30 January 2011

Woke up round 730 this morning and did the usual routine. ☺ Dave watered the garden while I made him a lunch and did dishes. I had the strangest dreams last night. Dave and I were Iooking for an apartment, and then I gave birth to triplets. Shit, that would be a nightmare!!!

Dave went into the wood shop and I stayed behind looking at some teaching books Megan had given me. The books are written by a woman named Sheena Cameron and everyone out here thinks that she is really amazing in education. Megan is going to try to get me into a professional development that Sheena is running this Thursday and Friday. We’ll see, but I hope I can go to them. :)

After drinking coffee, I got ready and Megan took me down to Ahipara Elementary to talk to the Principal, Jackie Osbourne. This time, she was in her office so I was able to speak with her and give her my CV, which went very well. She said she would put my name on the list of relief teachers straight away. Also, Megan was with me and was pretty persistent so she said maybe I could volunteer once per week so I could get to know the staff and students, and the Principal though that was a good idea, and so did I. Maybe after this week, I can go in on Monday or Tuesday to get a feel for the school. That would be fun!

I came home and printed up a couple more CVs and took a nap, quite sleepy today. Woke up, got some beach things together, put a basket on my bike and rode to the wood shop to meet up with Dave when he finished up. We went for a quick dip in the ocean and then headed back home to drink beer, tend the garden and make dinner. I used a couple bell peppers from the garden and stuffed them with tomato, onion, garlic, zucchini and brown rice and we ate that with cottage cheese, kale salad and salsa. Yum! We’re really trying to get in better habits of being super frugal so that we can pay off my student loans ASAP, and start saving. So, Dave was drinking the nasty box wine with cranberry juice and I only had 2 beers. I think this week at the market, we may buy one of each type of box wine and mix them cause they are either very tart or too sweet. I sound like my Irish Grandmother who would mix the red and the white Carlo Rossi and think she was a genius for creating her own special blend. Ghettooooo!!! But who cares if its cheap and tastes alright.

Looking down the front of the Gallery and woodshop Dave works at. :)

29 January 2011

Woke up before 7am, made coffee, Dave watered the plants, I composted the rest of the tomatoes as well as the eggplants and some small pepper plants. Then I started spraying the tomatoes with pyretrin and did a baking soda spray on the butternuts, pumpkins, cucumbers and watermelons to avoid more powdery mildew. Dave played his guitar and fixed the pump while I worked on the blog. After we finished these little projects, I started mowing the grass around the garden so we would have mulch for our veggies. I finished this up and using the pick axe, started pulling some of the grass/ weeds away from the kumara, watermelon and eggplant bed, composted the eggplants and then mulched all the veggies with grass clippings. While I was doing this, Dave started working on making a screen door for the caravan. This is super awesome of him!!! It means that we will have more of a breeze in the caravan, which will be sweet!!!

I went up to the house to do a load of laundry, shower and post some pics and blog entries. When I came back, I finished raking up my mess from weeding and Dave was almost finished with the screen door. Woo-hoo!!! He finished that while I raked some more in the yard and then we got on our bikes. We went for a ride to the beach, warmed up in the sun and took a swim. After jumping in some pretty big waves, we headed home to make some dinner. Dave had the brilliant idea of making small zucchini fritters and using them instead of meatballs in our pasta with tomatoes. It was delish!

He played guitar and we went to bed early. ☺

View of one of the mountains on our bike ride to the beach. :)

28 January 2011

We woke up round 7, got ready to head into town and hit up the farmer’s market and grocery store. We didn’t need much, but somehow ended up spending $100 on cranberry juice, box wine, 18 pack of beer, cider vinegar, brown rice, a loaf of bread, coffee, tea, cottage cheese, sour cream, tea light candles, mustard, rice crackers, garlic, onions and a few other things I can’t remember. Everything is so expensive! At the farmer’s market we picked up another bag of tomatoes and 5 avocados; we would have got more, but not many people were selling cause it was rainy and some roads were flooded. We also went to the little dollar store type place and picked up some fabric for curtains, thread and sewing needles, which will be nice to keep the sun out when it is really hot. We stopped at the garden center on the way back for some more compost and some peat moss for the composting toilet. I looked around for the rose section, which was one table and only had 1 English rose on it, Grace. She was gorgeous, yellow-apricot with pointed petals; very cute and a beautiful fragrance. The woman working, Jan was quite the chatterbox, but nice. She and Dave talked about native trees for a while and then I asked her about roses in this area. She told me that no one grows roses in the Northland, and that I should consider doing it. My idea exactly!!! We’ll see what happens, but I am definitely going to work on a Gardening CV and drop it by next Saturday on the way back from the market. It would be pretty cool to work there and learn about all the Native flora and fauna.

We came back, unloaded the van, loaded our recycling and brought it by the dump. The dump was cool, in that you had to separate all you glass, plastics, etc. yourself and the guy working there was happy as a fly on shit. Why are garbage men so happy?! Seriously though, the guy was awesome.

We came back to the house, cleaned up a bit from the night before, I cut up some watermelon while Dave made potatoes and eggs, which we ate with the salsa I made the other day. Yum, so delicious! Then, I got a little banjo lesson. Yaaaaaayyyy!!! Dave has been giving me little guitar lessons also where I will strum chords for rhythm guitar and he will do lead. It has been pretty sweet. I love the banjo though, so that was really fun. I finger picked with 2 fingers, but had a cut on my thumb so it was a bit tricky. It was great though and when I was doing good, Dave would smile huge and tell me I was doing a great job, and then I would always mess up. Oh well.

Dave started working in cutting some wood for a screen door to the caravan and I started weeding and pruning the cucumbers. The bottom leaves had a bit of powdery mildew from being buried for so long. Now that they are on a trellis, they will be much happier. Dave finished cutting the wood and came down to help me since some of the tools he needed were at the woodshop. He weeded the bed while I continued pruning. Around this time, I realized that it was time to call my family, so I grabbed my computer in case we could Skype and headed up to the house. I got them on the phone while they logged onto Skype and we got to see each other for the first time in 2 weeks. It was awesome!!! I think my Saturday afternoon and their Friday night is the best time to talk cause they’re all buzzed and it gives me an excuse to have a drink in the afternoon with them. Not like I need an excuse, I’m a grown damn woman. Anyhow, we talked for almost and hour and a half and Dave joined in after a bit. It was hilarious. My Dad and Bro kept slamming their beers, just to show off I think and make my mouth water. It worked. I sent Dave down to the fridge to get us a couple beers and we all had a great time catching up. Love them a ton. :)

Then, we hopped on our bikes and rode to the beach to take a dip in the ocean. It was a great ride and the dog didn’t run after us, so that was a relief. Once we got to the beach, clouds had rolled in so I was the only one to take a quick dip, but it was fun. We headed over to the Superet (little corner store), for an ice cream then he home to make dinner. I was craving rice and beans, so I used up our bastard tomoatoes, (the ones that are 1/2 ripe from the beetles sucking on them and the green ones that have fallen off), and turned them into a delicious salsa, just like Mom makes. I burnt the hell outta the tomatoes, garlic, onion, and hot peppers and blended it all together with some cilantro and salt, (I have been using too many of the fam’s lemons, and they’re too expensive at the market so I left the citrus out and it still was delicious). Made some brown rice and lentils with onions, garlic and cumin. Also cubed up some cheese, 1 avocado and 1 tomato to put on top. It was yummy! After we ate, Dave played his guitar for a bit and we went to sleep.

Beach photo!!!

27 January, 2011

I tossed and turned much of the night cause I was scared of a possum that was in a tree hollerin. They're harmless, but I'm a big baby when it comes to the dark sometimes. Woke up and felt much better today!!! It was supposed to be pretty hot, and we had a lot of produce we needed to use up so I decided to cook in the morning and be done with it for the rest of the day. I hard boiled some eggs to snack on, blanched green beans and made a bean salad with kidney beans, fresh corn, onion and garlic, made a zucchini carrot soup, some salsa and iced tea with lemon. MMmmmmmm. Everything turned out perfectly and now the caravan was steamy hot.

I went up to the house to fill up our water bottles and toss those in the fridge as well and found Megan and Kathy sippin some wine, talking in the kitchen. :) We all decided to go to the beach and have a swim since it was so hot. I went back to the caravan, threw some water on my face to try coolin down so I could apply sunscreen and it would stay on, drank a glass of wine, threw on my suit, put a bottle of water in my bag and I was ready to go. While waiting for Megan, I put the seedlings under the table so they wouldn’t burn in the sun and gave them a drink.

Megan picked me up and when we got to the beach, it was glorious. We immediately jumped in the ocean and were freezing for a minute until we adjusted. Swam for a bit, got out, sipped our vodka, tonic and grapefruit juice cocktails Kathy brought and got back in the ocean when we were sweaty again. Tough life. Bryan showed up with his surfboard and showed off a bit and jokingly tried to run us girls over once, all in good fun. He’s a really good surfer, was captain of the team in high school and has been doing it since he was 12. Around 5:15, we headed home so we would arrive before Matt and Dave.

Came down to the garden and checked on everything, swept up the caravan and then Dave came home. We hung out, drank some beers and showered in the hose, which was cold after watering the garden. Brrrrrrr. Started making some pasta and veggies for dinner, when Matt asked if we wanted to join them for burgers and sausages. How could we say no to that? We brought up the bean salad I made and salsa and a couple beers. I ended up drinking wine with Kathy and was really dehydrated by the end of the night. We headed back to the caravan around 10:30 after laughing hysterically to Hannah’s friend Cassandra imitating a Mauri boy accent. She kept saying, “Ey bro, look at that white chick on a horse.” She was hilarious and we all enjoyed her shameless 11 year old attitude. Funny girl.

Dave's sister Hannah, (left) and her friend Claudia. Beach was beautiful that day!!!

26 January, 2011

Guess I should start writing the date the way they do it out here.....

Woke up @7am. Dave watered the garden while I made coffee and his lunch for work. Went up to the house, called the Chicago Teacher’s Pension office and they are sending out a duplicate check because the one they sent out on the 7th must be lost in the mail. Also paid my bills. Keeping it straight. Sweet.

I went with Megan up a nearby hill to a property she has to water her horse she has there. He was very sweet and the property was gorgeous, near the top of the steep hill/ mini-mountain overlooking the rolling pastures below and the Tasman Sea at the bottom. Apparently this horse, was traded for some pot Bryan grew, used to be a racing horse and was too long and tall for the trailer Megan has so she can’t bring him to the other property where she lives. I love the stories out here. Dave traded his surf board for a composting toilet and Megan got a horse for some pot. Sounds good to me. :)

I wasn’t feeling well most of the day after visiting Megan’s property. Not sure if I got a little bacteria from rinsing my mouth out after brushing my teeth from the faucet we have which isn’t filtered, or just a bug. Either way, I had stomach cramps and other unmentionalble ailments most of the day, so I slept after coming back from Megan’s. Ended up going to the beach and jumping in the ocean, which made me feel better for a bit. Came home and slept again. Woke up before Dave got home and laid low for the rest of the evening. Dave did the chores with the garden, watering the seedlings and got me some tuna and crackers to snack on for dinner. Such a sweet man, I love him dearly. Laid in bed most of the night while Dave played guitar and fell asleep round 930.

Here's a photo of Megan with her horse. :) Beautiful!!!

January 25, 2011

Woke up at 7am. Dave went down to fix the pump while I made him lunch; 2 Zucchini fritter sandwiches with hot peppers, onion, cheese and a bit of salami, also some zucchini soup. Yes, we have TONS of zucchini to eat. I watered the garden and the seedlings and am hoping to go down to Ahipara Elementary to seek some substitute teaching work, (they call it relief work here). I have been told that relief teachers are paid very well and if you work 3 days a week, you will be getting paid more than a full-time teacher. There also is Pukepoto School nearby and Kaitaia College, (which is what High School is called out here). I really hope to get some work at one of those schools soon. $200 dollars per day. Sweet!!! (In NZ, they would say 'sweet as,' instead of sweet. Its a short way of saying the sweetest thing ever. Funny, huh? They also would say, 'hot as,' etc. Put 'as' after every word you really mean.)

Stopped by the wood shop with Kathy around Noon to get a message to Dave and on the way back stopped by the Elementary School, but the principal was not there. We found out from one of the maintenance men that the Principal should be in next week, but early in the morning, around 8am. School starts on February 3rd, so I hope they give me a call soon. :)

I took a cat nap in the afternoon with Jazzy, one of the many black and white cats on the property. Nothing really exciting happened this afternoon. Fixed the pump, which worked for 5 minutes, filled the water bottles, made some iced tea and picked a lemon to go with it. Swept the room where our refrigerator and recycling is as well as under the caravan.
Dave got home around 6 o’clock and we began working on finishing the trellis for our little pickle cucumbers. We cut chicken wire Dave found and attached 2 pieces across the long sides of the bed, then placed the cucumbers on the wire. They look very happy. Afterward, Dave watered the garden while I sprayed the tomatoes with a pyrethrin spray to try getting the bastard shield bugs off the tomatoes. Took a shower outside- Dave in the hose, (which is freezing), and I with the bag shower, which was warmer. Leftovers for dinner- some of the delicious food Panyaranka made and some of our tomato salad and kale. In bed early, per usual, around 10pm, but stayed up giggling for a while until we fell asleep. (There was one story in particular that Dave thought was hilarious. I told him how I was talking with Megan yesterday and she told me she had to go to work for a few hours at the school because they were having a math advisor come to speak with them. But what I heard was a ‘meth survivor.’ Which made sense in my mind at the time because I was thinking that this person could talk to the staff and potentially the students later to give them a real life experience of what happens. Meth is big out here, but people call it P. Both Bryan and Megan were laughing quite hard when Bryan explained the misunderstanding, and Dave was laughing super hard before bed. :)

Here's Jazzy resting in the caravan. :)

January 24th, 2011

Woke up at 7am. Had strange dreams where I am saying goodbye to everyone again. Stephanie toasted me with a shot of whiskey in some strange bar I have never been to. Then when I am leaving, I miss my flight at 10am and am scrambling to make it to the 12:30 pm flight and have enough time to make it to the next flight from LAX that will bring me to NZ.

Drinking coffee in the caravan while Dave is playin his guitar. Best way to wake up. Dave went into the woodshop around 8:30 am. He has cut, split and attached the wood for the top and bottom of his next guitar, as well as cut an inlay and attached it around the sound hole. I’m sure it will be a beauty.

I worked on the blog for a good part of the day, called to ask Mom about the football game and found out the Bears lost. Bummer. Uploaded a mix CD that Christine Ferriter made for me, which I LOVE!!! Did laundry, tried to fix the pump a few times. This is an ongoing battle. The pump is what feeds the water lines here, so if I want to water the garden, it has to come from the small river at the back end of the property. From all the rain yesterday, the river nearly flooded. Then today, the river went down to a lower level. When I went down to the river and pump house to fix it, the feeder hose had been washed up waist high onto the bank and was nowhere near any water to pump through it. I set the feeder hose into the water, and the pump worked, but only for a few minutes. Thankfully, we had almost a foot of rain the day before so watering the garden was not necessary. I also cleaned the caravan, dishes and started prepping food before Dave got home.
Dave got home around 5:30pm and we started working on building a trellis for our pickling cucumbers. Dave sawed a large piece of bamboo into 4 stakes while I weeded and pulled the cucumber vines out from the middle of the garden. The flies started biting me, so I went into the house to shower and put on a dress, and Dave finished the digging the bamboo into the ground. :)

Bryan and Meg came over for dinner and we had a lovely feast of tacos with: smoked fish Bryan caught on Friday, a little bit of cheese, pico de gallo, kale salad, avocado, fresh sweet corn and super hot yellow peppers. Also zucchini fritters on the side. Delish! I drank a few glasses of the box wine from the market and we all looked at the stars around 10pm. Beautiful.

This photo has nothing to do with today, but its beautiful... A custard Apple/ Cheramoya. Delicious!!! Also, look at all the sprouted seeds inside. Crazy!!!

January 23rd, 2011

Woke up late- 7:30 am. The rain had been going all night and would get so loud in the caravan at some points that it would wake us up. No weird dreams that I can remember. Did the usual routine- drank coffee, snacked, and listened to Dave play his guitar. Lovely.

We spent the majority of the morning in the caravan because it was raining so hard. All the trenches in the flowerbeds were full of water and the butternut squash were swimming in the trenches. Dave worked on writing lyrics for a song he has been stewing on and I started writing this blog for most of the morning. Such a dreary day, but its great for the garden so I really can’t complain.

The rain stopped for a bit round 1pm and Dave’s friend from the wood shop, Steve stopped by and invited us to a BBQ. This was very exciting since I have been a bit stir-crazy. Steve said he would drop by around 5:30pm to pick us up and we didn’t have to worry about making food cause Baz and Panyaranka had it covered. (Baz is another buddy of Dave’s from the woodshop and Panyaranka is his wife).

Since the rain stopped, we had a beer while we walked through the orchard and collected lichen for the composting toilet. On our way out, I noticed that THE SEEDS SPROUTED!!! At least the lettuces did!!! So cool!!!! When we got back in the orchard, the river was so high it nearly reached the top of the bank and was flowing very rapidly. The orchard was most beautiful and Dave took me through some parts that I had never seen before. Lovely.

Around 2, I went into the house to upload some photos on the computer of my time in NZ so far. The internet is a bit slow, so it took over an hour to upload 88 photos. Dave’s mom, Kathy is very sweet and kept giving me glasses of wine while I was working on things in the computer room. Dave stayed down by the caravan cutting down bamboo and sizing it to make a trellis frame for our cucumbers and watermelons. Very exciting. It started pouring again, so I stayed up by the house, and had some nice conversations with Dave’s family while I waited for the rain to stop.

Steve came by round 5:30pm, picked us up for the BBQ at Baz and Panyaranka’s house. We had an awesome time. Panya, is a sweet Thai woman who is a teacher at the local college and former elementary teacher. She told me when to put in my resume for relief teaching and said she would put a word in for me at Pukepoto Elementary. Yay!!!! What a sweetheart! Panya also cooked up a beautiful feast for us. There was wild rice with fish soup, shark and tomato curry, as well as a beef curry with little squashes, stir fried rice vermicelli, tuatua fritters, (which is a little shellfish that Baz collected from the beach), sausages, pork shoulder steaks, salad, garlic bread and I think there were a few things I am leaving out. It was amazing. Baz and Panya’s 2 children were very sweet and well behaved. Steve was there with his partner Jan, his nephew and his wife and their 3 children. We all laughed at the kids playing, especially the little 20 month old girl nicknamed, ‘Hurricane.’ She was the most confident little child I have ever seen. She would jump on the table, scream some nonsense, look around at everyone’s faces and laugh so hard that we were getting kicks out of her performance. She loved the attention.

We got home around 10 and went to bed by 1030. zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Here are some Arugala seedlings that sprouted earlier this week!

January 22nd, 2011

We woke up early, round 6am. Went down with a flashlight to fix the pump. When we got back to the caravan, we made coffee, watered the garden and headed out to the Farmer’s Market.

I loved the market! It was so cool. All the vendors have their trucks backed into a parking spot and they would have a small table set up in front to sell their goods. It was similar to Maxwell street where there are people selling a lot of junk, as well as jewelry, flowers and lots of produce. We purchased a bunch of beets for $2, big bag of tomatoes for $5, a bag of onions for $2, a rosemary plant for $2.50, ½ a watermelon for $2, a bag of chilis for $2 and I can’t remember what else right now.

After the market, we went grocery shopping for snacks and hit up a couple little stores for bath towels, hand towels a broom, etc. We headed home after a couple hours and I worked on making some pico de gallo while Dave made potatoes n eggs for breakfast. The eggs here are AMAZING!!! They are all free-range and have orange yolks. Mmmmmmm

Afterward, we rode our bikes to the wood shop. What a BEAUTIFUL ride!!! It was awesome. There are some pretty sweet mountains around us that are a lush green and covered with bush, (what they call forests here). Many horses along the way and a few cows. At the wood shop, we adjusted the handlebars on my bike, which were a little to low. Rode to Jen Gay’s property, which was insane! Jen is a very cool, sweet, funny, smart and CRAZY artist type. She is a very determined woman, who in order for her and her ex to pay off their farm they built, they lived on $16 per week, WHILE RAISING 3 CHILDREN, and only bought sugar, flour and one other essential from the store, and Jen made everything else. Including; clothes, bread, cheese, ginger beer, wine, other beers and anything you can imagine. The house she lives in now Dave helped her build some of and it is absolutely insane. (I will post pics as soon as I take some). The house is made of concrete which has been dyed a yellowish color, windows are old greenhouse windows and wine bottles… its wild. She has 2 wheels for ceramics, a kiln and is very eager to have someone to work in her studio space with her. How perfect!!! Also, she has an extra small one room building that Dave and I can stay in, we can help her build the next room she is planning on building and help her tend land in exchange for rent. SWEET!!! We are thinking of staying there and on the orchard when winter comes. Nice balance.

Our bike ride home in the rain was SURREAL!!! I was looking around at the most beautiful lush green farms and enormous hills and thinking of how great it was to be with Dave in this amazing place! Love life right now! As we rounded this bend, I heard a crazy dog barking and thought nothing of it. Then, the bark is 20 feet away and this fucking BEAST of a dog is running through the ditch, CROSSES the road and goes straight at Dave, barking and growling like a fucking wild animal. He yells at it, and the dog backs off and comes running toward me. SHIIIIIIT!!!! I yell at it really loud and it backs off. Thank God! Later in the day, Dave told me that has never happened to him, because the owners usually have it tied up but the owners also have FRESH RAW MEAT hanging in front of the dog houses to keep them occupied. WTF!!! Serious! Dave went into Whangerai today and had pepper spray on his list for me.... I hope he got it so I can ride my bike with a little less worry. :)

When we got back to the homestead, I started drinking wine at 3:30 pm and called home. It was a great time to call cause it was 8:30pm on Friday for them and Saturday afternoon for me, so who’s to judge drinkin then? NO ONE!
For dinner, we made tacos: red beans cooked with garlic and onion, lil cheese, pico de gallo, kale salad and some slices of super hot peppers. I put way too many peppers on my food, and at one point it was so hot, I had to stop talking.

Started raining at night when we were sleeping.
Bed round 1030 pm.

Here's a photo of the Caravan with the prayer flags Stephanie got for me in India. :)

January 21st, 2011

Woke up round 7am this morning. Dave went to the wood shop round 8:30am. I found myself very tired and stir-crazy today. Worked in the garden for most of the day and took a nap in the afternoon. I wanted to drink beer to help sooth my anxious feeling, but we didn’t have any. Hoping that my helmet comes in the mail soon so I can go for bike-rides and have a bit more freedom. The only time I have left the orchard in 5 days was going to the tool shop, so I know that this is an big adjustment and not talking to many people for a while now. Its allgood. I know it will pass.

Dave’s Mom picked beer up from the store for us, and I exercised all my restraint by not drinking it immediately. Tried to distract myself with the garden and by 6pm, I was done waiting for the beer and started drinking beers while tying up the tomatoes and crushing shield bugs. Those bugs are total buttheads. They destroy the tomatoes out here. not cool.

Dave got home close to 7pm, realized I was a bit nuts and made stir fry for dinner. I totally understand that he was into his project and had to re-do bending the ebony wood he was doing for his inlay. I was just super anxious for him to get home. :)
In bed pretty early again tonight, so we can fix the pump and go to the market in the morning.

(The pump is where the water comes from... source in river behind the orchard. Will explain more later).

January 20th, 2011 (Pat’s Birthday)

Happy 24th Birthday Bro!!!

Woke up round 7am. Watered garden, drank coffee and listened to Dave play his guitar. We went to the tool shop in town before Dave went into the wood shop, which is cool cause I'm a bit stir crazy. ;) His friend Phil had ordered him a special cutting tool so he can do inlays in his guitars. Sweet!!!

Today, I planted 192 seedlings consisting of: Herbs- 18 genovese basil, 12 cilantro, 6 dill, 6 chives, 6 feverfew; Winter veggies- 12 Leeks, 6 brussel sprouts, 6 artichokes, 6 romanesco broccoli, 18 bulls blood beets and 24 red bunching onions; Greens- 12 Italian kale, 6 amaranth, 18 spinach, 6 rapini, 12 rocket, 6 summer queen lettuce and 6 four seasons lettuce. Very excited and expect to start another batch of seeds in a couple weeks/ a month to give us constant crops and food. I didn’t anticipate it this taking me so long, but I finished this project around 2pm and then took a little 20 minute nap. Called my brother when I woke up to wish him a happy birthday, he’s 24 today.

Dave got home around 5:30. We worked in the garden together, drank some beers and made zucchini fritters/ pancakes for dinner. Yum!!! In bed by 10pm.

January 19th, 2011

We woke up 7am, started making coffee, watered the garden and Dave went back to the wood shop to start working on his guitar made from Ancient Kauri. Very exciting!!!
I worked in the garden all day. Here’s my to do list, which I checked off over the next 2 days:

-Spray pumpkin and zucchini (with baking soda spray)
- Tie tomatoes and prune
- Make ties for tomatoes out of flax leaves
- Rake grass clippings
- Compost pile
- Mulch plants
- Collect Lichen for composting toilet
- Start seedlings
-find label materials
- Laundry and fill water bottles at the house

Dave got home around 5:30pm, we hung out, watered and worked in the garden and made zucchini soup with salad for dinner. In bed by 10pm.

January 18th, 2011

First day at the orchard.

Dave and I woke up round 7:30am, got coffee started, watered the garden and began work in the garden with Dave. We started pruning back all the powdery mildew, composting zucchinis and crushing beetles on all the plants. Lots of work. Took a break around 2pm and made an amazing salad: beet tops, spinach, lettuce, onion, garbanzo beans, cucumber, olives, hard boiled eggs, garlic and some lemon juice. Absolutely delicious! Can’t remember what we had for dinner. We spent our first night in the caravan that evening, which was good. I tossed and turned a bit, but nothing to complain about really. Went to bed early again, round 10pm.

January 17th, 2011

Dave and I woke up around 6:30am, made coffee and started packing up. We left the campsite around 8am and began driving up the west coast toward Dave’s family’s house. After driving for a half hour or so, we arrived at ___________________ and took a ferry to __________________. I have never been in a car, driven onto a ferry to get where you are going. It was another new, enjoyable experience. At one point the ferry started going backwards and we were quite confused. The Captain approached us and told us there was an emergency vehicle we were going back to pick up, and asks Dave to move the van behind the vehicle next to us. Understandable, clearly. As Dave is parking the van, I am talking with the Captain briefly and said, “We all were confused and wondering , are we going backwards?!” The Captain had a thick Kiwi accent and although I wasn’t very sure of what he said, I laughed anyhow when I heard, “Well, the wind isn’t blowin that hard dear.” A few moments later, we start going forward again and the Captain tells us this time that it had been canceled. Okay. Fair enough.

Once the ferry landed across the bay, we started our drive through the beautiful west side of the island full of tons of native flora and fauna. Dave claimed this to be his favorite part of the drive.

Around 11am we arrived in Kaitaia and did some grocery shopping while we had the car; 3 cases of beer and some snacks to get us through the week. Around 12pm we arrived at Dave’s family’s land at Wanui Orchard and unloaded the car. We then brought the van up to the house and were greeted by Dave’s mom, Kathy and his sister, Hannah. It was nice to see them and they were very sweet. It was so incredibly hot though, we were all sweating.

We came back down to the caravan and started putting everything away. I then realized I had way too much stuff for the caravan and left some nice dresses and cooler weather clothing in the suitcase to keep up at the house.

As soon as that was set, we went straight into the garden. Dave had worked his butt off tilling the land by hand and digging trenches/ building beds. Dave had been working 50 hours a week, and building a ukelele as well as tending the garden and after being away for 3 days, there was a lot of straightening to do. The zucchinis had powdery mildew, as did the butternut squashes and the French pumpkins. Also, the tomatoes had grown so many branches, you could not see the ground beneath them and were covered in shield bugs. We started pruning and soon after we had begun working Bryan, (Dave’s brother) and his girlfriend Megan stopped by the garden and greeted me with hugs and kisses, very sweet. Bryan commented on the nice butternut squashes that Dave was growing in the garden. It was incredibly hot. Nearing 80 degrees with almost 100% humidity. Blech!

Since the whole family was here, we all made a dish to share for dinner. Dave and I made a raw kale and veggie salad, Megan used some of the fish Bryan had caught and smoked to make a creamed smoked fish and Dave’s dad, Matt made some yummy burgers. Delish!

After dinner, Matt made a fire, which we sat around for a while before going to bed. Slept in the house that night which was nice to have a big bed to sleep in, after sleeping on a twin mattress with Dave for 2 days. Went to bed around 10:30pm. Nice, full day.

January 16th, 2011 (Day 2)

Woke up at 6 in the morning, made coffee, ate a couple sour plums and some trail mix. Dave and I left the campsite around 8 or 9am and started driving to west coast to see what the other side of the north island looked like. A couple hours into the drive we stopped to take a nap. Dave chose a beautiful little spot on the top of a hill, overlooking farmland and the ocean. He slept for all of 20 minutes and I woke him up so we could get movin again.

On the way we drive through ________________ National forest, which was AMAZING. There are a few types of trees that blow my mind; the Kauri trees and the fern trees. Kauri’s are a massive native tree. As they grow, their trunks twist, making them extremely strong. A couple hundred years ago England logged most of the large trees completely, but in this particular forest there is one Kauri tree that has remained since 2000 BC. This beast stands 150 feet tall and 30 feet wide. I took photos, but nothing really captures the massive scale of this tree. Also, we happened to be passing through on a busy summer weekend and the place was crawling with tourists, so we were a bit eager to move on.

We drove to the West Coast near our campsite at _____________________ and stopped, have a couple beers at a picnic table. We watched the kids jump off the pier into the water and look at the giant sand dunes across the bay, which had no footprints on them at all and made me wonder if people explore there at all. We drove a couple miles down the road to, Opononi Beach Holiday Park. It was a cute little campground built into a hill overlooking the beach. We parked the van in a sweet shady spot and realize we are out of beer, so we leave to take a trip to a small grocery store nearby, pick up some beer and head back to the campsite. Our spot is still there too! Dave made a yummy dinner with salad and veggies with a bit of pasta while I showered and we watched the coast from our shady spot on the campsite. After dinner, we walked down the beach and found a log to sit on, sip our beers, talk and watch the sun set over the sand dunes. Went to bed around 10pm on our little twin mattress in the van.

January 15th, 2011 (Day 1)

Day One: Saturday, January 15th, 2011
Getting through customs was a breeze. I was a bit sweaty after carrying my bags, but I was excited to see Dave and change into a dress to cool me down. He was waiting right by the gate, I walked over, parked my bags and gave him a big hug and kiss. It was surreal seeing him after so long. We hugged for a bit and he told me to wheel my bags around the gate. We kept laughing and smiling, hugging and kissing. It was sweet. We exchanged the money I had in my wallet, wheeled my bags out to the van and I changed into a nice summer dress. It was an incredibly beautiful day. There was a wonderful breeze, blue skies with a few puffy white clouds dotting the sky and green everywhere on the ground. The landscaping was beautiful, not with many native plants, but I didn’t care much about that at that point. There was bouganvilla, plumbago, tibouchina, palms, and many other trees that I am not familiar with, but they were all extremely beautiful. I loved watching the scenery as we drove through Auckland.
We stopped off in Auckland looking for an Indian restaurant Dave had been to before, with no luck. So we just walked around for a bit and headed back to the car. Dave remembered a place to stop for fish and chips between Auckland and Whangerai. We found the little hole in the wall place that was absolutely delicious! The fish was fresh caught the day before, and we had 3 different TYPES types fried up along with a side of regular fries and some kumara fries. Kumara is similar to a sweet potato, but more juicy and delicious when fried. The fish was so delicious!!! Fresh, sweet and juicy- Yum! After we snacked, we walked over to the grocery store and picked up some veggies for dinner, trial mix, crackers, plums a couple free apple cucumbers.
The drive through Whangerai was absolutely gorgeous. Tropical hills/ mini-mountains. I was in utter awe very happy to be with Dave again.
Stop at a beautiful camp spot called:______________________
After we were settled, we walked down to the beach. Dave played his guitar and a particular song he wrote for me. It was sweet and I loved it. After soaking in the scenery for a while, we walked back to the campground, showered, and made dinner. Dave cooked stir-fry while I made salad. Very simple with apple cucumber, tomato and onion with balsamic vinegar and touch of oil for a dressing. Dave made stir fry with onions, broccoli and zucchini. Yum! And of course, some beers to go along with it.
We settled in and went to bed nice and early, around 10pm.

TRANSIT

First, when I arrived with my family to Midway airport my bag was too heavy, weighing in at 106 pounds. I took out a couple pairs of winter shoes and some warm clothing items, which brought my bag to 96 pounds. Phew! Goodbyes with the fam were sweet and a bit teary to be expected, but I know I will see them in August, so all is good. ☺ Getting through the airport was not much of a problem. When I arrived at LAX airport, I had to claim my baggage and check in with Air New Zealand. Lugging around my 96 pound bag, as well as a large box carrying my bike, a book bag, one small carryon suitcase and my purse all on one small cart, I waited in line to check in my bags again. When I arrived at the counter with an airline clerk, I could barely lift my bag onto the scale to have it weighed and when I did so, the woman told me, “Your bag is too heavy. It is only allowed to be 70 pounds.” HOLY GOD!!! I was stressed for sure. I stepped to the side with my belongings and began taking out all the heavy books that were packed in my suitcase, cut open my bike box and began stuffing as many things in that bike box as I could. When I thought I had put 25 pounds worth of shit into that box, I lifted my bag onto the scale to find I was 6 pounds shy. Eeeee God. Finally, I made it to the proper weight. At that point, I could barely lift the bike box onto the scale and was worried again. The scale came up .6 Kgs short of being over the limit. PHEW!!! Also, I did not to mention the fact that I had landed in a warm California and still was wearing my wool socks, jeans, long sleeve shirt and hooded sweatshirt. You could imagine that I was the definition of sweating bullets. Needless to say that after that I was on the search for bevs and snacks. This experience reaffirmed the fact that I despise LAX airport. Last time I came through LAX, the water was out so everyone who used the toilet for the past 8 hours before me had not been able to flush. Imagine a ton of toilet paper party hats coming out of every single stall you may want to use. It was awful. This time, once I got through security I had 1 option for a place that served both alcohol and food. I ordered nachos and a Stella. The nachos came with cheese, jalapenos, olives, sour cream and guacamole, which sounded good at that point. They came out to the table and were covered in liquefied cheese, fresh jalapenos as well as pickled ones, 3 olives, packaged guacamole and a cup of sour cream. Oh well. I ate around the cheese pools, slugged my Stella and ordered another. Then it was time to get closer to the gate. I got my bill, and it was $35. LAX is a bitch.
The flight with Air New Zealand from Los Angeles was very pleasant. Everyone had told me that once I was on that plane, all would be right in the world and it was true. I had chosen a window seat which allowed me more elbow room and a place to rest my head, plus the seats were more roomy than any other plane I have flown on. I was very tired and had a difficult time staying awake, so about an hour into the flight, I slept. An hour later, dinner was served and it was great. I had chosen to have vegetarian food on the flight so my food would come out slightly before everyone else’s, but I waited a couple minutes until the couple sitting next to me had their food to begin eating. After a little cheese tortellini with steamed vegetables and a couple glasses of wine, I took a nasal decongestant and passed out for a good 8 hours. I was exhausted. When I awoke, I put on Young Frankenstein and giggled quietly to myself for a couple hours. Before I knew it, breakfast was served and an hour later we landed.