Wairarapa...pa pa pa pa!

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