On to Hope

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Yesterday we finally checked out of our Nelson hostel and ran our last in-town errands before heading off to the farm. Our ride wasn't set to pick us up until 5pm, so we left of bags at the desk and spent the afternoon in Queens gardens - walking around, watching ducks, sitting in the gazebo, and we even saw some fresh water eels which were really cool. At 5, we rode with Kevin to a little town called Hope where the farm is located and got settled into our quarters. We have a little house almost all to ourselves - there is another WWOOFer, Michael, from Germany who has been here a while already and is staying in the other bedroom. The house was apparantly relocated here from Nelson and is very turquoise. It's a bit rustic, but has everything you really need and suits me just fine. It is beautiful here! I could just sit on the porch for hours. You can just look straight across the fields to the hills not far away. Michael was off in his car when we first arrived so we spent the first few hours exploring the house and its accumulated contents of old games, books, and a very old and dusty record player that we actually got to work (after some fiddling around). We played some bits of Bob Marley, The Pretenders, Bowie, and the Violent Femmes. Once Michael got back and we established that he had already eaten dinner, Sha and I set about making something for ourselves. It took a while, since there is only one electric burner to do all the cooking on, but the fresh organic ingredients we had to work with made it worth the wait. We headed off to bed early to rest up for our first day of work (starting at 7am sharp!)

So a few minutes before 7, we walked down to the shed at the end of the drive to our house. We were then taken out front and shown how to hoe (ha ha - that sounds funny, doesn't it). So we basically hoed rows of lettuce and herbs all morning. Nothing too exciting and it got a little hot from being out in the sun the whole time, but it really wasn't bad at all. In fact, I kind of liked it. It certainly beats sitting all day in an office as far as I'm concerned.

There are 2 dogs here on the farm. Charlie is a smooth fox terrier puppy and definitely lives up to the playful puppy reputation. He had to be yelled at several times this morning because he was running up and down the rows trying to bite the hoes as we worked. Floyd (a white and black mastiff mix) is much bigger but also much older and much more laid back. Luckily, he's very good to Charlie, who is almost constantly trying to jump on him and nip him. Floyd also loves to play fetch and will bring you random plastic objects (frisbees, flower pots, bowls, whatever) even if you haven't thrown anything. They're great and have provided much entertainment for us already.

This afternoon, after our work was done and we had eaten lunch we met the other WWOOFer on the farm, Olivia from France, who is actually staying at Brent's mother's house and working for her. She dropped by the house so the 4 of us WWOOFers looked through the guest book to find past WWOOFers and then just hung out on the porch. It's all so relaxing here - even the work part. I could definitely get used to this.

Later on, Michael gave the 3 of us car-less WWOOFers a lift into the town of Hope and dropped us off. We picked up a box of wine to split and looked unsuccessfully for an internet cafe before walking back. It took about an hour and 15 mins. on foot to get back to the farm, but it didn't seem long at all. The scenery was gorgeous and even though we were walking along a road, it was so small and there were virtually no cars, so it all seemed very peaceful. The walk also gave us a chance to get to know Olivia better and we decided to all cook dinner together when we got to the farm. Olivia used her French cooking skills to whip up some delicious ratatouille from the fresh veges growing practically just outside our door. Mmm.

Before bed, we decided to check out the old TV, which sits in the living room next to the old record player. We figured out how to get exactly 3 grainy channels and watched some of the ridiculous kiwi soap opera, Shortland Street, that we've heard about and then some equally ridiculous show about supposed psychics in Australia. Oh fun times with NZ TV!

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