Good on yeh! - Cambridge

For the past two wonderful weeks we have been residing at Earthstead (click me), home of Alistair and Suzie, who run a posh eco accommodation just outside of Cambridge.Once in Cambridge we phoned Alistair. We agreed to wait for him and were advised that we would recognise him right away, "I have a moustache," he said. Did he ever!

After two busy days preparing the three beautiful sustainably-built earth units, Al and Suzie informed us that they might like to pop over to Australia for a wedding for......9 days!
We were to essentially run their business and take care of their farm for the duration of their trip. We happily agreed, and quickly set to memorising and noting their routines. Before we knew it, they were off (we even got to chauffeur them to the airport, our first behind the wheel experience so far).

 With the help of a wonderful, giggling, stout English woman named Carolyn we were able to prepare the villas for guests that busy first weekend. Making gourmet breakfasts and cleaning the units in a hurry was a wee bit intimidating at times, but everything went over smoothly. We even had the pressure of preparing the Earth House for a newlywed couple.

We had a lovely slumber party with Carolyn, who stayed the night to make sure everything went smoothly. She cooked up a traditional English dinner of 'Toad in the Hole' and brought her copy of "Boy" a quintessential Maori/New Zealand film set in the 80s (it's hysterical, you should see it). After that first day we were on our own, whipping up delicious breakfasts for all the guests at any time they requested.

 

We milked the cow, Apricot, to supply ourselves and the guests with fresh, raw milk. Although quarantining her (very oversized) calf overnight was a hassle, it was well worth it. I've even gotten my milking skills to about half as fast as Harley's experienced hands.

  

 

When we weren't busy with laundering towering baskets of sheets and towels, moving cows, feeding chooks (Tina Turner pictured at right), cleaning and servicing the units, making breakfast, cleaning the main house, or maintaining the many plants, yards and lawns, Carolyn would take us on adventures.

One day, she and her husband Martyn drove us into Hamilton where we bought UKELELES!

We spent some time learning songs and chords at the home of our last host (Terri), which inspired us to acquire our own ukes. Later in our stay Carolyn took us to Quiz Night at Prince Albert, a local pseudo-English pub. We filled in for some of the missing members in her team (The 6 Non-Blondes) and spent the evening leisurely answering categorical questions through different rounds.

Our friend Carolyn is the one straight ahead.

Martyn gave us his insight and recommendations for our intended tramping plans one evening over a lovely home-cooked dinner at their humble abode. An experienced tramper, he showed us pictures from years of hikes interspersed with videos from the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain (see video below).



We changed our backpacking plans upon his suggestion and they lent us a pair of sturdy women's hiking boots and some cookware for the trail.

By the end of our housesitting duties we began to miss our hosts: Alistair's jovial and hilarious tittering high-pitched laugh (that puts us in silent stitches whenever we hear it) and Suzie's warm, gentle, nurturing presence. Needless to say we were happy to pick them up from the Hamilton Airport, even at 2 in the morning.

Since they have been back, our duties have been very casual and lax because of the extra hours we put in during their absence. They presented us greenstone (nephrite) necklaces upon their return as thanks for our work in their stead. Greenstone is revered by the Maori and supposedly increases one's mana, or prestige. "In accord with ancient lore it is usually gifted." Wednesday we spent most of the day in the kitchen peeling, slicing and processing feijoas (what we call pineapple guavas) - which we currently have bucketloads of. We made a feijoa-plum-apple chutney, and the acrid vinegar fumes burned our nostrils as the vat simmered and managed to marinate our bath towels across the room with its potent scent.

We froze, dehydrated, and made a crumble out of the plentiful feijoas - and after all that we only used one of the buckets!

That evening we drove up to see Al's brother, Leighton. While Al and Suzie helped him prep his frontal dirt patch for sod, we drove up to the highest point in Cambridge; it used to be a retreat for people suffering from Tuberculosis and later for WWI convalescents. Now it is a nature reserve with a sweeping view of the surrounding landscape and towns.

Yesterday after a bit of yardwork and a high tea photoshoot our lovely hosts let us borrow their kayak for a leisurely paddle down the Waikato river, which snakes its way through lush ferns and expensive real estate and into the town of Hamilton. We tagged along with Suzie on some errands before she treated us to delicious local gelato. We concluded our night with surprisingly delicious leftovers, storytelling over steaming mugs of chai, and yoghurt-making.

Spice cake with Bailey's frosting. I decorated it :)

Plus Denise's tasty and cheesy scones.

This is the woman that knits wool teapot cozies for Suzie's Villas - Mary.

Mary and her assistant/daughter Denise enjoying their High Tea!

Today after some cleaning and prep work in the accomodation units we processed more fruit (crabapples and baking apples this time) and Kelsey helped Suzie with organizing while I (Harley) followed Alistair and Dave out to check on the Earthstead hives and harvest some wildflower honey. I stumbled onto Alistair donning his DEVO beekeeper suit and knowing something magical was afoot, so I grabbed Kelsey's camera and followed them out into the paddock where the bees are kept. The bees, sluggish and confused by the smoker, were a little inquisitive about me but most of their attention was on Dave and Al as they pulled out and examined the honey-laden panels from the crates.

We've just booked a rental car for the last 15 days of our time in New Zealand starting Saturday. With it, we will see many of the glorious parks - including the Corommandel peninsula, backpacking the Tongariro Northern Circuit, and as many of the other natural splendours as we can fit in.

Magical Mangawhai to Tauranga

Our next host after our wonderful stay at the Animal Sanctuary was with Geoff and Lynne and their two (14 and 16) children in "Magical Mangawhai." Originally they had asked us to stay for a month to help with several events planned with their "mobile adventure activity" business called ROCKUP (click me).
Our first day working, Geoff asked us to dig up a rotten fence post and replace it with a fresh one. After 3 hours of digging, we asked for a little assistance to pull it out, at which point Geoff and Lynne paraded out to help us construct a levering system. When we finally managed to loosen it Harley, Lynne and I were all sitting on the raised end of pole, which was chained perpendicular to the one in the ground. We comically bounced up and down with as much force as we could muster, while Geoff pounded the rotten pole with a mallet to loosen it up. This whole scenario lasted about an hour before the issue was fully resolved.  The following day, after we had washed 4 vehicles, dried a "bouncy castle," and loaded the trucks with Saturday's supplies, we borrowed bikes and rode into Mangawhai proper. As it turned out, a few events were cancelled, so we organized a ride into the Waikato region with Geoff that Saturday - to end our very brief stay in Mangawhai. Ultimately, this wasn't such a terrible turnout because our 'room' was a renovated water tank outside that smelled like mildew, a very lopsided bed, and shower limit of 2 minutes!

The ride we caught with Geoff brought us ~3 hours south, just below Katikati. Luckily we were able to find a host on such short notice, but we had to find a way to travel a 30 minute drive southwest of Pahoia school, where the community event was taking place. After helping set up and trying out the pirate bouncy castle and rock wall for ourselves, we said our goodbyes and set off down State Hwy. 2 loaded up with our packs, our thumbs perked up in hopes of a safe ride to our destination. Luckily enough, within a few minutes a young Kiwi picked us up, gave us a tour of Tauranga city and brought us out of his way to the western borders of the city where our next host family resided. Beginners luck!

A cheery chef named Terri, her 3 children (3, 5, and 10), her sister "Auntie Fat," and two nieces (1 and 6) provided us with our most homely accommodation yet.
This is their lifestyle block from afar.

View facing East from Terri's porch.

(above picture on far right you can see Mt. Maunganui on the horizon, has a slightly flat top)

We started off helping Grandad (Bill, as nobody would call him) by loading his truck full of scrap wood from a pine lumberyard, which we did 5 times over the course of two days. Needless to say, we were thankful to be done, free of pine boogers, sawdust-tickled eyes, and splinter fingers. He offered us a ride to Mt. Maunganui one of the days which gave us the opportunity to hike the majestic coastal mount and have a peek around the beach town which the locals usually call "The Mount."

Bill was always happy to make us tea and lunch, whilst sharing his lack of enthusiasm for "people these days", disdain for sightseeing and conversely his love of birds.

In addition to the wonderful family we were surrounded by at Terri's, there was also a handful of pets and farm animals to interact with.

Smooch: The scrawny loving cat, followed us just about everywhere! We would walk into our room at random times of the day to see her sprawled out on our bed, dozing away or gazing lovingly up at us.

Podge: The waddling seal of a dog, a little past her prime years, but still bursting with energy, always had an apple in her gob (there's actually one just below the frame in this picture of her!) In order to get the apple from her one would have catch her off guard or muscle it out of her reluctant, slobbery mouth.

Lucky: The cow that provided us with sooooo much milk during our stay. Harley is a proficient, trained milker, while I have much to learn. We had to separate her from her overgrown calf during our stay, and her moos echoed in the valley for hours.

Smudge: The fleabag that could snuggle, eternally lounging and stretched out across various furniture.

Friday, while Terrie was at work, we had an opportunity to follow the canal up toward McLaren Falls Reserve, a beautiful park with a lake and waterfall.

The week that we stayed with Terri we were lucky enough to be part of their chicken slaughter. The had a slew of meat hens which had been fattening up in Auntie Fat's avocado orchard. We spent an afternoon making some 69 squawking hens clean and oven-ready.

One sunny morning, we made our way down, herded up chickens into a trailer

(gathering as many ripe avocados as we could hold),

and drove them the very short distance around the corner to Terri's where we had a slaughtering station organized. 

Ms. Ash helping put a tender chicken into the defeathering apparatus.

What egg yolks look like before they come out.

Easter weekend was absolutely wonderful, we were lucky to spend it with such an incredible family! Saturday was the annual jazz festival in Tauranga, which we attended with the family.

We even made the very kiwi treat of hot crossed buns with Terri in honor of the holiday.

On Sunday, we celebrated the holiday with Terri's extended family, and even had a chance to try our chicken.

Just a few quintessential kiwi foods:
Pavlova: a soft-centered meringue with fresh cream on top, best served with fresh fruit as well.

You know what these are.

And Terri's homemade beer, best mixed with a tad of ginger beer.

Leaving Terri's was a bit difficult because it was so homey, but I think it will be good to see new things too!

On our way West toward Cambridge where our next stop is, we made a pit stop...
HOBBITON!

Bag End, where Bilbo and Frodo live

Afterwards, we successfully hitchhiked our way to our next destination with a friendly traveling German man ending his term abroad in Hamilton.