Our little home in the country.....of New Zealand

I just received an email from my friend Jill asking to remind her of this blog address so that she can follow along in our travels this year. Oops, I guess that I had better get writing if I want to share the blogspot! Unlike last year where Marc and I spent the first 2 weeks of our trip shopping for and looking at, then buying and kitting out a caravan (camper in Canadian English) and truck (truck in Canadian English), this year we just showed up, picked up our truck and caravan, and moved back into our little country house. I love Chunk and Mani (yes I named our truck and caravan). I love the freedom that they give us to move where our home is whenever we want, I love how they solidify the fact the notion that less is more. Only 125 square feet of living space, and Marc and I never feel that we are wanting for anything while on vacation in Mani. So this year, we parked in the Christchurch caravan park for 5 days while we sorted our insurance, got some groceries, and hung out with Eric and Sue and my niece and nephew. It's amazing the difference that a year makes. Last year my nephew was having a terrible toddler year, this year, he's all grown out of being a jerky toddler, and is all grown into being a brutally honest 5 year old. Seems like semantics I'm sure, but a brutally honest 5 year old is funny and fun to be around, a jerky toddler is, well, neither of the aforementioned. We went cherry picking with the kids and my folks, an incredible amount of fun, especially being able to pick with Eleanor who is just as crazy about cherries as I am, but much messier and therefore worse at hiding the evidence of the unpaid for cherries that went down the hatch before we hit the scale in the sales area.... The 6 of us headed to Orana wildlife park, a beautiful huge zoo where Marc and I opted to pay extra to go into the lion feeding cage at meal time. We stepped into the back of a truck that is caged off. The truck drives through the lion acreage and keepers push pieces of meat through the grid in the cage. This means that the 6 lions stalk the cage, jumping and snarling their big lion sounds. They jump on the cage and pace just 18 inches above our heads, growling, demanding more food....and letting us know just how much we look like food. I've done this 'ride' before but it was Marc's first. I loved how his eyes got soooo big. They are amazing animals to be that close to. We hit the farmers market at the port and headed off to an Agricultural and Pastoral show in a little town nearby. We got our fill of horse jumping etc. Then, off to Oamaru! An old victorian town build of the local lime stone. The town has plenty of history to explore, as well as colonies of little blue and yellow eyed penguins. We spent some time tracking them down and one very early morning got to a private sanctuary in time to watch 11 rare yellow eyed penguins wake up, sing their crazy songs, then waddle down hill and over a rock beach to the ocean to head off for the day's fishing. Very cool. We explored geological formations in the area, went to fossil museums, explored the art galleries (steam punk is very big in Oamaru) learned about the history of refrigerated meat in NZ and ate lots of good food. And we also saw cheese being made at a cheese shop. Every time that I travel here, I marvel at the HUNDREDS of little cheese shops, craft breweries, vineyards, locally produced cured sausages, clothing made with local wool, great restaurants, bakeries etc etc. Agriculture here is the antipodes of agriculture in Manitoba. The south island of New Zealand has the same land mass and the same population as Manitoba. Yet agriculture here in NZ is not based on commodity pricing. You don't see fields of wheat grown for a price per bushel. You see specialty bakeries selling bread for $6 a loaf. You don't see and smell massive hog barns that sell on a worldwide commodity hot hanging weight price that farmers go bankrupt on. You see sheds with freely run hogs and packages in EVERY store that say "New Zealand Free Farmed Pork" "100% New Zealand Pork" It's more expensive than the nondescript from who knows where pork of questionable quality and animal health standards that is sold right beside it in the same cooler. But the 2 products can coexist as farmers here are innovative enough to see a market need and work COOPERATIVELY to fill it! The same happens in almost every industry. You can buy regular milk and organic milk at all stores, and raw milk at designated areas. Near Christchurch there is Barry's Bay cheese, in Oamaru it's Whitestone cheese, in Dunedin it's evansdale cheese. And you can find all of these cheeses in large grocery stores! The ag industry here makes my heart light at the massive potential that Manitoba farmers have yet to tap. We just need a slight shift for it to happen. Ok, rant over. We're now in Dunedin, Edinburgh of New Zealand. We've been skunked at fishing, spent a rainy day in the very cool settlers museum, have wandered the beautiful old buildings and churches, have a jog every morning on the beautiful beach, and have taken a trip on the Taieri gorge train. I also spent 3 hours and WAY too much money at the Saturday farmers market. The Otago farmers market is one to behold. Food only, no t shirts or other nick nackery. It is a Farmers market, not a flea market or craft sale. Coffee is on hand, vendors can tell you long tales of all of their wares be they cheese, meat, sausage, specific varieties of plums, apricots, cherries, raspberries. There is a mobile kitchen where a top chef comes early, grabs from the wares, makes a menu from the items, prints of recipes and starts cooking so that everyone can see how to make it happen in your own kitchen. We bought a hot sauce that I will be trying to replicate at home. Pure bliss. We've also taken lots of drives out of town, chasing down fishing spots, finding a beautiful wetland sanctuary, and touring the resident Albatross colony (Marc was in bird photography heaven), as well as the Orokonui sanctuary. The sanctuary is acres and acres of fenced in native bush where all pest invaders like possums, rats, stoats, mice and weasels have been decimated. Then the rare native birds were re introduced. We saw 15 varieties of birds, photos will surely be on facebook and flickr in short order as Marc clicked away for hours. It was an amazing place. Tomorrow we head off for Queenstown. Land of hiking, biking, fishing, and crazy adventure sports. Wear good clothes and stay warm in Winnipeg! Erin