Darkness spreads over the snow

Tragedy! Last night something horrible happened. Woken at 4am by a lovely text message from Ruth - who had just received her degree mark (Congratulations clever lady!) - I settled my head back onto my pillow only to hear a great cafuffel coming from the chook pen outside. The cafuffel quite quickly descended into raucous shrieks and squawks, and so, begrudgingly, I clambered out of bed to check out what was happening. Quite a horrible pile of bloodied feathers littered the joint, and, sadly, three fluffy corpses. It was then that two bright eyes and a stoat's snout peered out at me from under the chicken coup. I managed to chase it off with many expletives and a few pieces of flying firewood, and then fetched Dave, who valiantly dealt with the deaduns. Now we are left with the one fluffy (the only one who flies and has a tendency of escaping the coup and scratching up all the silver beat and seedlings - it's saving grace I suppose) two big scratchers and a greything. Anyone got a good design for a stoat trap?

RIP fluffies.
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Apart from that wee episode I've been having a great time. I'm still staying at Dee and Dave's helping them out with heaps of mowing and mulching and tree planting, amongst other things while working down the road at EcoInnovation (http://www.ecoinnovation.co.nz/) for 3 days a week. EcoInnovation is a small company that manufactures renewable techs who do a nice line in very cost effective wind and water turbines, solar water heating, hand-crank desk lights, shakable torches... and deliver to the UK, if you don't mind the carbon footprint... I help out in the workshop doing bits and pieces (have just finished rewiring some old washing machine rotors to be used in water turbines) for the lovely Ken,

whose mind works in tangents and twists. I'm really enjoying being in the workshop learning random things about electronics etc and introducing Joanna Newsom and Regina to the boys...

Last weekend I took a trip to the Tongarairo National Park. I stayed in the Mongotoppopo Hut on the Sunday night (I wouldn't say I slept particularly as it was incredibly cold and there was a great snorer sharing the hut with me...) and got up early early on Monday to head off into gusts of 60km hour winds and clear blue skies.

Mongotoppopo Hut at sunset -

The morning frost -
Ngarahoe (Rhupehu behind) from Mt Tongarairo -

The emerald lakes - Red Crater -

The Sprout and the Bean

And the seed and the pickle and the pea too: this is seed saving aubergine -

and some totally organic corn -



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This is Dee and Dave's place from the air -

Dave and Dee's current house - a small, semi-permanent bungalow - is the building on the far right, and you can just about see my car parked up nearby too. You can also see the pond/lake, with my little cabin and the greenhouse (the bigger of the two!) just to the right of that. Then to the left of the pond are the six mandellas - circular shaped vege gardens, it's a permaculture design - and the corn and raspberry patch.

The big brown swath is where Dee and Dave are still developing the porperty. Eventually it will have their new house that they are planning to build next year, and we are slowly planting up the rest into an orchard. 7 Hazelnuts went in last week, and by the end of July, just over 400 other trees will have gone in!

Serious Moonlight

I've been at the base of Mt Taranaki (Egmont was it's colonial name) for the past week or so. The Mountain is just stunning. It is volcanic - still active they say, though there is snow in the crater at the top - and almost perfectly conical. The National Park that surrounds it is also an almost perfect circle, forming a stunning aerial view. Driving towards Taranaki from Wellington the mountain slowly started as a mere speck on the horizon but even from a distance of over 100km away it gave set a strong impression, standing proud from the vast flat land that surrounds it.

Within 24 hours of arriving I was amazed to find myself sitting in a helicopter zooming round the summit of the mountain and marvelling at the sunset! All for FREE! It was a right place at the right time sort of situation - It was Linda's (another wwoof host just down the road) birthday, and here husband, Micheal (a Keswickian) had asked Dee to distract Linda until 5.30 while he redied the house for the surprise party, and at 5.30 a "limousine" would be sent to pick her up. Little did we know that this limousine was in fact a chopper, and it was only when it landed in Dee's back yard that we figured out what was going on... And lo, there was also space for me and Dee in the back so we hopped in too!

Here's Linda, still in shock at Micheal's suprise -


I'm staying with the very cool, laid back yet hard working Dee (British) and Dave (Merican) who met while wwoofing in NZ a few years back. They were wwoofing here with Linda (Kiwi) and Micheal (Keswickian) and fell in love with the area. There are heaps of other people here doing organic farming all supporting each other - it seems like every day me and Dee are either popping round to someone's to drop off some seeds or collect some jam jars, or someone is round here and the kettle is on.

And in the mean time I chase Dee around the place doing allsorts... I've been preserving like crazy, making the most out of Dee's big harvest of fruit and vege...


I've also been doing heaps of mowing and raking and building compost piles, learning about biodynamics (you know, all that stuff like how to massively increase the organisms in your soil by putting some poo in a cows horn then burying it for a while, digging it back up again and stirring the contents in water 20 times one way then 20 times the other - sound like whichcraft or weirdness? Well it's scientifically proven to be dammed effective.) Taking box hedging from someone's garden and re-planting it around Dee's vege patches to act as a shelter belt against the fearsome South-Westerlies.

In case you thought it was all work, there has been plenty of time for play to. Mondays are Lattes and Pilates for me and Dee (go work some abdomen muscles, then eat cake and drink copious coffee... yumm). And last weekend me, Dee and Linda headed up Mt Taranaki to a lodge there, equipped only with cheese, crackers, wine and chocolate for Friday night on the mountain, where I saw the most beautiful Moon Rise,

Followed by a stunning sunrise and a floating feeling above the clouds

Much against my sensibilities, but by demand from mum, on the way back down the mountain I swapped sides of the lens. Hellllooo.



Still feels a bit like summer here, despite the fact that it is dark by 6pm. But the days are usually very sunny warm (unless it's pissing it down which it invariably tends to as soon as I start getting too used to the weather and claiming that summer is on its way), and because a lot of the bush round here is evergreen the lack of turning trees tends to make me forget about the change in seasons. But there was this one beautiful tree that reminded me -


This is my little cabin that I sleep in. A very cosy wee nest.

And I'll be staying here for a while longer - Next week I'm having a trial working (proper paid work!!) at Linda and Micheal's renewable energy systems business. Will keep you posted about my prospective employment...