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Published: December 22nd 2009
Well, it only took two weeks, but finally we got to see some seals and sea lions! Next on the list are penguins and albatrosses...but all in good time!
First of all, happy longest day of the year!! While it is your guys' shortest day, it is our longest, with daylight stretching til 10:30pm or so. Tonight was actually the first clear, cloudless, and not absolutely frigid evening we’ve had since we arrived (still about 50 degrees, mind you, not “warm” by any stretch), and we just came back inside from stargazing and - finally - seeing the Southern Cross. Orion is visible, too, but he’s upside-down, like he’s doing a cartwheel. Just by sheer coincidence, we spotted the Space Station drifting by - we’ve seen it a couple times back home and it’s impossible to miss. There is no light pollution here whatsoever so we saw a million stars, shooting stars, and even a little dusty trail of the Milky Way, just from the backyard. Kate and Steve assure us that the west coast and the mountains afford an even clearer view and that the Milky Way appears like a white ribbon across the sky. I hope we get
to experience that at some point during the year!
Anyway. It’s been a fairly busy week. The last of our paperwork is done, all vital documents have arrived in the mail (car title, social security numbers, bank cards, etc.), and today we finally received the money from our bank account at home via electronic transfer into our new bank account here. Yay!! No more swiping our ATM cards from home and getting whacked with foreign transaction fees!
Our exciting news for the week is…we found an apartment! It’s tiny, actually a building full of studios that was once a motel, but it’s perfect for our needs. One large room will be enough to hold a bed and a couch (when we buy them, that is), and it comes with a fully furnished kitchen and bathroom. This was news to me, as we looked at a few other flats, that when you rent, you typically supply your own major appliances - fridge, washing machine, stove, etc. - plus of course all your furniture! That was definitely NOT in the budget, to say the least, so when we found this mostly-furnished studio, we jumped on it.
It’s right smack
in the center of downtown Balclutha, about twenty minutes from where we’re staying now with Kate and Steve, so it will be super-convenient to everything (provided we find jobs, that is)…Balclutha is small, you can pretty much walk anywhere. There is a Subway right across the street from our flat (yay!), a pharmacy, a hospital, a bookshop, a few small food stores and clothing stores, and lots of farm/hardware stores, all within easy walking distance. We signed paperwork on it a few days ago and will be moving in on the first of January! The great thing too is our lease is week-to-week, so we’re not stuck in a long-term commitment if things don’t work out. Perfect!
So the bulk of the week has consisted of driving from Milton to Balclutha or Milton up to Dunedin, the “big” city in the area, to get goodies for our new place. We hit up a fantastic store in Dunedin very much like our Bed-Bath-and-Beyond and got all our bedding/bathroom/kitchen stuff at a whopping 60% off. Today was picked up lots of odds and ends at some second-hand stores in Balclutha. A bed and sofa still eludes us, but we’re scouring the
ads and hoping to pick something up soon. After almost a year of not having “our own place,” we’re looking forward to it immensely, even if it is just a tiny flat.
The good news is its tiny size will mean (hopefully) a tiny heating bill. New Zealand has a reputation for having the coldest homes in the world - a combination of no insulation and very little or non-existent heating. Central heating is unheard of here, unless you’re in something brand-new. Power bills are sky-high here, even for small places. Each electrical outlet and major appliance actually has its own “switch” to cut the circuit when you’re not actively using it, to save power and money (I discovered this the other night when I was trying to boil water and wondered, twenty minutes later, why the stove wasn’t getting warm)! It’s not uncommon for elderly people to literally freeze to death in their own homes during the winter because they can’t afford heating! (A fireplace only goes so far…) We’ve been freezing each and every morning…fortunately we have the electric blanket on the bed, which keeps you warm as long as you’re in it, but the second you
have to get out of bed - WOW!! It’s like stepping into an icebox. Even during the day, the house barely warms up. And, I remind everyone again (myself included) today is officially the first day of summer. We are officially lunatics.
Anyway, the point of that long rant was that our tiny flat has a new and modern heating unit, which will hopefully provide us with maximum heat for minimal cost. Either that, or we’ll flee to Fiji. It’s only a 3-hour flight from here, I’m told.
We’ve been up to Dunedin three or four times now, and we actually really like it! It has all the perks and the feel of a big city, without the congestion and hurried pace of one. It sits on tall steep hills surrounding a large harbor and even boasts the “world’s steepest street,” which we have yet to drive down (think a small San Francisco). At the entrance of town is the old Edwardian-style train station, built in the 1860’s - a gorgeous piece of architecture! Downtown is the “octagon,” which consists of a round road shaped like an octagon (surprise, surprise) with streets going out at all different angles,
like spokes on a wheel. Last night we headed up there for dinner and movie (Avatar), and we found a great restaurant with a full gluten-free menu and feasted on pumpkin-chili soup, flatbread with feta, honey, and garlic, and my very first taste of venison! As tender and delicious as any filet mignon…and no, I tried not to think about Bambi as I ate it.
Shooting off Dunedin is the Otago peninsula, filled with rocky cliffs, little B&B’s, ritzy neighborhoods, and even a Scottish-style castle! We took a drive out on Saturday afternoon after shopping at the homewares store, all the way down 10 miles of harrowing hairpin turns about six inches from the waters’ edge, to the very end of the peninsula. There sits the only mainland albatross colony in the world…which we didn’t go into because it was getting late. We did, though, park the car and walk down to Pilot Beach, where several sea lions were sprawled out slumbering in the late-afternoon sunshine. Too cute!! I was excited like a little girl at Sea World for the first time. A sign was up for penguins, too, but there weren’t any on the beach when we were
We're Not in Florida Anymore, Toto!
Unfortunately there were no penguins hanging around at this time.there. Bummer.
Driving has gotten much easier as the days have gone by. It’s pretty automatic now to drive on the left, fasten your seatbelt from the right, and signal with your right…today was the first day I didn’t accidentally turn the windshield wipers on! Today was also the first day it wasn’t cloudy, rainy, and blustery since we’ve been here. I think the weather here is manic depressive - one minute it’s sunny and somewhat warm, the next it’s pouring down rain and the temperature drops fifty degrees, then it’s partly cloudy with 70mph wind gusts (that was Sunday), then all is calm. Then it repeats. Except for today, which was sunny, breezy, and about 70 degrees all day (until tonight, of course, when it’s dipped back down in the 40’s). Unfortunately they’re predicting a rough weather pattern all summer, with lots of rain and cold. Bummer again.
We haven’t gotten to do as much fun “farm” stuff as we’d like, mostly because we’re entirely unmotivated to get out of bed at 5:30am like Steve and Kate do. I did feed Baby (the lamb) her last several bottles before she was weaned off, which was so much
fun - she baaaaaaa’s and runs over to the gate now every time she sees me! We’ve gone out egg-hunting in the henhouse and helped gather all the chickens and turkeys before a storm blows in.
The coolest thing I’ve done, though, is made my own butter! From the cow to a slab of butter in one hour. Kate and I went over to her neighbor Susan’s house, where we were educated on the whole process. Susan has an electric milking device, which you attach to the cow’s teats and sit back and relax while it squeezes all the milk out for you (an average of eight liters a day)! Then you carry the milk over to the separating machine, which has two long spouts that spill out of it - one for cream, one for milk. How it works, I’ll never understand, but it’s so cool to watch. In goes the whole milk from the cow, and out comes about a liter of cream and seven liters of milk. Awesome!
Then you take the cream and whip it up in a high-speed food processor for about fifteen minutes. It eventually turns into solid fat and you drain
all the buttermilk away. Then you rinse the big clumpy yellow blob of fat (aka BUTTER) in cold water, spin it again, and beat the living daylights out of it to get every last drop of milk and water out. Then you take two rectangular wooden paddles (kind of like ping-pong paddles) and beat and slap and whack the butter into submission - GREAT stress relief, I highly recommend it! And then you are left with a beautiful slab of butter, ready to be spread on some toast and devoured. YUM!! Susan also makes all her own cheese, so after we were done brutalizing the poor defenseless butter, we sat back, enjoyed a cup of tea, and chowed down on homemade swiss, blue, havarti, gouda, and camembert. Cheesy goodness.
And speaking of tea, America is apparently the only British-descended colony that didn’t get into tea. We’ve literally been drinking anywhere from four to eight cups of tea a day here. (No wonder I’ve been up all night ha!) Tea for breakfast, tea before you head out for the day, tea with lunch, afternoon tea, tea before supper, tea after supper, tea before bed…and if you go visit somebody, expect
a few more cups of tea on top of it! We’re drowning in tea (good thing we like it!). Honestly, it’s been so cold, and especially so inside the house, that I totally “get” why they’re all tea-crazed here. In Florida it’s way too hot, but here it just fits. We even bought an electric tea kettle for our new flat (which we’ll definitely bring home, as I don’t think we have them in the states…correct me if I’m wrong??)
We aren’t fairing too well on the job front yet, but this is a rotten time of year to be looking for work. The kids are all off for their summer break, so they’re probably hoarding all the menial part-time jobs we’re seeking. Hopefully, if nothing pans out before then, when they go back to school at the end of January, something will open up for us. I applied today at a nursing home right around the corner from our flat (one of few places that is actually hiring) to be a caregiver - definitely something I’ve never done before, but it would be good experience. Everyone keeps recommending that Jeremy tries the “Freezeworks” - aka the sheep slaughterhouse
here in town. Apparently it is decent pay and they’re almost always hiring more staff. He’s considering it if nothing else turns up, but I know it’s definitely not for me!! (Though we’re told many women do work there and actually do some of the “dirtiest” work - eesh!)
We’re getting the occasional moments of homesickness, but overall I’d say we’re settling in well here. NZ reminds me of what the states must have been like back in the 1950's - little mom-and-pop shops, vegetable gardens, everyone knows their neighbors, everyone hangs their clothes out on the line to dry (I did that for the first time ever today, by the way - dryers are too expensive here, so everyone does stuff the old-fashioned way). The local congregation has really taken us under its wing and we already feel like we’ve been friends with everyone for years (Kate and Steve especially have been awesome). We’re planning one more sight-seeing excursion to Milford Sound over the upcoming weekend before we hunker down with the apartment and get serious about job-hunting. It is a beautiful, beautiful country, like a vision of paradise. The people are ridiculously nice, the food is terrific,
the landscape is superb…if we could just get some warm weather, I’d consider staying forever!
😱
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rayleen
non-member comment
fantastic
reading your journal is almost like being therei hope you are saving all these pages to make your own book..sure would be something to read years down the road..thanks for sharing.im enjoying your stories. rayleen