HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!

(And apologies for being a little slow on that - I prepared this yesterday but couldn't get to a computer!)

Well, Su and I are still very happy here at Beehive Gardens, it really is a beautiful place, as you can hopefully see from the photos. There is something wonderful about surrounding yourself in nature and good physical hard work - we're tired in the evenings, have even allowed ourselves the odd afternoon nap, but we do feel fit and healthy. The work is varied each day, we generally do some weeding of the vegetable patch and fruit picking first thing, before the sun gets too hot, followed by hazelnut picking (or should I say harvesting, seeing as you collect them from the ground - they drop when they're ready) and shifting wood. The wood is a big job at the moment as all the border trees have been trimmed and this needs to be sorted into logs for the woodburner, and smaller branches and leaves which will be mulched to protect the ground. Our morning's work is nicely broken up by Christine who provides tea and the most wonderful homemade biscuits and cakes for elevenses.

This place is giving us an insight into how to be largely self-sufficient, and the biggest payoff is the amazing food. A huge percentage of what we're eating has been grown here, or has been exchanged with friends of theirs who specialise in other foods, e.g. avocados and lemons. The dinners we are being served are amazingly delicious (and so healthy), but I cannot put into words the sheer joy Su is experiencing from wandering around deciding what to pick or dig up for breakfast and lunch - kid in a sweet shop! So imagine how her little face lit up with joy when Al explained they would all be out on Saturday night and would we mind cooking for ourselves, using their kitchen, and they would buy us whatever we wanted to eat (we decided on fish, so Al gave us some red snapper that he'd caught last time he went fishing - our hosts really are remarkably generous). So my little domestic goddess prepared a delicious feast of snapper, with potatoes, fennel, courgettes and basil, all freshly picked. Oh, and she baked bread! Yep, we're not going hungry.

Another delightful element of Beehive Gardens is the various animals and birds, domestic or otherwise, which we share the place with. We have some lovely cats (a.k.a. rat catchers) and fat chickens roaming around (whose eggs we had for breakfast yesterday - almost as good as Lindsey's). The neighbour's sheep are used to being fed fallen apples and pears and literally run to you when they see you coming with an armful. There are resident pukeko (or purple swamp hens) who run around, all gangly-legged, with their chicks running frantically behind, like something from a comedy sketch show. There are a couple of rats, almost as cute as my old Homer (and probably twice his size). And my favourite, the adorable fantails - they literally follow you into the hazelnut trees and fly around, talking constantly. Yesterday I thought I'd see if they were after the nuts, so I cracked one open and broke it into pieces that I throw into the air, one by one. I don't think the little fella ate them, but he flew down and caught every piece as though it was a game, chattering to me constantly. So now I adore them even more.

One slightly less appealing element of the local wildlife is of the 8-legged variety. You see, here's the thing with me and spiders, I hate the things, but have this strange morbid fascination with them, kind of 'know your enemy' I guess, which led me to flick through some books on them while Su was choosing her bird book, just so I know what I'm up against. When we arrived here we found a lovely stack of New Zealand Geographic magazines in our studio, full of articles about birds and landscapes and, well, nice wildlife. So I read the spider article - Su thought I was mad, trying to scare myself, after all NZ only has a couple of poisonous spiders, both rarely seen according to the Rough Guide. So the next day I'm brushing my teeth and this wee beastie runs over the basin, and you know I could have sworn I saw a white tail, but it was so quick and I decided I'd simply made myself paranoid. Later that night I was happily reading (I'm utterly engrossed in The Bone People by Keri Hulme, set in South Island, a very intense but beautifully written book), long after Su had fallen asleep, nipped into the bathroom and saw this thing, now convinced it had a white tail and bravely got the insect spray and killed it (apologies to all of you who believe in peace and love to all creatures, but this thing really hurts if it bites you). I then left it for approximately 18 hours (remember granddad doing that?) just to be sure it was really dead, before sending Su in to retrieve it so I could compare it to the picture - yep, an Australian White Tailed Spider! Su's now decided she wouldn't come swimming with dolphins with me as I'll probably scare off the dolphins and attract a Great White!

Aside from work I have to say we've been quite lazy during our first week here, sitting around, sunbathing a little, reading a lot - it's kind of like we needed to rest a little to get over the mad rush before coming away, and we've really appreciated this time. We did use our day off to go back to Napier and do the Art Deco tour, and this time we did appreciate its beauty and uniqueness (although you do have to look up a lot to experience the full Art Deco thing as many features are above shop fronts). It was a gorgeous hot day, although very quiet, most things close for Bank Holidays here, which is really quite refreshing. But I still love New Zealand for its natural beauty rather than its architecture.

And finally some good news! We've sorted out what we're doing after we leave here, and yes my dreams have come true - we are moving into a vineyard, literally! It really is true what they say; you stumble across things here purely by speaking with people. We met an English lady who works in a bank in Napier while we were at Wally's, and she put us in touch with Jon at Ash Ridge Vineyard. He doesn't usually take on people at this time, no money to pay people until after the harvest, and he does pick with machines, but needs help with that and can offer us food and accommodation in return for our help with the harvest (and is also happy for us to do some paid contract work elsewhere while we're staying with them if need be). And we get to experience vintage, the harvest of the merlot grapes and their delivery to the winery, both for their own label, and Oyster Bay. And here's the thing ladies and gentlemen of Dersingham and Hunstanton Libraries, that bottle of wine you bought me as part of my mountain of leaving presents was Oyster Bay merlot - picked from the very vines I'll be harvesting. Fate or what? We go there at the start of April.

Think that's it for now. Hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend. And Dad - HAPPY 65TH BIRTHDAY for 25th March. We love you, are thinking of you, and hope that you have a wonderful, wonderful day!

Lots of love, Jo & Su xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx