October is Spring, Here

A couple of the many trees in bloom in our yard

Warning! This blog entry may contain inappropriate political commentary totally unrelated to our being in NZ. Sorry, but I’ve just gotta vent to some Americans about some of the stuff that’s going on in this bizarre presidential campaign. My compulsion may be a result of one or more of these things: 1) My not having a job where I can ramble-on to sympathetic co-workers, 2) My being in a foreign country where people would rather be out checking their possum traps, or 3) Because I pass most my daytime hours speaking only to my imaginary friend.

The people in NZ do present quite a contrast to your typical American in that most have a pretty good grasp of US politics and economics. For comparison sake: How many of you can name the political honcho of Canada? President or Prime Minister? Man or woman? Mexican President's name? Prime Minister of New Zealand? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Americans have to be the most national-centric people in all of history. And, no, I’m no exception. I'm thinking we should all be boning up on our Chinese and Indian politics…maybe learning the languages, too. May need them all too soon.

Kiwi’s typically know stuff about the US that we would have no idea about their country, which is no doubt because their economic fate is so tied to ours. (FYI, the entire country of NZ has basically the same population as Kentucky.) The US housing market tanks, so does theirs. The stock market crashes, so does theirs, and so on. The opposite is certainly not true. It’s no wonder they have a vested interest.

But New Zealanders are polite enough as to not offer a negative opinion about anything U.S. without first having some clue as to the views of the person they’re speaking with. Only when they confirm they have a sympathetic ear do they ask the rhetorical question(s), “Sarah Palin?” What's with the Americans? Do they really want a president who doesn’t read a newspaper, and who can’t answer a question about any significant national issue without a beauty-queen-contestant smirk on her face and a stack of note cards in her hand (wink, wink)? (OK, so those are my question, not “theirs”.) Most are scratching their heads over her selection, though. Is she ever going to hold a press conference?

I could go on and on with the details of the things that are scaring the bejesus out of me, and indeed I do go on and on reading lots of stuff on the internet and watching these debates looking for some glimmer of hope that even if the McCain/Palin team won this election, that things might at least be a step up from the Bush fiasco. So far, no luck on that.

Tom and some of his tasty friends haaaaaaaving dinner

Here in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s spring. Every tree and bush is in bloom and there are baby lambs and calves everywhere…well, at least in lots of places, and it’s hard to imagine these little cuties as next week’s leg of lamb or veal cutlet.

And spring means that it’s garden time. Not that it’s EVER been garden time for me. Yes, I have tilled lots of chicken crap into a patch of Alaskan dirt fantasizing that maybe I or Chris would drop in a few seeds and see the process through all the way into the freezer or canning jar. All we ever successfully raised was a few bags of spuds, but probably only because you can pretty much plant ‘em and come back a few months later and dig ‘em up...no maintenance required. Of course, if there was a commercial market for chickweed, we’d be like, totally, on Easy Street.

A couple of Tom's gardens (yes, I know they look a bit pathetic right now)

So this year, given a new-found bit of time--and a new climate--on my hands, I made my first steps toward agrarian independence…that is if one can be even close to independent in 100 square feet. I’ve got all your basic stuff that anyone, so inclined, could grow outdoors in Alaska plus others they couldn’t…corn, lots of tomatoes, cukes, zucchini and a smattering of herbs. I’ve borrowed 3 gardening-in-NZ books from a friendly native and have added a few gardening terms to my vocabulary…"brassica," for one…look it up. And I may have gone a bit overboard on the tomatoes, which I attribute to the chronic shortage of the Solonaceae family in Alaska.

I’ve decided to name my grub patch the Susan Arndt Memorial Garden in honor of my model gardener. Maybe some of her gardening talent and addiction will rub off on me. In Alaska, we didn’t have to grow anything; we could just raid her garden.

Susan: Garden Queen

After reading all the gardening books, I’m kind of worried about all the things that can thwart my efforts such as bugs, birds, diseases, too much or too little water or soil-chemical imbalances. So after tilling in some bone meal, some horse crap and seaweed, I just hover over the new plants waiting for holes to start appearing in leaves or for them to turn yellow. Needless to say, weeds get yanked the minute they break the surface. A few months ago, Chris planted a few broccoli plants and within weeks, the leaves looked like grandma’s doilies. I’m hoping to avoid this kind of thing, but despite my organic bent, I can empathize with those who adopt the Shock and Awe theory of gardening.

In the past couple weeks, we’ve done a bit of hiking on both ends of the Abel-Tasman Track. The A-T is a national park, the border of which is about 15 minutes from our house. We’re fairly close to the northern end of the track and about 1 ½ hours drive from the south end. The entire track is about a 4 day walk and we’ve only made it about an hour into either end. Still lots to see.

Beaches at North and South ends of Abel-Tasman Track

About 2 minutes from Takaka, there’s a place called Labyrinth Rocks, which is a very accessible example of a limestone deposit where erosion has caused some pretty interesting shapes and forms. I’m attaching a couple photos of the place. So many examples of this geology are so inaccessible or overgrown the you’d never see them, but it happens that a retired geologist had made it his mission to keep this one accessible to the public for many years, but now has untreatable cancer and has given it up. Although it’s technically a park, there is no official person, group or money to maintain it, so a group of local greenies is organizing to take over the weeding and trail maintenance. Did I mention that things grow really fast, here?

A couple rock formations in Labryinth Park, including the secret elephant burying grounds

I think I should wrap this up. I would describe the Hui (pronounced; Hooey) that Chris attended, but since I don’t know anything about it, will leave it to her to explain in a separate post. All I can say is that it is a Maori traditional gathering and she was thrilled to have gone. Watch for updates.