Running On Fumes Down The West Coast (Plus Other Exciting Things I Have No Room For In The Title) (Sep. 28 – Oct. 2)

Leaving Golden Bay, we proceeded toward the West Coast for a quick jaunt down the coast before heading back east to Chch through Arthur’s Pass. Friday brought our longest driving day of 5 hours or so, as the driving distance to the West Coast is substantial and because it takes awhile to traverse the many switchbacks up and then down Takaka Hil in GB. To break up the drive we stopped in Buller Gorge, home of the “longest swingbridge in New Zealand”, which is a bit touristy, but what the heck. Don especially enjoyed the gorge because as a civil engineer he appreciates a good bridge and also because he opted to spend the extra bob and take the Superman zip-line back across the river.

The longest swing bridge in New Zealand

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a civil engineer!

Once on the West Coast we took L&D to perhaps our favorite hostel, The Old Slaughterhouse, in Hector. TOS, of course, requires a 10 minute bushwalk up a hill to reach the hostel, but with such good accommodations even L&D didn’t mind a little hike. With our second day of good weather in a row we were able to see the sun set over the Tasman Sea, quite possibly the strongest of TOS’s many selling points. L&D had been asking about a sunset for days, so it was good, as professional tour guides, to be able to deliver. It’s tough to beat eating freshly collected and cooked mussels while watching the sun set over the sea from a deck perched about 100m above the beach. We realize we have it tough here, but we persist.

Mom and Don enjoy the sunset from the porch at the Old Slaughterhouse

On the next day we drove south to Punakaiki, for what became our third trip to the Pancake Rocks. Once again we didn’t see any blowhole action there (Becky claims she saw a blowhole when we were there with Marie and Alex, but we’re all skeptical, frankly). Linda was a diehard, camping out for about an hour at the notorious spot where Becky saw the Loch Ness Monster…er fantastic blowhole action last time, but alas, no joy for her on this particular day.

Beyond being the scenic drive it always is, our brief tour down the West Coast was pretty uneventful except for the fact that we failed to fill up with gas before we left Westport. This became an issue because we had less than a quarter tank as we left Westport, and there’s no petrol for about 100km between there and Greymouth – I must have been wearing my Bad Idea Jeans. However, miracle of miracles, we somehow coaxed more than 580km out of one tank of gas, which is a certainly a record for Ron Burgundy in 2007. Our previous high mileage total had been in the low 500’s, so you can imagine it was quite a white-knuckled drive for us that day.

Always read the road signs - they're not fooling!

The worst part of the drive was that it had to last so long, since I was driving a bit slowly and coasting downhill whenever possible to conserve petrol. We can say in all honesty that we’ve never been so excited to see Greymouth. I’ve never run out of gas before, and wasn’t keen to do it along an isolated road on the NZ’s west coast, so the success of this trip represented a huge victory for the forces of good. I don’t want to read too much into this particular episode, but I think you can safely say that the universe thinks we’re living right.

Karmic deliverance notwithstanding, when we hit Greymouth we made a left turn directly east, heading back towards Chch, and promptly rejoined the poor weather that has been tormenting the South Island the past few weeks. That evening, staying in Arthur’s Pass, we were pounded all night by a ridiculously windy rainstorm. The next day we took L&D into Chch, which was surprisingly warm and sunny, for a little sight-seeing and souvenir shopping. You can’t go wrong with a hike at the Sign of the Kiwi or Chch’s botanic gardens, but Cathedral Square, as always, leaves a bit to be desired. Which is a shame really, since it’s the focal point of the city and should be a happening location.

Punting down the Avon through a sea of daffodils

That evening we stopped in with our good friends Kieran and Belinda in Amberley, where they offered to put us all up for the night. Belinda made a roast, and there was plenty of good beer and wine to go around. However, the highlight of the evening was probably Don donning cricket gear and facing a few pitches from Oscar in the middle of the dining room. He’d been asking Kieran heaps of cricket questions, so they thought an object lesson was probably the most appropriate way to show him. Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty hilarious. After a good day of driving and sight-seeing and an evening of good food and wine, not to mention cricket, we were set to crash.

Cricket, anyone?

The next morning, with just two more days left in L&D’s New Zealand experience, we took them out to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula, another of our favorite spots on the South Island. Since Don is a really avid golfer, he was keen to golf in NZ, where owing to the small population it has some ridiculous number of golf courses per capita. We promised to get him on a course at some point, and after driving by countless courses over the past two weeks, finally got him to the Akaroa Golf Club on his penultimate day in NZ. Akaroa, as you might expect, has a nice, hilly course, though a number of the fairways would be best described as claustrophobic. They certainly don’t have a surplus of real estate there. Don’s quite good and easily beat my over-100 round, though for not getting out on the course in the past year I felt like I swung the sticks pretty well.

Don feels more at ease with a golf club than a cricket bat

For L&D’s last blast on Tuesday we ran them back into Chch, where they saw kiwis at the Cathedral Square aquarium, bought more souvenirs (including some cool maps), and went to the Chch Casino. Our advice would be to skip the Casino, unless you’re a slot machine or roulette nut. The Casino doesn’t seem to offer much else, much to Linda’s disappointment, as she was hoping for some good video poker action. I would’ve liked to play some craps for my dad, but no dice (literally or figuratively) there either. After seeing their requisite Maori cultural performance, it was time to put them on a plane home. Overall, a very good two weeks with Linda and Don, thanks for visiting, you two! Now…who’s next?

She Works Hard For The Money (July 9 – 31)

After traveling for what seemed to be the vast majority of our trip in New Zealand, Andrew and I are temporarily hanging up our hobo bags to once gain join the real world of the employed. Although it is easy to believe that one can go unemployed indefinitely, it turned out to not be the case if you value your sanity. Seeing our bank accounts dwindle while the Kiwi dollar has done nothing but go up over the past few months, we decided it was finally time to do what our parents did… get a job, sir!

Finding work in New Zealand is really pretty easy if you put little value in a) the type of work to be done, and b) the location of said employment. Like our brief adventure in the Marlborough vineyards where everyone seemed to be hiring, it took only a few days of “job hunting” before I was able to secure a position in Christchurch. My rather lackluster job hunt consisted of sending off my CV to several job agencies and waiting for the best. Although I would prefer working at a restaurant, the pay rate is far better for office workers, and I figured without the motivational boost of tipping… Anyhoo, I had received a few phone calls by the end of the day and quickly lined up several interviews with job agencies around Christchurch.

I guess it’s good to know that I test well at these things. Both agencies were wowed by my typing ability, which at 90+ words per minute and less than 1% error was “the best they’d ever seen” but considering that there are only four million people in all of New Zealand, I suppose the potential applicant pool really isn’t that big. Thank you, 7^th grade typing class! I also managed a slam dunk on the Microsoft Office applications and even managed to pass the spelling test. Don’t laugh, it’s a surprisingly tough task in the Age of the Automatic Spell Check… The one major concern that the agencies had was with my wardrobe, which is funny since the ad I responded to was specifically targeted to backpackers.

Had I brought professional business wear to New Zealand, they wanted to know. Hmm, let me see, I’ll just check my backpack?!? As a side note, I actually wouldn’t have any professional business wear even if I was working out of my closet at home… Apparently, not bringing a suit was a bad choice as that would inevitably limit the offices I could work in and probably reduce my pay rate (you can’t make the really big bucks without nice shoes). Regardless, within several days of incessant phone tag with the various chipper personalities at both job agencies (apparently the key pre-condition for these positions is to be over-caffeinated and hyper-perky) I had lined up a job working for an engineering firm in Christchurch.

It’s scary how similar working in an office in New Zealand is to working in an office in the States. Things are run pretty much exactly the same way. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but when you travel half-way around the world, you get to thinking they might have a different phone and filing system. I’m currently filling in for a few weeks at an engineering firm while a permanent staffer takes her annual leave in Perth, Australia. Unfortunately, they don’t actually have enough work for a temp to do, so my main task is to answer the phones and “look busy.”

It turns out that I’m terrible at looking busy (luckily I wasn’t tested on that at the agency), so I end up spending most of my day pretending to look like I’m not surfing the web (which I’m quite good at). When given tasks to do (mostly filing), I tend to get them done pretty quickly, because to be honest, they’re pretty uncomplicated. My fellow administrative assistant marvels at the speed at which I get things done and has even commented “we’re going to have to call the temp agency back to tell them to send someone who works slower the next time.” If you can hear a slight thumping sound, that’s probably just me, whacking my head against the desk.

Meanwhile, Andrew’s been doing casual labor for a bottling company in Amberley. It has worked out really well, as it still gives him time to get the chores done around K&B’s and at the brewery. Speaking of which, we’re still at Kieran and Belinda’s these days. They took a holiday to the States and suggested that we watch the house for them while they are gone. I love it here, so even with the hour commute to Christchurch, we quickly agreed to the arrangement. We agreed to split the cost of a load of firewood (the only means by which they heat their house, so it’s important to have some); otherwise, we feed the chooks (chickens) and collect eggs, feed the horses, split firewood, keep the place tidy, and make sure to keep the cows out of the vineyard next-door… Andrew’s also been keeping an eye on the brewery in Kieran’s absence. He had to make a few deliveries, fill a keg, and make some beer shipments, all of which has gone really well. It’s been a little surreal having a whole house to ourselves after months at backpackers, CouchSurfing, WWOOFing. We haven’t taken to walking around the place naked or anything, but we could! We continue to be amazed by K&B’s generosity and couldn’t feel more lucky that we met them during our travels.

Little known fact: real farmers wear pajamas out on the farm.

So we’ve been managing to keep ourselves pretty busy between working, commuting, chores, and the brewery. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to see the All Blacks play the South Africans in Christchurch. Although it was a rather uninspired match, it was still a lot of fun to see the All Blacks play a live match. I think the haka (Maori war dance performed by the All Blacks before every match) is even more impressive in person, but Andrew liked it better on TV. That might just be because they were facing away from us when they did this one. Apparently, the South Africans are looking to revive a Zulu war dance they used to perform in the 1920s for the upcoming Rugby World Cup. It’ll be interesting to see, but I can’t imagine that it will come close to the ferocity of the haka.

And one for the kids...

Immediate P.S.: Well, we'd hardly gotten a chance to post this latest installment and already our circumstances have changed, making it hard to keep the blog up-to-date at this rate. Kieran arrived back from the States a few days ago, and Andrew helped him do a brew and some bottling early this week while I went into work. Unfortunately, they seem to have figured out that they don't really need a temp, so they told me I should start looking into new assignments ASAP, putting me out of work until a new position opens up, hopefully soon. And to think that last week they were considering asking me to stay on longer to sort their long-ignored and hugely-unorganized files! I guess that's how it goes in the thrill-a-minute world of temping... We're moving into Chch today to rent a room for six weeks, and Andrew should be starting to do a wee bit of work at a new brewery, Three Boys, very soon. Keep tuned for further details and keep your fingers crossed so that I can find a new job to do nothing at in the near future! Oh, a note for anyone who's been dissuaded from commenting due to the onerous sign-in requirements: they've been lifted so now anyone can post, with or without a Google account. I hope we can trust all of you not to abuse this, hehe. Adios, muchachos!

From The Catlins to Christchurch (June 30 – July 5)

Once we made the journey back across the Foveaux Strait and crossed Stewart Island off of our ‘Official List Of Things To Do In New Zealand’ checklist, we were off to the Catlins, as Alex and Marie were keen to visit the area. Becky thinks that probably has much to do with their appreciation of remote and untouristed areas. To wit, the guidebooks’ description of the Catlins largely consists of calling it “enigmatic" and leaving it at that.

Look at the smile on this man's face, he couldn't be happier to be in the Catlins. Maybe you should visit us, too.

Driving through the Catlins for a few days, our lucky streak for weather continued and we got some relatively balmy, sunny weather, which was fantastic considering that it was essentially the middle of winter, and it had snowed the week previous in the Catlins. The weather in the area this time around was actually much better than our previous WWOOFing stint in early April, when we stayed through nine days of nearly unceasingly cold, grey, rainy unpleasantness.

He's just sleeping, right?

In our experience, the Catlins really is best when you consider it to be a natural zoo area, where wildlife can be seen (pretty regularly) in its natural habitat. This jaunt through the area definitely had that in spades. We saw heaps of seals and sea lions and even managed to spot two yellow-eyed penguins making their exit from the sea at Nugget Point. With beautiful weather and only two days to spend there, even Andrew and I found ourselves enjoying the Catlins this trip through.

A pair of yellow-eyed penguins - unfortunately our camera battery died just before they started tap-dancing, truly an amazing thing to witness

Making our way further north, we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders again, and took Alex and Marie, our inveterate nature-loving co-travelers, to see the blue penguins at Oamaru. Unfortunately, with breeding season set to begin very soon, the penguins weren’t very active outside of their nests, so they only saw one lone penguin as they walked home from the penguin center. We had hoped to at least catch the penguins that nested in the garage near our backpackers, but the lady at the desk told us that a few weeks ago a backpacker had accidentally run over one of the little penguins, squishing it. The rest of the penguins then left for safer nesting areas; a tragedy as well as a bummer.

Marie and Becky want to know what the big deal about Moeraki Boulders is

Our last major stop with Alex and Marie was to go to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula near Christchurch. We tried to stop in Waimate for a wallaby pie, as recommended by Lonely Planet, but the guy at the counter seemed surprised that we were looking for one, as they only make them at a few special occasions throughout the year. Bad info: yet another reason to ditch your guidebooks as soon as you’re able to. We stayed in Akaroa for a few days, doing a little hiking and kayaking, and taking in the scenery once more. As a volcanic crater filled in by the sea, it’s unlike any other place I’ve ever been. The place really is magic and we were glad to get back there again.

An unseasonably warm and nice day on the Banks Peninsula

Leaving Akaroa, we made our way to Amberley on July 4, where Kieran and Belinda graciously put us all up for the night and even made us a turkey dinner. It was a delicious corruption of the typical American celebration that was certainly appropriate for the cold Canterbury winter night. We taxied Marie and Alex to the Chch airport the next day for their flight back home (they had about a full day of flying ahead before they got to Connecticut, then they were heading on another flight the very next day to Belgium!), and if you know Becky then you know she was a-blubberin’ as we dropped them off at the terminal. After ~2500 km of driving over to weeks, heaps of great experiences, and thousands (literally) of pictures taken, our whirlwind trip around the South Island came to a close. Whew, I think we need a couple days off now…

North Canterbury Tales (Mar. 17 – 28)

So after our first week in Amberley, we’d had such a good time that we were keen to stay on longer and continue to help out at the farm and the brewery. Luckily, Kieran and Belinda were also happy to have us continue wwoofing as well, so we extended our time in Amberley for another busy week and a half.

Back at the big red farm house...

We should first mention that staying with a winemaker and brewer certainly has its merits. Seriously, Becky and I are now experts on the Brew Moon beers and most of the Muddy Water wines. Although I remain extremely suspect to suggestion when tasting wines, so hopefully K&B are steering us in the right direction there…

Add in the fact that we ate really well the entire time, and from a gustatory standpoint we had a fantastic few weeks here in the North Canterbury area. Dinners have been great, with plenty of vegetables from the garden, lamb, and pears, especially. K&B have a pear tree that is ridiculously laden with fruit, so we’ve been thinking up as many uses for pears as possible, with pears usually in dessert somewhere. Muffins, cobbler, crisp, poached pears in wine, we’ve really run the gamut for pear possibilities I think.

This display almost put me (Becky) off the meat again, but then dinner was so delicious...

At the brewery, Kieran and I did more brewing, cleaning, bottling, and labeling, and I think I acquitted myself well in the end. I must have appeared like I knew what I was doing in the brewery, since Kieran would occasionally ask me technical questions or my opinion on things. Hopefully my answers didn’t steer us too far afield! Although I must say I think I got the hang of bottling, as I’m now known as the ‘Automated Bottling Machine’ in certain parts of Amberley.

On the farm, Becky spent a lot more time in the garden, mostly weeding anything that moved in the garden. A few of the sections were her favorite type of weeding, pulling everything indiscriminately, so that you know you can’t make a mistake and pull the wrong thing. Becky also did heaps of other things on the farm as well, plaiting and planting garlic, feeding the chooks and horses, and trying to prevent Moses, Belinda’s parents’ dog who was staying for a few days, from buggering off back to their house a few km away. It was mostly a success; the chooks got fed, and Moses stayed at home more days than not.

He may look sweet and innocent (if a little bit scruffy), but Moses used to be a well-known chicken killer before he saw the light and mended his ways

I helped at the farm a bit as well, mostly in skimming some of the paths, basically ripping up the grass that had grown there. Take our word for it, the grass didn’t seem keen on being ripped up. Kieran and I also did some lumberjack-type stuff, cutting down a pine tree and splitting firewood with a hydraulic ram. It’s good fun and really the only way to do a heap of firewood; using an axe is for the birds. Taking down the pine tree also gave me a chance to drive the tractor down the road laden with huge logs. I’m not sure why Kieran thought I’d be good at it, but I didn’t lose the logs or ram anyone, so it seemed to go OK. And I now think that everyone should drive a tractor at some point in their life, so thanks Kieran.

An aerial view of the garden, sans weeds

We also worked the farmer’s market in Lyttelton, just south of Christchurch, for Brew Moon on a couple Saturdays as part of our wwoofing work. We have to say it was really good fun, giving samples and selling beer at the market, which was easily the best farmer’s market we’ve seen in NZ so far. We had absolutely gorgeous weather two weeks in a row for the market, which is quite helpful when you’re trying to sell beer. Our first day at the market also coincided with St. Patrick’s Day, and while it’s not as big of a drinking holiday here as in the States, was quite helpful in trying to persuade people to try beers samples before noon. We sold a lot of beer that day, and did pretty well the next week as well.

Andrew sellings his wares at the farmers' market

On a similar note, we also helped to sell wine for Muddy Water at the Waipara Food & Wine Festival on Sunday, a few days ago. We had a great time pouring and tasting wine, listening to jazz, and seeing people walk around in wine-induced stupors in the afternoon sun. How people can drink heaps of wine in 30C sunny weather is beyond me, but to each their own. To be fair though, I did really find it helpful to taste a number of the Muddy Water wines to really pick out the differences (Note to my brother Adam: please don’t take this to mean that I’ll be able to follow you when you’re talking about wines now).

Our sweet ride to the Lyttleton farmers' market

Whew, I get tired just thinking of all the stuff we did these past few weeks! All in all, we have to say we had a great time, worked hard, ate and drank extremely well, and learned a lot. Many thanks to Kieran and Belinda, who couldn’t have been more gracious or accommodating, putting us up and making us feel at home. You’ve made it hard to leave, but worry not, as we’ll definitely be back on our way up through the country later this year!

Amberley Alert (Mar. 9-16)

While on the west coast in the first week of March, we got a call back from one of the places we’d inquired at about wwoofing. Not to complain about the travel we’ve gotten to do, but after the past few weeks of driving we, not to mention our wallets, were feeling like it was time to get off the road and to get a bit of rest from driving and sightseeing. With that in mind, we were keen to do some wwoofing to earn the extended accommodations, even if we did have to criss-cross back to the Christchurch area to do so.

Kieran and Belinda's big red farmhouse in Amberley

I was particularly interested in this wwoofing spot because the hosts own Brew Moon Brewing, a microbrewery in Amberley that produces a line of 4 beers: a pale ale, a brown ale, a stout, and an organic IPA. Given my interest in beer, this is pretty much the hot setup (as our official source for longrifles, Scott, might say) for me as far as wwoofing hosts go. Brew Moon is basically a one-man operation run by Kieran, a Kiwi bloke whose partner, Belinda, is also an accomplished winemaker at Muddy Water Winery. We suspect that my brother Adam (semi-pro beverage enthusiast) would be quite jealous of this arrangement, as he would likely be in heaven being able to stay with a couple like this.

The Brew Moon Cafe

Belinda and Kieran (hereafter B&K) live on a farm outside of Amberley, surrounded by other farms and wineries, which are multiplying like rabbits (or possums, rather, since this is NZ) throughout the north Canterbury countryside. The grape-growing fever probably won’t subside until growers are precluded from drawing aquifer water, or America’s taste for NZ Sauvignon Blanc is finally sated. It’s probably an even-money proposition at this point.

Their farm is a pretty little spot of farmland only about 10-15 km from the sea and has nice views of the surrounding mountains. They have chooks (chickens), cattle, and several horses, as Kieran is quite a horse enthusiast, having broken and trained racehorses for much of his life. Becky is much more familiar with the horses, but from memory I can recall Clyde, Jimmy, Blue, Wendell and Kermit. If I missed anyone, sorry boys. Come to think of it, my Uncle Bill, who raises racehorses as well, might also be envious of our wwoofing location.

Blue posing for the camera, while Wendell and Kermit look on

At the moment, Canterbury is ‘dry as’, and is often ridiculously gusty, at least to us, but until it starts slamming doors and windows it doesn’t seem to bother B&K much. On one of the nights we stayed here, Becky and I were literally (seriously, not figuratively) woken up every 15 minutes by the howling wind. If Rodgers and Hammerstein had been from NZ, the song probably would go: Cannnnnnnnnnn-ter-bu-ry, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain…

Fortunately, unlike our first wwoofing experience (see the posts on Tony in the Coromandel), we’ve gotten along swimmingly with B&K. It probably helps that we have a few more common interests, but also that they seem to have neither a creepy streak nor a poorly disguised distaste for all things American. B&K actually lived in California with their children for several years a few years back and had a positive experience, as they appreciated country music, blues, New Orleans, and most shockingly for Kiwis, hot peppers! Compared to Tony, where we were ready to leave his house after a week - especially after we determined he’d never teach us to turn on the lights - we were quite happy to stay at K&B’s an additional week.

Kieran and Belinda pose by Old Glory

For much of our first week here, I’ve helped in the brewery while Becky has helped out doing odd chores on the farm. Brewing, transferring beer, cleaning kettles, bottling, labeling, standing on top of fermenters running hot water to melt the ice on a malfunctioning chiller, you name it and I’ve probably done it this week at the brewery. It’s been a great experience though, and very cool to see the practical side of making beer in a small-scale microbrewery setting.

Andrew stirring up a fine brew

Our first week here has been really pretty busy, with early rises and early bedtimes. As noted above, K&B have found many ways to fill our time. Not that we’re complaining; on the contrary, it’s been good to be busy and productive. After so much traveling, you start to feel more than a little decadent doing nothing but spending money and sightseeing, which takes away from the fun of it all. So wwoofing here has been good for us from that aspect. And we’d also feel badly sitting around while K&B worked hard around us. We should also mention that K&B seem to spend very little time idly; in particular, Belinda is a force of nature. Up at sunrise, biking to/from work, working all day, cooking, gardening on days off, riding her horse, administrative work on the computer, we get tired just thinking of all the non-stop work – Belinda we salute you!

The Brew Moon beerworks

Trying to be mindful that some readers aren’t into the whole extended post thing, I’ll try to wrap this up quickly. But this did try to cover an entire eventful week, so hopefully you’ll understand. In any event, we’ll probably have more about the rest of our time in Amberley later. Until then, this is A&B signing off…