Yesterday morning Mary-Jane was going to the supermarket at Dartmouth so we decided to go and have a look around while she did that. We wandered down to a wall thing with gun emplacements and read that it was built around the 1500s. Which reminds me, the Ansell family home is about 400 years old. Thats MENTAL, Cook only started poking around New Zealand in 1769! Anyway, that may not seem as ridiculous to people that are more cultured than me.
In the afternoon we went for some pioneering exploration of our own around the farm. We saw a critter right outside the gate, see figure 1 below for the rare "ginga cat". I think we have a couple of these in New Zealand though. There is also another kitty called Bramble around somewhere that is 17 years old!
The next critter we saw was this guy:
I think we also have those in New Zealand as well but a fine specimen nonetheless. We carried on down to the coast for some amazing views, Hayden and I had a bit of trouble with the route finding though. A couple of times we took the path less traveled (a bit of a scrub bash) and a couple of times we were engulfed in brambles (not the cat though), which may live in New Zealand but I haven't seen them before. It looks kinda like a hardcore version of Blackberry. Ankle socks were a bad choice.
As the farm is out on quite a high point, there is a lighthouse (pictured below) and two transmitting masts (not pictured below).
Below is the 400 year old farm house, which reminds me, is pretty hilarious inside. It could be well described as "ad-hoc" as it has been extended over the years to suit different needs/requirements. In the Kitchen/Dining room and hallways downstairs it has a beautiful slate slab floor. One of the best features of the house is that it has back to back staircases. James knows about our theory that every house should have at least one room that has two entrances for extreme high-speed chases. Well how about having two ways to get up stairs? Amazing! Apparently there is a third staircase somewhere but it is hidden and a bit average. Also makes me think that it is a pretty good house to hole up in for a zombie invasion.
One more pic of the farm showing the valley down to the sea.
We then went to have a look around Freddies studio which is kitted out with all sorts of instruments and recording equipment. Apparently Ben Howard has been to the studio to record a couple things and is coming back later in the month (famous people!). We had a bit of a jam and then Charlie came home and ruined it. (I'm kidding Charlie is all over the music thing). Freddy works a lot with Steve Cradock from Ocean Colour Scene so he gets given a bunch of instruments and amps from the manufacturers.
For dinner we had a delectable roast and for dessert we had a chocolate fudge cake with a trio of ice cream. It was off the hook. After dins we went to the Millbrook pub in South Pool for a wee quiet binge with a couple of Charlies mates.
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