A Blog from Misty the cat

Hi there. My name is Misty and I live in New Zealand with my two humans.

My story is short as I am only three years old.

Here is is pic of me as a kitten in 2015:

I am what is known as a tortoiseshell.  This means my fur pattern looks a bit like the shell of a tortoise.  Tortoiseshells are almost always female.  They are also known for their naughty nature, hence the name "naughty tortie".  I am not a cuddly cat, and if you get too familiar, you will get a warning nip or a bat across the face.  Having said that, I do enjoy sitting all over my two humans.

My story starts in Tauranga, where I was born.  At some time in January 2015, I was a kitten, a bit lost and trying to cross the road, and was hiding in the gutter considering my next options when one of the metal turtles stopped and a human with long hair got out, approached and picked me up.

She took me to the only house nearby where someone leaned out the window and probably said that I was a stray.

Huh?! So I get a terrifying trip to Auckland in the metal turtle. Well, I had to go toilet somewhere didn't I?

I immediately settled in my new home in Auckland and set about the wearisome task of educating my two humans.  I had a great kitten hood, getting under the house, avoiding other cats, and catching crickets, and running along 1800mm high fences.

About May 2015 my humans shifted house to Pukekohe, a little town about 40 minutes south of Auckland.  I enjoyed this move as there is a pond just over the back fence, with ducks, frogs and so on.

Here is me all grown up:

In the new house the humans have not installed a cat door, so I have to tell them I want to come in by launching myself at the bedroom ranch slider.

At one stage they used to leave the bathroom window open so I could come and go as I pleased.
And I did, sometimes at 3am with a mouse or bird or cricket in my mouth, whereupon the human with no hair would swear at me and remove the livestock and if alive put it back outside.

Sometimes they got very grumpy, like the time I brought a frog in to show them how smart I am.
These things scream like a baby!  The final straw was the night I brought in a rat.  This involved much excitement from the human with no hair, and confining of me and the rat in the spare bedroom where he indicated I should grab the rat and take it back outside.  I was not too keen on that idea, as now I could see it clearly, it looked a bit too big, so I decided I would just keep up a watching brief.
I will not go into the disposal details here, but I believe it involved an axe.

So after that the bathroom window was shut at night and I have to knock on the ranch slider to be let in.  A body search for livestock is then performed.

For a while, I used to catch little birds called swallows and leave the skull and a few feathers at the front door.  The human with no hair really loves these birds and he asked me not to be killing them, so I have laid off doing that lately. Or is it that I have become a bit heavier and unable to leap the required 1500mm off the ground?

Rarotonga

 This is a guide, what you might like to know if you were thinking of visiting the Cook Islands.

 We stayed on the main island for 7 nights.  It seems quite big, but you can drive around it in about 50 minutes.  

The interior is uninhabited mountains, which are very scenic. All the population lives in a thin strip around the edge with a paved but bumpy road which can be be busy with locals on small motorcycles. The lived in part seems roughly half locals and half hotels with quite a few churches.

Gauging how nice a hotel is difficult from the road as the nicest part is usually by the sea.  The one we stayed in, Manuia Beach Resort, was a boutique hotel, meaning no children allowed and slightly dearer  than ones down the road. Strange how some humans think?

Or is it the cheap one is three stories high, so you need to get in a lift to go to the beach? You were able to snorkel off the beach but you had to wait a bit for the tide.

We liked it as it had sandy paths and chickens strolling around. Right now we have a mother and it's chick cheeping for food at the door. 

To rent a car or not? It took four days for us to cave in to that idea. Our experience was that it was a good idea as it was not that expensive about $160 for two days plus petrol. Petrol was about the same price as NZ, so not too bad.

It gave us the flexibility to try a restaurant down the road, The Tumunu, where I had a scallops and calamari and chips which I thought good value.  Prices for meals here are a bit high, but take in the idea that everything is imported, it starts to explain why.

For instance, a 500g pack of butter was over $10.

There are things to do, like go into see the main town, Avarua, or go on a lagoon cruise, which for pickup, drop off, lunch, entertainment and snorkelling was around $160, so not too bad.

A typical day might be a trip 4 k down the road to the marine reserve, which while not over run with fish certainly had some to see, with fantastic visibility.

On Saturday they have the local markets. Another thing is dogs.  Apparently homeless dogs wander around, and sometimes in the small hours you hear a lot of barking in the distance. Then a rooster starts crowing. Plenty of crops growing, some of which we can only guess at.

The weather for our stay was a bit unlucky, overcast and windy mostly. A perfect day, now we are leaving.

The currency here is NZ $, but there seems to be the odd coin that says Cook Islands, which would not work in NZ.

On the second day, Morty the cat appeared and made himself quite at home thank you. Not to be seen again much as he must have found even more cat friendly suckers nearby.

Coff's Harbour

A short stay here, just four days.  We stayed in The Terraces, a Wyndam Hotel just 5 minutes north of Coff's Harbour township. With a population of 75,000, it compares with New Zealand's Whangerei which has a population of about 51,000.

Impressions: a seaside resort town with the main Pacific highway running through it. Usual cafes and restaurants, with a nice central shops area.

View from the terrace at the Hotel:

 

 A Bush Turkey at the Hotel:

Off our terrace saw Black and White Crows, who were eating the berries off the palm trees:

 

 From the Hotel, you can walk a cliff path to the next beach, which is Digger's beach. This is looking back northwards on the way to Digger's Beach:

The waterfront area is extensive with a good beach.  Australian sandy beaches are better than in NZ, nicer colour.

This is Digger's Beach  which is nearby:

This is a small town close by, called Urunga:

What to do? Not much, one day took a trip to Dorrigo, a small town about 1 hour inland.  You set out on fairly flat farmland, and end up climbing into a sizeable mountain ranges.

 On the way there you go through Bellingen, another small town, very old:

Up there is a National Park with a bush walk, where we tried to make it to the waterfalls, but ran out of steam.

This is a view from the bush walk at Dorrigo:

This is a waterfall, just out of Dorrigo:

To diet or not to diet?

Seems a break from my usual travel blogging.
Just some thoughts in case there are others out there who have the dieting disorder.

I might have a mild case of this.  We could argue that it is a wise idea to keep tabs on what you are eating (and how much!), and exercising is surely a good idea. Just when it slips into a neurotic behaviour is a grey area.

Having  been through several weight loss programs, I have experienced the fun of losing weight.
It is really great - you are not carting 10kg extra around all the time.

They worked, but the weight seems to creep slowly back up when I go back to my normal diet. 

So, in the library browsing for books I found two books on the subject.

"The Overfat Pandemic" by Dr Philip Maffetone and
"Solving the Paleo Equation" by Dr Garrett Smith.

This blog is not a review of these books, just an introduction to some of the key ideas they put forward.

Which leads to the moral of this story: Don't just get ONE book out! Because every where you look there is a huge amount of advice in this area, especially the internet, which is probably at  best case mostly wrong, and worst case dangerous.

Both books emphasize getting rid of junk food from your diet.

"The Overfat Pandemic" has an interesting two week program you can do, which is where your eliminate all carbs from your diet for two weeks. I lasted 1.5 weeks on that one. Might have to go back for another try.

The idea is you monitor your weight and at the end of two weeks see if reducing the carbs in your diet results in a weight loss. In my case it was only a slight loss.

"Solving the Paleo Equation" seemed like a better approach with some shattering of myths(?) such as you need to drink around 3 Litres of water per day.  I have tried that one on a previous diet and could not keep it up.

He says this is wrong.  Drink when you are thirsty. His main message is that you have to consider all the following: Stress, Nutrition, Exercise and Sleep.  Which to me sounds logical.

Another myth he busts is "No Pain, No Gain", which he says is not the right approach.

He lists various things you should eat, mainly red meat or wild caught fish,  stay away from pork and poultry. Avoid deep fried foods at restaurants. (Makes me a bit sad that one-I enjoy fish and chips)

An unusual list of "Anitmetabolism Foods" to avoid he lists as beans and legumes, and cruciferous vegetables such as Kale, Cabbage, Cauliflower and so on.  Which is strange because most nutritionists say eat all the veges you like.

At the end of the book is a section on Cell Phone/Wifi radiation which has solutions I would find very difficult to implement. Who knows, he may be correct.

Starvation dieting is not good for you and there are other approaches.

Port Douglas

Port Douglas feels miles away from anywhere, yet is a busy little tourist town, about 45 minutes north of Cairns.

The Main Street:
 

Farming here is mainly sugar cane, on the flat areas in front of a large mountain range called the great dividing range, with some really tall mountains here and there.

This is the hotel. No views of the water, but the whole complex of about 4 buildings is arranged around a waterway with tall trees and a walkway down it, leading to a swimming pool.

 

This is a typical suburban street in Port Douglas, most houses are holiday rentals or for sale.

 

This is the beach, accessible from the hotel, about 200m away. Looks nice for swimming, but you cannot go in as a crocodile might eat you! Four ks up the beach you are allowed to in a patrolled area.

 

Day One we hired bikes and rode into town to see the Sunday Market.

Nice, with good quality things for sale.

Good here for biking, flat with little traffic.

This is a wharf just by the downtown area:
 

Day Two was a drive from Port Douglas up to cape tribulation.

Lots of rainforest blocking spectacular views. Nice to stop at an ice cream factory, and fish and chips by the beach. Windy roads, with an opportunity to see crocodiles which we passed on. Not that up to date as you need a ferry to get across the Daintree river. Makes a journey of interest though.

Our hotel, while being quite near the beach, does not have a view of it. Neither do any of the houses next to the beach have a view of it either, so it must be policy.

When you do end up on the beach all you see is palm trees, so it has a plus side.

On the negative side, you are warned not to swim in the lovely water because a crocodile might get you. Even standing close to the water is not recommended.

Another day off, just going into town about four kms away, doing usual touristy things.

This next pic is one from the lookout on the hill at the end of the big beach, just up from the town:

Day Four and a drive inland was planned. Inland scenery was different, with termite mounds.  Stopped at a coffee plantation, saw coffee being roasted, and a video on how they grow and pick it. Lunch in a little country town then off towards Kuramba then on towards Cairns.  Nice but not spectacular.

Another day off.

Day 6 or so! Got to go on a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. Actually an island. About half an hour, transferred to the beach and off snorkeling.  The day was overcast and it rained some, but the things underwater were wet anyway. Saw a turtle, a giant clam, corals and lots of brightly coloured fish.

Some of us went in a glass bottomed boat and saw clams, coral.

Walked around the island, very small which had an old (140 years) lighthouse on it.

After we got out the gannets came in and were impressive dive bombers.