April 3rd We Try Again...

Before I get started it has been brought to my attention that I made a mistake in yesterdays Blog post. I incorrectly stated that the Joy's property is 9 acres when in fact it is actually 10 acres. My apologizes for the mistake and now I can start my tale.

I woke up this mourning and decided that I would once again try and explore the property. So i got up and had some Breakie. Cereal of course, after that I marched upstairs to my room and got ready for my morning exploration. I put on my jeans and a t-shirt got a bag ready with a jacket, water and a snack (food of course). Then I marched back downstairs to the back porch where I would be leaving for my exploration. I put on my Gum Boots and was ready to head off.

As I stated yesterday the goal it to reach the Peak of Dairy Flat hills at the edge of the property.

I head of down past the trampoline to the right. I have my jacket on, backpack on my back and my camera and tripod in my left hand. I get to the gate that allows me out of the backyard and enter the sheep padock. There are no sheep insight, so i proceed with reckless abandonment. Down the hill into the valley that lies between the backyard and the peak of the Dairy Flat Hills. I trek through the grass which is knee deep. The Sheep need to relocate and start to eat this down. I then come upon the forest that leads up the hill. Not many humans have scaled through this part of the property so there are no trials. However there is sheep trails and i follow those for a while.

The Sheep trails lead me to a steep uphill, and the trails seem to disappear. I have made it so far. I turn around and notice the Joy house off in the distance. I am not turning back the weather is beautiful and I am determined to reach the peak. I pack up my camera and tripod and shove those into my bag. I then begin to scale the steep uphill in a crawling like manner. After approximately 9 minutes of this crawling method my back is screaming in pain and I have reached the top. And what do I see at the top?

The top leads me to views of more hills. Uninterupted views of miles and miles of hilly landscape. I am unsure what to call these hills because they seem to span for miles past the boundaries of Dairy Flat. Maybe I will refer to them as Boundary Hills. With the name established I turn around and can see the Joy house through the forest that is at the peak of their property.

Now I have decision to make, do I go left along the fence or do I go right. I go left and walk for a bit. On the other side of the fence looks to be a grassy roadway, I stay on my side of the fence.I come upon a gate which I hop over I am now on someone esle property and can see a home through some trees. Looks like there is nothing much further. So I turn around and head the opposite way. I get to the cross in the road where I decided to go left, now I decide to continue along the fence. I stumble upon some cows, a bathtub used for water, and then another fence.

I decide to hop the fence onto the grassy roadway. What started out as an exploration has turned into Mike trying to be an artistic photographer. I take several photos of the bathtub that is used for storing water for the sheep, I take photos of myself, and of the landscape.

I walk along the grassy roadway for a bit and take in the sights and sounds of nature. This is something that you rarely get in Suburban America. It seems like a good place to come and clear ones head. Since my head needs no clearing I continue to March on. I decided that I will not go back the way I came, but create a route home that suits me. Along the roadway is an Olive Farm. I know this because next to the Joy's house there is a big sign that tells me so. It has a long roadway that leads down the hill into the valley where the olives grow. I am on the peak that is behind the olive farm. Off in the distance I can see the Joy house.

I decide to cut through the olive farm to get to the roadway that leads up to the Joy House. I can see the road, but have no clue if I can walk around to it, or should hop another fence and cut through the olive farm. And I mean literally cut through, inbetween the bushes of olives and everything. So I hop onto a post and climb over. This is also another prime spot for some artistic photographs.
As I trek through the olive trees I can see the road and I am not too far from it. I continue on and jump on the road and walk along it. I am taking it all in. I get to a double gate and hop both of those and continue on the road. I get to a point where the road begins to go on a steep uphill. Now I know I am getting close, the Joy house is just on the other end of that steep uphill. However I am distracted by a little pond that is on my right hand side. And of course do not pass up the opprotunity to take some photos.

I trek up the hill and arrive at that big sign I was telling you all about. Which means I am at the entrance way to the Joy's house. After all that adventure I am finally back to where I started. I take some more photos, because I am an artistic photographer......then head inside for a much deserved lunch.

April 2nd Washed Indoors...

Today turned into a complete wash. I had planned to explore Leo's 9 acres of property. So I get up and have breakfast then get dressed to go out and explore. My plan was to take my camera and take photos of the landscape and the Dairy Flat hills. I managed a few photos. I was no more than 5 minutes into my exploration when the skies opened up and started to rain. This is a shot i got at the start of my exploring. it has the forest that is on Leo's property in the background. I would like to get to the top of the hills. that lies amongst the trees that are the tallest at the top of the picture. Not short after this picture was taken the skies opened up. I was forced to take cover. This is the next picture that I took, it started to rain hard so i jumped under some heavy pine tree cover. Sat on the roots and waited for the rain lightened up a bit. I was under here for approximately 12 minutes. After the rain lightened up to a mist i jumped out and headed back for the house.

This is the last photo I took in the mist, I was checking out the scenery. The vision is rather blury and the picture that I took did not come out. On a nice day i will take the photo of the landscape and post it. I will do this trip again in the near future and will have better shots of the property and Dairy Flat hills.

A little note about the Dairy Flat Hills: I do not know if that is their real name. Leo is unsure what they are called and her parents have the same answer. So I am labeling them the Dairy Flat Hills. The property that the Joy's house and the neighboring houses is located on used to be the village center. Back in the 1920s and 1930s Burne Road led into Dairy Flat Village. It was a tent village, no permanent structures were built. After awhile the tent village went down hill and it was closed up. Once that happened people bought up the land and put structures of the property. With very little changing till today Dairy Flat is left without a village center. Dairy Flat is more known for being outside of Albany and Silverdale (Nearby towns that have town centre). Once and awhile when digging on the property Mr. Joy has come upon silverware and other artifacts that show a tent village used to be here.

Alright enough of the history, what have i been up to the past few days. Yesterday I went on my job interview with the New Zealand Post. It seemed to go well, keep your fingers crossed. The interview was very similar to that of one i had with the United States Postal Service. I had to describe my duties and the USPS and what have you. We had some good laughs comparing the two different postal systems. Many differences but also many similarities. All in All the interview took approximately 44 minutes. I also received a tour of the warehouse. Today I received a call telling me that they are going ahead and contacting my References. Which i am guessing is a good sign, but keep your fingers crossed.

What are my plans for the next few days? Well i have signed up to run a local road race. It is a big nearby town event. This is on sunday. It is the Devonport 5k/10k Run/Walk. I am running the 5k and Mrs. Joy is walking the 5k, Leo is coming along as a supportor. On saturday we need to got to Devonport to pick up our race packets and instructions for the race day. So we are going to make a day out of it. Devonport is a beach village with main street passing along the water front. So that should be nice. Next time you guys see my post hopefully i will have a job and will have the results of the 5k race.

Here is the Link to the Race Website: http://devonportclassic.co.nz/

Hope everyone is doing well, I send my regards to All

-Mike

The 31st of March, 4 weeks...

Picture: Dairy Flat Hills from the Joy's Deck

So it is Monday here and Sunday by you guys. I hope that Avry's Christening went well today. Leo and I send the best wishes. Nothing really exciting going on today. Just doing some things around the house. I did the laundry today, and cleaned some dishes. Cleaned up our room which was getting a little messy. Just waiting for Leo, we are going down to her brothers place (Nat) to pick up a mountain bike. So we can have it around to ride. Other than that Monday has been real boring.

Yesterday was Sunday. Went to NZ National Track Champs, got to see Nick Willis win the 1500 meters with ease. Nick Willis is a World Class Runner that happens to be white. So he is someone that is of great influence on younger athletes in New Zealand.

After track champs we went out to this Genghis Khan restaurant. It is Mongolian food, where they have a food bar of raw food. you select what you want and then they stir fry it in front of you. For instance last night i had Lamb with shredded carrots, cabbage, celery, pineapple, noodles and a Mongolian BBQ sauce. It was delicious. They also a had a food bar of prepared foods, soups and salads that you can eat. Then every ones favorite dessert. it was a small dessert bar but it was a good one. They can make you up a pancake where you can put ice cream on and then add your on toppings. I had a Pancake with Cookie and Cream Ice Cream, Carmel and Peanut Butter Sauce and nut toppings.

That was the end of our Sunday.

On Saturday we went to the shops to pick up a few things that were needed and then we went to Nat's field hockey game.It was the first time I have every watched a field hockey game. It was good fun, they lost but they were playing a the best team in the League and a team that has several of the NZ National Hockey Team on it. It was a hard fought game. It was difficult to follow the rules and why things happened the way they did. I will learn and slowly pick it up.

After the Hockey game, we went home and cooked up dinner. That's not the exciting part. The exciting part is for dessert we made smoothies. I know big deal, but these smoothies were made with the Magic Bullet! I know you have all seen the infomercial and are ubber jealous of me. For the record the Magic Bullet is as fun as it looks in the infomercial. For that I attached a photo.

Some of you have emailed me some questions and I will take this time to answer those questions. If anyone has any questions feel free to comment the question or send it to me via the NZ Blog email that I send out.

Question: Is this job full time?

Answer: Yes the postie position will be a full time job. However it is six days a week from 7am to 230 pm. Also if you happened to finish your route early you are free to go home and get paid for the rest of the day. So if you finish at 100pm you can go home and get paid the last hour and thirty minutes. It also means that if you work past 230pm that you will be paid overtime.

Question: What is Leo doing that you are without her during the day?

Answer: Leo is at work. She is working in a factory, helping put together orders to ship out to the retailers.

I hope that helped some of you who had questions. I got a boring week ahead with a big interview on Wednesday. Wish me luck I will be back on to let you know how it goes. Best Wishes Mike