Lay of the Land

Well I've officially been in New Zealand for two months, and half of that time I've spent right here in Naseby on the South Island. I've quite enjoyed settling in and getting to know David and Kimmer, their dogs, and the land. I'm sure that soon I'll be off on the road again, but for now I'm just learning so much and having too much fun!

David is an amazing Five Element Acupuncturist; he has completely inspired me and has taken on the role of teacher, brother, and friend. In essence Five Element Acupuncture is based on the concept that the QI enery that exists in all things has five different qualities: Flora, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. We all have these elements within us, and when one is out of balance, it can throw some or all of our other elements out of balance. This imbalance can manifest itself in an infinite number of ways in our lives, and David is a master of recognizing these elemental imbalances in his patients, and treating them accordingly. As David says, "It is the best system for understanding suffering that I have ever come across." He has opened my mind to it, and I cannot get enough.

My introduction to Five Element is feeding my soul, and so is everything else:

Budda, Herb and I sometimes go on walks in the morning out on the land. I've decided that handsome Mr. Buddha is more photogenic than his brother Mr. Herb, so that's why you tend to mostly only see Buddha in these pictures.

Buddha and Herb are constantly on the look out for rabbits which are everywhere! The rabbits, like everything else are invasive and are a borderline disaster, so we encourage their hunt. I caught Buddha and some lens flare at sunrise as he was keeping his eyes and ears out for rabbits.

And just to let you know, they actually catch these rabbits! David and I went on a night hunt and I watched Buddha jump three feet in the air for a rabbit and caught it in mid air. It reminded me of video footage of a Great White breaking the water surface with a big ole seal in his jaws. Except in this case these Jackrussel Terriers aren't much bigger than their prey.

Buddha (left) and Herb (right) take a well deserved nap after a mornings hunt.

David and Kimmer also own a piece of property in an old gold mining town called St. Bathens. After cutting some firewood, we took some recreation time in the lake which used to be the gold mine. Here David is posing for me, doing his sexy. David is a photographer and when he was younger he was a model, so he is very camera aware and a pleasure to photograph.

I asked David if there was any good cliff jumping spots at the lake. He showed me.

I jumped three times. This is probably one of my all time favorite activities in life... Simple pleasures.



It was a beautiful warm afternoon, and I had just gotten out of the lake after my first jump. I've had countless moments where all I could say was, "This is the life."

This is Coal Pit Dam, only a mile from the land. We go swimming and have a beer after a days work every now and again.

David took me on a little road trip, we visited Mt. Cook. This is New Zealand's tallest mountain, and in some ways is a more dangerous climb than Mt. Everest. I took this picture from "The Hermitage" which was a wonderful hotel that we stopped at to have a drink and watch the sunset hit the mountain.



This is actually on the way to Mt. Cook from Naseby. Notice the grass, it's native Tussock and it is rare to see it like this anymore. It's about waste high and it used to cover parts of New Zealand, however today it's been burned and mostly replaced by grazing grass for agriculture. This mountain pass was pristine.

This is one view from the land in Naseby. These mountains are pretty much the backdrop of my day. They catch the light wonderfully at sunset, I never get tired of them.

David and Kimmer let their neighbors run about twenty sheep on their land. These ones are actually quite friendly and let me get close. Most sheep in New Zealand in general run away from humans.

This is Dilly in the foreground, and his sister Bella is behind. David and I call these one year old horses "destructos" because they destroy all the plants we've fenced and irrigated. They are super curious and very oral, so they tend to be kind of nosy. They've been such a problem that David decided that we would build a 275 meter fence to restrict their access to the "human" section of the 70 acre land (don't worry the horses have plennnty of room).



And so David has taught me how to fence like a proper Kiwi! David says, "I was contract high-country fencing by the time I was twelve." So I couldn't be learning from anyone better. Here David is cutting a notch for that "stay" post on the ground. One end of the "stay" goes into the ground and the other leans into the "strainer" (the post sticking straight up). When we put tension on the wires, that post didn't move half and inch.



Here I am at the end of the day. I'm standing on the "strainer" post, and you can see how the stay is leaning into it. I should probably indicate that "strainer" post could be equated to an iceberg, only 10% percent of it is above ground. That's not quite accurate, more like 50% of it is underground, but my point is that I had to dig a long way down just to put this post in. And I dug six of these for the fence.

That's right! Its not all fun and games, I actually do hard labor around here on occasion.



We use a neat little tool to help get the wire all neatly wound up like that. I actually really enjoyed this job from beginning to end. It took us about a week to complete, but it was really rewarding. Plus the horses aren't bothering us anymore.



This little gizmo is called a "triplex" and we use them to put tension on the line by cranking them tight. It's an intense moment when a slack line of wire suddenly becomes so tight you can stand on it. This wire is clean and tight.

And this is why I love fencing, the final product is functional and at the same time a work of art. Fences emphasize nature's line.

This might be my last post from Naseby, in a week or so I plan to head up the West Coast which has completely different scenery. I'm quite looking forward to it.