An Autumn Easter

Easter has been a great day. Not like any Easter Day I have ever experienced before. I awoke in a hostel in a slight panic. Daylight savings had switched in the night and I was concerned we would miss our bus. We had made sure that wouldn’t happened the night before...but still. :) We packed up and headed off to get breakfast. I wish I had a picture of us with all our bags! It was a sight. To make matters more interesting and amusing it started raining and blowing on us. This was Easter Sunday and we needed breakfast. This was an interesting situation I had never been in before. We walked until we found a wee (AKA small) convenience store call Night ‘n’ Day. I grabbed a muffin and Milk and we were off to walk to the bus stop. The bus we were waiting for was the Catlin’s Coaster. It turned out to be a guided tour of the Catlins with nice short walks at some of the stops. This was a nice surprise, I was under the impression that this was for transportation purposes only. One stop we made was at Waipapa Point. The worst maritime disasters in NZ history occurred at the reef at this point. A light house was built after that and is still used.

I fell in a tide pool and had wet feet for the rest of the day. The next stop was Curio Bay where we were getting off. Curio Bay is a rocky small bay and Porpoise Bay is a large, sandy beach. The Hector’s Dolphin is a small (about 1m long) dolphin with a rounded dorsal fin that lives only in NZ. They are known to be in this bay often.

Next, we grabbed our gear and headed up the road a little bit to a small community center when Sheila (our wwoofing host mom) said they would be having church. We arrived and had a most warm welcome from Sheila and were at once thrown into the potluck lunch line in a very small, one room, building. There were about 20 people in attendance and the food was delicious!! We also had dessert, which was spectacular. We met quite a few people from the church and had a few wee chats. I felt quite comfortable and at home here already. Out the window of the building was a breath-taking view of Curio Bay and the crashing waves. Makes for a great spot to stand in awe of the power of God. I was very glad to have been apart of a church gathering on Easter Sunday. Our wwoofing family is very interesting. Sheila is the mom, we had been in contact with her via email. She is very up front, in charge, very kind and warm. Sheila is Welsh, she moved her three years ago. Rata is the dad. He played rugby of Wales (where he met Sheila), he is a farmer, he hunts, he is a very sarcastic and funny guy. He is Maori and grew up near Curio Bay. They have 3 children. Slade is 9, he can do backflips off of handrails and he rides his motorbike all the time. Mitchell is 7 and he’s feisty. He likes to run around with his new puppy, ride his bike and play rugby. Tea (sounds like Tia) is 5 and she is so cute! She has warmed up to us really quickly and she loves to show off. She is taking ballet lessons and she showed me parallel and first positions as well as a curtsy. The Smiths had another visitor who had just popped by for about a week after meeting Rata at a Rugby match on Steward Island. He was from Wales as well and it was a little hard to understand him.

After meeting everyone and eating a bunch Sheila said she would just let us go explore the petrified forest for a bit while she cleaned up and went to her mother-in-law’s house. So off we went.

Curio Bay is a rocky beach where the waves have eroded the stone that encompassed a petrified forest from the Triassic. These trees were growing about 180 mya when a flood came through that was full of volcanic ash (very silica rich) and quickly killed them and turned them into stone. The Si exchanged for the organic materials in the wood and now we have petrified wood.

As we were meandering along this fossil forest out of the ocean popped a yellow-eyed penguin! These little guys are rare and only live in the south of NZ. We were very lucky to see one and be able to photograph it so closely. So close in fact that someone had to tell us to get back a bit further. He just kept hopping towards us and we just kept snapping pictures.


We drove home (about a 30 minute drive from Curio) to Auroura Downs

where the Smith’s live and farm. When we arrived we unloaded our stuff and got a tour of the place. The house is an old farm house that Sheila is making plans to update asap. We were shown our duties for the morning that include watering the small greenhouse, picking tomatoes, feeding chickens and collecting eggs. We also saw our little red shed we would be moving into when the other visitor moved on the next day. We visited the new puppy, Blaze, and played with him and Tea a bit. We got our first job to dig up some carrots for tea (the meal, not the drink or the little girl). They tasted good. Sheila made some brownies for tea, they were a special recipe with coconut. We also had an assortment of other food. Sheila is very conscious of what food she is feeding everyone. She uses a blue agave juice stuff instead of sugar and gluten free flour, because gluten is bad for everyone, not just the people who are allergic. It’s very interesting and I am learning a lot watching her cook. I had raw beet root and I liked it....that’s a feat in itself. Laura and I did the dishes without having been asked...I think that we have started off quite nicely being wwoofers in this house. I can’t imagine a better way to spend break or a better family to have my first wwoofing experience with. God is so good.