hot saturday night in the coromandel

sadly, the cafe has been extremely quiet this weekend... maybe the weather has been too nice to lure people out of their gardens or away from the beach (it was 70 in the sun on sunday) but it seemed too much for people to venture into the Cafe Off the Beaten Path... although the cafe was virtually empty, for me it wasn't too bad as i got to go outside and play in the dirt (one of my rediscovered favorite things to do). the cafe has several overgrown flower beds in the front and (use to have) a 20' x 20' veg garden in the back full of silver beet, mint, rocket, parsley, tomatoes, rhubarb, broccoli and lots and lots of weeds. my task was to remove everything from the veg garden (it was all well past it's prime), less the dirt, and replant with some lupine. hopefully i'll get to see the little buggers sprout before i leave!

after cafe work on saturday, i decided to walk into town to see what might be on in bustling coromandel town... turns out, nothin' much. at 5pm on a saturday evening the only action was a 4 top table at the success cafe, two employees at umu (another restaurant/cafe) and the 4 square (sorta new zealand's answer to a 7/11). i half expected to see some tumbleweeds blowing down the street. on my way to town i did get harassed by two thugs as i was passing the top pub (the one i'm not allowed to go to according to mehow). they had stopped their car about 20 yards ahead of me and pulled onto the grass as i was walking down the sidewalk to town. i wasn't worried but definitely took notice that there were two dudes in the car, and they didn't seem to be getting out in a hurry. they were talking to each other and looking my direction. they decided to exit their vehicle right as i came to pass and began to follow and pester me about my ways in the world and what i was doing on this earth... suited mormons.

last night the township of coromandel hosted a barista course here in the driving creek cafe - so i'm getting much closer and much more confident in the art of making actual coffees (well, new zealand coffees). i'm pretty well of in my shot pouring capabilities (and even got to be the example for the class) but have a long way to go in the whole foam business... at least i still have another month to practice!

tomorrow (tuesday) i get to take the ferry to auckland!!! i'm headed over to meet jon and bexie for a night out on the "big little city" and try out a climbing gym they've heard good things about.

on thursday we get a NEW WWOOFer and i'm so excited i could throw a party! young, dear, strange craig is moving on to russell (a town in the bay of islands) and we get a new gal from the u.k. i am so happy i will no longer need to follow pigpen around with a mop and broom - the guy should be forced to wear a bib at all times =)

mussel buoy strawberry condo

on wednesday it was raining pretty steadily so bexie and i spent some time in the morning under the awning planting strawberries in the strawberry condo that jon built out of an old mussel buoy. all of the strawberry plants seem to be enjoying their new abode (complete with a french drain!).

hot tub

after a day on the sea, we of course needed to unwind. what better way to relax than a soak in a fire fueled hot tub??? jon and bexie built this firepit-water tank-hot tub combo at their house and it works beautifully!!! just build yourself a good roaring fire, fill the tank with water and an hour later release the hot water into the tub! viola! it was the perfect night for a soak; not too cold air with a bright moon and complete silence in the world.

swing with a view

swinging

another pohutukawa tree

this awesome pohutakawa tree had a tree swing!!!

a dangerous game of frisbee

we played frisbee on the beach. it was great, except for when the frisbee went in the water... it was cold.

sun naps are the best naps

the sun felt awesome after the cool water (not to mention the days on days of rain previously). jon felt the need to embrace the sun with a nice little nap in the sand.

self explanitory

yep, me, in a borrowed old lady had and my warmest woolies, with bexie on the beach.

picnic - YUM!

fresh baked morning bread + artisan gouda + homemade pesto hummus + sweet baby oranges = perfect paddling picnic

this is jon and bexie eating lunch (duh).

beach of the day

this was the private beach setting for our picnic and epic frisbee game... accessible only by boat... it was fantastic!

our trusty steeds on a private beach

kayaking the coromandel

LUCKY ME!!! my new friends, jon and bexie, had me out to wwoof with them again this week, and the weather was so NICE on tuesday that we went paddling! they have boats and all the gear for their program, so we loaded jon's truck and headed down to the water for a paddle and a picnic. it is still winter, so it was chilly out (in the 50's) but the sun came out to play and we explored some cavernous sea caves and a nice secluded beach before enjoying a nice little picnic and some hang time on a tree swing. it was a glorious day!

slicer, dicer, icer and baker

this is me in the driving creek cafe kitchen, weilding a semi-sharp knife (mehow is terrified of people cutting themselves), and chopping some veg for soups, salads, and toasties (grilled cheeses). every morning i'm getting to indulge in the art of baking and icing cakes, baking cookies, and i get to practice driving the coffee machine. so far, so fun!

tuateawa photos...

Tuateawa - Mini WWOOFing

new friends, sweet baby trees and an octopus

people are cool. i managed to fall into another mini-wwoof, for my days off last week at the cafe, and it was PERFECT. so perfect that i'm doing it again this week.

the cafe has been moderately slow this week, but the baking continues (cookies and cakes galore). today i got a crash course in the super fancy coffee machine to pass the time. it has been new zealand's school holidays for the past two weeks, and we had hoped that we would be getting flooded with holiday visitiors, but we think the weather (dark and stormy) is keeping people home by their fires.

back to the mini-wwoof... so, i met bexie, a 27 year-old from the states, in the cafe 2 weeks ago. we got to chatting and she told me about this amazing property that she and her partner (they don't say "boyfriend" or "fiance" here) are developing into an eco volunteer retreat. the property is a 30 minute drive north of coromandel town on the coast just north of kennedy bay (on the peninsula's east coast). she said that if i was interested they would love to have me come help out and plant trees and mulch and garden with them on my days off. so, on monday night her partner jon picked me up on his way home from thames. the getaway vehicle; a jam packed land rover with 2 dogs, bike parts, boots, shovels, metal striping, wood and buckets, towing a trailer loaded up with about a ton of mulch (literally), some timber, sea weed and drift wood. luckily jon knew the road well as my life passed before my eyes riding shotgun at 45 mph on a hilly-windy-single lane-gravel road in the dark. on the ride out to their house in tuateawa i learned that jon had grown up on the coromandel peninsula, spent some time in australia, has traveled extensively, had his own eco volunteer adventure program outside of thames for 10+ years, and has recently moved back to the coromandel to relocate said eco volunteer adventure program back to the coromandel.

the eco volunteer adventure program: jon, and bexie, host volunteers on their property or at their house for a small fee, the guests help with planting/pruning/cooking/gardening/etc. and jon and bexie guide the volunteers on adventure trips like trekking, rafting, kayaking, mountain biking, etc. it gives the volunteers a chance to give back to the program and learn about permaculture practices while seeing rugged new zealand and getting the personal tour.

being winter, right now is the slow season for the volunteer part, and time to get some good work and ground work done on "the land." jon and bexie live in a cabin (old beach side holiday home) 10 minutes drive from their property ("the land" = 12 acres of beautiful grassy hills and a lil' river and a swamp... the future site of the program, their house, etc.). jon purchased "the land" 2 years ago - and it still needs a lot of soil work as it has previously been home to grazing cattle that don't do a whole lot in terms of making soil ready for planting. for now, jon and bexie (and volunteers and wwoofers) have planted over 1,000 various trees, some that will stay and some that will grow for a few years and then be moved or removed, to help get some nutrients back into the soil. a good section of "the land" will become fruit and vege gardens, there will be a fruit (orchard) bowl by the pond, chicken pens, sleep out cabins for volunteers and a barn that will house the community kitchen, lounge, prep areas, storage, etc.

wwoofing: the tasks at hand for this week were planting new sweet baby trees (eucalyptus, feijoas, and variuos acadias), mulching (putting handfuls of mulch around newly planted trees and some of the 18 month old trees that were planted 18 months ago (obviously)), rabbit repelling (painting the sweet baby trees with a plant based "stinky milk" that the rabbits won't come near), collecting fertilizer (crawling under a wool shed to collect sheep shit... yay!!!), visiting the saw mill for sawdust, roofing sleep out cabins, priming the interiors of said cabins and looking for good clumps of seaweed (also for fertilizer).

wwoofing plus: the three of us (and their 2 pups, ninya and evie) worked on "the land" for a few hours each day and afterwards we would take the pups to the beach (cold, yes, but the pups chased seagulls and swam like it was july... in the northern hemisphere), play cards, play settlers of catan, eat awesome meals (bexie is a stellar vegetarian chef) and watch LOST. bexie also gave me a private yoga session on wednesday morning in their office (which has a 180 degree view of the ocean and peninsula). on tuesday we went into colville - the smallest "town" ever - and on wednesday i randomly got us invited to dinner at the home of a girl who plays on mehow's basketball team...

in all, a great week and some awesome new friends that i look forward to helping out again (they pick me up for round 2 tomorrow night).


a link to allllll the tuateawa photos so far (there are lots of sweet baby tree photos for bexie) is above... (i hate links).

mini-wwoofing accomodations

here's the living room, kitchen and dining nook of jon and bexie's cabin by the beach.

"the land"

partial view of "the land" that bexie and jon are developing... left side is a small river and future site of the market stand and right side is going to be a shelter belt (wind sheilding trees), fruit orchard and vege gardens.

sweet baby feijoa tree

the entire town of colville

sheep shit

one of our quests for the day was to collect some fertilizer. free fertilizer. we checked in with a sheep and pony ranch in colville and they said we could collect all the sheep shit and pony poo we wanted, for FREE! so, jon and i armed ourselves in our working clothes best, gum boots, gloves, and with trusty buckets, rakes and shovels... and spent an hour under a wool shed collecting some lovely fertilizer for the garden beds. after that, we took to the pony pasture and shoveled some shit. i've said that i've done it before (shit shoveling)... but never like this =)

gum boots on the beach

a visit to whangaahei beach after working on the land, collecting fertilizer and a visit to the sawmill.

workin' on the roof

jenn and jon working on the roof of one of the sleep out cabins... nailing nails, filling holes and setting gutters - fun with hammers and nails!

pups running on kennedy bay beach

future bath house

the future bath house on jon and bexie's land - sauna in the back, hot tub on the porch. i didn't die working on the roof with jon.

i'm short

jenn = 5'3"
bexie = 6'2"
jon = 6'6"

new friends and wwoof hosts, bexie and jon

bexie and i met at the cafe 2 weeks ago and began chatting over american accents and wwoofing experiences. she came to new zealand as a wwoofer a year ago, met and fell in love with jon, a native to the coromandel peninsula, and is now working with him to develop a piece of land into an eco volunteer center. she invited me to come and wwoof with them on my days off from the cafe and i took her up on the offer. she and jon are planting trees on the once cow covered land to turn over and enrich the soil, while building several sleep out cabins on the property. their land is still in the baby development stages and needs a LOT of work, but it was great meeting bexie and jon and helping them plant and mulch and repel the rabbits =) i had such a great time with them (and their 2 pups) that they are picking me up again on monday for another 3 days of mini-wwoofing.