Dreamyoga.co.uk Blog

The baby arrived in style - it was all supposed to be natural but ended up with a helicopter trip and an awful lots of medical intervention - but now we have the amazing and beautiful Lily-Rose, she looks like a wonderful delicate little pixie and we are all now an awful lot wiser!

This morning I looked out of the window and the whole bay was filled with dolphins, I rushed out took lots of pictures and then thought why not just get in. Rushed back to the house, cozzie on and out amongst it. I was swimming away towards them, not sure of my intentions when suddenly five big grey smiling faces were swimming towards me full pelt, I backed off pretty damn quick and then they didnt want to play later on when I did, so next time I will be braver, hopefully tommorrow.

There was a big, brown dead-looking rat outside Ollie’s Cottage a few days ago with a long, thick ringed tail, the eye I could see was open. I though I better leave it there for a little while, I didnt want to pick it up and discard it in case it was only playing dead and would swoop towards me and rip out my jugular as I bent over it.

The next day it still being there in the same position, I phoned my landlady. She said she’d put some poison down in the shed next door a there were rats in there.

I thought about what she said……why would a family of rats want to stay next door in the backpackers self-catering and hunting,shooting and fishing, when they could move into my house and get full bed and board and really get into the major task of producing progeny.

The next day there were a fews flies around the now flatter body and a kind of internal movement. I bravely decided to get rid of it . I assembled several thick tissues and keeping my body as far away from the action as possible, I picked up the very tip of the long ringed tail. I had expected the tail to have quite a lot of movement, to be fairly flexible. But now as I carefully selected the tail tip and lifted it high, the tail was long and hard and rock like and the whole animal swung towards me …..eeeek . My whole body went into a massive squirm, but I squared up again this time lifting it up and swinging it over into the waste land next door.

I went back into the cottage took my remedy for shock, fear and upset and had a lie down. Being a pioneer isnt easy you know

I live in a cream weatherboard house with a massive Pahutakawa tree hanging over the top of it. This tree is revered by the ancient Moaris for its healing properties and will be covered in bright red spikey flowers come Christmas time.

I am in a farly isolated place on the beach, my nearest neighbours about 10 minutes walk away each side. There’s a nice old bench on my front lawn made of a large tree cut in half that says Ollie’s Cottage on the back of it. Ollie bought the cottage in Auckland in the 1920’s cut it in half and rowed it across the Haruki Gulf half at a time, it takes 5 hours to get to Great Barrier Island on a fast ferry - so goodness knows how many days it took Ollie to get his home here.

There’s a small one-car road at the front of the cottage on which I see one or two cars an hour. It seems Little Blue penguins cross the road at mating time and make even smaller Little Blue penguins creating an inordinate amount of noise and fuss under the cottage - can’t wait!

I have two porches, one front and one back with doors sideways on against the wind, the one out the back leads to the most important part of the house - the sun deck and a large garden. Inside two 15×15ft rooms, the bedroom with a big bed and old-fashioned mirrored dressing table and a living room with all kitchen requirements and sofa and a very high table and chairs, my feet don’t touch the floor when I sit to eat. I believe the height is to enable the dweller to see the ocean from the eating place. On my first night, just as it was getting dark I saw a large, dark fin sail slowly past, it came backwards and forwards several times, I’ve been told it was an Orca (a killer whale). I had planned to swim from here, but maybe I’ll give that a second thought!

I have a big bathroom out the back with bath and shower and two huge wooden washing troughs on the wall. For all this I pay the princely sum of $100 a week, thats about 35 pounds! Mind you I didn’t realise ’till I got here that there was no electricity, instead a very polite solar power system that stays alight five minutes after you switch it off  allowing you leave the room without breaking a leg in the dark!

On my first 24 hours here I counted 14 different species of bird, Oyster catchers, Tui, blackbirds, sparrows, lots of Kingfishers, a heron, Welcome swallows, Gulls, Indian Mynah birds, Massive colourful New Zealand Pigeons, Kaka, Banded rails and the rare Pateke duck.

So now I’m just sitting here waiting for Christine’s baby to arrive (due tommorrow )- really looking forward to it, it will  just be me, the happy couple Bruce and Christine and Adele the midwife, we’re all really excited!

I want to say thank you to everyone in Lancaster who supported me in the Refloxology Emporium, I wouldnt have made it here with out you. Thank you so much.

As I came into Great Barrier Island last sunny Friday afternoon on the ferry there was a dolphin on each side of the prow skimming along really fast, and though some of you may think this funny, when I looked up  I saw my soul hanging over the Island !