More woofing and traveling NZ

March 19, 2008 Farm woofing

This morning was an early morning! The sheep shearers came into shear the sheep at about 5! We were woken up bright and early by a bunch of loud Mauori workers wanting to use our toilet. Shearing was so cool to watch though, glad we got that opportunity. There were 4 guys shearing, 2 women sweeping up the wool, and one guy sorting the wool behind them. Quite a production. The shearers were so rough with the sheep, some of them were all cut up as they kept wriggling around. They would grab the sheep out of different pens, shear them, and then give them a boot down a steep walkway to under the shed. In the morning we moved the stock fences and helped Ian feed out some bale to the deer. The stags were mixed in with the does and they were feisty! We had to stay near the truck, as the stags were pretty territorial around their women. Aww and there were a couple fawn, a few Bambis, that were too cute. Next James and I went back to fixing the deer shed and through a few bickering sessions we finally figured out a way to secure loose planks on top of the shed. We were done about an hour after lunch, so nice short last day. I took a nap and spent some time online in the afternoon. We’re headed to the South Island tomorrow, so excited! A guy that offers woofing, lives on an island raising colored sheep (for wool) and has a mussel farm. Sounds so cool, really looking forward to heading down there. We had been waiting to hear from him and at the last minute, he emailed us that he needed some help and it was ok for us to be there over Easter weekend.


March 20, 2008 Travel to South Island

We took the early morning train into Wellington and then the ferry over to the South Island today. A long trip over to the South Island. The ferry ride was just beautiful. It was a huge ferry, the Interislander, and we could sit outside in the sun on top. Fun just to people watch. It was only a 3 hour ferry, and it usually feels like forever when you’re traveling somewhere for the first time, but it was fairly quick trip. We ended up hitch hiking from Picton, where the ferry dropped us off, to Havelock where we were to meet the guy on his boat. We missed the bust to Havelock, so we were stuck hitching. It almost didn’t work, but then a nice Aussie couple that have been traveling around picked us up and dropped us off in Havelock as it was right on their way. We got to the marina about 4, and waited at the dock until 7 that night…and our ride never showed up! We were thinking something must have happened, but it just turned out he was running late and we just missed him. That night we stayed at a local hostel in town just up the road. The first hostel I’ve been to with a hair dryer if that tells you anything. Grabbed a bite to eat at a bar/restaurant nearby and just hung out, hoping to hear from him.



March 21, 2008 South Island Woofing

Doug called early that morning and we met up with him at about 10 from the dock in the marina. It took about a half hour boat ride to get to his house. He lives out on a headland in the Marblough Sounds. You can drive there on a windy dirt road, but it takes about 4 hours, so everyone comes by boat. There is a large mussel farm right out in front of the house, two small houses that are rented out near the water, and then main house, quite homey, up a ways surrounded by sprawling gardens with heaps of different flowers. Doug was staying with his son (who lives/goes to school in Picton and comes in for the weekend). The wife, Joy, recently left and now lives in Picton. Pretty awkward/sad scene as he is now a single dad out here in the middle of nowhere.

After getting to the house, we dropped off our stuff and headed back down to the boat to go to Nan’s house to chop her some firewood. It was about another 20 minute boat ride away, in a cove, and then a hike up to the house. Nan was a super nice little old lady, Doug’s mom. She didn’t have any firewood for the winter that’s coming up, so a small crew of the family, James, and I spent all day chain sawing up fallen trees into smaller pieces and then hauling them up by truck to the shed. This was my first time stocking up firewood, and it was no joke either. It’s a tough job; I’m definitely going to appreciate a full firewood shed next time I see one up in Washington. It took us all day, but now she has firewood for when it gets cold in the winter.


March 22, 2008 South Island woofing

We finally had a chance to sleep in when woofing (for once). Woofing on the farm in Wairapa, we were up and working at 8 every day. Not that we did really sleep in when we had the chance today, after waking up so early day after day. They call it a ‘lie in’ here. We wanted to canoe in the morning, but the weather was too cold and windy so we did some yard work instead.

I was back to mowing the yard, pruning bushes, and weeding. Back at home! Ya a little far off, try a hemisphere! We spent a good chunk of the day mowing the yard and clearing out an overgrown vegetable garden. It felt good to be helping the guy out, seems like he doesn’t have the chance to do stuff around the house much. We missed the mussel harvesting that went on last week, but I’m happy to just help Doug out with whatever we can. His brother in law and his wife came in today so spend a bit of the Easter holiday with at the house. They are a nice Aussie couple that used to live in NZ.


March 23, 2008 South Island woofing

Yummm! We had a huge, delicious, fried breakfast on the bbq for Easter morning. Eggs, bacon, sausage, toast! Happy Easter by the way! This morning I drove the 4-wheeler around as James was a bad driver, to pick up our weeds from yesterday to move them to a pit to be burned. And that was our job for the day, Doug really doesn’t push too much work on us to do as his woofers, just odd jobs, we kind of figure his wife ran the woofers before.

After some yard work, he took us all fishing. Along the way we fixed up some buoys on some of his other mussel farm areas. Then we tied up next to a salmon net pen and fished there. They feed the schooling salmon and it attracts loads of other fish right around the net. It was a fun time fishing there. James and I caught all the fish! I caught a cow-aye, a small mackerel. And James caught 2 cow-aye and a kingfish, that wasn’t big enough to keep. They call it a kingfish, but it looks like a small amberjack…weird. We tried a few more fishing spots after that one, but nothing big enough to keep for dinner. Then we stopped outside of the house to grab some fresh green lipped mussels for dinner, right off the rope! What a treat! James and I decided to cook for Doug and his son that night, and they loved it. We BBQed and James stemed the mussels in garlic, white wine, and cream. Doug had never had mussels done like that, and he kept asking for the recipe. He really liked it.


March 24, 2008 Marbolough Sounds Woofing

Our job for the day was to scrub the bottom of the pontoon boat. He even gave us a pressure washer to use, which made the job go by in no time. After that we took the canoe out for an hour and paddled around and fished in the cove. So nice to be on the water surrounded by these sprawling hills. Doug dropped us off in Picton at about 6 that night, on the way to drop his son off at school there. Such a short trip, wish we had longer to explore more of the South Island, what a shame. I’m pretty sure I’ll make it back down here someday though. That night we grabbed some dinner to go and stayed at a pretty shabby hostel, think I might have picked up some bed bugs!


March 25, 2008 Picton, South Island

So we have today to kill in Picton and we catch our ferry back to Wellington tomorrow morning. We switched to another nicer hostel right around the block first thing in the morning. James had some work to finish up from his job up in Northland, and we spent awhile online at a shop in town. We did some sight seeing, and bought some groceries to cook dinner. Just a low key, mellow day. At one point we were browsing the touristy shops on the main road of town and this rude Kiwi guy walked by us and burped loudly in my face! I turned around and said, “That’s disgusting!” And he shot back like a 4-year old, “You’re disgusting.” And then continued to ramble on in the distance. What a jerk! That’s by far the rudest Kiwi I’ve met so far. We kind of think he might have been a little mentally challenged, and angry at tourists in his town in general. That night we cooked pizzas at the hostel for dinner and watched a movie.


March 26, 2008 Back to the North Island

Not too much to say about today. We woke up early, caught our ferry back to Wellington. We broke down and spent the extra money to watch a movie on the ferry ride. It was this new movie ‘Juno’ that I’ve been wanting to see though. It was so funny and worth it. The movie made the ferry ride a breeze. It was really only a half hour before and after the movie that we were sitting around on the ferry. Once in Wellington, we dropped off our stuff in some lockers at a hostel near the train station and then took the cable car up to the Indo embassy office. My Indo visa was ready and I am back with my passport again. When you’re in a foreign country without your passport you really feel helpless, like you’re missing an appendage or something. After getting back to pick up our stuff, it was time to catch the train back to Featherston to pick up our car at the Ackinsons’ house. Heather was kind enough to pick us up from the train station; we bought them a bottle of wine for helping us out. When we got to the farm, Ian needed some help feeding out hay to the lambs and deer, so we hopped on the tractor at dusk and fed the stock. Another long day. Bright and early to leave tomorrow, as James needs to get all the way up to Northland in one day! About 900 km!


March 27, 2008 Palmerston, NZ

We were in the car leaving by 6:15, that’s probably a record for us. I drove the 2 hours north to Palmerston while James took a rest before having to drive all day. I did ok, only almost ran us off the road once as there was a hawk munching on road kill that I swerved to miss hitting. I got dropped off at Paul’s house in Palmy, but it was sad to see James go. We’ve been such the traveling partners for about a month now. We get along so good with each other and new people that we meet. Quite a team.

Back at Paul’s, I just hung out until he got home from his surf trip in Tarnaki. Spent some time online, took a nap, just relaxing. When he got home we took the dogs for a long walk around the river and then went to the store to buy some groceries. Had some salmon for dinner, and went to bed pretty early…exhausted