Our Stay at the Jester House Cafe!

We've had a busy yet incredibly fun week working at the Jester House Cafe.  This place is very quirky, earthy, and has a "fairyland" kind of setting.  The owners, Steve and Judy Richards, have built it literally from the ground up, over the past 20+ years, to include planting all the trees on the property.  They have done an amazing job.  In 2013, they won the "Cafe of the Year" award for all of New Zealand which really put this place on the map!  They grow most of their own fruit and vegetables and everything they serve is cooked from scratch, including ketchup (tomato sauce) that Linda had the privilege to help with.  Below are just a few of the things we got to do this week.

We picked 16 crates of apples - several different varieties.

Cleaning out the chicken house.  Yes...that's chicken poop and saw dust!

Linda pushed it out into the wheelbarrow while David carried it out to 

spread under the apple trees.

Then it was David's job to clean out "our outhouse".  Our host calls this a "blue job" as opposed to a "pink job".  This has to be done every other day.  More compost! 

This is our host's (Steve and Judy) house .  

Another view of our little cottage - The Wiggly Wog.

Some hallucinigenic, but beautiful mushrooms on the property.

 This is another accomodation cottage Steve and Judy are building.  

They call this one "The Chestnut Lodge."

 Another Hobbit House built in the side of the hill.

One of Steve and Judy's chickens had 11 baby chicks this week.  They didn't even know the 

chicken was setting.  They were able to round them all up and put them in another 

little house they call "The Villa".

Now David has a new job to repair this larger chicken pen for the baby chicks 

and make it "bird proof".

David dug a ditch to help with drainage going up the property.  

The ditch was a total of 220 feet long.

 Linda has been working in the cafe.

Making & bottling Ketchup; or as they say here "Tomato Sauce".

Making Toasted Muesli (Granola)

More pictures from the kitchen

Weighing and rolling out lamb burgers.

Trimming rosemary for garnishments

Just a few of the perks of working at a cafe - wonderful food and coffee!

Feeding the "Tame Eels" at the Jester House Cafe.  These eels live in a stream in front of the cafe and like to be fed by the guests.  They bury themselves in the rocks and go into hibernation from May until the end of August.

These pictures are just down the road from the cafe.  The tide variations are amazing here.  The photos below are of the same location at "high tide" and "low tide" only 6 hours apart.

Sorry again to post so many pictures, but it's hard to decide which ones to leave off.  We had a day off on Saturday and drove to the northwest corner of the South Island plus many stops along the way.  From Tasman, we went over "Takaka Hill"and through Golden Bay.

This is overlooking "Golden Bay"

 This peacock let us walk right up to it.

 Starting our hike to Whararki Beach - Up and over the fence.

Amazing landscapes!

We were hoping to see the seal pups but didn't.  We think we heard some down in a deep cove, but wasn't able to view them.

We made it to the beach and had it all to ourselves for more than an hour 

before others started arriving.

We're getting pretty good at jumping!

Can you see David in the middle of this picture?

Trying really hard not to fall in the stream!

Ice, Ice Baby!  David hates the cold and this was freezing!  

Luckily we had wool socks to put back on!

These are wind-blown Manuka Trees.

Hiking under the Manuka Trees.

Living on the Edge!

This is called the Puponga Hilltop and Farewell Spit

GPS locator map at Farewell Spit

Traveling back down toward Golden Bay we stopped at these natural springs.  The water is known for its clarity measured at 63 meters deep.  The springs produce water at 14,000 liters per second and the temperature of the water is 50 degrees.

Walk path to the springs.

You can see the springs bubbling up and the clarity of the water.

Next (after picking up 2 young hitchhikers trying to get over Takaka Hill) we drove 11 km down a dirt road to see "Harwood Hole".  This is the drive through the forest.

Danger signs warning that there are no boundries at the surface of the hole.

45 minute hike through the forest and over some pretty good boulders.

At the entrance to the hole.  The total depth of this hole is 1172 ft.  

We couldn't see the bottom where we were.

Holding the camera over the hole to try to see the bottom.

Driving back down the mountain - on the edge.

Our last hike of the day, we did in the dark...sorry, no pictures!

Saying our goodbyes to some really great hosts!

 Heading south in the morning to Fox Glacier to spend our last two weeks before heading home to meet our newest grand-daughter, Emelyn Grace.  We'll keep you posted.