Hi from the Spiral

SJPONeill

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Hi,

I'm Simon from just south of the Raurimu Spiral, Central North Island, New Zealand. We've got about 12-13 acres here, in two lots. most of it's still native bush but there's probably an easy acre of lawns between the two lots. We bought a second-hand ride-on mower when we moved here in 2004 but it had issues and so we replaced it at the beginning of 2005 with a Murray Sentinel.

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I'm no handyman beyond basic care and feeding, and we both often work away from home so when we're home we like to get things done as quickly as possible so have a a range of power tools/toys to help with development and maintaining the property. Both lots were pretty neglected when we took them over but we are slowly pushing the weeds and parasites back for the native bush to regenerate and for the native birds to come back.

Next door we run a small guest house as a bit of a hobby, busy in winter with the ski season but more and more popular in summer as people rediscover the region as a great place for walks, mountain biking, fishing etc...maybe volcano watching as well, the way things have been going recently. Fortunately we're upwind from the active cones so should be OK unless one of them really let's rip!
 

okiepc

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:welcome: to the forum. Sounds like you live in a beautiful place. Might post pictures of the scenery. :smile:
 

SJPONeill

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:welcome: to the forum. Sounds like you live in a beautiful place. Might post pictures of the scenery. :smile:

Thanks...no problem with the scenery...

Here's the lawns...round the house are mown by hand i.e. push mower but the front lawn and Chalet lawn are on the ride-on...

Here's where the lawn round the house WAS til someone drove a digger around it :eek: while I was in the US for a week earlier this year, slowly regenerating grass this summer...

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This used to be a bank that came right up to the house less room for a narrow path from the back door...it will be grass by the end of summer

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Our front gate and the front lawn

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Our guest next door and its lawn...

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General pix...

This is the view NE from my office window, you can see a vintage steam engine starting to work its way up the Raurimu Spiral...

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Snow...this is about as much as we get most years...nothing like northern hemisphere snow...

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Mt Ruapehu about 20 minutes away...

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okiepc

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Thank you for the beautiful pictures :thumbsup:
 

DaveTN

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Welcome to the LMF. Beautiful scenery near you! Somehow I can't get it in my mind of palm trees and snow together since I used to live in Los Angeles. You could use that metal roof of yours for a ski slope with a heavy frost or light snow on it. Talk about being ~~~SLICK~~~. I live in the eastern part of USA, state of Tennessee about midway near Knoxville. We haven't had a single flake of snow yet but I'm not looking forward to it either! * ** * * *** * Some snow has fallen up in the mtns East of here about 50 km. I've driven those mtns in winter with snow and ice with sheer drops and no guard rails in places! The Western slopes are much steeper and curvy and winding than those on the Eastern side. I hope to visit your country one day, perhaps stay at your guest house! Again, Welcome! Dave
 
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