Wwoofing in Blenheim

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Okay, it's been quite a while since I made an entry. But here it is finally!

I spent almost exactly one month in Wellington. I spent the time very well doing nothing. Yes, I know, I was supposed to look for a job there, but somehow it was just nicer to enjoy life. At the end of October/beginning of November, however, I thought I should be a bit more productive. Since I will meet Lars in Christchurch at the beginning of December and I didn't want to spend money aimlessly anymore, I decided to do some wwoofing on the South Island in the meantime. I arrived last Tuesday at the Sowmans near Blenheim. The Marlborough area is the most famous wine region in New Zealand. It feels like everyone here either has a winery or works on one. The Sowmans, too, Nigel works on one (Dog Point) and Kathy used to work on one. As a result, there is always plenty of wine here in the evenings. Actually, I'm here because Kathy needs help in her huge vegetable garden and on her fig plantation. That's also where my little hut is, where I stay and of course there is no WiFi and the reception is really bad. That's why I steal the neighbors' internet - I've actually sat on their porch several times to tap into some WiFi. With some success, I usually hang out in the Sowmans' living room. They live about 10 minutes away from my hut by car. But luckily they have a third car, so I drive the route several times a day. I haven't used the car much yet. Unfortunately, I haven't had the opportunity to drive towards Picton and the Marlborough Sounds. I hope that will change. Yesterday, at least, I drove to Cloudy Bay for a short walk during my lunch break. It felt really good!

I had to recover from work a bit. I spent more than 2 days screwing little black clips into posts to build a new fig field. Don't let my good mood in the picture fool you. I couldn't use my hands afterwards. I haven't had that many blisters in a long time. It already took quite a lot of strength to screw in a clip, let alone 11 per post. But I don't want to complain, the Sowmans are really nice and Kathy can cook really well, everything of course organic from her own garden.

Oh, and if I want some company here, I still have Edith and Saul, Kathy and Nigel's little children, who always need someone to play with and leave the biggest possible chaos everywhere.

Everything is going well here. I hope I can stay here until the beginning of December and then drive to Christchurch from here.