Private: 31st December 2006
December 31st, 2006 - Posted in NZ Search - by Brendhan|
Found this video on one of simons tapes. It dates back to the trip to Africa he did to paddle the Zambesi river. On his way to the airport in Auckland this happened.
Luckily he was totally unhurt and able to capture the video!
Private: 27th December 2006
December 27th, 2006 - Posted in NZ Search - by Brendhan|
27th December
OK, OK I know it has been over a month but we have been busy? or lazy? or something! It?s all this hot summer weather and barbeques- it makes you lethargic (rub, rub).
Photo of barbeque.
Ok that?s enough gloating to our UK friends?
When we posted last we were headed across the Cook Straight to the North Island to check out northland (the bit north of Auckland) as a potential place to live. Well the first place we stopped in Northland after driving till late we found it difficult to find accommodation. One of the places we tried had mug shots of a couple of people posted in the office warning that they were known to setup drugs labs in hotel rooms, welcome to Northland! The next day we headed on up to Kerikeri near the Bay of Islands and setup base camp at a campsite just out of town. Unfortunately we selected a campsite that seemed to mainly cater to seasonal workers picking avocadoes and other produce. This wasn?t too much of a problem but the facilities were a bit basic and thin on the ground! However it was fairly cheap. The weather was glorious with blue skys and sunshine most of the time. In fact we found the weather too good and that between about 11am and 3pm a bit too hot for manual labour outside and it wasn?t even summer yet! This combined with the sheer population density (nearly a quarter that of the UK!!) made us quickly decide that Northland was not for us and that we would spend the rest of our time just relaxing and having a bit of a holiday.
We started by visiting the Bay of Islands with its beautiful blue bays dotted with? you guessed it, Islands. It was very pretty and we took the ferry over to Russel – not actually an island but a peninsular that takes about 2 hours to reach by minor winding road or 20mins by ferry from the ?main-land?. It was a very relaxing spot. Back on the mainland we also visited the Waitangi Treaty grounds where NZ?s founding document the treaty of Waitangi was first signed. (This document was hastily written in a few days 1840, translated into Maori by a Englishman with a rudimentary understanding of Maori and signed in a last minute ceremony at Waitangi before touring the rest of NZ picking up signatures of the majority of the Maori chiefs. Unsurprisingly the Maori and English texts do not match exactly and it has been argued about ever since.) The treaty grounds were very beautiful but not particularly interesting and I would recommend saving your money for something comparatively useful like a chocolate teapot.
We also visited some big trees,
A huge Kauri Tree in Northland.
some huge sand dunes,
Sarah in the huge sand dunes at the top of Ninety Mile Beach. Who needs to go to the Sahara?
And the north-western tip of the north island where we found this fairly superfluous sign.
The tip of the North Island where the Tasman sea meets the Pacific Ocean.
We then drove back down to Wellington (via Wanganui and a look at a few more properties) and bought a new car after having a look at some very nice but very dry properties near Martinborough. By this time my 33 year-old classic English sports car had completed around 11,000Kms (nearly 7000 miles) in just two months so we decided to give it a break and a well earned rest in Dad?s spare garage for a few weeks by buying a new car. In the end we decided against purchasing a Subaru from the worthy and reputable dealership called El Cheapo Cars where the proprietor cheerfully informed us that he had no idea what the fuel efficiency of any of his cars were because it did not really interest him! Instead we found a 9 year old Toyota Station wagon (estate in the UK) painted in light metallic boring that drives and handles very neutrally (read boringly) but it should go forever, uses hardly and petrol and is 4wd for those muddy fields so we reckon just right for us. Thankfully Nathan and Lisa were able to put up with our sponging for just over a week to get everything sorted so we were able to keep our costs down whilst staying in an expensive city!
Yawn!
After buying the new car and dropping off the Capri (which was running exceptionally well after I tweaked the ignition in Wellington) we headed back across the Cook Straight to the South Island again and headed directly for the Napier/Tasman region with the intention of offering on the Tapawera property mentioned in our last post. It was all looking good until we were informed by an accountant that the amount of land we were purchasing and the use we would make of it would not justify our being GST registered which effectively adds $20,000 to the price tag. This in turn means that the cost of putting in the 400 meter driveway becomes critical in deciding how much we can afford to offer. We were unable to get someone to give us an estimate before Christmas so have put the whole lot on hold until the new year.
In the mean time we bailed out of Tasman and headed for Buller where we wanted to have a look at a property we first spotted on the Internet two years ago. The first time we spoke to the people at Buller Real Estate (two months ago!) they told us that it would be too steep, then they told us that they could not track down the owner, then after several more weeks they finally contacted the owner who they informed us would sell to ?the right person??!?! As we showed no sign of giving up they finally agreed to take us out there.
After arriving half an hour late at the agreed meeting spot the two agents took us to the block and right away it look impressive, formidable and beautiful as you can see from this picture taken from the road;
Picture of block from road.
As you can nearly tell the block rises sharply up from the road and gains about 60meters in height and is covered in thick bush. The access track zigs than zags up the front before turning directly into the block where it begins to flatten off to a terrace.
Although a bit overgrown the track felt very solid.
From the top of the zig-zag there is an impressive panoramic view looking north over the Rocklands farm delta beside the Buller river.
Although not from a building site the view from the track is stunning!
At the top of the track is about an eighth of an acre cleared with a bus, small shed and an old caravan on it. The whole block is very north facing and with all the bush surrounding it the clearing was very sunny and hot the day we were there.
The main clearing was dry and solid.
Just behind the little shed you can see behind Sarah there is a piece that has been cleared in the past and used as some sort of garden that would not take much to clear it out again for a nice sheltered north facing vege plot.
Photo from potential vege plot looking back towards the main clearing.
From the main clearing the far side of the block is 200meters away and the rear about 300meters so hopefully there would be enough area that we could make small clearings in the bush providing a bit more space for chickens, pigs and a goat. However we wont know until we go back up there by ourselves and spend most of a day hacking through the bush to get a good feel for the contour.
This is a very beautiful and inspiring block of land full of bird life including abundant tuis and bluebirds, even in the middle of the day the amount of birdsong was stunning! (Click here to listen to bellbird song and here to listen to Tui song.) One of the neighbours is a native tree nursery and on the other side it is DOC (Department of Conservation) land that is totally bush clad and possum controlled through ground based poison bating. We reckon that there is a strong possibility that you may even hear distant kiwi calls at night (click here for an example).
This Bellbird had no worries with me getting close for a photo.
I will post a picture of a Tui once I take a good one!
As you can see we are rather taken with this land and though not as practical as the pasture block at Tapawera is a lot more inspiring! This makes for a difficult choice though, between a highly practical though expensive bare pasture block or a stunningly beautiful bush block at half the price. Although the climate would be better at Tapawera they are not too far apart as you can see on the map I pinched off Google Maps below.
Map of locations of the two shortlist properties.
Just in case any of you were wondering if I am exaggerating by calling the Tapawera block bare pasture here is an aerial picture also nicked off Google Maps.
Aerial picture of Tapawera.
Unfortunately the Inangahua area has very poor Arial photography coverage but you probably get the idea from the photos above!
So we have retired to the comfort of Simon (B?s brother) and Miranda?s house to hide out the Christmas/New Year period when everything is closed anyway to ponder our options. We had a lovely Christmas with Miranda?s family coming down for the day. It was a surprisingly calm Christmas given that there were three under 10 year olds without any tantrums to speak of. Lots of lovely food and very full bellies! We have found that sponging off family really helps keep the costs down and are trying to dream up ways of sponging off Matthew (Another of B?s brothers) and Christine for a while but we can?t get the cost of the flights to Brisbane to offset the cost savings unless we spend more than three months there?
Hopefully within the next two weeks we will have decided which of the properties we will offer on and will update you all then.
Until next time I had better sign off and let Sarah get back to her Haggis Hunting ,so have a great new year/hogmanay!
