Mon 21st Jan 2008

We woke up on this, our last full day on Waiheke, to pouring rain and Jenness cheering, as their water supply relies on rain and there has been a bad drought in the area for some months. So todays sightseeing may have to be foregone and we'll probably sit and read about what we plan to do for our first 8 days on North Island.

We've divided our time here into 3 parts - 8 days N Island from Auck up the E coast to Waitangi where the treaty between Maoris and Queen Victoria's government was signed in 1840. Then across to the W coast (we're not going to have time to go all the way up to the tip as we had originally hoped) and South on whatever routes take our fancy to Wellington where we will get the ferry across to S Island.

16 days is the plot for the South and again we're not going to get all the way round - small as it looks on the world maps, the distances are huge and the roads are not all up to the standard of UK!
The last 10 days will be back on N Island ending up back in Auck for our onward flight to Australia on Feb 27 - so there's plenty adventures to come.

Just a bit of info on Al and Jenness's property - As with most of the properties on Waiheke, it's built on a steep slope with a hair-raising almost vertical (well, it feels like that!) driveway partly hidden off the road leading down to a cantilevered deck which is the car parking area. In the photograph, the top building is another home at street level, and the middle one is the car park. From here, access is via a staircase (42 steps) down to a single storey house. Constructed of timber with a metal roof, built on stilts to compensate for the steepness of the slope and overlooking a small valley filled with a variety of "bush" - trees, shrubs and huge ferns - it has an open plan living area with 3 bedrooms, one of which is their computer room, bathroom and separate loo. Al is building terracing all round the property so that Jenn can grow their own veg and is also at some point in the future planning to extend the house by adding into the underbuild. We've enjoyed the benefits of Jenn's cultivation (so far) with straight-to-the-table tomatoes, courgettes, salad greens, spinach and lots of herbs. Food seems to be a bit more pricey than UK, although that's looking at it from an exchange rate point of view. Jenn says they look at it as £1 for NZ$1 to take into account the average wage, which makes it very expensive with bread at NZ$4.

The roof serves as a water catchment and drains into a 5000gallon water tank which is their only source - hence Jenn is cheering and enjoying the sight of their supply being topped up. The only alternative is to buy a tankerfull which costs more than our water bill for the last 6 months in UK. (Roughly £8 per 1000 litres). Thus the polite poster in the loo - "Remember when you go to the loo, only flush for number two"!! The whole ethos of the island is conservation of all natural resources, in fact the whole of NZ is similar, so recycling and waste disposal is a big issue. It makes us aware of how wasteful we can be in UK.

Some of the properties on Waiheke are enormous - there's lots of cash around although not distributed in the general population. Land is expensive and sold in sections and all building has to contend with the steep slopes, if not in the actual ground but for access. The Eastern end of the island is all dirt roads which makes access even more tricky. Al has a reputation as pretty well the best builder/carpenter on the island, and has built quite a few properties here and worked on many more. (Wish we'd had him around to do our extension.) He is also a very popular entertainer, and has a great following in the local area. He is an accomplished performer and songwriter, and has performed in front of crows of thousands, as well as in the local bars, and we must admit he has a great voice, full of feeling, influenced by his idols, Springstein, Clapton and Knopfler. If you are interested, he has a website at www.alreeve.co.nz. and has even had his first CD published, a collection of his own compositions, including blues, rock, dance, easy listening and ballads. They're back in UK from June to October, so if anyone knows of any venues looking for a singer, pass on his details.