Up in the Hills

Have been having some amazing walks between the frantic search for jobs and other things that have been going on.

The building on the left is Clarence House, where i have been staying with Terry for the last couple of months whilst at Autumn Farm, enough room for a big double bed and space to put our belongings. We used the guest kitchen and bath house and all the other communal facilities on site, with the choice of interacting with the other guests as little or much as we desired. Quite different from the HelpX ing that i'd been doing before.

We've been out most mornings that we've been here for a gut busting walk up the steep sides of the valleys in the region. Exploring old gold country and a restored hydro electric scheme that was recently reopened, way up into the mountains where the view goes on for hours and hours without the smallest hint of civilization, just trees and rivers and rocks and amazingly clear skys, unless its raining, obviously. And the sound of the birds, most of which are so different to those back home.

Afternoons of trawling through the papers looking for jobs, writing letters and completing application forms or lying in the sun with a good book.

Haven't been to the pictures so frequently ever. Now that its getting dark in the evenings, theres not much else to do. Takaka has a great little cimena where you can get a cup of tea before the performance - in a mug of course, and relax on an old sofa with a pile of bean bags to make yourself comfortable. Intermission with ice creams and great adverts for local businesses on screen, real homely.