Hey guys, another update from the world of Jo! Sorry its been so long, its just I've been trapped in a gulag style labour camp vine pruning in the middle of nowhere - aka the lovely town of Blenheim! It's very much a "local" town for "local" people, vine pruning is taken verrrry seriously, infact the Annual Pruning Competition is up there with the Sheep Shearing Shudden Death Knockout, (try saying that with a straight face!) on the high social event calendar! Basically I headed up here with my new super chums Anja and Andrea, bit of a spur of the moment decision...maybe I should think things through a little more! We ended up having to stay at this motor camp for accomodation, arriving at night after driving 13 hours up South Island. It was difficult to decide which was the best feature of our hut....the ants everywhere, the fact it shook everytime a train went by on the tracks behind it, (ooh sounds like the 6.30 Andrea...), the 100m walk to the shower block in the freezing cold and snow...or maybe the fact there was no heater and we had to buy our own! Work turned out to be just as great, getting up at 6am in minus 3 every day then pruning and wrapping all day in the sleet...I lasted four days and was proud of it! Even distractions such as Ninja vinepruning, Disco vinepruning, Yoga vinepruning.....couldn't keep us there! So clutching the pittance we'd earned, we returned to Christchurch cold, wind bitten and with bruised fingers from those evil vines. So we're heading back to Queenstown...the snow boarders are calling me.... ...but I definitely learned a valuable lesson and every time I drink a glass of wine I will think of the poor backpacking who worked wrapping those vines! Jo xxxxxxxxxxx (P.S. For those who were wondering the message board wasn't deleted, I had to archive it cos it got too full! xs)