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