New Plymouth, new ground - Dec 2024

 

Mt Taranaki (Egmont)

We decided to book a Christmas sit on the west coast of the North Island as this seemed to be the last place in New Zealand that we had not yet explored.  

On the way over from the Bay of Plenty we stopped and spent a night at the Omaru Falls.

We ended up at a lovely wee sit with two gorgeous kitties in rural Oakura, just south of New Plymouth.

Leo

Thomas (she,her)

It was Christmas so the Pohutukawa were out in bloom.

We had a fabulous view of the mountain from the back yard so we could keep an eye on the weather .... which was terrible!  Someone said that if there is cloud covering the mountain it was raining, if there was no cloud on the mountain, it was about to rain.  Never a truer word spoken in jest.  And the wind!  Don't mention the wind!

We managed to catch a kahawai on the breakwater one day and the cats enjoyed the off-cuts.

James got sick and the cats thought we was just laying around for their convenience.

And they entertained us plenty.

The five weeks went really quickly and it was soon time to leave.  As we were only going as far as our next sit in Inglewood, we stayed the night at the freedom camping spot on the edge of Pukekura Park only to discover that there was a fabulous Christmas light display in the park.

A quick stop at a sit in Inglewood had us looking after two cats, four horses, lots of chickens and a couple of cows.

Four month old Aspen

This old boy only came in at night for a snuggle.
He didn't much like having a little brother!

Ellie, the pony

Jake, such a gentle man

Kindred, a Kaimanawa horse, wild and 
absolutely beautiful

Back to the Bay we go, Oct/Nov 2024

 

Whanarua Bay

We were delighted to be heading back to one of our favourite places on earth, Whanarua Bay to once again housesit for Stanley and his bird friends.

Stanley lives up in the village so we wondered down to the bay itself everyday for a wander around and a paddle.

Indian Runner ducks

James caught some wonderfully tasty crayfish.

Clare made some equally tasty bread.

Turmeric, cranberry and pumpkin seed
Sourdough

We were lucky enough to be invited to a dear friends wedding down in the bay too, which was a very special treat!

We were short term custodians of a mumma Thrush whilst she sat on her eggs.

There is nothing quite like the sun going down on the bay.  We will never get sick of the view.

Next we were back in Matata for an overnight sit for our girls Freya and Kaia.  Poor Magoo had passed away tragically since we last sat for these special girls.

Clare chanelling Kaia

We went from here to another short sit in the next town of Edgecumbe.  Here we were in the company of Tess, Spud and Casper.

It was only a matter of minutes before Casper made himself at home on James's lap!

Then we had a good rumble around on the floor.

We enjoyed the company of these cuties even if it wasn't for very long.

Frollicking on the farm - Aug - Oct 2024

 

Milly surveying her territory

We were delighted to be selected for a ten week sit on a back country station looking after four dogs. 

On the way to the farm we stopped off at one of our favourite freedom camping spots near Napier, Lake Tutira.

Lucky us to witness this sunset!

Camp mates

 The farm itself was under the control of the manager so we just had to relax and have fun with our charges: young Hunterway, Holly; Border Collie, Charm; Curly Coated Retriever, Milly and Jack Russell, Twiggy.

We quickly got into a fabulous routine of trotting out with the girls for an hour or more twice a day on the many farm roads and tracks.  

The girls chased rabbits and hares, just for funsies, on our daily rambles and we managed to harvest a fair amount of wild food, thanks to James being a crack shot! - hare, rabbit and turkey.  Hunting without the girls in tow was easier for sure!

Which we made some outstanding meals out of ....

Rabbit loin parmigiana

Crumbed turkey breast

Bacon wrapped hare loin and warm 
winter salad

The doggos were also more than happy to eat fresh meat every day.  There was plenty for everyone!

House and petsitting is not always as glamourous and it seems.  Sometimes you really do have to get down and dirty.  Fortunately we were able to unblock this drain ourselves.

There was also plenty of time for relaxing in the lovely home.

And then, a first for us, after 10 years of house and petsitting!  It turned out our gorgeous girl Charm was in pup when the owners left and no one knew.  Least of all us!  There were signs early on - nesting, wanting to rest on the back of the Can Am all the time (definitely not a border collie trait) and she was very affectionate right from the start (also not a common BC trait!) - but not knowing the dog before our arrival we had no benchmark to go by.  Once we realised what was going on, James got to and created her a lovely space for birthing here pups in one of the hay sheds.  On the day they were born she came to get Clare who was more than happy to be her birthing partner.  Such an honour!

She had seven pups, all beautiful BC's which should turn out to be awesome farm dogs!  Charm thrived in her new role, as did the pups, and eventually welcomed the opportunity to take a short break from her babies and come out on the farm again.