Kia Ora

2 Kia Ora 2013

Kia ora (pronounced key ora) is a Maori greeting meaning “be well/healthy,” used by New Zealanders quite often like “hi.”

Life goes quickly when you are having fun, and our 10 days in Ngaruawahia flew by as we learned about New Zealand culture,  lifestyle blocks, food, animals and more from the McFarlanes. We had secured our next WWOOF spot on Waiheke Island, a rather large island about 35 minutes northeast of Auckland by ferry. To get to the ferry we took an Intercity bus from Ngaruawahia to Auckland, then walked the 10 blocks to the terminal. Pretty easy with a little advanced planning.

The ferry ride was easy enough, a bit overcast but still offering views of Rangotito and Motutapu islands. We landed on Waiheke and met our new host, Fiona, at the terminal parking lot as she and her kids dropped off their previous 2 wwoofers. We traveled the 20 minutes to their house, hearing about their animals and taking in some of the beautiful scenery. Upon arriving at their 15 acre lifestyle block we were introduced to their 2 Kunekune pigs, 4 sheep, ducks, and 130 or so chickens, over 100 brown shavers and some cute heritage breeds. Our spot for the week was a separate sleepout cottage just down from their house, with a foldout bed, large jug for water, and compost bucket toilet (luckily it at least had a normal seat). I can’t say I was eager to scoop dried leaves into the bucket each time, but I made do. Adam mostly used his guy capabilities and went outside.

As their land was at the top of a hill on an island, the views were absolutely amazing. We could easily see the sparkling blue ocean from our bed and the whole cottage, but the sheep had the best view in their paddock, 360○ of ocean, including across to downtown Auckland. It was gorgeous everywhere you looked. The heritage breeds of chickens and the ducks were entertaining to watch,  figuring out their personalities and tendencies. This was also the first place we heard wild peacocks in the bush, their screams often sounding somewhat human from up in the trees.

Our work for the week involved double-digging 2 garden rows, both 1 meter wide and about 20 meters long. Double-digging was a new gardening method for both of us, an intensive way to bring your soil to life. First you dig down about 12″ and remove the soil across the 1 meter bed. Then with large tines you loosen the next 12″ down, so you have disturbed 24″ down to improve growing conditions. All of this after picking the heaps and heaps of weeds out of the bed. I essentially spent 18 hours plucking weeds, large and small, that week while Adam followed behind, digging. This was hard work, despite what the video we watched on this method indicated. We got both beds done before leaving for our next spot but were both exhausted.

We spent afternoons that week either reading and napping to recover, or exploring Waiheke as best we could without a car. One afternoon we walked about 45 minutes through the forest of the Whakanewha Regional Park to the beach, hearing and seeing native birds and beautiful trees. The beach was full of birds and purple shells but no people… my kind of beach. One afternoon Fiona was kind enough to drop us off in one of the beach towns, Oneroa, where we wandered along the shopping strip, ducking into an op shop (thrift store) where Adam picked up a long sleeve shirt for $1. We found a nice spot, Spice Cafe, to stop and have a milkshake, the food I had been missing most since leaving home.

One caramel milkshake, iced coffee and $15 later (food is expensive in New Zealand), we waited for a bus to Onetangi, hopping off at Wild on Waiheke for some winery experiences. The concept of WoW is cool, a winery, brewery, cafe and beer cellar with outdoor entertainment – archery, laser skeet shooting, life sized chess, bocce ball, and other games, designed for family entertainment as well as parties and corporate groups. You could wander through the vineyard, relax on the patio, or entertain yourself with activities like the corporate group there that afternoon was doing.

After sampling the Waiheke Island Brewery dark ale, Topknot Hill Winery pinot gris, and the ginger beer there we wandered up the long gravel drive next door to Te Motu Winery. The walk was worth it for a taste of 4 flavorful white wines plus a colorful red made from 4 different types of grapes. All 5 were absolutely delicious and reinforced that New Zealand wines really are a step above. Our server, Chantelle, was really interesting to talk to, having traveled the world for the past 20 years. She also gave us great suggestions for what to do on the island and potential wwoofing connections. She reminded me of my friend, Melea, a wonderful reminder especially with my first Christmas away from home around the corner.

After breakfast and lunch on our own in the cottage with provided food, we ate dinner at Fiona’s house, sometimes with various members of the family including daughter Sascha and son Willie, who at 8 years old is the biggest Queen fan I’ve ever met, once proclaiming “It’s too bad Freddie is dead,” then having to explain to Adam and me that he was referring to Freddie Mercury. After dinner we usually headed back to the cottage for an early bedtime, knowing we had to get up early enough (usually 6am to start work in the cooler morning), but more knowing we would be woken up starting around 4am by Sly, the pesky rooster that liked to hang out by our cottage. Needless to say there were a few not so nice words thrown his way at that hour.

Friday after our 5 hours in the garden we got ready to leave, doing a grocery run for ourselves before moving to a campsite further east on the island for a few nights, as we didn’t find a wwoof host over the Christmas holiday. Friday the 21st was also my dad’s birthday,  so we gave him a call even though for him it was only Thursday.  New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of EST and across the International Date Line, so we have to adjust for the time difference when calling home.

Saturday morning Steve, Fiona’s husband, dropped us off at Cote Jardin, a camping spot and B&B run by a French couple. We played checkers on the porch til Brigitte and Benoir arrived home and we got acquainted with our surroundings. We found a nice spot for our tent shelter, played more checkers, made a small dinner and settled in for the night. I can’t say we slept much, though, since our shelter wasn’t completely enclosed (no base) and what felt like hundreds of mosquitoes smelled out the foreigners and joined our sleeping arrangements, buzzing around our faces and biting us where they found exposed skin. It was hot that night but I tried to bury myself in my down sleeping bag, lamenting the hot stickiness and incessant bzzz while cursing the situation. I think at some point during the night Adam even peeled back the tent from the stakes to evacuate as many biting insects as possible, granting us a short respite of sleep in the early morning hours, but they returned before long.

Sunday morning we were tired and itching but that didn’t deter a walk to some wineries. There are over 30 wineries on Waiheke Island alone and we visited 2 that day, starting at Passage Rock for a comprehensive tasting and then lunch, a smoked chicken and bleu cheese pizza with caramelized onions. We bought a bottle of their pinot gris for Christmas, then walked up a huge long hill with views of the ocean to View East Winery for a taste of 2 syrahs (same as Australian shiraz). The walk back down the hill was much easier before working to reinforce the base of our shelter against insects. We densely packed straw with logs on top, tucking it under the edges and hoping to prevent more overnight visitors. More checkers followed, one game lasting almost 2 hours, before the rain started.

We cooked another simple dinner that night and chatted with our campsite neighbors, an English couple about our age who had moved to Auckland about a year prior. Our shared interests kept us talking for a while, and they made suggestions for things to do around the country. They also most graciously let us use their strong insect repellent, which combined with our shelter reinforcement made for a much better sleeping night. We both took a Benadryl before bed for the intense itching, and only had a few night visitors, which made for a better, but still not great, night of sleep.

Christmas Eve morning we were scheduled to move inside the house at Cote Jardin to their bed & breakfast room so in the midst of the rain we carried our belongings there. We talked again with Tom and Karina for a while and left our tent for the following night when we moved back outside. It rained most of the day but we were under cover, able to shower, lie in a comfortable bed to read a book or play cards on the porch. I think we were both most homesick those days, being away from family and friends and holiday celebrations, while also being stuck in a remote area without a car or way to get anywhere. We lounged and read, played cards and snacked, but really felt isolated and ready to move on. We thought about leaving the island a day early but didn’t have anywhere to be til the 26th, and finding a new spot for Christmas might have been tricky, so we talked to each other about the loneliness and played some more cards.

Christmas eve night we shared our bottle of wine and made some pasta on our little backpacking stove, truly gourmet. I think we even had a bit of chocolate, a weakness of mine. Our French hosts had friends over for dinner and revelry that night, and we could hear their festivities through our wall which made us a bit more homesick, missing our familiar, wonderful people but I’m proud of how we made it through those sad moments together.

More rain ushered in Christmas morning as we awoke in time for a delicious breakfast prepared by Brigitte and Benoir. As we enjoyed coffee, tea, and freshly squeezed orange juice on the porch they brought out savory thin pancakes with melted cheese, then toast with fabulous homemade feijoa ginger jam and honey. I could have eaten a whole loaf of bread with those spreads.

We spent most of that day reading books and magazines and playing cards on the porch under cover from the rain. As more campers arrived and staked out their spots we realized how much happier we were inside and decided to pay the difference for another night in the B&B instead of moving back out to our tent for our last night. It was money well spent as we were able to sleep away from the ferocious mosquitoes and sand flies.

Christmas Day passed slowly until around 6pm when guests of our French hosts arrived for a casual party to open their gypsy caravan they had converted into a rentable sleeping space. Guests from all over the island, many of whom were originally from elsewhere in the world, brought food and wine to share and invited us into their conversations. We met new friends from Spain, Japan, Italy, Canada and France, ate tasty food (my favorite snack were the dates stuffed with mascarpone), and celebrated the night, despite the insistent rain.

Breakfast the next morning was just as tasty, a thin egg on toast with melted cheese and my favorite feijoa ginger jam and homemade honey. Brigitte was very nice to drive us the 10km or so to the Onetangi bus stop the next morning, and we hopped on to head back to the ferry and Auckland, on to new adventures. Our time on the island was beautiful but somewhat isolating without a car. We were truly missing some comforts of home that week, including our van.

Live from New Zealand

1 Live from New Zealand 2013

[Please excuse the delay in getting this posted, as trying to write and manage pictures on our tablet has been more challenging than I anticipated. So as to keep moving forward I’m going to proceed with pictures in a new way, mostly with a link in each post, like above. Resizing and inserting has just proven too time consuming. Enjoy!]

Happy New Year! We’ve been traveling in and learning about New Zealand for the last 3 or so weeks, finding the country beautiful, very friendly, and easy to navigate. Our main problem now is there is so much we want to do!

My last quick post was to say we had arrived and all was well. We spent a great 10 days or so with Joanna, Heath, Kayla, Callum, and their animals on their 15 acre lifestyle block outside Ngaruawahia, close to Hamilton and about an hour south of Auckland. While there we fed the animals most days, chickens, cows, alpacas, sheep, and weeded most of their extensive flower garden beds. They had only moved to this property 3 months prior so were still hard at work with multiple projects including the daunting beds. We slowly made progress, then felt great when we were able to define the true garden border. Throughout the week we made our way around the yard, clearing out each bed as necessary and generating plenty of compost weeds. The first day we all planned to get in the pool after working to cool off, but before putting my togs (swimsuit) on I truly managed to fall in instead. Winner!

We also had the chance to take part in a few end-of-year school festivities, including their primary/intermediate school gala, a festival day with rides and a bouncy house, food and lollies for sale, and just general fun. We also stopped in on their school picnic, a fun field trip with swimming, kayaking, paddle boats, and gentle paint ball. It was fun to see all the Kiwi kids in action.

We learned a lot about the country and culture while with the McFarlane family – Kayla quizzed us on Kiwi words like chuffed (excited) and choice (cool) while Callum told us about eels and birds and was super industrious outside. Joanna and Heath were helpful in getting us acquainted with a cell phone, car search (we have learned that the hood is the bonnet and the trunk is the boot), and errands – Adam even bought a pair of jandals (flip-flops).

As summer was starting the animals were getting warmer so Adam helped to shear their alpacas and sheep. They weren’t the most beautiful creatures after finishing, but I’m betting they were cooler. We moved the fence for the cows each day to give them fresh grass, a trickier task since the hill they were on was quite steep, but it helped us get in shape. Some pesky cows managed to get out of the fence, but seemed to respond as we coaxed them back inside. This experience was a great introduction to the WWOOF experience, World Wide Opportunities in Organic Farming, that we hope to participate in most of the time we are in the country. WWOOF programs are available all over the world and offer room and board in exchange for 4-5 hours of work per day. The work depends on the host but often includes gardening, animal care, fruit picking, construction, etc.

We certainly ate well that week, with beef from their home kill in various forms, rabbit pie, kumara (like a sweet potato), ice blocks (popsicles), fresh eggs from their chickens, and a new tasty treat, pavlova. This delicious dessert is a sweet meringue with whipped cream and green kiwi fruit and strawberries on top. It’s a new favorite and hopefully we can make some of our own at home.

Friday night the family was gone and they were generous enough to lend us one of their cars to venture into Hamilton. Adam had been working on his driving, on the left side of the road with the driver’s side on the right, and his confidence was improving with Joanna’s help. Roundabouts were trickiest to master but I think he got the hang of them quickly. In Hamilton we enjoyed a gourmet pizza and walked around, then took a bottle of wine home and managed not to get lost.

Saturday we ventured out with a car once again, heading west to Bridal Veil Falls and then on to the surfer town of Raglan. The falls were beautiful, 55meters tall with viewpoints from the top, middle, and base, and we hiked down the 261 steps to the bottom then back up again. Raglan had a laid-back vibe, as does much of this country, with lots of cafes and little artisan shops. We landed at Manu Bay Reserve, a little south of town, to gaze at the beautiful blue-green Tasman Sea and the surfers enjoying the waves.

After heading back to the house we hopped in the car with Joanna and headed about 2 hours east to Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty area. Her mom and step-dad live in a great house overlooking a big estuary with views of Mount Maunganui. Adam took lots of pictures from their deck including some great sunset shots. We had a delicious dinner of beef sausages and patties, lamb sausages, and chicken from the barbie plus kumara, potato salad, green beans and salad, with jello with tons of fresh berries, yogurt, and ice cream for dessert. Later that night we ventured out with Wendy and Joanna to see Christmas lights around town, one house was immensely decorated, and then drove to Mount Maunganui in the dark, stopping at the quiet beach and driving through town, which apparently gets rockin around 11pm.

We arose early on Sunday to see the fishing crew off on their boat adventure before making breakfast ourselves and hauling the kayak down the street to the water before spending an hour or so paddling around. We then ventured back out to Mount Maunganui and walked around the beach, a lively place during the day, dipping our toes in the water to escape the heat of the sand.

On our way back to Ngaruawahia that evening with Joanna and Callum we drove through Matamata, a hotbed of Hobbittown where their information center has a rounded roof and doors and looks straight out of one of the movies. We stopped to pick up fish and chips, plus some potato wedges, a paua fritter (abalone), and pineapple fritter, plus some Kiwi treats like L&P (a somewhat citrusy beverage made here), ginger beer, pineapple lumps (like chocolate covered pineapple taffy), and jeffers (chocolate and fruit balls).

Monday we were sad to say goodbye to the McFarlanes and the very welcoming environment at their house. We’ll be back to visit them before we leave the country, and hope to stay in touch even when we are back in the States. They made our first days in the country so enjoyable, educational, and truly helpful for getting acquainted. They were also most generous and we are forever grateful.

New Zealand as a whole is really laid back, people are friendly and eager to help, and life is casual. Most people seem to pay attention to their water consumption (the places we have stayed collect rain water from their gutters for their main water source) and compost, and many have chickens. The country seems quite environmentally conscious and dedicated to a good life, celebrating the outdoors and natural beauty. There is not a “no shirt, no shoes, no service” rule, so plenty of people skip either or both, even when out and about. I feel very comfortable with the small assortment of clothes I brought that can all be used for hiking, weeding, or out in public. It’s definitely a nice place to be, and so beautiful!