Final Stop of the New Zealand Leg

Window view

Peter picked us up right before a giant sleet storm, and boy were we glad to see him! Earlier we had failed to connect with Peter due to a family gathering, and after dropping us off at his house, he returned to it. We were glad of the chance to relax, make some food, and turn in early after our long day of exploration. As we were heading to bed, a random person came to the door and dropped off a kitten. Her name was Sam (the person, not the kitten), and she assured us that Peter would be okay with it, by which point the kitten had already disappeared into the house to explore. Bewildered but not too worried, we went to bed.

NZ Spinach in NZ!!

Lovely view to end the day

    The next morning dawned cold and stormy, with sleet and snow coming down hard. This was the first snowy accumulation we had encountered in our trip, further reminding us that although it was late May, we were in the southern hemisphere. We were getting tired of the cold, late-fall weather, and were looking forward to our imminent departure for Bali. We stayed inside most of the morning, sitting by the fire and getting to know Peter. In the early ‘80s, Peter was in a car accident which left him without the use of his legs. Though certainly a life-changing event, Peter has accomplished some amazing sports feats, including winning medals in downhill skiing championships and ping pong contests. He also owned his own leatherworking shop before moving to his current lifestyle block. Since we have dabbled in leatherworking ourselves, we were happy to glean a few tips from a master.

Freshly dug oca

En garde, gorse!

Digging oca

 We made some soup for lunch, and afterwards, once the storm had stopped, we moved some firewood around, and dug oca, a sweet tuber. Oca was a vegetable we had heard of, but had never seen grown, and we were looking forward to trying. The white-fleshed, thin-skinned tuber was sweeter than a regular potato, but starchier than a yam. It is from South America, and now comes in a variety of colors; yellow, orange, pink, apricot, though red is the original. The next day we did battle with the gorse; an old access road in one of his sheep pastures had become impassable, and we were attempting to make it usable again. We were bitten many times even through leather gloves by their thin needle-like thorns, but we did make some headway. One redeeming quality of gorse is its smattering of lovely and fragrant yellow flowers, which is probably why it was cultivated for hedges in England. The flowers can also be used to make wine. After lunch we accompanied Peter to the lawn bowls club. Lawn bowls is a popular sport in New Zealand, reminiscent of bocci ball, but with oblong balls and gutters. After watching Peter a bit, we explored the local area. 

Peter shows how its done

While rooting through a free bin outside a thrift store we came across a small pouch perfect for holding cards. As an added bonus, it contained a crisp New Zealand $20 bill! Happy that our thrift-store compulsion had finally paid off, we headed back to the lawn bowls club. Peter and his friends had just finished up, and were enjoying some “beersies..” The members of the club were kind enough to let us try our hand at lawn bowls before they packed up the equipment. It was surprisingly difficult to roll balls at a smaller ball, but it was fun and we were glad to get the chance to try it.

Scoring and retrieving our bowls

Part of the sheep herd, including the goat
who thinks its a sheep

Sheep pedicure

  The next day started with some general lawn care, followed by rotating his herd of 30 sheep into a new pasture in preparation for flock maintenance the following day. The sheep needed their hooves trimmed and to be “dedagged,” the process of freeing their backsides of matted poop. The last big project before we left was helping convert a 40-foot gum tree into firewood. Peter is an excellent cook, and we enjoyed many delicious meals around his table, including lots of fresh roasted veggies, and a tasty rhubarb crumble made from his own rhubarb. We had a great time with Peter, and it was a lovely end to our time in New Zealand. Peter was kind enough to drop us off at the bus station, and from there we started making our way back to Auckland, to catch our flight to Bali.