putting in a plug for a wonderful little cottage available for renting
i had a work acquaintance coming to town for a week of serious brain-storming
had him booked into the local-yokel hotel-schmotel
i.e. over-priced rooms, barely adequate service, amenities hit-and-miss
over the years i have learned to seriously mistrust what hotels advertise as facilities
e.g. oh you mean the internet - yes right over in that corner - sorry - it's down at the moment
that and other things have happened toooooo many times
and of course the view, location, interior are never as good as the photos
end result is i tend to favour either as they are known boutique hotels
of just go straight to the lower end of the market and not be disappointed
so when i heard of this cottage on the outskirts of town being available
a visit confirmed my thoughts that it would be a good work base for the week
cheaper than the local hotel and surroundings far superior
the cottage itself is the remains of the original homestead on this sprawling property
build in the 1870's and now less than half the original size due to a fire some time ago
but lovingly restored by it's current owners who have their own house on the 75 acre property
between the cottage and the house are nearly 6 acres of beautiful gardens
including an array of ponds, bridges, walkways, grassed areas, seats, etc
entrance to the property is via a long tree-lined driveway
reminiscent of some english-type country property come estate
seems this particular property is highly enough regarded
to warrant a royal visit by the qe2 on her tour of nz in 1983
she was handed a spade and a young tree (a sapling?)
told to dig in and now there is a rather large tree sprouting forth
proudly overlooking a plaque marking the occasion of it's transplant
there's also a increasingly rare kauri tree on the property
planted in the 1930's by the owner of that time
and still only about 10 metres tall
indicating the slowness of these beautiful trees of diminishing numbers
found mainly in (very) old growth forests mainly in the north island of nz
and also being retrieved from swamps with their hard timber still in solid condition
you could spend countless hours wandering around the gardens
but for us the week was mostly spent holed up in the cottage
doing the required brain-storming and systems-creating
listening to some nostalgia-based classic radio and a few cd's
the waterboys pagan place album will now forever be linked to coniston
what a great way to spend a week at work
will do the same again soon i hope
