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We hope you all survived the Christmas buzz and have found some time for relaxation and family. Here is a little stock taking from the Atamai project: The land The last months have seen tremendous progress on the land. Kerry started working for us two months ago with a focus on the Atamai landscaping and maintenance and Adrienne has been busy with huge compost piles for the community garden. The orchard is looking very tidy now and the trees are thriving. The goat herd has settled in nicely at TeMara and Cheryl is producing some great cheese from the milk. Growing has indeed been a challenge this year with the weather but production is picking up now. The irrigation system in the Mediterranean garden is now nearly complete which will help a lot with the watering later on in the year. Food security is very high on our list of priorities and is receiving the bulk of current investment in terms of commons and effort on the land. Not that it will impact New Zealand a lot but the world-wide food supply situation is deteriorating rapidly and we are very conscious of our responsibilities there for the village and beyond. An excellent summary of the situation can be found here but be warned, it’s not a pretty picture nor a good outlook. Building projects & Sections The first temporary accommodation is now on the land and the areas around them are being enthusiastically landscaped. One of the cottages is themed along a ‘French Country Style’ and the proud owners of the 10 square meter abode are tossing about the names ‘Versailles Cottage’ or ‘Dragonfly Cottage’ (lot’s of ponds nearby). No votes are taken J, humour or romance will decide. Village community Seven of the twelve sections available at this stage have now sold and two more sales are likely to close within the next few weeks from the pool of four parties keenly interested. We are now looking at mid 2010 or spring for the next batch of 12 to 18 to become available. We welcome Graeme and Kath from Auckland to the village! |
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Again it’s been more than two months since the last update went out and there is news aplenty. The land Our flock of goats and a few turkeys have joined the hens on TeMara. The garden is doing well although the abundance of rain and somewhat colder weather is making things slow to start this year. We got hold of a great many new heirloom varieties this spring which are all sprouting well. Most of the trees of the first years planting are now poking their heads out of the grass and it is good seeing some marginal land being reforested. We recently extended the Atamai land holdings by another 10 ha of adjacent land including some prime garden slopes which will allow us the increase the area under production fivefold. Building projects A number of cottages and temporary housing is planned to allow the first three families to move onto the land in the next three months and start building. The engineering workshop has seen some internal modifications done and will temporarily house the Atamai offices. Please note that from November both our physical address and phone number will shift to the Atamai site from Motueka. We will post the details on the web site. Village community Six of the twelve sections available at this stage (including the existing house we recently purchased) have now sold. We welcome Wulf Heinigen & family, Adrienne Henry & children and Kerry and Chihiro Marshall & children to the village community. Our spring potlock was great fun and we had a very pleasant evening with everyone. Just as a reminder for the next potluck: 30th of October at Jack & Joanna’s place again. Jurgen & Kyoko will be moving onto the village site at the end of November and Geoff & Leonora are planning to follow early next year. |
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The earthworks for the first section - Lot 4 - will be commencing on Monday the 2nd of November. They are expected to take about 2 weeks to complete. The contractors will be continuously operating on site until the end of February to finish all house platforms and access ways. |
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It’s been more than two months since the last update went out and as usual lots of things have happened: The land TeMara’s garden area is expanding with new terraces being formed behind the house. This years tree planting is nearly complete. The just increased flock of hens are producing lot’s of eggs and spring is just about here. Jacques and Cheryl’s and Joni’s next project is to get ready for the small goat herd. Work on the track connecting the TeMara food production land directly with the village is making as much progress as the weather allows. Building projects The show home design is now all done and we will be posting photos of the model on the website shortly. The consent application is going into council in the next two to three weeks. Jack and Joanna are progressing with their house design and their site and earth works plans are now nearly complete. Jurgen and Kyoko’s house design is conceptually complete and not surprisingly it turned out rather Japanese. Building is scheduled to start within 8-10 weeks now. Village community Craig and Tracey, who recently moved to Motueka to join the village have made a decision to purchase Lot 4 and another three parties are close to finalising a purchase as well. So the villagers are arriving in quick succession. It seems that now that the issuing of titles is coming closer a lot of visitors from overseas have also announced themselves to see if they can find a home in Atamai. So if all the parties currently close to a decision sign up half the sections of phase one will already be committed and on the danger of sounding like a salesperson I would encourage all of you who have been thinking about making a decision for a while to keep in mind that the second stage will be another 12-18 months away if the RMA process goes well or possible another 6 months after that. Meanwhile there are strong indications that the global oil supply situation, world food supplies and the economic deterioration are all heading for another step down towards in the last quarter of 2009. Due to the length of time it takes in all practicality for households to shift a number of parties are already planning to become part of the second phase of the development. We have arranged for a term deposit scheme with one of the local building societies for those of you wanting to both help the village project and save up for a section deposit. Please contact us for details. |
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Six of the initial lot of 11 sections available by April 2010 are now sold or committed. Information on the other sections is now available on this site. |
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