House She Doing?!

Everyone wants to know! Just to set the record straight, I’ve been busy, not lazy! I have been spending some time in Kaeo (about 50 min north of Paihia) helping Karl with his house. When it first started, it looked like this:

By the time I first saw it, in December, it looked like this:

The house is in the bush, surrounded by nothing but nature. It’s on a beautiful site, specifically chosen for being difficult to find. Initially it was going to be a 1-room hut with a long-drop (China-style “toilet:” i.e. hole in the ground) in the back… but then came the decision to add two rooms:

Karl's hut...

surrounded by bush...with a long-drop!

So the hut started to look more like a house:

The view from the French doors

Buddy & Me on the work site

I helped with the wood-staining, window-cleaning, and lunch-making! And made some important contributions in the NEW long-drop… 

 

…and helped with all the bug-spotting :)

This is THE COOLEST BUG I'd ever seen. It looks like a metallic, turquoise jewel!

Centipedes like to hang out in wood... and they bite HARD

This one was already dead though..

What's smaller than an ant? An ant egg...! See the little white things? We should decorate THOSE for Easter! It would save so much time...

Stick-man!

Spider-man!

I spy a caterpillar!

Warm and fuzzy, inside and out :)

Obviously, I am making a lot of friends, so don't worry about me! And the house is such a fun project to work on… I absolutely love it. Working with your body as well as your mind is the way to go! 

In other news, Karl’s car broke down on our way back from the house one working day, and we had to get it towed… thank goodness for AA Plus!

Also, I’m still volunteering with the local library, a global wildlife project, and a NZ Red Cross. Avocados are now out of season, and crazily-priced at $5.47/each. 

I had tea with wild roosters and eels…

It came with a free mini-chocolate fish!!

Eels are my least favorite living thing, but they are still pretty amazing...

I also re-visited the Kauri Trees in the Puketi Forest.

and Karl bought a motor-bike!

BMW F650

I fell in love with the cows, and I am still loving New Zealand!

By this time next week, Karl and I will have moved out of our little flat :(. We are going on a mini-road trip before he heads back to Dublin for too many months. I will also be leaving Paihia, but to continue my journey through NZ, traveling all the way down to the South Island. And back :).

I’ve been in NZ for 5 months now. Every day brings a new revelation that provides insight into people and their places. It is not easy to put into words - maybe because I don’t know the right ones. Or maybe because I’ve been immersing myself here and have less regard for translating, speculating, and analyzing. But like everything else, it’s probably simpler than that. Like neglecting my blog for too long to spend time looking at the rainbows and treating myself to some of the greater pleasures in life...