bird.  Often you hear their warbling before you see them.  They are of the honeyeater family and feed on the nectar of the native plants. As such they are an important pollinator of native trees and shrubs.  During WW2 the members of the NZ Women’s War Service Auxiliary in North Africa and Italy were commonly known as “Tui”.  The Royal New Zealand Navy has had two ships named Tui.  The first was a Bird Class minesweeper which saw service during WW2 and the second was an ex USN oceanographic ship which the RNZN had from 1970 to 1997.  I actually worked on HMNZS Tui in 1970 when attached to the navy.

There were several mothers out with their new-borns on the western side of Ansty.

Yes… I’m pretty and I know it!

Last time we passed this way earthworks were being undertaken on the edge of the canal just after Bridge 26.  I said to Jan at the time that it would make a good mooring but looked more like a boat ramp.

Perhaps it is a small private mooring?

As we passed the long line of moored boats on the approach to Rose Narrowboats it looked like a boat from the opposite direction might be going through the narrows where the pedestrian swing bridge is located.  After a considerable amount of manoeuvring they did open the bridge and proceeded towards us.  It was a bit of a squeeze but we managed to cross.  Then we realised another boat was coming through the narrows.  We couldn’t loiter on the water point to let the boat pass because there was a hire boat moored on it which was NOT filling with water!  The other steerer must have decided a cross over was not possible and reversed back out of the narrows allowing us through.  Then another boat appeared behind the boat that had reversed making the area rather congested.  We made it through the narrows at a very slow rate as the water was more “leaf soup” than water.

Looking back as the 3rd boat goes through the narrows

“Leaf Soup” was an issue throughout most of the cruise requiring bursts of reverse to throw them off the prop.  Approaching Bridge 34 we passed another rather interesting boat going in the opposite direction.

I’m not sure what style of boat this is?  It doesn’t look like a narrowboat or a narrow dutch barge!

We managed to find a good mooring beyond Bridge 34.  A gap between the trees on the offside has allowed the dome to find the dot and we have a hedge on the towpath side which will hopefully provide some protection from the forecast bad weather due tonight.