Austrian Bed and Breakfast owner is thinking of growing coffee-beans

Global warming does have it's benefits. Wait - before you scold me - let me explain how I got to this view. Back in the dark ages - before New Zealand became truly connected to the world - I came to this country. It was somewhat quaint and well - rather isolated place. Stepping of the plane after a dark 24 hour flight and having left Europe in darkness with snow falling - I was indeed tempted to kiss the tarmac sort-of Pope-like. After being cooped up (like sardines) for that length of time in a aluminum coffin - it was indeed very tempting but I ended abstaining from this time honored activity, mainly because the local constabulary may not have appreciated my copycat gesture and may have arrested me. Not a good start to the year of voluntary service in Godzone. In any case - Global warming - well - it was a change from -5 degrees in Europe and arriving at a pleasant +25 Degrees Celsius. Very warm. Very nice.  So I settled in and remembered stories from the Austrian National Ski team here on a "Summer" training camp late August the previous year. They did train near Mount Hutt / Methven - and surprise surprise had to go and 'book' a telephone-call back to Austria via a Telecom Operator. By this stage all of Austria had been for some time on a exchange that did not need a operator.
The other main thing was - I had been exposed to drinking coffee for breakfast and at other times during the exhaustive day which necessitated a warm pick-me-up drink. I quickly learned upon arriving here - that you could get only - well - yes Instant coffee. Eeeeek.

There was one shop in town where you could buy fresh beans - but they had to be ground down and then used in the old-fashioned kettle-boil method. From Filters - no sight. Maybe they were into protecting trees even at that early stage. So after trying to be inventive and using toilet paper and other assorted filters to strain my ground beans a SOS was sent to Salzburg. 2 weeks later - bliss.

Nowadays of course - with international closeness and the whole world being a village you can just-about buy anything from anywhere - and if not directly then via indirect imports. There are coffee's of all sorts - fresh / green / roasted / vacuum packed / frothed / mixed with chocolate - Mint - Cinnamon - Milk - and whatever else you can think of. Even George Clooney is selling the "Brand"!

What does this have to do with Global warming?? I am getting to that.

 Seems

 A; we are moving in a northerly direction (that is half of NZ -the other half is sliding southwards and under.
B; the Ice is melting. Now the Ice melting has nothing to do with us living down there and doing research on how or why the Ice is melting. Rumors' that we are pouring hot water out is simply just not true. Nor has it anything to do with the hot coffee's being served there for the good staff doing research into the various scientific causes. Nor has it anything to do with all the hot air coming from the Beehive (NZ Parliament) or the research boffin's down there agreeing - or not - on various scientific matters such as holes in the air and how to measure them. Rather - so the story goes - the Cars and Cows are the culprits. Hmmmm both are C's. So the two big C's are squelching forth various gases that are just part of their natural life cycle. As a friend of mine so eloquently put it - "If you ain't farting -then your not alive"!  Seems we have a few too many real life farting corpses of varying ages and abilities not to mention the cars and so all this excess additional odor goes where gases usually go - right up in the air. There the various gases  congregate and mix and mingle and perhaps even procreate - who knows??  In places it is so thick that you can no longer see the sun on a good day!   However we now have this thick layer of exhaustive matter above our heads, and - I shall refrain from jokes about - urm - well - dirty matter flying - or hitting the Fan. Meanwhile all these gases trap hot air - rather then letting them escape into the greater Universe. Quite why we would want to pollinate the rest of the universe with our own man/cow/car made odor is beyond me in the first place but there you go - they used to go out leaving the mother earth behind - and now they are not.  End result - it is supposedly getting warmer.

Well this Author has no problems with that. For a start - longer sunnier days on the beach are just the tonic for a stressed soul. Much much more importantly though - with the excess warm air warming up the Northern Island, we are now at a point were we can seriously consider growing a different variety of crop and yes various types of beans - Including the much valuable coffee bean. If successful we would then become a exporter of New Zealand Coffee, and that would be a good thing for the local farmers. Further more the coffee would become dirt cheap, to the point they may even give them away (here is hoping) for free. Naturally the local farmers would have to compete with the guy down the road who would want to grow chocolate (which as you know also comes from a bean and likes the warmer climates) and THAT would please Mamabear no end.  There are endless possibilities - Banana's / pineapples / coconut and papaya to name a few.  In any case with the coffee consumption having risen significantly with one Cousin already having been here and another Cousin due soon-ish here in the tropics - this may prove to be a good investment / past time for this bed and breakfast owner. Wonder how long it takes to grow coffee trees and how long from harvest to sipping the local brew??? And can I keep the local dog from eating the tender shoots?

Will keep you posted.

 On this note - goes into the kitchen and boils some water and adds some brown ground stuff to the mug and checks the fridge for cream.

Have fun

Austrian tour-guide may have be a Kiwi after all

http://sandysviews.com/2013/09/24/an-open-letter-to-emirates-team-new-zealand-from-team-new-zealand/

Oh dear
Houston we do have a problem
urm

See - New Zealand was gunning for winning the Americas Cup and then this (see below - or click on the above link) letter to Emirates Team NZ was read out on the radio - and I am sure some tears were shed - and I know Mamabear did so while driving to work and listening to this on the car radio.
It was red with emotion - but much much more - it reflects the beautify crafted penmanship of its Author.  The feeling of the whole country is summed up in a few short words.
If you don't understand how Kiwis tick and you still do not understand this after reading the open letter - then I guess you will never understand.
Thanks to Sandy for penning and sharing this!!

Which brings me to a teeny weeny problem
This blogger is a native born bloke from Salzburg.  I have lived in New Zealand for much longer than in Austria and I  (so am told)  am now more 'native' then most Kiwis.  Do I let things lay as they are now or do I change the important bit of paper???  What the heck do I do now??

Anyhow - this can all wait.  Meanwhile our boys over there in San Fran and are hurting and they need to come home. To echo Sandys words - We are Team New Zealand and when these boy's hurt - we hurt.   Come on home boys.  Let us support you, hug you.  We will be at the airport when you touch down. We wave the Silver Fern Flag, might even do the Haka!! Time to light a Barbie and have a few Marlborough mussels and reflect and plan forward 
Doesn't matter that the Auld Mug is gathering dust in some rich  opulent American Cupboard. Our Team NZ gave it it's best.  This team of 4 million took on one very large country with enormous resources and technology and we took it right to them - just being foiled at the last minute.
We (red) socked it to them - giving them a huge freight.  Be proud of that fact
This team can achieve anything if we want to. You just wait. We will be back - no doubt about it. We will return the Cup to its home - NZ




 
G’day Deano and the crew.
     This is from us back home. You’ll be having some strategy meeting. Knocking around a few ideas. Hell, you might even be asleep. Us at home? We’re doing that too. You’ll have your eye on the big picture, the San Francisco bay weather, the clouds, the rules, what the Americans (or is it Aussies?) are doing to their boat over night. Probably giving the big outboard motor a polish, if the last few days are anything to go by.
     We don’t know about any of that stuff. We know bugger all about sailing. I don’t mean that lot by the sea up North with their flash boats sitting around the yacht club yelling at the television in some nautical language we don’t speak, they know about sailing. I mean us. The rest of us out in New Zealand.
      We are getting up every morning to watch you and the boys taking on the Billionaire at a sport none of us know about. We want you to win it for us. You’ve got Team New Zealand written on the boat. That’s our boat. We are Team New Zealand.
     We should be going to work or school, some of us are and taking a radio or even a TV along. Most of us though, are at home or by a TV somewhere, anywhere, watching you and the boys racing up and down San Francisco bay after a little yachting cup with someone else’s name on it.. We don’t know what a jibe or a tack is. Well we didn’t but we do now. We don’t know what a lay line is or why some of you keep running back and forth across the boat. We have no idea how it goes so fast into the wind or why it looks like a space ship on water. How it doesn’t even seem to float in the water, but skims on those ‘foils’. We just know it has Team New Zealand written on it and that’s who we are.
     We are out there in places often nowhere near the water watching every race. We aren’t sailors, most of us have never been on a yacht. We run coffee shops in Tirau.. We drive trucks in Te Kuiti. We are sitting on a quad bike on the side of a hill near Hunterville with the commentary on an old transistor radio. We teach kids in Palmerston North, or we would if they weren’t at home watching the America’s Cup. We are talking about the days races (or not) with people we don’t know in the pub after work in Westport. We compare our new expert opinions on yacht racing with strangers on a commuter train from Tawa. Outside New Zealand we are in Edinburgh, Munich, London, LA, and Lima. Doha, Goondiwindi, Cairo and Helsinki, wherever we are, we’ve found a way of watching. We are even on the waterfront in San Francisco. We made a special trip. We are Team New Zealand and our name is on the boat.
     This is what we do you see. We get behind our people in black taking on the world. All of us. We become experts in things we knew nothing about. OK, we need the television to put graphics all over the screen so we know what’s going on. We listen to the commentators telling us things as though we were all sailors. We aren’t though so we don’t know what they are talking about. What we know now is that you have to win the start and you have to win the finish. The stuff in between? No idea mate. But we are Team New Zealand and our name is on the boat. You do the sailing, we’ll be willing you to win, that’s our job, all of us. No other country does this like we do. This is who we are. This is why we win. When you take on Team New Zealand, you take on the whole country. We’re watching Deano, all of us.
     We are Team New Zealand and our name is on the boat. Let’s write it on our cup and stick it on the mantelpiece.
Just one more to win Deano, see you soon mate. Bring the cup home.

Austrian tour-guide becomes peace negotiator - maybe?

It is spring - the time of new growth and getting your hands dirty pulling weeds out of the bedding garden.  A time to reflect and contemplate.
A time to re-connect and appreciate some of the more amazing things - such as - how things beginning from such a tiny wee seed can become such big ugly unwanted plant.  If God did want us to have a holiday - WHY did he create such weeds and bugs.
Speaking of Bugs - it came to me in the middle of the night - if I am going to be serious with this tour guide job thing - I had better get on my skates and do the necessary prep-work.  This will entail two trips west / south of good ol NZ (at least).
Relationships with Colonel Sand-ers are currently hmmm at best frosty. He feels he got the raw deal from the last time we negotiated a mutual peace treaty.    ( secret deal made with colonel Sand-ers )
 Readers will remember that in exchange for clear passage of one of my cousins, he was promised near perfect breading weather patterns in order to increase the regular urm fly supply.  Well I did hold up my end of the bargain and arranged with the man upstairs to provide just enough rain and sun to enable the local Sand-fly population to flourish.  Indeed initial assessments exceeded expectations.  A totally random and un-sientific snapshot sample of Tourists (all from England) visiting Colonel Sand-ers old stomping ground near Milford Sound, seemed to indicate a certain 30% bite-marks per person. So not sure what he is complain-ing about.  Unconfirmed rumors have it - that our good ol' Colonel may have moved Territory (one of those - is the grass really greener on the other side of the mountain moves) and so perhaps missed out on the deal that we struck last April.  Sighs -  Sometimes you just can't win . . ^^  I may have to return and offer him a special peace offering.

The other major thing to arrange, is a visit to Major Grand Fault.  He's however in a semi permanent sleeping holding position and one dares not disturb him.  Akin to a sleeping giant that is best kept sleeping - do I go and disturb him and arrange for safe passage - or do I . . . .
Hmmmm - some of his adjutants have been running round lately and, well, created havoc - (not sure if this is a case of when the cat is away the mice will play???)

 2 of his more agile lieutenants recently visited Christchurch and Seddon.  While the Seddon trip (by the sounds of it) was just plain scary and little damage was caused - the trip to Christchurch did however produce some more significant disruptions. What do I do - what do I do?????
I do not want him disturbed and waking up - but I do want him to promise to me that will be holding off tossing his entire weight around next year. He kinda gets grouchy when he wakes up and shakes everything upside down.  Maybe I just quietly lay a piece pipe on his front door????
This will require more thought.  Thankfully we do have a bit of time up our sleeve ^^

Anyhow - apart from these two above teeny weeny wee problems - everything else just pales.
Time to go back into the garden and contemplate another of Gods growth spurts!
Wonder if he minds me doing some ploughing . . . . .


Have fun

 

Austrian Bed and Breakfast owner is contemplating a change in career

It had to happen sooner or later.

Just as we had settled into our routine of offering - well - hospitality - that included such a varied cuisine (from memory Huhu grubs were mentioned) and certainly a most comfortable bed (although I am told a certain 50 year old FEMALE bear is refusing to make breakfast in bed - sighs), it hit me there is more to be gained by being actually a paid - hmm or unpaid TOUR guide. What a better way then to see the country by carting some folks around and highlight the many nice places we have got to show for?!?!?!?!  I would need to buy a mini van or bus - or should that be a rugged beat-up four-wheel-drive that can at a pinch double as a boat for river crossings??

However - the hard part (and it is a really hard part) - is determining what to see in what time and the less time you have the more you miss out on.  It is conceivable of visiting New Zealand for 4 months - or more, and you barely scratch the surface. And that's just for the South Island.  There are just to many beautiful places to go and see.  Then that’s not taking into account the hands on experience. There is a knife-making place in Barrytown - that takes care of one full day.  Bone / Jade - (or commonly referred to as)  Greenstone carving in Hokitika can set you back another full day.  Adventure sports will all take their time (wait until you hear about gliding in Oamaru).  Go north and end up in Karamea and you will have already done a full days travel just to get there and yet there are numerous walks - including the 5 day Heaphy Track - or Abel Tasman Track- or go South - and do a 5 day Milford Sound Track - or the Routebourne Track or - or - oh yeah and that one too. 
Oh dear - I am already exhausted just thinking about it.

There is of course a "Tourist-highway" with many must see items in a logical manner - but I am not sure that A; folks coming here to stay with us have the time and B; want to do what every other overseas person sees and does. hmmmm

Guess we will have to ask later and find out and go and plan from there.

What would you do?? Where would you go and spend a night or two or three??
Is there any particular sight that is way more important then any other?
My Mum LOVED the Moeraki Boulders and Pancake Rocks - and yet I know someone who barely glanced at them - but then sat in front of a round about (near Kumara - where the train tracks run through the middle of the round-about) for a full 15 minutes and did some mental calculations.. . .
I have no difficulty persuading mamabear to stay a few nights in Tekapo - let alone go to the Coromandel (North Island)

On second thoughts - I better stay as a bed and breakfast owner- ( well, for now :)  )  - at this stage it seems easier - just gotta hang the washing up and do the ironing and fix that pesky little drip in the far end of the house . . .

Have fun