It was a freezing first night we spent in the cramped caravan. Despite the heaters and countless duvets we had, the cold still managed to penetrate and make us shiver. We didn't rush out of bed for our first day's work but we still managed to be the first up. Sian showed us how to put together a decent fire and then she cooked everyone us some bacon and eggs. It wasn't a huge size, which was something that we had been worried about when someone else is cooking for you, but it did fill us up. Our first job was stacking firewood, there was a large pile of chopped and sawn wood outside their garage. All we had to do was shift it over with other piles of already stacked work, so it could dry out before being used for their fire during the cold winter nights. Pam had told us that she would help us but she disappeared within seconds, leaving us to do it by ourselves. We didn't have a problem with that though, we'd rather do it ourselves without being watched over. It didn't take us long to sort the wood so after a quick tea break, we spent the rest of our working time for the day clearing leaves of the driveway. It didn't take us long to realise that a wwoofers job is to do all the nitty gritty, boring jobs that the owners of the property can't be bothered to do. Still, it meant we weren't paying out any money on accommodation or food, which was fine by us. After enjoying a lovely lunch of homemade vegetable soup and homemade plain, cheese and date scones, we were ushered out the house for a walk. Chris had told us he collects old caravans and restores them at weekends, so we hopped in the car with him and we were dropped off at the start of a walk while he salvaged an old caravan from a paddock. The walk followed the Arrow River, past Chris and Pam's house and all the through to Arrowtown. Before we'd parted ways, Chris had slipped us some money to pick up a coffee while we were in town. After having a browse around town for a while, we were on our way home when we passed a cafe and headed in. We were just in time as they were closing at 5, so we knocked it back as quick as we could and then headed home for dinner and another night in the chilly caravan.
Sunday 10th July
It seemed even colder when we awoke this time. We were the first up by a long stretch this time, so helped ourselves to some porridge for brekkie and headed out to work before anyone had really surfaced. We needed to finish off the leaves in the driveway, as we'd been called in for lunch the day before. When Pam had explained to us what she wanted doing, she'd told us just to dump them over the fence at the end of her drive. We felt slightly uncomfortable doing it but there was no one around to see us. It only took us an hour or so to finish off the leave, so we headed back to the house for our next set of instructions. After a hot drink we were back outside weeding, tidying and harvesting a number of raised beds that Pam used to grow vegetables. There wasn't much veg to be got from them at that time of year but we did get a huge bunch of carrots and the occasional potato, that were left from previous years. We worked until we got called in for the lunch again and this time, we were joined by one of Chris and Pam's former wwoofers, who now works as a joiner in Queenstown. From our perspective, it seemed as though she had been invited over just to say how good Chris and Pam were, so sort of just nodded and agreed when we needed to. I fell ill immediately after lunch, so rather than go on a walk or explore the area, I crashed out in the cold caravan for the rest of the day, while Charlotte stayed in the house and socialised. I managed to crawl out of bed for a shower that evening but didn't manage to eat any dinner. Despite our hosts constant bragging that they had under floor hearing, it never seemed to be on, so when exiting the shower, you had to constantly move your feet otherwise we would probably end up with frostbite. We hung around in the living room for a while, enjoying the roaring fire and watching some tv.
Monday 11th July
There had been no improvement overnight, so I stayed in bed to get some rest and Charlotte went in to see what work needed doing. She ended up helping (when I say helping, I mean doing on her own) Pam with some school work she had brought home from her job at a school in Invercargill. It just consisted of cutting out various photos of food dishes the students had made and sticking them in an assessment folder. When I eventually got up about 10, I had some porridge so out of date that even my mum would have balked at it and helped Charlotte out. After coming to a convenient stopping point, charlotte had some lunch and then we decided to head out and get some fresh air. We'd been recommended a walk nearby by our hosts, so we thought we'd check that out. Lake Hayes was a 5 minute drive from Arrowtown and the walk skirted round the entire edge of the lake which was a nice walk, with fantastic alpine scenery and an undulating track. It took us about 2 hours to complete the loop and by the time we reached the end, I was exhausted, having not eaten much and still feeling unwell. We headed home and went through the routine of dinner, tv and cold caravan.
Tuesday 12th July
Despite the weather getting colder, the caravan did actually seem like it was starting to warm up but that may have been due to us leaving 2 heaters running constantly. I felt slightly refreshed today and we both got up, had some breakfast and got to work. We finished off the things we needed to do in the raised beds and after that, spent a few hours netting the numerous patches of lilys tucked between olive trees in Chris and Pam's garden. What took the time was having to cut the netting to size and then having to hunt down numerous twigs to keep the nets in place. After a lunch of pumpkin soup and scones, we were again ushered out for an afternoon walk. We walked along the Arrow River again, stopping at a point to skim some stones and pass some time. We continued on along the river until we reached Arrowtown and this time we had a proper look around the various small shops. We did fancy a look in the sweet shop but with it being the school holidays, it was absolutely crammed with people getting free tastes of fudge, so we gave up. We did manage to pick up a pin badge from a souvenir shop that had significantly fewer people in it. In the end we ended up just wandering aimlessly, not really wanting to return to the caravan or the house, as we weren't particularly enjoying our time there. Fortunately, we only had 2 days remaining. Despite suggesting to Pam that it may be best if I had plain food, such as pasta, rice or veg, she ended up making a curry. Despite being ill, I couldn't say no to a curry and after not having a good dinner for a few days, it went down a treat.
Wednesday 13th July
I'd taken a turn for the worse overnight, so again, Charlotte worked whilst I rested in the caravan. There seemed very little work for us to do around the place, so to make do, Pam had Charlotte clean the larder, which was an absolute tip. We didn't manage to get out and about, so instead, relaxed around the caravan.
Thursday 14th July
Our final day in Arrowtown dawned and I still wasn't feeling particularly healthy. Charlotte did a little bit of work cleaning their bathroom before I got up and at about 11 o'clock we were given the remainder of the day off. We didn't really have much to do with ourselves but we used the excuse to get out of the house. We ended up in Arrowtown once again and just wandered aimlessly around by the river, enjoying the peace and quiet. I was slightly naughty and had a sausage roll followed by a Yorkie bar, that we had picked up from the sweet shop. After a few hours we headed back and again, spent the afternoon relaxing and looking forward to our departure the next morning. Pam had asked us what we fancied for dinner that night and we'd come up with Lasagne, having not had it since leaving home. We'd slowly noticed over the week that the portion sizes at dinner seemed to get smaller and smaller and by the time the lasagne appeared we almost needed a microscope to spot it. We retired to the caravan for one final time after dinner, leaving the packing for the following morning.
James and Charlotte
James and Charlotte
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