Adventures to Cable Bay and the Mechanic

There is a hike starting in Cable Bay, next to Pepin Island that has been closed since I arrived because of the baby sheep being born. As soon as it opened, the Trusty Steed and I headed out for the hike among the sheep. I have never hiking among sheep, and there were hundreds! Along with cows and some little goats as well. Everywhere you looked there were sheep, little mini sheep only a month old, to big lumbering sheep bahhhing at you to not get any closer before trotting away on stubby legs.

Mum and mini sheep enjoying the view

SHEEP!

These were the markers up and over the hills and through the woods leading the way

After only a three hour hike I made it to the top which had a lovely view of Nelson. A local and I had lunch and he told me of many places to go hiking, including Castle Rock (GOT anyone?!) near Christchurch. Added to the list.

View overlooking Cable Bay

I'm #1 yay!

Using the selfie stick, Thanks MJ!

View of Nelson in the background. Chilly at the top with the wind.
Mum you can use this one for the xmas card :)

Nelson, New Zealand

 Looking back at Cable Bay and the little road which connects Pepin Island to the mainland.

Cliff area at high tide.
You can walk the beach instead of hiking up and over at low tide.

Turns out I needed to take the Trusty Steed in for some new tyres and an alignment. I found a second mechanic in town, who was also open on Saturday, so while TS was in the shop I wandered around the Farmers Market, trying cheese and jams and pear juice, and purchasing little gifts for new little one's back home. Upon picking the car up, the mechanic and I chatted about what I was doing in NZ and where I was heading next. He told me to stick around if I had time because one of his friends and customers just finished up her music tour, was back home, and he happened to be fixing her car as well. A few minutes later, Erin arrived with guitar in hard. The mechanics closed down shop, passed beers around, and we had our own little concert right there in the front lobby. Amazing voice! This will always be a pleasant memory, and reminder that when you have to do a chore, it might turn out to be a great afternoon. 

 

Just Me

One of the many lessons Thorkild (correct spelling) has taught us is to have a wee bit of patience. Everyone one in class was starting sentences with "I'm just going to..." cut this piece of wood, or finished sharpening this chisel, etc... We're learning to not just do something, insinuating that we will quickly do the task, we take the time and thought to do it correctly. Over morning tea, yes we have morning and afternoon tea, I was talking to someone about tramping over the weekend and my next adventure. When asked who all was going I responded "just me." But then I thought, wait a minute, it's not just me, it's ME! I'm making a conscious effort to take time to do things in life with thought, and effort, not quickly. It all comes back to the present and making sure I'm enjoying everything. I won't be in New Zealand forever, and am always thinking of people not here, places not here, events in the future (such as Fantasia getting here in 51 days, 2 hours, and some odd minutes). I'm also learning to focus on what I'm doing, the sunshine on my face during my daily beach walks, the people I am connecting and learning with in class, the delicious craft beer at the local pub, movie nights laughing in my new home with Angie, George and Coma, the taste of fresh milk from the farm next to school, the lemons we picked from the neighbors tree (don't tell haha), getting to spend all day in a workshop with some extremely talented individuals.

Here are some photos from school from the past few weeks:

My oak wall cabinet. Check out those dovetails! The door was one solid piece of wood, which we cut into three pieces, angled out the sides so they fit back together at an angle, then used a curved plane on the back to make it smooth. Beautiful!

This is my finished took shelf, which I placed next to my work bench to hold snacks and of course some tools as well. You can see my little wooden puzzle on there too :)

Adventures at the lumber yard

Making my very own hand plane, made out of Kwila, a native NZ wood

Making the blade for the plane...almost there after an hour of sharpening...

Made a shelf and a box for the drawer inside the wall cabinet. A box in a box for a box.

You can never have too many clamps!

Wall cabinet with the door in the background, shelf and drawer box glued in

 

Here is a nice picture of the curved
door to the cabinet.

Getting lost in the massive stacks of wood at the lumber yard

Cheers!