Getting up to date

Right. I promised, here it is. I'll try to be a better blogger from now on.

So after the wedding*, Suzie, Simon & Joey were planning to take their big motorhome (that they'd borrowed from our mutual friends Jemma & Ron, who emigrated to NZ last year and now live in Wanaka) up to Golden Bay and the Abel Tasman, which is a big National Park just a little north of here. We decided, having really nothing better to do, we decided to tag along and spend a few days exploring the area. We went to Totaranui to do the walk to Anapai Beach, which is said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It's a 45 minute walk (not 20 mins, as we were led to believe), but it's definitely worth it, we pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves and it was incredible. Should you choose to visit however, be aware that the sandflies are abundant, the sand is very rough on the feet and the resident Oystercatchers, when nesting, can be liable to attack!

The following day was January 20th, Isaac's 20th birthday - hurray! - and we had booked to go on a Farewell Spit Eco Tour, which meant an early start. Farewell Spit is the longest sandspit in New Zealand - well I'd been to Spurn Point so I thought I'd better check out its Antipodean and somewhat longer rival - and the plan was to drive along the beach in a big 4x4 bus to visit the lighthouse at the end of the spit. We saw lots of fur seals lounging around in the beach and, during one of our stops, Isaac got a little bit close for my comfort to one of them. They are pretty big but can move fast if they want to! We passed by some huge sand dunes and stopped so we could play - apologies once more to Suzie for accidentally kicking sand in her face - and we ran up and down in the sand for ages. Eventually we headed back, but not before we'd stopped at the most northern tip of the South Island and watched more fur seals swimming lazily about in the beautifully clear water.

On the way back into Nelson we stopped at Pupu Springs**, said to be the clearest water in the world with a horizontal visibility of 63 metres and then, while Suzie, Simon & Joey headed back into town, Isaac & I drove to Mapua Leisure Park - a 'clothes optional' campsite*** - to set up camp for the night. We walked along the beach to the Smokehouse Cafe, which had been recommended to us by the Heaphys, and had a fantastic meal (I had the soup of the day and the smoked salmon, Isaac had seafood chowder and the peppered fillet steak). I told Isaac I was going to the loo but sneaked off to speak to the waitress, so shortly after she brought us ice cream with a candle in to celebrate Isaac's birthday. It wasn't the most exciting birthday ever, I have to admit, but at least we had a damn good feed (many thanks to Isaac's mum, Mary Lynn for that) and a very pleasant day.

We went back to the Heaphy's the next day but resolved to find work. We had decided that we fancied having a go at fruit picking, which is a typical Kiwi summer job, and as luck would have it, apple picking in Nelson begins in February. I did some research and found a few orchards advertising for pickers and did a ring around. The first couple I called were full but finally I spoke to someone from Dobbie's farm****who was happy to take us on, though it turns out the season wasn't due to begin until 25th Feb, so we needed to find something to do - and somewhere to stay, since we couldn't impose much longer on the Heaphy's - till then. A chance meeting with the girlfriend of the assistant manager of Kathmandu, an outdoor clothing and camping chain, led to us spending one day helping them with their stock take. It was easy work and a good bunch of people, and we (eventually) got $150 for our trouble, so that was nice. We didn't want to travel around too much because we were running pretty low on funds - the whole point of us stopping here to earn money was to make enough to afford to travel the South Island properly - so our next plan was to try WWOOFing. Willing Workers On Organic Farms is a scheme where you pay $40 per person or couple to join and receive a booklet, which details hundreds - nay thousands - of farms, smallholdings and households who hold an organic philosophy and take in travellers who are willing to give around 4 hrs work per day in return for a bed and food. The kind of work varies, it can be anything from weeding, building, working in a shop to babysitting, and it is usually detailed in the book the kind of thing you can expect. It seemed a good way to save money and try something a bit different so we paid our subs and went through the book to find our preferred places, based on their description. Isaac wanted to do some sort of bush work if possible, so we started with places with lots of land, and not anyone who said they were vegetarian, because as carnivores we thought we might prefer to be with our 'own kind'. We started calling a few places, but all of our first choices were full, so eventually I decided it would be easier (and cheaper) for me to fire off a few emails. This I did, giving our mobile number and within an hour I received a call back from a chap called Michael Keylock, who sounded English, who asked if Isaac was strong and if he knew how to use a chainsaw. "He's Canadian - of course he does!" was my reply and we arranged for us to come and stay from the following week until we started apple picking, as long as we all got on of course.

We had to leave the Heaphys by the weekend, since they had their other son, his wife and their two kids coming to stay and things were going to get crowded, so we a little north of Nelson to the Aniseed Valley to spend a few days free camping. We'd found the place a few days before while exploring with Debbie and it seemed a perfect spot to stay - it was right next to a beautiful river, had flushing toilets and running water on site, free BBQs, picnic tables and, though technically it said no camping on the entrance, we figured we weren't really camping since we didn't have a tent and anyway we had found a little hidden away part to park where we probably wouldn't be spotted if anyone came to look. Can you spot Jaffa? We spent four happy days here and every morning we went into the river to wash. Certainly the most picturesque bathroom I've ever had.

Finally it was time to go the the Keylock's house to begin our WWOOFing. We were both nervous about staying with strangers and doing as yet unknown work, but we had to give it a go. Fortunately Michael & Judy seemed nice enough - Mike was English and Judy grew up in Zambia but her mother, Katherine, who lives in her own house next door to Mike & Judy, was originally a Kiwi before moving to South Africa as a child. They had a daughter called Chloe who was moving to Wellington a couple of days after we arrived, which would mean we could move into the sleepout/cabin/bunky next to Mike's workshop. They had all emigrated to NZ four years ago from Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire. They live in an adobe mud brick house with grass on the roof, a nice big vegetable garden and three acres of land, including bush going up a steep hill behind the house, three sheep (which still have their long tails, which freaked Isaac out a bit as he'd never seen sheep with tails before and had no idea they were usually docked), a chicken that actually lives next door but has adopted them, and tried to live, grow and buy as organically as possible. They were also vegetarians. Damn!

The next day we were set to work. Unusually for Nelson it was raining hard and we set to work weeding the vegetable garden, which was, I have to admit, a bit miserable. It's back-breaking work and, given that we are not gardeners ourselves, I was a bit paranoid that I might pull up something vital. As my mind wandered during the mindless task, I began to come up with rules for rookie weeders: if it sits with its peers, it's probably supposed to be there. If you pull up something that looks like a vegetable, don't pull up any others. If it looks a bit like a vegetable you are familiar with, it probably is one. It seemed to get us through without too much damage and we ate our (admittedly delicious) vegetarian dinner with much gusto that evening.

As we were eating dinner we heard via a phone call that there was a bush fire going on in Nelson. Some friends of Mike & Judy's were having to evacuate their home so were coming out to stay at the house. We chatted to them about where the fire was and were horrified to discover that it was right where Ian & Debbie were staying with Debbie's brother Daniel. We had no mobile phone reception at the Keylocks so we decided to hop in the car, drive down to see what we could see of the fire and call them to check they were okay. This we did, and while we watched the fire raging on the hill, we spoke to Debbie who said they were fine, that the helicopters dumping water on the fire seemed to have it under control, and they were preparing to evacuate if necessary but thought they'd be okay. We hung up and watched for a while as the helicopters flew back and forth. Then, suddenly, they all disappeared and the fire started raging bigger than ever. Debbie called me back and sounded panicked as she said the firemen were leaving for the night, but that the fire was closer than ever and could we come and help them? Of course we rushed round and discovered that the fire department were indeed leaving, with a promise that the rural/volunteer fire department would take over. They told Daniel to hose down their garden and to call them again if the fire reached their house! We frantically hosed down the garden, house, deck and flooded the gutters while they prepared the house for evacuation and gave their dogs to family to look after. All the while we could see the fire raging just over the hill from the house, sometimes dying down a bit, sometimes flaring up again. Finally, we took a walk up the hill to see how far it had come. It was pretty close, and still raging, but it seemed the rural fire department had arrived and were tackling the fire at the source, and having more luck than the 'paid' fire department. Within the next hour or so they had put the upper part of the fire out, so the danger for Ian & Debbie had passed. We went home to bed, glad to know they were all safe and sound.

We've now been here at the Keylocks for nearly 3 weeks. During this time we have had a variety of tasks to do - we've built a new raised veg bed for their paddock; composted, mulched and dug over a whole heap of raised beds; planted out leeks and onions grown from seed in four of the beds; transplanted a heap of salvia, roses & irises; tied garlic into bunches; named the chicken Mrs Warburton and Isaac built her a makeshift coop; helped move stones and gravel from around the back of the house in readiness for their new deck being laid; helped build the frame for the deck; baked bread and prepared some meals. But the task we've enjoyed the most, and spent most time on, is one that Mike didn't initially think we'd get done. The bushland going up the hill was thick with bramble and gorse, so it was impenetrable. Mike said he eventually wanted to make a wide path going up the centre, drop a bunch of the eucalyptus trees, and get back to native bush. We managed to create a big clearing in only a few short days, hacking away at the bramble and gorse and bringing it back to dirt. Mike dropped 6 trees and we limbed them, cut them up, stacked them and Isaac split a pile into firewood. We also went up to the very top of the hill, which involved following the sheep's path, and crawling on hands and knees under gorse bushes, to clear it and make it accessible for future WWOOFers to continue our work. I have learnt to use a machete, an axe and a chainsaw, and found to my immense surprise that I loved using them; I have found the work on the bush enormously satisfying. I'll be sorry to leave here, not least of all because we have had our own little space (and bathroom!), but also because I feel like we've become part of the family. I've learnt so much being here and shall miss rolling out of bed to check my emails (thank god for internet access while we've been here!), having a shower in our own bathroom and then going over to the main house to make a cup of tea and toast, then heading out to put in some hard manual labour. Mike is always laughing and Judy has made a point of finding out things we liked and going out and buying them for us (Hokey Pokey and Boysenberry Ripple ice cream, Lurpack butter, blue cheese, chocolate, cookies). Katherine makes the best meringues in the world and today she taught me how to make them, and we feasted on them for dessert, with ice cream naturally after the home made pizza we had in the outdoor adobe mud brick pizza oven. I'm even going to miss Judy's strange, random stories which have no beginning, middle or end, and her habit of always asking "What's your favourite...[insert, well, anything you can think of - meal your mother used to make, thing to do outdoors, type of movie]?" I crocheted a hat each for Judy & Mike as a thank you present, which they seemed to like very much!

So tomorrow we leave for the orchard which will, all being well, become our home for the next couple of months. I'm nervous about changing again, going back to sharing facilities and living in the van, and whether or not we'll take to the work. Everyone we talk to has an opinion - because it's a big industry here everyone has done it, or knows someone who has, and either loved it or hated it. I reckon that after the kind of manual labour we've been doing here, we'll find it perfectly manageable physically, if a bit dull. Personally, I don't mind mindless repetitive manual tasks but we'll see whether that still stands after 10 weeks! My main concern is trying to get Isaac out of bed in the morning; we've been starting later and later here...not sure what time we'll have to start apple picking in the mornings but if we have to get up early, then I'm sure we will. Hear that Isaac?!

I doubt we'll have internet access there but I'll try to keep on top of the blogging this time, mainly so Jude won't have cause to nag me... ;-)

*which is the title of one of my favourite films incidentally.
**okay, YOU try to say that without laughing. It's beyond me.
***during the months of Feb & March only of course, and this was still January remember
****which, given we've spent much of the past month or two listening to the audio books of Harry Potter (read by the unsurpassed Stephen Fry), seemed like fate to me

A journey south and a wedding

So finally I have a chance to catch up a bit. Sorry about that.

We took the ferry from Wellington to Picton on 11th Jan (which, I've just realised, is over a month ago, so that makes me feel very ashamed I've not blogged about it yet) at the crack of dawn. A slight lack of preparation on my part (which is unlike me) meant that we got a bit lost finding the ferry terminal and ended up driving about 5km past where we needed to be, but arrived at the ferry with whole minutes to spare. I knew from good ol' facebook that my friend Denise, quite by coincidence, was booked on the same ferry as us so I kept my eyes peeled for her as soon as we arrived on board and parked Jaffa up among the much larger and flasher motorhomes, amid the smell of diesel. The journey takes around 3 hrs and the boat was very similar, if a little smaller, than the one we used to take over to Denmark on holiday. It has a bar, a cafe, a 'posh' restaurant, even a cinema! But we didn't want to waste our time sat in the dark when we knew we were arriving on the South Island past the Marlborough Sounds, famous for their beauty. After indulging in a huge breakfast, we headed to the stern of the boat to find Denise sitting in the bar with some people she knew from the coach tour she'd been on. It was great to catch up, though Isaac took some time out to see the sights while we nattered on.

Eventually we arrived in Picton, where Ian & Debbie had come to pick Denise up. After a nice lunch and a lovely catch up with them, they headed straight back to Nelson while we took the scenic route - and in NZ this tends to be very scenic - on the Queen Charlotte's Track around the Marlborough Sounds. We drove up as far as Okiwi Bay, where we stopped at a campsite for the night, before winding our way leisurely into Nelson the following day.

We liked Nelson immediately, which was just as well, seeing as we'd planned to make it our home for the next few months! It's not a huge town but big enough, and seems to have everything you might need. We went to the home of some of Debbie & Ian's friends, Debbie & Brian Heaphy, who had offered to let us park our van in the driveway of their parents' farm for a while. They are a lovely family who have around 50 sheep, 20 chickens, a handful of ducks and ducklings, a pig (they had had two pigs till Christmas ahem) and a gorgeous dog. I'm not usually fond of dogs at all, but she was a real sweetie, very well trained, which was probably due to the fact that she was there to help with the sheep, though Brian & Debbie's kids, Connor & Luke seemed to be very well trained too, so maybe it was just the way of things in that family...

A few days later - during which time I'd been ill with some sort of viral infection - we went on a fishing trip with Ian as a pre-cursor to his stag do. As is so often the case, I was rather outnumbered by men (including Brian Heaphy and Simon, my friend Suzie's ex-husband, who was out there for the wedding with Suzie and their son Joey*) but I had been really looking forward to doing some sea fishing and hoped that we'd have more luck than when we went on The Rock cruise. A huge quantity of beer had been brought aboard and Isaac got stuck in along with all the other blokes. Once we got out to the Marlborough Sounds, up around French Pass, we found each grabbed a rod and tried out luck using squid as bait. Almost immediately the first fish was caught, to huge acclaim, and one by one each of the gang raised their rods to find one or two blue cod sitting on there....all except Isaac and I that is. We were fishing in the same spot as the others, using the same rods, the same bait and the same technique, but for some reason the buggers just avoided our rods like the plague! A couple of hours went by, the boat moving on to 3 different spots, and we still hadn't caught a thing, despite Simon next to us having caught around 17 fish by now. Isaac wasn't speaking to anyone and I threatened to disembowel the next person who asked me if I had definitely let out enough line, or if I knew how to strike when I felt a bite. Then, finally, around 3 hours in to the trip, joy! Finally Isaac raised his line to find a blue cod and shortly thereafter, so did I. Our dry spell was broken and during the rest of the day we each caught, if not anything like as many as old 'crack bait' Simon, a respectable haul nonetheless. Phew!

Of course by now, Isaac had had plenty of beers to make up for the ridiculously hot weather. I did try to tell him to pace himself a bit, given that he'd started at 8am, that the sun was beating down and he still had the stag do to attend that night, but boys know best, don't they? The other lads on the trip had a few years, and thus a few drinking years, on Isaac, who is rather slight of frame and light of weight, but he seemed determined to try to keep up. Nevertheless, as I predicted, when we began our journey back to shore, Isaac decided to take a little, ahem, nap.


We arrived back at the Heaphy's, which was where the stag party was starting proceedings. I was getting ready for the hen do but not feeling too good by this point, on which I blamed a combination of mild sunstroke and the left over of my virus. I left Isaac telling me he was going to have a bit of a nap before the stag do started and drove with Debbie Heaphy to the hen do around 10 mins up the road. After an hour or two I decided that I was not really feeling up to the high jinks involved so I decided a refreshing walk home and early to bed would be in order.

When I got back to the Heaphy's, I suddenly panicked. Brian had told Debbie that under no circumstances should the hen party crash the stag do and I worried that if he saw me, he'd think that I was there to spy on them, or that I'd brought all the girls with me, and get angry. However, I was also worried that if I just sneaked into the van, that if Debbie Heaphy spoke to Brian or came home saying I'd left early, that Isaac would worry that I'd not made it back, so I did the only thing I could do and hid in a bush in the garden, trying to spot Isaac and call him over. Eventually, after around 10 mins and feeling not a little bit silly, I spotted Isaac wondering on the periphery. "Isaac!" I tried to both shout and whisper at the same time. He saw me and came over, looking puzzled. I explained the situation and that I was planning to go to bed in the van, and he looked relieved. As it turns out he'd drunk nothing but water since returning home from fishing, and had been throwing up at regular intervals behind the van. I blamed the sunstroke ;-) We both sneaked away from the stag do, who were all preparing to go into town to visit a few bars and a rather dodgy-looking strip club, and cuddled up together in bed with a ton of drugs instead.

Two days later we found ourselves getting dolled up (traveller stylee, which basically means fairly casual but not jeans) and waiting with Brian, Debbie & their two boys for a big red (ex-London) double decker bus to pick us up for the wedding. Suzie, Simon, Joey & Denise were already on board. Isaac, of course, had never been on a double decker before, so was as excited as the kids, but I was more excited to see all the old Travelcard and Vodaphone advertising billboards inside! The weather was overcast but dry, but all the talk was of the rain predicted. Nelson, famous for having the most sun hours in NZ, had had no rain for over 2 months by now, so we were sure it would be fine for the wedding. We arrived at The Gardens of the World along with everyone and waited for Debbie to arrive, looking gorgeous in her hourglass dress. As she and her parents walked down the, for want of a better word, aisle, her mother, clearly relieved, made a remark about the lack of rain - BIG mistake. Naturally, as soon as the ceremony started it begin bucketing down and, though Isaac & I stood, silently getting drenched and pretending not to have noticed, we eventually turned round to find that everyone else had legged it under the trees, seeking some sort of shelter. Though the ceremony continued under the cover of a couple of huge umbrellas, eventually the celebrant and the bride & groom retreated to a small gazebo, where the promised readings were abandoned with promises to read them at the reception, and the required parts of the ceremony were completed out of earshot of us. Ian & Debbie had been together for 18 years and planning the wedding for the past six, but Sod's Law says she had to choose the one day in 'Sunny' Nelson it pissed down! Such a shame, but made a good story at least. The bus took us back early to the reception where a much anticipated feast awaited us; everything on the table, wild boar, venison, ham, paua, whitebait patties, crayfish and steamed hoki fish, had been caught or harvested by Debbie's family. We were on a table with Debbie & Brian, their friends Dan & Sarah who we'd met and liked enormously, and Emma (one of my former midwifery colleagues from Queen Charlotte's) and her husband Mick. We had a good night - I got one of Ian's aunts to approach Isaac and offer him work as a male stripper, which he almost bought - and headed home, now dried off, shortly after midnight.

Hope that makes up somewhat for my blogging slovenliness, and I shall try to bring us completely up to date as soon as possible, I promise.

*yes, ex-husband. She has a boyfriend back home, also conveniently called Simon, but was travelling with (old) Simon so he could spend time with Joey. They are definitely contenders for the title of most odd, new-age family unit, but it works for them, which is all that matters...

Lumps and bumps

Before I catch up with everything we've been up to - which is extensive by the way* - I have a small rant I wish to slot in.

I didn't think I'd ever find any living creature I hated as much as mosquitoes. Sadly, I was mistaken. In fact I have even begun to think of mosquitoes fondly. What could possibly have prompted this startling turn around? Sandflies.

They are small - small enough to be difficult to spot and easy to overlook. They bite you by burying their whole head into your skin and you don't even really feel the bite happening at the time, giving you little opportunity to swat them away, and what's more, the bite itself is impossible to spot initially. Only after a good few hours can you see a small pink spot where they got you, but it does not itch at this stage, nor is there any discernible bump. Oh no, it lulls you into a false sense of security; you think you've got away with it and relax, but you would be foolish to do so.

Around 12-24 hours after the bite, the itching begins. It is virtually impossible to ignore and once you start scratching you can find it drives you insane; it's easy to scratch until you bleed...and then keep on going, agony & ecstasy going hand in hand. Scratching of course causes the hive to swell and in some cases, the whole of the bite area too. My friend Simon scratched the ones on his ankles and ended up with ankles the size of elephants. The hive - and the concomitant itch - lasts for ages. And I mean ages. I find with mozzie bites that if I am able to ignore them for a day or two, they will disappear. I have had one or two mozzie bites recently that lay testament to this. However, I still have sandfly bites that are on-going which I got FOUR SODDING WEEKS AGO. Not so itchy, it's true, but still very much visible and irritating. My friend Debbie has scars from sandfly bites received several years ago.

I have now begun to wage a serious war on the little buggers. I had bought some 'natural' insect repellent, which worked okay I suppose, but was a pain to put on. It was an oily spray and, what with the slathering of suntan lotion I need to put on every day to combat the vicious UV rays, I tended to feel like a basted turkey. So now I have bought a special suntan lotion with insect repellent built in for days in the sun, plus a 'tropical strength' spray for evenings or rainy days (when they are out in force).

There are only a couple of good things that could be said about sandflies. They are immensely stupid. They don't seem to target human beings in the way that mozzies do, they seem to just fly around bumping into things and occasionally get lucky by finding something that they can bury their head into. This does make them fairly easy to kill, because they wander about slowly while they work out whether they've struck it lucky, giving you plenty of time to squish them if you happen to spot them. They are attracted by light, so in the evening if you put a lamp on pointing at a wall, you'll find them gathering in the glow and you can kill them in bulk. And they are generally only around during the day, so night time is fairly safe. Still, they're horrible horrible things and I hate them. HATE THEM.

*and therefore the reason I've got so behind in blogging, in addition to the issue of erratic internet access, is that once you've got behind you feel like you can't do anything until you've caught up, but the idea is so overwhelming you don't get round to it. That and the fact that when I DO sit down to blog, Isaac starts jumping around and desperately vying for attention like a small puppy, and I get nothing done. He erroneously claims this is untrue. I think it's sweet.