Saturday 20th November

It’s been a busy week. Flew down to Nelson Monday morning, picked up a rental and drove over the hill to Takaka. It was a bit overcast, so things did look a bit gloomy at times driving over, still some snow on the peaks and thick fog from Canaan Downs till near Upper Takaka.

Met up with the Real estate agent at Harcourts, and with my list of places we drove off to Pakawau, Collingwood, Banhaim and a few places on the outskirts of Collingwood and Takaka

The one I am really interested in is this one, at Pakawau, well, about another 15 minutes from Pakawau, about half way to Puponga. I’ve put an offer in, there are some things that need doing, the septic tank has to be relocated, a few window sills need replacing, some of the exterior timber siding will need to be replaced, but overall, for a 100+ year old house it is in surprisingly good condition.






There is enough room at the back of the house for a good sized tunnel house, probably one of the bigger Morriefield ones, http://www.morrifield.com/tunnel-house-models.php, I’d like a wider one than 2.350m, have asked if they can make one to suit.

Some of the other houses were really good, some were totally so far away from what I like. This one has been on the market for over a year now, and only had one offer made so far in that time. Inside it is still close to original, all Matai flooring, Rimu architraves and trim. The kitchen needs a bit of a tidy up, hopefully the wood fired range still works, and the fireplaces.


Takaka is still fairly much the same as it has been for a long while now, the shops still smell of incense and patchouli oil, a lot of really good restaurants, organic and other food shops, clothing. Just in walking around asking about the costs involved in repair work got me 3 work offers, also went to The Naked Possum http://www.nakedpossum.com/ for a look. It’s tucked back off the main road a bit, at the start of the Kaituna Track http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/nelson-marlborough/golden-bay/kaituna-track/


Grant had a major stroke last year, and is slowly recovering, and the tannery and nursery have fallen behind a little. So I left my contact details, had a long talk with Jocelyn, and once I move down there I’ll go back and start to learn how to bark tan possum skins.






Got into Wellington Tuesday afternoon, it was 27*C when I left Golden Bay, it was overcast, windy and 17*C 30 minutes later in Wellington.






Met up with everyone at VSA on Wednesday, had a couple of pleasant surprises with some of the comments. I feel that I didn’t actually achieve very much in Honiara, but VSA seemed to feel I got more done than they expected. And I lasted longer than anyone thought as well, given the conditions, attitudes and general difficulties involved with living there.

I got offered 3 counselling sessions, like? Counselling??? For what?

Anyway, I agreed to go back to VSA a couple of times each year for orientation meetings with new volunteers, and go through the pitfalls and high points of volunteering. I don’t regret anything about going to the Solomons, I’m more annoyed and angry that things got to the stage where nothing was going to happen or change. Good experience in all ways.

Saturday 13th November

I’ve been back 3 weeks? 4? It seems forever at times. We had our usual fireworks night last week 5th, at Damians, with the usual large amount of fireworks. Considering the amount we had, it was a wonder we got through them all without a mishap until the final flower blossom that blew out as Damian lit it, and he’s now got a couple of weeks off work and his hand has some incredibly huge blisters and damaged skin.





Kahu as Spiderman



I’m flying down to Nelson Monday to look at a property in Golden Bay, on the beach, huge house and a lot of ground with it. There is a garage and workshop, large back yard suitable for tunnel houses, and just the width of the road from the beach. It’s on the market for $310K, which I should be able to raise against Mums apartment.

Then a meeting with VSA in Wellington on Wednesday, and finally back to Auckland Thursday.

I’ve been wandering along the beach with the camera in the evenings and mornings, so you’ll have to put up with more photos J

Thursday 11th November

I know, it’s been over 3 weeks, I should have written this up before but it’s not been an easy thing to put down in words.

I left Honiara, well tried to leave, Thursday 14th, got onto the plane then as usual with Pacific Blue, the plane had a fault and we were stuck overnight in Honiara. I got hold of Steve and he booked me into Kitano Mendana for the night. Adrian was upset over me leaving, somehow we managed to have a really good relationship, despite everything.

Friday I spent the morning with Adrian at Don Bosco, waiting to see if Pacific Blue had managed to organise another plane or replacement parts for the one sitting on the tarmac. The maintenance guys flew up on Solomon Air with parts, then spent till nearly 5pm getting it all sorted. Consequently, we were too late into Brisbane to make connection flights so those of us travelling further were booked into the Chancellor Hotel for the night with Pacific Blue picking up the cost. Nice hotel, if anyone has seen Hotel Babylon on tv, that almost sums it up.

Anyway, after a long disjointed journey, I finally got into Auckland about 4.30pm Saturday afternoon, rang Damian and he came and picked me up at AKL, and I stayed at his place for the night.

Moved back into Mums place sharing with sister since then.

The last 3 weeks have been a mix of job hunting, and clearing up stuff with VSA, medical etc, and finally getting to see Leonard Cohen in Concert. Absolutely brilliant. All the years I’ve spent listening to him made the wait well worth it.

At present I’m considering moving to Takaka or Golden Bay, if I can get the finance and buy down that way. Then I’ll start my own small nursery and just potter about with some fishing, hunting and growing stuff. And get used to NZ winters again. I’ve been freezing since I got back, even though it is almost summer and temperatures have been around the 15 – 20 C mark.

There is work around Auckland, it’s more a matter of convincing employers that I’m still capable despite being out of the country for a while.

Will keep updates coming into this from now on.