Nelson

Hey guys! Merry Christmas to everyone I hope everyone has or had a wonderful day!

Nolan and I really lucked out when it came to our host’s for the past ten days. We usually only stay for one week but Eva and Ian are so pleasant we just lost track of time and today is our tenth day. We worked at Eva’s house for six days doing mostly work outside. Shoveling clay was out first task, which was a result from the recent flood in Nelson. Eva told us that we just happened to come at the perfect time because there was so much to do at the house. We cut down a couple big branches off a tree one day. Eva was thrilled with the idea that we could use a chainsaw and we weren’t going to cut our limbs off J That job in particular was really fun…Nolan and I love doing work like that together. (Electric chainsaw’s can be really frustrating at points!) We also weeded, mowed, stacked wood. All jobs that made the outside of the house look a bit tidier, it really made Eva pleased!

The deal was…two hours of work per day we would get accommodation with no food. That was ok with us because two hours a day really isn’t much at all! Eva and Ian are such generous people and they offered us dinner a couple of times. They even took Nolan and I out to Indian food once and that was very pleasant. We stayed at Eva’s house for about six days. Eva told us that Ian’s house needed a lot of work on the outside as well. He told us that he would feed us and give us a place to stay for a couple of hours of work per day. It was perfect because we needed a place to stay for Christmas and we were concerned that we might not have one. Ian lived about forty minutes outside of Nelson in a town called Motueka. His house needed a BUNCH of work. The lawn needed to be mowed because it was about up to our hip. Weed whacking, stacking wood! He was really great. He made us the best meals, he truly was an amazing cook and I let him know nearly every meal we had. Almost every night Ian would go back to Nelson to Eva’s house to spend time with her, which meant that Nolan and I had the house to ourselves and that was quite fun. He is a computer engineer so he swore by his electronics and he had an absolutely amazing sound system. Nolan and I took serious advantage of that! J It was a very relaxed place to work at because he was very rarely there. He would just call in the morning and tell us what to do over the phone and we would get on with it. It was nice because Ian and Eva really trusted our work and that made us feel great! Eva told Nolan and I that we were the best WOOFERS that she had ever had. We felt really great about that!

 On Christmas Eve Ian took us to this river that was about a half an hour from his house. We had worked all day so he told us that it was time for some fun. On the rivers edge there were big rocks. One rock was about a ten-foot jump and the other was about a twenty-foot jump into the water. We all jumped off the rocks and it was great. I jumped off the twenty foot high one and I felt like the man. Haha. Then Ian gets up on the twenty-foot rock and said, “Jon, that jump was quite nice…but I prefer the dive.” I was thinking in my head you have to be kidding me! Mind you, Ian is almost sixty years old and he has a partially broken collarbone. He dove in with no hesitation. He is a crazy guy! HAHA it was FUN times!

Christmas rolled around before we knew it and Ian gave us the day off. Eva called early in the morning and told us to be ready at twelve because we were going to lunch at a little community that they used to live in called Riverside. Then in her quiet, adorable voice she said, “Oh Jon, by the way look behind the mattress in the second room, Ian got you and Nolan a Christmas gift. Two six packs of beer and a bit of Chocolate. Merry Christmas darling.” That made our day. Just the fact that they thought about us made me feel very happy and thankful. We couldn’t have thanked them enough.

Eva picked us up and we went to the lunch and it was wonderful! Everyone was in such a great mood and we ate plenty of food. Eva went to her friend’s house for tea and Nolan and I went for a walk. We found a pond with rafts and boards. We went swimming and the water was so warm! Swimming on Christmas day…who would have thought!

Our next destination is Wellington for the New Year. Wellington is on the North Island so we are catching the ferryy in Picton. It is supposed to be one of the most gorgeous ferry rides in the world so I am really looking forward to that! Our ferry leaves at 2 PM so we wanted to get to Picton and stay a night so we wouldn’t have to rush from Nelson on the 29^th.

Nolan and I left this morning on the 28^th and hitched out of Nelson. This guy who was from Long Island New York picked us up and he had a very heavy accent! He was hilarious. Raving on and on about the hang over he had from the night before he made Nolan drive to Picton instead of himself. It was great that we were both heading to the same place. He had some interesting stories to tell to say the least. He was very kind.

We are staying in a hostile tonight and we leave the South Island tomorrow. We plan to stay in the North Island for one month. We’ll see J

PS. This post was written over two days. (just incase you get confused)

Cheers,

Jon