A home, we are living in the rural country outside the city of Hamilton… In the past, I grew up in the city, and my childhood experience was in the country where I spent my school holidays with my grandparents, uncles and aunties at the farms and the beach. Oh, what a memory of my childhood for many years! Being as a deaf person, it does not bother me, and my family members taught me an example of life at the farms and the beach. For example going to duck shooting, killing possums, growing vegetables, swimming at the beach, catching fish and the list so on. I am grateful that I have got the skills from my family members.My partner – James, and I made the decision to move out to the rural country away from the city nearly three years ago. The city of Hamilton is growing than before due to increasing new technologies, and people migrated from Auckland, Wellington to live in Hamilton and no privacy to live. The Hamilton is the fourth most populous city in New Zealand and the Ruakura Research Centre is an agricultural service centre. Our agricultural service centre is the third fastest growing urban behind Pukekohe and Auckland and it is a growing and diverse economy for Waikato.We looked many houses with a good sized section with fenced in for our dogs to run freely and my work travelling to/from Hamilton around Waikato. We travelled to Whatawhata, Tahuna, Te Pahu, Waitetuna, outside Raglan area, Te Kowhai and Eureka. We found three homes that we loved and placed an offer on these three homes. Only one offer was accepted and it was our new home in Eureka now.Where is Eureka? The Eureka-based outside the city of Hamilton and it is 18km north-west of Hamilton. The name – Eureka and where that name came from during in the old days. In the early days, there were many battles around the North Island and in Waikato, and William Steele and his group were looking for a headquarters. William Steele reached the hilltop and he shouted out ‘Eureka’ where he believed to found a good place for a headquarters. Another story about the name – Eureka, came from a group of women’s names. The women’s first or last letters of their name were made up into a name called Eureka. Our home is not far from the hilltop where William Steele found a place for the headquarters and we are surrounding many farms, orchards and one poultry business. For me, it is a home where I feel connected to my ancestors who lived here, the quality of life, relaxing and calming away from the busiest city and freedom. One of my ancestors – my great grand uncle from my grandmother’s side family, married a woman who was born and raised in Eureka for a short time before moving to Ngaruawahia. Her name was, Joy and her families were one of the earliest settlements in Eureka. Today cousins are living close to us, and they are well known for horse shows/breedings and dairy farming for many years.Our home used to belong to one of my cousins in the early 1990s. The previous owners were not related to me, and they bought it from one of my cousins. Our home made up with a large section, another ‘run down’ house, a large barn, a double garage and a double carport. We have got many fruit trees and all sorts of trees like Olive, wattles, Totara, Australian Bottlebrushes, oak. The gardens were fabulous, but some part of the gardens filled with weeds – oops.We did not have any particular equipment to help me around at home, and our dogs are our ‘hearing dogs’ for my deafness and safety when I am alone. What kinds of specialised equipment to help many Deaf people? A flashing light for fire alarm, door bell, phone and fax ringing.The sounds in our home were tractors, cows making noise, birds chirping, traffic noises including sirens, cars passing by, dogs barking or people walking down the road. I can hear these sounds when I wear my hearing aids during the day into evening BUT not at night while we were in bed. These sounds do not bother me even my partner for a long time… We are used to these sounds. Every season passed, I looked out in the windows, or I am in the garden, and I tried to hear the familiar sounds such as wind blowing through leaves, leaves make rustling on the grounds, water trickling down the entrapment stream next to the barn or people walking on the gravel stones. During the rainy season, the rain danced on the roof, and the sound likes drunken teenagers stomping down on the tin roof. But for me, I slept through all night during the rainy season, just like a baby sleeping through all night.Our home and gardens are our retreats where we enjoy our moments of lives away from the city. I spend many hours in the gardens while James is pulling down ‘run down’ home and our dogs run freely under my watchful eyes and James’s ears.Note: Real name is not listed and my story is from Inkitt. It can be found here.https://www.inkitt.com/edit/112126?ref=v_b9d8695a-54b6-4baa-8c17-9c5913c5b474
Source: Eureka – Where is Eureka?
Life in Eureka 