Already January!

Time is flying it is already January 7, 2012 can you believe it? Happy New Years to all by the way! We left Ian and Eva on the 28^th and decided that we would get to the North Island for the New Years. Wellington was our destination and it was a lovely trip on the ferry ride over. It is about a three and a half hour ferry ride and for the first hour and a half…two hours you float very slowly through the sounds and it is really gorgeous. On the day that we went it was a bit rainy and there were many clouds but we still managed to see the beauty. Nolan and I were talking, next time when we head back to the South Island we are going to plan it out so we take the ferry on a really nice day. Either go at sunrise or sunset so we can take some really good pictures.

When we finally did arrive in Wellington the weather was unforgiving to say the least. There was a bunch of rain and very high winds. That is why the Kiwi’s call it, “Windy Welli”.

We had a really great New Years. We met up with our Swedish friends that we met in the hostel that we stayed in at Picton…the town where we caught the ferry to go to Wellington. They were in the same hostel as us and we basically just hung out with them for the next four days. New Years was how you would think it would be for young travelers. A lot of drinking and relaxing for a couple of days. Mind you the Swedish can drink, I have never seen anything like it before. HAHa. The two Swedish kids names were Johan and Kris and they were both super nice. Kris has been traveling for the past two years and he was gone a bunch of different places. He was telling me that I must go to South East Asia. I’m going to keep that in mind because he is not the first one to tell me that.

Nolan and I were again having trouble finding our next host. We e mailed about five people on the first of the month and heard back from two people that said yes. One of the places was on the lower southeast coast. They seemed to really spark my interest because their farm is 1000’s of acres, which mostly is sheep and cattle. We sent them an email back and let them know that we were going to try and get there as soon as possible.

Nolan met up with our French friends that we had met about a month and a half ago working at the fruit orchard. They had a car and they wanted to go on this tramp that would last about three days. Nolan convinced me to go with them to do that. We ended up spending an awesome night out on the beach and we camped and swam in the ocean. The ocean water on the North Island is significantly warmer! The next morning they were all getting ready to do the tramp and for some reason I didn’t really feel like tagging along. I just wanted to go out by myself and do my own thing for a bit. I told Nolan and he was perfectly ok with it and he understood. He ended up just doing the tramp with our French friends and I decided to find some free Internet and let Scott and Jodie know that I wanted to come that day. I found out there phone number through a couple of e mail exchanges and I gave them a ring. They told me that if I could hitch to Palmerstone North then they could pick me up that day. I didn’t waste anytime and I found a good place to hitch out of New Plymouth, which was the town that I was in. I had to travel a pretty good distance back down South. I knew that it was going to take me about four to five hours to hitch the distance. This was the first time that I had hitched by myself and I loved the idea of it! Being on my own felt really liberating. I got a ride really quick. It took me four rides in total to make it to Palmerstone North with a total travel time of about five hours. I rang Scott and he told me that Jodie was waiting in town for me and we made an agreement on where I would meet her. I met up with her right in the town center practically. She was very pleasant. There were two of the four kids that they have in the back seat, Maddie and Lizzy. Maddie is ten and Lizzy is eight. They were both very nice and surprisingly outgoing. From Palmerston North it was still another hour and a half drive from there to the farm. Once we made it into Pangora, which is the town that they live in. It was still another twenty-minute drive from there. Once we got to the farm we had a 10 Killometer drive down the driveway. The farm is massive! They raise both sheep and cattle so they need all of that space. They utilize all of it really efficiently.

Since I have been at this farm I feel that I have gotten the true Kiwi family experience. Scott hunts for most of his meat and really lives off of his land it is really cool to watch. The atmosphere is so relaxed. Jodie’s policy for HelpX is a bit different from the other places that I have been so far. There are no specific work hours, for example you don’t wake up at nine and work to twelve. Everyday can vary. Jodie just told me that as long as I am here and “using my brain”, as she calls it. Then everything will run smoothly. What she means when she says using my brain is to do the little things that she shouldn’t have to ask me to do. For example, clear the table when it is dirty, empty the dishwasher, sweep the floor. Little things that she would have to do normally but it just makes it easier on her that she doesn’t. She is busy as well. She has four kids to take care of. The other two youngest kids that they have are little Jimmy who is three and Zenthia who is 6. I just met them a couple of days ago because they were at their grandparent’s house when I first arrived.

Yesterday for work I went scuba diving for crayfish. They call this work. I call this fun J Today I cut down a couple of trees and then used the ATV to bring the rubbish down to the dump. They also call that work I call it fun! It is a very relaxed place here and being apart of a family is different from what I have experienced so far. I really enjoy it. Playing with the kids and just being apart of that family atmosphere is a good change!

Sorry it took a while for the blog by the way. I have been caught up just enjoying myself here J

Cheers,

Jon