At Long Last, Andrew's Bungy Jump

A few months ago I did the Nevis bungy jump when we were traveling through Queenstown. At the time I promised to put up the video as soon as I could, but of course I soon forgot about it. Even when I did remember, converting a DVD to a computer file and uploading it is a bit of a pain, especially without free, constant internet access. All of which is to excuse my laziness. But you need wait no longer, since we're enjoying some free time and a good internet connection at Kieran and Belinda's home as we house-sit for them while they visit the States. 3 months after my jump, we finally present the video, enjoy!

It Happened Down In Fiordland (June 24 – 27)

As we mentioned in an earlier post, as we were in glacier country the roads in the southern part of the South Island were in a bit of a rough way with ice and snow. It was so bad that we were considering retracing our path up north since the Haast Pass through the Southern Alps south of the glaciers was said to require chains. However, while we were at Lake Matheson on the morning we were set to leave the glaciers, we met an American and a group of Germans who said they figured the roads couldn’t be that bad (most of the tour buses were planning to travel through that day), so they were heading south. This got us all to thinking. Maybe it was peer pressure, groupthink, or that we just really loathed the idea of backtracking all that way, but we all pretty much decided then and there that we should at least try to go south.

A beautiful view from Lake Matheson on a clear day at the Glaciers. The roads to the south can't be that bad, right?

In retrospect it was perhaps not the most prudent choice, but driving that day we found the roads to be altogether manageable and pretty much worry-free, so maybe they’re a little cautious in road management here? We can say that now, but we’re pretty sure we did see the American from Lake Matheson sitting on top of his luggage alongside the road with a philosophical, far-off look on his face that suggested his rental car may have gone off the road. If you asked him, he might have a different opinion on the whole thing.

Andrew, Becky, and Marie happy to have made it safely through the Haast Pass

Driving south beyond the pass we actually had fantastic weather as we got through Wanaka, where we stayed the night. It was funny being back in Wanaka again, for our third and hopefully final time. We went back to our old haunt, the New World grocery store, and who did we see but our former landlady-for-a-week, Shelley. It was funny because earlier we’d been talking about how we always ran into people we knew at this particular store, and how perversely likely it was that we’d run into her there. Spooky.

Alex enjoys the beautiful day from the shore of Lake Wanaka

In the meat aisle Shelley spotted me and came over and said “Well look who’s in town,” to which I replied “Hey there, we’re just back driving through town.” She must’ve figured that we still lived there and were just trying to avoid her, since she gave me a wide sidelong grin and said “Riiiiight,” like she’d just caught me in a huge lie. Luckily she didn’t make a big fuss or anything, since I probably would’ve been tempted to channel my inner JC and say something like “Cleaning lady, pick up after thyself!” Becky was luckier; she saw Shelley without being spotted and walked through the store with her scarf covering most of her face.

From Wanaka we drove through Queenstown to Te Anau, taking Marie and Alex to see people bungy jumping from the Kawarau Bridge, which is really pretty entertaining. We felt badly for one guy who stood at the edge for about five minutes before having to have someone push him off, followed by him sitting at the bottom of the gorge with his head in his hands for another ten minutes. It’s not really an activity for everyone. We also hiked up to the Queenstown Skyline again, and while it was unfortunately windy and overcast, the luge (actually an alpine slide) course at the top was really good fun and worthwhile. After another few hours in the car (where everybody slept but me) we arrived in Te Anau at the foot of the Milford Road, and stayed at a cool backpackers on a deer farm. Deer farms still kind of blow our mind, and probably aren’t going to get old for us here.

Alex plays nature photographer at our backpackers in Te Anau. Sadly, no venison could be purchased on the property.

To drive into Milford Sound in winter you need to carry chains, and if you don’t they’ll hit you with a pretty sizable fine. Apparently they get tired of pulling people off the side of the road there. Driving on Milford Road, you could see how this regulation makes sense, as the mountains above are generally very steep, leading to many avalanches. Although I have to think that if an avalanche hit you, you wouldn’t be going very far, chains or no. In any event, the cost of renting chains for a couple days began to quickly approach the price of buying them, so we all chipped in and bought a set, which we felt good about for at least an hour.

Marie looking very unhappy to have not found any hobbits in the woods surrounding the Sound

However, driving into the world-famous Sound, the weather was infuriatingly great and there was nary a sign of ice or snow on the road, meaning that only a freak storm would cause the roads to be anywhere near chain condition. I suppose that I should be happy for the good weather, but it seems axiomatic that because we bought chains we would then have no need of them. Oh well. During our few days in the Sound we indeed had terrific, clear weather, which was really lucky since it’s in the Fiordland region, which averages rain every 2 out of 3 days. We found out that it hadn’t rained there in almost two weeks, which is considered to be a long drought there, which slowed the normally thundering waterfalls to mere trickles. It was good though, as the nice weather allowed Alex to get some amazing shots of snow-covered peaks and the fjords from the shore.

One of the few remaining waterfalls in Milford Sound after two rain-free weeks

The impressive Mitre Peak from the shore of the Sound

That night we stayed in the only hostel in the Sound, and it was generally fine except that they turned off the power at 11 pm. This meant that the heaters shut off then, making for a bloody cold night in the Sound! After shivering our way through the evening we took a cruise through the Sound with one of the many tour companies. It was amazing to us that they each ran several large boat cruises a day, despite not having more than a handful of people on each cruise. We decided that maybe they use the off-season to train new employees; the commentary we were subjected to on our cruise was so amateurish that we can only hope they were trainees. We would recommend a cruise though, as it really is a great way to appreciate the size and beauty of the fjords. We especially liked how the captain was happy to show off and maneuver the boat within a foot or so of the fjord walls since they plunged straight down into hundreds of meters of water.

The Milford Sound on a fresh winter morning

Unexpectedly, the highlight of the cruise for us occurred just before the end of the cruise as we were approaching the boat terminal, as a group of bottlenose dolphins swam along in front of our boat, jumping and swimming upside down through the water. They seemed to enjoy the attention from the passengers on board and swam along the hull of the boat until we came close to shore. They really were some hammy dolphins.

Bottlenose dolphins following along with the cruise boat

We typically aren’t big fans of this sort of touristy activity (in the summer, dozens of ships would be traveling through the Sound, filled to capacity with travelers and their cameras), but that’s the beauty of traveling in the off-season. There were very few people on board with us, so we were able to appreciate the beauty of the Sounds (especially with the beautiful weather!) without the typical crowds. Alex didn’t need to jostle anyone for his share of picture taking space in the bow of the boat, and we all had plenty of room to spread out inside when the weather turned too cold to stand on the deck outside.

Alex looks relieved to finally take a break from his photography post on the front of the ship

With our camera cards full of majestic fjord awesomeness, we made a final trip down the Milford Road and back through the Homer Tunnel, where this time, fortunately, they had left the lights on. We joined the Southern Scenic Route towards Invercargill, “The most beautiful city in the world,” according to Kiwi speed-demon Burt Munro. Well, that’s certainly one opinion!

A beautiful spot at Mirror Lake on the drive into the Sound

Icy - Like A Fox (June 23)

The last time we’d been in glacier country, the weather was so dreary and we were a bit burnt-out on travel, so we didn’t even consider doing a glacier hike. Turns out that was a stroke of luck for us, as Marie and Alex were really keen on hiking a glacier as well, so we booked a full-day hike on Fox Glacier. Though Fox is somewhat less famous than Franz Josef, they’re pretty much interchangeable as far as hikes go, and Fox is a bit cheaper, which is always alright with us.

Andrew navigating an icy tunnel

We gathered for our hike around 9:30, got our boots and crampons together, and jumped in a van for the quick ride out to the glacier. Our hiking guide was Tamra, a native west coast Kiwi girl probably about our age, but who could wield a nasty ice-pick. Between the constant hiking and ice-chopping duties required of the job, glacier hiking guides must be some seriously fit folks. Since it was the off-season, our group was really small, just us four and two girls from Hong Kong.

Tamra, our hiking guide, weilds a mighty pick

Before reaching the glacier, a short hike up to an entry point on the glacier is required. It’s certainly not a strenuous hike, and having been outdoors for most of the last six months we had no problem with it. However, one of the girls from Hong Kong had a lot of trouble even negotiating that part of the hike, so our guide gently suggested she go back with some other guides, as the glacier would probably be too much for her. Even though you hate to see somebody’s day end that way, we were all pretty much thrilled, since we were going nowhere fast with her in tow, and weren’t relishing a day waiting for her to climb more than two steps at a time.

The hike up to the glacier

Those are some serious crampons, and socks!

On the glacier, we spent most of the time oohing and aahing over various formations such as moulins (cool vortex-like holes in the ice), caves, frozen-over ponds, and crevasses. I especially enjoyed the ponds since I was the only one in the group that grabbed a climbing stick, and poking holes in the ice is endlessly entertaining. You have to take my word on this.

Andrew being endlessly entertained by poking holes in the ice

Weather-wise, it was a bit overcast on our hike, which was actually quite good, as it made the blue hue of the ice stand out even more than usual, producing some spectacular colors. The snow from the previous day was also advantageous, as it was beautiful and gave the crampons even more purchase for climbing along the ice. We neglected to mention earlier, but Alex is a bit of an amateur photo nut, so we’ve left all the photography to him for the next couple weeks. He didn’t disappoint on the glacier, taking what had to be hundreds of pictures. Hey, maybe there’ll even be some pictures featuring both Becky and me at the same time! Seriously, merci Alex.

Marie looking into a giant moulin

Having now done the hike, let us say that we absolutely recommend it, especially if you can do it in the off-season. We had the glacier to ourselves for almost the entire afternoon, whereas in the peak season there’d be hundreds of other hikers (literally) on the ice at the same doing various hikes. It might sound corny, but being able to be the only ones on the ice made the experience even more magical, and sometimes you really do just have to marvel at the beauty in nature on such a day. Also, if you’re inclined to do a glacier hike, definitely splash out the extra bob and do the full-day. It takes awhile to hike up to the glacier, and if you do the half-day you only get ½ hour to an hour on the ice, and you’ll be kicking yourself for it later. Lastly, having made the drive through the west coast seeing things like the pancake rocks before, it was nice to do an activity that we hadn’t done previously, which made us pat ourselves on the back for having the foresight for not doing a glacier hike back in March. In this case, good on us!

The vivid blues shine through the ice

Enjoying a group shot at the end of the walk

Marie Et Alex Sont Arriveé! (June 20 - 22)

On Monday we handed in our secateurs and ended our (bad pun alert) budding pruning and wrapping careers. The people at Montana seemed genuinely sad to see us go – they were appreciative of any warm bodies they could get to do the necessary work in their vast vineyards. We also bid a somewhat-sad farewell to Chris and Martin; their hospitality made it easy to want to stay even longer.

Leaving Blenheim, we again made the drive south along the eastern coast towards Christchurch, into which Marie and Alex were flying. We had earlier arranged to stash our extra gear with Kieran and Belinda, our Wwoofing hosts in March, which gave us a great excuse to catch up with them again. They kindly agreed to store our stuff and offered us a bed for the night (and a bed for Marie and Alexis if they would also like to stay). We enjoyed a great evening catching up and look forward to a return visit when we retrieve our stuff.

The next morning, we headed to the airport in Christchurch to collect Becky’s sister Marie and her Belgian boyfriend, Alex. They’ve just finished up their PhD’s in environmental engineering at Yale, and are slated to move to Barcelona later this summer for work, so I guess you could consider the trip a bit of a graduation present to themselves. Maybe it’s because we’re used to being so far away from home, but it seemed a bit surreal to have guests arriving from the States, as home sometimes seems like a world away. But here they were in the flesh, and they had no problem getting through customs, so we were quickly on our way and out of Chch.

The mountain view at Hanmer Springs

Reviewing the weather forecast, we saw that the South Island wasn’t looking particularly good anywhere, so we rolled the dice and headed a short ways away to Hanmer Springs in the mountains north of Chch (as it’s home to a natural hot pool resort, Becky was behind this plan of action all the way). Hanmer Springs was really enjoyable – we went on a good short hike and spent the evening lounging in the hot pools. It was pretty cold running from one pool to the next, but the time in the hot water was really enjoyable. Fortunately, Marie and Alexis arrived without much jetlag, so they didn’t seem to mind us running them around that first day.

Becky looking incredulously (or adoringly?) at Andrew at the top of Conical Hill

Andrew, Becky, and Marie make their way down a muddy trail in Hanmer Springs

From Hanmer we headed west through the Lewis Pass and on to Westport. Heading to the west coast is always a risk as the weather there is notoriously bad, and our first few days there was no exception. We don’t mind cloud cover, but were hoping that it wouldn’t be raining full-on all day. Fortunately, we got a few dry moments for picture-taking at the Cape Foulwind seal colony and the Punakaiki pancake rocks, though our pictures may suggest otherwise. By the end of the night we were totally drenched and happy to make our way to our backpackers for the evening.

Alex and Marie enjoy a brief respite from the rain at Cape Foulwind

Marie, Becky, and Andrew unsuccessfully wait for the blowhole to blow at Pancake Rocks (Becky had seen it blow only moments before. Of course, no one believed her...)

We dry out and warm up with a cuppa at Te Nikau Retreat at Punakaiki

The next day the rains continued unabated as we drove south through Greymouth and on to the Fox Glacier. In Greymouth we stopped and took the brewery tour at Monteith’s, the famous west coast brewer, and had a good time. Unfortunately the tour was better than the tasting as their black beer was the only one of seven on hand that we enjoyed. By the time we made it to Franz Josef Glacier in the late afternoon, the temperatures had dropped even farther and we found the glacier park covered in snow. We had the place to ourselves, which was a nice change from Becky’s and my previous visit where we had to contend with busloads of elderly tourists.

We wander through the winter wonderland at Franz Joseph Glacier and marvel at the complete absence of other tourists.

To get to our hostel we then had to drive in dusk to Fox Glacier, which is only 24k away, but which took a ridiculously long time to get to. The roads were slick and barely plowed, which made for really slow going through the torturously windy mountain pass, and when we made it through unscathed we all breathed a sigh of relief. When we arrived at our hostel for the night the owner was surprised to see we’d gotten through, as the road had apparently been closed for the past few hours, but we must’ve missed the signs as the park was beyond the town by a few kms. We were actually lucky as the southern half of the South Island was in the midst of a great icy and cold winter front, dumping heaps of snow and covering roadways with ice throughout the Southern Alps, Otago, and Southland areas. There were tons of accidents throughout the island, and Queenstown had most of its winter festival shut down. Jokingly, we like to blame Marie and Alex for bringing an Antarctic blast with them to NZ.

Marie, Becky, and Andrew pose safely next to the beware of avalanche, tidal wave, and drowning sign.

Driving through the country over the past few days, we have to say it’s great to have Marie and Alex here. They provide a good injection of enthusiasm to our travels, which truth be told has been quite nice to have. If we can just convince them to do some reading in their travel guides (or provide us with more direction on what they’d like to see), we’re sure that we’ll have a great couple of weeks. We’ve also been enjoying sharing meals (and especially cooking duties), and just hanging out with them. We’ve met some great folks here in NZ, but it’s always nice to see a familiar face from home. It also makes you appreciate the NZ landscape anew when you get to see it through fresh eyes. It really is beautiful here, but sometimes you start to take it for granted once it starts to become familiar. Good on ya, Marie and Alex!

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!