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We’re off the trail and back Woofing. Kaitai is the nearest town, we’re about 8 miles northeast. John is our host. He is 62 and has lived here for the past 15 years. Like some places we have stayed he bought the land first and built everything on it by himself, including a wind turbine and solar panels, which supply him with all the electricity he needs. When John was approaching retirement age he worried about having the funds to support himself, not counting on Federal aid to help him. Today he lives largely a sustainable lifestyle both in resource wise and monetarily from a parcel of his land he sold two years ago.
We sat down and had a salad, most of the veggies being from his garden for lunch. John is an avid sailor; he is part of an eight-man crew and was off to enter in a race tonight. He gave us a tour of the land and wrote down a few assignments we would be doing while staying the next few days. While he was gone we mulched his vegetable garden and picked the ripe tomatoes as we went. Emily chased some of the funnier looking
chickens around, recording them as she went. I went through a few of his books and magazines noticing I’ve read many of the books he had.
For dinner we cooked up some potatoes he had from the garden. After nightfall we heard his dog barking for 20 minutes. Emily attempted to find him but this proved to be difficult in the night and not being familiar with the surrounding area. Eventually he came back and we tied him up after putting the chickens back in the pen. When I asked John later about the dog he said “Oh that was probably a possum he was after. He’ll bark at him and I’ll come out and shoot them was my .22lr”. Possums are a major problem here, destroying trees and out competing the native bird life.
Our first full day we went out to the olive orchard. He has around two dozen mature olive tree’s that he’s had varying levels of success with over the years. We filled up a couple buckets full. Today he was getting a large shipment of pine for the development of a new home. The place he was currently living in would turn into
John's House
That he built on his own! a guest/Wwoofer quarters. For a couple hours we helped to stack wood, leaving enough of a gap to allow air between to avoid wood rot. I worked along with a very strong Moari (who almost ended up buying my car). About half into it the clouds darkened and it poured rain for 20 minutes. After finishing we retired for lunch. I broke out a few of our camping supplies for the added guests.
Although we’re only required to work 4 hours a day John asked if we wouldn’t mind going to the mill where he had additional wood he needed to stack. Emily and I stacked for another 3-4 hours. We had a great dinner of stir-fry. We watched some news about the economic crisis back home, noticing how different the news was portrayed in New Zealand. We talked about our lives back in Seattle. John showed me a Goethe quote that has stuck with me ever since.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitation, the chance to draw back, always making for ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative, there is one elemental truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one
definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, working in our favor; all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance that no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it."
The next day we moved around a few support beams (concrete pillars that used to be telephone poles) to ready the main structure for the frame of John's house. Being a surveyor most of his life gave him the eye for settling the poles in the proper position. We filled them with dirt then added a concrete mixture to secure them in place. He showed us a bow knot commonly used in sailing and surveying. He wouldn't let us leave until we were able to tie it. We then went to stack the rest of the wood we started yesterday.
We had another great dinner. He played us some of his favorite records as we drank wine and talked about music. The music was also intoxicating since we’ve had little access to music
because of the lack of a working radio in the car and our refusal to bring along any electronics besides a camera. We left the next day, washing and vacuuming out the car before leaving. John showed m a car dealership where I thought I could sell me car. The dealer made me an offer, which I refused, not wanting to start hitch hiking just yet and thinking I would get a similar offer when back in Auckland. This was the beginning of the long "trying-to-get-rid-of-the-car" escapade.
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