Our love affair with the Bay continues

Tossin' bales with Mike and Ali gave us a great opportunity to get to know these wonderful people better, so when our workshop ended and we felt kinda lost, we all decided that it would be a great idea to go on a backpacking trip. First, though, we did some serious relaxation. The construction work was physically demanding and being wall captains on the final weekend was mentally challenging, as well. We celebrated our success with a cookout on the beach featuring freshly harvested cockles (small clams) and New Zealand's famous green-lipped mussels. The following week, Michiel and I did our own mussel harvesting in terrifically rich hunting grounds!

The Anatoki River Hike - a long but not difficult hike through a river valley and then up onto a ridge, to descend, finally, into farmland.

Our hut - night 2


From the ridge


Looking down into the valley from Kill Devil Hill


After the 3 day backpacking trip, Michiel and I went out to Abel Tasman National Park for camping and a day hike. The beach sand was the most amazing color orange and the sunsets were stupendous...but, alas, the sandflies are so horrific that it's nearly impossible to stay still for too long. In fact, I will sheepishly admit that we spent both evenings reading in the car...I know, I know.....how lame! But have YOU ever experienced sandfly bites??! They itch for weeks...really.

The beach at Totaranui


Wainui Bay - Abel Tasman


We had a good hike, all the same but were quite keen to retreat back to our little bungalow in Collingwood and a day hike out at Cape Farewell.

Panorama at Cape Farewell


The motherlode!


Michiel works our bounty into a green curry mussel stew. Not all of the mussels were as big as his hand, but this one was!


The view from Collingwood


Sigh...the area is so beautiful, the beaches are gorgeous, the people are so laid back, friendly and liberal and the mussels are just there for the taking...If Golden Bay weren't so far away, we'd move there in a second.

Tossin´ bales in Golden Bay

During the summer season in Antarctica, I decided to put together an interactive workshop in order to learn more about a subject I am very interested in learning more about: living off the grid. Once a week, a different person volunteered to make a presentation on a topic they had researched or knew something about first-hand. Topics ranged from alternative contruction technologies (Earthships (houses made from pounded earth-filled tires), strawbale, and structural insulated panels) to solar, wind and geothermal energy and food preservation and hydroponics. I facilitated the speakers and sent out weekly minutes and additional information that I was finding on various topics on the internet. It was quite well attended and the enthusiasm was terrific. Some time in the middle of the season, I decided that it would be fun to participate in a strawbale construction workshop, where I could get some real experience working with making bale walls. Workshops are held all over the world, but as we were going to be in Australasia in autumn (pleasant temperatures) and the dollar was strong, it made sense to look for a workshop in New Zealand or Australia.

I made contact with Michael Thomas at the Sustainable Building Alliance in Golden Bay, New Zealand (NZ). Michael is an American who has been building strawbale homes in the Pacific Northwest for many years. He and his wife, Spring, decided to move to NZ in order to "bring the strawbale gospel" (my words, not his) to the Kiwis.
Michael was building the first major strawbale building structure to the South Island and he had already spent several months working with the owner, Kevin, on getting approval from the building authorities for this new technology.

Kevin's home is a 2 story structure with views of the farmland in front and the mountains beyond. The house is an infill type structure, in which the structural elements of the house are traditional stick frame (wood) and the infill between the posts is straw helpd in place with heavy chicken wire on the interior and exterior sufaces. The wire is sewn together through the strawbale using a big needle and galvanized wire (a very entertaining part of the process).

Along with Michiel and two other participants in the Living Off the Grid workshop from the ice and a lovely couple from Englad, we spent 9 days learning from Michael about everything from the foundation to the final plaster work (which, incidentally keeps out any moisture and rodents). The weekends on either end of the week were dedicated to wall raising and they were terrific events. On both weekends (one weekend per story of the house), nearly 25 people from the community and beyond acted as laborers. We were successful in getting nearly the entire second story completed and started on the first plaster layer (scratch coat) during the first weekend and the 6 of us who were participating in the full workshop acted as wall captains for the second weekend in which we completed the first story and started plastering, as well.

The best part for me (other than chainsawing the bales, which was super!) was the incredible feeling of community. Putting up a strawbale home is achievable for almost anyone (at least the wall construction aspect of it) and it was so amazing to see the walls go up so fast. Savoring the hard work at the end of each weekend (not to mention Kevin's homebrew), you couldn't help but feel that you'd been a part of something special.

Here's what the house looked like when we arrived. Notice the lack of actual walls



Nothing like sportin' a chainsaw!


Michiel is using a pneumatic stapler to attach the chicken wire to the top beam


Sometimes, the work involves simply stuffing straw


Once the walls are complete, they need to be trimmed with a (non-sparking chainsaw) or, as in these images, with an electric hedge trimmer or sheep shearer.



Michael and owner, Kevin, demonstrate how plastering is done


Closing ceremony on the last weekend. Notice that the second story is plastered (first coat)

Farewell Spit and Golden Bay

Our time in New Zealand was growing short but we still had the whole northwest and west coast to see. We had been given lots of good ideas for places to stop and linger, but the weather was a bit unpleasant (at least not ideal for camping on the beach or swimming in the sea) and I (more than Michiel) was feeling the pressure of our rapidly approaching departure. We made a quick trip from the wine region past the famous Abel Tasman National Park (without really stopping, dare I say) and over the mountain to the Golden Bay area and beyond on the only road leading out to Farewell Spit, a 30 km/18 mile long sand spit. See satellite photo, below.



The spit is home to thousands of nesting birds, beautiful sand dunes, and an historic lighthouse. It is quite a danger to migrating whales as the shallow sand seems to screw up their sonar and they easily become stranded. The visitor centre even has a Whale Rescue Kit to handle the unfortunately common occurences.



Most of Farewell Spit is closed to regular traffic, but a couple of outfits have permits to bring groups in specially equipped buses out on the sand. On the day we went on our tour, we experienced 70 kph/42 mph winds and our trips out onto the sand dunes turned into exhilirating exfoliating treatments.





Returning the way we came, we passed areas with thousands of black swans and headed toward Golden Bay.

Golden Bay is a lovely region of funky towns and great beaches on the northern coast - but it has been discovered by tourists and didn't much feel like a place where we wanted to spend our few remaining days (apologies to Janet - a friend from the ice who lives there with her Kiwi husband). We made a quick visit to one of the more famous beaches in the area - Wharariki Beach to enjoy the rock formations and caverns.