Matakana: The Animal Sanctuary

We arrived in the town of Warkworth on Wednesday of last week. After lunch and a leisurely stroll around town (and a visit to a pre-loved book store called 'Unicorn Books'), we were picked up by a lively gentleman named Michael. As our new host, he took us to the grocery store, and then drive us the 30 minutes, up past Matakana, and into the hills beyond. Nestled in the hills is Shawn and Michael's Animal Sanctuary (click me). My favorite thing about our new temporary home, so far, is the lack of weeding. Instead we get to do interesting things like creating gates, feeding animals, harvesting basil, making bulk amounts of pesto for freezing,  installing gib (sheetrock) in the garage ceiling, turning soil, applying compost, and even scooping poops!

Saturday Michael drove us down to Matakana to visit the market. The market itself is quaint and lively - live music, fresh smoothies, espresso, fresh honey, hand made goods, crisp loaves of bread and succulent local fruits. However the market is so appealing that it brings in hundreds of people from surrounding areas. It's only an hours drive from Auckland, the North Island's most populated city, so many keen shoppers make the Saturday drive as a day trip. It is such a crowded market that Shawn said she doesn't even bother trying to shove her way through the crowds anymore.

Excerpt from a pamphlet about Warkworth, Matakana, and surrounding regions: "The iconic public toilets, overlooking the tidal Matakana River, caused quite a stir when it was suggested that the town wanted something better than the bog-standard council dunny. After staging a national competition, it was young Matakana teenager Steffan de Haan's design, which got the tick of approval. Although council agreed to meet part of the costs, it took the community seven years to raise the balance. The complex houses two unisex toilets, with an exterior that features recycled kauri panelling and shotcrete walls, sandstone cobbles and marble tiles.the distinctive heads at the entrance were cast from fibreglass moulds. The toilets were declared officially open for business in 2009."

In a weeks time, I haven't had time to photograph all the resident animals yet. I'll introduce them as I take their portraits.

Snowy, the sulphur-crested cockatoo: Despite her ability to master an extensive vocabulary, she only uses two token words; "Ello" and "Scratch?" As you eat your meal at the nearby dining table she screeches and says "ello" until you feed her several pieces. For breakfast, she prefers toast with varied toppings.

The rescue 'chooks': These 10 ladies were saved from slaughter late Tuesday night before we arrived. They're having trouble adjusting and still peck at each other often. Comfort and happiness is on the way though, as soon as they adjust to the free range life they will start to grow back feathers, eat normally, and be given in groups to different welcoming homes.

The hallway aviary residents and Benji: Benji was rescued from a family that kept him locked in the basement indefinitely. Instead of being a meal for a Korean family he now perkily trots around the house, mostly looking for scraps. The first thing he does in the morning is beeline straight for Snowys cage looking for bits of food she dropped from her talons during one of her many snack times.

Bittern: A type of marsh dwelling bird (similar to a heron). This one was brought here on Monday with a broken leg, found on the side of the road by a family who are friends with Shawn and Michael. He raises his head, stretching out his neck to blend on with his marshy surroundings when approached by potential threats. When we approached the cage he was being kept in, he puffed up and menacingly wielded his beak at us with wide eyes.

The animal sanctuary has also been a Kelsey/Harley sanctuary! We have many of the comforts of home, and Shawn and Michael have been very accommodating. We have a free reign over the kitchen and are thus able to cook, bake, and brew at our own discretion. We've been busy making chewy gingersnap blackstrap molasses spice cookies, candied ginger fig bran muffins, silverbeet (aka Swiss chard) stir-fry from the garden, chai, and there are many things to come. 

They have a movie/exercise room with a row of machines and a very extensive DVD collection, so we've been keeping busy exercising while we embark on sweaty cinematic adventures when we have free time during this stormy spell. Over the past 4 days, it has been storming nonstop. High speed winds and constant rain have kept us trapped inside during both working time and free time. The storming is violent enough that many of the towns farther north from us have begun flooding and schools are closed. We have been keeping warm and cozy inside though with slippers, sweatpants, freshly-baked treats and many cups of tea. When it is animal feeding time, we suit up by layering warm clothing, pulling knit caps over our heads and ears, and stepping into hilariously baggy waterproof overpants and jackets, stepping into gumboots before we venture out into the torrential rainstorm.