Okay, so here we go. I know we've been here in New Zealand for two months (hard to believe), so we've got a lot of catching up to do. We apologize for being such slackers... there are no excuses, just chalk it up to us being lazy buggers. This will be a long one, but now that we've finally got this thing started, hopefully we'll be updating it a little bit more frequently. So here goes nothing....
After spending a great week in Vancouver with the Nicholas cousins (thank you so much for everything, we really miss you guys!) we began our NZ adventure in Christchurch. For those of you that don't know, Christchurch is the largest city in the south island, with a booming population of 350,000. We spent our first three weeks there getting ourselves acquainted with this beautiful country, and also getting ourselves sorted out in terms of bank accounts, tax numbers, and all that fun stuff. We were amazed at how quickly & easily things happen in this country... no long waits, no stacks of paperwork, and generally no messing around. By day three we already had everything organized and had managed to buy ourselves a car... our first one! It's a 1993 Toyota Windom (comparable to a first generation Lexus - plush, I know!) which we've lovingly named "Winnie", and who has seen us through our first two months with no problems at all... knock on wood.
Our time in Christchurch was spent mostly just hanging out... lots of days on the beach, hiking & mountain biking, and just sitting around enjoying ourselves. One highlight was probably Adrenalin Forest, an adventure park not far from us which boasted high-wires, swing bridges, tarzan swings and zip-lines... a great way to spend the afternoon! There were four levels to this park, and lets just say that by level three, I was crapping my pants & praying for strength. Simon had to talk me through a lot of it as there were many points in the course that I thought I would have to be rescued from one of the tree platforms, but luckily I perservered & made it through till the end - a major feat!
From Christchurch we've been heading north along the east coast of the island. Our first stop was a two-night stay in Hanmer Springs, a small alpine village which is famous for its hotsprings. Needless to say we enjoyed the hotsprings after a short but strenuous alpine trek, and had a brush with fame when we saw Kate Bosworth (from the movie Superman) at the thermal pools. Simon kept his cool, but I was pretty excited. Luckily he didn't let me make an ass out of myself, and I didn't bother them for a photo or an autograph or anything, but I sure was tempted, and I kept my eyes peeled for the rest of the weekend! Oh yeah, and Simon insists that Kate was checking him out, but I can't 100% verify that.
After Hanmer Springs we stopped in Kaikoura for four days, which is known for its marine life & beautiful coastal scenery. We had a great (and expensive) four days there, as we did two big activities - swimming with fur seals & swimming with dolphins. Both were amazing experiences, but my favourite hands down was the dolphin swim. The fur seals were cute, albeit very stinky, but unfortunately we had very poor water visibility that day so had a bit of a hard time seeing anything really well. They mostly stayed up on the rocks, and when they did come down into the water, they didn't seem all that interested in us anyways. The dolphins, however, were much more interactive and playful. We were probably swimming with a pod of about 100 dolphins, and they would swim right up to you (and under you) in groups of about 3 or 4. We entertained them with our musical prowess through our snorkels, mostly consisting of squeeks, whistles & humming. It must have worked, because they kept coming back for more, and if you made eye contact with them & kept them engaged, they would swim circles around you until you couldn't keep up anymore & were on the verge of puking. It was a ridiculously early 5:30am start, but very much worth it... we will definitely go back and do it again!
From Kaikoura, we continued our journey north, stopping in Picton for five days. Picton is a small port town and is the gateway to the south island (the Interislander cruise ship arrives here from Wellington in the north island). Picton is located in the Marlborough Sounds, which is a cluster of small islands that are really quite isolated, many of which can only be accessed by boat. We stayed about 20 minutes from Picton along the Queen Charlotte Drive, which is wonderfully scenic but also incredibly treacherous (spelling?). I'm happy to say that Simon & I are comfortable in our roles as driver (Simon) and navigator (me)... I'm too damn busy with my head stuck out the window to be focused on the roads! Anyways, we enjoyed our stay in the Sounds, although it rained for the duration of our short stay, and as we were stuck in a pretty remote area, we did a lot of TV watching. We did manage to get in a short hike along the Queen Charlotte Track (which if done in it's entirety can take up to 4-5 days) and also went sea-kayaking one of the days, but both excursions were pretty chilly & wet... we made the best of it, and hope to go back to do the 5-day hike in better weather. As luck would have it, the sun came bursting into the sky the morning of our departure, but at least it made for some easier driving!
And here we are, almost caught up to present time. We have been in the Nelson/Richmond area for almost a month I guess, which is crazy because it doesn't seem like that long. We stayed our first two weeks on a farm which runs a horse-treking business, so we were able to get out for a ride one afternoon... for those of you who don't know, Simon was a cowboy in a past life. He really showed me up, and needed very little watching-over from the guides. Me, on the other hand, needed a little bit more supervision, but I held my own and even got my trot-on in the end. We made friends with the local animals, including Graham the goat, Lilly the pig, Bill & Ted the dogs, and Rossi the cat, which I lovingly renamed "Kitty" and was very tempted to kidnap when we left... who knew I was a cat-lover?
Most recently, Simon & I have obtained work as apple pickers at a local orchard. To describe it in one word is easy: hell. It is by far the hardest work that either of us has ever done, and we're getting paid diddly squat to do it. As suggested in the title, slave labour comes to mind and is very apt... I now know what it must feel like to be a young child in a third-world country who sews clothes for the Gap and makes pennies a day. It's all Simon & I can do to drag our asses out of bed in the morning and make our way to work for 8am, where we proceed to pick apples in the scorching sun (or rain as it may be) for 8 hours a day, getting paid a whopping $30 per bin. For those of you who may not know, there are approximately 1 million apples in a bin, and Simon & I are lucky to pick 5 bins a day between the two of us. If you do the math, Simon and I make $150/day before tax deductions, which means we are making roughly $5 below the minimum wage of $12.50... pretty grim. However, work will only continue for the next 2-3 weeks, and then Simon & I will find ourselves jobless once again... thank God! The irony of my job is, I can't even eat apples - I'm allergic!!
However bleak the job may be, we're able to break even and at least cover our cost of living for the time being. I think we were pretty naive to think we would be able to put some money away into savings, but at least we're not dipping into our dwindling funds from back home. I think it's fair to say that we now truly appreciate the value of a dollar, and on the plus side, we're doing good, honest work in the great outdoors. And in three weeks time, the two of us are going to be ripped!!
And that's it! I told you it was going to be a long one... hopefully we won't leave updating this thing for another two months. We'll do our best to keep in better touch, and hopefully we'll hear back from some of you to find out how you're all doing. Hope all is well with everybody... we miss you!!
Until next time....
