We have been back on Norfolk Island a month now and are in the midst of renovations, land clearing. and fencing. We intend to import from Australia a small herd of Boer goats and a small flock of Wiltipol sheep, but they wont arrive, I should not expect, until after Christmas - lots to do to get the land ready. As I type I can hear the dulcet, mellifluous tones of hammers, drills and chainsaws, I have no doubt it will go on for months.

It is great to be back and settling down properly. I have already been given boxes of the hugest grapefruit I have ever seen, they were growing on a massive tree at one of my favourite restaurants "Norfolk Blue", I can pick as many as I want. I have started 3 batches of grapefruit wine destined to be Grapefruit champagne. Next batch will be lemon champagne, from huge juicy lemons given to me by Caine the digger driver, also in the offing strawberry guava champagne from the strawberry guavas I froze over summer, yum! Each batch of wine amounts to 26 bottles of bubbles.

We went for a drive onto a private farm the other day and I saw the most amazing banyan tree, see photo below, bear in mind I am not the best of photographers. The tree was so huge I could not get it in one frame.

I love Norfolk Island!!!

Back In New Zealand, we have just spent a week picking fruit and gathering nuts at our place in Murchison. The photos below are from this afternoons walk along Lake Rotoroa, autumn here, although I see it is still 24 C on Norfolk Island. We head down to Okuku, Canterbury tomorrow to sell our small herd of highland cows, a few of our boer goats and possibly our place in Canterbury. We have lots of stuff to pack up to ship to Norfolk Island, we return there in two months. Lots to do!!!

Beech Forest, Lake Rotoroa, Sth Island New Zealand

Lake Rotoroa, Sth Island New Zealand

Lake Rotoroa, Sth Island New Zealand

Below is my new stove! All ovens here must be gas and not electric and this is my new euro fan forced gas stove, it does have an electric grill. The kitchen is having a makeover and first move is the stove :)

Anson Bay

Anson Bay

Anson bay

Thinking of you all in NZ as you batten down the hatches for the coming weather onslaught, it has not affected us much here, just a bit breezier and a little wetter. Apparently it will be close to gale force winds tomorrow.

A few new entries below and piccies!!

Norfolk island telephone directory

Now how many telephone directories have a find by nickname section!?!

Below are pictures of my new rocking chair, made to measure by Brendan from Sinksuff, he makes the most awesome driftwood furniture. Rex has a chair under construction. Brendan has also made us a king size slat bed and two bedside tables, when they are set up in the guest room, I will post more pictures.

My new rocking chair

My new rocking chair

Just been picking masses of strawberry guavas, which are a bit of a pest here, although lots of people make guava jelly and guava paste  from them, I intend to put a load in the freezer for making sparkling wine when I come back. We have also found a small plantation of papaya trees on our land and a mango, not forgetting bananas and a small citrus tree, hiding amongst the chili bushes!

View over a valley from botanical gardens

Breakfasting on our verandah!

The cows of Norfolk Island

Just a word about the very important workers of Norfolk Island, who keep all the verges, reserves and any unfenced area on Norfolk well groomed and fertilised!

Cows are very important members of society here and have right of way on all of the roads. Should you drive into one you are in big trouble. Every year a number residents apply for pasturage rights and pay a fee per cow to the government of Norfolk to allow them to range the island, this covers any calf they may have also. These are published in the gazette and this year there 252 cows with rights. They are ear tagged and once a year the are rounded up and checked over, any due for butchering are sent off and the others are sent out again to rove the roads and parks. Our bovine residents know they have right of way and move only slowly out of your way if they are in the road and you wish to go by.

The only place they cannot go is the township, which has cattle grids either end and of course your fenced off property, most houses have cattle grids in their gateways. There are herds of cows also in paddocks all over the island, but these are the non rovers.

We have jut returned from swimming and snorkelling amongst the corals and reef fish at the magical Emily Bay. Emily Bay and Slaughter Bay adjoin each other, Slaughter Bay was the site of the British penal colony in the 1800s, it is really hard to imagine the suffering that was endured in this absolutely beautiful place. I will post some photos soon of the ruins. Now  I am too busy drinking bubbly, listening to music and gazing out over our green, lush valley!

Emily Bay

Emily Bay

I know this is not very clear, but this is a Golden Orb Silk Spinning Spider, this is the only one I have seen so far on our property, but you do see a lot with their webs completing encasing whole bushes around the coastal areas. They appear to be very non aggressive, sitting waiting patiently in their webs for passing prey, it is very easy to see and avoid the webs. I am very pleased to say there are no sand flies, not many mozzies or moths. We can sit in the evening and after dark with windows open, I have not used insect repellant yet. No snakes, plenty of ants and there are white tails.

Golden Orb Spider

Cascade bay

View from my kitchen window.

Arrived here one week ago and after a frenetic week of arranging power, gas, internet, not forgetting to mention cleaning our new house and maliciously dealing to huge numbers of spiders and webs that had accumulated in a house that had been unoccupied for 6 months, I feel now like my head is above water and I am breathing air!

This place is totally amazing, even more so than I realised in December when we came here for a holiday and returned to New Zealand with a new house (well not strictly true, had a new house in Norfolk two weeks after returning).

Got up yesterday and hit the Saturday market at 7.30am, the Saturday market is where the locals purchase their fruit and vegetables. Do not be deceived by the term market there were three stalls, one for Norfolk Blue beef, one with vegetables fruit and local pork and another with eggs, fruit and more vegetables. The vegetables and fruit, however, are outstanding, all locally grown and much better than anything I have seen in NZ even at the organic shops. Norfolk Island only imports only what they cannot grow, which is not much! You can only buy what is in season, not that this is a handicap at all, as the average daytime winter temperature is 18 deg C, something will grow all the time. The local pork is wonderful, I have arranged to contact the farmer in the week and organise a whole pig, butchered the way I like and making dry cured bacon, without nitrates.
We had some of his normal bacon this morning for breakfast with scrambled eggs, delightful, hardly shrank at all, obviously dry cured.

During the week I contacted Rusty, aka Joel who delivered packs of local beef, different cuts and bones for stock to the door, all now in my new freezer, forgot to go to the local mall butcher to pick up freshly flown in Aussie tiger prawns, hopefully some left on Monday.

We have been  here seven days and not yet managed to go down to the beach to swim and snorkel, because we have been so busy setting everything up, today is the day. We had to send out my little MX5 and not our truck as it was not ready to go, so not much space for carting stuff around, the truck will have to wait. We were not here to see my little car loaded from the boat onto a whale boat and tugged ashore. When the next boat is in and we are here, I will take pics and publish, but boats on average are monthly.

Ball bay from the top of the hill.