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Visitors to Autumn River
Visitors are always welcome to call in and see us at Autumn River, and in due course to come and stay (or if earlier, bring a tent). There have been a number of visitors so far......
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20 November 2005 - A bit of a do. We were married on 20 November, and the farm was the obvious location for this important celebration of our future together.
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Getting by with a little help from our friends. April 2005 - even the 18 acres we have under cultivation is a lot of mowing. Fortunately, Qi and Yi were willing to help...
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4 January 2005. It's been a wet summer, but finally enough sunshine for a good barbeque. Didn't quite make up for not being able to spend New Year's Eve there, which we had planned, but a lot of fun all the same.
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Just before Christmas, Sarah's cousin Shara came over from Melbourne with her new husband Anthony. For some reason they hadn't expected a NZ summer to involve rain and hail, and had to borrow jerseys and coats to keep warm. |
  The
planting
spree of July 2004 saw lots of people
come out and help, including three students
from the COSC program at Canterbury University.
Qi and Yi (from Wuhan in China) had just
completed one of Malcolm's papers as part
of their Honours course, and Mayank (from
India, and older brother to Astha - see
below) is researching his Master's thesis. |
  In
late June, Malcolm's daughter Katie came
visiting with her boyfriend Brian. They
were both quite comfortable in the rural
setting - Katie is studying vet science
and Brian is a stock manager on a large
livestock farm in the North Island. Katie
did our first plantings, two cabbage trees
(cordyline australis) at the front gate.
The makeshift sleeves to keep the hares
off seem to have worked so far, and both
plants have survived the first couple
of months... |
 People
seldom expect 35 acres to be thrust upon
them at short notice, but they mostly take
it with equanimity. Sarah's school friend
Juliet agreed to come for a ride out into
the country and found herself squashed into
the front seat of the ute and staring down
the barrel of the 20km straight that is
Tram Rd. She seemed to enjoy the experience,
however, and certainly enjoyed the land
once we arrived. |
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In February 2004, a colleague from the UK came to Christchurch and ended up in Oxford visiting the land. Crispin was a little taken aback when he saw that 35 acres actually looks quite large when you don't have people and buildings all over it... |
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In
late February 2004 - right in the thick
of the initial development - Malcolm absconded
and left Sarah to manage the farm. She
decided to try the bounds of family and
friendship, and roped in her mother Kim-Hoàng,
and friend Nadine to assist in marking
out ripping lines for all the hazelnut
blocks. 
Would
you entrust your precious development
to these green land girls? Well, for some
reason Malcolm did... And we didn't even
try to make off with the tractor!
Mike
Randall visited Christchurch in January
2004 to help Malcolm with some technical
developments, and took a trip out to Autumn
River. Mike was thinking of moving back
to New Zealand from Melbourne, and taking
on a bit of land seemed like a possibility.
So once he sells his highway inn at Euroa,
we may have a new neighbour...