Read this blog before looking at the Hokitika pics!

Well, so much has happened over the last few days that I don't really know where to begin so I think I'll just start again and fill you in on Hokitika & the Search for Christmas! (And I'm not making it up, honest!)

Hokitika

Hokitika is a couple of hours drive south of Punakaiki. We were thinking of spending a night at Greymouth, but never has a place been more aptly named (think 'the Kings Lynn of the West Coast') and we hurriedly continued our journey. The drive was another West Coast beauty, full of dramatic seascapes of stormy West Coast beaches, and was also notable for a couple of bridges along the way. There are many bridges throughout New Zealand that are narrow and have a single lane priority, so we weren't particularly surprised to find some more on our way. The difference here was that the single lane road also shared the way with a railway line! Yes, we actually had to drive along the railway track until we reached the other side, and at the end of the second bridge there was a roundabout where the railway track cut through the middle of the entire junction! We were told afterwards that there is only one train per day using this route and that it approaches these bridges and roundabout very slowly - comforting!

Our first WWOOF in Hokitika was at the family home of Kim, Eileen and their two children, Judd (5) and Rea (6 months). They live on a lovely plot of land a few kilometres from town, which includes a couple of small lakes, and is also home to a small flock of sheep, some incredibly cute pigs, chickens, ducks, a gorgeous friendly goat called Billy and Sheba, the camera-shy blue heeler (an Australian cattle dog). They live a pretty self-sufficient life where they grow their own veggies and berries, and raise their own meat, all organic and free-range, and they were a lovely kiwi family, very chilled. The WWOOF itself was a little challenging for us and we did struggle at first, though it had a good outcome and we did both learn from doing it. So why was it challenging? Well, we were excited upon arrival to see their lovely home, and were even more excited at the prospect of the 'Lake House', described as a bach, our own self-contained accommodation. So we were a touch disappointed to be led to a damp cabin overlooking a lake away from the house, set in a general dumping area, that was powered off a car battery, so no possibilities for charging anything, or making a cup of tea, and it did have a toilet, but it was an outdoor compost toilet, with see-through walls, that you had to climb over a wire fence and slippery logs to reach (nearby trees were a better option), and then there was nothing to wash our hands with afterwards. So I think it's fair to say that it pushed us out of our comfort zone a little, and we did adjust and it was adequate and probably very good for us, but I think we were perhaps expecting a little more, especially after Beehive Gardens where our separate accommodation was gorgeous.

I think that the nature of the WWOOF was also part of the reason that we didn't really settle into this as we have some of our other WWOOFs. Kim and Eileen are wonderful people, but they are much more relaxed and chilled out than other hosts (partly as they have a very young family to deal with so their full attention was elsewhere) but sometimes a little too chilled out so the day didn't have a huge amount of structure and it wasn't always clear exactly what we were supposed to be doing. And unlike other WWOOFs, work continued long into the afternoon (not because we did more, but because it was so spread out) so we didn't have much time afterwards to explore nor to try and set up work, which we really needed to do.

The work itself was a good mix of general WWOOFer duties: weeding the veggie patch, pulling out unruly wild raspberries, feeding the chickens and collecting eggs, and taming the bushes around their patio and entranceway, though our absolute favourite thing in the whole place was Billy, my beautiful Billy, a goat whose job it was to keep the grass down, and who loved human contact and adored having his head scratched (and it was nothing to do with the fact that every time we passed him we had a wheelbarrow of fresh goodies for him to nibble!) And we must have done something right because they were delighted with the work that we did, referring to us as 'their Christmas angels' and they invited us to stay on and use their cabin while having a little explore of the area. Plus Eileen cooked some of the tastiest food we have eaten on our WWOOFs to date.

It was while at Kim & Eileen's that we met Gernot and Gisela, a German couple who have lived in New Zealand since the early 70s. Gernot popped around as he saw a new car at 'The Lake House' to ask if we would like to go hunting with him, as he has done with many other WWOOfers staying there. Now this was a very difficult decision, especially for me, partly conscious that the majority of my friends reading this are either vegetarian or vegan (hence the warning to read this before looking at the pics) and also because I wasn't sure if I could kill an animal, despite being a meat eater. But we decided to go, Suzanne has always been interested in a self-sufficient lifestyle so this really interested her, and I thought that it would be hypocritical of me to eat meat, but to ignore its origins. Plus, Gernot does not hunt simply to kill but he hunts his food (with the blessing of the local farmers), only killing what they can eat and with the philosophy that it is better to eat an animal that has lived a full, free life rather than an animal that has been bred just for its meat and may not have been killed in a particularly humane way. And interestingly he has also taken some strict vegetarians hunting, only they refused to eat the meat afterwards!! Anyway, off we went.

On the first day the weather was not kind to us, it was raining in the mountains so we went for a little target practice with an empty beer carton and some sticky labels, and surprised Gernot with the accuracy of our shooting. The next day we took off with him and his beautiful German wire-haired pointer, Freya, and we shot our dinner! To be honest I can't believe that I did it, having kept rabbits as a child and being somebody who cries every time I watch Watership Down, and to be fair there was a moment when I picked up the rabbit that I'd shot and held it by its warm soft fluffy feet that I thought perhaps I wouldn't eat meat again, but I did and it did taste good. I wasn't as brave as Su however and couldn't bring myself to skin the poor thing afterwards. And we also had an experience that many people pay for, being taken out into the wilds looking for food, being taught how to survive in the wild, and being taught by such a wonderful, kind man like Gernot, who is a true gentleman and a former guide, and we are very grateful to him for giving us this experience and for sharing his knowledge and his food.

The following evening we were invited back to his and Gisela's to share dinner with them and their friend, Christiane who is over from Germany. And they really do live a self-sufficient life, providing most of their own food from the land and their animals: sheep, chickens, and two beautiful Jersey calves whom they rescued and who they will keep for milk. They have built their own house on a plot of land even further out than Kim & Eileen's and they collect rain water for their house, using buckets to flush the toilet and to bring water in to wash up, etc, and only have 2 hours of electricity every evening from their generator. They live the ultimate simple life and are the most generous, warm people and we feel privileged to have met them. They then invited us back to spend a few nights with them WWOOFing, and we spent one day there but the weather was terrible and forecast to be so for a few days so it wasn't worth us staying as we needed to move on and find paid work before Christmas, so we left again, but may return for a few days on the way home, when Gernot has offered to take us on a camping trip to the mountains above the Franz Josef Glacier.

The Search for Christmas

So now the search was on to find paid work again, as our savings are slowly depleting and we need to keep saving for Asia. We tried garden centres on the West Coast, but there really isn't any horticulture or viticulture work in this area and we do need another 2/3 weeks before the end of January to be sure of our visa extension, so we decided to move onto Canterbury over on the East Coast where there are more garden nurseries and also vineyards. We tried to phone around beforehand but didn't have much luck, partly as we couldn't always find a phone to use, so after spending an extremely comfortable night at a backpackers in Hokitika we set off over Arthur's Pass to Christchurch.

This was another beautiful scenic drive, partially in rain and cloud, but that does not detract from the beauty of the Southern Alps. The drive up to Arthur's Pass was extremely steep - the lady in Birdsong Backpackers had warned us not to put our air con on as the engine is under so much strain anyway, and poor little Shadowfax, with all our stuff in the boot she could barely make it to 30 km per hour on the uphill climb! But the views were spectacular and stopping at a viewpoint on the way up we saw our first keas, cheeky mountain parrots, famous for eating windscreen wipers and anything else they can pull off vehicles! They were happily hopping around the car park, amused by all the passing motorists stopping to take photos of them. After the pretty town of Arthur's Pass, way up in the snow-tipped mountains, we came out into this valley, full of spring alpine flowers, surrounded by the snowy mountains - it was incredibly beautiful and we stopped for lunch, drinking in the view, before continuing to Christchurch.

And then it was back to city life, straight into 3-lane traffic, at the start of evening rush hour. We wanted to run straight back to the quiet, beautiful, wild, west, but instead we checked into a backpackers, and started searching for work. But as I mentioned previously nobody was taking on so close to Christmas in garden centres and many Canterbury vineyards had lost crops due to the November frosts so we realised we would have to think of another option, and decided to look for a suitable WWOOF over Christmas. After spending some time searching the website and phoning around battling with others looking for a bed over Christmas, we finally found Peter & Glenys, down in Oamaru who were looking for helpers to collect seaweed for their garden, and we set off, relieved to be leaving the city and returning to a beautiful quiet town, that is also famous for having two penguin colonies. And we had a totally weird experience.

When we arrived we went around the wrong side of the house looking for the front door, and the patio door opened sharply and Glenys, without any word of hello or welcome, ordered us around to the other side to the main door, where they greeted us in a very awkward, cold fashion and showed us our rooms. Already I was thinking that they may perhaps not be the most fun people to be spending the festive season with and when we were left to unpack I just sat in my room, not wanting to put anything away. The evening got worse, and I could probably go on for pages and pages about things that happened, but the main point I got from this evening was that she did not want us in her house at all - I have never felt so unwelcome and so uncomfortable in another person's house before. The evening went downhill as we were ordered to help with dinner which we don't mind, we always do help but we were instructed (Su was even told how to peel potatoes!), before witnessing a slightly embarrassing exchange between them about whose way they were using to cook dinner (oh, you're cooking it your way, are you? Well you can scrape the burnt bits off the bottom then), then were served the most appalling food I've ever eaten (and the meanest amount) - I can eat vegetarian food, we have been for much of our time here due to budget constraints and when food is prepared with love, like the food we were served by Alastair at Beehive Gardens, who served mainly vegetarian food, it's just good food. But this was like eating sawdust with a little sauce on. And just to be polite and try and break the awkward silence, I commented on the sauce to be told that they prepare it for every cooked meal!!! Arghhhhhhh!!! After Ross & Helen's much loved laptop then ceasing to boot as soon as we plugged it into their house and the shower head breaking on us, we retreated to a cold, cold bedroom and I spent the entire night awake trying to think of a way out - I was so desperate I almost packed at 5.30am and even considered giving up my dream of Asia to use our savings over Christmas if it meant I could get out alive - I was that desperate!

The following morning I called Su in and asked her how we were going to leave, but Su was so tired the previous day that she had convinced herself that the awkwardness was hers and she would give them another chance, at which point I broke down in tears, sobbing frantically that I couldn't spend Christmas in a house with no love and joy and this wasn't what I wanted for my first Christmas away from home - I wanted to be with warm, loving people, having a laugh and enjoying a new experience. Anyway, we went out for breakfast, Su asked if she could help prepare anything and was told that 'they were preparing their breakfast' with no indication of what we could have to eat. After a painful tour of a badly disorganised property and extremely long-winded account of the jobs he had, plus another awkward exchange between them, Su was right with me and all we had to do was find an excuse. Part of me wanted to tell them the truth, but being the people that we are we didn't want to hurt their feelings, especially as I think she is the cold mad one, and I believe he is probably quite sweet (he even knows our lovely Jamie & Susie Dean), if a little slow and incredibly deluded about her. So we told them that I was homesick as Christmas and my birthday approaches and am also worried about finding paid work and after a recent conversation with Mum & Dad they had decided to send us money as a surprise so we could check into a special place for the festive season, so we just had to leave right away and start treating ourselves - relatively plausible, partially true. Bless Peter, his little face fell, then we fought hard to keep a straight face as he said this has happened a lot to them, many WWOOFers had received urgent text messages while at theirs and he patiently explained that one mature Canadian couple had received a message that a previous WWOOF host had suddenly become ill and they had to dash off to help them - yeah, right!

So we finished our work for the morning, me spreading seaweed over the orchard (I've since been told that unless he thoroughly washed it of salt it would probably kill everything) and Su spraying the apples with a mix of essential oils to stop black spot (don't ask!), then ran to the house, packed in a flash, everything was in the car before they had come out of their office, then they asked us to eat lunch with them before leaving as we'd worked all morning. We reluctantly agreed, bought some freerange eggs, then were a little perplexed as they said goodbye, without any further mention of lunch at all! So we looked at each puzzled and retreated, Su had to perform a several point turn to get the car out and we got to the end of the road and collapsed into hysterics, wondering what the hell just happened, then swapped drivers and I drove to town as Su's blood sugar had dropped so much that she couldn't safely drive! But we were free!

Our Fairy Godmother

So there we were, on our way back to town, with nowhere to stay over Christmas and no idea of what we were going to do. The first priority was to get some food as we were fading fast so we called into a cheap tearoom and ordered a toasted sandwich, and some true kiwi hospitality kicked in as we were waiting for our food. The lady serving, Mandy, was chatting and asked us where we were staying, so we said what had just happened and she offered us a bed at hers for a couple of nights while we sorted ourselves out. Then another lady, Joy, standing just behind who had overheard this exchange said she was on her own for Christmas and had a spare bed in her craft room and we could spend Christmas with her. They told us to go away and eat our food and think about it. So we wandered off, even more puzzled at the day and after a little discussion decided to go back to Joy's and discuss her proposal with her. So we turned up on her doorstep and said "did you mean it?" and she said "yes". We had a chat and offered to do her garden, pay for power and share the cost of food and that was it. So we unpacked, popped back into town to thank Mandy for her offer and buy some food and went to Joy's. She is the most wonderful lady, our fairy godmother - she has recently returned from a 3-month trip to Switzerland where she stayed with a Swiss man and his family, who she had picked up here in much the same way. She currently has her neighbour and friend, Elizabeth, staying with her in between moving house, and Barry had come over for tea with some blue cod that his son had caught, and we spent the most warm comfortable evening with these two incredibly intelligent, well-travelled and interesting ladies, and Barry who was so sweet, but hadn't travelled much at all, utterly amazed at everything we were saying "wow, people drive on the other side of the road in parts of Europe, really, wow, I couldn't do that!" It was wonderful; we couldn't quite believe what had happened. We spent the night in a warm cosy bed after a hot shower and woke this morning and just sat and laughed - "where the hell are we and what happened yesterday?"

And today we have been into Oamaru and just fell in love with the place; it's gorgeous, so welcoming and full of kind people. Plus, through talking to some people in town (and being offered another bed for Christmas) and Joy talking to others, we have realised that Peter & Glenys are actually rather well-known around here for being incredibly strange, very cold and for being unable to keep any WWOOFers at their place for any period of time, so we now know that it wasn't just us, that they are just very bizarre people, and that we had a lucky escape! And here we are, we have a computer here to use (as the laptop is sadly confirmed deceased so no more preparing blogs & emails at home), a telephone to call home over Christmas and most importantly a warm wonderful person to spend Christmas with. And I still can't believe what has happened over the last 2 days! Now we have a few days to get really excited about Christmas - we are making food, helping Joy to prepare food & gift packs to Pacific Islanders who have just moved to NZ and don't have much, and planning a few days out as we have transport which Joy doesn't have. Plus we spoke to IEP in Auckland today who sent our stuff by courier so I could get my birthday stuff before moving on, because it was my birthday and because they loved our photos! So there you go, the Christmas spirit is well and truly alive, we have yet more confirmation that Kiwi hospitality is amazing and the universe is looking after us!

Before signing off, I must send my congratulations to Felicity who has just become engaged! I'm waiting to hear the details…

Sarah, hope you have a wonderful birthday on Christmas Eve and that you, Lyndn and gorgeous little Ellis are all well.

And finally a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to family, friends and anybody else who may be following our blog!

With all our love and lots of festive joy and spirit, love Jo, Su & our Fairy Godmother, Joy, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx