There and back and there and out and onwards again

We've been bouncing all over the place for the past week, and it seems as though that is a trend that will continue for the foreseeable future. After a nice, relaxing Christmas at the flower farm, the cousin of the flower farm matron kindly invited us to stay at her place in Christchurch for a few days. Never being ones to turn down invitations from nice people who we like, Glen and I jumped at the opportunity and stayed with Cousin J for a few days over New Year's. We wandered around Christchurch city centre at our leisure, went punting on the Avon river, and checked out the many artists markets that are scattered around this charming downtown area.

New Year's Eve was spent at Cousin J's place, being entertained by the antics of her daugheters who were hosting a racuous party. We danced and laughed and Glen drank and I made sure the house didn't burn down. Cousin J joined the party towards the end of the evening; the night was, on the whole, a hilarious success.

New Year's Day saw Glen and I heading from Christchurch to the nearby town of Amberly, where were were to WWOOF with the owners of Brew Moon brewery and cafe. Although there was only enough work around the proprieters' farm for us to stay for four nights, we still enjoyed ourselves. There were sheep to heard, dinner to cook, and eleven hours of splitting logs. Evenings were spent with our friendly hosts, who plied us with their excellent beer (the husband is the brewer for Brew Moon) and excellent wine selection; as the wife is the wine-maker for Muddy Waters label, both our hosts had excellent knowledge of wines which they readily shared with us, much to our delight.

After our bief stay at Brew Moon ended, we called Cousin J again and are now back in Christchurch to further enjoy her hospitality and the company of Cousin J and her daughters. We have been attempting to make more arrangements for further WWOOFing endeavours, but alas! it has been in vain. Despite contacting a large number of WWOOF hosts, we haven't been able to schedule a single engagement. The ones we did not contact are not really options - it wouldn't be worth us spending precious travel time at those locations or with those hosts.

In light of our unintended but not unwelcome unengaged status, we are throwing plans to the wind and in a couple days we will hit the open road again. The present idea is that we will start driving to the various areas of the country that we want to visit and enquire at local hostels if they need workers for a few hours a day in exchange for accommodation. This isn't an unusual situation at hostels, so hopefully we will be able to take advantage of it. If we can make such an arrangement, then that's great, and if not we will carry on with our road-trip, alternating camping in the car for a few days at a time with spending a night or two in whatever hostel is on our route. Things should be interesting and exciting.

We will be in Christchurch for a couple more days, so we are about to head off for some more wandering around the city. It really is a very pretty place; if you have the opportunity to take some leisurely walks around this city, I would highly recommend it.