It’s been a bit of a bonus for us to share our lockdown bubble with Daniela and Jan from the Czech Republic. They were on a working holiday around New Zealand when the Covid-19 virus struck and put a stop to their travels. We previously found them on “Kiwi House Sitters” and they had stayed here to look after our house and dogs while we were away last year and we made good friends with them. So when the the virus struck and suddenly the cancellations came in, we invited them back to park up their van at Ngahere Hou and spend the lockdown here.

It’s been very rewarding to help them out as they’d have been stranded on the other side of the world with nowhere to go and they’ve also helped us out by working hard on the land.

They’ve had the chance to spread out in the Glamping space instead of their little van and now we have our wood sheds full with enough firewood to last at least two seasons!

Daniela has since been repatriated back home to take up a job as legal assistant to a Judge in her home town, but Jan has stayed and is currently preparing the olive grove for harvesting in the next few weeks. He’ll be off soon looking for surf and a paid job and we’ll be back to the simple solitude of winter and doing some maintenance on the Summerhouses in preparation for life after lockdown and whatever that may bring….
