Location

Ashburton is a town in south Canterbury in the South Island of New Zealand. Its a decent sized rural town with all of the amenities you would need (including a disc golf course!). Given the location of the house we didn’t really explore the town itself (or visit it much when we discovered that New World could deliver to us). However we did make a few trips out to explore the surrounding area which is full of great scenery and outdoor activities.

Pets/House

For this housesit we had 3 cats and lots of chickens to look after. The home was effectively a farmstead for a deer farm however it was big enough that professionals were in charge of it during our stay. The house was very comfortable and warm for the winter period. There was even an indoor heated swimming pool, which helped us start a daily swimming habit for the duration of our visit. The cats were all very friendly, however they also enjoyed their space and exploring the large property. The eldest cat loved to sunbathe on the heated floors during the day and he made sure he was the first in line when it came to food time. This home probably had more chickens then we have every looked after and more eggs than we could handle! With 12+ eggs a day we were thankful that a neighbor regularly came by to collect some.

What We Did

We were pleasantly surprised by the natural scenery around Ashburton, with endless mountain ranges, winding rivers, and reflective lakes that felt like something out of a postcard. I was studying photography at the time, which gave me so many opportunities to capture gorgeous landscapes and ignited my wintery whispers landscape portfolio. One of the highlights was a day trip to Hakatere Conservation Park. We left before dawn to catch the sunrise and also vsited the filming location for Edoras from The Lord of the Rings. Standing there in the middle of those vast plains and dramatic hills, it really did feel like stepping straight into Middle-earth.

We also celebrated James’ birthday while we were on this house sit, which made our time in Ashburton even more special. To mark the day, we headed up to Mt Hutt skifield so he could spend a few hours snowboarding, which seems to be a birthday tradition. He also recieved a voucher to fly an aeroplane at the Mid Canterbury Aero Club and had a lot of fun.