Welcome to Lake Ohau: Place of Wind

The excperience between the North and the South Island of New Zealand has been drastically different and by coming here it has turned the tone of the trip around.

To get here I took the Nakedbus (love the name!) to Wellington where I got the chance to spend some time at the famous Te Papa museum. Most of the displays are geared towards New Zealand's natural history and Maori culture. One of my favorite displays though was the one called "Our Place" where residents shared there stories on film about there favorite places in New Zealand and there meaning to them. One story in particular stuck out about a man who at twenty up and left his life in the city and drove through the night to reach his Aunts house and ended up living in an old abandon cottage in the bush raising his children, learning about the land from elders, and eventually running some environmental programs.

That night I had a flight from Wellington to Christchurch and made it to the hostel at about 11:30pm and left the next morning at 7am for Ohau. All I saw of Christchurch was what the bus passed through as we drove out. Waiting for the bus I met Spila from Hong Kong who would be working at Ohau as a housekeeper as well. After four hours of driving through hill country and mountains we were dropped off at the end of Ohau drive. We must've been quite a sight waiting in the middle of nowhere surrounded by our luggage and practically being blown over by the wind while we waited for Louise (Manager) to pick us up.

Settling In at the Grottage

The Grottage is a very interesting place. Mom you'd call it an "Ed Special." The first thing you see after you walk through the lupines and prayer flags to the bright blue door is the red and gray Grottage sign and a gold spray painted hand print. The little living room is a mix of seventies carpet and bright orange towel like blankets covering the even older couches. Dark brown paint and a little fireplace and two windows on each side looking out over the lake. Six rooms in all five of which have some very tall beds. These were made by the last winter group how took some tree stumps that had been laying around and built some beds for everyone. Each room has it's own personality, bits and pieces that have been left behind from the previous resident. Mine comes with a snow camouflage closet, gray and maroon walls, and a drying rack made of some mossy stick and old wire (I keep all my letters on it). Various stickers, photos, postcards, drawings, painting, magazine clip outs, carvings, writings, and holes decorate the walls and doors and on the occasion window or two.

Spila and I are currently living with a long term resident Gavin who at 31 is probably sick of living with two 18 year old girls and is heading off to study for a bit. He's a very interesting person in the past two weeks that we've been here he's torn apart the bathroom and rebuilt the shower, given us washing machine lessons, sings, dances, helped make Christmas decorations, and caught a rabbit for dinner. A native South Islander he is unbelievably kind and always willing to give us a lift in "the wee car" (as in tiny) up to the lodge when it's raining.

We always have dinner up in the lodge with the rest of the staff. Brad, Trish's husband, is the Chef here and always keeps us well fed on an access amount of lasagna and brownies. We have leftovers for lunch and museli (granolaish stuff) for breakfast.

Housekeeping

Making beds and scrubbing toilets is hard work! But strangely enjoyable in a weird sorta way. You come into a room, strip it, collect some "treasures" and before you know it's put back together again looking spick and span. Plus Di, the head housekeeper, and her three years old son Charlie (he's going through his "why" phase) are a lot of fun. Trish and Kate who live up the road come to help us too on busy days. We usually work from about 8am to 3-4. Then either curse at the dial up computer or walk back to the grottage until dinner.

Some of the most interesting days come after a Contiki group (bus tours for the 18-35's) have there last night at Ohau. That means toga party, messes, and really weird stuff turning up in the rooms. Because most of them are leaving for Australia after this nobody ever comes back to claim lost and found items so any food, clothes, or bath products we keep. Don't worry we return all jewelry and electronics. But because we are such a remote destination no one except the locals come back and the two closets and one room of lost and found are there to prove it.

Two nights ago we spent the night on Di and Tony's farm. They raise sheep and beef cattle, have eight farm dogs, a pony, a horse, a cockatiel, and a cat. The surrounding area, is of course, beautiful. Tucked away at a base of a mountain with land spanning down to where the two rivers come together to feed into Lake Ohau. We spent the night cooking, watching movies, playing with Charlie, and decorating the Christmas tree.

Yesterday it was cold enough to snow....on the tops of the mountains but it's still pretty chilly. Spila and I had to bundle up in leftover hats and mittens to walk to work this morning but now the sky is clear and the sun burning as usual.

For Christmas the staff and the bus tour are having Christmas dinner together which will be nice, though it does mean that Spila and I will be working on Christmas day, but we have Christmas Eve off which is nice. I can't believe that Christmas has come so fast it almost feels like were just joking around here about Christmas because it's the middle of summer. Working on a little Christmas video and hopefully I'll get to put it up online soon but that depends on when I can get to Trish's to use the fast computer. It's sad I think the computers in the jungle were faster then the one here : (

Thank you everyone for sending Christmas greetings and letters, I really appreciate it and have them all hanging up in my room.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year

Love Jazmine