Monthly Archives: February 2010
Day 7 – Riverside Community Video
Some video from our stay at the Riverside Community…
Day 8 – Nelson Cathedral
Wow, hard to believe we’ve been in New Zealand for a week! Today is a day off for the students, so most of them are relaxing around the city with their host families. I started my day by going to church at Nelson’s beautiful Christ Church Cathedral [website]… a 5-minute walk from where I am staying.
Day 7 – Riverside Community (Part 2)
Bright and early on Saturday morning, 5 girls, Yoshi, Miho (centre member) and I walked up to the hilltop to view the sunrise on a beautiful cloudless day! We then started another busy day:
- View the sunrise
- Breakfast (toast, fruit, yoghurt, etc)
- Peace activities: A series of discussion activities and songs on peace
- Scone and breadmaking
- Tour of the large garden area
- Lunch: Coconut curry soup, salad, fresh bread
- Departure for a nearby beach area
- Collecting shellfish (mussels, cockles), swimming, games, followed by a BBQ
We finally arrived back in Nelson at about 9pm, where all the homestay families were waiting. A memorable two days, a nice chance to spend time together, and a rare opportunity to experience a community living their ideals in a very tangible way.
- Walking to see the sunrise
- Sunrise!
- Early morning shadows
- Breakfast!
- Packing up
- Learning about Riverside
- Miho explaining things
- Ayuka making scones
- Breadmaking
- Our date scones
- Walking to the gardens
- “Guess the Vegetable”
- What a big pumpkin!
- Yae eating raw corn
- Giant Sayaka
- Sampling the celery
- Lunch, cooked by Haru
- Lunch with Miho and Verena
- Lunch
- Lunch
- Time to farewell
- Collecting shellfish
- Opening the shellfish
- On the BBQ
- Corn!!
- Vegetarian BBQ
- Eating dinner
- Burying Malcolm
- On the beach
Day 6 – Riverside Community (Part 1)
Over the last few days, we’ve had an amazing stay at the Riverside Community [website]. This is an alternative community near Nelson based on the ideas of pacifism and cooperative living. They have a property of about 200ha on which they raise animals, fruit, and vegetables, run a cafe, host events, plus other businesses. We were invited to stay in their community centre, and spent two days learning about the community, sharing in their day-to-day activities, and taking part in activities and games to develop our awareness of the centre’s goals. Here is a short summary of our first day there:
- Greeting: We started by meeting many of the members, plus learning about the centre
- Tour: We then went on a tour of the property, specifically stopping at the cafe for muffins and drinks, and going to the dairy farm to see cows being milked
- Cheese making: We made 4 blocks of Paneer cheese (which we BBQed the next day – delicious!)
- Dinner: One of the members prepared an Israeli meal (hummus, falafel, etc followed by apple crumble)… really yummy food!
- Activities: We sang songs together and did some collaborative games in the centre
- Free time: That evening, there was a gathering of many of the members and other guests around a fire in the courtyard. Lots of singing and dancing… Haru did an amazing fire dance!
Everyone finally went to bed around 2:30! The girls all slept together in a the large communal centre while Yoshi and I stayed in a lodge.
- Our greeting at the centre
- Welcome sign
- Kiko crossing bridge
- Yae milking cows
- Sonoko milking too
- Outside the dairy farm
- Riverside entrance
- Sayaka and Yukari at Riverside Cafe
- Verena teaching us how to make cheese
- Cheese-making
- Almost ready
- Separating the cheese
- Final product
- Outside the centre
- Middle Eastern dinner
- Rimi helping to clean up
- In the dining area
- Playing cooperation games
- Community members get together
- Haru fire dancing
Day 5 – Strawberries and wine
After another morning of hard study, we again headed out for afternoon activities. This time we had a chance to finally see some of New Zealand’s famous countryside – sheep, cows, sheep, ducks, and more sheep! We started out with a visit to a berry farm where we had a chance to pick beautiful strawberries (and eat a lot!!) and try other berries.
Then we went to the Neudorf Winery and sampled 3 great wines… a Sauvignon Blanc, a Pinot Gris, and a Pinot Noir (all very delicious!). Following this we had a tour of the winery, and an explanation of the wine-making process.
- Yusa eating strawberries
- Yae too…
- And Sonoko
- Not forgetting Nao!
- A huge one!
- On the vine
- A New Zealand sky!
- Foot art
- At the vineyard
- Wine tasting
- And tasting
- Winery tour