Waimate, the jewel of South Canterbury - December 2015

It was a long drive down to Waimate from Wellington, having taken the 9am Interislander ferry, but well worth the journey.  We arrived to a hearty welcome by Stu and Sue on their hobby farm approximately 6km through the Waimate Gorge. They have around 400 sheep and, fortunately for us, Bess the Border Collie ..... to keep them all in order.

There was Missy the cat

16 Alpacas

Plus a wee baby born while we were there

That's dad welcoming his new baby

Some hand reared lambs ....

And this wee fellow we rescued from the paddock one morning, breathing but hardly conscious ......... we called him Lucky (to be alive)

Lucky ... up and grazing

 There was much to do daily refencing one mob, moving sprinklers around paddocks, walking the farm twice a day to check the fences and make sure that everyone was where they should be.  They weren't always and this required some running in and resorting of the stock (see video below for a belly laugh!).  We thoroughly enjoyed the physical workload.

There was a river flowing past the kitchen window with  some fine looking brown trout and many wallabies and hares running around freely (we enjoyed the flavour of both).

There is a Joey in the pouch of the female on the left

Stu is passionate about yarn and sells his own wool which is real kiwi quality.  He has a lot more available than is on the site so you may want to contact him to find out more http://fffnz.com/shop/

Oh, and then there was fishing.  Did I mention fishing yet?  James had, of course, done his research prior to our arrival and discovered that the beach for surf casting in the area is Hook Beach.

We spent a few hours during the two weeks sitting on Hook Beach.  A seal frolicked by looking for a feed and a dolphin swan past on a (no doubt) similar mission. Um, yes, and we caught some fish.

Kahawai

Shark

We were really sad to leave here but a new adventure was calling ......

Heading out to round "someone" up

Loin of hare

From the garden

New Zealand, here we come - Nov 2015

All of a sudden it was nearly time to head back to New Zealand for a few months of summer.  First though, we had accepted an overnight sit just outside Bury St Edmunds.  We were to keep the company of Scruffy a 10 year old fur ball, and Bob a 14 week old Irish Wolfhound.  We had previously visited to meet them and the family ,we were surprised how much Bob had grown in the few weeks since we last saw him.

There wasn't an awful lot to be done in just one night except a few walks around the nearby fields and kicking back keeping the boys company. Such is life .......

In our perpetual pursuit of sun, sand and sea, we head back to New Zealand for a few months. Landing in Auckland we took a bus journey down to Wellington to catch up with family and pick up our car.  Yes, we could have flown, but when you have lots of luggage and plenty of time the bus is a really good option.  A visual melange of a journey through the centre of the North Island can't be a bad thing, right!?!? Oh, and there is even Wifi on the Intercity bus.

We had an adventure planned around the East Cape of the North Island.  We had been offered the use of a Bach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach_(New_Zealand)   by the wonderful Goldsmith family in Whanarua Bay where we planned to relax and fish - yes, we need to relax and fish more!!!   But first to Hastings to pick up a double kayak we had purchased online (whilst in  the UK) secondhand on Trademe.  It looked ok!  We then headed for Whakatane (Clare's hometown) to catch up with friends.

Finally it was time to head to Whanarua Bay.  And oh, what a beautiful bay it is.

There is no phone or internet service so what else to do but totally relax ...... oh, and a bit (a lot) of fishing! We caught Kahawai, Snapper, Mackerel, Tarakihi, Wrasse, Trevally .... but alas, no crayfish in the pot we put out. We dined handsomely on our catches .... except the wrasse and mackerel.

It was not yet summer holidays so we mostly had the bay to ourselves.  This kind of peace and tranquility is something one doesn't often get to experience in todays society and we lapped it up.  A few of the locals came down for a bit of snorkelling, looking for crayfish, kina and paua.

When we finally pulled ourselves away, we enjoyed the rest of our journey around the East Cape very much.  This is still such and unspoiled and wild part of New Zealand that even many New Zealanders haven't taken the time to explore.  Well worth the journey.

Watch some of our kayaking exploits in this short video below !!