Summer came and went in a flash. I guess I could summarise
it in one word..work. I dread to think how many hours I did per week in December and January. The admin side of work took up time at night while the days were full and busy at the wharf -hence no blogging for a while!
Our shed proved invaluable as the start of the summer had
some days with not good weather. This meant we had some crazy busy days when
everyone decided to cycle on the same day.
At home, our llama herd had 4 arrivals with crias born just
before Christmas. Unfortunately one was still born. Two weeks ago another one
of our adult llamas had to be put down. We couldn’t contact the owner so Lisa
had to make the decision to put her down when the vet came out. She then had to
get a guy with a very big digger, to dig a very big hole to bury her in. Patsy
was quite a character and the herd is different without her.
Autumn is flying past and the colours get more striking by
the day. In a week’s time the school holidays will be over and the shed will
not open every day, so I will get some time to cycle and do some gardening as well
as teach. Summer was busy, but in some ways autumn has been busier as I juggled teaching and working at the shed. Our relief staff were great and they worked around when I couldn't be there.
I did manage the odd hour or so off. I have had 2 or 3 complete days off from work in approx. 5 months! Lisa and I went away for 2 days to Hanmer Springs and we went via a back road through a huge station (farm). We drove for about 3 hours on 4x4 roads and the scenery was amazing. There are walking trails through that area. In the middle of nowhere you would come to huts that walkers can stay in, where you would find perfectly good toilets, surrounded by 1000's of ha of vast country.
I have started to explore some more unsealed back roads close to
where we live and I have discovered some great scenery. I will put this
knowledge to good use as we expand our tours and include’ back road adventures’
as well as trail routes.
We have had some more tour groups this autumn. One group of
13 did a 6 night/5 day cycle tour. They had a great time and they want to come
back to do some more routes. We are busy getting tour info to agents for next
year and we hope to revamp our website soon, to promote our tours better and develop some new products.
We are making some changes at home, not least a new kitchen.
We hope it will be in before the end of May. We have also decided to put double
glazing into all the windows. That is happening in the next 2 weeks, so all in
all it could shape up for a busy winter at home. We are going to take a holiday
this year (the first time we will have left NZ since we got here, which is
almost 3 years ago). We have booked a week on an island in ‘The Kingdom’ of
Tonga. The island is called Fa Fa and there is a beach, the sea for snorkelling
, the resort provides all our food and there are very few people there.
As a summary to our summer, here are the images that I think
tell at least some of the story.
A home made boat launched at the wharf, all set for a morning's fishing. It had an outboard motor on the back.
People on holiday do the strangest things -- knitting in the middle of a mini roundabout!
Another morning at the wharf, with Lisa and some staff helping out.
Puff and Spark, born within hours of each other.
Puff is a little cria with a big personality
Flake. born about 10 hours before the photo was taken
I will take some more up to date cria photos and blog again soon.
