Gecko Gearz Kaikoura - Where I Spend My Working Days!

 While I'm house sitting in Kaikoura for a month, this
is where I work for three days a week. I start at 9am and

close when the last customer goes, somewhere between

5 and 6pm. I meet some very interesting people from all

round the world and have learned to process Eftpos and 

credit cards, cash up and balance the till at the end of each

day, lock up and set the alarm... Lots of new skills!

 This is the counter where I do the usual wrapping and 

processing payment things...

 It's an Aladin's Cave full of all sorts of things...

Racks of clothes from tops, summer tops, dresses...

jewellery, hats, fancy hair clips, kids friendship bracelets

and looms...

 Little bags, boots, incense... More jewellery and dresses...

 Some dresses and coats from a New Zealand

designer in Nelson...

 Bikini's, T shirts, shorts...

 Scarves galore of every colour... And one of the biggest

winter sellers, these thick heavy zip up woollen jackets.

 Made in Nepal from New Zealand wool, fully lined,

some with hoods...

 A good selection of warm jackets and rain coats...

 These are Possum/Merino scarves, hats and gloves... The

wall is looking rather bare I have sold so many.

And a selection of thick knitted gloves and slippers.

All sorts of things for keeping warm, being cool if you are

going tripping to the northern hemisphere where it's summer, 

going to a wedding or funeral or picking up a sale bargain.

If you are passing this way, call in you can browse and

keep warm from the cold weather for ages.

Kaikoura Sunrise...

On the days that I get up early enough... That is on the days I go to work...

I enjoy some wonderful sunrises... Just three minutes after the sun rises out of the sea in the east just a few kilometers away.

The first rays hit the tops of the snowy mountains...

Then flood the whole garden... The beginning of another beautiful Kaikoura day.

House Sitting... And Animals...

 This is where I'm house sitting for a month... About ten minutes

drive from Kaikoura town... On the Inland Road... The

road that goes to Mt Lyford (52km) and Hanmer Springs(126km).

It basks in the sun but with the snowy mountain close by

it still needs the log burner fire going to keep it warm.

 The property is five acres, neighbors around but none too close

so it's beautifully private and quiet.

 Three little vegetable and herb gardens, all fenced in to keep the

chickens out and any rats and possums.

 This is the barn where hay for the sheep is and the

chicken feed... And the firewood. There is a wheelbarrow

that I pile the hay onto and a bucket for the chook

feed, they also eat the kitchen scraps.

 The driveway up to the front door. Great when it's raining,

not that it does much. Can you spot the barrow load

of wood tucked under the eaves so it keeps dry and I don't get wet.

 The driveway back to the road...

 These are three of the chooks who free range....

 And the eight sheep... They are Wiltshires, self shedding wool,

hence their funny looking coats... I've found that out since

I've been here. One was a pet lamb so every morning wants

it's nose scratched! They're in lamb but no babies yet thank goodness.

 In the top right corner you can see the chook house. I climb over

 a style and tramp across the paddock.

The first week I was here was a week of extremely heavy frosts.

The grass was frozen and slippery and the water trough

was thick frozen ice. I smashed it with a big rock...

Managing to get wet in the process of course!

The other four chooks live in this newly erected house. It seems

a bit mean shutting them up so I leave the door open and

they wander around but go back in at night and to get fed.

The rooster from here fights with the other free range roosters.

Quite a sight and entertaining as they fly into the

air and their feathers ruffle round their necks.

They haven't killed each other yet!

Ten Days In Christchurch...

Well... Here I am again. Have you missed me?

I haven't really been doing anything exciting...

And for the last two months I've been battling colds

and had pneumonia. I'm well again now - more or less -

I don't cope with the cold South Island winters very well.

I was in Kaikoura, both getting over pneumonia and

spending time with a friend here who had a hip replacement.

Then went back to Christchurch to see my Dad again 

for ten days. I had a rental car... And I tell you I could 

hardly keep up with the old bugger. It's hard work 

taking somebody out in a wheel chair.

 Here I am parked on the side of the road again - In my usual

spot outside Dad's rest home. Over time I have become a

bit of a fixture and a regular part of the neighbourhood. The

lady who lives in the house where I am parked gives me

vegetables out of her garden and asks me to have showers

in her house - I never did get round to that. Another neighbour

brought me fresh eggs and gave me firewood and the people

who live in the villa that Dad used to occupy come and visit

and chat and sit by my fire. It's lovely.

 As soon as I told Dad I was getting a rental car he wanted to 

go out... He would have gone out every day!

Here we are at a cafe up on Cashmere Hills in the

sun enjoying lunch. There is a view out the window looking

out over Christchurch. It takes Dad ages to decide what he

wants to eat. After being in a rest home with little

choice, it takes a lot of thinking about. Here he's enjoying

bacon, mushrooms and sausages with ciabatta bread and

a beer as big as he is. He laughed and laughed at that!

At the end of this month he will be 97! Nothing

wrong with his appetite when he's out.
 

He had a lovely surprise visit from one of his grand daughters.

She and her family live in Brisbane so it was a special

time.  We all went out for lunch to Pukeko Junction.

Again great choices of food and it was all lovely.

We also had hearing aid check ups, stocked up on

necessary new clothes and toiletries and whisky and

chocolate and he likes to have his own jars of honey, marmalade

vegemite and the pickle he's very find of - on his

toast for breakfast.

And it was time for me to go again... Back to Kaikoura

where I am house sitting for a friend for a month and

I have become a working girl, also for the same friend

looking after her shop "Gecko Gearz" that sells

clothes, jewellery, woolly hats, scarves and slippers.

But more about that soon...

Kaikoura... The Whaling Days...

 This is the southern end of the Kaikoura Peninsula walkway.

 At Limestone Bay...

 There are excellent maps and lots of walks information and

good historical information and Maori myths.

 We walked round here...

 Only as far as where the track goes up the hill. I will

go back, take a picnic lunch and walk the whole track.

 But today, we turned around and walked the other way...

 Through the picnic reserve to the remains of

the South Bay whaling industry.

 The whaling industry attracted the earliest European settlers to

 the area. Whales occur here because of the unusually deep waters

close to shore, some pausing in their migration from feeding

grounds in Antarctic waters to breeding grounds in the warm

sub-tropical seas of the Pacific Ocean, north of New Zealand.

Robert Fyffe established the first shore-whaling station,

Waiopuka, in 1843; other stations were built soon 

after in South Bay...

This is what remains today.

 Kaikōura, on the Marlborough coast, is isolated by mountains

 and hills to both north and south. Before 1900 it had only bridle

 tracks north and south, and no rail connection in either direction 

until 1945. In the 1820s and 1830s Te Rauparaha and his allies

 attacked Ngāi Tahu here. Ngāi Tahu retained its mana in the district,

 but numbers slowly fell. Early Pākehā settlers, many of Irish origin, 

struggled to clear the forest and create swamp-free pastures. 

Kaikōura languished for over a century. On 15 December 1945 

the Christchurch–Picton railway was opened at Kaikōura in front 

of an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 5,000. From 1962 the roll-on, 

roll-off ferry between Wellington and Picton brought more freight 

and passenger traffic, both road and rail. The undersea Kaikōura 

Canyon brings abyssal depths and sperm whales close to the coast, 

and whale watching has been a major tourist attraction since the 1980s.

This is today's modern bus and fleet of boats that takes people

to see the whales. 

Due to the pressure of the whaling industry, whale numbers

steadily declined after 1850 and it became uneconomic to

exploit them. Today, with marine mammals in New Zealand

being fully protected, the whales again find Kaikoura a safe

environment. Kaikoura is now internationally renowned as a

whale-watching location.

The Kaikōura (Te Tai ō Marokura) Marine Management

Act came in to effect in August 2014. The Act established

the Kaikoura Marine Management Area which integrates

a number of marine protection and sustainable fisheries

measures in the Kaikōura marine environment. These include

a marine reserve, a whale sanctuary, a fur seal sanctuary, two

taiāpure (one of which surrounds the Kaikōura peninsula),

three mātaitai and new fishing regulations.

Black Gold... And...

 Kaikoura... Means Kai = food... Koura = crayfish...

But the other thing Kaikoura is well know for is Paua... In

other countries known as Abalone. In Kaikoura it is referred to

as 'black gold'... It is sold for $107.50 for 0.5kg. That's a

whopping $215 per kilo... Like eating gold? Read about it here.

We were given some, probably about 1/2 a kg.  Minced

up and made into fritters... Mmm... I could have been

eating my old gumboots! But other people love it.

The best part of this meal was the butterfish fillets

pan friend in butter served with spinach, pear,

walnut and feta salad.

I found this recipe in a 'Wilderness' magazine I was reading...

I have had some almond meal in my fridge for ages... They

were delicious. I used a mixture of fruit and nuts I had in my

pantry. A good was to use up bits and pieces. I would

make them again, great for snacks with morning coffee or

when out on a walk/tramp.

This is the other thing I have made recently... A Frittata...

I get really annoyed when I'm at a cafe for lunch and

their fittata is full of big lumps of potato and they

tend to be quite tasteless... So I set myself a challenge...

And here is the end result.

It was the end of the shopping week so lots of 'bit's'

of veges left in the fridge... I used pumpkin, kumera,

celery, carrot, chopped and pre-cooked some streaky

bacon and grated some parmesan cheese. Par cook

the veges, tip into a suitable container, add bacon and

cheese and mix through. Beat 4 eggs, add some cream

and pour over. Bake 180deg till set in the middle.

Yum... Yum... As good as any cafe and SO easy.