Up, Up and Away

Our Chariot

Flying used to be considered by Megan, by far the worst thing ever invented by man.  When we went to Paris for our 10^th wedding anniversary, entering the plane door was akin to going into the dragons den for her.  Well here we are, a few years later and when asked if she wanted to sit next to the pilot on a small, a very small, a very, very small (6 seats including the pilot himself – who incidentally looked 12 years old) plane, she was jumping up and down like a 12 year old herself saying oh yes please may I, what a turn around!

Co Pilot Megan

Our 'Home' from the Air

Golden Bay Airline flew us across the straits between the South and North Islands of New Zealand. The flight was brilliant; we only flew at about seven thousand feet, and the day was very clear so we had a great view of the ground below – when we were over ground anyway.  We flew over Golden Bay Hideaway, our last Helpx place and could see all the holiday lets; Rata Camp where we had lived for the previous 3 weeks, also the shed, nerve centre of the operation could be clearly seen from the air.

Take off was interesting, all the bumps were felt that you would normally miss in a bigger plane, and the turns tight and steep as only a small plane could do.  I thought Meg would be feeling a little worried but when I looked around behind me she was all smiles and eagerly looking out of the window.  At the end of the flight (we didn’t land at Wellington Airport as the weather there had closed in and in fact not one flight landed there all day) the pilot did a lovely turn around the airstrip at Paraparaumu to give us all a good view of the target and then let her down as soft as a feather pillow.

Farewell Spit

John was there to meet us with his girlfriend, Glenys, all of you who have been reading this blog (if there is anyone out there) will remember John, he is Raewyn’s (my brother Mark’s wife) dad and he spent 2 weeks on the Greek islands with us last June, that seems so long ago now.  He whisked us off to spend 3 nights with them in Waikanai near Wellington, which we visited.  We then moved onto Auckland and couch surfed with a young family for 3 nights.  Both cities certainly need more time than we spent there, so a return trip to New Zealand seems to be needed as we only scratched the surface of the country.

Cable Car in Wellington

Feeding 'Friends' at the Cafe

Delayed Christmas Dinner with John and Glenys

Auckland

Auckland

Beer O'Clock

Where are we now then?  Well we have returned to Western Australia to spend some more time with Mark and Raewyn, top up our sunshine time, before making the last hop back to the UK.

Land of the Long White Cloud

Golden Bay Hideaway

Camp, our bedroom to the right

Camping out is something Megan and I really like, it’s a good job as that is how we have lived for the last week and for just over two weeks more, except we are not living in a tent, we are sleeping in a shipping container!  It is a superior type of container though, an ex-refrigeration container, stainless steel lined and insulated.  Our accommodation is made from two of these side by side with 7 metres between them which makes up the living room, kitchen and dining area.  This area is concreted and has a round fire place at the front on one side and opposite that is the kitchen.  Over all this is a roof which slopes backwards to meet a back wall, at the front, the roof also forms a veranda area at the front the front area is open all the time to the elements – so we are camping.

Living Room with Fire

Kitchen

This is the living arrangements for our latest Helpx, we are helping Lawrence, to run his holiday home business, he has three ‘cottages’ on the plot, one is a higgledy piggledy house built on the hill with seven different levels called The Hippy House, the second is a converted truck, called guess what, you got it right, The Truck House and the third is called Little Greenie, as it has gained 9 out of 10 stars for energy saving making it the best house of its kind in New Zealand. 

The Beach

Relaxing

More Relaxing

We are located on the top north west corner of the South Island and the property overlooks Wainui Bay, literally, each cottage sits on a levelled area of the hillside with a view of the bay.  Lawrence has created it all himself, except for the Hippy House that was already here when he bought the place ten years ago, including all the tracks up the hill to all the sites, the water and power systems.

Lawrence divides up the jobs into, pink and blue, which means Megan’s main job is to clean the places after people have stayed which can be anything from one night to a week, at the moment the average seems to be 2 or 3 nights.  I have been mostly painting, a trailer, the front of the Truck House and the roof of the Hippy House; I have also learnt to drive a tractor.

The New Tractor Driver

We have been cockling on the beach, the first time we walked over through some sticky mud and got a bucket of cockles and a bucket of muscles, which were cooked on the open fire – very, very nice.  The second time, yesterday, the two of us gathered half a bucket in about 15 minutes!

Cockling

The Catch

The Feast

We do not have an internet connection here so I am not sure when this will be posted and when the next one will appear.  What I do know is we are booked on a six seat plane, from here to Wellington on the 21^st March, what fun; Meg wants to sit next to the pilot, not bad for someone who doesn’t like flying.

Cockling Tools

Wainui Bay