On the Farms in New Zealand

Last Days in New Zealand

2008-01-06T15:31:00.000+13:00

WELLINGTON

We spent our last 3 days in New Zealand travelling from the South Island to the North Island. We took this ferry to Wellington and it was super packed and not much fun!

We did find a nice hostel on a hill with a nice view of the city! Titanic was playing on local tv so you know what daddy did :)

We have been tenting at all the hostels we stay it which is very nice, especially in the cities and it saves us $$ too :)

AUCKLAND

The 12 hour bus ride to Auckland on Saturday was not the horror Colleen expected but it did tire us out as you can see here Ambiana is sleeping late into the morning, our precious little girl, almost 2!

We spent the day before catching our flight walking into Auckland...

...and seeing such things as the Sky Tower, doing some shopping for snacks on the plane and looking for one final custard square which I never found. New Zealand has been a great experience. Our favorite place definately with Nathan and Steph in St. Andrews at Aroha Organics but each place jad something to offer. Now we are looking forward to Part IV of our travelling adventure in Hawai'i!!!

Canaan Downs Festival

2008-01-03T11:22:00.000+13:00

We spent the New year's Holiday weekend at a Music Festival at Canaan Downs. We volunteered as part of the waste management team in exchange for our ticket. It was 5 days of techno /reggae beats and drums.

We had a sweet camp site in the woods where we slept peacefully for the 4 nights we were there.

The festival had a kidzone which we visited everyday. Here Ambiana paints the van!

There was a Capoera workshop everyday as well which Colleen loved. It's a Brazillian martial dance form with accompanying music!

We snuck away one day to a swimming hole and re-discovered Eden. Here is our little Eve!

On the last night of the festival Yaya sat down at the drums in the tribal zone. It was really mellow after 4 nights of techno beats and we had a really nice time dancing with the other kids. Ambiana was so sweet, going up to the other kids and asking them if they wanted to dance!

We hitched out on Wednesday after our last shift on the waste management team and enjoyed some ice cream back in Motueka. Now it's bus to Picton, Ferry to Wellington, bus to Aukland and then on Sunday we fly to Hawai'i!

Still @ Riverside

2007-12-27T18:39:00.000+13:00

We have learned a lot about what a community is not here at Riverside. Though they own the land in common and receive a weekly allowence we did not see much of any community spirit during our 10 days here. Philip came and went and we were pretty much on our own. We walked around and met some interesting folks but they all seemed to be renters not members of the community. The one thing they did together that we saw was get together on Christmas Eve and have a gift exchange.

Philip took us to the beach which is a THE thing to do over the Holidays here in New Zealand and Motueka is one of the more popular places to go to the beach.

Ambiana really liked the river flowing into the sea and spent a lot of time splashing and wading about.

Yaya enjoys the late evening sunset meadow!

It was only on our last night at Riverside that we sat down and enjoyed a dinner with other folk. Here is Philip's neighbor Raewyn (center) and her friend from Wellington. The empty space beside Colleen is where Philip would be sitting but he wandered off just as we sat down. It was a very loooong ten days at Riverside with only maybe 12 hours of work in the garden. Some WWOOFing places are better than others but we did meet some nice folk!

Working Away at Riverside

2007-12-23T20:46:00.000+13:00

Our host at Riverside is Philip, he's been here 30 years, has 5 kids, 2 of whom are currently at Riverside. We spend a lot of time waiting around for Philip. He has his own concept of time. We have a room in his house and eat our meals here, unfortunately we eeat them alone as Philip is often not to be found.

We spend a lot of time out here on the porch waiting for Philip. There are 3 cats who live here and they hang out on the porch too and Ambiana always wants to be out here to be with the cats

We did work in the garden the first two days, planting celery and parsley and weeding everything. After the 1st two days Philip was very indecisive about what we should be doing so we did no more work in the garden.

We celebrated the winter solstice even though it is summer down here, we found this standing stone they call the table even though it is a celtic house of the goddess and here we took in the longest day while celebrating our inner longest night.

Yaya Drums

2007-12-21T18:42:00.000+13:00

Here is a video from Okuti Gardens of Ambiana drumming and of her Crazy Nightly Nakie Time!

Riverside Community

2007-12-20T15:45:00.000+13:00

Riverside in Motueka is the oldest Intentional Community in New Zealand, founded by some pacifist in the 1940's. Motueka we noticed while awaiting our ride there is very Hippyish, on the sea and backsided by mountains and Abel Tasman National Park. It is very pretty here!

Our host's name is Phillip and he has been living here since the 70's. We spent our first day wandering the place. Yaya liked this opening in a handmade slide...

...as wel as the 3 cats that live with Phillip. We are staying in his house and will be working in the Gardens 4 hours or so each day. We will be here at least a week and are looking forward to our time here! Happy Winter Solstice everyone! We are celebrating the Winter Solstice even though it is Summer here because that is is where WE are in the wheel of the year. Planting our new year seed in the bloom of the Southern Summer!

Christchurch and Nelson

2007-12-18T15:38:00.000+13:00

It was sunny and hot in Christchurch when we arrived from Arthur's Pass. We walked to a hostel that let us pitch our tent and then to a supermarket for some food for dinner. Ambiana really liked this dog we found at the supermarket!

The next day while waiting for our bus to Nelson Yaya had loads of fun chasing the ducks!

We bussed it 6 hours to the North of the South Island, checked into a hostel for the night and called our next hosts to let them know when to expect us and were told we could not be accomodated anymore, something about family and christmas and so sorry. Oh well one dorr closes another opens, at least we wouldn't have to be up at 5am to catch the bus to Totoranui the next morning. Instead we spent a rainy day in Nelson at the library and eating custard squares. We sent out an email to 8 other hosts in the area and found a spot at the Riverside Community in Motueka. Yippie, we're going to hang out with the Hippies!

Arthur's Pass: Waterfalls!

2007-12-16T15:27:00.000+13:00

Upon leaving Okuti Gardens we took a weekend off of WWOOFing to spend some time up in the Southern Alps. Ambiana every morning upon waking when asked what she dreamed about says "Waterfalls!" so we decided to go to Arthur's Pass where I had been 17 years before on my 1st trip to NZ remembering the waterfalls that were there! Immediately upon getting off the bus we saw high on the slopes a waterfall and discovered a short little walk to another one downstream of it! Yaya was estatic!

We camped at a simple DOC campground and set off on Saturday under sunny skies for a hike to 2 waterfalls through beautiful moss covered beech forest.

We stopped for lunch beside this cascade and after eating Ambiana took some time to toss some rocks into the stream:)

We hiked up a zillion steps to the Punchbowl waterfall which I had been to in 1991 but there were no steps or observation platform 17 years ago, just a winding trail. Yaya loved the hike and insisted on hiking down all the steps on her own. She is a really good little hiker!

Sunday was super rainy and we spent it in the cafe writing letters, making collages and reading until the bus came to take us down to Christchurch. Yaya shows off her hitchiking skill here :)

Okuit Gardens

2007-12-14T13:06:00.000+13:00

We had a lovely week at Okuti Gardens with Jim and Jane, sharing their house and land and the easy spirits of their lives with Sol and were sad that our time running down in NZ didn't allow us more time with them.

Here you can see one of their yurts that that Jim and Jane offer as accommodation. Colleen worked in the garden while I helped Jim with their website

The rain set in the last couple of days we were there but this did not stop Colleen and Ambiana from going on a bike ride!

While working with Jim on a platform for a 2nd yurt I found this birds nest which I brought back to the house for Ambiana. Jane had a small fake bird which she placed in the nest!

The Banks Peninsula

2007-12-11T17:13:00.001+13:00

Okuti Gardens

We arrived in Little River at 5:30pm on Friday and were met by Jane and her 5 year old son Sol who then drove us up the Okuti valley road to their homestead Okuti Gardens. Little River is gorgeous set in the rolling folds of an old volcano caldera. Their place is nestled against one side of the valley with gorgeous views of the hills across the way. Okuti gardens offers eco-accomodations to travellers in a yurt or a housetruck or in a room in their house.

Our accomodation is in a cute little caravan with a sunporch attached. There is a composting toilet for us and their guests to use as well as a solar shower which is the best shower Colleen has ever used! Amazingly hot and right outside to enjoy the lovely views!

Jim and Jane are seen eating here with us and Arthur in the middle a long term WWOOFer who is building a set of stone steps beside the newly completed Cobb Oven. Jim has various projects going on including building a platform for a 2nd yurt and also an outdoor campers kitchen. Jane manages the gardens and we eat fresh organic veggies with every meal out here on the porch!

Just check out the lovely mountain behind Colleen! Our first day here Jim and jane hosted a party and to help I dug a firepit while Colleen stitched together a badminton net and we got to meet some very nice folk including one gent who finally explained cricket to me!

Ambiana loves Sol and follows him about saying "...like Gaelen!", they play very well together and Yaya loves the selection of toys in his room. Sol goes to school during the week and Yaya misses him :(

There are no dogs on the property but plenty of sheep which of course Ambiana wants to spend all her time with when Sol is not around to follow about :)

Colleen has been helping out in the garden. Here her and Ambiana help themselves to some carrots fresh out of the ground!

New Videos

The Fiji Blog is now complete and I have added new video from Fiji and from New Zealand. Click on these links and check them out!!!

Grammy Nominees!!!

Remember these guys? The Pine Leaf Boys? They stayed with us in June while playing a gig in Northampton because our Alaska Contra Friend Providence is the lead singer's girl? Well they were just nominated for a Grammy for BEST CAJUN ALBUM! Whooo-hoo!!! Way to go Pine leaf Boys!!!

Good-Bye to Nathan

2007-12-07T17:13:00.000+13:00

Leaving Aroha :(

After 18 days we decided it was time to move on from Aroha Organics and see what else new Zealand had to offer. We could happily have stayed for another month because Nathan was so kind and generous and wonderful to be around and work for. Our last week was filled with sunshine and strawberries! Irrigating the strawberries, picking the strawberries, packaging the strawberries and of course EATING the strawberries. Colleen made several yummy strawberry and rhubarb pies and on our last night Nathan busted out the Cadbury Vanilla Ice Cream to go along with it :)

Collen also rescues 11 baby chicks from the woods beside the chicken coop and moved them inside to a box with a light much to the delight of Ambiana! We will miss Nathan and Steph very much but look forward to the time when they will come and be WWOOFers on our organic farm somewhere in the States!

Christchurch

Nathan took us into Timaru to catch the bus (stopping 1st at the refuse center to throw out some plastic ground cover and about 100 gallons of unusable biodiesel remnants) It was a sad good bye :( The bus to Christchurch took about 2 hours and was packed full. Yaya and Colleen sat next to a nice Indian man who delighted in Ambiana's presence!

Once in Christchurch we had a pizza agaian at the Holy Grail sports bar where i watched Game 3 of the World Series. This time there was a soccer game on the big 30' screen. We then booked passage on a bus to take us out to the Banks Penisula and Little River where our next WWOOFing experience awaits us. Ambiana and I played in the sun while Mommy made the arrangements. She loves to "run around" practicing for a race with gaelen in Hawaii!

Sunday @ Aroha

2007-12-02T20:12:00.000+13:00

Nathan took Steph to the airport today so she could fly home to England for the holidays. He left us with chores to do including irrigation and weeding! I spent 3 hours trimming Strawberry leads...

while Colleen and Ambiana washed and prepared Salad mix. Colleen made a yummy cheesy vegie potato pie for dinner and a yummy stawberry pie for desert!

Ambiana in action!!!

Our Weekend Adventure

2007-12-02T19:14:00.002+13:00

On Thursday Night, Nathan and I had a pizza cook-off, each making 2 pies apiece. I took honors in the crust department while Nathan's sauce, made up of homemade plum sauce, homemade tomato sauce and a green pesto was definatley the winner.

On Friday Nathan and Steph gave us use of their car and directed us south about 150km to Hampden by the sea where they own 5 acres and two wee houses one of which we were given use of for the night. Ambiana really liked the flowers out front!

We made a trip to the World famous Moeraki Boulders which are septerian concretions formed some 65 million years ago. Crystallization of calcium and carbonates around charged particles in muddy undersea sediments gradually formed the boulders in a process taking as long as four million years and then they emerge via erosion from the bluff onto the beach. They were definatley a spectacle being so round and egg like...

Yaya just had to climb them...

and Colleen just had to climb in one!!!

On Saturday Tony Cavanaugh greeted us with a bag of breakfast and we joined him at his house for a birthday party for his 4 year old daughter Florence. Tony and Nathan are good mates! There were lots of kids and Ponies to ride. Colleen and Ambiana enjoyed their ride in the Pony Cart!

Ambiana didn't want to ride on the Pony's back but she didn't hesitate to ump right on the Horse's back for a trot around the paddock!

FOUND: Colleen's Biological Dad

2007-11-30T11:58:00.000+13:00

When we were travelling cross country in September Colleen got word from Kris (Her Biological Mom) that she may have found Colleen's Biological Dad and passed on an address to her. Colleen wrote him a letter and when we were in Fiji she rceived an e-mail from him confirming he was indeed her Father. He also sent her a letter and some pictures care of my Mom in Boston and yesterday we received a package from my Mom that included his letter. His name is Mark Steiber and he lives in Houston Texas with his wife Ronda and 12 year old daughter Elyse. He enclosed this picture from 1979. It's like seeing Colleen with a moustache:) Colleen definately has her ftaher's eyes dont' you think???

Ronda, Elyse and Mark Steiber

Darth Gaelen

We also received this picture of Darth Gaelen on Halloween Evening:)

Tractors and Peas

2007-11-28T18:59:00.000+13:00

I got to drive the tractor today as I fertilized the strawberries with an organic biodynamic seaweed fertilizer! Nathan is about the same age as Jay of Beecroft Gardens but they couldn't be more different in their farming styles. Eight days at Beecroft dragged by as we did hardly any work. It was nice to sleep in till 10am and catch up on my reading but I much prefer these up at 7:30am, work till noon, eat a good lunch and then hit the dirt for a few more hours like we do here. Makes Nathan's homebrews that much sweeter :)

We have had only one rainy day since we arrived over a week ago. Here nathan and Colleen plant some peas! I knock off around 3 or 4pm then hang with Ambiana while Colleen works till 5 or 6pm. Natahan just keeps on working until we drag him in for dinner. We have been invited to a kid's birthday party on Saturday where there will be a pony for the kids to ride. Nate and Steph are giving us their car so we can go south, spend the night and attend the party while they enjoy an empty house for a night as Steph is flying home to England on December 2nd for 4 weeks.

Check out my new green hoody! I found it in a thrift store in California the day before we left for Fiji. It didn't get much use there but it's been my best friend here on the chilly South Island of new Zealand!

Ambiana Sings!

2007-11-26T17:13:00.000+13:00

Yaya loves to sing, all day all night, here are 4 of her favorite songs for you to enjoy!

Our Days at Aroha Organics

2007-11-25T15:02:00.000+13:00

We have been at Aroha organics now for 6 days and we LOVE it here even more! My days start at8am when i wake up and join nathan who is usually up at half 4. (yikes) The first couple of days he showed my the irrigation set up so i could tend to it while he and his wife Steph had a weekend away.

Colleen and Yaya are up and about by 10am and when I am done with my 6 hours at 3pm I take Ambiana for her nap while Colleen works till 5pm. Nathan varies the tasks so we don't get bored and he often works beside us plus there is a nice lady named Lynn who comes and helps out as well. Here yaya and Colleen water the herb garden. They are also in charge of feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs. Yaya loves the baby chicks!

Nathan is super friendly and very fun to work with. He shot a rabbit our first day and we ate it the next night for dinner. Yaya yummed it up, her first tase of meat! They left us alone on Friday night and when they came back on Saturday Nathan and Steph cooked us an old fashioned NZ Bar-B-Que and we all ate together on the front lawn during sunset. Then we pulled down the big screen, got out the DVD projector and had a popcorn and beer party while watching "Woodstock." Nathan makes his own homebrew and the chiller is full of them and we get to sample one or two when our work day is done. Even though we work 6 hours a day it does not seem like a long day like the 4 hours at Wairuna organics did because we are so generously welcomed into the household.

On Sunday Natahan gave us use of his car to drive into Timaru and check out the sights. I drove and did quite well on the left side except for the occassional activating of the windshield wipers when I tried to engage the turn signal :) We walked the downtown, checked out a local market and spent sometime on the local strand (beach) so Ambiana could run Nakie in the sun, dip her bottom in the sea and try on Mommy's shoes :)

A Picture from Hme

2007-11-23T16:28:00.000+13:00

Katie emailed us this beautiful picture of Gaelen and his cousin Maya Rain taken when they recently visited Gaelen, Molly and Eden in Erving. We were very happy to receive it. Thank you Katie!!!

Dunedin and Timaru

2007-11-22T17:49:00.000+13:00

We spent a night in Dunedin at a MotorPark camped out in our tent and perusing the city for ice cream, books and internet time. Jay drove us in along with Patch and dropped us at the MotorPark and waited while we set up and then took us downtown. We had a nice day and a beautiful walk back to our campsite. Here is Colleen and yaya waiting for the Bus in front of the Dunedin Train Station :)

We caught the Bus at 2:15pm. Ambiana loves to ride the bus and look out the windows for sheep and cows and dogs. She is a great little traveller nd even takes her naps on the bus when she grows tired of gazing out the windows.

Aroha Organics

Nathan Davis was waiting for us when we arrived in Timaru and he took us back down the road to Aroha Organics. We'll have a picture of him soon:) We really like it here, they have fruit trees, vegie gardens, herb gardens, chickens, bees and hazlenuts plus 3 we dogs and a turtle. We have a room in the house, eat all meals together and work 6 hours a day and love every minute of it. Here are Colleen and Yaya in front of the roadside fruit market.

Life at Beecroft Gardens

2007-11-19T15:13:00.000+13:00

We slept in each day til 9am and then Yaya would have her Nakie Time. She loves to be naked and is really silly when she is, rolling and scampering about and laughing, laughing, laughing :)

Jay took us to town one day and we got ice cream and pizza and Daddy found a new book! Jay then took us to his hometown by the river and we saw his house and heard about his life growing up. Jay is 32 and does not think he will see 40 as he believes G.W. Bush is gonna inflict another "terroist act" upon the US this summer so he can hold onto power and will thus trigger WWIII and Armegeddon. We hope he is wrong, but we do share his distrust of Big Oil and Big Pharamcueticals and strive to live our lives as Organically as possible.

With our free time we wander the paddock...

...and the beach! Colleen made some friends on Friday and we got ourselves invited to a 70th Birthday Party and met some of Bill's neighbors and other locals from Taieri Mouth. On Monday the 19th Jay drove us into Dunedin for a night and on the 20th we are going to take a bus to Timaru and our 3rd WWOOFing farm!

Teigan

2007-11-17T15:09:00.000+13:00

Teigan and Ambiana became best friends as well as Ambiana and Patch. They spent alot of time together, going to the park, going to the animal park across the street that had deer, ponies, emus, ostriches, pigs, peacocks, sheep and goats

Yaya and the Goat

An Emu

Teigan invited us to her school on Friday for assembly and to play on the playground. Her an yaya were inseparable when she was around and it was really nice to see Yaya playing with another child. She is speaking alot, sings her ABC's all the time. Daddy has taught her the signs of the Zodiac as well!

Join us at Taeri Mouth

The Ocean

2007-11-15T15:11:00.000+13:00

We had lots of freetime at the Beecroft gardens, it seems we were there mostly to keep Bil and jay and Teigan company, I think we worked a total of maybe 3 hours the entire 8 days we were there. A little weeding here, a little planting there. The first thing Jay did was take us down to the Ocean to walk along the beach. We saw lots of shells, a pod of dolphins, and even a seal way up off the beach sheltering from the wind behind some flax. The weather was mostly overcast with spots of sun but we did have a glorious Saturday full of sun!

We ate all our meals with Bill, Jay and Teigan and cooked most of them too. We really enjoyed getting to know them, they are very interesting people with very anit-establishment and anti-government views. Daddy spent hours sitting and talking and reading with them while Mommy and Yaya and Teigan wandered the Animal Park and the Playground

Ambiana's favorite thing to do on the beach was to climb rocks!

Taieri Mouth, Otago

2007-11-13T15:06:00.000+13:00

Beecroft Garden Trust

We caught the bus north from Clinton to Wahola where we had a beer in the pub, checked out the lake and the park while we waited for a pick up from the Gardens. Jay picked us up with his small dog Patch and drove us over the hills to Taieri Mouth and Beecroft Gardens where we were invited into the house by Bill. Bill is 83 years old and has been in Taeri mouth for over 20 years and has a World map full of pins showing where all his WWOOFers come from (Mostly Europ and Japan.)

We sat and chatted with him for a bit and then Jay took us on a quick tour of the acre that is the gardens and on up to the hut that was our accomodation. It was a ramshackle affair, rough but comfortable, overlooking an empty sheep paddock, the sea and the coast sweeping on up to Dunedin.

Jay has a nine year old daughter named Teigan who lives with him and her and Ambiana became fast friends

The road looking North

Our last days @ Wairuna Organics

2007-11-12T09:35:00.000+13:00

We worked hard our last week at Wairuna, I mowed the entire lawn while Colleen weeded alot and packed all the salad and stirfry for the farmers market. Yaya was a big help. especially riding around in the wheelbarrow!!!

Her favorite time of the day was to watch Shawn milk the cows!!!

Aude from France arrived on Friday night and we really enjoyed her company. She has been WWOOFing in NZ for 7 months and she shared her stories with us. We were surprised to hear how hard we worked at Wairuna compared to the places she had been. She said the farms that sold the crop for $$$ generally worked the WWOOFers harder.

Pia arrived home on Saturday and drove us to the bus on Sunday, we are headed north to Taieri Mouth to the Beecroft Garden Trust.

We made our weekly call to Gaelen on Saturday morning to reach him Friday night. We love talking with him and staying in touch!

Our Daily Routine

2007-11-05T16:14:00.000+13:00

Damien and Laura from Austrailia were our fellow WWOOFERS the first week. We would meet them for breakfast in the "Station" at 8am and eat yummy toast and porridge before starting work at (am. Colleen and Yaya cut flax and made string while I weeded and areated soil. We would generally work till 1pm with a short break at 11am and then have the rest of the day to ourselves. We work 6 days a week and at first my body ached in a different part each day. Colleen and Yaya loved playong in the dirt. With our time off we made trips into town to buy ice cream and chocolate and explore. I read, 3 books this week including the Kite Runner and In Cold Blood. Damien and Laura left on Saturday and we moved into the Station where our kitchen is and where there is a wood stove.

Mama and yaya cooking in the Station

The weather here is very springlike, cold and then sunny and then rain and then sunny and then hail and then sunny. We eat our dinner with Pia and Shawn and their 11 year old daughter Arisha. Colleen and Laura took turns cooking and we ate late at 8pm as it does not get dark till 9pm. Pia is into astrology and we have spent after dinner time discussing that. She is on the North Island this week so it's just Shawn Arisha and us and we are fending for ourselves for dinner. We leave on Sunday for another farm a bit north of here