Marlborough Sounds Like A Good Place to Wwoof (Oct. 3 – 19)

Sometime in the past few months, as we were living in Chch, we began to line up our post-Linda and Don plans for our last two months in NZ. It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here for nine months now, and that we’ve now got less than two months to go. It’s hard to effectively describe it, but at some moments it hardly feels like we’ve been on the South Island for eight months now. On the other hand, there are times when I feel acutely aware of how long we’ve been here. But I digress, since this is making me sound like an old person.

Anyway, we became intrigued with the idea of wwoofing somewhere in the Marlborough Sounds, looking for some isolated place accessible only by boat, where we could soak up the natural scenic beauty, etc. etc. Our recent trek on the Queen Charlotte track with L&D only heightened our anticipation of wwoofing on a lush green island in the middle of Marlborough’s rolling submerged mountain ranges. Thus we were excited to find a wwoofing accommodation with a family living on Arapawa Island.

Arapawa is an island located on the Tory Channel at the northeastern tip of the Sounds, where the Wellington-Picton ferries cruise past every hour. The family with whom we’re staying farm and dive for paua (NZ abalone), and also run a few sheep and cattle on their sprawling island property. When we first contacted them they were keen for us to get there as soon as possible after Oct. 1, so the best we could do was to get there on the 3^rd, after putting L&D on a plane the previous night in Chch.

Back at the ranch on Arapawa Island

We met the husband, Mike, in Picton, where he was making a paua delivery, and rode back with him in their small boat, which is basically the family’s only means of transportation to reach the outside world. As the family lives at the northern end of Arapawa at the end of the Sounds, it’s a bit of a haul to their place, about an hour or so. In fact, from their house on a clear day you can see right across the Cook Strait to the Wellington Hills of the North Island. For those familiar with the Wellington-Picton ferry, their property is the second one on the right as you enter the Sounds, with the red and white maritime markers.

Becky boards the "Freedom" on our way to Arapawa Island

Always prone to motion sickness, Becky had skipped lunch before we boarded, which was smart, as the chop in the Sounds was fairly intense. Arriving at Arapawa we had our most exciting wwoofing induction yet as we had to toss our packs up onto the wharf and then leap from a wildly rocking boat. We narrowly missed a good soaking and lost luggage when a massive wave washed over the wharf right behind us. Antonia quickly came out to meet us on one of their 4x4’s with two dogs and one kid in tow. She then hopped onto the backhoe to pull Mike and the dingy out from the roiling waves. Whew!

The view from the wharf on a calm day

Both Mike, who’s from California, and Antonia, who is a Kiwi, are tremendously keen divers, and met in California some years ago while diving professionally. They’ve been at Arapawa for about 14 years now, and have 3 kids: 9-year old twins Sarah and Jacob, and a 5-year old, James. The kids are tremendously energetic. Mike is often in the States fishing or diving professionally, leaving Antonia to manage the farm in his absence, often with a team of wwoofers. Much like Belinda, she left us amazed at her incredible energy level. There simply aren’t enough hours in a day for her to accomplish everything she’d like to do between teaching the kids, running the house, and all the various tasks in raising paua and running their farm.

Wwoofing at Arapawa gave us an opportunity to do some unique work that we haven’t done previously. Since living on the island requires the family to do correspondence school with their kids, Becky’s background in education came in handy – she helped Antonia in the family’s schoolroom on many days. That was typically followed by sundry household activities (cooking, cleaning, child-minding, pet-minding) until the day eventually wound down around 7:00 PM.

My tasks were generally more varied than Becky’s. In times of better weather, their other wwoofer, Hidei, and I would often go out on the property’s steep hillsides, weeding tarhwini plants and spraying that most hated and invasive plant, gorse. Hidei, who was from Japan, was a good sport and a hard worker, and we got along quite well. Though he spoke almost no English, we communicated reasonably well, which I attribute largely to my excellence in the art of mime.

I’d say I also earned my forestry merit badge at Arapawa, wielding a chainsaw to carve up firewood, which can become tiring, but which I rate as excellent work. It’s surprisingly satisfying to stack up a huge pile of freshly cut firewood. Mostly I was keen to do any job that required use of one of their several 4x4’s. I never mastered backing up a 4x4 with a trailer on the back, but riding around the property, up forested hills and through shallow creeks, I could easily see why you’d want one, or three, as they had at Arapawa. Actually, I think many of their chores might just be convenient excuses to go for a ride on the 4x4…

Andrew's a lumberjack, and he's okay

Sarah and Jacob negotiating turns to ride the blue motorbike

Becky and I both spent heaps of time in the paua farm, especially on the many rainy spring days we endured at Arapawa. If anything, the weather at the edge of the Cook Strait is changeable – some warm, sunny, 20ºC weather interspersed with rainy, cold, 10 ºC days. And the wind is really something there as well; maybe not Canterbury bad, but when a southerly gale is blowing through the Sounds it certainly les you know. On the paua farm our specialty was in separating and sizing small paua, a yearly task that was well-suited for bad weather. We got pretty good at it – I can tell a 45mm paua from a 50mm one by sight.

Becky measures some paua at the farm

We ended up staying with the family for 16 days, and besides a few trips out on their inflatable dinghy never left the island in that time. It’s a unique experience living on an island, and I was interested in how the family lived their life on an isolated island with only a couple neighbors. Though with modern communications, biweekly mail boat visits, and ferries going by every hour, the isolation certainly isn’t complete. They even had broadband Internet and Sky (cable) television, certainly not regular fixtures in all Kiwi homes. We certainly weren’t complaining that they had those things.

We have to say that it was perhaps the most remarkable place we’ve wwoofed at. Between the Sounds, a sprawling property on a relatively isolated island, the outdoorsy 4x4-loving kids, a paua farm and hatchery, and hosts that dive for paua for a living, there were so many interesting things going on. We were properly immersed in the family’s life, even joining them on a family picnic to the “Knob,” the highest point on Arapawa Island. Loaded up on two four-wheelers with two dogs in tow, the eight of us traveled to the Knob for lunch and to take in the views, which were spectacular.

Enjoying our picnic lunch at the Knob

Also, many of the things about wwoofing at Arapawa were top-notch. Antonia is an excellent cook, preparing roasts, cottage pies, and heaps of other tasty dishes at dinner. And don’t even get me started on desserts – they took dessert very seriously, which I was happy to see. There was always a cake, cookies, or a crumble around. Mike says he gains ten pounds when he’s at home, and I could certainly believe it. If I hadn’t been running around as much as I was, I probably would’ve gained weight as well. Additionally, the family had a very good set-up for having wwoofers, as we had our own very nice ensuite room in a small building off the house. Hidei had his own ensuite room separate from the house as well. You could hardly ask for better food or accommodation in a wwoofing arrangement.

After some sub-par wwoofing experiences (see Lemon Tree and the garlic farm), Arapawa Island proved to be the wwoofing tonic we were looking for. We were made to feel a part of this amazing family and learned a great deal during our time here. They benefited from our efforts and 6+ hours of work a day while we enjoyed comfortable accommodation and delicious food. Becky’s cooking will have improved after our stay here, and I’ve learned new things as well (most importantly, I’ve learned I should try and figure out how to get a 4x4 when I get home, hehe). It’s been a great way to spend a few weeks this spring before our quickly approaching departure from the South Island. Cheers, Arapawa!

A final farewell from the wharf

Marlborough, From the Hills to the Sounds (Sep. 22 – 23)

On Saturday morning we awoke to the smells of Chris preparing a huge proper Kiwi breakfast for us. I’ll stop saying how nice they are because it probably embarrasses them, but damn. Eggs, bacon, tomato, potatoes, toast, you get the idea. It was fantastic. Full of a tasty breakfast, we made our way out to the Omaka Air Heritage Museum, highly rated by our brewing pals, Brian and Andy. It’s a nice museum featuring original and replica WWI-era aircraft. After the museum we went to the Wither Hills Farm Park, where we did a nice little hike in the hills above Blenheim. It was a good example of the sun-baked hills common to Marlborough as well as giving a good view of Blenheim. Parenthetically, the housing lots on the outskirts of Blenheim seemed ridiculously pricey to us: NZ$150,000 just for a decent lot, whew!

You could be the lucky owner of this fine piece of real estate

From Blenheim we drove just up the road to Picton, gateway to the Marlborough Sounds. The Sounds is an amazing bit of NZ geography at the top of the South Island: a range of rolling mountains half-submerged in the sea, creating an intricate waterway maze full of nooks, crannies, and hidden coves aplenty. During our time in Picton we learned that the Sounds make up about 1/6 of NZ’s coastline mileage, which is amazing considering it takes up a rather small area overall. Just as when we took the ferry from Wellington to Picton in February, we were again captivated by the unique beauty of the area.

I guess you could say the view of the Sounds from the harbor is 'Pictonuresque'

Our main purpose for taking Don and Linda to the Sounds was to do a portion of the Queen Charlotte Track, which in its entirety is a 71km walk along the ridges and coasts of the Sounds. We only had a day to hike so we took a ferry out to the farthest point on the track, Ship Cove, and did a 5 hour walk to Furneaux Lodge, one of the many lodges along the route. Though we didn’t really have gorgeous weather for the walk on Sunday, it really didn’t hurt much, as we were under canopy for a large portion, and the skies cleared markedly by the time afternoon rolled around. Though Queen Charlotte isn’t considered one of NZ’s Great Walks, it’s definitely a marquee one, and well worth the cost of the boat in Picton.

A rare moment of good weather on the Queen Charlotte track

After the largely flat but surprisingly long day’s hike (about 14km) L&D were pretty well bushed, so I think we accomplished our goal there. The ride back on the ferry was a welcome break, and we chatted with the boat captain at length on our way back. He showed us points of interest on the Sounds and took us by a local salmon farm that has been having heaps of seal trouble since its inception. Seals don’t usually live in the Sounds, but the lure of the tasty salmon has brought them there, where they’ve managed to outwit the aquaculturists many times over the past few years. They’ve also become aggressive, leaping into the workers’ quarters and chasing the workers throughout the facility. Sounds like a fun job, eh? Anyway, after a good day of hiking it was nice to have Linda prepare a home-cooked-ish meal, a roast beef (you can probably guess how many times Becky has ever made that) before we all passed out in our beds.

Mom and Don are on the run from the chickens

Return of the Couchsurfers (Jun. 14- 18)

Devoted readers will probably have noticed that we haven’t couchsurfed for some time lately. It certainly isn’t for lack of trying, but we’ve spent a bunch of time in the lightly-populated Otago region, where there simply aren’t many couches to be surfed. We spent our first week and change in Blenheim in a backpackers, but even though we had a double room, there was Sky TV and a ping-pong table, Becky wasn’t really feeling the place. Perhaps it was because the fact that there was no private changing area for any of the showers there, or the place was full of somewhat-unfriendly German backpackers, there was often no room in the kitchen to cook or even to sit, or because it just made us feel like depressive migrant workers. Whatever the reason, we were compelled to find some more couchsurfers in Marlborough.

Fun times in Marlborough

For a few nights we did a bit of couchsurfing with a couple from Seddon, Angie and Graeme. Their house was full with Angie’s children, so they put us up for a few nights in their caravan, which had lights and a heater; deluxe accommodations compared to some of our previous stays! Angie and Graeme were really hospitable, cooking dinner for us one night and letting us have run of the house. Angie’s youngest child, Bri, really seemed to enjoy having us around, and insisted that she and Becky paint their nails together.

Graeme and Angie, our Couchsurfing hosts in Seddon (and Mt. Gay Rum afficionados)

Interestingly, Angie and Graeme had just returned from a trip they had won to the States and Barbados, through Mount Gay rum. We were thinking it was funny to meet someone who had actually won a sweepstakes, but figured that the odds of winning must be much better in a small country like NZ as opposed to the good ol’ USA. They showed us their pictures of the trip, and the main takeaway seemed to be that in Barbados apparently just about any time of day is a good time to drink rum. The only downer to staying there was that Becky stole more than a few of the dozen (literally) blankets we used at night, freezing me out a bit. Also, Seddon is about 24 km from Blenheim, meaning that we had to get up even earlier than we’d been doing, around 6:00 am, to pack lunch and drive into work in the morning.

The road to Seddon is a typical Kiwi affair, twisting and turning up and along a mountain range, with little room on either side. Driving into Montana one day, we blew our rear driver’s side (the right side, of course) tire just before we turned into the work driveway. This was pretty fortuitous for us, as if we’d blown one on the narrow road to Seddon we’d have had nowhere to change it for several kms and would’ve had to roll along on a very flat tire. When we went to change the flat we found our spare just fine, but discovered there was no jack or lugwrench, d’oh! The mechanic we bought the car from swore up and down that there was a set in the car, but we’d forgotten to look when we bought Ron and hadn’t had reason to look since then. Luckily, some of the other vineyard workers stopped and helped, and we got our spare on in no time. They even called into town and got us a good deal on a new tire – gotta love friendly Kiwis!

Anyway, after a few days in the caravan, we said goodbye to Angie and Graeme and headed off to another couchsurfing location. Chris had been in contact with us on a Friday and said we could spend the next couple nights with them, which we were happy to hear. After a cold day in the vineyard on Saturday, Andrew and I had a few hours to kill before we could meet Chris and her partner at their home. After a chilly, damp, and overcast day, we were set on finding a cozy coffee shop to sit and have a hot drink in until we could head over to their house. New Zealand prides itself on its coffee culture, and even in small towns you tend to find heaps of cafes, but this sadly wasn’t the case in Blenheim on a Saturday at 4:00 PM. Many New Zealand shopkeepers tend to keep fairly limited hours, which we as Americans tend to be unaccustomed to (you mean I can’t by a flat screen TV at a Wal-Mart Supercenter on a Sunday night at 11:00 PM?), closing early on Saturday if they’ve opened at all. We were even missing good old Starbucks that Saturday when we had to instead head to one of the only establishments that seemed to be open – a pub. There, we were able to drink a beer (not exactly a warm cuppa) and watch the rugby match, which I suppose was nearly as good.

Next we were off to our couch surfers, Chris and Martin. Though we’re becoming a broken record on the subject, let us say again that couchsurfing is an amazing thing! Chris and Martin gave us a warm greeting and welcomed us into their home for a home-cooked meal. Our accommodations there were deluxe. It was a lovely guest bedroom, with a heater, and an electric blanket, which are really luxury items in the New Zealand winter. We even had an ensuite bathroom, which I can venture to guess was the first time we’ve had our own bathroom since leaving the States (and living in Vermont). And while all of these things were lovely, the best part was really in meeting Chris and Martin. These two are an amazing couple with a lovely story about how they arrived to find one another. This is a second marriage for both of them, and they have created a really wonderful life together. They are both into outdoor activities such as rock climbing and abseiling and teach a mountain safety course. Martin used to be a pretty regular mountaineer in a previous life and described some of his interesting treks in the UK (his first home), Australia (his second home), and in New Zealand (his current home). He is a civil engineer who’s primary post is inspecting all of the bridges around the South Island. His partner Chris is an artist who makes her living by painting pet portraits on commission, and who also does lovely landscapes. Together they are both interested in the practice of Reiki, which is an alternative healing technique. All of these things meant that we shared many interesting conversations together over the dinner table.

Martin and Chris, our Couchsurfing hosts (and Reiki afficionados)

It’s always great when we are able to spend some quality time with our couchsurfing hosts outside of the home. We spent a great Sunday with Chris and Martin taking their dogs (two Weimerauners) for a walk by the river. Later, we bundled up and went to an outdoor obstacle course area where they teach their mountain safety classes. Their was a grownup size hamster wheel, zip line, sliding board, etc., which were all good fun on a Sunday afternoon. Later we stopped into a local winery and distillery for some sampling and went back to their home to enjoy another delicious meal together. It’s people like Chris and Martin that really make couchsurfing great. We feel truly fortunate to keep coming across people like Chris and Martin on our travels and hope to see them again in the future. After two short days, it almost seemed too soon to leave. I’m sure we could have stuck it out longer in the vineyards if we were able to come back to Chris and Martin’s every evening. But with my sister Marie and her boyfriend Alexis on their way, we said our goodbyes and look forward to seeing them again on our return trip through Blenheim to catch the ferry back to the North Island.

Becky and Martin on the giant hamster wheel

And Andrew on the zip line!

Marlborough Man (and Woman) (Jun. 6 - 18)

First off, I know this post is long, and Becky even said so, but she was unwilling/unable to edit it, and I couldn’t bear to part with any of my laboriously constructed prose, so it pretty much all remains here, unabridged. So we understand if you’ve got to skim, but we haven't posted in awhile, and if you have even the slightest interest in grape pruning, you really owe it to yourself to settle in and read the whole thing, I think. And really, are you in such a hurry to get back to your real work, c’mon… (Although I realize now that by adding this intro it only lengthens the post, can't win for trying)

One of the things that I can’t say I expected to take away from the trip, but indeed will, is the idea that work can be a healthy and necessary thing. Who knows, that could just be my travel-fried brain talking, or a bizarre cry for help? Anyway, we’ve found that continuous traveling is fun at first, becomes tiring after a few months, and after 4 or 5 months has convinced us that an honest day’s work has its merits! Not an outcome I would’ve bet on, maybe it’s just our strong American work ethic shining through…

To that end, we’ve been up here in Blenheim (up here being a relative term, Blenheim is only north compared to the rest of the South Island, and Antarctica) to do vineyard work. Blenheim is the major city of the Marlborough region, famed for its sunny climate and wines, specifically the Sauvignon Blancs that NZ has made much of its oenophilic reputation on. I’ve never been to the Napa Valley or any other major wine-producing region before coming here, but with the amount of vines in this area, I have to imagine Marlborough is becoming much like those places.

Seriously, driving along the highway here one sees row upon row of wire-trained vines, stretching as far as the eye can see, to the dry brown hills in the distance. There aren’t many other crops to speak of, which makes sense since we’ve heard that the amount of area covered by grapes in Marlborough has doubled in the last 5 years. It’s pretty amazing, and if you’re a fan of wine, you’re definitely in luck around here. One of the big things for tourists to do here is to rent a bike and tool around, doing tastings at various wineries, which seem to be only a few hundred meters apart in the country here. As a motorist though, it is a bit disconcerting trying to avoid all the bikes, more than a few wobbling their way down the highways after the 5^th stop on their Tour de Plonk.

The Montana vineyard in the early morning

Getting jobs in pruning season in Marlborough is, as the Kiwis would say, easy as. There are heaps of vines in need of pruning and wrapping and plenty of contractors or companies to work for. However, we’ve heard horror stories of people being mistreated or even being stiffed on their pay by unscrupulous contractors, so we were a little leery of most of them. For instance, many contractors advertise on the internet, but they’re apparently not good, since if they were any good they’d get enough workers from word-of-mouth in the area and at hostels. Pruning work is basically the perfect job for backpackers, as it doesn’t require much training, doesn’t pay very well, and is very casual, meaning you can start or quit basically whenever you want. That’s the only way it’s casual; based on our few weeks of doing it we’d say that it’s pretty hard work.

Since we had a car, we just took jobs for a few weeks with Montana, which is probably NZ’s biggest wine house, and reputed to be a place that paid on time, which was our major criteria. Because when you’re doing manual labor, we could think of few things worse than not being paid. At Montana the jobs are pretty much divided by gender, with guys doing pruning, which is more strenuous, and girls doing the wrapping, which is fussier work. Since girls are fussy this makes good sense to me. I’d also note that even though it was only women doing wrapping, they had a male supervisor – this also makes good sense. Pruning and wrapping work is largely done on a piecework basis, but at Montana they’ll pay the minimum wage for awhile, after which you can go on a piecework rate or be asked politely to leave.

Blenheim before the sunrise. Andrew wanted photographic evidence to prove that he was actually awake that early.

Pruning involves using a big cutter to cut off most of the big canes from the vine, then stripping out the cut canes and trimming off all the little branches from the canes that are left to grow in the next season. Doing the big cuts was easy, except when you’d have to cut through some really thick wood stumps. After a bunch of those your forearms begin to complain that this wasn’t what they’d agreed to. Stripping was probably the most strenuous part, since you’re basically yanking canes which are tangled up in wires and other parts of the vine. The canes are very springy and will whack you across the head, face, or back without mercy – best not to do this work if you’re in the habit of paying a swear jar. Dropping in my two cents, wearing a hat and safety glasses is a must while stripping, as it’s surprisingly dangerous. Trimming wasn’t bad, except if you do too much without stretching your hands your hands might swell up like Becky’s, or you’ll find it strangely hard to do demanding tasks like squeezing toothpaste, as I did one day.

Andrew proves that you need a stud to prune vines.

Pruning one plant on a piecework basis earns you NZ$0.65 per plant, which means you need to do about 18 plants an hour before reaching minimum wage. Pruning upwards of this many plants an hour requires some serious-ass hustle. Unless you’re a pruning prodigy it would probably take you a few weeks to get up to contract speed. Since we were only there for a few weeks, getting minimum wage was alright with us.

On my first day, I got about 48 plants pruned, which is nowhere near the minimum. Over my two weeks at Montana I got up to about 110, which is still about 30 plants short, but I’d be hard-pressed to figure how to do them much faster. Perhaps I would’ve developed even better technique and a nicely-conditioned upper body to crank through the required quantity, but I can’t say I’m too disappointed at not getting to find out. Even though I was on an hourly rate, I was often working as hard as I could, which I blame on a goofy competitive streak. Granted I wasn’t brilliant at the work, but it was still way harder than I’d ever worked for minimum wage before. In that light, it was a bit disheartening to watch other workers, mostly European backpackers and older Kiwi blokes, in nearby rows cruising past you, especially when you can’t figure out how exactly they’re doing it much more quickly. Best to let it go I suppose…

Wrapping consists of taking the pruned canes and fixing them to the horizontal wires strung along the rows with what are essentially baggie ties. Wrapping a plant will earn you NZ$0.28, meaning a lady needs to do about 40 plants/hour to earn her keep. Unfortunately for the wrappers, their speed is largely dependant on whether the pruners in their row did a good job or not. If they left nice canes without a lot of old viney bits on them, the wrappers can cruise along, sweet as. If they left thick canes or canes that still needed to be trimmed, they’d be seriously slowed down. Since pruning is a piecework job and there isn’t what you’d call heaps of supervision out in the middle of a sea of vines, you’d be right if you guessed quality wasn’t always Job Number One.

That's a wrap!

Like me, Becky got better at her job over time, but never got really close to making more than minimum. Sorry Montana, guess we’ll be laughing all the way to the bank with our hardly-earned minimum wage! I do find it pretty amusing that I have moments where we feel like we took them slightly, although that’s pretty ridiculous when I consider that we were working really hard, pruning in below-freezing weather with the sun barely peeking above the horizon.

Since we were in Blenheim, I also got some time in with Brian and Andy at Renaissance. We dropped by unannounced one day and had a great time catching up, and Brian invited me back to help do some labeling work. We didn’t end up doing much labeling, but Becky and I did spend a day there as I helped Brian with a brewing session. All in all, I didn’t really do too much work, and we probably distracted Brian from real work as much as anything, but we had a blast and he enjoyed having us around as well. We even stopped by his house for dinner with his family and will certainly be back through before we leave the South Island.

Brian and Andrew working on a tasty brew

As a pruning post-mortem, we’d say that pruning and wrapping for a couple weeks was novel, but it was just about to lose its novelty, say after one or two more days. To any aspiring backpackers who think that it would be romantic and just incredible to work on a vineyard, we’d say “Eh, not so much.” Having an iPod to listen to was clutch, as it made the day go by more quickly, so unless you can hum the whole Beatles songbook, we’d recommend bringing along some tunage. We worked on the vineyards for a couple weeks largely to do it, learn something new, and kill some time before Marie and Alex got here, and so we didn’t have a terrible time. But if we were stuck here with no money and had to do a season of pruning in the NZ winter, we’d be singing a much different and way more depressing tune. Our advice: work hard in your home country where you can make a decent hourly rate and bring along plenty of money so that you don’t have to bust your hump for months in the cold and possibly develop repetitive stress disorders. If you insist on pruning though, be sure to bring plenty of warm layers!

To Christchurch…And Beyond! (Jun. 1 - 5)

Leaving Oamaru and the squawking penguins behind, we set off further north towards Christchurch with Rachel, another backpacker from the UK along for the ride. I forgot to mention in our last post, but we had a really weird experience in trying to get a hostel in Oamaru. We went to a well-rated hostel there, but when we met the owner, she seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown, recounting all the other recent guests who all seemed “plausibly nice” like us, but who had stolen her duvets and blankets, leaving her faith in humanity apparently shaken. It seemed like she didn’t want us there and was basically pre-emptively accusing us of wanting to steal her duvets as well, so we said, umm…maybe we’d come back after we went to see the penguins. We can do without psycho hostel owners - hopefully we didn’t squeal the tires too much in getting the hell out of there as fast as possible.

Unfortunately, this is as close as you can get to taking pictures of the penguins in Oamaru

We spent a few days over the Queen’s Birthday holiday in unseasonably warm Chch: on the first day of winter here, June 1, the weather was fantastic: 20C and sunny, warmer than the first day of summer in Chch. They seem to be having some weird seasons here this year, but we didn’t mind, eating ice cream and tossing Frisbee on the beach in Sumner. Amusingly enough, Kiwi’s get a national holiday for Queen Liz’s birthday, while the Brits don’t even get a day off for it. Not to mention that her birthday, according to Rachel, is actually in April, anyway, making it even more puzzling. We’ll let you know if we figure it out, but don’t hold your breath.

On one of the nights we were in Chch the NZ national rugby team, the All Blacks, were playing the French in Auckland in a test match ahead of the World Cup in September. Conveniently we were staying next to a Speight’s Ale House showing the game on about 10 TV’s, and we entered the bar finding it packed with Kiwis to watch the ABs stomp the French 42-11. If you’ve never seen a rugby match, we recommend you try and see at least one WC game this September, especially if you can see the ABs do their haka (Maori war dance) before the game. Watching them do the haka is spine-tingling, and if it doesn’t get you pumped up, you should just stop watching sports right then and there. Plus the ABs have perhaps the coolest kit in sports.

The game actually was pretty close for the first twenty minutes, with the French defense playing pretty stoutly, but eventually the All Blacks wore down the outgunned Frenchies and ran all over them. The French did have one guy, Charal, who looked like a freaking caveman, with a bushy beard and long, greasy hair, and who made a few crushing tackles. Since we were staying really near to where Tony (the Kiwi we couchsurfed with in Chch in February) lived we texted him and he and his girlfriend Keri showed up for the game. It was great to catch up and hang out with them again, and we warned him that it probably wouldn’t the last he’d see of us…

We meet again! Hanging with Tony and Keri at the bar for the All Blacks match

After a few days in Chch we left Rachel at a nearby hostel (some free advice: don’t bother trying to drive through a city when a marathon is being run, unless you’re looking forward to some quality time in gridlock) and headed off to Blenheim, intending to do a few weeks of pruning work somewhere in the heap of vineyards there. We stayed in Blenheim a few months ago and so we went back to same backpackers again, Leeways. Blenheim, or at least Leeways, is like NZ’s Little Germany, as our hostel was nearly completely full of Germans, mostly long-termers doing pruning work as well. We were happy to once again see Thilo, one of our fellow wwoofers from the Lemon Tree in Lawrence a few weeks ago, but were less excited to run into the depressive German girls from the Catlins. As people say in the hostels here in NZ, “See you in the soup,” which is apt since the NZ backpacking world is so small that you’re bound to run into people again in this country.

This doesn't actually relate to the post, per se, I just liked this building in Christchurch - Mondrian!

Talking with Thilo, he apparently had a bad experience at the Lemon Tree as well, getting ‘fired’ one Monday after he and Cam took too long in cleaning the kitchen. Things were getting a bit odd there, he said, with several wwoofers leaving after just a few days. The owners’ attitudes and demands didn’t seem to be sitting well with most of the people going through there, certainly something we could identify with. As we expected, we had joined the canon of bad wwoofers in the owners’ minds, as they had nothing good to say about us after we left. Hardly surprising, but it is a bit funny since they never felt like they needed to tell us how badly we were doing while we were there. At any rate, it feels good to have them in our rear-view mirror in Lawrence.

Looking west (not north) from the South Island towards the North Island

At the moment, we’re hanging at the backpackers, trying to psych ourselves up for our upcoming work. Before we left for here we told everyone we’d do some orchard work at some point, but we’ve been able to avoid it until right about now. With a few weeks with nothing to do before Marie and Alex arrived, and with the NZ$ to US$ exchange growing increasingly unfavorable, it seems like a good time to embrace our migrant worker side. To give you some idea of how the exchange rate has changed over the past few years, when Brian from Renaissance came over to NZ 4 or 5 years ago, he was able to change over money at NZ$1:US$0.39, whereas it now sits at NZ$1:US$0.75, and it’s predicted to go higher still, yikes. Guess we’ll have to get cracking on the pruning!

An Unexpected Renaissance (Feb. 20-21)

So the last few days we’ve been making our way down the east coast of the S. Island. We left Andrew’s house in Nelson on Monday for Blenheim, a sunny town on the northeastern tip of the S. Island that’s basically in the country’s most famed wine region: Marlborough. Blenheim is a ridiculously sunny, dry, and flat town, with sets of brown, arid mountains looming in the distance. It feels a lot like many towns out west in the States, only it makes some serious wine and is much nearer to the beach.

Montana Brancott Winery

Unfortunately Becky and I are about the furthest things from wine connoisseurs, so we felt like Star Wars fans at Trekkie convention; we heard everyone tell us how good the wine is and what a choice place it is do to winery tours, but it wasn’t quite enough to convert us to drinking lots of Sauvignon Blanc, nor to wearing Spock ears. (Note: I realize the analogy was cheesy, but I spent 5 minutes thinking of it, so I was damn sure was going to go all the way with it.)

Not that we aren’t trying to appreciate wine a bit more here. We’ve been trying to buy New Zealand wines every so often to drink with dinner, though I admit we’ve only bought the cheaper stuff, so maybe that’s part of the reason we haven’t had any religious wine experiences here so far? Although we did enjoy a bottle of Corban’s White Label Sauv Blanc, which was quite the deal at NZ$9 (less than US$7).

In the spirit of oenophilic exploration we even booked a tour at Montana Brancott, apparently one of NZ’s larger wineries, outside Blenheim. Our tour guide had to be one of the most preternaturally perky people we’ve ever seen; I do not have the personality to do that job, but good on her. As we toured the winery, we mused that it would be the kind of place that Miles, the main character in the film Sideways, would hate. We certainly didn’t hate the place, but didn’t like any of the wines in the tasting enough to buy a bottle. In any event, we felt that while in NZ we should tour a winery at some point, so we may now check it off our ‘life-experiences checklist.’ I’m only partially kidding.

In a more exciting (at least to me personally) side trip, we stopped by a brewery in Blenheim, Renaissance Brewing, which was actually just a few blocks from our hostel. We met the brewers, two brothers-in-law from San Diego who had each moved to NZ in the past several years. Andy, the head brewer, was a beermaker in California, and had also made wine in NZ, while Brian was formerly a mechanic before joining Andy to start their brewery. They actually bought an old, failed brewery, Marlborough Brewing, which was quite a small operation, but which tried to compete with the big boys…on price. You can probably guess how that went.

When they bought the brewery in September 2005, Andy got a look at the state of everything and was appalled at the way the previous brewers had made beer there, as they obviously didn’t know any better and had ended up with really crappy beer as a result. That and the hilariously misguided product strategy was pretty much the epitaph of Marlborough. Andy and Brian ended up spending months cleaning, repairing, and modifying equipment, and started bottling and kegging beer last year.

After talking with the guys for quite a bit, Becky and I did a tasting at the bar next door, and were really pretty impressed with the beer. Renaissance does an English Pale Ale, a Porter, and a Scotch Ale for bottling and sale. They also are producing an American Pale Ale and a Double IPA, but aren’t as quite as far along on production of them. We were especially impressed with their Scotch Ale, as it had lip-smacking flavor and a really rich body. Thinking about it right now makes me want one, mmm.

During our tasting, Brian asked what we were doing in NZ, and so we told him about our travel and work plans. After hearing about our backgrounds and our plans, he asked if we’d be interested in a flexible position introducing their beers to bars and stores along our travels, as they are a young brewery looking to get its product into many more locations. I thought it sounded like a great and fun idea, so before long we got Brian to give us a case of beer to give out as samples and some promotional material. I like the position as it’s flexible, will allow me to participate in something I really like, beer, and the beer is a product that is really easy to get behind, as it’s really damn good. Their even printing up business cards for me. Check back in a few months to see how I feel then I guess…