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Published: February 14th 2008
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Owkay!
Where was I?
Ow yeah...
I arrived on the South Island, after I think a three hour-journey through the beautiful Marlbourough sounds.
Incredible views! I stayed in Picton for one day, did a little walk in the bay, drunk an awful Milkshake, enjoyed my
first bike ride on New-zealand territory (I miss my bike!!!!). And there I decided to go to Blenheim the next day
and start working in a vineyard!
In blenheim, I found a nice backpakershouse, where could stay for a longer time. I decided to stay there for at least
ten days. The same day I looked for my tax nr, opened a bankaccount and found a job very easily.
So next day: 6.40 am (painful...), sunblock, hat, loads of water, good shoes, and my sense of humour,
and of I went in the vineyards...hmmm
At night: 4.30 pm, very very tired (but satisfied) and I went of to bed at 9.30 pm. All the other people in my house had
to laugh, but they understood me very well, because they as well had their first day once.
Anyway this was the daily rythm of my first week. The work was awfully boring, made my brains
shrink a lot, but it surprised me
that it was physically not too hard. Maybe it should have been harder, then I wouldn't feel as clearly that my brain litteraly stopped
working. (tried to compensate this at night by reading Nationel geographic, but my mind drifted away to the simpsons on the screen).
The weekend was quiet nice as well, in this irrigated deserttown full of vineyards. We had a bqq, beer and bluesfestival! The beer was good,
the food was good, but the blues seemed more their own interpretation of this musicgenre. The beer healed this little lackness..
And as every good festival in NZ, the party was over at 6.00 pm. Time to head home and still have a nice eary afterparty.
The next day, we decided to go and do some winetasting, as we were surrounded by many topwineries of NZ!
We took some bikes, and headed off in the most hot day of the week (about 32 degrees) with our helmets on.
There are so many wineries in the area, that we had to skip some. But in the end we managed to visit 6 of them
and biking 35 km's. Which was exhausting
in the end. But we've learned a lot all the different sauvignon blancs, pinot gris and noirs,
merlot, desertwine,........ FANTASTIC! And we bought one all together from FROMM-winery! Delicicous. And what did we learn of all this?
We will never be able to drink cheap wine again ;(
A new week started, but we knew wednesday was a public holiday and thus restday! Ok, monday dripped into tuesday fluently, and then
(when I got more or less used to this hard working but enjoyable live) I got a surprise-message on my phone from Ann and Annaig, the two french girls I met at the River festival on the north Island. They told me that they were in Christchurch, but they would start hitchiking to Blenheim at the same moment (about four hours driving)! They didn't really know if they would make it, so I waited...without a very big hope
on an accomplished mission.
Anyway, some hours later, I heard Diana (boss of the house) calling my name, and telling me two girls came with their tent to visit me!
It was great news and a big surprise. We opened a whinebottle and talked all night long. They told me
they were heading for the next festival
in Takaka, to work there again. I thought about going there some weeks before, but because I ended up in the vineyards, I didn't slip into my mind anymore.
In somekind of nostalgia to the river festival, I decided to leave to job at the vineyard for what it was,
and the next day we hitch-hiked alltogheter to the festival on top of the hill, separating two bays!
We immediatly started working when we arrived: digging holes in the ground for the toilet!
So the next day was a mixture of meeting a lot of friends from the last festival, discovering we are NOT hippies and we DON'T want to BE hippies, discovering we don't like trancemusic, visiting a sinkhole of more than 400 metres deep (!), having a festival with lord of the rings background, and so much more 😉
After the festival, me and Miles (us), decided to go together to Takaka, the hippie and arts-and crafts, dreadlocks-town of the South island. We don't really fit, but try to adapt by walking barefoot, not taking a shower too much and be friendly to everybody we meet! At moment, we're working in
the dangerous kitchen. It's a nice cafe-restaurant with GREAT food! Main task is doing the dishes, so my hands are soaking...but.. i try to learn some waitress skills as well... and off course I ask for all the recipies!
We plan an staying here for at least the next days, and then we'll see who walks in, and brings the near
future!
A la prossima, amici!
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