Leaving Opotiki

Written 6:52 PM

Monday, October 18, 2010

Posted 8:40 PM Same Day

In an sad and unexpected turn of events, we will be leaving Opotiki and Lyn & Kate on Wednesday morning. We just got word today of a death in Lyn’s family (local), so we are going to clear out earlier than we had planned, to give them the time and space to manage lots of family showing up and planning a funeral, etc. We have been here a full three weeks, and will be sad to leave, on many counts, but it will also be good to move on and see what is next. I am confident that we have taken full advantage of being in this area, done and seen all the things that Opotiki and its environs have to offer, and had the great experience of living in a Kiwi home and helping make a positive impact on the home of our hosts. Lyn & Kate have been the most gracious of hosts, and have done so much for us, from the discount on our White Island trip to advice on which mechanic to take Lucy to, to teaching us about chickens and educating us about Maori culture. We have had our first experiences in animal husbandry, frequented the local surf spot, gotten to know the town, and met many of our hosts’ friends and family. I feel pretty blessed by our experience here.

We had originally planned to take a long weekend away and spend Thursday through early next week exploring the Gisborne area and undertaking the Lake Waikaremoana Track, one of New Zealand’s Great Walks, but the weather report for that area looks to be total rubbish, so we are going to go a different direction and stay in (hopefully) sunny areas. We have no solid plan at the moment, but we will be heading for our next workstay on the Coromandel Peninsula, taking about a week to make the one day journey :) As is our wont, we will take some side trips, explore and surf, and see some new country on the way.

So tomorrow will be our last full day here, so we will be doing our last few hours’ work on the property, then packing and cleaning and getting the van ready for life on the road again. It will be sad to leave a place we are so familiar with now, but I am ready to see some new territory too.

I'll end by giving you a few glimpses into our home of the past three weeks:

(Click on Photos to Enlarge)

 The gorgeous bathroom with unenclosed shower and extra-long clawfoot tub!

 Dining area, Matt at teatime. Kate built the table from Rimu wood.

Matt has been helping dig up this area in front of the house where Kate will be laying down square brickwork forming a giant-sized Scrabble board!

 Bright green farmhouse kitchen.

Lounge with the original ceiling and L&K's custom stenciling (NOT wallpaper)

 Some of my hard work's payoff: a beautiful mulched flower bed. 

 This bed contains entirely NZ native plants.

 Our sunny orange bedroom.

 The front door's Nikau palm stained glass was a wedding gift to Lyn & Kate. 

The fun wigwams that Matt and I built yesterday. We planted vining sweet peas under them. 

My next update will probably be from somewhere out on the road, so here’s to the next adventure!