Journal

Monday 17^th February

I had to be ready to leave at 9am from Deborah and Glenn's, but we didn't end up leaving until around 10. Glenn gave me a hug before I left. He's a gentle soul and I will miss him. Deborah kept us chatting on the way in, and gave me a hug in the carpark in Addington before she headed off to work. It only took me 40 minutes this time to go from there to the hostel. I think because, 1, I knew the way and 2, I had managed to cram everything into two bags again instead of 3. When I arrived at the hostel, there were 6 people the same as last time and I was welcomed back. I paid for my room and left my bag in the wee storage room again. I left the hostel around 12 and set off for the library. I had a slight panic when I couldn't find my card but thankfully found it tucked into my passport. I wrote a few emails and talked to F via facebook chat. It might be the last one for a while. I saw the Cardboard Cathedral again, and this time, took photos but spent only two or three minutes in there. There's not much there apart from the building. I walked into the centre and found lunch – a lamb and falafel Greek wrap – from within re:start. I found my bank and one of the tellers showed me how to use the automatic deposit ATM. Pretty cool – they should have them in the UK. So much easier! After that I walked to the Botanics and went around the museum. It took me 2.5 hours to see it all. They had a Banksy exhibition also and a whole thing on graffiti, which was pretty interesting. I liked the costumes and the Maori exhibition too. I came out the museum around 5 and spent some time in the Botanics before I walked out to Merivale mall to get dinner and a picnic for the bus. Back at the hostel I met an English girl, Mandy, who had been in NZ for 9 months. And spent most of it in Kaikoura. She gave me a lot of recommendations on what to do there and gave me her insight into Queenstown. I left her my number in the hopes we might meet again – as she was really quite nice – but we'll see!

Tuesday 18^th February

I've just realised it's only 6 days to my dad's birthday and hope my sisters have remembered to send him a card. There's not much internet access here and whatever is to be had, is up at the main house. I'll try to skype him on his birthday, probably the best I can do as he lives in Portugal with his partner. We're in a lovely wee cottage down in the garden. The room I'm in is huge and holds 3 single beds and a double, with lots of space to put our luggage and move around. We have our own kitchen, bathroom, sitting room and outdoor area. My bus left Christchurch at 9am and I had two seats to myself the entire way down. It's only 2 and a half hours on a bus. It was warm outside already when we left and I was thankful for the air conditioning – and the picnic I made myself. Not much of a breakfast, but enough! The bus goes all the way to Queenstown – which I think is about a 9 hour trek, and the bus driver was actually really friendly and helpful. He left the radio on, so we listened to some golden oldies like the back catelogue of Robbie Williams on the journey. I don't think, when I eventually do it, that I'll mind the journey too much. They do have stops on the way, half an hour here and there so you can at least pick up lunch and what not. I've told my old school friend W that I'll see him in March. It's a planned trip of myself and P's, although I think we're definitely going through Dunedin. And I was told that they may have a Fringe there in March, just like August in Edinburgh.

I arrived here just before lunch and was given a tour of the garden by Emma, a wwoofer from Canada and Anya, Sally's granddaughter. Sally and Drew are my hosts. Their daughter lives close by in nearby Geraldine and Sally looks after Anya on weekdays. She's 4 and very knowledgeable about the plants and just what is growing in the garden. We played a good game of hide and seek after lunch and she drew me a picture of eggs and a whale. The other wwoofers here are Emma, plus a Belgian couple – Linda and Remy. They're perfectly nice but have all been here since Friday so they've made up a little clique already. I feel a bit left out but try to join in with as much as the conversation as I can. After lunch we went down the river for a swim. Remy found a good spot across the river, a little “swimming hole” as they call it over here. It was cold but refreshing, we found out later on that it had been 33C today. That's just too hot for me. There was no wind until later and as a Scot with pale skin, I'm not very good with anything over 23C!! The water was lovely, but the area was tiny. Only enough space for maybe two of us to lie flat and only waist deep. After the swim, we came back to the cottage to change. I lay out in the sun for a bit on the grass and read an Asterix comic book. When we were about to head to the house for dinner at 6, I was left behind still tying my shoes. I don't want to be the drag along, I’d like to be part of the group.

Wednesday 19^th February

I got up at 8 and had a very quiet, awkward breakfast with the other three. They don't seem to say much at all. We headed up to the house – I was left tying my shoes again – and when I got there, Sally had already found them and had started to dole out tasks for the day. I'm weeding with Emma, and Remy and Linda are doing mowing and bits and pieces like that in another area of the garden. I thought, this is good, I'll finally get to know my roommate. But no. She puts here headphones in as if she's alone, and weeds away. I'm left to my own thoughts. It starts to rain and we head inside for a cup of tea. We're on a wee break at the moment until it stops raining, so I'm writing this. I'll get back to weeding later. I asked Sally about possibly using her wifi in the morning to skype family at home and catch up on news. She doesn't seem to like people being in the house with her that way, she didn't really like my question. She said it would be okay though – but not at weekends. There's no way for me to get online via my phone to arrange any skype dates anyway as the reception here is a hundred times worse than Glenfinnan!

After the rain I started back on the weeds. I had a leftover wrap from yesterday for lunch and weeded until just after three. I love weeding... said no wwoofer ever! I've got little cuts on my hands and bites all over my arms from some sort of biting insect. I have bug spray now but it's not much of a defence against them. During my first four days at the hostel, one of the previous guests left a tent behind. It's only a cheap one, only $18 I'm told – not good for wind or rain, so it may not give me much luck. But I put it up this afternoon to air it out. It's pretty clean and I'm sure it'll do me in a tight spot. Just need a sleeping bag but I don't really want to carry a lot more. I'm thinking already of putting one dress into a charity shop – or op-shops as they call them here. I actually fell asleep this afternoon. I spent last night watching a bit of LOTR – the same tonight actually – and I must've needed it. When the others went up for dinner, they actually waited for me this time. Maybe they're starting to accept me. Tomorrow, if it's dry, we're to build and burn a bonfire in one of the paddocks. There'll probably be more weeding involved too, boo!

Thursday 20^th February

I awoke to a cloudy day and we really did expect rain, but the sun came out around 10 and stayed that way. Thirty degrees, all day! I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this heat, it's really not for me. We were graced today with the presence of Anya again, and this time, her little brother Isaac also, who's 2. He was very shy at first, but he soon warmed up to the four strangers that we are. I spent most of my day replanting grasses and flowers, along with hanging out with Anya – drawing, hide and seek and some singing games. She even helped me with planting for the last hour. I finished around half two today, and waited for another hour until Linda and Remy had finished replanting trees. We found Emma down at the river, who, unbeknownst to me, had gone ahead when I finished. She was just leaving and we three had a blissful twenty minutes in the cool pool that we'd found before. It's just as cold as the river can be at Soldier's Leap at home, but the water is so clear. And nice tasting too! Once we came back to the cottage, the others went for showers and I read for a bit. I seem to fall asleep for an hour or so every afternoon now. The heat, I think, is the cause. It's just tiring to be out in it. For dinner, Linda and Remy made crepes with rice milk. Emma is lactose intolerant, but the other night she managed to eat quinoa and cabbage that had had butter added to it. I hadn't wanted to risk it. I know I've cheated with chocolate occasionally, but to have large portions of butter at dinner was confusing to me. It was the first time I'd had crepes in about six years – probably not since pancake day in 2005, maybe even longer. I managed to get online briefly today with my mobile phone. I only get one bar of signal if I'm lucky, it really comes and goes. I wish I could get wifi on it, so I could at least use Sally's network while we're working near the house. I don't know what tomorrow's plan is, more replanting I expect. Once I get into a rhythm, it's easier – just not in this heat! I managed to get in touch with P who's joining me in NZ in three weeks. I can't wait to have someone with me. Since C cancelled on me, I didn't really realise how lonely I'd get. I just ploughed on with planning. There's nobody around to take pictures of me, I have to ask strangers or get good at selfies! I got a message from Mandy (from the chch hostel) late last night. I'm hoping we'll be able to meet up again before the end of her visa. There's always a possibility!

Friday 21^st February

We spent most of the day weeding and putting all that was gathered onto the bonfire in the empty paddock. It hasn't been lit yet, maybe next week. I managed to get in touch with P after lunch, to verify plans for when she arrives on the 11^th. I just found out that a friend from home, GS, has just arrived in Christchurch. When I managed to get online, I saw that he had commented on a post I had made! I knew he was coming to NZ, I just didn't know when or where he was flying into. I made my decision back in September, but January was the first I'd heard of his intent to come over. I guess we'll meet up at some point for a catch up. We all finished working around 4 and got ready to go out. Sally made us an early dinner and, after cleaning up and a chat about the kakariki, she drove us to the Village Inn in Geraldine. It's about a 10 minute drive, we're not far out at all, it just seems it as we can only see two other houses nearby the farm, and one is Drew's mother. It was a lovely warm night so we sat in the shelter outside for a few hours. I can't believe how expensive drinks are in NZ! I'm used to Edinburgh prices, so I'm okay paying £4 or thereabouts for a bottle of cider. The equivalent in NZ$ would be about $8, it's generally $2 to £1 as the conversion rate is around that at the moment. My cider, instead, cost me $11.50, which is more like £6.75. I know it's imported, but that's way over the top! A pint of Guinness was $9 for the others, with specialist beers around $8-10.50.

The bar itself is a wee sports bar with a restaurant on the side. They had the rugby on when we got there about 8, and then the Karaoke came on afterwards. Only, it was a one-man-and-his-guitar karaoke, who took requests. I cannot seem to get away from Ronan Keating! We met an English girl, and then a Kiwi girl and her Irish man, who tried to hit on Emma when she wasn't around. Emma couldn't understand half the things he said anyway! We spent about 3 hours in the pub before Remy started to fall asleep on his stool. This is the best part of my story. The pub in Geraldine has a courtesy van that takes you home when you want to go home, completely for free, every Friday and Saturday nights! We'd arranged it after lunch when Sally had mentioned it, but basically you just ask at the bar any time during the evening, and they'll deposit you home. I wish they had that for Glenfinnan, for nights out in Fort William, instead of the £35 taxi rides that all of us have suffered! Geraldine doesn't have a taxi service anyway. We headed home on the bus around 11, straight to the front door! I was really impressed, can you tell?

Saturday 22^nd February

I've just realised I've got my dates mixed up. I know Dad's birthday is the 24^th, and all this week, I've been thinking that it's on Sunday... but no! It's on Monday. Oops. I had to be reminded on Friday that it was Friday as I thought it was still Thursday! It's really hard when you don't have a calendar to look at each day! Oh well, I'll skype him the night before then! I've already arranged to skype with everyone so I expect it'll be alright. Today we got up an hour later, because of the pub trip last night, but once we got to Sally's at 10, she and Drew suggested we have a day off! The day was due to be another scorcher, around 31C. We were going to work for a few hours but, at 10, it was already very hot, so Sally suggested we borrow her car and go somewhere. We were thinking first of Lake Tekapo, but Remy and Linda hope to go there next week so there's no point in going twice. So, instead, we went to Timaru, on the coast. Timaru is a small town, originally a whaling town, that has a great little sandy beach. It took us about an hour to get there, with Remy trying to work a manual car with the shift stick on the wrong side as to what he was used to. We parked near the beach, but walked into the town first. They've got a lovely little park beside the sea, with an extra little paddling pool for young children and some super slides. They had part of an amusement park there too but it was all closed up. The town itself is based on one main street, with shops on either side, under covered areas. We walked in a big square around the town, stopping briefly into the i-site (tourist information) and a pre-loved shop. F had told me all about pre-loved and op-shops, NZ's charity shops... But I was horrified at the prices! Second hand stuff in the UK is usually no more than £8 per item ($16), whereas in the place we were most things were $45+! Yikes! Suffice to say we couldn't afford any second hand goods today! The wind started up, so we went back down to the car for our picnic. The town itself is set on a cliff, whereas the park and beach are down a level. We had a picnic of bread, tomatoes and avocados, having not found a single grocery store on our walk for any extra fillings. Once down on the beach, we changed in a unlock-able changing room and headed down the beach. The wind had picked up by then and was getting pretty chilly, but Linda, Remy and I were determined to swim. The water was freezing! Much like Scottish waters, and the wind really didn't help matters at all! We did manage it, though only for a few minutes. I stayed in a bit longer, trying really hard to swim against the wind and current, sweeping me down the beach, but it was no use. Soon after we were out, we headed home. Once back to Struan farm, a BBQ was set up by Sally and Drew's son, Sven. His wife and kids were there too, and Anya actually came down to the cottage to check when we would be up. I bought marshmallows to go on the BBQ, not knowing that is was a gas one, not a wood burn and coal one. Anya was so funny; I asked her if she'd like one and she said no, not because she didn't like them, but because she had “too many cavities”. She's 4!! Great use of language for a four year old and I must admit I was a bit surprised. The BBQ was great: homemade beef sausages, big chicken legs, egg salad, pickled onions, fried onions and roasted courgettes. I am stuffed! We didn't have any marshmallows after all! Dinner was over by 7 and by 7.30 we all headed back to the cottage. The others opted to seeing Shutter Island, but I'm not a big fan of it – although it is clever – so watched Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina instead. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, but it'll be a bit of a relief after the hot days. Especially as I think I burnt one of my big toes today. Ouch. That's going to be fun in trainers tomorrow!

Sunday 23^rd February

Toe is not burnt, just cut! It seems every time I bare skin I get cut. I have little scars all over from the tui tui flax plant. Really quite painful little cuts, I hope they don't scar!! Just weeded all day today, had a dinner of mince with squash and watched Star Trek at nighttime! Sorry this post is so short, writing this on Monday now and on skype with F. My dad forgot all about our skype date for his birthday. I hope he's not online tomorrow, I did say HIS Sunday!

Until next time

Kirsty