Greg spent most of last week in Nelson meeting with accountants and employers, looking at housing options and walking around our 40 acres. He came home brimming with information and excitement.
One of the first things that he did was head off to Blenheim to meet up with the faculty of Onsite Viticulture. All three of them. They are an independent learning provider based in Blenheim, but moving into the Nelson area. It sounds like things should work out well. They want Greg to develop and teach their vit. program for Nelson. They try to work their classes around the students' work and harvest schedules... meaning night classes. Their catch phrase seems to be "work while you learn." It should work well for Greg. They are basically offering him as many hours as he wants. Nice.
I am also looking for work in Nelson, but not having as much luck. I'm hoping that things will happen once I get down there. I would like to do something semi-related to my field, but may have to simply take what is available. Such is life!
Greg also looked at numerous rentals around Upper Moutere. We would love to move straight onto our property, but things aren't quite set up for that just yet. Greg looked at a number of houses - some cute, some rather scary. Then came across a furnished place, right in the heart of Mapua, a sweet little port village just 5 minutes drive from Upper Moutere. Mapua is quite the tourist haven in the summer, but dead in the off season. What we will be staying in is one of the cabins that is rent out for $200+ a night in the summer. Although it is the nicest place (by far) that Greg looked at, it is also the least expensive and closest to where we want to be. We have it until mid-December. We hope to be living on the land by then - even if we need to do it in a tent. (Remember, December is summer here, so that isn't such an extreme idea.)
And speaking of the land... it's lovely!
Greg spent something like 3 hours walking all over the property. He came back with heaps of pictures - and it took us at least an hour to go through all of those! The property is HUGE. There are a few areas that need draining put in if we want to increase planting area. He found 5 ponds - 1 that can be drained away, 3 small ones full of tadpoles,
(TADPOLES!!)
and one large, man-made dam (we knew about this one). I have to admit, the dam looks lovely. I can just picture picnics on the bank, Burg paddling around on a raft...
I don't know how realistic it would be to keep it, though. With the various sprays that are used on an orchard, I'm not sure how healthy the water would look after a few years (think algae muck and lots of insects). Yet another thing to look into. It is just sooooo pretty, though!
And then there are the olives...
... so many olives
We are starting to think that maybe we should consider keeping some, if not all. About half the property is planted in these young olive trees, the other half awaiting grapevines. Right now, the olives are small enough that we could just mow them down if we had to. (We'd prefer to sell them if we can.) But, it's a shame to just get rid of them. Someone put a great deal of effort into putting them in. So, we are going to investigate the New Zealand olive industry a bit - see what the market is like and if it might be worth our while to keep them. Time will tell. Our heart is in a vineyard, but an olive grove might be nice to.
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