Plenty fun

Hi there! Today we ended up with a lot of the day off due to heavy rain in the morning. I did a little bit of weeding round our cottage when it cleared and Paul and Luka worked on sanding some chairs for painting and then we were off, just as the sun came out fully, and we went to our pre arranged meeting with another Helpx couple at their property the O'Hara Game Estate just outside Te Puke. They were lovely, the work, learning opportunities and accommodation are fantastic and we will stay with them in January sometime! We picked a huge bag of oranges and an even huger bag of grapefruit from their laden trees and had an orange for pudding each after fish and chips in Maketu on the way back to Welcome Bay. This is a photo I took of a seagull which ate chips out of my hand. Connor says its good enough to be on google images...

We loved Maketu. It's a small non developed old style NZ seaside town. Kids of all ages played on the playground and at the beach without the need for watching adults, the natural world is their backyard and they all look after each other JUST AS IT SHOULD BE! Ten kids spent hours jumping off this cool old wharf / bridge remains into a deep spot into a channel of the Maketu Estuary. Luka and Connor were quick to join them and this is a photo of Luka bombing into the sea. (A much better thing to be jumping on/off than you know what!!!)

Tomorrow Luka and Paul have got some paid work for a few hours at my friend Nina's shop 'The Wooden Toy Box'. So that's good as we are using a lot of petrol discovering all the cool places in the Bay of Plenty of Places to visit!

It really was the Bay of Plenty today: as I weeded I found new potatoes, then we were harvesting citrus and also at Maketu (while Luka and I were buying f & c) Paul and Connor were pulling up pipi for tea tonight. They were a little gritty but hey! We had them with NZ spinach which Paul picked from the garden here. If only Luka liked shellfish and Connor liked spinach it would have been a successful meal!

We're considering having new Year here in the Mount. Anyone game to join us? If you have never been to the Mount you are really missing out! Love Justyx

The adventure begins (and keeps on beginning...)

Naumai, haere mai – from Welcome Bay, welcome to our blog. Now we are settled in and have done our first two days of 'HelpX-ing', I have an opportunity to start this record of our adventure... and once again we can say “The adventure has begun!”

It's been a running joke these past few weeks, to say the adventure is beginning (again), because there have been many beginnings. In the last two weeks we have: moved out of our house in Roker St; left Christchurch (with a tentative, but still flexible return date of August 2011); left the South Island (a one-way ticket on the Interislander); and, after nine nights staying with friends old & new and in our tent, arrived at our HelpX home (for the next month) in Kaitemako Road.

Even before these more tangible beginnings, there were others: my last day of work, signing up our tenants, saying goodbye to Alika (our dog, who Toni & Steve are dog-sitting for nine months!), and devising the plan for the adventure, way back in August (a week before the quake!)

Today it's Sunday, our day off. The boys are sleeping in, and it's grey and rainy (a sou'west, but still 20 degrees – not like Chch weather!), so instead of swimming at Mount beach we will do inside things.. like starting the blog! Luka and I are planning to watch the replay of All Blacks vs Ireland at 12, and like the rest of NZ we are watching out for news that the miners are OK and can be rescued...

A bit about where we're staying and what we're doing... Our hosts have a 20-acre block about 200m above sea-level, 6km inland from Welcome Bay in Tauranga. Most of it is regenerating native bush; they have 6 cows, 2 miniature horses, a goat and a few chooks. There are some massive tree-ferns and beautiful trees (e.g. 6 huge rewarewa/honeysuckle), the harakeke/flax is in flower so we have tuis outside our window, and we have a view down to Tauranga harbour and Mauao/The Mount (well we did before the rain set in...)

So far the work has been weeding and tidying up, and propagating native plants. Luka and Connor have dug out and potted up around 100 ferns, Luka used a line-trimmer to tidy around the vege garden, Connor has been watering pots and learning how to maintain a hydroponic system (it's growing lettuces and other veges, in case you were wondering...)

The work is physical but not too demanding, and there are dozens of little projects on the go here, so there will be lots of variety. We work from 8 till 12, then have afternoons off. Six days a week, but we can choose to do a few extra hours during the week and get a longer break if we want.

Our cottage is really nice – there are 2 separate buildings joined by a verandah. The boys have a bedroom & a lounge (they have turned this into 2 bedrooms) and bathroom; we have bedroom, bathroom and lounge/kitchen. Our hosts supply our food and we prepare/cook it, which suits us just fine. No phone, but a broadband cable – all good. We have it all set up like home... those of you who saw how much gear we took with us will be able to appreciate that! (I'll post a photo some time of the car all loaded up).

Last night we drove to Mount Maunganui and swam in the saltwater hot pools which was lovely, and had a look at the Tauranga nightlife on the way back. The morning is getting off to a nice slow Sunday start, Connor is still in bed (has been reading Inventors of the World – thanks Noel!), Luka is listening to Paul Kelly on his iPod speakers, Justy & I having second brekky.

So I will post this, and have another round of toast... Please log yourselves in (need to set up a Google account – very easy) and post us some comments!