DIY Food
Living in a remote spot takes some special skills, from weka avoidance to adventure travel techniques.
Quiche to use up the zucchini glut
For the past five years, we have been ‘Soundsies', caretaking at a property in the remote Clova Bay in Pelorus Sound, 40km north of Blenheim. We've enjoyed vegetable gardens, fruit trees, a safe harbour for the boat, a lovely house, and three little 'cribs' (cabins) to look after. Also, a lot of mowing, says my husband Paul.
I have experimented with recipes, gardening techniques and propagating. Paul has learnt to jump off hills and paraglide (aged 64!).
But we've decided to go sailing again on our 10m keeler. Antidote is not fancy but she's sturdy and very comfortable to live aboard.
One of the big downsides of Sounds life is the Kenepuru road, “a black writhing snake thrashed within an inch of its life”, as my Dad describes it. It's windy, and still damaged in many places from the Kaikoura earthquake. It's two-and-a-half hours of stress to endure if we want to see 15-year-old Theo, now at school in Blenheim.
Soundsies understand you need a sense of adventure to live here. Our dear friends Mitch Bartlett and Emily Osborne, embody the very essence of Soundsie-ness. They look after a property belonging to Emily's parents and getting to it is a mission. It's fastest to go by boat. Archie, their 11-yearold son, gets to the school bus each week day mostly by this means of transport. Otherwise, you can walk, cycle, or bounce your way in a 4WD, along a bush track.
Mitch and Emily almost never drive to town; for them, it's four hours of stress. By boat, it's 20 minutes to Havelock, then a much kinder half-hour drive.
When these are your travel choices, you think very carefully about what you take with you. Will it cope with the weather and conditions on a small boat? Often, no.
That's why they grow a lot of their own food, hunt, and have chickens.
The chickens were Archie's department for a long time; he would sell the eggs to locals in cartons with a free recipe. There was also a full list of the hens that laid them, with heartwarming names: Dot Dot, Leister Square, Apple, Scruffy.
The recipe (on page 48) is one of my favourites. It goes along with my 'use up all leftovers' maxim and the enormous supply of zucchinis any gardener has.
The Sounds is a tough place for chickens. One of the worst predators is one you can't kill. Weka may look cute and cuddly but they'll stop at nothing to get an egg or a chick. Their beaks are like jack hammers crossed with razor blades. Any baby animal – or vegetable – that isn't protected, is fair game.
One particularly nasty individual kept trying to decapitate Mitch and Emily's hens. Unfortunately, karearea (the NZ native falcon) are now also swooping in for a chicken dinner. They've lost a lot of birds, and the survivors are stressed.
Emily had to build a couple of prisons. Vegetables are in a completely covered garden. The hens are confined to small, fully-enclosed, moveable shelters for their safety.
Soundsies live in isolation, and that means we share some key characteristics. One elderly neighbour told me the people he admired most in our local community were willing to communicate, cooperate and share.
Another told me she loves the bird life, especially the kereru that almost touch her with their wings as they drop out of her kowhai tree.
I am grateful for the peace, the wide, open spaces, the clean air, and the embrace of the sea, which will soon be rocking me to sleep once more.
The Sounds is a tough place for chickens and vegetables