Baba´s Kiwi Newsletter – 2
Haere mai again!
Wow... time flies - the last month has gone so fast...
I´m still fine except from a few scratches from the „hard“ work ;) – more
of that later.
I didn´t travel that much this month. I enjoyed myself in Marlborough, in
the north of the south island, and let the first impressions of NZL sink in.
This area is quite famous for very good NZL wines, especially Sauvignon Blanc –
and I have to agree with that! But here in order:
Day 23 – 41 / BLENHEIM
What a plessure to have my own room again :D True luxury – interesting
how you VERY MUCH appreciate those things again! You can leave your luggage
open and have a sleep in without anyone zipping bags or messing around with
plastic bags...
Already the 2nd night in Blenheim we changed to daylight savings – which
means only 10h difference to Germany now.
My first week in Blenheim was quite lazy. I checked out the town, had a
few runs and visited the cinema 3 times! They have a great artdeco cinema where
Tuesday is „Cinema day“ :)
Blenheim is one of the places in New Zealand with the driest climate.
Therefore packed with vineyards and orchards. This is inviting for doing some
wine tasting :D (no one has to tell me twice).
As it is autumn all trees start to change colour. I know that from the
trees home but not from the hills and the vineyards. They all turn golden which
is simply BEAUTIFUL! The days are still long and warm but as soon as the sun is
gone it´s cold. Jenny and Ian gave me a fantastic impression on the daily life
in Blenheim. I visited an auction, we went to a HUGE tomato house, to a
chocolate factory (WOW – a factory without checking workmanship and patterns :)), to the beach and I as well helped
cutting down a tree :) Besides that I´m a big fan of their garden
with Oranges, Lemons, Grapefruits, tomatoes, strawberries, peas, pumpkins,
rhubarb, grapes, potatoes, cucumbers, kumras and some sorts of apples. YUMMY!
Already on the 3rd evening we were invited to friends of Ian and
Jenny... and there I sat: with actually 4 retired people I don´t know that well
and had so much fun! Should I worry about that?
I saw my first walnut tree and „Farmer Jim“ showed me how his dog is
dealing with the sheeps. I also saw the small cows he is feeding for McDonalds
– no joke! They end up on the Big Mac in Blenheim so the meat is truly from the
region. I should keep that in mind :D
On good Friday Nic (Matts sister), Grace (her daughter) and Abby (a
friend of Graces´) came from Christchurch to stay for Easter. I prepared
„Allgäuer Kässpatzen“ (a traditional meal from home) for dinner – which turned
out quite good if you look at the circumstances. I found out that it is as well
possible to put the little dough dumplings through a colander ;)
Saturday we made Sushi (YUM) by ourselves and organised everything for
Easter Sunday. „Farmer Jim“ has invited us to his badge in the Marlborough
Sounds :)
We headed of Sunday morning and after already 1h drive we were there: A
small badge on a hill with a fantastic view. While the others prepared lunch
Jims´ boys took Grace, Abby, Nic and me out with the boat – feeding fish :) Later they even took us
kayaking – what a great Easter Sunday!
And what a surprise: Monday I was invited again – to go wakeboarding
with the boys. FUN!!! It was my first time but after 2-3 trials it worked out
quite good.
Grace stayed another week with her granny for Easter holiday and so we
practiced for her x-country run at school and did a few bike tours. I´m pretty
up to date now with Boy Bands (One direction) and all the other news 9 year
olds care about ;)
Slowly I had to think about what´s next... I heard a lot of good stuff
about wwoofing from other tourists and as I liked the idea of living organic I
gave it a go. On my last day then I got a job offer in the big tomato house
through the whole winter – but actually my heart told me to move on :)
Day 41 – 47 / SEDDON (WWOOFEN)
To explain wwoofing: willing workers on organic farms >> which
means I work 3 – 5 hours a day and get accommodation and food in return.
Working is most of the time outside in the vegetable garden, in the household,
building work around the house, painting, feeding animals or look after
children... depends where help is needed.
So I asked a nice elderly couple in Seddon if they would take me. Joe
and Carolyn agreed for 6 days as they had already a wwoofer for afterwards. On
the 18th of April I moved to Seddon. From the first moment I felt like a
princess: own room with king size bed, a house with veranda all around and
completely covered in flowers, a lovely decorated house inside and all that on
a meadow in the forest. Carolyn used to be a florist and has her own little
shop on the property with handmade stuff. Her flower garden is open to the
public, too – after appointments.
I had 6 wonderful days there! I made Chutneys, Apple and Quince jam,
harvested walnuts, „stole“ grapes to taste the difference and even had my first
car drive in NZL. 4 wonderful days I spent in the Vege-garden weeding and hat a
lot of fun with that! Nothing to think of, physical working out in the nature,
fresh air and you still learn something. Besides that my perfection was really
appreciated ;)
On my last evening I did my famous „Allgäuer Kässpatzen“ again. This
time with even more improvisation: we bought a office helper, where you can
store folders, at warehouse. It had big round holes, which were just perfect
and I did my BEST cheese dumplings ever – no joke!!!
On my last day there came the last visitor bus of the season to see the
garden. I was responsible for coffee, tea and biscuits. Around lunchtime we
headed south along the coast to have a picnic on the beach. After that we watched
babysealings and their parents fishing. On the way back we stopped at the only
sea salt production of NZL and we tested some wine at one of the biggest
vineyards worldwide before we went back to Blenheim.
Day 47 - 50 / BLENHEIM
Again 3 nights in Blenheim to get organised and to think about the stuff
in my luggage... somehow there is too much already even if I didn´t shop a lot
:/ One´s for sure: When winter is over a package will be on the way to Germany
:D
Day 50 - 51 / PICTON
Next destination: Nelson – to my next wwoofing experience! Unfortunately
Briar and Geoffrey were only available from the 1st of May onwards but Philips
mum offered me to stay 3 nights with her. WOOOHOOO!!! I´m still overwhelmed of
the friendliness here!
So I took the bus to Nelson after an overnight Stop in Picton. The
weather was not to good so I just enjoyed a book at the beach.
Day 51 - 54 /NELSON (INGRID SEEMAN)
After I bought myself REAL bread in a dutch bakery we arrived Nelson at
3pm. Ingrid picked me up and showed me around. We visited a church and the
Suter art gallery. Nelson is full of local artists – very nice!
And then it finally happened: I played TENNIS with Ruth, Philips sister,
in Richmond. What a good feeling... to have a racket in hand after 2 month
break! Being fit is something else... even if I try to run a lot I´m far away
from my fitness level hehe... but who cares ;)
Around lunchtime we continued to visit Philips other sister, Maggie, on
her farm. There we had lunch and Mila, her daughter, showed me around. Maggie
immediately offered me a wwoofing place and would even take me as her Au pair
(for the 5 children) but I actually had already the plan in my had to continue
travelling... I´m addicted now ;)
For tea we visited American friends of Ingrid – and they even had their
OWN tennis court! How cool is that... I was JEALOUS!
The next 2 days I spent in Nelson and I loved it! It is a small little
town with a lot of charme, art and as well the ocean is close! Besides that I
like the Boulder bank (which is like a dam but naturally developed) where you
can have a walk or run – just NICE!
There are a lot of good coffee and food shops and a lot of galleries and
art shops. You just want to start as well and take part :D
Day 54 - 62 / NELSON (WWOOFEN)
Around 5pm on Mayday I arrived at my 2nd wwoofing place. Briar, Geoffrey
and Leela welcomed me together with about 20 hens, one rooster and a duck who
thinks she is a hen! The very interesting building is 9km´s from Nelson in a
Valley surrounded by mountains. From my room (king size bed again with electric
blanket) I can see the ocean! The sun and the rooster wake me up in the
morning... but just around 8, half past. B and G are both Psychotherapists
(maybe they can help me ;)) and love meditation and yoga. The garden is huge
and has even more to offer as I have seen so far. All three of them are
vegetarians and in addition Briar and Leela are allergic to wheat and dairy
products. Therefore I live quite healthy at the moment – which is great. There
is as well Daniel, another wwoofer from Costa Rica who helps Geoffrey building
a shed. Most of the time I´m working in the garden (on my own with my ipod,
sometimes singing :D) and in the morning we feed the hens and collect the eggs :)
They have no TV so we play games, read or just talk. It is very
relaxing.
Unfortunately I had a little accident on my 3rd day – during my new
favourite sport – Runography. Which means basically: I go for a run, which is
about 1 hour with a lot of interruptions for pics because the scenery is just
STUNNING! In fact you are away for 2-3 hours and it is a LOT of FUN :D So, after
the first 15 minutes I came to the beach with low tide and thought what a nice
picture that would be: sunset, me in front of the ocean. Yes... I didn´t think
ahead! I placed the camera and set the timer to 10 seconds and ran. Of course I
slipped immediately on the muddy surface and of course their were stones :/
However – I deserved it. Actually I first checked if someone has seen me and
then had to laugh about myself the whole way back. But in fact I couldn´t hold
a shovel for two days – which wasn´t that bad how I found out.
Day 57 / GOLDEN BAY
The next day Briar had to go to Golden Bay for work so Daniel and me
were allowed to skip work and come as well. First we had a walk for an hour and
then we had lunch in Takaka. After that we drove to the Pupu springs which are
the springs with the clearest water worldwide (comparable with the water under
the ice in the Antarctis) – WOW!!! I have never seen something like that before
and hope you can see it on the pics how clear it is. It is as well another
spiritual place for the Maori. But we couldn´t resist and took a sip...
After that we went back to Takaka where we had another 3 hours to spent.
Takaka is a pretty little place with nice small Cafes. A lot of Germans live
here (in Golden Bay in general) as there are a lot of Communes. So there are a
lot of Hippies around :) And at the end of the day when we saw
how many people know Briar (on the streets, in the Cafes, at the beach...) we
were quite sure that she was one of them – once ;)
On the way back she showed us her favourite beach for the sunset and
another wonderful day ended.
Back in Nelson I went to the Saturday morning market which is great!
They have a lot of hand made stuff like toys, knitwear but as well fruits,
veges and Crepes.
Daniel went to the Abel Tasman National park for a day trip and Geoffrey
and me cleaned the house as we had visitors for dinner.
The following 3 days I made the vege garden ready for winter and mowed
the lawn (another PREMIER) before I helped Geoffrey with the concrete for the
shed foundation on my last day in the morning. My bus left Nelson at 3pm – and
that´s it for now – I´m back on the road again :D
I hope you enjoyed reading again and everything is fine home! I wish you
a nice Spring Start!!!
Kia ora – Barbara
P.s.: I got a lot of errors last time – sorry for that. I guess your
inbox might be quite full but pls feel free to forward ;)
CHOICE!
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