Today he\u2019s planning to do some tractor work, there\u2019s fruit to harvest, maybe some trees to trim, and wood to stack.<\/p>\n
Getting outside, making things, and problem-solving have been a healthy change and brought balance to his life, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing all this physical stuff that you\u2019re supposed to be doing – bending, crouching, lifting, reaching sideways, back and sideways.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause being an actor is, it is a physical profession, you know, like you always touch upon dance, especially when you\u2019re a young actor.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the work I do off, offshore on stage, it is quite physical.\u201d<\/p>\n
William takes a bite of a nashi. It’s the first time he’s been here for the harvest, as he works overseas several months a year. Photo \/ RNZ, Sally Round<\/p>\n
\u201cThe feeling of openness\u201d has also brought a sense of relaxation to his acting work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have that kind of need, of want, anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s to do with taking away the pressures of city living, city life. It\u2019s added a relaxation to my work because I\u2019ve got this to come home to.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I carry that with me, you know, into the audition room, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicole and William outside their home on the outskirts of Featherston. Photo \/ RNZ, Sally Round<\/p>\n
Nicole, a jazz and rock singer, has also found her beat: preserving, pickling and provisioning their roadside stall.<\/p>\n
Chalking up the sign with the day\u2019s offerings, she said she liked to give people a choice and fair prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard times out there, and so if we can make it affordable for people as well as not competing too much with the local businesses, it\u2019s actually great in terms of giving and sharing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicole Chesterman Kircher. Photo \/ RNZ, Sally Round<\/p>\n
She had always been keen to \u201clive off the land\u201d and found it gave her an extra appreciation for country music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am really digging country music, but I have actually for a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than ever now, having experienced country life for the past two years, I do understand, and really get, the depth of the love and the fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
William has a tongue-in-cheek take on his farm activities, often at the helm of his vintage farm bike, which he calls the mudbug.<\/p>\n
The sheep keep the grass down and enjoy a pat. Photo \/ RNZ, Sally Round<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I do is I come out on my motorbike and make a joke about mustering – \u2018I\u2019m going out to fetch the herd!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cEven the fact that I\u2019ve got a farm bike is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n
The chickens come in several varieties and help provision Nicole’s roadside stall. Photo \/ RNZ, Sally Round<\/p>\n
With a shed housing a shiny red 1950s Massey Ferguson tractor – fit for a children\u2019s book, fairytale sheep with curly horns and ringlets, and a Hansel and Gretel style cottage, the small property has a sniff of theatre about it too.<\/p>\n
Even the animals are characters, with names like Dirty Harry and Black Doris.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a joy to come home to, William said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I come out sometimes, and I think somebody else must own this, and we\u2019re just staying here.\u201d<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe drove down, and Nicole said, \u2018I like this place.\u2019 I said, \u2018No, I don\u2019t. It\u2019s never going…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[3376,430,32130,156,118937,42496,78,226535,424,111,139,69,18833,3175,8909,10744],"class_list":["post-443689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-actor","tag-celebrities","tag-embraces","tag-entertainment","tag-featherston","tag-hobbit","tag-in","tag-kircher","tag-life","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-round","tag-rural","tag-sally","tag-william"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}