Now that we have landed in Maruia we have begun to settle to a rhythm of life familiar and yet strange enough after traveling for 6 years that it seems uncertain. we still have no funds from which to draw from to develop anything either let alone build some sort of dwelling so we can sell the truck and build something. sleeping in the barn is an option but after chasing a possum around in it the other night and the fact that it’s still mighty cold, im reluctant to choose that option being it,s only closed in on two sides. Serena has done an epic job since we arrived with help putting up the spouting so we could collect rain water in the 30,000 litre tank and working on all the trees she has acquired since arriving and the many we had been traveling with. we finally unloaded the roof of the bonsai trees and planter boxes. doesn’t quite look the same now that the roof of the truck is spare of things perched up there.
I spent most of the first two weeks cutting down blackberry and Kanuka trees so that it had sunlight reaching into the areas that were very thick. we want to create a park like atmosphere in a miniature forest using beech and other natives. kanuka is a pretty messed up kind of timber. I’m sure it may have uses other than firewood but nothing is strait and forget about trying to make a board with the chain saw. It’s hard not to get frustrated with not having the funds to do anything. it’s fine if all we want to do is just park here but not if we want to live here. The kids are now in school enjoying some new friends and settling into the routine so it would be hard pulling them away from that again to start traveling again. As for work here their only really seems to be relief milking or other farm associated work. You can have all the aspirations in the world but without capital it,s a bit of a let down so i’m not sure what to do at this point.
One of the locals here offered us both relief milking opportunities and said that there are no relief milkers in the area so their could be some business opportunity if it was something we wanted to do but after all the farming we have done before and since i don’t have the health i used to it’s not that attractive. What we really want to do is start a tree nursery come garden center. Not sure at this point how to go about achieving this without money and how to avoid working on farms to get it. Gold panning didn’t pan out, pardon the pun. All i get is a soar back and an empty pan. some say there is plenty of gold in these parts but i must be looking in the wrong places. What will probably transpire is that i will end up working on farms as this is the most likely scenario but being its only been a couple of weeks since we arrived i think i will wait a little longer before i take step in that direction. School holidays is coming in a week and the kids will be off school for 2 weeks then so perhaps we can take the truck and go somewhere, but not far as again this costs money and we really don’t have it to spare.
On a lighter note, a friend of mine lost some of his rear bus wheels heading to Christchurch. he said they overtook him and rolled of into a paddock. I’m sure in time he will see the funny side however sometimes you have to have moved on from the situation and be looking back at it to really appreciate it. It’s hardly funny at the time.