Carla with Bonnie inside Gregg's workshop while Bonnie's mom, Emily, and dad, Nils, set up the large sound system for the cider party band, Hot Club Sandwich.

 The two birthday honorees at this year's Cider Party: Carla vanZon who turned 60 this past week and her dad, Maurice vanZon who turned 90 last month. I got to go on a wonderful tramp with Maurice and Gregg yesterday. Some of the flora photos that follow are from that hike. I think the next caption came up blank because I tried to import it as a photo when it is a video. I will retry to load it properly.

 Here in the background is Gregg's workshop and cider shed to the left. To the left of the cider shed are a half dozen white birches, a New Hampshire reminder. Behind the white birches is a new laundry, and  bathroom, complete with high powered shower and pig cooker (outside). I was able to give a hand at finishing up the shower and laundry just prior to the throng of party guests arriving. The people in the photo, starting from the centre and moving right are Yvonne, who is Carla's youngest sister and mom to the young woman on the far right, Hanna. Hanna's friend Aidan is in-between helping to carry the ice for the wine, beer and apple juice. Gregg is in the back with the straw hat next to Ian Anderson, who Gregg did some work for when he was in Shanghai working on the Expo last year.

 This fern tree is showing off the iconic Maori/ New Zealand symbol for new life and regeneration, the Horu. I was able to get many photographic examples along our tramp yesterday.

 Here Tony aka "Ropes" is keeping a close eye on the huge fire he has built next to the hangi pit, with the first row of the orchard apples right there as well. The fire is heating thick slabs of steel, bricks, and volcanic stones that will get pushed into the hang pit to bake the great baskets of food wrapped in cabbage leaves for the cider party. Next to Tony is Carla's brother-in-law Tom who is well known in NZ for great engineering on large projects like railway and highway bridges. He and his son Rory brought 80 large fresh scallops that they had just harvested for the party. The hangi included a lamb and other local meats and veggies.

 This is the jazz band Hot Club Sandwich. They played at the party for several hours, and Maurice enjoyed it more than anyone I expect. Once It got dark Gregg put the great castle brassieres to work with huge blasts of LP Gas flaring. These brassieres came from the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. I will attempt to load up a five minute video that show off these pyrotechnics.

 This is a bit dark but shows off one of the bouquet brought for Carla (her favorite color is orange), and Gregg serving and educating about his cider samples, allowing each drinker to rate the four different hard ciders against one another.

 Gregg is telling me here about the new foot suspension bridge and details about its design and construction. It is an impressive design, and apparently the fruit of a lengthy commission that study a disaster where several trampers fell to their deaths when such an earlier bridge failed in 1995. These earlier bridges were often built by volunteers and without thorough engineering. Now they are all very specifically spec'd for every detail of material and assembly by qualified engineers.

 For a couple of days I worked as a 'carny' washing and setting up the kids corner of merry-go-round, and these two bouncy castles. which are very popular during the party.

 Here Maurice has just crossed this large laminate beam foot bridge with steel mesh for anti-slip decking.

 There are a great array of colourful flowers, and these two captions show some from next to the seashore.

 Sunset with Kapiti Island just to the right. This island is a large bird sanctuary just 5km off the coast, as seen from Gregg and Carla's home, Totaranui Orchard.

A family portrait of Maurice and his three daughters: Carla, Michelle, and Yvonne, who is sitting next to Maurice.

This is alongside Otaki beach with a good breeze blowing and the surf is on the wild side, churning up a lot of the sand and making the first 100 meters out look brown rather than the usual sub-tropical emerald green. It was still a good day for harvesting pipis with our toes and hands.

 Danny and Sara's home has this seaside inspired gate at Otaki beach where they hosted Gregg, Carla, and I with a table full of cheeses, dips and other delicious food.   

Started the stage mural

After constructing the mutual canvas from an old painting tarp, the cider party gang begins to paint their inspirations. Mother Libby lets me know what the business end of her paint brush can do, while her daughter Olive (Orewa in Maori) and cousin Eva do the real work of art. Later Gregg did an intervention to recover some of the adult(erated) work in the children's inspired mural composition.
Another day of many preparations that included a trip into the town of Levin for various paints and hardware items.

Otaki River Gorge

We rode bikes out to the Otaki River Gorge this afternoon and took a quick dip in the very cold water. It is just a half hour ride from Gregg and Carla's home. Encountered a stray cow along the way and the road appears to be a vaulted avenue through the forest for a lengthy section. The river is a popular spot for kids to swim and jump off high rock walls and some man made towers that monitor the river hight for flood warnings. 

 This second picture is the gorge as seen from a cable suspension bridge with a wood deck that looks to be over 300' long. Perhaps next week I will ride further up the gorge to 'the forks' and try some fishing. This trip to the river was a nice break from the on-going preparations for the cider party this weekend with nearly a hundred guests expected.

Otaki Beach

Looking back at Otaki beach and the mountains that rise up above 5000'. Gregg, Carla and I harvested more pipis, my skills at pipi harvesting have improved a good deal.

Sunday January 22, 2012

This is my fourth day with Gregg Fletcher and Carla vanZon in Otaki, New Zealand. The following are a few highlights so far:  Yesterday I took a two hour walk right after getting up so I could explore the Otaki River a little. Gregg and Carla's place is a little more than a quarter mile from the river, which is comparable in size to the Pemi River where it flows through Lincoln. An obvious difference is that the Otaki does not have the big rocks and boulders that the Pemi has. Another larger difference is that this section of the river is only four miles from where it empties into the Pacific Ocean. There are striking hillsides and mountains that loom as backdrop to this majestic river, rising more than 5000'. I took many pictures of the wildflowers as I walked along. Then I had breakfast with Gregg and prepared for the work of the day which was mostly weeding out a heavily overgrown garden and my first bike ride to the sea with Carla for the small clams they call pipis. The surf was a bit rough and we needed to be almost waist deep to get out to the sandy beds. The temperature was in the high 70s and the water felt warmer, as the wind was steady from the west. Carla did well, dispite the surf, collecting a gallon of the pipis, and I managed to find a half dozen that weren't too small. Then a drink where we rendezvoused with Gregg at Emily's home near the beach who has a huge tepee in the backyard. Before leaving for the beach Gregg and Graham "PYRO" set and tested an LP gas canon that is mostly for flaring large shots of flame into the sky, a la Wiz of OZ style, that they will set up alongside the stage Gregg and I will build today for the live band that will perform at their big Cider Party next weekend. Just before we headed off on our bikes for the beach Emily and her friend Sarah and kids came by to deliver a surprise birthday gift for Carla of two grown geese. This was indeed a surprise and apparently welcome and enjoyed. The geese will live with the two dozen chickens alone side the six pigs in the orchard. We are in hopes that the large white goose "Max" will return as he had escaped about an hour before dusk when the neighbor's dog got after it and we could not find it before dark. It was a long and busy but enjoyable day. Carla added a beautiful hand painted silk scarf I hand brought her, made by my friend Paul Hudon's mother and artist Jeanne LaChance, to her collection of colorful wardrobe appointments. My first full day with Gregg he had decided that his five piglets needed prophylactic injections for worms and other bugs, and with my arrival making it possible to do this at home and save heaps of money on vet bills I was recruited to inject the serum while he held each of the screaming piglets in turn. This of course makes it sound like quite a simple process, and it is after you capture each little terrified porker and sit on top of the screamer so he can't so much as wiggle and cause some untoward harm to pig or pokers. Gregg has a pet pig "Hetti" who is native NZ pig, who is one of only two species with the chin tassels. She weights in over three hundred pounds and even though she could perhaps benefit from the same serum, Gregg wisely decided to forego her turn at the pig wrangling.
The day after this, Friday, we traveled the hour back into Wellington to get a few things done at Gregg and Carla's flat that they just rented out to a computer animator. He is working with a dozen other CGI puppeteers to complete the sci-fi special effects on the prequel to "Aliens" due for release this June. Then off to the airport to meet Carla who flew in from a week in Sydney. She is very tanned and on the go as usual, now with her trained focus on all the remaining preparations for the big "Cider Party". And on that note I will have to shift gears and do a little preparation of my own for today's stage building. Oh yeah and pick the strawberries, weed some more, look for the goose, and all the other farm surprises at Totaranui Orchard.  

recent photos 1/23/12

The view here is from the forth floor rooftop of Gregg and Carla's flat in downtown Wellington, on Cuba Street. looking northwest. 

Here is a view from Otaki Beach. The horizon shows a large island called Kapiti, which is mostly a wildlife preserve and bird sanctuary. The surf was rough this day and Carla showed me how to collect 'pipis', which are essentially steamers. We had to stand out in nearly waist deep surf to reach the sand beds where they live, and with our feet, find them buried in the sand, then reach down to unearth the pipis. Carla filled a gallon bucket while I collected just a half dozen that were not too small. Then Gregg and I shucked them this morning. Today the wind has been strong and the temps cool but still nice while in the sun. Gregg just helped me set up the free Skype set up so I can make some free video calls home in the future.

In the center of the picture below is Carla and Gregg's home. bottom center are his barn/ metal work shed, laundry. To the left is the orchard with nearly a thousand apple trees, and some pear trees, and my soon to be residence in the orchard cottage, which is just barely seen in the upper left corner making the shadow, which is about half way back into the orchard. A little further back than the orchard cottage is the hen house for two dozen chickens that are kept for eating the bugs around the tree trunks and laying eggs for the kitchen. About another 1/4 mile to the left is the Otaki River. The river here is about the size of the Pemi River as it runs through Lincoln NH, sans the boulders. I hope to do some fishing there soon. I would have gotten my fishing license today, as it is Monday, but it is also Wellington Day, a national holiday. The area in the upper center/right is where Carla has her garden, which is very productive this time of year. The big "cider party", an annual festival of family and friends, that will be set up along side the lawn adjacent to the barn/ work shed. So far we have built a stage with backdrop wall; a merry go-round, and two inflatable children's "bouncy castles". Yesterday I spent most of the day assisting Gregg with this construction and layout; my first 'carny' job!The topper is a dual pair of ten foot tall LP gas flame bursting throwers; pyrotechniques for the adult group.  When the flame is ignited it makes an impressive percussion boom. In appearance it is very much like the Wizard of OZ sequence when the intrepid travels first seek an audience with The Great OZ. Gregg has a remote switch that sets off each charge of LP gas in the torch. 

View of Totaranui Orchard December 2011 

I will add some photos of Gregg and Carla's place and some from the nearby beach at Otaki.