Skies of Southland
Well, seven months into our New Zealand adventure, I’m glad we’re here! I’ve got many likes and many gripes, but it’s been a great life experience so far.
After a weekend in Kiwi Burn hut (public cabin) drinking wine, writing blog entries, reading, and playing cards, we arrived back at the trailhead to find our van battery dead. We spent thirty hilarious minutes, fruitlessly attempting to shove around at least a half-ton of metal, car parts, and all our stuff on wheels. Maybe if the ground hadn’t been soaked. Maybe if we’d had more than twenty feet of flat ground. Maybe if I’d known to try popping it in 2nd gear instead of 1st. Instead, we found ourselves easily two hours drive from any town, and (as we would learn later) we were also in an area with only two farms in 25 miles. The gods of fate
Not our back road buddies, but in the same club.
smiled upon us, however. We trekked across a sheep field and had to run the rest of the way to the road in time to flag down the only sign of life the whole day. The”Deliverance” theme song raced through my mind as I got a load of the occupants of the little truck we’d stopped. I tried to hide my surprise and worries behind a wide-eyed smile as I requested that they detour to help us. Neville and his reluctant hunting partner, Danny, had us back on our feet rather quickly and raced off to find some ducks to shoot. Thank you!
We’d planned to arrive at our umpteenth wwoofing spot ready to accomplish an afternoon of work. Instead, we turned up late and deflated from our unexpected experience. Bernard and Maryse — a wonderful, entertaining, fun French-Kiwi couple forgave us readily and we settled in to recover. Bernard is tall, lean, friendly, and very welcoming. Maryse is hilarious and possesses my favorite brand of humor — existentialist cynicism. They were absolutely fantastic!
sweet old Tanzi at the end of a winter day
Twenty years ago, they left France for a three-year stay in New Zealand with their 5, 12, and 15 year-old in tow. They’ve never looked back! After “too-long” in Auckland, they’ve bought up a little piece of “the only thing unique to New Zealand — nothing.” They raise goats for milking, supplementing the growth of their farm with jobs as a computer programmer (Bernard) and primary teacher (Maryse). All the goats were on “maternity leave” since we’d arrived so late in the fall. We didn’t get to milk the animals, but we did get to taste the cheese! Chevre (soft goat cheese) is one of my all-time-favorite cheeses (don’t knock it until you try it!). We got to taste several of Bernard’s creations — from a blue-cheesy block to feta and more! All, of course, were completely YUM.
Goat wants to ride the quad, too.
We spent our days fixing and reinforcing a fence, chainsawing felled Eucalyptus trees for winter heat, weed-eating the front paddock, and a few random bits. The goats were great company, and wildly curious. Other memorable personalities included Queias (sp?) – pronounced “Chaos” – and Cheyenne the horses, Lasko and Caleb the dogs, and Domino and Tanzi the cats. Queias deserves his homonym. Lasko is a beautiful HUGE Newfoundland canine, complete with webbed paws. Caleb is a sweet puppy trying in earnest to earn the title of farm dog. And Tanzi is my mom’s beautiful black cat reincarnate.
our pride and joy
Bernard is a wonderful cook, and we shared many lovely evenings of conversation and yummy food. One evening, we headed out to a small community event held at the local fire station — a speaker on heritage (heirloom) apple trees. Really, he ended up teaching more about permaculture, but it was really fascinating. Also very politically charged, which was interesting to observe.
I fit in a run on our final morning past fields of cows who were intermittently scared of and attracted to me, as well as “swedes” (rutabagas) growing tall for winter feed. Then we were off for a wild and spontaneous Saturday of oysters, beer, and nightlife!
Weird fireman, farm animals, and chainsaw massacre audition photos by clicking here.
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