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.
Showing posts with label WWOOF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WWOOF. Show all posts
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Friday, December 28, 2007
December: In Summation
We have spent the entirety of December WWOOFing at a flower farm in the Banks Peninsula. First, I need to say that the Banks Peninsula area is one of the closest approximations to heaven on Earth that I could imagine: verdant green hills dropping straight into harbour waters that vary daily from slate gray to turquoise blue, and weather that changes at the drop of a pin.
The farm where we were working was such a fantastic find that I don’t think I could say enough good things about it. The family of four (the mom, dad, and two teenage sons) usually have WWOOFers around at any given time, and are cheerfully welcoming of those who come through their doors. There was a host of WWOOFers present during the month, with the total count going as high as seven at one point. As most of the orders of cut flowers need to be gathered and sent out in the week following up to Christmas, the family very much needs the help from the travellers, and so the house was bustling with representatives from Britain, Japan, Malaysia, and of course, Canada. Glen and I, being the only couple among the WWOOF crew, got the honours of being given the main guest room, complete with a queen sized bed and closet. We had our clothes out of the backpacks and hung in the closet within 15 minutes of getting our room. These sorts of things are exciting after living out of backpacks for three months.
As a point of interest, the flowers we were picking are called Lucospermum, and they are a variety of protea. The farm grows three varieties:
Highgold
Tango
Harry Chittick
The aren’t that difficult to pick, provided that the picking efforts don’t disintegrate into a snowball-style flower fight. The flower heads make excellent missiles, especially if the flowers haven’t opened completely. They also cause massive hayfeaver (the Japanese guy got hit the worst, and I made good use of the anti-histamines that I brought from Canada), and are filled with bees. No wasps, mind, just bees.
Here is one of the flower fields. The hill is deceptively steep; no need for squats when you've got flower farm hills to climb:
The work was similarly very good. Weather permitting, we made as early a start of the day as possible so that we would be finished picking before the sun got really hot. At the start of the month we had a few days off, and we were given time off when the weather was too bad to go out picking. We were usually in the fields at 7:30, and would often be finished both picking and grading (done in the packhouse, which is quite temperate) by noon or one o’clock.
Here is where we grade the picked flowers - picking off bugs and bird poo, cutting the stems to the proper lengths, etc. The packhouse is wonderfully cool, so we were out of the sun and the heat by the time things got really toasty. Plus, you can flick the cut-off ends of the stems at other people really hard if you get the wrist motion and timing of the stem snipping just right. If you aim is really good, you can bounce the stem ends off people's foreheads.
Once the final flower orders were sent out on the 23rd, we were given several days off until the family clears out the house on the 28th to make room for some visiting friends. We all spend a fabulous Christmas here, eating entirely too much food on the very sunny patio, which overlooks one of the harbours.
Christmas breakfast - the start of a day of gorging:
This is what the weather was like all day, as viewed from the patio. Are you jealous yet?
We’ve done quite a bit that wouldn’t make for a particularly interesting post, so I shall give you something of a point-form summary of a few of the highlights:
-meeting the family’s three legged cat, who drools everywhere when cuddled.
-having an entire travel mug of freshly boiled tea dumped on me by Glen, who felt that the tea would look better on my leg than in the cup. I swore extremely loudly and startled a conservationists’ meeting that John (the resident patrician) was hosting. Yes, it hurt. Yes, there are still burn marks.
-Doing large batch cooking with the most adorably hilarious Japanese girl ever (the food was prepared in advance and then frozen for the busy picking days when we would be too buzy/tired to want to cook dinner for 12 adults).
-Getting nailed squarely in the eye with an unopened and rock-hard Highgold head during a vicious flower fight. Much to my irritation, the eye did not bruise, despite staying slightly swollen and tender for a couple of days.
-Glen getting stung by bees twice in the space of 20 minutes.
-Making and distributing massively rich, creamy, fatty, boozy egg nog for a whole bunch of people who have never before discovered the delights of homemade egg nog – home made, not that vile store-bought stuff, which you can’t get here anyway.
We leave here tomorrow, and will be staying in Christchurch for a few days with Julie’s (the resident matron) cousin, who has kindly extended visiting invitations to the WWOOFers to stay with her while in the city. Indecision and procrastination has led us to be uncertain as to where we will go afterwards; we do have an offer at another WWOOF place, but the more we review it, the less pleasant it sounds. We’re hoping to find somewhere else to WWOOF at in this area, and afterwards we will do a road-trip, sleep-in-the-back-of-the-wagon style tour of the south tip of the island. Maybe we’ll spend a day or two here and there in a hostel so that we can get cleaned up and have a proper meal. There aren’t too many WWOOF places in that area that we are interested in, so we may or may not bother trying to set something up.
And now, in order to make you even more wildly jealous, a few pictures of our lottery-win December situation:
This is the view from the living room and TV room:
A bunch of us trooped off to an isolated beach one afternoon. The resident heard of cows took a keen interest in the vehicle, and surrounded the truck, poking their runny noses inside. They were skittish and backed off as soon as we came up, but they may have very well attempted to steal the radio:
We went to Christchurch during one rainy day. While inspecting the Christchurch Cathedral, we discovered that there was no way to escape the flowers - the Harry Chitticks had followed us to town and took up residence on the pulpit:
Our rainy day trip also took us to the Christchurch art gallery, which was great fun. There was a display of knitted bonsai trees that were particularly ticklish:
There was also a weird exhibit that was basically a big cardboard tube with a gentle suction. We didn't realize what it was until I looked into it and it sucked my hair right up the tube:
Glen wanted in on the vacuum action:
In Christchurch there is an import store that supplied all sorts of foreign items. The store is teeeeeeeeny, doesn't seem to be organized in any sort of recognizable pattern, and is possibly one of the most delightful stores we've ever walked in to:
December was fantastic, and this was due in no small part to our wonderfully hospitable hosts, who went above and beyond to make us feel at home, and the other WWOOFers who we chummed around with. We'll be stopping in again some time to visit on our way back up the island, to say hello and share whatever wine we pick up along the way. We had a blast, we made friends, we struck gold!
The farm where we were working was such a fantastic find that I don’t think I could say enough good things about it. The family of four (the mom, dad, and two teenage sons) usually have WWOOFers around at any given time, and are cheerfully welcoming of those who come through their doors. There was a host of WWOOFers present during the month, with the total count going as high as seven at one point. As most of the orders of cut flowers need to be gathered and sent out in the week following up to Christmas, the family very much needs the help from the travellers, and so the house was bustling with representatives from Britain, Japan, Malaysia, and of course, Canada. Glen and I, being the only couple among the WWOOF crew, got the honours of being given the main guest room, complete with a queen sized bed and closet. We had our clothes out of the backpacks and hung in the closet within 15 minutes of getting our room. These sorts of things are exciting after living out of backpacks for three months.
As a point of interest, the flowers we were picking are called Lucospermum, and they are a variety of protea. The farm grows three varieties:
Highgold
Tango
Harry Chittick
The aren’t that difficult to pick, provided that the picking efforts don’t disintegrate into a snowball-style flower fight. The flower heads make excellent missiles, especially if the flowers haven’t opened completely. They also cause massive hayfeaver (the Japanese guy got hit the worst, and I made good use of the anti-histamines that I brought from Canada), and are filled with bees. No wasps, mind, just bees.
Here is one of the flower fields. The hill is deceptively steep; no need for squats when you've got flower farm hills to climb:
The work was similarly very good. Weather permitting, we made as early a start of the day as possible so that we would be finished picking before the sun got really hot. At the start of the month we had a few days off, and we were given time off when the weather was too bad to go out picking. We were usually in the fields at 7:30, and would often be finished both picking and grading (done in the packhouse, which is quite temperate) by noon or one o’clock.
Here is where we grade the picked flowers - picking off bugs and bird poo, cutting the stems to the proper lengths, etc. The packhouse is wonderfully cool, so we were out of the sun and the heat by the time things got really toasty. Plus, you can flick the cut-off ends of the stems at other people really hard if you get the wrist motion and timing of the stem snipping just right. If you aim is really good, you can bounce the stem ends off people's foreheads.
Once the final flower orders were sent out on the 23rd, we were given several days off until the family clears out the house on the 28th to make room for some visiting friends. We all spend a fabulous Christmas here, eating entirely too much food on the very sunny patio, which overlooks one of the harbours.
Christmas breakfast - the start of a day of gorging:
This is what the weather was like all day, as viewed from the patio. Are you jealous yet?
We’ve done quite a bit that wouldn’t make for a particularly interesting post, so I shall give you something of a point-form summary of a few of the highlights:
-meeting the family’s three legged cat, who drools everywhere when cuddled.
-having an entire travel mug of freshly boiled tea dumped on me by Glen, who felt that the tea would look better on my leg than in the cup. I swore extremely loudly and startled a conservationists’ meeting that John (the resident patrician) was hosting. Yes, it hurt. Yes, there are still burn marks.
-Doing large batch cooking with the most adorably hilarious Japanese girl ever (the food was prepared in advance and then frozen for the busy picking days when we would be too buzy/tired to want to cook dinner for 12 adults).
-Getting nailed squarely in the eye with an unopened and rock-hard Highgold head during a vicious flower fight. Much to my irritation, the eye did not bruise, despite staying slightly swollen and tender for a couple of days.
-Glen getting stung by bees twice in the space of 20 minutes.
-Making and distributing massively rich, creamy, fatty, boozy egg nog for a whole bunch of people who have never before discovered the delights of homemade egg nog – home made, not that vile store-bought stuff, which you can’t get here anyway.
We leave here tomorrow, and will be staying in Christchurch for a few days with Julie’s (the resident matron) cousin, who has kindly extended visiting invitations to the WWOOFers to stay with her while in the city. Indecision and procrastination has led us to be uncertain as to where we will go afterwards; we do have an offer at another WWOOF place, but the more we review it, the less pleasant it sounds. We’re hoping to find somewhere else to WWOOF at in this area, and afterwards we will do a road-trip, sleep-in-the-back-of-the-wagon style tour of the south tip of the island. Maybe we’ll spend a day or two here and there in a hostel so that we can get cleaned up and have a proper meal. There aren’t too many WWOOF places in that area that we are interested in, so we may or may not bother trying to set something up.
And now, in order to make you even more wildly jealous, a few pictures of our lottery-win December situation:
This is the view from the living room and TV room:
A bunch of us trooped off to an isolated beach one afternoon. The resident heard of cows took a keen interest in the vehicle, and surrounded the truck, poking their runny noses inside. They were skittish and backed off as soon as we came up, but they may have very well attempted to steal the radio:
We went to Christchurch during one rainy day. While inspecting the Christchurch Cathedral, we discovered that there was no way to escape the flowers - the Harry Chitticks had followed us to town and took up residence on the pulpit:
Our rainy day trip also took us to the Christchurch art gallery, which was great fun. There was a display of knitted bonsai trees that were particularly ticklish:
There was also a weird exhibit that was basically a big cardboard tube with a gentle suction. We didn't realize what it was until I looked into it and it sucked my hair right up the tube:
Glen wanted in on the vacuum action:
In Christchurch there is an import store that supplied all sorts of foreign items. The store is teeeeeeeeny, doesn't seem to be organized in any sort of recognizable pattern, and is possibly one of the most delightful stores we've ever walked in to:
December was fantastic, and this was due in no small part to our wonderfully hospitable hosts, who went above and beyond to make us feel at home, and the other WWOOFers who we chummed around with. We'll be stopping in again some time to visit on our way back up the island, to say hello and share whatever wine we pick up along the way. We had a blast, we made friends, we struck gold!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Up to our necks in...
Right, so here is a mighty attempt to get our adventure stories back on track and all caught up.
The last two weeks in November were spend in the Nelson region, close to a little town outside Nelson called Wakefield. This is a significantly drier area than much of New Zealand, and there was hardly a drop of rain to interrupt the scorching temperatures during our entire stay.
We stayed with a family who operate a permaculture hobby farm, with two donkeys, two goats, a cat and dog, a flock of chickens (significantly less interested in humans than the chickens at the Grampians Halls Gap YHA hostel), and a lovely dark brown Jersey cow. As this was a WWOOFing expedition, we traded a few hours of work in the morning for room and board. It was awfully nice to be able to look at a kitchen with a reasonably varied compliment of ingredients and know that there would be no need to wonder what sort of single-meal food items we would have to purchase. Our accommodation was a specially constructed - and comfortable - shed, complete with two twin slat beds, a TV and DVD player, and a composting toilet; we had uninterrupted views of the night sky, as the shed was at the far end of the property, away from the main house in the rear of one of the pastures:
Our host was delighted to learn that Glen is a sculptor, and immediately suggested that he make them a few art pieces for their eclectic garden as his WWOOF work. Both Glen and I thought this was a fantastic idea, as it would mean that he would be able to dedicate a good four to five hours a day to working on his sculpture technique and play around with different materials than he usually uses - materials which our host would provide.
Behold! The artist at work:
And so Glen sculpted while I weeded/watered/composted the garden, oiled verandas and doors, and cooked. Both of us took part in the most common activity: collecting donkey poo. The poo collection occured every couple of days and took a good hour. Fortunatly it doesn't stink and is relatively dry - something that cannot be said for the cow poo, which was also collected and frequently mixed with sawdust to make a garden fertilizer. The donkeys were a bit of a nuisance, as they liked to stick their noses on our backs to beg for attention as we collected their leavings.
The place was very quaint. We learned how to cook on a wood burning stove, ate freshly laid eggs from the chickens and drank fresh milk from the cow. That cow must be one of the most sedate bovines around. She liked to be scratched, fed treats, and would aggressively trumpt her displeasure if she wasn't let out to her daily grazing pasture at the proper time or if it her daily milking was late. She also liked to lick Glen's leg, which was far from ticklish and resulted in the removal-via-sandpaper-tongue of a patch of leg hair and probably a good layer of skin.
But she loves people so!
Other activities included a couple of trips into nearby Nelson and Richmond. We dined at Harry's Bar in Nelson, and became acquainted with the reasonings behind the multiple awards the restaurant has won. Damn, they've got some fine cocktails there... I managed to take in a local belly dance class, and we went to a lovely fundraiser market event at one of the nearby vineyards. The market was great fun, and the views from the winery were simply lovely:
We enjoyed our time at the farm, but were ready to move on when our two weeks were up. Glen kept very busy and produced some pretty darn good work, if I do say so myself. So for your aesthetic enjoyment, I shall close with a little show of the fruits of his labour:
Male torso, constructed in separate muscular groups. Chicken wire and cement.
Female torso, classical position. Chicken wire and cement.
Sneering face. Chicken wire and cement, coloured with red paint, white paint, house stain, and grass.
Male face in tree. Wood, carved from a still rooted stump.
And finally: Lauren, encased in duct tape. (It was an experiment to make a mould for a cement cast torso figure. It...uh...didn't really work.)
The last two weeks in November were spend in the Nelson region, close to a little town outside Nelson called Wakefield. This is a significantly drier area than much of New Zealand, and there was hardly a drop of rain to interrupt the scorching temperatures during our entire stay.
We stayed with a family who operate a permaculture hobby farm, with two donkeys, two goats, a cat and dog, a flock of chickens (significantly less interested in humans than the chickens at the Grampians Halls Gap YHA hostel), and a lovely dark brown Jersey cow. As this was a WWOOFing expedition, we traded a few hours of work in the morning for room and board. It was awfully nice to be able to look at a kitchen with a reasonably varied compliment of ingredients and know that there would be no need to wonder what sort of single-meal food items we would have to purchase. Our accommodation was a specially constructed - and comfortable - shed, complete with two twin slat beds, a TV and DVD player, and a composting toilet; we had uninterrupted views of the night sky, as the shed was at the far end of the property, away from the main house in the rear of one of the pastures:
Our host was delighted to learn that Glen is a sculptor, and immediately suggested that he make them a few art pieces for their eclectic garden as his WWOOF work. Both Glen and I thought this was a fantastic idea, as it would mean that he would be able to dedicate a good four to five hours a day to working on his sculpture technique and play around with different materials than he usually uses - materials which our host would provide.
Behold! The artist at work:
And so Glen sculpted while I weeded/watered/composted the garden, oiled verandas and doors, and cooked. Both of us took part in the most common activity: collecting donkey poo. The poo collection occured every couple of days and took a good hour. Fortunatly it doesn't stink and is relatively dry - something that cannot be said for the cow poo, which was also collected and frequently mixed with sawdust to make a garden fertilizer. The donkeys were a bit of a nuisance, as they liked to stick their noses on our backs to beg for attention as we collected their leavings.
The place was very quaint. We learned how to cook on a wood burning stove, ate freshly laid eggs from the chickens and drank fresh milk from the cow. That cow must be one of the most sedate bovines around. She liked to be scratched, fed treats, and would aggressively trumpt her displeasure if she wasn't let out to her daily grazing pasture at the proper time or if it her daily milking was late. She also liked to lick Glen's leg, which was far from ticklish and resulted in the removal-via-sandpaper-tongue of a patch of leg hair and probably a good layer of skin.
But she loves people so!
Other activities included a couple of trips into nearby Nelson and Richmond. We dined at Harry's Bar in Nelson, and became acquainted with the reasonings behind the multiple awards the restaurant has won. Damn, they've got some fine cocktails there... I managed to take in a local belly dance class, and we went to a lovely fundraiser market event at one of the nearby vineyards. The market was great fun, and the views from the winery were simply lovely:
We enjoyed our time at the farm, but were ready to move on when our two weeks were up. Glen kept very busy and produced some pretty darn good work, if I do say so myself. So for your aesthetic enjoyment, I shall close with a little show of the fruits of his labour:
Male torso, constructed in separate muscular groups. Chicken wire and cement.
Female torso, classical position. Chicken wire and cement.
Sneering face. Chicken wire and cement, coloured with red paint, white paint, house stain, and grass.
Male face in tree. Wood, carved from a still rooted stump.
And finally: Lauren, encased in duct tape. (It was an experiment to make a mould for a cement cast torso figure. It...uh...didn't really work.)
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Wine Trail
After a quick drive to Napier, a lovely little town renowned for it’s amazing Art Deco architecture, we decided to stay there for a couple of nights and see if we could pick up some WWOOF work on our way to Christchurch.
For any New Zealand travellers in the audience, I would highly recommend the Napier Prison Backpacker’s Hostel. It’s a great place to spend a few nights; good clean facilities, very comfortable beds, and a whole lot of fun. Spending a night or two in the cells is pretty entertaining.
It only took a couple of phone calls for us to secure a WWOOF appointment at a really cute sounding place; we will be at a small hobby-type permaculture farm shepherded by a Swiss lady with a voice and accent that could immediately conjure boxes of Swiss chocolates wrapped with grosgrain ribbon. I’m quite intrigued by the presence of a hand-milked cow.
We left Napier a couple of days before our scheduled arrival at the WWOOF farm, as the farm is on the south island and it will take us at least a day’s travel to get across on the ferry. The Hawke’s Bay region is renowned for it’s wineries, and there were plenty of wineries along the Naiper-to-Wellington highway. We planned on stopping of at about eight or so wineries, but by the third winery I was completely hammered and Glen, despite diligently spitting out every mouthful of wine, was worried that if we visited any more cellars he was going to end up absorbing too much alcohol to continue driving. The first vineyard’s wine was nothing to write home about; pleasant but not particularly interesting. The second vineyard was quite a bit of fun; the woman conducting our wine tasting was a hoot, the wine was delicious, and the samples were generous. There were a couple of reds that I would have liked to purchase, but they were very costly and well outside our budget. At the third vineyard we came across a really fantastic dessert wine – the first dessert wine I’ve actually enjoyed – and a lovely Shiraz, so we bought a bottle of each.
Wine purchased and safely stowed, we stopped for lunch at a highway eatery known as The Chook and the Filly. If you are ever driving the South Highway 50, stop by this place and have a meal. Actually, if you are planning on driving the SH2, change your plans and take the SH50 instead just so you can stop at this place. The food is mouth-watering, the prices are reasonable, and the proprietor is a great man to talk to about the wines you have (or are about to) sample.
The remainder of the drive was quite uneventful, and we spent the night in Paraparaumu at the Barnacles Seaside Inn YHA hostel. This is another place that I will add to my list of recommended accommodations. It is very, very homey and comfortable. The kitchen is a little small, but the delightful dining room/TV room more than makes up for it, and it meets my cleanliness standards.
For any New Zealand travellers in the audience, I would highly recommend the Napier Prison Backpacker’s Hostel. It’s a great place to spend a few nights; good clean facilities, very comfortable beds, and a whole lot of fun. Spending a night or two in the cells is pretty entertaining.
It only took a couple of phone calls for us to secure a WWOOF appointment at a really cute sounding place; we will be at a small hobby-type permaculture farm shepherded by a Swiss lady with a voice and accent that could immediately conjure boxes of Swiss chocolates wrapped with grosgrain ribbon. I’m quite intrigued by the presence of a hand-milked cow.
We left Napier a couple of days before our scheduled arrival at the WWOOF farm, as the farm is on the south island and it will take us at least a day’s travel to get across on the ferry. The Hawke’s Bay region is renowned for it’s wineries, and there were plenty of wineries along the Naiper-to-Wellington highway. We planned on stopping of at about eight or so wineries, but by the third winery I was completely hammered and Glen, despite diligently spitting out every mouthful of wine, was worried that if we visited any more cellars he was going to end up absorbing too much alcohol to continue driving. The first vineyard’s wine was nothing to write home about; pleasant but not particularly interesting. The second vineyard was quite a bit of fun; the woman conducting our wine tasting was a hoot, the wine was delicious, and the samples were generous. There were a couple of reds that I would have liked to purchase, but they were very costly and well outside our budget. At the third vineyard we came across a really fantastic dessert wine – the first dessert wine I’ve actually enjoyed – and a lovely Shiraz, so we bought a bottle of each.
Wine purchased and safely stowed, we stopped for lunch at a highway eatery known as The Chook and the Filly. If you are ever driving the South Highway 50, stop by this place and have a meal. Actually, if you are planning on driving the SH2, change your plans and take the SH50 instead just so you can stop at this place. The food is mouth-watering, the prices are reasonable, and the proprietor is a great man to talk to about the wines you have (or are about to) sample.
The remainder of the drive was quite uneventful, and we spent the night in Paraparaumu at the Barnacles Seaside Inn YHA hostel. This is another place that I will add to my list of recommended accommodations. It is very, very homey and comfortable. The kitchen is a little small, but the delightful dining room/TV room more than makes up for it, and it meets my cleanliness standards.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Partially fledged
Now that the visas have been acquired, impatience to 'get stuff done' has increased. Today’s thing-that-got-done was to become a member of WWOOF New Zealand. We should receive our “Wwoof Book” sometime in August, and we are therefore able to actually make inquiries to hosts and make a list of the places that seem the most enjoyable. I’ve already got a few marked out for possible inquiry. The main problem appears to be that there are many, many intriguing sounding hosts and – as cheesy as it sounds – we won’t have time to visit them all!
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