Hello from a hot, dry and dusty Cromwell!

You know, Su and I were laughing after I'd written the last blog at what people back home must think sometimes when they read it. I mean, one minute we are zooming around the country, admiring countless gorgeous beaches, watching rare and special wildlife, having the most amazing time. And the next minute something happens and very quickly we are feeling low and everything gets really difficult. But I think that's all part of travel, and when something happens and you're a long way from home you don't have the immediate support of family and friends to put things in perspective for you. And yes, we have each other, but if we're both feeling low and suffering from lack of sleep, then we can't pick each other up and can spiral and actually make each other feel a little worse! If we were at home and feeling like this we would pick up the phone and call a friend or our parents, but of course we don't always have access to a phone here and our friends probably wouldn't appreciate a call in the middle of the night, just for a little 'pick-me-up' chat!

One thing we are learning very quickly is that everything, even the difficult and bad stuff, happens for a reason, and this realisation is helping us to deal with the difficult bits. Take Ash Ridge for example. We were so upset when we realised that Jon wasn't the friend we thought he was and we felt really let down by him. But do we regret it? Well, no, not at all. We learnt a huge amount about wine, wine tasting, wine making, viticulture, wine and food matching, etc. And if we hadn't have gone there we wouldn't have met Ross, Helen and gorgeous wee Stevie who really have become true friends. And then there was Oamaru. Yes, we had to run from our WWOOF hosts, but then we met Joy, purely by chance: she had been allowed to leave early from her voluntary post at the Art Gallery as it was such a beautiful day and she wanted to walk home in the sun. She felt like some chips for the walk, walked into a cafe, and there we were! When her daughter, Kathryn, read my Tarot she said this was a really fateful time for me and this is really true. So when something bad or difficult happens I'm now always looking for a reason, a lesson to learn from it.

So what about Cromwell? Well in a strange way we are quite relieved. Our initial plan (before getting here) was to work here for about a month and we grabbed at this accommodation, as it is in short supply due to the amount of seasonal work in this area at the moment. But it's horrible! Cromwell is described in the Rough Guide as both a 'dull, service town' (tick) and an 'outdoor shopping mall' (tick). It is a dry, barren dustbowl with an outdoor mall that pipes out supermarket music all day. Plus, it's the furthest town from the sea anywhere in New Zealand - not great for us sea/ocean lovers! And we really have noticed that people here are much less friendly, while the roads are full of nutters, no perhaps not nutters. We've decided that it's probably something to do with the fact that everybody around here is into adventure or power sports and they're full of adrenaline, it's all GO, GO, GO. So they appear out of nowhere, drive right up your arse, as you're doing the speed limit, so you can't even see the headlights of their vehicle in your mirrors and try to bully you into going faster and not slowing down for corners. So overall it's probably a good thing that the job was terrible, as we don't want to stay here!

But being here we've learnt some stuff. We've become aware of the visa situation in time to do something about it, and we've met Mandy at Flight Centre who has helped us to put our plans into perspective. As you've probably been able to tell we've been stressing about earning enough for Asia and balancing that with seeing enough of New Zealand in the meantime. After talking to Mandy we've realised that we've been stretching ourselves too much with our initial plans of 3 months in Oz, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos, and the flights for this are just too expensive. So we've simplified our plans. We're now only staying in Southeast Asia for 2 months (so we'll be home earlier) and we're cutting out the stops in Sydney, Bali and Vietnam and flying straight to Bangkok. From here we can overland into neighbouring Laos and Cambodia and can now add in a trip to Peninsula Malaysia. So things now seem a little easier and it also balances out nicely: a month in north Thailand, Laos & Cambodia and then a month making our way home on the beaches of Malaysia & Thailand. We hope to leave New Zealand on 30th April and arrive home on 30th June, but of course this does depend on whether we get our visa extension or not. And yes, I am disappointed about missing Sydney, Bali and Vietnam, but it's not as if I'll never get the chance to come back! And this came up in my Tarot again - a card speaking of a loss and how I have to focus on what I have rather than what I've lost, and let's face it, 2 months in Southeast Asia is a dream!

So after all that, what are we going to do for work now? Well, we're moving to Wanaka! Katie, you're right, Wanaka is simply awesome. It's only 45 minutes drive from here, but the scenery is totally different. Wanaka sits around Lake Wanaka and is surrounded by the end of the Southern Alps and the Mount Aspiring National Park. There is snow on the tips of the mountains, and lush grass and trees around the lake. It's very beautiful and a lovely chilled town (though the power sports are there if you want them) and the perfect place for a dip in the alpine lake after sunbathing on its shores, as we did yesterday after securing ourselves a job! We are moving on Monday to the Wanaka Top 10 where we have cheap accommodation and paid work housekeeping, and we're so excited. Plus they have cheap Internet there so I can finally sort out the photos from Dunedin onwards! But on that note, here's a frustrating story for you: we were so annoyed at the expensive internet here we decided to see if the laptop could be fixed, took it to a local guy who looked at it free of charge and you know what? Started for him every time! So we went to collect it, he shut it down and restarted it several times in front of me and it worked perfectly every time. So we brought it home, and guess what? It will not boot up at all!!!! I must have tried about 100 times since last night and it refuses! So we've concluded it just doesn't like us anymore, but now I know it works I can't stop trying - I'm going to drive myself insane!

Anyway, on that note I'd better sign off. Today we posted our application for our visa extension, so please all keep your fingers crossed for us, and tomorrow we're going to explore Queenstown.

Lots and lots of love to you all, Jo & Su, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx