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.

February

January has been a month of making hay while the sun shines. It didn’t always shine as this area is having its most unsettled weather that anyone can remember. We, on the other hand think we are experiencing the best summer we can remember (weather wise at least). When we look back at our work diary it would say that we have only had one week without rain. Most weeks have had 2 days of rain/showers or sometimes looking like it is going to rain. Either way the weather has not always helped our business. It also means that the grass and weeds are growing faster than they should for this time of the year. The llamas are not eating fast enough, so Lisa has had to weed wack the longer grass in the top paddock. At least she did some of it and then our very kind neighbour, Keith, came to her rescue and brought his tractor and grass cutter over. He cut two paddocks in an hour!

We had been told by local businesses,that come February, when the schools go back, a new set of visitors arrive. Sure enough it was like someone flicked a switch and older couples were strolling around, everywhere you looked. Some hire bikes. 

There is one business owner on the wharf, who has annoyed every other business on the wharf. Last week it was our turn. He tried to tell us that we were on his land! We assured him that the council had given us permission to be here and after an exchange of opinions, we sent him on his way. He neither owns nor leases a fraction of the area he is trying to lay claims to. Word got out about his antics and we have an even stronger bond with the other business people than we had before. Part of the problem perhaps stems from the fact as an American, he has an American approach to world domination, or at least wharf domination.  On a more positive note quite a few locals come up to us and offer their support and appreciation, they like the idea that we have brought a new business to the area. I think the kiwis are good at expressing their gratitude ;people in the UK would be more inclined to keep their positive opinions to themselves.

We are also coming to terms with the NZ bird life. One species called Fantails are quite inquisitive and get quite close to you. They are also good at teasing the cat. They also will come into your house to get bugs off the ceiling. A while ago one got into our lounge/kitchen area. We have high ceilings and he gave us the run around as we tried to get him out. As he kept sitting on the ceiling fan, I suggested, from the safe distance of the next room, that Lisa should turn the fan on so he couldn’t land on it. I then came in to see the fan on at its fastest speed. It stopped him sitting on it but carnage was too likely, so we put to the slowest speed. He did a fly past a couple of times and then sat on it – as it spun round. He merrily wizzed round on the fan and preened himself at the same time! Fantail by name and nature. We had to go out, so we turned the fan off, as he was having too much fun, and we left a few doors open, so when he got bored he could leave. It worked.

As summer progresses, our (mostly lisa’s) veggie plot is producing vast quantities of, corgettes (zuccinis, as they are known here). They must be the fastest growing plant on earth. We have found receipies for bread, paste, salads etc, but still they grow. We also have had a ‘run’ on runner beans, both green and black ones. The sweetcorn is picked from the plant minutes before they are cooked and they are delicious. Peppers (capiscums as they are known here) are on their way, spinach, bok choi, various types of tomatoes and more. Our fruit trees are producing plums, apricots, apples,fijoas,as well as the ongoing supply of lemons and a fruit that is a mix of orange and lemon. All this food from the land is great for saving us money, except due to logistics, it will take some time to be ‘quids in’ as we had to buy a freezer this week to store all this produce! Our two less successful crops have been lettuce and potatoes. Potatoes! How can we not grow good potatoes here, when we grew them so easily in Portrush.

Today, a couple of guys are building us a woodshed. We will then be able to store our wood for the fire (our main source of heating during the winter).

Schools have gone back, so evening classes etc have started up again. I have signed up for 9 weeks of circuit class with pilates for 30 mins at the end. I turned up at the village hall at the appointed time and watched my class mates stream in. The instructor and just about all of the class were in their 50s and 60s. All the equipment was state of the art stuff which was a bit of a contrast to the hall, which needs a bit of modernisation. We all lined up to do the warm up, the instructor, Lynda, put her mic on and hit the play button on her ipod. It was another fisrt in my life.....warming up to the music of ........Jim Reeves !!!! After the warm up we got into small groups to do the circuit. It was tough enough, as hard as you wanted to make it for yourself. My training partners were Rose, a 60s something, overweight quite a bit, but capable of pacing herself to complete the circuit (avoiding the running station on the circuit). We were joined by Liz (I think) who hadn’t done any exercise for 18 years. I dont know why she was so specific about that. She was in her early 50s I guess. The class had some ex gym bunnies and some that looked like walkers, tennis players and middle aged, tanned, thin people who look fit but aren’t. I observed the attire of my classmates and could not understand why anyone would wear long sleeved tops or long tights when it was a summer evening and we were in a hall with all doors and windows open but only warm air coming in. I pondered their body issues, while warming down to more up to date tunes...from the 70s!

The daylight is now getting less with sunrise about 6.30 am and sunset now 8.30pm. The weather still feels like summer. Yesterday was hot (high 20s), so we went for a swim in the evening. We went to a place in Mapua where locals go for a peaceful dip in the sea. It was a great way to cool off; a calm tranquil bay with barely a ripple on the sea. We chatted to a few people and then a few of us went and got fish and chips. We brought them back to the water’s edge and ate them as the sun went down.  

January 2012

We had quite a ‘to do ‘ list in 2011 and I think we ticked it all off. In addition to what we did, I have also learnt new things. Here are some of the things I can remember I have learnt:

 Be patient when applying to emigrate

 How to make marmalade.

Be patient when trying to get the garden sorted

Be patient when trying to get the house sorted

Eat seasonally

 How to be a substitute teacher (again)

Students are the same the world over

How to live without a regular, salary-paying job

The saying ‘there is more to life than money’ sounds different when you say it and have less than you used to!

Everyone knows everyone else

Be nice to everyone, even if someone is a prat as they could turn out to be (a) less of a prat than you first thought, or (b) the local chiropractor , who you have made an appointment to see, but you don’t know that when you meet him in a different situation!

Kiwis (the people) have got the right idea about how to celebrate Christmas.

Kiwis (the people) have the right idea about many aspects of life.

Emigration means you will miss family and friends, perhaps for the first time.

Immigration will mean you get to meet really great people, who make really great friends.

Living in a beautiful part of the world with rubbish weather is OK, but living in a beautiful part of the world with fab weather is so much better.

 I have more recently learnt how to avoid being spat at by Llamas

The list could go on but I can’t remember more at the minute.

We are now in busy holiday season. Each day we take our trailer and car to the wharf in Mapua. It is an idyllic location to have a business at. We sit here at work on the wharf, waiting for people to hire or return bikes, or taking bikes around the area to meet up with tourists heading off to do a winery tour etc. At approx 5 or 6pm, I take the bikes home and clean them, while Lisa goes to work at the restaurant, 10 metres away from our bike hire location. She then works the evening shift which has finished at midnight all this week as it was the jazz festival, so bands were playing each night on the wharf or in the restaurant. Yesterday jazz played during the day, people sat in the sunshine with an ice cream or a drink. We hired out bikes and enjoyed the music. We do a lot of people watching. 

The weather is still a bit changeable, so it rained today and that meant we had a day ‘off’. What really happened was that we got all sorts of other emails etc sent and made lots of phone calls. A real day off is not likely to happen in the foreseeable future.

We have set ourselves a target of being in the sea at least once every month for the next 12 months. We went to Rabbit Island after work and had our first swim in the sea (Lisa was off that night as the restaurant was closed for 2 days as it was sold and the new owners were changing a few things). We managed this challenge in Portrush,a few years ago, so with a few mm less of neoprene, we should manage it here…watch this space!

Belinda drops by into our 'office' on the wharf (We make her hide her crutch...not a good look for our business)

An (almost) empty trailer means business is good.

Happy customers on their way to Rabbit Island, via the Flat Bottomed Fairy (which has been described as a floating Kleenex tissue box)

Our new house sign !

December in NZ

December is my birthday month and I was looking forward to a sunny one for the first time. It didnt quite work out like that as it rained in the morning, so we postponed our picnic trip to rabbit island. Early December is apparently alwys an unsettled time. By the afternoon it was sunny, but by that time we were dismantling the fence of the old chicken run .....fun birthday, but we did go out for tea to a thai restaurant.
Christmas is similar and yet so different to a winter christmas. There is the same music being played in the shops(I'm dreaming of a white christmas etc etc). The shops sell winter orientated christmas decorations. You see real trees tied to the top of cars, on their way home to be decorated. There are christmas carols(outdoors), theatre productions (eg Menopause....the musical !). There the similarity ends. There is no panic buying, nobody sends cards to people they never see, or to people they see all the time. It is all low key and is a day off that comes in the middle or start of most people's summer holidays.
As we are now in the tourist and recreation business, we work this time of the year. Today was the first time I had ever worked on Christmas eve (although I think I probably did work then as a new teacher). Most of the bars and restaurants closed early today. The kiwis seem to get together as we would, although meeting for breakfast and then all going your own way also seems to happen.
The weather has now settled and it is in the low 20s each day. Last week was a different story. Nelson suffered the worst urban flooding ever in  NZ !! 3 months of rain fell in 30 hours. Landslides were quite serious in some areas. We watched the rain fall for a week and our water tanks were full to over-flowing. We were happy as that is our only supply of water and it may not rain again for months. Our land and immediate area was unaffected by landslides or flooding.

All the rain has helped the grass to grow. Our fields needed some animals to eat it. The fencing had been done, but because the ground was so wet they couldn't tighten the wire as the posts moved when they tried. It was enough of a fence to get the walking lawnmowers in.....a guy brought us some Llamas two days ago.
Our Llamas, 5 in total.
 We have called them Dali Llama, Osama bin Llama, Barrack O'Llama, Smoke allama and Fire allama !!

This one is the Dali Llama, she is the boss

All the rain has helped the vege plot which is starting to get triphid-like.

Hopefully the necks of the llamas are not that long, so they wont help themselves to our produce.
Llamas are ( according to the internet), placid and rarely spit at humans. My short experience with Llamas has shown this is not always the case. They are docile and they hum and make quite noises. They are inquisitive and they like to look you in the eye (they are taller than us !) However Dali looked me in the eye, put her ears back, hissed and then green, smelly, half-digested grass was spat out of her mouth, all over me! Lisa, who seems to be the Llama whisperer, told me to take my sun glasses off my head and stare her out. I did and it may have worked; I will see how well we get on.

Vineyard View B&B has got its first (paying) guests. The room got a makeover and was finished the day before they were due to arrive. We have some more arriving  a few days after Christmas.

Tomorrow is christmas day, the second time we have been here at this time of the year. Two years ago we were tourists having a good time. Now we are residents having a great time. We will cook breakfast for our B&B guests then get them dispatched. We then plan to go for a cycle, bbq some food, relax in the garden and then have some of the neighbours round for a drink in the evening. I'm not dreaming of a white Christmas.



Spring time

Spring is in the air, sunny days and lots of gardening needs to be done.


Lisa gets to grips with the new lawnmower



Lots of plans for the newly constructed vege plots



time out from all that exhausting work !



weeding at the front of the house

getting to grips with the 'weed eater'

It is however worth all the effort as the location is beautiful and when we are not cutting grass or weed eating, it is also tranquil.


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Evening sunshine at the back garden

This is why we are calling our accommodation Vineyard View Lodge

We still have boxes to unpack and as a reminder of how the journey started for our possessions, the following photo shows how they arrived at the end of their journey, 341 Old Coach Road, Mahana



The removal compnay



Our removal company was great and our unpaid removal friends helped the day go smoothly



The removal 'party'

As mentioned, spring is here, with agricultural shows and school fairs happening. I spotted a report of a school that used' cow pat bingo' to raise money for their school........remember where you heard it first........ it involes marking out an area of grass with squares and fencing the area off. Put a cow (although in this case a pony was used as the cow gave birth that morning) in the fenced off area and wait to see which square she puts her cow pat in !!. You make money by selling off the squares. The winner won $1000 !! I can see YFCs and schools across NIreland rushing to make some money out of watching a cow lifting her tail (I think a few rules are needed to cover various eventualities).

 I hope to blog a bit more often, now we are internet friendly again.