Brian and I are sitting side by side at the internet kiosk of a backpackers hostel across the road from the sounds in Picton, just up the street from Le Cafe. We are here in preparation for a morning ferry ride to Wellington, from whence we will make our way to Palmerston North where Brian has found a way to join a team in playing in the National Indoor Ultimate Frisbee Tournament.
But, I suppose I should mention how we got to this point and what has happened in the meantime...
Last Tuesday (August 28), we took a lovely bus ride to Kaikoura-- a scenic drive on the main highway. We were riding ocean side for about half of the trip. The blue-green of the ocean and the white wave breaks were such a welcome break from the monotony of endless grape vines! There are several seal colonies and just plain old good sunning rocks along the way to Kaikoura. It was pretty strange to see them so close, sunning themselves on the rocks right next to the road. I thought they looked like fuzzy brown slugs. Because they do... but they are kinda cute anyway.
When we arrived our host, Peter, drove us around Kaikoura to see all the sites. We drove to the New Wharf, the Old Wharf, the Lookout and the Seal Colony. All lovely as! (good as, sweet as, cheap as, etc... kiwi phrases of the day... comes from good as gold... apparently). Then we went back to their place, known as The Farmacy (which we learned was to honor the previous owner, a pharmasist who died after contracting Mad Cow disease in the UK... bummer). Peter's wife Susan arrived home from working at the day spa as a massage therapist. Their son Oliver, age 14, entertained us daily with clever YouTube videos he found. Peter showed us around their place. They have about 11 ewes and 19 lambs, of the Suffolk variety (black legs and face), about a dozen chickens/roosters, a duck and some Russian geese which looked like Swan Lake costumes.
Wednesday was our first day of work (morning of work really, that is what's nice about WWOOFing, you work half the day and then have the rest of the day to check out the local area or whatever else you are keen to do) was digging holes and putting up fence posts along a creek in an isolated paddock. After lunch we rode borrowed bikes into town (a 2.5 minute ride to the main road on their street which runs into the ocean!) for a look around. I was knackered (tired) and rode back early, Brian continued on solo to keep exploring.
Thursday we climbed over the fence we had helped erect and planted native to NZ trees and grasses-- flax, cabbage trees, hobi, grass, manuka, and some mountain daisies or lilies or both maybe. We are now experts on native NZ plants, I find myself noticing them everywhere... mostly along creeks and highways. The whole gang worked together to round up the chickens, put them in boxes and move them and their coops across the creek to the far paddock. There were a few that got away, but luckily Flo--the most beautiful and well behaved wood-fetching black lab ever-- was keen to chase and hold them. For dinner, Peter and Oliver prepared Paua patties. Paua is like abalone-- has that colorful marbly shell that is made into jewelry. It was an interesting meal, the texture was quite chewy and the paua is black which makes the color a bit strange too. Definitely a must try experience.
Friday we finished planting the native plants. It was much easier than Thursday because it rained overnight making the soil/rocks mixture of earth MUCH softer. Then we put on some coveralls and helped Peter plaster a few outside walls of the house he is building. It is a skill that is a little tricky at first but it gets easier. Of course, Peter made it look easy as, but we had to try a bit harder... After lunch we rode to a park in town to toss a frisbee around and get Brian (and me too I suppose) some exercise as this was the day he found out he was in for the tournament. When we came home Peter and Oliver joined in a bit of throwing in the sheep paddock-- you can guess the hazzards there.
Saturday we woke up earlyish and sat outside to read in the warm sun for a while. We plastered a little and planted more trees around some trees the sheep like to nibble and then helped roll fence wire around some posts. Then we practiced fly fishing in the sheep paddock. Brian caught some grass, I didn't catch squat!
****This is where I left off a few days ago... I am not sitting next to Brian at an internet kiosk anymore, my 30 minutes ran out before I finished blogging, imagine that... but I will continue where I left off and bring us up to date!****
Saturday cont'd: Peter and Susan went to a social event in the evening and dressing as someone rich and famous was required. So HRH The Queen of England and Clint Eastwood left Oliver in charge. He made dinner and found a movie for us to watch.
Sunday was Father's Day in New Zealand. We slept in for a bit and then spent the morning lounging in the lounge (the living room/family room) with our books. After lunch Susan, Peter and Oliver had a family outing to Mitre 10 (sort of like Home Depot) and Brian and I did some maintenance on some plants that were already planted. Mostly we were hacking out grasses that were crowding the plants and competing for their nutrients. We discovered 17 eggs among the grasses and collected them. Unfortunately, all were rotten. This gave Oliver and Peter some fun later--they watched them explode as they were tossed into the road. In the evening I read The ABCs and XYZs of Bee Culture in order to learn a bit about bee keeping--they have 3 colonies of bees.
On Monday we helped Peter start building a bridge from the far paddock where we planted the native plants and erected the fence on the first day. This involved digging trenches, mixing and pouring cement, adding stabilizing rods, stacking concrete blocks, sifting shingle and mixing and pouring a lot more cement.
Tuesday was our last day. We stained some fenceposts around the vegetable garden and on the fence by the trees to be protected from the sheep. The southerly wind was picking up and making it quite cold and breezy toward midday. It started raining in the early afternoon and kept up for most of the day. We accompanied Peter to the grocery store to get ingredients for making dinner-- Portobella mushrooms with rosemary puree, garlic bread and salad. We attempted a repeat of our homemade pudding but it was a flop-- it never thickened! So we whipped it with some cream and put it on a sponge cake Susan had in the freezer and drizzled some of the saucy pudding on top too. After dinner we wrote our first WWOOFing Diddy. A personalized song about our stay.
On Wednesday morning we packed up our gear, bid Oliver adieu as he went of too school, and thanked Peter for all he taught us about plants and animals and building and pretty much everything. We really enjoyed our first round of WWOOFing and it certainly made us excited to see what other places had to offer as well. Susan drove us to a gas station on the way out of town where we waited with our BLENHEIM sign for an hour. We were picked up by a campervan rented by a Brazilan woman and an English man who were traveling the whole country in 2 weeks and were on their way to skydive in Nelson. When we reached Blenheim we ran our errands and saw "Knocked Up" while waiting to catch a ride back to Marj and Bob's.
We stayed one night at the vineyard and then repacked and got a ride to a spot on the way out of town toward Picton. We held our sign for only 30 minutes this time before being picked up by a Previa driven by a mother on her way to pick up her kids from school. We checked in at the backpackers and then walked around Picton for a bit--stopping for coffee and dessert at Le Cafe, and a quick magazine fix at the library before buying some veggies to stir fry with the packets of ramen we brought. We checked out a movie from the backpackers collection and watched Meet the Fockers with a South African guy and a few others who popped in to watch.
Friday morning we packed up our sleeping bags and got some bakery goods to enjoy on our morning ferry ride to Wellington. We planned on hitchhiking from the ferry terminal to Palmerston North where Brian's frisbee tournament was happening. However, I overheard a table of youths talking to someone about frisbee and Brian made friends. They had 2 spare seats in their van and offered us a ride. They were really nice and really good frisbee players too! I was impressed by their skills--and they were only in high school (several high schools actually, all in Nelson).
The ferry ride was beautiful. It was a warm, fine day and not too windy. The water was beautiful blue and the Marlborough Sounds and Cook Straight were just lovely. It takes about 3 hours to cross and there are numerous ways to pass the time. There is a bar, cafe, cinema, television programs, and of course the scenery to watch.
The fortuitous meeting of the Nelson frisbee team meant that we arrived in Palmerston North at the home of the sister of one of Brian's teammates much earlier than we anticipated. So we unloaded our stuff and left them to their family dinner while we walked to a takeout joint and got not so great chinese food. It was a nice evening for a walk so we enjoyed our stroll and the chance to chat. You would think we have plenty of time for that but this seemed more like an intentional together time-- a date even!-- rather than we live together and work together and see each other every waking moment time... which is sort of how it is. Fortunately mp3 players and our own thoughts and tasks and the understanding that we don't have to constantly entertain one another help take some of the pressure from our constant togetherness and we are able to really enjoy those intentional times together. So yay.
You can read more about the frisbee stuff on Brian's blog... I will just say that I really enjoyed watching the tournament especially since I had never seen indoor ultimate this way before-- on small gym courts with small endzones and much quicker paced as a result of the smaller space. Also, there were some really good players which are always fun to watch, especially if BW is one of them, which I happen to think he is. The team Brian played with was interesting in that half of its members were American. Two were studying abroad and one is an engineer at a gold mine (literally) in Dunedin. I was really quite surprised that there were even more Americans on other teams in the tournament. But I suppose it makes enough sense.
Other tidbits before describing our current experience and then giving Brian a turn on the computer:
The Rugby World Cup is going on now. It is held in France. The NZ team, the All Blacks, are ranked #1 and dominated Italy on Saturday night. The games are being rebroadcast throughout the day here because the time difference makes live games at ridiculous times of the day. The All Blacks game started at 11:45 p.m. for example.
Ok I guess that was my only tidbit...
We are now staying with Rudyard, a doctor who is a specialist in infectious disease. He works at the hospital as that is where all specialists work. General Practitioners (GPs) are just your regular doctor who you are supposed to see first. He took us to a Cambodian restaurant last night, really delicious, even though I was pretty grossed out by the not so healthy food I had consumed as is traditional for the weekend of a frisbee tournament and was still full from it all. Rudyard is also a photographer and does some stained glass work too. He showed us all the photos in his house-- most of them not his own--and gave us "his lecture on photography," just sharing a little about each one, the story behind it or the photographer. He has a giant gray cat named Maddie who is the boss of the house. She is HUGE. Apparently she tricked some former WWOOFers into feeding her 4 meals in a day... this is probably why she is so huge and why were on strict orders not to feed her! She has beautiful fur and bright gold eyes and looks like Buddah when she sits to bathe. Rudyard's house is really lovely. It was built in the 1930s I think, and the wood is remu-- slow growing pine perhaps... its gorgeous. There are huge bay windows in the lounge, moulding on the ceilings, and lots of art all over. But all over in a neat and sort of traditional way. It is really a lovely home.
We weeded the garden in the backyard today. We will be back at it tomorrow when we clarify that the large patches of some leafy stuff are in fact weeds and determine the best way to go about getting rid of them. After that, who knows!?
Ok, here it is, pictures will be updated someday soon too, I hope, but now it is time to publish this baby.
Cheers!
****This is where I left off a few days ago... I am not sitting next to Brian at an internet kiosk anymore, my 30 minutes ran out before I finished blogging, imagine that... but I will continue where I left off and bring us up to date!****
Saturday cont'd: Peter and Susan went to a social event in the evening and dressing as someone rich and famous was required. So HRH The Queen of England and Clint Eastwood left Oliver in charge. He made dinner and found a movie for us to watch.
Sunday was Father's Day in New Zealand. We slept in for a bit and then spent the morning lounging in the lounge (the living room/family room) with our books. After lunch Susan, Peter and Oliver had a family outing to Mitre 10 (sort of like Home Depot) and Brian and I did some maintenance on some plants that were already planted. Mostly we were hacking out grasses that were crowding the plants and competing for their nutrients. We discovered 17 eggs among the grasses and collected them. Unfortunately, all were rotten. This gave Oliver and Peter some fun later--they watched them explode as they were tossed into the road. In the evening I read The ABCs and XYZs of Bee Culture in order to learn a bit about bee keeping--they have 3 colonies of bees.
On Monday we helped Peter start building a bridge from the far paddock where we planted the native plants and erected the fence on the first day. This involved digging trenches, mixing and pouring cement, adding stabilizing rods, stacking concrete blocks, sifting shingle and mixing and pouring a lot more cement.
Tuesday was our last day. We stained some fenceposts around the vegetable garden and on the fence by the trees to be protected from the sheep. The southerly wind was picking up and making it quite cold and breezy toward midday. It started raining in the early afternoon and kept up for most of the day. We accompanied Peter to the grocery store to get ingredients for making dinner-- Portobella mushrooms with rosemary puree, garlic bread and salad. We attempted a repeat of our homemade pudding but it was a flop-- it never thickened! So we whipped it with some cream and put it on a sponge cake Susan had in the freezer and drizzled some of the saucy pudding on top too. After dinner we wrote our first WWOOFing Diddy. A personalized song about our stay.
On Wednesday morning we packed up our gear, bid Oliver adieu as he went of too school, and thanked Peter for all he taught us about plants and animals and building and pretty much everything. We really enjoyed our first round of WWOOFing and it certainly made us excited to see what other places had to offer as well. Susan drove us to a gas station on the way out of town where we waited with our BLENHEIM sign for an hour. We were picked up by a campervan rented by a Brazilan woman and an English man who were traveling the whole country in 2 weeks and were on their way to skydive in Nelson. When we reached Blenheim we ran our errands and saw "Knocked Up" while waiting to catch a ride back to Marj and Bob's.
We stayed one night at the vineyard and then repacked and got a ride to a spot on the way out of town toward Picton. We held our sign for only 30 minutes this time before being picked up by a Previa driven by a mother on her way to pick up her kids from school. We checked in at the backpackers and then walked around Picton for a bit--stopping for coffee and dessert at Le Cafe, and a quick magazine fix at the library before buying some veggies to stir fry with the packets of ramen we brought. We checked out a movie from the backpackers collection and watched Meet the Fockers with a South African guy and a few others who popped in to watch.
Friday morning we packed up our sleeping bags and got some bakery goods to enjoy on our morning ferry ride to Wellington. We planned on hitchhiking from the ferry terminal to Palmerston North where Brian's frisbee tournament was happening. However, I overheard a table of youths talking to someone about frisbee and Brian made friends. They had 2 spare seats in their van and offered us a ride. They were really nice and really good frisbee players too! I was impressed by their skills--and they were only in high school (several high schools actually, all in Nelson).
The ferry ride was beautiful. It was a warm, fine day and not too windy. The water was beautiful blue and the Marlborough Sounds and Cook Straight were just lovely. It takes about 3 hours to cross and there are numerous ways to pass the time. There is a bar, cafe, cinema, television programs, and of course the scenery to watch.
The fortuitous meeting of the Nelson frisbee team meant that we arrived in Palmerston North at the home of the sister of one of Brian's teammates much earlier than we anticipated. So we unloaded our stuff and left them to their family dinner while we walked to a takeout joint and got not so great chinese food. It was a nice evening for a walk so we enjoyed our stroll and the chance to chat. You would think we have plenty of time for that but this seemed more like an intentional together time-- a date even!-- rather than we live together and work together and see each other every waking moment time... which is sort of how it is. Fortunately mp3 players and our own thoughts and tasks and the understanding that we don't have to constantly entertain one another help take some of the pressure from our constant togetherness and we are able to really enjoy those intentional times together. So yay.
You can read more about the frisbee stuff on Brian's blog... I will just say that I really enjoyed watching the tournament especially since I had never seen indoor ultimate this way before-- on small gym courts with small endzones and much quicker paced as a result of the smaller space. Also, there were some really good players which are always fun to watch, especially if BW is one of them, which I happen to think he is. The team Brian played with was interesting in that half of its members were American. Two were studying abroad and one is an engineer at a gold mine (literally) in Dunedin. I was really quite surprised that there were even more Americans on other teams in the tournament. But I suppose it makes enough sense.
Other tidbits before describing our current experience and then giving Brian a turn on the computer:
The Rugby World Cup is going on now. It is held in France. The NZ team, the All Blacks, are ranked #1 and dominated Italy on Saturday night. The games are being rebroadcast throughout the day here because the time difference makes live games at ridiculous times of the day. The All Blacks game started at 11:45 p.m. for example.
Ok I guess that was my only tidbit...
We are now staying with Rudyard, a doctor who is a specialist in infectious disease. He works at the hospital as that is where all specialists work. General Practitioners (GPs) are just your regular doctor who you are supposed to see first. He took us to a Cambodian restaurant last night, really delicious, even though I was pretty grossed out by the not so healthy food I had consumed as is traditional for the weekend of a frisbee tournament and was still full from it all. Rudyard is also a photographer and does some stained glass work too. He showed us all the photos in his house-- most of them not his own--and gave us "his lecture on photography," just sharing a little about each one, the story behind it or the photographer. He has a giant gray cat named Maddie who is the boss of the house. She is HUGE. Apparently she tricked some former WWOOFers into feeding her 4 meals in a day... this is probably why she is so huge and why were on strict orders not to feed her! She has beautiful fur and bright gold eyes and looks like Buddah when she sits to bathe. Rudyard's house is really lovely. It was built in the 1930s I think, and the wood is remu-- slow growing pine perhaps... its gorgeous. There are huge bay windows in the lounge, moulding on the ceilings, and lots of art all over. But all over in a neat and sort of traditional way. It is really a lovely home.
We weeded the garden in the backyard today. We will be back at it tomorrow when we clarify that the large patches of some leafy stuff are in fact weeds and determine the best way to go about getting rid of them. After that, who knows!?
Ok, here it is, pictures will be updated someday soon too, I hope, but now it is time to publish this baby.
Cheers!
2 comments:
I so enjoyed reading your stories filling in the blanks from Brian's version of the last two weeks. I especially like the descriptions of scenery, small stuff like food and what you do for work and to pass the time. Karen
your adventures sound awesome!
What will you two be doing come January-March?
My schedule is clearing up?!?
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