The Transformation of Foxglove Cottage

 

We took possession of our cottage on my birthday, March 9, 2012 and went down there the following weekend to start work.  All we planned to do was strip out the gear left behind and get rid of the kitchen that the previous owner had started installing - as it was not up to much...

 

 

Having hired a van we visited Bunnings in Dunedin and spent up large on tools, ladder, bits and pieces of necessities and a couple of items of furniture from Trade Me.  We found a dining table and a bookcase and coffee table that eventually transpired to be much too big... be had it cut down so that it ended up just perfect!

 

Very fortuitously, the real estate agents husband was a cabinet maker and furniture maker... meaning he possessed a lot of building and handyman skills too... we set about involving him in our wee project.. 

 

 Which was just as well, as there was more to do than first it seemed... like rip out the kitchen floor and the rotten joists below and do a bit of work to replace the lot with concrete....

 In the bathroom we also had to remove the awful shower fittings and seratone wet area that was so not sealed properly...  In May we came down again, with an even bigger van and more second hand furniture fetched from Dunedin.  Meanwhile back in Auckland we were also filling David's garage with a few bits of furniture and a heck of a lot of kitchen gear, decor items, paintings etc which we decided to ship down once we had got it all together and once the floor coverings were down....  It was just as well that the wee wood burner was functional because it was rather cold...

 

 We also visited Harvey Norman and picked up our kitchen appliances - fridge, ceramic hob, range hood, under bench oven and front loading washer.  We swung by and picked up a nice leather sofa we had bought on Trade Me.. oh, and 4 rather lovely dining chairs upholstered in Cath Kidston oil cloth, and a few other bits of furniture...

lucky it was a BIG van.  We used every inch of space.... really!

 

In June the vinyl in the bathroom and kitchen went down... that was very exciting!  And even more exciting - our bathroom package arrived from Auckland and the plumbers installed our bathroom - yay!  We had a tap at last inside - and we no longer needed to get water from the standpipe in the garden for a cuppa.  We loved the bathroom.....  although we had only seen it in photos until we visited in July...

The flooring throughout the rest of the house was stabilised with an overlay of ply in August and then the carpet went down too.... The gas fitters installed our LPG station for the hot water heating and we had the bottles delivered... and we ate lots of fish and chips in front of the fire!
 

 

 

In September we were down again for another visit and we saw our carpet for the first time... and the kitchen was beginning to take shape, which was Beyond Exciting...  and we were able to assemble our bed.  There was time to try out the sofa and relax, even!  We popped up to Alexandra and collected our new bikes...

 

And there was still time for

Fish and Chips...

Come November and were back again - eagerly anticipating the delivery of our shipment of goods from Auckland this time.... A very special visit as we were no longer staying in the Jafas Motel... we were sleeping under our very own roof! The kitchen was finished, our mattress had been delivered... oh so exciting to make the bed for the first time!  The garden was an absolute picture with the lilac flowering profusely as well as all the roses.

The big event of course was the arrival (a day late!) of our gear from up north... unpacking was just like Christmas... only better.

 

We unpacked all the little touches like rugs, throws and books... and set about decorating.... well, I did.  David chopped some wood...

 

We even had time to hang our curtains!

 

The sparky had been busy and had put in loads of power points, and sorted out some dodgy wiring, fitting new circuit breakers to the fuse board, and installed an extractor fan, heated towel rail and fan heater in the bathroom... and were able to take our first shower... bliss... and the joy of discovering we had amazing water  pressure.... fantastic!

 

We simply hated having to leave... 

 

 

In December we were back for our first holiday - 10 days!  We had time to finish decorating, as well as enjoy New Years Eve celebrations with our new friends, Graham and Jill, Jennie and others at Anthem House even though we were still feeling the cold, despite it now being summer.  We tore ourselves away for a couple of days touring the Catlins, an area of outstanding natural beauty and prolific wildlife.  We saw seals, hectors dolphins, yellow eyed penguins and a few angry sea lions!

 

 

We stayed at Porpoise Bay right on the waterfront and were treated to a rather worrying sea lion attack on some surfers....

 

and a splendid display in the early morning by the amazing Hector's Dolphins as the surfed the breakers for over an hour... magic.  We had a great dinner out at the Niagra Falls Cafe, and saw some beautiful sights - the Nuggets, the Purakaunui and McLean waterfalls, the lighthouses at Nugget Point, Waipapa Point and at Bluff - we hated Bluff by the way!  "What's the best thing about Bluff?  Seeing it in the rear

view mirror..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We carried on to Invercargill and visited a few shops, buying a barbecue and some outdoor furniture... before heading "home" to Foxglove.  For an overnight trip we packed a lot in... 

Back in Lawrence we spent an enjoyable time foraying into Central Otago to Roxburgh to buy cherries, apricots and raspberries, we rode our bikes and went for walks.  The evenings are superbly long in the   south, it doesn't get dark till nearly 11pm in summer.  We certainly made the most of it.  We loved reading by the fire (yep, even in summer!) and drinking wine in the garden by the lilac tree...

 

 

 

We are very social when we are down at the cottage, being right in the village we can see the world go by and have met lots of people including the descendant of the original owner, a meeting I will blog about another time.  Lots of people drop in and we get lots of invites to dinner and drinks, in fact we soon realised we were to need more dining chairs - we kept having to get the directors chairs from the outdoor set round the dining table...

 

 

Not long after we had to leave in the second week of January, Malcolm and family came to put up the garden shed we ordered... somewhere to store our firewood, garden tools and the bikes.  She's a whopper of a shed at 3 metres by 3 metres.  Around the same time, the talented Graham was busy designing and handcrafting the french doors from cedar that replaced the ugly aluminium ones so we had an eventful trip back down again in February when we were able to see both new additions and very promptly filled the shed with the stack of wood that had been delivered a few days beforehand...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sparky had been in our absence again and fitted the chandelier pendant above the table and installed the reading lights over the bed..

 

 

 

 

  

 Also my Valentines Day

 gift to David had arrived...
 

                           ...River's Reach by Diana Adams

   

Gradually we got it all sorted and by the end of our visit the following February - a year later... it was pretty much finished. 

We still have to paint the outside, we've experimented with test pots and chosen our colours...

We bought two more dining chairs....

Sent to England to have a plaque made for the front...

and bought a really cool old garden seat at a local garage sale for the front porch...

We've seen all the seasons, seen snow falling, watched spring burst... something we don't experience in the North...

And now its just about a few little jobs each visit and a whole lot of relaxing!

We still have the odd feed of fish and chips...

... but we much prefer to put a leg of merino lamb in our oven to slow roast.

 Here's to the good life!

Where did last year go...?

I simply can't believe it has been over a year since I blogged here.... but in so many ways it has been a busy, busy 12 months or more....

We renovated Foxglove Cottage and spent our first holiday there last summer...

We bought our great new bicycles...

And we shut down the Bed & Breakfast...

A proper blog will follow tomorrow.

Fits like a Fox's Glove....

Valentine's Day. Rather more manic than romantic for us this year....

For some time we have been keeping an eye out for property around Central Otago or Arrowtown, which we adore.  (Strangely, I recently discovered Arrowtown was once known as Fox's!)   Nothing had come along that ticked all the boxes, however, so we widened the search to the Waitaki Valley in the north, and to the Catlins in the south.

Then one day an email from husband pinged in - a listing had caught his eye in Lawrence.  He had never been to Lawrence (which is on the main route up to Central if you were coming from Dunedin) - had I?  Was it nice?

Yes, I had been to Lawrence, albeit very briefly.  Richard and I drove through the town in 2007 in our rented Kea Campervan, and I made him drive up and down all the roads that seemed to lead up hills behind the main street.  My memories were of some very interesting architecture, lots of big trees, some quite grand homes that had been built just after the turn of the century.  Yes, it was nice.  Why?
He had spotted an early miners cottage for sale on Whitehaven Street.  And he sent me a picture.....

The Miner's Cottage - circa 1870

On the evening of February 13th we flew to Dunedin, arriving at around 9pm.  We picked up our rental car and found a motel in Mosgiel for the night.  In the morning we were up before the lark and on the road to Lawrence before 7am.  It took about an hour of easy driving to reach our destination, through open farmland, and then winding gorges.  And there it was.  We peered in the windows, finally tearing ourselves away to go for some breakfast and coffee, and a wander up and down the main street.

 Lawrence was born in 1861, when Gabriel Read found gold in what is now Gabriels Gully, the first gold to be discovered in Central.  Miners flocked here from America and Australia and the Rush began.  The town celebrated it's 150th anniversary last year and is so pretty with hanging baskets and tubs of flowers everywhere.  There is a decent smattering of cafes (with proper coffee!) and a couple of restaurants, a bistro bar, and a pub, and some interesting shops including art galleries, homewares, collectables and retro furniture, a plant nursery, farm supply store, hardware store, and a chemist which most amusingly is not named in the American vernacular as "Something Pharmacy" but called, instead, The Medicine Depot!


We had a great breakfast at the Coffee Mine Cafe (which opens at 8am - excellent!) and eyed up the Wild Walnut cafe for later....  then we met Jill, the agent, and went to view the cottage.  It was all that we had hoped it would be.  It has been partially renovated, needs a new kitchen and bathroom, but has had quite a lot already done structurely.  Long story, short - we made an offer and it was accepted later that afternoon!  We settle on Friday, and then its all ours.

Foxglove Cottage - Ours!

It may take a while - what with the 1700km's between here and there - but Watch This Space for updates, as eventually Foxglove Cottage will become another of our accommodation options.

A Strange Sort of Summer....

A year ago it was sweltering - we were in full drought with a total fire ban in the Whangarei District.  Gaping cracks fractured the land and we constantly kept an eye on water usage. 

Not so this summer.  December was very wet - the poor Swiss couple who stayed in the Cabbage Tree for three weeks till just after Christmas kept saying "do you think it will stop raining tomorrow?"  I think they had about three really hot and sunny days.  At least it didn't stop them exploring the region and having some great walks out at Whangarei Heads, as well as the Matakohe Kauri Museum which they loved so much they went back the next day!  Our own Heritage Park and Museum here in Whangarei also got a very strong thumbs up.   They joined us for Christmas lunch - which we had hoped to have outdoors - but instead was around the kitchen table as it rained yet again.

All this rain has meant great grass growth on the farm - and fat, happy cattle.  It's also meant a lot more lawn mowing for me, but I simply haven't looked back since replacing our old mower with the USA-made Hustler Sport - it has more than halved mowing time and produces a great cut - I love it!  I've already clocked up nearly 50 hours on it.  We have had our fair share of hassles with the water pipes that feed the troughs on the farm over the past 6 months and as David had a three week break over Christmas we planned to replace a large chunk of it.  The wet weather actually made for good working conditions as the ground was easier to dig, it was cooler and we weren't fed up having to work on the farm instead of lying on a beach!  So we have completed Stage One.  The ground is hard again now, so will wait till the rains come again.

Even though it's been a lot drier since, it is still cooler than previous summers - temperatures are mid 20's rather than late 20's and early 30's.  This morning dawned misty and cool - it was just like Autumn, with tiny rainbow encrusted spiders webs littering the grass when I went to move the cows.  I'm loving it, not being a fan of extreme heat.  The vegetable garden has delivered this year - again thanks to less heat, the lettuces have grown throughout the summer without bolting and turning  bitter.  The tomatoes plants are weighted down with fruit, I've picked courgettes constantly every few days, the apple cucumber is covered in fruit, we've had beans and snow peas a plenty for stirfrys, a lovely mix of potatoes including the heirloom Pink Fir, spring onions, and strawberries.  We pulled out the French lavender (Major) all down the eastern side of the house and replaced it with English (Dilly Dilly) as I'm sick of the Major going woody so quickly in our dry climate.  Each plant survived (fifty!) and they are in full bloom, and looking delightful.

I'm very pleased to relate some snippets regarding the wildlife here.  Our occasional visitor, the male Californian Quail has become resident this summer.  You will see him in and around the garden every day, and we couldn't be happier about this - he is truly magnificent as he struts his stuff.  Frogs are heard each evening in the distance - so our wetlands are providing a favourable environment for these little blokes -  when we decided to use underground drainage to dry out some wet areas of pasture instead of draining the water into the river we created a wetland in an unusable natural depression.  The herons and pukekos also love it.  But the big news is..... drum roll..... about a month back as we arrived home from a night out around 11pm-ish we looked up and saw a bat fluttering around!   We were aware that long tailed bats have been sighted in the district so we can only assume "ours" was of this variety rather than the even more scarce short tailed bat.  Either way they are rare and fragile creatures, so we were delighted to see one here.

The summer has seen a steady stream of guests come and stay (despite the weather in the earlier stages!) - and we have enjoyed the company of guests from here in NZ, as well as from Australia, the US, Britain, and our Swiss guests mentioned earlier.  Notably there has been a huge increase in numbers of people living in NZ staying.  Maybe due to our accommodation being "instantly bookable" here on our site now - seems that other people are just like me and Hate to Wait!  New artwork, crispy bedlinen, new big thick towels plus a DVD player & movies have all enhanced the stays of guests in the Cabbage Tree, our self catering option.

We got away to Arrowtown again in November and had our usual wonderful time down there - this time we explored Naseby, Ranfurly and the Wedderburn valley.  It was great to sit in front of the fire in the Blue Door bar in its rustic leather armchairs once more.  We had a stunning meal at Saffron - just so good in every way, and we loved the walks along the Arrow River.  And of course the sticky buns from Provisions - oh, yum!  Can't wait to go back soon.

Until next time,
Sammi (and Dave)

Green, green grass of home

Spring is well under way here – the flowering cherry is looking spectacular this year, its best display to date at now four years old. All the stone fruit trees are coming out with blossom too – the apples won’t be far behind them. We are enjoying some rain after a long dry spell, and it has washed away the dust, making everything seem brilliantly green – the grass is growing in the fields and the cows are happy. I'm thrilled to say that the Californian Quail have been resident in the garden for the past few weeks.  I often hear the male's distinctive call and have seen him almost every day grazing on the lawn - his plumage is wonderfully fetching.

Lots of hard work has gone into the veggie garden – my lovely friend and neighbour came to lend a hand with the weeding – it was very overgrown, a casualty of my busy life. Once it was weeded and dug over Dave and I added ten x 40 litre bags of compost and 20kg of gypsum to break down the clay, and continued to cultivate the soil every few days. Now we have a flourishing spring garden of lettuces, bok choy, tomatoes and onions. The cucumbers and courgettes aren’t doing so well – some type of bug has been eating the leaves but I can live with that for now. In my raised bed, and under the rabbit proof covers that Dad built last year, I have a thriving crop of broccoli, celery, beetroot, and oak leaf lettuce. The new Dilly Dilly lavender (Augustifolia) that I planted to replace the old, woody Stoechas variety, Major, all down the eastern side of the farmhouse has started to put out some new growth, so I hope it will thrive. I got a free baby camellia with the lavender so have planted that where I lost a coprosma to drought last year. Around the south side of the house we’ve planted Cineraria, Fuchsias, and Impatiens, with seeds of Foxglove to sow later on. We cut the roses back hard on the north and west sides so that we could give these walls a coat of paint, but they are starting to come away again now. All in all, the garden is quite respectable!

We had a fantastic time at the RWC opening back in early September, and have followed most of the games avidly. What a cliff-hanger of a final. And what a fabulous result! So proud of our All Blacks – well done. The B&B was busy over the two games Whangarei hosted, and the guests all reported that the new stadium was fabulous, and enjoyed themselves very much.

Split our sides with laughter whilst watching the National Theatre’s “One Man, Two Guvnors” – filmed live in London and broadcast to cinemas around the globe – we went to our favourite, the Rialto in Newmarket, taking David’s parents along – it was a big hit with all. And so nice to sit in comfy seats with a glass or two of Pinot Gris – that’s what I call relaxation.

We also took in the recent Paihia Food, Wine & Music festival – perfect weather, lots of great artisan yummies, and some great music with a up-beat, happy crowd – couldn’t have been better. We stayed at the lovely Waterfront Apartments in Paihia and can fully recommend them if you want a very comfortable place right in the thick of things.








In answer to ever increasing demands of the busy lifestyles that we all seem to lead these days, we have revamped our bookings page on the website so that you can now see availability and make a secure online booking which is instantly confirmed – no need to send an enquiry then wait for a reply – all done and dusted in one visit. You will find that both accommodation options are by “REQUEST ONLY” for the current date on the day, and day following – so you will need to get our confirmation back on these requests.
We enjoy some fabulously warm spring months – currently around 21 – 22 C – so come on up!

Gosh, where does time go to? Here we are marching well into August. Winter is over here in the sunny north, the weather is definitely warming up and the spring flowers and trees are starting to come out. We have had a wet winter but not a cold one – I saw only two frosts on the ground this year. The grass will soon take off and my cows will be in clover again!

Dave & I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in June – what a wonderful year its been. I was told to leave the weekend free and to relax. He went to huge lengths to recreate our first ever date – which was really quite funny and very sweet. Then he whisked me away to the quaint little fishing village of Mangonui in the Far North where we stayed at the delightfully refurbished Old Oak Inn for a couple of nights. The inn is now a boutique hotel, with wonderful views over the Mangonui harbour and right alongside it is the Acorn Bar & Bistro – we recommend it.

We loved the Post Office Café for breakfasts and quirky shopping, and enjoyed a Fish & Chip supper at the fully licensed world famous Mangonui Fish & Chip Shop, right on the wharf. It was a lovely weekend, and so much better for being a total surprise!

Then in July we sneaked away to Tonga for some extended R&R. My friend Hazel came out from UK and we all flew out a few days later to spend an idyllic week on a tiny coral atoll in the northern Vava’u group. Quite an effort needed to get there – three hours on the plane from NZ, then 1 hour on the smaller plane, 20 min drive in an island taxi complete with dashboard full of teddy’s and assorted religious miscellanea, followed by 45 mins on a boat. Our island was home to just our eco-lodge of about half a dozen fales (houses) – there were two other groups of people and ourselves! At one point we had the entire island to ourselves for 48hrs. Bliss. It was picture postcard perfect – white sandy beaches, palm trees, turquoise waters, amazing sea life right off the beach. We snorkelled every day and I was lucky enough to see a shark and a turtle, and we all saw moray eels as well as the hundreds of different coloured fishes. Doubtlessly, the highlight for the three of us was the day spent out whale watching.


Humpback whales come up from the Antarctic to breed in Vava’u’s warm waters every year. We were allowed to don our snorkel gear and get very up close and personal with these wonderful whales – it was just amazing especially the mother and her calf. Breathtaking. We spent a night and a day in the capital Nuku’alofa before flying home, and were very impressed by all the new building and pavement construction going on. It’s a safe and interesting place, and very unspoilt.

On the farm we have been busy with all the normal sorts of things, fencing, fixing pumps, and dealing with the odd flood. The cattle have all grown well and will really start putting on condition as spring arrives and the grass takes off.

Ally is a happy cat – I installed a new cat door with electromagnetic catch so that only SHE can enter. She had been suffering from Dad’s cat’s pushy ways, and also suspect a wild cat of becoming a bit bold too. Ally is a lot more relaxed now, and getting wider now someone isn’t stealing her food! (not too wide for her cat flap yet).

The Rugby World Cup is about to happen – the grand opening is September 9. We will be in Auckland attending – should be an amazing event. Our little B&B is fully booked for both the games we are hosting in Whangarei – Canada v Tonga, and Tonga v Japan. I know a lot of accommodation providers have capitalised on this event by substantially increasing tariffs around the country. Well, that’s free trade I guess. We have chosen to keep our prices the same as normal however, and look forward to being busy, busy!

Till next time,
Sammi & Dave