Mt Adde

I’m just leaving Mt Adde vineyard and farm in Seddon, which so far wins the “best daily views” award of my HelpX positions. We’re nestled in the Awatere Valley between Blenheim and Kaikoura, and from the high points of the farm I can see out to the ocean on one side and over miles of vineyard to the mountains on the other. Ron grew up here, and he and his wife Helen added the vineyard to the property about ten years ago. They’re working on passing the torch to their son later this year, and then he’ll be in charge of 80 acres of vineyards and about 2000 sheep and cows.

Sunrise

View from the main road towards the farm

Happy cows

The sheep farming is done quite differently here than it was in Fairlie for various reasons. To start, these are corriedale sheep rather than merino, and among other traits they’re about twice as big. In Fairlie I was able to lift a sheep up with all my effort, but these ones can take me for a ride! I was in charge of moving the swing gate in the yards one morning to sort out two different groups, and accidentally let a few through in the wrong direction. Then I had to go into the mob and grab the one with the wrong colored mark on its head to get it back with the right group. When they’re all crowded in it was easy enough to catch up to the one I wanted and jump on top of it (I finally hugged a sheep!) but then no matter how hard I tried to dig my feet in, I was going to be pulled along wherever that irritated sheep wanted to go. Luckily the temporary farm manager, Adam, was bigger than them and could actually move them around.

This farm was also much smaller than in Fairlie, so it was reasonable to drive through the entire property to deliver food or check up on the animals. I rode around with Adam or Ron on a few occasions to bring peas to the sheep and hay to the cows. It was no free ride – I had to open and close about fifteen gates along the way. The animals absolutely loved it, though. They’d hear the truck coming and start mooing or baaing, respectively, and running towards us. (Side note: No sheep here make the nice baa noise that I expected. Rather, it’s a guttural/congested coughing noise that I find pretty hilarious.) It’s up here that I got some of the best views out over the surrounding vineyards and to the ocean and mountains.

Adam chatting with the cows before breakfast

Sheep happily tucking in to some peas

More cows!

Mountaintop views

Documenting work

Helen and Ron’s vineyard is solely Sauvignon Blanc grapes. They are contract growers for Oyster Bay, meaning that they’re monitored throughout the growing season and as long as their grapes meet certain standards of sugar content and acidity at harvest, Oyster Bay incorporate them into their bottling for the year. Unlike some other wineries (according to what Helen and Ron say), Oyster Bay only does one bottling per year, so if you buy a bottle that says 2013, it will taste exactly the same as all the other bottles of that type made in 2013. With that information, they estimate that their grapes make up about 10% of every bottle of Sauvignon Blanc that Oyster Bay sells. They say it’s available in the US – I would recommend it if you can find it!

Harvest should be coming up soon. I went out with Ron on one of my first days to collect grapes for a Brix (sugar) test, and he has done two since then. This is the last of the qualifications that they’re waiting to reach before they can harvest. We drove around in a little go-kart type vehicle, stopping every ten rows or so to pick a stem of grapes into a bag for testing. It felt like a waste at first, but I soon realized that there was plenty left over. I spent about four days riding the go-kart or walking up and down the rows tucking vines back into their wire frames and saw more grapes than probably the rest of my life combined in that time.

Endless rows of vines

Bunches and bunches of grapes

The last aspect of the farm I haven’t touched on is the pet animals. There are eight working dogs, two hen houses packed full, a pig, various barn cats and four puppies. One of the work dogs had 12 puppies a while back. Ten survived, and six have been sold off around the region since then. Of the remaining four, two are destined to be workers, and so very basic training has been started – roughly two minutes per day of sit, stay, stand, etc. Mostly they just get to be playful puppies, though, which I really enjoyed.

Attention-seeking puppy

So all my working days started with letting all the dogs out for a runaround and a play, feeding the pig the house scraps, feeding the chickens and collecting eggs, and then putting all the dogs away. Then, depending on the day, I’d go out as a gate-opener on food deliveries, take the go-kart out to the vineyard, or wait for one of the men and the dogs to bring in a mob of sheep and then help with some kind of sorting. The grossest outcome of this was sorting the ones with dags from the ones without and then shearing off all the poo-encrusted wool around their butts. I didn’t actually do any shearing, but I helped move sheep into the various staging areas and then swept up all the clippings to be used as fertilizer.

My biggest outing of the stay was when Adam and I borrowed the farm truck and did two hikes from my “Off the beaten track” guidebook in one day. The first was an exciting walk up a rocky stream to Sawcut Gorge. I do mean literally up the stream… In some places there was a trail cut up above faster-moving water, but most of the time we sloshed right through the clear water that sometimes came up to my thighs. The reward was a smooth, wavy slice in the rocks that rose almost out of the frame of my camera. This was a case where the journey was as interesting as the destination.

Portrait on the trail

In the gorge

We couldn’t linger for long because we had timed the trip so that we’d be able to head out to the Cape Campbell lighthouse at low tide. This was a simple but long walk along the beach from a campground to the cape, which is the easternmost point on the south island. Some of the hills of the north island were just visible in the distance.

Finally reached the lighthouse

Looking back at where we walked from

The next day I went with Ron and Helen to Yealands vineyard and winery, which was just on the other side of town. This winery is committed to sustainable production and was recently certified as being net carbon zero. Some of their strategies for low energy usage are using the prunings from the grape vines to burn and heat various vats in the winery, and getting in a special breed of short sheep to eat down the grass between the vineyard rows instead of mowing. What makes all this more impressive is the size of the vineyard they’re working with – 2500 acres all in one place! This gives them lots of different types of grapes and they do lots of different bottlings of different wines and blends throughout the year. We did a tasting of five wines and a port. The region is definitely known for Sauvignon Blanc, and their prizewinning 2012 was great, but I also thought that their Tempranillo was really interesting – spicy and fruity.

The grapes get ocean views

Tasting tasty wine

So today I’m on my way to Nelson, where I’m going to stay with Brooke from Martin Bay’s mom for a few days before I head into Abel Tasman national park. I’m doing a five day coastal walk, staying in huts along the way. Luckily I finished another hat while at Mt Adde, so I should be able to keep myself warm. The days are getting shorter and the mornings colder now – autumn is definitely on the way.

Sadly this is another pictureless post. I feel like I’m teasing you by telling you that I’m seeing so many beautiful things and not sharing them, but I’ll try to catch up soon. The problem I’m running in to is that in New Zealand, home internet plans are usually metered, so a family has an allowance of say 5 GB per month. This stems from the fact that New Zealand is so far from the rest of the world and the cables connecting them were so expensive to install. That and the fact that some homes I’m staying at are so isolated that they get their internet via satellite, making it expensive and limited. The Hulsmans must have had a fairly large allowance, because they said I could use it however I liked, but here I was allowed only 30 minutes of internet per day, and no uploads or downloads. I didn’t mention that pretty much everything on the internet is an upload or download of information, but pictures and skyping were definitely off limits. So thanks for your patience!


Update: Now with pictures! And as an added bonus, here's a video of driving on a major thoroughfare.

The Peaches, peaches and more

I’m beginning to compose this post while on a bus up the east coast. After over a month in the Christchurch/Canterbury area, I’m heading north to a vineyard/sheep farm just a bit south of Blenheim. There are supposed to be beautiful views of the ocean to my right and mountains to my left, but I’m surprised the driver can see where he’s going with the wet, foggy pre-cyclone we’re experiencing. Luckily I still have a big plastic bag from my flight across the USA, so my bag won’t get wet when I get off.

My last nearly-two weeks have been spent with the Peach family, where I’ve learned the joys of eating homemade bread every day and sleeping with hot water bottles in my bed. They have five kids, all of whom have been homeschooled, and two of whom were still at home, which was lots of fun for me. They say they started homeschooling when they heard about all the benefits to the child of having such individual instruction, but I suspect it had something to do with religion as well, since their science books had titles like “Exploring Creation through Human Anatomy and Physiology”. I kept my mouth shut on the subject.

They keep some cows, sheep, and horses on the property, but they basically take care of themselves. I got to work mainly on the peach, apple and pear trees in the yard, which were dropping tons and tons of fruit by the time I got there. Susan, the mom, taught me her basic method of stewing and hot-bottling fruit, and then most days I peeled and cut fruit for over an hour to fill up a big stock pot and get a batch going. We also made tomato relish, which is sort of like a chunky ketchup (but better, in my opinion), and spaghetti sauce that we put in bottles to get stored away. They have a big shelf in the garage and two shelves in the house to hold all their preserves, and they’d probably still be set for 3 years after they stop making them.

Working on a big batch of blackboy peaches

On nicer days, I did work outside, like retraining and tying a clematis vine over a climbing trellis, ripping an invasive vine out of a tree (which made me feel like Tarzan), and weeding various sections of their massive vegetable garden. One of the perks of working outside was that their cats are outdoor-only, and there were seven kittens born just a few weeks before I arrived. It was so so cute to watch them teetering around and playing with each other, and even better to forcibly snuggle them when I wasn’t working.

Sunny in the garden

The smallest kittens

The bigger kittens

More of the garden

I ended up accompanying Susan, Azaria and Josiah to some of their homeschool network events (which were largely made up of other large, Christian families) and got to see a bit more of their lives and the surroundings. One of the more memorable ones was a downhill bikeride through a mountain pass. A couple carfuls of kids and their bikes got driven up to the high point of this road and then we glided downhill back to a campground with a swimming spot. The road had a lot of loose gravel, so it was actually kind of a stressful experience, but there were a few spots with great views and I felt accomplished at the end just for staying upright the whole time.

Bikeride views

I also borrowed a bike for two other rides, one to the beach and one into Rangiora to do a bit of shopping. It felt good to do some long-distance exercise, since my running is still quite limited. Per my physical therapy schedule from my knee surgery in September, I have worked up to running in 2 minute intervals alternated with walking, but I think I’ll transition into short, continuous running soon.

On my last day with the Peaches, we went to a nearby A&P (Agricultural & Pastoral) Show, which was basically a one-day county fair featuring just one town. They had equestrian events, prizes for the best sheep and cows in various categories, sheep shearing competitions, exhibits of the “ugliest vegetable” and “most beautiful three tomatoes” and stuff like that. On the way home, we made a stop to hike to see some Maori paintings. They’re tucked well away under a rock overhang in the middle of some farmer’s fields, so still quite well preserved. Although the art itself wasn’t very impressive, it was cool to imagine people taking shelter under these rocks and making the paintings hundreds of years ago.

Baa baa black sheep

Vegetable animals

Cave paintings

Final views in Canterbury

At this point I’ve arrived at my next hosts, who have the strictest internet policy yet. So, unfortunately, still no pictures. I may have to cave in and go to an internet café at some point in the near future, but we’ll see how it goes. That’s all for now!

Animals!

Phew - what a busy week and a half! I've been lots of different places and seen lots of different animals!

From the Patrelli estate (have you figured out the origin of the name yet?) I got on a bus into Christchurch and met Catherine Boyer who used to live in Falmouth. She works at a boarding school in Chch now, so I met her there and she took me back to their home in Oxford. I remember some of the kids from church school, but they're away at universities all over the world. Mr and Mrs said they didn't remember me, but I'd been reintroduced through the Hemphills and they said that they enjoy hosting travelers so all was well and good.

They moved to NZ eleven years ago and bought a block of farmland a few years later. They proceeded to build a cottage and then a beautiful two-story house while they divided up and fenced off the land. For a while they farmed deer and beef cattle, meaning that they bought the young animals, fattened them up and then sold them for meat, while they ran the cottage as a B&B. That's all over now, but the land is being leased out for other farmers to graze, so there were lots of cute animals to look at.

View from the driveway

Curious calves

I spent a relaxing day on Friday catching up on social media and logistics, and I helped a bit in David's gardens. We went out to lunch in Oxford's village, which was definitely more substantial than Amberley's. Catherine introduced me to Tim Tams, giving me another type of NZ food that I'll have to try to fit in my suitcase home, and David gave me a bit of explanation of rugby after dinner, complete with pause and replays on the TV.

Had too much fun in Oxford

On Saturday morning the northwest winds were blowing, and by blowing I actually mean non-stop air movement. I'm told those winds can make people a little crazy. We went for a little walk in the Oxford hills, which share some of their trails with pastureland, but also goes into the woods which gave some shelter from the wind.

Looking out from the trail

They had a dinner party to go to in the evening, so we did a bit of shopping on the outskirts of Christchurch and then they dropped me off with their friends Vicky and Steve who live in the central city. V and S were also going to the dinner party, so I hung out with their daughter Juliette for the evening. Juliette cooked dinner since she'd just gotten a bunch of new cookbooks, and that was awesome. Vicky was kind enough to drive me to the bus station on Sunday morning, and I was off to Fairlie.

I'd had my next HelpX lined up for a few weeks already, but when we were confirming dates decided that it would be better to push it back a bit so that I'd arrive when there was more to do. I figured it would be no problem to find a place to go for a week in between, but about 20 emails later was starting to sweat. Luckily I finally heard from someone who had availability, and even though it wasn't in a direction I had been intending to go, it ended up being a really cool life to see.

Roddy owns and lives at Blue Mountain Station, which encompasses a GIGANTIC area of mountains and creeks and a tiny bit of flat land outside of Fairlie. He has 15,000 merino sheep and about 300 cattle at any given time, and they live in fenced-off blocks all over the land.

Entrance to the driveway after 25 mins drive from town

View from the house in the morning

The down side to the arrangement was that I was only assigned to housework. Turns out he really needed me - the fridge looked a lot like my senior year apartment's fridge at the end of the year - but I was basically left home alone to do house cleaning all morning. Luckily there were a few exciting tasks mixed in, like feeding a calf whose Mom couldn't do the job.

Feeding Little Jim

In the afternoons I was free to do whatever, so on one day I went down to a deep river section to swim with the girlfriend of one of the workers. I got to go see Roddy's Dad's home and business where he specifically breeds rams and ewes for improved wool quality and health. We picked up a conveyor belt from there and the next day I helped a little bit with getting two mobs of sheep through the conveyor so that their feet could be checked (at least I think I helped, but really the dogs and the guys did most of the work.) I learned that sheep do not want to be hugged, and even when you get close enough to touch them, like when they're trapped in a conveyor, the wool isn't really soft. They have a greasy coating at the tips of the wool fibers to help keep them dry, so it isn't nice to touch until after the wool has been shorn and washed. On the last day I was there I got a ride down to the lake and spent a few hours reading and relaxing in the sun. That was a welcome change since there had been a frost the first morning I was there and overall it was pretty cold. Oh, I also tried out some horse riding, but that only happened twice when I determined that it was definitely the horses causing my dripping nose and aching, itchy eyes. That's another allergy to add to the list.

Weighing ewes for sorting

Jumping for joy upon release

Swimming spot

Dogs at work

A ride in the conveyor

White wool beneath greasy coating

On Friday morning I rode into Timaru with Roddy, where he was picking his kids up from boarding school. (Boarding school and homeschool are quite common in NZ since there are so many people who live so rurally.) I had about an hour to check out town before I got on a bus back to Christchurch. I walked around Chch a bit in the afternoon, but there's really not much to see there these days and I'd already used it as a hub a few times anyway.

Saturday morning was the start of a little vacation. I went to Akaroa, which is located on the Banks Peninsula east of Christchurch. For a little geological background, it used to be Banks Island, formed of two massive volcanoes. Over the past few million years while the volcanoes have been dormant, though, the volcanoes have largely eroded away and the sediment has filled in the space, connecting them to the mainland. Akaroa has a lot of French influence, as the French sent a whole boatload of people to settle it. When the British got wind that was happening, they sent their fastest boats, arriving about a week before the French, to make sure that they would have control of NZ. Therefore, a French settlement in a British colony.

On my first day there, I went for a hike up in the volcanic crater above town. Southerly winds were whipping up from Antarctica, so it was quite cold, but the views out over the harbor were still stunning. On Sunday morning I decided I'd borrow a bike from the hostel to go for a ride down to a Maori historic site. On the map the road appeared to be at sea level the whole way, but I got a surprise when the road snaked up and down the cliffside above the ocean the whole way there. I definitely got a workout!

Cool tree tunnel on the walk

Windy selfie

In Onuku village

Bike taking a break after the ride up from sea level

Sunday afternoon was the event I'd basically come to Akaroa for - swimming with dolphins! Hector's dolphins are unique to the area and live in the wild right outside the harbor. We were outfitted in wetsuits and got a boatride out to sea while learning about how the tour company interacts with them. Basically, we are in the dolphins' home, and they're free to come and go around us as they want. The company has learned that when dolphins swim down or away, there's no point chasing them because they don't want to "play", but sometimes pods of dolphins follow the boat, and that's when we get in the water. There were about ten of us on the trip, and we were all supposed to spread out as a sort of obstacle course for the dolphins to swim between. Then we were supposed to make noise underwater by clapping or hitting pieces of hard plastic together. All of that signaled to the dolphins that we wanted to play too, and then they started swimming around us. IT WAS SO COOL! We weren't allowed to touch them, but sometimes there were four or five swimming by me close enough to touch. We got in the water two different times for probably about ten minutes and just let the dolphins swim around us. I was so happy.

Excited to go see dolphins

Two dolphins spotted!

Four dolphins spotted! Time to go play

The weather wasn't looking good for Monday, but I needed something to do in the morning, so I went out on the Eastern Bays Scenic Mail Run. Since other bays on the peninsula are so remote, their mail delivery has been contracted out to a driver who is free to operate however he likes so long as the mail gets delivered. He saw the opportunity for tourism, got a bigger van, and now brings visitors along his stunning mail route every day. We climbed up and down more steep, narrow roads on cliffsides to five other bays on the peninsula. The occasional clouds and rain just made the scenery more dramatic, and it was a wonderful way to see a lot more of the area than I would have been able to on my own.

View into the center of the volcano

Starvation Gully Rd. NOT going there!

Beautiful beach in Barry's Bay

Monday afternoon I had a bus back to Christchurch and then another bus to Rangiora where I was picked up by my next hosts. The first few days at their house have been pouring rain. It turns out I got out of Akaroa and Christchurch just in time, because they're having these storms and massive flooding. Phew!