We've just arrived back to Downtown Backpackers in Wellington, where our Wairarapa adventure began and now ends, so a good time to tell the tale!
From Auckland we took a 12 hours bus down to Wellington. There was about half an hour period around 8 hours into the journey where we teetered on the edge of sanity, but luckily we pushed through and remained sane to tell the tale. Aside from a girl fitting and being ambulanced away about 2 hours in the trip was pretty uneventful and the scenery splendid and at some points hilarious. We passed through a town called Bull which had numerous punny shop names, the most memorable of which was the dollar shop which was called AffordaBull!
We arrived into Welly and were dropped right outside our backpackers, v handy. The check in was pretty hilarious as my bag stank of citronella and Kim's was buzzing madly-- turned out to be her toothbrush but none the less a bit mortifying! Our room was a simple twin bunk room with a bathroom shared with one other room. Clean but basic- not bad for $25 a night each which is about a tenner.
We were knackered from the long day travelling but hit the bar for buy 2 get one free glasses of cheapo red wine and a game of pool then finally gave it up and passed out around 11, not before taking in the view by escaping out onto the roof of the hostel- very exciting!
We woke up absolutely devastated after the best nights sleep we'd had in weeks, and had to tumble out into the pissing rain to catch a train to Wairarapa. We were feeling very down in the dumps and negative about the whole wwoofing thing and just wanted to go back to bed. When we arrived at Featherston station we got a bus to Martinborough where we were met by B in a jeep. The ride was picturesque and full of funny and interesting chat about life, conferences and such.
We pulled up at a lovely old villa up on a hill, and were shown inside out of the rain. We sat down with M and B and enjoyed a cup of tea and a really good chat about all sorts then were shown our accomodation. Kim chose to stay in a cute little studio sleep out adjoining the garage while I plumped for a GORGEOUS little gypsy caravan style house truck. I loved it so much and it really appealed to my childhood fantasies of gypsy caravans.
We set about doing a bit of work, folding washing and hoovering and the like and then baked a yummy plum cake and tidied up a bit in the afternoon. F the daughter came home from school and we went on a little tour to meet the chickens and horses. I helped to brush down and lunge K the 5 yr old they recently broke in. A gorgeous horse with a super friendly temperament (unless you are carrying a bucket at feeding time, then he's a bit of a pain!) but thinks he's a labrador pup and prone to running up to you and bounding around and nuzzling and licking. A bit intimidating when the horse in question is nearly 17hh! We made a yummu thai curry for dinner and had a chilled evening.
The next day M and F were off to a competition, so we helped them get gone and then had our brekkie and set about some of the jobs we'd been left. These were things like mucking out the field, picking fruit, tidying the tack room and cleaning the house. After a morning of jobs we made a yummy spinach and feta pie and enjoyed a good chat over lunch with B. In the afternoon we mooched about and read and wandered the land. I lunged K and he was really good, especially given it was his 3rd time ever on the lunge rein.
The following day we got on with some more chores and chilled around, but got pretty spooked in the afternoon. It was super windy but sunny so after a morning's work we decided to lie on the deck surrounding the house, which was sheltered from the wind, and enjoy the sun. After a little while we went into Kim's room to try and sort out some of her stuff to send home, to lighten her load. When I came back out there was a bottle of horse shampoo, balanced on top of a mane comb, in the exact spot where I'd been lying. When I went back to tell Kim, her door was locked from the outside and she was shut in! We'd earlier joked about a shimmery misty presence in a couple of our photos from the morning, so were super freaked out. Then we noticed the gate to the field was wide open. By this point we were really spooked! I went down to work with K but he was really freaked out by the wind too and spooking and jumping around the place so I left him to it but felt a bit defeated and wierded out. We made ourselves some yummy nachos for dinner and watched The Story of the Weeping Camel on DVD to try and settle our nerves a bit. When M and F got back later that evening we told them and they laughed and explained that a friend had been over to return the borrowed shampoo and comb and must have locked Kim's door thinking nobody was around and left the gate open by mistake. We were super relieved and felt a bit daft but still jumpy so Kim started sleeping in with me in the caravan. A pair of nellies!!
Over the next few days we fell into a routine of working our asses off in the morning, lunching and then making ourselves scarce, as we soon discovered that if we were around the house M would just keep asking us to do task after task and we'd spend the whole day running round after her. We went on a couple of lovely walks down the creek that borders the property, and one day met a little old man jack russel, who we named Bertram, who escorted us home. Super sweet dog, but he overreached himself a bit chasing a stick and wound out stuck on the bank of a deep bit of creek, so I waded out waist deep to rescue him.
We were getting a bit fed up of feeling like domestic help and constantly clearing up after people so we decided that when we came to Welly to see the Trei gig (tonight) we would stay here and not go back. There wasn't a huge amount wrong with the family in that they were nice enough folk but the working relationship wasn't great and we felt pretty resentful and a tad overworked so got us out of there.
So we are now back in the Downtown Backpackers and staying here 4 nights until tuesday, that's 4 whole lie-ins!! We've not had one since I got here!!! We are going to chill around the museums, galleries and beaches of Welly and take some time off from wwoofing, then we are off over the Cook Straits to the South Island to spend some time in beautiful Marlborough with Ben's relatives who have kindly invited us to visit.
Will write again soon, thinking of you all and missing you madly. Much love xxxxxxxx
Thursday 26 February 2009
Tuesday 24 February 2009
A little back track to Warkworth, the Kimberley days...
Hello!
I just realised I didn't write much about what we got up to after Kim joined me in Warkworth. Things carried on much a normal in terms of jobs, except with the addition of some very sweaty and mucky composting!
We had to empty a full compost bin ( about a metre cubed or so of decomposed poo, hay, and a few mystery creatures thrown in- we joked about them being failed wwoofers....eeek!) onto the flower and herb beds. This was pretty stinky and tiring work involving some annoying wheelbarrows and obstacles, but we felt a big sense of achievement and some pleasantly aching abs at the end of it all.
We then had to fill it up again which was a bit less arduous but way stinkier and involved hanging out in a bit of semi-dark bush with lots of mossies and mud and poo. We emerged out smeared and sweating, blinking in to the brightly sunlit greenery of the garden, like we'd copme out of a mine or somesuch. Very wierd and exhilirating after all the graft.
So we were finally breaking in some real farm girl muscle and learning about the dark side of the idyllic organic farmlife. All not too bad though, relative to the bush clearing on Waiheke! We've got quite accustomed to shovelling horse poo in one form or another. It's freakishly meditative and rarely smells of much. Wierd I know... fear not, we are taking a few days off from wwoofing soon but more about that later.
In terms of fun and games. We had a lovely trip to the beach one super hot evening, and a fish and chip supper to follow which was heavenly. They are big on kumara (sweet potato) chips here, with aioli! mmmm!!
We had lots of our usual hilarity and spent a fair amount of time and money on crafts. We got really into Dukit- which is a polymer clay that comes in heaps of different colours, quite like Fimo (for those in the know). A friend of the family is a wonderful artist and makes sort of picture pieces with Dukit. She spent an intense afternoon pouring out all her Dukit expertise, including how to 'Gild' it with gold mica powder, how to impress objects and take perfect moulds- which you can then bake and use as moulds to recreate the original object in Dukit- amazing!!
gtg eat now but will continue more soon....
I just realised I didn't write much about what we got up to after Kim joined me in Warkworth. Things carried on much a normal in terms of jobs, except with the addition of some very sweaty and mucky composting!
We had to empty a full compost bin ( about a metre cubed or so of decomposed poo, hay, and a few mystery creatures thrown in- we joked about them being failed wwoofers....eeek!) onto the flower and herb beds. This was pretty stinky and tiring work involving some annoying wheelbarrows and obstacles, but we felt a big sense of achievement and some pleasantly aching abs at the end of it all.
We then had to fill it up again which was a bit less arduous but way stinkier and involved hanging out in a bit of semi-dark bush with lots of mossies and mud and poo. We emerged out smeared and sweating, blinking in to the brightly sunlit greenery of the garden, like we'd copme out of a mine or somesuch. Very wierd and exhilirating after all the graft.
So we were finally breaking in some real farm girl muscle and learning about the dark side of the idyllic organic farmlife. All not too bad though, relative to the bush clearing on Waiheke! We've got quite accustomed to shovelling horse poo in one form or another. It's freakishly meditative and rarely smells of much. Wierd I know... fear not, we are taking a few days off from wwoofing soon but more about that later.
In terms of fun and games. We had a lovely trip to the beach one super hot evening, and a fish and chip supper to follow which was heavenly. They are big on kumara (sweet potato) chips here, with aioli! mmmm!!
We had lots of our usual hilarity and spent a fair amount of time and money on crafts. We got really into Dukit- which is a polymer clay that comes in heaps of different colours, quite like Fimo (for those in the know). A friend of the family is a wonderful artist and makes sort of picture pieces with Dukit. She spent an intense afternoon pouring out all her Dukit expertise, including how to 'Gild' it with gold mica powder, how to impress objects and take perfect moulds- which you can then bake and use as moulds to recreate the original object in Dukit- amazing!!
gtg eat now but will continue more soon....
Monday 23 February 2009
Waiheke rundown
Whoopsee! As some of you may have predicted I've been rather slack with this but trying to catch up now.
From 12th to 20th Feb Kim and I were on Waiheke Island wwoofing. We were meant to be wwoofing with a lady called Rosie - a jewellery designer and event organiser (right up my street eh?). We were collected by the boat from a lovely chap called Marco, who was juggling by the quayside and took us off to Rosie's in a sunshine yellow van.
When we arrived at Rosie's place, a gorgeous house on stilts at tree level with a massive mediterranean style space inside, we had a cup of tea and a chat and did some hula hooping, which was all v fun! Then Rosie sent us off with an empty baby buggy to by her a new printer. Quirky but fine. Then Anneke, a german wwoofer arrives out of the blue, fresh from Germany and v disorientated. At this point we are told that Kim and I will be staying down the road in her friend Kim's sleep out (like a summer house/guest room affair) and . Anneke will stay in the house and do childcare for Rosie's three granddaughters. Kim will do wwoofing hours for Kim the man, and I will do event stuff for Rosie. All a bit disjointed but we were up for going with the flow. Kim came to collect us in his van to lug all our luggage round to his. A SUPER nice guy, really kind and welcoming and fair. His teenage son and daughter were also really sweet. The sleepout was basically the size of the double bed it contained with 2 chest of drawers crammed in for good measure, and although clean was cralwing with mozzies and spiders. So we spent out first evening massacring the bugs, putting up my double mozzie net and making home as best we could.
The wwoofing work at Rosie's was rather random and disjointed and the first morning I just napped for 3 hours while they took the children to the park and supermarket. But in the afternoon I did a craft workshop with the children making masks which was quite fun. Kim meanwhile was making plum chutney and cleaning Kim's van, all well so far. We had our dinner at Rosie's- a bit crowded with her family there but nice. Then I drove Rosie's battered old ford camper full of women down to Charley Farley's bar at Onetangi beach where we enjoyed a mad irish trio and the stars outside.
The next day I got up at 6:30 to drive Rosie and a few helpers to the weekly market. It as pissing down but we managed to get the stage space in the hall as Rosie's stall and set it up nicely. The market was very cute and quirky with lots of homemade organic produce ranging from face creams to feijoas ( a lovely fruit like a cross between a pear and a kiwi in taste). It was a long morning and my stomach was a bit dodgy, but interesting to see how to run a market stall and the kind of set up you need. Rosie has done it all her life. In acknowledgement of my extra ours Rosie let me grab some jewellery making materials from her massive stockpiles, which was cool.
That night we had been long invited to join them at a private beach party which we were really looking forward to. After an afternoon at the beach we had showered and dressed up and were ready to go. We got a call from Rosie saying they were eating that minute and that there wasn't room for us to go with them to the party in the van so we'd have to make other arrangements. A bit put out at this change of tune, we rushed round to eat and negotiated about the van, but it all seemed hectic and a bit moody so we decided to leave them to it rather then go where we weren't really wanted. We wound up getting a pricy bottle of wine from a restaurant and heading back to Kim's place. Kim took pity on us wilting wallflowers and drove us into the main village of Oneroa to a great bar called the Skinny Sardine, where he bought us a glass of wine and left us to have a good night, heading home to hang out with his kids. We ended up having a whale of a time and met a super friendly Aucklander, Lotus- everyone's best friend. Then we met a hilarious young hen party who were really sweet and welcoming. Chatted to various randomers including a gang of 3 funny young boys who shared our cab home and shared their JD and coke with us.
The next day we felt rough as the proverbial but better for a night out letting loose. We decided we wanted to Wwoof for Kim as wanted to be in the same place and not toing and froing as Rosie willed it. So I let Rosie know and although she was keen for Kim and I to move in there, we eventually got our own way and stayed put. We spent the morning making plum jam and cleaning the house a bit, and had a lovely lunch. We headed down to Onetangi beach on the bus, full of the joys, and had a lovely afternoon there with Shannon and Hannah, Kim's mates who were over from Auckland. We enjoyed a bit of the chilled out Jam Night at one of the beach cafes then Kim picked us up and we cooked an awesome roast dinner and stuffed ourselves.
The next day the hard work began and we were 'weeding' for Kim. This consisted of tearing out and battling through a crazy tangle of Jasmine and Wandering Jew (like privet I think?). The Jamsine has ridiculously tough vines which wrap around everything, and the garden had clearly been running amok for years before Kim moved there. We were fully kitted out in overalls and sweating like crazy, such hard work. That afternoon we drove Rosie into Oneroa and we checked out the little music museum and art gallery there and had a wander round the shops.
The next day we had to do some 'creative project with Rosie' but what we ended up doing was a tiny bit of gardening, tidying and washing up, then an hour and half waiting on the couch, then an hour or so driving her to the beach (nudie of course) and chilling there while she swam. So odd but not hard work!
The next day we were due to leave for Auckland. We did a hard morning's work, then showered and packed out bags and Kim drove us to the ferry. We were happy to be moving on from the slightly wierd and wonderful island of Waiheke and looking forward to the next leg of our adventure!! We dozed on the ferry, exhausted from a hard but fun week.
I'll write some more soon I promise and get up to speed xxx
From 12th to 20th Feb Kim and I were on Waiheke Island wwoofing. We were meant to be wwoofing with a lady called Rosie - a jewellery designer and event organiser (right up my street eh?). We were collected by the boat from a lovely chap called Marco, who was juggling by the quayside and took us off to Rosie's in a sunshine yellow van.
When we arrived at Rosie's place, a gorgeous house on stilts at tree level with a massive mediterranean style space inside, we had a cup of tea and a chat and did some hula hooping, which was all v fun! Then Rosie sent us off with an empty baby buggy to by her a new printer. Quirky but fine. Then Anneke, a german wwoofer arrives out of the blue, fresh from Germany and v disorientated. At this point we are told that Kim and I will be staying down the road in her friend Kim's sleep out (like a summer house/guest room affair) and . Anneke will stay in the house and do childcare for Rosie's three granddaughters. Kim will do wwoofing hours for Kim the man, and I will do event stuff for Rosie. All a bit disjointed but we were up for going with the flow. Kim came to collect us in his van to lug all our luggage round to his. A SUPER nice guy, really kind and welcoming and fair. His teenage son and daughter were also really sweet. The sleepout was basically the size of the double bed it contained with 2 chest of drawers crammed in for good measure, and although clean was cralwing with mozzies and spiders. So we spent out first evening massacring the bugs, putting up my double mozzie net and making home as best we could.
The wwoofing work at Rosie's was rather random and disjointed and the first morning I just napped for 3 hours while they took the children to the park and supermarket. But in the afternoon I did a craft workshop with the children making masks which was quite fun. Kim meanwhile was making plum chutney and cleaning Kim's van, all well so far. We had our dinner at Rosie's- a bit crowded with her family there but nice. Then I drove Rosie's battered old ford camper full of women down to Charley Farley's bar at Onetangi beach where we enjoyed a mad irish trio and the stars outside.
The next day I got up at 6:30 to drive Rosie and a few helpers to the weekly market. It as pissing down but we managed to get the stage space in the hall as Rosie's stall and set it up nicely. The market was very cute and quirky with lots of homemade organic produce ranging from face creams to feijoas ( a lovely fruit like a cross between a pear and a kiwi in taste). It was a long morning and my stomach was a bit dodgy, but interesting to see how to run a market stall and the kind of set up you need. Rosie has done it all her life. In acknowledgement of my extra ours Rosie let me grab some jewellery making materials from her massive stockpiles, which was cool.
That night we had been long invited to join them at a private beach party which we were really looking forward to. After an afternoon at the beach we had showered and dressed up and were ready to go. We got a call from Rosie saying they were eating that minute and that there wasn't room for us to go with them to the party in the van so we'd have to make other arrangements. A bit put out at this change of tune, we rushed round to eat and negotiated about the van, but it all seemed hectic and a bit moody so we decided to leave them to it rather then go where we weren't really wanted. We wound up getting a pricy bottle of wine from a restaurant and heading back to Kim's place. Kim took pity on us wilting wallflowers and drove us into the main village of Oneroa to a great bar called the Skinny Sardine, where he bought us a glass of wine and left us to have a good night, heading home to hang out with his kids. We ended up having a whale of a time and met a super friendly Aucklander, Lotus- everyone's best friend. Then we met a hilarious young hen party who were really sweet and welcoming. Chatted to various randomers including a gang of 3 funny young boys who shared our cab home and shared their JD and coke with us.
The next day we felt rough as the proverbial but better for a night out letting loose. We decided we wanted to Wwoof for Kim as wanted to be in the same place and not toing and froing as Rosie willed it. So I let Rosie know and although she was keen for Kim and I to move in there, we eventually got our own way and stayed put. We spent the morning making plum jam and cleaning the house a bit, and had a lovely lunch. We headed down to Onetangi beach on the bus, full of the joys, and had a lovely afternoon there with Shannon and Hannah, Kim's mates who were over from Auckland. We enjoyed a bit of the chilled out Jam Night at one of the beach cafes then Kim picked us up and we cooked an awesome roast dinner and stuffed ourselves.
The next day the hard work began and we were 'weeding' for Kim. This consisted of tearing out and battling through a crazy tangle of Jasmine and Wandering Jew (like privet I think?). The Jamsine has ridiculously tough vines which wrap around everything, and the garden had clearly been running amok for years before Kim moved there. We were fully kitted out in overalls and sweating like crazy, such hard work. That afternoon we drove Rosie into Oneroa and we checked out the little music museum and art gallery there and had a wander round the shops.
The next day we had to do some 'creative project with Rosie' but what we ended up doing was a tiny bit of gardening, tidying and washing up, then an hour and half waiting on the couch, then an hour or so driving her to the beach (nudie of course) and chilling there while she swam. So odd but not hard work!
The next day we were due to leave for Auckland. We did a hard morning's work, then showered and packed out bags and Kim drove us to the ferry. We were happy to be moving on from the slightly wierd and wonderful island of Waiheke and looking forward to the next leg of our adventure!! We dozed on the ferry, exhausted from a hard but fun week.
I'll write some more soon I promise and get up to speed xxx
Thursday 5 February 2009
Hey peeps.
Well life continues to be largely chilled down on the farm. I'm gaining confidence with the horses and learning lots which is really cool. Have hooked up another wwoof place down in Wairarapa region for 23rd feb to 1st March- another smallish lifestyle farm with young horses who need handling and bringing on. So that's something to do between Waiheke stints.
Kim gets here today which will be cool, we can start our tandem wwoofing adventure! Sure to up the hilarity levels!
Went on a 7 hour round trip to Dargaville yesterday with Michelle to pick up a piglet. We had thought it was was gin g to take 3 hours so a bit of a shock. The piglet was very sweet but terrified. He pooed in the back of the Jeep almost as soon as we got him in and so we had a horrendous stink in the car for the 3 hours ride home. Managed to keep our spirits up and laugh about it. It was good to experience the lows as well as the highs of this kind of lifestyle. I think on balance it's still pretty amazing.
I've been riding Opo more and getting my confidence up there as well. Let her go full speed yesterday in one of the paddocks and she is incredibly fast. Elise is going to have so much fun with her as she gets more confident. We are thinking about taking her for a big run on the beach, that would be amazing!
The puppies are really growing and super entertaining and sweet as ever. 2 are on hold to buyers and of course there is lots of interest in them. I'm sure they will go to good homes though as Michelle and Nick are very thorough with vetting potential owners.
I've been making some jewellery with new materials. Du-kit, which is a polymer clay like Fimo or whatever, and comes in loovely colours. Glitter and confetti letters- I've been making sparkly multicoloured pendants with lyrics embedded into the front and back. Hoping to sell some of them on Waiheke. It's nice doing different styles of jewellery design and learning about different materials.
Well I'm gonna go as not had brekkie yet!
I've put up some more pictures up on Picasa, will try to link to here soon xxx
Well life continues to be largely chilled down on the farm. I'm gaining confidence with the horses and learning lots which is really cool. Have hooked up another wwoof place down in Wairarapa region for 23rd feb to 1st March- another smallish lifestyle farm with young horses who need handling and bringing on. So that's something to do between Waiheke stints.
Kim gets here today which will be cool, we can start our tandem wwoofing adventure! Sure to up the hilarity levels!
Went on a 7 hour round trip to Dargaville yesterday with Michelle to pick up a piglet. We had thought it was was gin g to take 3 hours so a bit of a shock. The piglet was very sweet but terrified. He pooed in the back of the Jeep almost as soon as we got him in and so we had a horrendous stink in the car for the 3 hours ride home. Managed to keep our spirits up and laugh about it. It was good to experience the lows as well as the highs of this kind of lifestyle. I think on balance it's still pretty amazing.
I've been riding Opo more and getting my confidence up there as well. Let her go full speed yesterday in one of the paddocks and she is incredibly fast. Elise is going to have so much fun with her as she gets more confident. We are thinking about taking her for a big run on the beach, that would be amazing!
The puppies are really growing and super entertaining and sweet as ever. 2 are on hold to buyers and of course there is lots of interest in them. I'm sure they will go to good homes though as Michelle and Nick are very thorough with vetting potential owners.
I've been making some jewellery with new materials. Du-kit, which is a polymer clay like Fimo or whatever, and comes in loovely colours. Glitter and confetti letters- I've been making sparkly multicoloured pendants with lyrics embedded into the front and back. Hoping to sell some of them on Waiheke. It's nice doing different styles of jewellery design and learning about different materials.
Well I'm gonna go as not had brekkie yet!
I've put up some more pictures up on Picasa, will try to link to here soon xxx
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