Holming’s Birthday

Holming’s birthday just happens to be the first day of summer here in NZ. Lucky for him. I remember when my birthday was in the summer, now it’s in the winter. Enough about me, lets get back to his day.

Two things were certain for his birthday, one was that he wanted to be on a beach and two was that he wanted to BBQ. We did both. We packed a lunch and took a 30 minute ferry ride from downtown to Motuihe Island. http://www.motuihe.org.nz/motuihe/content.aspx?pageId=2

The ride there was absolutely breathtaking as this was one of the first fine days we had had since I had arrived in NZ. We hiked to a secluded beach where we picnicked, swam, napped and ate again. It was lovely.

Here are a couple of photos of our day.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Raised Garden

Ever since we moved, all I wanted was a glasshouse to grow my own vegetables and tomatoes. After spending an entire winter here, I realised that the backyard never got any sun during the winter months. So the idea of a glasshouse for the winter was out, and a raised garden bed for the summer was in.
Since we live in the bush, it took a couple of months to clear the area for the raised garden. This is what the area looked like before we started clearing it.

We had to fill in an old pond, pull up some large ugly shrubs and plants, and get rid of all the ground cover. My sister-in-law's (Nicky's) parents helped us out quite a bit. Once that was done Holming got to work! Since the area was sloping slightly, he dug into the slope to make the garden level. Next he put the garden together with wood he had stained the week before, that he had already measured out and cut to size. The bottom of the raised garden was lined with chicken wire (to keep rodents out) and weedblocker material. Once that was completed, we filled it up with at least 20 bags of garden soil. The raised garden bed was now ready for my plants! We planted lettuce, spinach, corn, onions, green onions and zucchini.

We planted tomatoes in separate containers since they take up so much space.

Seasons change

Boy have my seasons changed. I would like to start off by saying that I am not at all opposed to the rain or Winter. I love rainy days. I love to stay home and light a fire and drink wine and read a book and drink wine (oh... I said that). But by the time my birthday hit, it had not stopped raining for two whole months. Granted, most people were saying that this has been the worst Winter in decades but, did it have to happen now? To me? I mean really.

Thing's can only look up from here, right? On the positive side of my birthday, I just happened to receive a birthday card from my Tia Nina on the 21st; wow..... She's good. If she had planned that (which she said she didn't) it would never have arrived in time.

Holming was an absolute angel (after I put aside the spider thing for one day). He made this lovely home-cooked meal for me. It was a whole red snapper over chopped leeks & lemons, with green-lipped mussles and cherry tomatoes. I'm sure I have forgotten one of the ingredients, but I'm not supposed to know his recipe anyway. It was amazing!

Now, despite the fact that at this point our container of furniture still hadn't arrived and I was still sleeping on an air mattress during the time of this photo, I think I look pretty happy. Good food, good wine and good company. Thanks Honey!

Of note- the table we were eating on was lent to us by my sister-in-law's parents. They are so good to us. I will chat more about them later.

So, back to my birthday...Holming took me to a bike store and we picked out a road bike for me. It just happened to be made by a company out of Marin County, in the Bay Area. I was really inspired to have one less car on the road and to not drive my car as much. The only problem was that I didn't get to play with my new toy until 2 months after my birthday, when the rain stopped. Well, the rain never stops here. It just gives us a break for a day or two.

From spiders to the sounds of birds

Although I've not captured the Tui Bird in a photos, I've captured his song. This is the sound that I wake up to every morning. Well, that and my hungry cat meowing. I love her! They wake up at 4 am and sing all day long. They seem to quiet down in the late morning (maybe nap time) then get really active again at night. I read that they stay up late most nights when there is a full moon. A bird after my own heart. I hope you are able to hear this clip.

Holming didn't tell me about the spiders in NZ

My poor honey. He never hears the end of my complaining about the spiders here. I blame their existence on him. With that said, this lovely spider just happened to scare the living, you-know-what out of me when I went down to put more kitchen scraps in my compost bin. I lifted the lid and BAHM.... there he was. I thank the spider Gods that this one did not jump. Look at him. I've never seen a spider with such long legs. I mean, are those spider nails at the end of his legs? Yuck! I'm grossed out just looking at him. Needless to say, I've not gone down to me compost bin for a week. I'm just not ready.

This guy is another one of my favorites. He is big, black, and ugly. I believe this one is the Avondale Spider. Although all spiders in NZ are not poisones, I spray any spider I see. You should see me running around the house with a can of Raid. They don't usually come in the house as this guy like wood piles and bark. I believe this guy made the web in the next photo. We cut this fern branch off and sprayed the crap out of it then cut it open to see what was inside. As if I wasn't grossed out enough. Hundreds of baby spiders came gushing out. I had the worst case of the heebeegeebee's. Thanks holming.

Let's talk about the street signs

These are the roundabout signs. They usually appear about 50 to 100 meters before you get to the roundabout. If you missed the sign before getting to the turn..... too bad. A split decision has to be made. Sometimes you just go round and round and where you stop nobody knows. On top of not knowing which way to go, you also need to have the correct blinker (indicator) on and need to be in the correct lane. Ugh... It's complicated getting around town. New Zealand has very few signal lights and many of these roundabouts.

I don't have a photo of the signal lights but, even those are different. They either sit off to the side of the road, like the right hand curb or they are positioned lower than I am accustomed to looking. Surprise surprise I have not been in an accident yet. I will definitely take pictures of that experience when/if it happens.

So, this is my new home.

This this in my new home in a new country far far away from everyone that I love. Boy is it scary and exciting at the same time. What a rush.

Although we have been here for 5 1/2 months this blog is just getting started thanks to Nancy. She decided to be our first visitor and in doing so she started a blog of her trip here. I immediately started one the next day since I liked the format of hers. Thanks Nancy, I will try not to backtrack too much, but feel it is necessary to go back and capture my first months of living in a different country.
This blog is called Leslita Kiwita and is about my life. That life also includes my husband Holming. So I will be bouncing back and forth between "me" and "we" quite often. As long as you have read this part you will be ok!