Springing Forward

Spring is underway and the garden is getting more colourful. Trees have fresh green leaves and the lawn is growing at quite a fast pace. Rafa  is also growing at a fast pace. We have just changed our clocks so it is getting dark after 7.30pm.

Rafa and the garden, springing into action

 

I have completed my first term at work, which was 11 weeks long. I went to a conference in Wellington on the last 2 days of term. Lisa came too and did the touristy stuff, while I sat in a conference room. I did manage to get to see a bit of the city and we enjoyed the change of scenery as well as some nice food. We flew from Nelson to Wellington with a local company called Sounds Air. It was the most relaxed way to fly. We entered Nelson airport through a side door and walked over to the Sounds air ‘check-in’ desk/customer services desk / any other enquiry desk, where a sign read ‘if we are not here, please wait as we are out loading baggage’.  A person did arrive at the desk in a few seconds and asked if we were Lisa and Nicky(before we could say anything). We were told to wait in the general area and we would be told when to go to the plane. I went to get coffee, and as our coffee was being made the other (9) passengers were rounded up and led to the gate. I was told by the barista not to worry as they would wait at the gate for me. They did and we strolled out to the plane. At no point was ID etc ever asked for. We put our bags in the hold as we boarded the flight. The flight was full, so all 11 of us got on board and the pilot welcomed us and told us our flight would only be 30 mins long and not to worry about turning off our phones (which was just as well as ours were in the bags, in the hold) I sat behind the pilot and got a great view of all that was going on as well as the magnificent scenery below. Air travel is easy in NZ, but this is the most relaxed way to fly, even by NZ standards.

Lisa has taken a week off work from the restaurant, which means the chook house may get built! The veggie plots are getting planted out and our newly acquired wine barrel (from the winery across the road), which was cut in half and delivered to us the other day, will get planted out with lettuces. Our herb garden has taken off, due to Llama poo in the compost. We may have overdone the poo, as some plants are growing too fast and too tall!! Speaking of llama poo, demand has increased dramatically, so we have had to purchase a garden vacum/blower. The poo now gets vacumed up in a fraction of the time and it gets mulched into a compost/powder texture. This new ‘product’ is proving popular, so we have to collect and bag even more. A couple of weekends ago we hired a log splitter and split large pieces of chopped gum trees into fire sized pieces. We then had to stack them all into the wood shed. It was a big effort, but now our wood is just waiting for next winter!!

Lisa taking the lawnmower for a walk (most of the grass is cut with the ride on mower)

I have two weeks off from work. Unfortunately I don’t get paid over the holidays. I am in Wheelie Fantastic mode, going to the wharf and hiring bikes as well selling some winery tours. If the weather stays sunny and dry we hope to get a few customers. We have purchased some kids bikes so we can cover all ages. We now claim “small to tall….we’ve bikes for all”. The mapua ferry has just been bought over. The new owner has got some bikes to hire, so he put out a sign to that effect. The first day of trading was Saturday and we had a good number of locals coming up to us offering their support for our business. Without us saying anything, he later removed his posters. He may have found out that we are the only ones licenced to advertise or hire bikes at the wharf!!! It is great to know that the locals view us as ‘locals’ and our business is very much part of the community.

Thinking of local businesses, I saw a haulage business advertise in the local paper. As businesses do they state how long they been around for, eg since 1920. This one stated “been here for ages”. Wheelie Fantastic has been in operation for 1 year now. Our first hire happened at 11am on the 11^th month in 2011. Let’s hope we continue to grow and someday claim that we have been around “for ages”.

August and new arrivals

August has flown by, with more rainy days but the temperatures are on the up and the sunny days definately has a feel of spring about them. We cut our grass yesterday,for the first time in a few months. Gardening hasn't really stopped during the winter, there are just different jobs to be done.

We have had a couple of new arrivals. The first one was the purchase (out of necessity) of a landrover. It was bought to use in the paddocks and the garden - a motorised wheelbarrow! We saw it on Trade Me (NZs version of ebay) and as it was loca lwe were able to see it before we bought it. It was easy to see, in fact impossible to miss as it is yellow! It used to be owned by the AA! It acts like a ray of sunshine on these uncharacteristic grey days. Lisa drove it home at 40mph and caused a backlog on the highway. It was first registered in 1973; it wasn't the oldest one we looked at!


 

Our other new arrival was much more cute and completely unexpected.... a cria was born last thursday. We have called him Rafa and he has made Snowy look grown up. They now play together and he is curious about everything. He is full of fun and energy and a great playmate for Snowy. This is him on day 1.

 

 

 

 







 

 

 

So Snowy and Lisa both have something to play with in the paddocks!

 

The local area is developing cycle trails. I went to the opening of a new section which included the openiong of a new bridge. The network of trails is good for our business as well as the cyclists who don't want to cycle on roads.

Lots of cyclists of all shapes and sizes, on all types of bikes turned up for the official opening. This section goes to a little village, where a new cafe has opened and is now well used by cyclists.

 

 

I have also managed to do something I often wanted to but couldn't. For the first time ever, I cycled to work last week. Lisa was off that day so she came to meet me and we cycled home together. It was a friday so I had a half day. The only down side was that the shower at work didn't heat up so it was a bracing cold shower to start the day. This week I will get the gas bottle changed to get hot water and hopefully, if the weather stays good, I will cycle a couple of days a week during the summer term and the last few weeks of this term.

 

 

Spring is on its way!

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July - winter progresses

The routine that comes with having a Monday to Friday job means that our lives have changed. Many of the jobs around the house, garden or land have to get done in the daylight that remains when we get home or the weekend. I now have a Friday feeling at the end of the week as well as a Monday morning feeling. The job has started well. I am having to get to know the workings of the centre quickly, before the lead tutor goes off on maternity leave in Sept. The work is fairly intensive, with little or no time to get admin done until the students go home.  We have meetings in the afternoon, but at least I get paid the extra time. The mornings are still too cold and dark to cycle to work, but in another couple of weeks that should change.

We have been in the sea for our July dip. It was cold and as we aren’t wearing wetsuits for our monthly challenge, we only stayed in for a minute or less. We have also done a couple of bike races. Today we raced in warm sunshine and it almost felt like spring was just around the corner. Our garden continues to produce colour every month. We have done a lot of pruning bushes and shrubs and then we are putting the cuttings through a mulcher we borrowed from a friend. We spent 2 days mulching and we will put the mulch on the flower beds to keep down the weeds. We also had some gum trees topped and mulched. There was an article in the local paper about the benefits of using Alpaca poo in your garden and it has caused an increase in Llama poo sales at the end of our drive.

As well as these ‘jobs’, we also have Wheelie stuff to do, as this is the time of the year when adverts etc are set up for the season ahead.  Our second car is now marked up with our logo etc.

Now the Olympics have started, we may have to be awake at various times of the night to see the action live. We have bought a myfreeview box so that we can record some events. The kiwis are all very supportive of the team and very optimistic that they could bring home a good few medals.  I am sure if the excitement of the Olympics has made it here, it must be mega in the UK.

Winter ( mid-winter)

June - brrrrr. It has been a very cold start to the winter. We have been lighting the fire in the mornings and it warms the living area really well. the good part of a cold winter are the views; we have great views of the mountains on the horizon and the highest ones have quite a reasonable covering of snow. The shortest day has now passed so hopefully the mornings will start to get a bit lighter sooner. We have also had quite a bit of rain; when I have a look at the weather for Portrush I realise it almost the same as the temps forecast for here in winter. the school mid winter holidays have just started and unfortunately for bike hire, the weather forecast for next week is rain.
The next school term starts on the 16th July, when I start job number10. This time it is permanent. I am strating as a tutor at a local education centre which caters for students who have been expelled from school, as well as offering courses for long-term unemployed etc. It is run bt an education trust and it tries to cater for the needs of the local community. It will be a bit strange, after a year of temporary jobs of various sorts, going into a job that is permanent. I will still get school holidays and I will be able to cycle to and from work (approx an hour by bike each way). I will also no longer wear teacher clothes. I will also get to do outdoor activities with the kids as well as doing some academic work. The maximum number of kids is 8 on the Alternative Education course. I am looking forward to a new challenge and being part of a very different side of education.
Next week we are going out for 'mid-winter' dinner with 6 others. The restaurant is putting on a christmas menu, with turkey etc and we are doing secret santa.
We have started racing again in the winter league of our bike club. Today the route took us through valleys with snow on the high ground in the distance and clear skies with lovely sunshine. Hopefully winter will progress with lots of sunshine and some warmth during the day when the frosts melt away.

May 2012

 A year has been completed and this blog has been read over 1200 times....who are you all?

Autumn is nearing an end and we are now back to where we started, i.e. this is what the countryside looked like when we arrived a year ago. The autumn colours are beautiful in the vineyard across the road. The grapes are all harvested and unfortunately I was teaching on the last day of the harvest and so missed the end of harvest party.

We have marked our first year in NZ in the same way we celebrated things in NI. We opened a bottle of bubbly (made across the road and called Mahana) and had a few friends round for a meal.  As I look back at the blog I see that I thought Judith would be a good friend. As it turned out we hardly ever see her and she has less interest in us as she can’t sell us a house! However Roger and Adele have proved to be good friends and we shared a meal with them on Friday night. Then on Sunday afternoon we invited the Thursday cycle group over for a meal and house warming/ 1^st year celebration. There were about 20 of us, but at least it was kiwi ‘pot luck’ catering. That means everyone brings something to eat, in a vaguely organised way. We ended up with plenty to eat and drink and the house was well ‘warmed’. In celebrating we feel very fortunate to have met such nice people and yet we miss sharing with our good friends still in NI.  When they visit we will have a lot of celebrating to do again.

We have had approx. 6 weeks of sunny and warm autumn weather, but for the last week things have got a bit changeable and it has rained for some or all of the day, almost every day. The llamas are enjoying the autumn sunshine and Snowy is doing well.

Snowy, getting bigger by the day

 The temps are slowly dropping and we light a fire every day. We still wear shorts, but perhaps not every day. We started wearing shorts in October and I would be surprised if we don’t wear them throughout the year.   Last week we took delivery of our winter firewood. It all got tipped out of the lorry in a pile, and I spent the rest of the day stacking it into the shed…who needs a gym. We also have lots of gardening to do, so never a dull moment

The wood shed, ready for winter

Lisa was involved the ‘Great ice cream challenge’. It involved Lisa on her race bike racing Roger on an electric bike from Corrugate to the wharf, eating an ice cream and then cycling back to Corrugate (uphill all the way home). A total distance of about 7miles. Most people backed Lisa and as the race unfolded it became too close to call. They both arrived at the wharf together and ate their selected flavours of ice cream. Off they went, mostly uphill, passing a group of cyclists who were stunned as the two racers sped past. As the finish line got closer, Roger put in a final burst up the last hill to get a gap, which he held onto and collapsed over the line, as ‘the crowd’ clapped in a stunned kind of way. Lisa finished about 10 seconds later. It was all over in 17 mins.

We are making some improvements to the house and our solar water heating is working. We are getting a grant to help with some of the cost and I had to fill in some paperwork. I had to return the documents to the person in charge, called Grant Fidler …..true

We are getting a solatube installed (a tube that will light up the hallway by directing daylight down a tube from the roof). I wonder who I will send the paperwork to for that. 

This week we flew down to Christchurch and collected a ‘new’ car and drove it home.  The flight was amazing as there were clear skies so we could see the stunning scenery. The flight was 50 mins and our return journey took us through equally stunning scenery and took approx. 5 hours. We have got a Toyota landcruiser Prado, which can seat 8 people and will be used for business. It is 12 years old, not old by NZ standards !

It is my turn to host the Faculty (Garin College, Social Sciences) dinner today. We are going off for a cycle around the vineyards, then back to the house for a meal. Partners are included, so there will be a total of 9. Better go and prepare.

Autumnal Changes

Autumn is well underway.  There are beautiful colours before the leaves fall off the trees. The good weather has continued almost unbroken over Easter and it looks like it could stay like this for a bit longer. Of course the winters are mainly sunny anyway, it is just the temperatures that change. There have still been a few hot days but generally it is cool in the mornings and then up to the mid teens during the day. We have started to light the fire in the evening.

A week ago I started job number 9……..in the vineyard across the road, harvesting the grapes. It is a pleasant job out in the autumn sun. They don’t pick grapes when it rains, and you may not work every day as it depends on the winemaker, if he wants more or less grapes. You start at 8am and work to anything between 2.30 and 5.30. I cycle to work and it takes me 3 minutes (downhill) and 10 mins to get home. There are about 14 of us and different people come and go. Quite a few older people work there to earn money for holidays etc. You work in pairs, one on either side of the vine and walk as a group along the rows. You can listen to your own music etc. One person has a podcast to learn French while another is trying to learn Japanese, so you hear them saying phrases as you move along. There are conversations going on and generally there is a nice atmosphere. They also provide the Friday drinks of beer and wine (of course) at the end of the day. It is quite tiring and your back does ache by the end of the day. Unfortunately I go back to job number 3 next week so I may miss the rest of the harvest. I have got a week or 2 of teaching, and the harvest may finish this week (so I could miss out on getting the 2012 harvest t-shirt).

As we live in the sunniest place in New Zealand, we decided to get solar powered water heating installed. It is due to be switched on in the next couple of days.  Winter work mode will mean we don’t go to the wharf each day and we will get a chance to get lots of garden work done (as well as our paid employment). We intend for Wheelie Fantastic to do more group, corporate and conference work during the winter. We have just launched our full website, www.wheeliefantastic.co.nz and we need to add links and more photos to that. There is always admin etc to do, so we are never not busy.

The local agricultural freebie newspaper reported on a country show which took place recently. The article included a picture of a child jumping a log while holding an animal by its tail. It turned out to be a kids obstacle race which they did while carrying a dead possim!!

Mapua held its Easter fair on Easter Sunday. It was a massive affair and is allegedly the largest fair on the south island. Over 15000 people attended it and the roads into the village were gridlocked. There was a tailback on the main road from Nelson that went back for approx. 10km. We will not see that many people here for the rest of the year.

 Tomorrow(25^thApril) is ANZAC day, the commemoration of those who have died in wars. It is a public holiday with shops only allowed to open from 1pm to 6pm. Today there was a special assembly at school to mark ANZAC day. The kids were very respectful and it finished off with the national anthem sang in maori and then English. I was able to sing most of it!

 As we approach the end of April we are nearly at our one year anniversary of leaving Portrush. What a year. I look back at my 2011 diary and with sadness read about who we said goodbye to each day. I remember the feeling of excitement, sadness, adventure and exhaustion as I read about each day. This time last year I had just finished work. I looked at my little blue lunch bag, as it sat in the vineyard the other day, at morning tea break, and remembered how it used to sit in the staffroom at lunch time. Sometimes I feel like I am watching someone else’s story unfold. I can’t say I have got used to life without a regular salary, but as I have to prepare to teach next week, I can say I have got used to not teaching every day. I enjoy the diversity and scope of being self-employed. One year on and the adventure continues…….watch this space!

Autumn

Autumn has started with fab weather. The days still get into the low 20s, with plenty of sunshine but cooler mornings and evenings. We have had a couple of Autumn  arrivals. Lisa’s uncle Mike and Steph were here for 10 days and we have had a new window put into the kitchen, but the most exciting arrival was Snowy.  One morning, we woke up and looked out the window to see snow on the mountain tops and a small baby llama in our herd. We did suspect that a couple of the llamas were pregnant, but had no idea birth was imminent. We suspect one or two of the others could be due, but who knows when.  It was named Snowy and it is doing well and getting bigger by the day.  In this modern era of livestock management, we of course consulted the internet. It gave us lots of advice, none of which we could do! For example one breeder said that goat colostrum was a must. We phoned the owner and left a message. Four weeks later we still haven’t heard from him.

Snowy- 2 days old

Snowy, approx 3 days old

As the days get shorter (our clocks go back tonight), we are heading into a quieter phase for cycle hire. We have provided bikes for a few groups , with our biggest group needing 26 bikes! We seem to have been busier than any of the other bike companies in the area. 

One of our group bookings, bikes ready to go

 Easter is the last holiday before ‘winter’. Lisa will get more hours over winter in the restaurant and I will get relief teaching. To assist our income, I decided to give apple packing a go. I went to a packing shed down the road from our house. I worked 3 nights a week from 6pm to 10 pm (although I had meetings to go to so some weeks I did one or two nights) The work involved standing in one place and sorting apples onto cardboard trays, checking for the tiniest of flaws and then setting them on the tray, all facing the same way. It was quite physical in a funny kind of way. After a few weeks my wrists and hands were suffering, so after a discussion with a friend who is a nurse, we decided that it was not worth the risk of doing long-term damage to myself.  I think that was job number 8! Job number 9…..watch this space.

Speaking of jobs, I got 3 days of relief ‘teaching’. It involved going with about 90 16 year olds on their school camp. There where 9 staff, including me. We went to keiteriteri, for the base camp on the edge of the spectacular Able Tasman National Park. On day one I set off with a group of 11 girls to tramp (walk) to a camp site. We tramped for 4 hours and got to our little camp site in a tiny bay beside the sea.  The whole theme of the camp was about leadership and I was only there as an onlooker, as the group was organising itself. As it turned out, they worked well as a team and even though we had a couple of urbanites in the group, everything went well. We got to our site and they pitched their tents and cooked our meal.

One of the beautiful views along our tramping route - I was getting paid to work here!

                                                             The view from my 'tent' on night one

I don’t think UK kids would have coped as well.  It was just as well they didn’t need my help as I was having to sort out myself. I had been handed a ‘lightweight tent’ to take with me. When I went to pitch it I found that it wasn’t a tent but only a fly sheet, so I had to make it into a sort of a tent. I pitched it in a patch just beside the sea and went to sleep with the sound of gentle waves, and the rustling of something in the bushes !! I slept well and we were all ready to go by 7.30 the next morning when a water taxi came and picked us up. Back to base camp for day 2. I was then given the job of taking the mountain bike groups to the mountain bike park. Each group did 2 hours and we had 4 groups. Some of the kids were better than me and some couldn’t cycle very well at all. Nobody fell off, so that was OK. All this in the most beautiful settings and I was getting paid to be there. The second night was much more civilised with meals cooked for us and myself and another teacher shared a large tent with beds in it.

                                             Part of our civilised base camp

 I am going off next week on a geography field trip for 3 days, to Nelson lakes. We will be sleeping in a lodge and will have all our meals cooked for us.