Home sweet home for me in the orchard. A brief walk from the main house. This is the west facing wall. Around the corner to the left is the north wall, which here is the direction of the sun throughout the day. This cottage has a nice big window on that side, facing into the orchard and it gathers the days warmth which makes it very comfortable for my evening repose, and charges my solar reading light. gregg and Carla have down a lot to make their farm here earth friendly and more favorable to their organic apple orchard.
My own private toilet, fondly called 'the long drop'. It resides just a few steps from the cottage.
This the mamaku fern, a giant amount ferns here, with fronds exceeding ten feet long and four feet across.
These are an exotic weed that has taken over many roadside ditches across New Zealand, monte bretia.
The view from Otaki River "forks", the meeting of three rivers, looking east into the Tararua Range that rises into the 5000' high barren peaks. One of these local peaks is Mt Hector. Gregg and I will try to hike up it one of these days. It has a reputation much like Mt Washington for catching hikers unawares and taking their lives, experienced as well as novice trampers.
Below on the left caption is a hedgehog I surprised in the orchard, about the size of a small melon.
These are the variety Pacific Rose, one of the two primary apple crops in Gregg and Carla's orchard. These trees are twenty-five year old trees, planted more than fifteen years before Gregg took over stewardship of the orchard. This year's crop appears to be more abundant, good news for apple juice and cider drinkers!
http://vimeo.com/21954121 This is a video link that shows off more of the New Zealand seaside. The video is of one of Carla's nephews, Ben French, whose family lives a couple of hours south of Auckland, though this particular nephew now lives in London.
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