Punakaiki/Nelson

We left the rainforest in Punakaki after a wonderful stay there. There was one minor issue. Nolan and I had no place to go from Punakaiki. We decided out best bet was to head south again and go back to Greymouth where we were helping last. At least there we had free internet so we could e mail host and try and find out what our next destination could be. We really wanted to head north from there and try and get to Nelson or Golden Bay for the holidays because we heard from several people that this was the place to be.

Hitching from Punakaiki to Greymouth was quite funny really. It just so happened that a massive storm front came in the day we had to leave. Therefore it was poring rain with really fierce wind. It was comical standing out in the poring rain with our thumbs up. We hoped that someone would feel bad for us and pick us up out of sheer pity J. Unfortunately we waited for about 45 minutes and we thought our luck had just about run out. Then a man pulled over and asked us where we were going. He too was heading to Greymouth to visit a friend so it worked out nice. The ride back to Greymouth was very cool! The sea was surging with such force and the waterfalls were as fierce as I had ever seen them. The man that picked us up was a host for helpx and woofing so we had that in common. He lived on the same road as the Te Nekau retreat where we had last been…. What a coincidence. He was telling us that this storm was pretty nasty and a lot of the south island was taking a big hit. He brought us right to the door step of the Neptunes backpackers where we had helped two weeks ago… it was perfect we couldn’t have thanked him enough in the nasty weather. We asked our old boss Ami (more of a friend) J if she had any available woofing spots for the next couple of days while we looked for our next host in the Nelson Golden Bay area. She gave us one day’s work, which was great because we got to stay in the hostile for a free night! Nolan and I searched and searched for a place and we couldn’t find anyone! All the host’s were booked over the Christmas/ New Years time. We thought that we might have to spend a week camping out somewhere…that was our last resort. I called about 15 different host’s. The last person that I called was a woman by the name of Eva Pick…located in Nelson. She had a quaint home stay that seemed appealing to me. She told us that she was more than willing to host Nolan and I. She asked if we could be in Nelson no later then 9 PM that day…it was 1 PM. We needed to get a move on. Nolan nor I new if we were going to make it to Nelson in that amount of time. It was a race against the clock! Quite fun really J

As soon as we were at our first spot to hitch from it started to rain…figures. Luckily we only waited fifteen minutes and a young German couple picked us up. They told us that they could bring us to Reafton which was about 75 K’s up the road. Works for us! Both of them worked on movies. The guy interestingly enough was a costume designer for the new movie The Hobbit which is coming out next year… it is apart of the Lord of The Rings series. The girl was working on an independent film. When we arrived in Reafton it was almost like a ghost town. No cars and very little people. We waited for about 15 minutes and we saw a red Jetta that passed us in Greymouth where we first started hitching from. We waived at each other and got a good laugh. They ended up turning around and picking us up. Laughing the man rolled down his window and said, “Hey didn’t we pass you about 70 K’s back?” We answered yes as he and his girlfriend chuckled they popped the trunk and told us to throw the bags in the back and to hop in! They were from Zimbabwe and had been living in New Zealand for 7 years. He told us that he could drop us off about 50 k’s up the road at a really good place to hitch. He was worried that we were going to get caught in the rain again because there were nasty clouds that looked like they would dump some serious rain at any moment. They were so nice and genuine and full of questions…mostly about the states and what it was like. We got dropped off in what we felt like was the middle of nowhere. We were about 260 Kilometers away from our final destination, which was Nelson. We waited about forty-five minutes praying that the clouds wouldn’t un leash the rain. Then a German couple picked us up. The man’s name was Ben and I don’t remember her name unfortunately. They were a middle aged couple with no children and had been married for 10 years. They were some of the happiest people that we have met this trip. They were full of laughter and fun. They have been traveling together since their marriage begun and they have been all over the world. Ben said he knew what it felt like to be a hitchhiker so he enjoys picking people up because he had been in that position before. They took us all the way to Nelson and dropped us off right at the doorstep of our next host’s house. It was lovely and we were so thankful for that.

We knocked on the door and Eva came to the door to greet us. She is so sweet and kind I can’t even really put it into words. She offered us tea and coffee and we accepted the offer. We also met her partner Ian he is equally as nice and generous. She gave us a brief run down on what she expected and what we were to expect. Two hours of work per day for accommodation. Nolan and I both got our own room, which was a first. Since Nelson just had a recent flood there was work that needed to be done on her patio in the back of the house. Eva lives right on bottom of a big hill so there was a lot of clay and mud that covered the patio…Nolan and I took care of that. We also have been doing things like weeding…stacking wood. Today we cut down a couple of broken limbs off and tree with the chainsaw then cut the rest of the wood for the fireplace.

Eva and Ian love to sing and have a great time and so do Nolan and I! They offered to take us to Gospel to sing and dance with them. They are not religious they just love singing. That is what I love about them so free and open-minded. It was a wonderful experience. The people were so open and nice. J

We plan on staying here until the 22^nd and then we will go to Ian’s house, which is about twenty minutes outside of Neslon. He said he’d host us and give us food and accommodation. There is a lot of landscaping that needs to be done there.

So that is what has happened this last week in a nutshell J

Cheers,

Jon