Life in Motueka (and adventures that ensued)

I met the “Organic Breadman lady” at the Nelson Saturday market and once people had dispersed she packed up the trailer and toted me (and all of my life possessions) back to her place in Motueka. Claire and her family were away on a weekend camping trip, but she had snuck away for the day to run the Breadman stall and drop me back home. She showed me my campervan (see “Happiness” post for pictures) and I settled in for the night. In addition to the campervan, there are three sleep outs on the property that hosted: an old Kiwi guy, a French couple, and another couple that was American and German. There was also one German girl in a tent next to my campervan. We all shared a kitchen toilet/shower area attached to the main house, but had our separate little areas on the property that were divided by lots of beautiful vegetation and some creative fencing.

Some travelers hanging out around two of the sleep-outs.

I introduced myself to the other tenants and then worked out plans for a ride up to Paynes Ford for some Sunday climbing. There was a possibility of heading up that evening, but I didn’t have a tent to camp in and wound up finding a ride with some others for the next morning instead. This worked out perfectly because I was pretty excited to put my clothes in drawers and get to sleep in my own bed, in my own space - with a locking door and everything!

Happiness is... Fruit Trees and Furry Friends

I am sitting here in a campervan that, for the next two weeks, I get to call my own. There is a friendly, excitable dog outside, a cuddly kitten hanging out near the kitchen, a saltwater swimming pool on the beach a few hundred yards away, some travelers hanging out by the fire, wine in a glass beside me, a cool breeze blowing outside, and a cozy bed (that is not a bunk) waiting for me to crawl into it. At this point in my travels, this is happiness.

I spent the past couple weeks in what I can only describe as a “funk.” My family departed in Auckland and I flew back to Nelson to figure out what was next. The problem was that I spent too much time thinking about what I was going to do with my family that I hadn’t properly planned what would happen after they left. I hadn't even arranged a ride from the airport or a place to stay that night. I spent a week “job searching” though I think I was looking in all the wrong places. I also did some exploring with people I met in the various hostels I stayed at, but continued to return to the notion that I needed to be figuring out what was next rather than simply enjoying the day in front of me.

"Well done, Nanny" [composed 22ish November 2010]

I haven't updated in a while because I have actually been staying in one place (for the time being anyway)! Instead of bouncing from one adventure to the next, I hopped off my tour bus at a Honey Shop on the major highway heading south, right smack dab in the middle of farm country. I am staying with one of the only contacts I knew in New Zealand before I set off on my journey: my sister's "Scottish sister." How does that work? Well, I'm not sure what else to call her, but my sister spent 6 months living with Meg and her family in Scotland while they were in high school. Now Meg lives in the outskirts of Palmerston North with her husband and four kids on a dairy farm, and she invited me to stop in for "as long as I would like." Little did she know I would actually take her up on this offer and stay for just short of three weeks!

The accommodation is lovely: a flat to myself with a huge bed, plenty of room for my nightly yoga, way more couches and overstuffed chairs than I would ever need, my own bathroom (or "toilet" as they're called over here), and even a little kitchenette (as if I would ever need to use it with all the food provided in the main house!) The flat is separate from the house, both of which are nestled at the end of a long gravel driveway. Outside my window is the paddock that belongs to Misty, the pony, and behind that is the chook house. In just about every direction, there are various paddocks occupied by Jersey (brown) cows, that are rotated around depending on the day or time. The driveway branches off to loop around the house and the rest turns into the "track" that leads up the family farm to the cow shed, where the milking takes place.