So long to New Zealand

Well our final day has arrived. We're mixed emotions of course, sad to leave our new friends and fantastic country, unsure about how our week in remote Samoa will fare, and excited to see our family and friends again.

So here's a smattering of last weeks pictures in Auckland and Northland as well as some final thoughts on our trip:

Here's Janwyn excited to be on Rawawa Beach on the East side of Cape Reinga, the northernmost point on the North Island.


Heading home on our overnight cruise. We had a fantastic time in the Bay of Islands snorkeling, kayaking, fishing, and drinking Tui Beer.


While staying with Giselle in Auckland, we helped Graham with his unveiling of Marama Organic Meats to the customers of Farro Fresh Foods. Here we are in front of Graham's new sign honoring the occasion.

And here are our two time hosts themselves, Graham, proud South Otago Farmer, and Giselle, who's home we graciously visited in lovely Parnell, Auckland.

Here I am, offering some freshly grilled organic meat. There were plenty of takers during the two weekends we visited Farro Fresh.

And with that, the top five things we're looking forward to back in The States:

5. Spoons that are conveniently mouth size!
4. Finding a job, making our new home, and creating a new garden
3. Having a coffee from Muddy Waters on Belmont in Portland
2. Screens on windows
1. Seeing Yin.

Hope to see everyone when we return from Samoa!

Chook Plucking!

Lyn, our WWOOF host at Gardenstone was pleased to hear we were willing to give plucking a try: "I need three plucked and the heck if I'm doing it myself!" she said. Apparently some wwoofers are squeamish about plucking 3000 or so feathers off of a freshly killed, still warm, chicken carcass. Who knew?

Watch the slideshow below or click here.

Pictures from Dannevirke

Just a few pictures of our time in Dannevirke. We shared a cookies and cream cheesecake at Yummy Mummy's Cheesecakes. It was okay. And we're not sure if this dog had a name. But he was sure starved of some loving attention!

WWOOF-ing - North Island style

Wow, too much time has passed since we last posted, and I bet a lot of people would like to see some pictures, huh?  

Well, they're in the works, but I thought I'd at least continue to the posting thread since it has been so long.  We were "out in the bush" as they say for 5 days last week completing one of the nine great walks of New Zealand, but in this case we didn't walk.  It was on the Whanganui Journey, a 3-5 day canoe paddle down the second longest river in New Zealand.  The paddling and weather was mostly good, and we stayed two nights at Tieke Kainga, a Maori compound featuring a Maori Marae, their meeting house.  Three Maori women were in residence while we were there and we found them very friendly and interesting to talk to.

Immediately after that, we went on the advertised "best one-day walk in New Zealand" the Tongariro Crossing in the middle of the North Island.  We were initially hesitant to do it, as it tends to be crowded and kinda "busload-touristy" but we were glad to find the scenery largely outweighed the negatives of the crowd and we had a great time.

And now, now were staying on our third WWOOF, in a village near Wellington called Paekakariki with Marianne and Gabriel, who are ex-Californians six years removed, and their black lab, the very friendly Brinco.  We've been having a great time exchanging American ideals from afar and learning about the outsiders view of New Zealand.  In short, a great time to have by all.

Well, that should be about enough out of me for now.  Many stories to catch up on, but that'll have to be next time!

And I see we went over 1000 hits on our counter!  WOW!  Amazing to be able to connect with everyone in this way.  How exciting!

From the land where Santa wears swimtrunks

Wow, it feels like quite a while since I've written down thoughts on the blog. A lot of pictures and quotes over the past few weeks.

Well to catch everyone up to date, it's the day before Christmas Eve, and we've settled in on our second WWOOF here in Wanaka. (We had Skyped with our families yesterday and plans were up in the air. Pleasantly, we found a place right here in town.) Our previous WWOOF host Graham was kind enough to put in a good word for us with Chrissy, who in turn gave us a place to stay over the holidays. We'll be here through Boxing Day (Friday).

When we arrived yesterday, we busied ourselves with weeding and then today continued with the landscaping by putting in a few raised garden beds. We added in some black soil and gravel walkway to make a very appealing presentation and hopefully can wrap up the work tomorrow. It's been fun, but physically exhausting work.

After Friday, we've discussed a bit where we want to go, but haven't settled on plans. We're evaluating a few WWOOFS further North which will help us get on our way. We'll have to see what comes up.

As for the Kiwi Christmas, it's a pretty interesting time. Any representation of Santa tends to have him on the beach sunbathing, out swimming, or other summer activities. Which is a mirror of how many people here spend the day. They'll typically stay with family and enjoy a BBQ on the beach. And why not, it's above 23 Celsius here (above 80 F)o getting outside is definitely a great plan.

But it's certainly different holiday plans than we're used to!

Marama Farm

Hi all,
Marama Farm has been hosting us well. So far this week we've:

• Been learning about soil chemistry
• Met some of the Southern Otago farmers in the area over a delicious bbq of local meats
  
• Understanding some of the affects of organic farming vs. traditional farming
• Eating lots of lamb sausages (bbq-ed, boiled, fried)
  
• Spring cleaning in the main house
• Done a couple loads of laundry
  
• Got Marama Organics setup with a Salesforce account (yes, sort of doing a little work!)
  
• Got up at 6:00 AM this morning to observe Graham and Rose (the herding dog) shift sheep (aka move to a new paddock)
• Watched a movie about Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm. Interestingly enough, I had read up on this subject in my book, The Omnivore's Dilemma.
• Think I might subscribe to Acre's USA magazine when I get home
• Packed frozen lamb sausages in 1 kg packages this afternoon at Churchy's butchery
  
• Took Corey's picture next to what we think is the largest Brown Trout (another one of his "The World's Largest.... photos"\
• Build a compost bin!
• Made banana loaves -- yum!
• Took down some fencing
• Chopped firewood (ick -- blisters)
  
• Enjoyed the fine company of Graham, Mitch, Walter, and Lolita!
  

Wwoofing in Gore...

Hey all,

It's Monday here and I wanted to shoot a quick note that we've started our first Wwoofing experience in Gore, South Otago Region. WWOOF is the acronym for Willing Workers On Organic Farms and we're on a 3000 acre sheep and cattle farm named Marama Organics (www.maramaorganics.co.nz) with Graham Clarke. We arrived on Saturday and were surprised to find Graham out in Dunedin watching his son play in a cricket match for the day. Luckily, farm-hand Walter, a nice guy who started as a Wwoofer from Austria, showed us around and got us settled.

So far, we're diving into work here, a combination of our feeling the need to do work and the fact that there's plenty to do here! I've put my quasi-carpentry skills to work and Janwyn was pleased to find a vacuum and has thus far very much enjoyed the opportunity to make things sparkle and shine (surprise, right!). We'll turn our attention to the vegitable garden, Graham's admitted non-interest leaves lot's to do there. However, the region's getting some much needed rain, so we're focussing today on things to do in the dry indoors. Graham's also asked us to provide some much-needed Marketing and Business knowledge, which we're beginning to dole out, including an intriguing Japanese "Adopt a sheep" program. Definately an interesting consideration!

We'll be here for the balance of the week and it's very nice to both be relaxed regarding our travel and dig into some genuine work for a change of pace.

Google map -- see below

Hi there, just wanted to let everyone know that I updated our map to show where we've been over the last month. Click here or scroll down and click on the map at the bottom of the page.