Wwoofing in Nelson

Thursday 22nd September

Despite the mild days it had been yet another chilly night in our tent. Fortunately, Charlotte had done some shrewd business online that meant we'd be out of the tent and under a roof for the next four nights. First though, we had to get the wet tent dry and packed away and fill up on breakfast. It took longer than planned with the tent but we departed around 10 heading for the city of Nelson. Back to Charlotte's shrewd business. She had found a wwoofing host for us in Nelson, who was happy to only have us for the 4 nights we'd be spending there. We jumped at the opportunity as it meant we'd be saving at least $200 over the 4 day period. The only drawback was that we'd be spending the first 2 nights in a shed but as long as we were warm, we didn't really mind. The drive round to Nelson took no time at all and we arrived at the house slightly before our arranged meeting time of 11am. We were greeted by a barking but very friendly golden retriever named Matty, who we gave plenty of attention to whilst waiting for her owner, Linda, to arrive. We weren't waiting long. The very chirpy and enthusiastic Linda showed us around her house and garden and ran us through the jobs she wanted doing during our short stay there. We were pretty happy with everything, so she dashed off to another meeting and we made ourselves some lunch. There were some freshly laid eggs from the hens in the garden in the fridge, so we cooked up some scrambled egg, cheese and onion, which fuelled us up for the gruelling 4 hours of weeding we were about to undertake. Linda had a wonderful garden, packed full of trees bulging with lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruits, there was a fantastic view across the Nelson suburbs to the sea and up into the surrounding hills but there was also endless weeds. She wanted the garden looking presentable for a BBQ on the Saturday, so we were happy to help her out. 4 hours, thousands of weeds and as many sandfly bites later we were not even half done but it was nice to be wwoofing again. The weather helped with the enjoyment. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was midsummer and both Charlotte and I finished the day slightly pinker than we'd started it. The only down point was that after our showers, I came down with a migraine that forced me to bed without dinner. Charlotte cooked up some steaks that Linda had left in the fridge for us but put mine in the fridge for the following day. Charlotte was in bed almost as early as me as there was nobody around to keep her company. We  were sure Friday would be a better day though.

Friday 23rd September

The 11 hours sleep did me the world of good and despite the shed being rather compact, we were very comfortable and the sunrise was fantastic. We decided to get the 4 hours out of the way bright and early, so started at 8. Whilst working the previous day, we had already been devoured by hungry sandflies and they were out in force yet again. Some groovy pulled up socks helped but if they want to find a bit of bare skin, they'll find it. We spent 4 hours until just after 12 weeding and prepping beds ready for spring planting. As if we don't get enough of weeding on our allotment back home, the weeds here just seemed to go on forever. After 4 tedious hours though, it was satisfying to stand back and admire our work. For lunch I had the dinner I'd missed the night before and Charlotte cooked up a pizza that Linda had picked up for us. The weather was lovely, so after lunch we walked down in to downtown Nelson to have a look around. Without researching it, we guessed the town was named for Admiral Nelson and after passing Trafalgar Square and walking down Trafalgar Street, we were even more sure of it. It seemed a compact little city, nestled in between hills and the coast. We weaved up and down the main road and its offshoots with no real destination in mind. Eventually, we stumbled across the iSite, which is a chain of information centres dotted around the country in the popular tourist towns. We had a look around for a book of walks but there wasn't one to be seen, so we picked up a town map instead and carried on. For a bit of culture, we wandered back to Trafalgar Square to have a look at Christ Church Cathedral. Walking down towards the square from Trafalgar Street, the tall rectangular bell tower can be seen rising from the cathedral. The were a few school children sprawled on the steps celebrating the start of their end of term when we walked up to have a closer look. Unfortunately, wecouldn't get too close as every access point was blocked off with traffic cones and bars. We got a few photos in and then scoured the map for something else to do. There were a number of parks at the opposite end of Trafalgar Street, Trafalgar Park (so imaginative with their names) and Rutherford Park, so we thought they would be worth the walk. They weren't. One was a football/rugby stadium and the other was some other kind of sports complex that was either under construction or under renovation. With not much left to see nearby we started on the short walk back to Linda’s house. To be honest, we would have been pretty happy spending all of our time when we weren't working just sitting in the decking at Lind’s house soaking in the view and when we got back, we did just that with a cup of tea and a book. The only problem with sitting outside was the insatiable sandflies and the time came when we had to admit defeat. We scrubbed up and then sat in the dining room awaiting Linda’s return from work. Whilst we were waiting, a precession of Chinese or Taiwanese people kept turning up, joining an ever growing tumult in the lounge. The reason behind the Asian arrivals was that there were 2 Taiwanese lodgers also staying in Linda’s house. They had been working at a fish factory for the past 3 months and had just completed there last day, so they were having a gathering at Linda’s. Eventually, Linda did appear with a couple more Asians in tow, which was quite amusing. Due to finishing work late she had nothing prepared for dinner, so popped back out in her slippers and picked up a takeaway. She came back with a Chinese and we ate with a backing track of Asians laughing. After dinner, Charlotte helped Linda put together a rather futuristic chicken feeder for her chickens she kept in her garden. She claimed it would help train the chickens over time by making them stand on a metal plate that would open the lid for them to eat their food and it would stop other animals from stealing their food. Unfortunately, we'd be long gone before the chickens would get to master it. With that, it was time for our final night in the warmth of the shed, as we'd be moving in to the room occupied by the Taiwanese lodgers, as they were leaving the following day.

Saturday 24th September

Today we were leaving the work for the afternoon. Linda had told us there was a very good market in town on a Saturday morning, so we thought it would be worth a visit. We walked the same route in to town we had taken the day before and found the market set up in what was usually a car park. The market wasn't huge but had a about 5 or 6 rows of stalls. It was predominantly arts and craft stalls, interspersed with food carts and a busker or 2. We did one circuit to have a quick look at all the stalls and then left it behind briefly to return to a souvenir shop we'd spotted the day before. We knew they had pin badges, so when we didn't see any at the market, we knew where we had to go to get some for Nelson. With that done, we headed back to the market to have a closer look. Despite having had breakfast before we left, we couldn't resist the temptation of a doughnut each. They were made from sourdough, of which Charlotte is particularly familiar, with one having a chocolate filling and the other vanilla. The sourdough aspect was interesting and they weren't as sweet as the doughnuts we are used to from home but they were still a nice treat. There were a couple of stalls we were eyeing up in particular. One sold numerous kitchen utensils made from local wood and the other was locally upholstered cushion covers. The cushion covers win and we picked up a couple of nice ones with native birds on. They would join the coasters and placemats that we'd picked up in Cambodia on the “when we move out” pile of items. With the market done we headed for a short walk we'd been eyeing up since we arrived. It followed the bank of the Maitai River to Branford Reserve and then ascended a steep hill to its summit that had the privilege of being the centre of the whole of New Zealand.  The view from the top was very good, having a more central location than Linda’s house, we could see more of the city from the top. We waited patiently for a large group of Asians to depart so we could take a couple of uninterrupted photos but there were so many different permutations of photos they could take, it seemed like they would be there for hours. After growing impatient, we barged our way in and got what we wanted then walked back towards Linda's house, crossing the river and running along the bank again. We got ourselves some lunch when we got back, cooking up another pizza that had been bought for us and then donned our gloves ready for yet another afternoon of weeding. There was still plenty about although we were pretty sure some fresh ones had sprouted up overnight after all the sunshine the day before. Another task for the day was to dig some well rotted and some not so well rotted compost into the beds that we had weeded over the previous day's. When I say not so well rotted, we were digging in the occasional lemon or grapefruit that hadn't quite decomposed. It had been raining quite hard for a couple of hours by this point though, so we were at a point of not really caring. We eeked out weeding for a further hour before submitting to the rain and retiring inside for a shower and a cup of coffee. The rest of the evening was a washout with rain pouring almost continuously. We sat in our new huge room with views out across Nelson to the Tasman Sea, deliberating if there was anything for us to do. We didn't fancy getting soaked on a walk, so we decided to stay in and keep our fingers crossed for better weather the following day, although a quick look at the forecast suggested we wouldn't get any. There was a strange atmosphere in the house that evening. A 45 year old Brazilian man named Ricardo, who was staying in the house whilst doing a woodworking course, had a BBQ to celebrate the end of the course, with his classmates and instructors attending. We were never really invited but when we finished work for the day Linda told us to get cleaned up and then feel free to come out and have some dinner. It was only 4 so we told her we'd wait until later. We left them to it until we headed out to feed off the scraps that they'd left behind. We eventually got shot of them all when, on a whim, they decided to walk in to Nelson, through the pouring rain to a bar. We were invited but we politely turned them down, not really fancying a night out with 40 and 50 somethings (mind you, we probably wouldn't fancy a night out with people our own age!).

Sunday 25th September

The clocks had sprung forward overnight which meant it was almost 9 before we’d even realised. There wasn't much movement around the house, so we quietly made ourselves breakfast,trying our best not to wake the lady in the sleeping bag on the sofa in the lounge and headed out. We walked to a place called the Brook Wildlife Sanctuary, which was in the next valley down from where we were staying and took us about 45 minutes. It was another miserable day but thankfully the rain wasn't falling too hard. The Brook Sanctuary is a project to maintain an area of land that is completely predator free. That means non natives such as rats, stoats and weasels. The New Zealand government had a policy to make the whole country predator free by 2050, so the Brook Sanctuary is a precursor to that. To keep the predators away from the native birds inside there is a 7 foot high, partially electrified fence running around the perimeter of the sanctuary that cost a whopping $1000 a metre. The only problem is that the fence isn't quite finished. The fence looked like something out of Jurassic Park and as we entered through the holding gates, which could only be opened one at a time to avoid “contamination”, it was hard to shake the feeling that we were entering the Velociraptor pen. There were a number of walks around the sanctuary and we spent an hour or so exploring the area. Apart from the main track from the gate, the ones branching off were all incredibly narrow, forded streams, passed under rocky overhangs that looked like they'd fall at any moment and crossed bridges that had signs that said we weren't aloud to cross them for safety reasons. It all seems slightly incomplete to us and we were just pleased we didn't have to pay to enter. When we'd had enough, we made our way back to the bio security gates, taking one final glance over our shoulder to make sure we weren't being stalked by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. We were aiming to be back at the house for 2 to fit in our work for the day, so we just about had time to pop in to town, pick up a snack for lunch, have a quick browse in a shop and make it home. As with the previous days, we weeded, pulling great clumps of grass from underneath the Avocado, Feijoa and Macadamia trees. We were supposed to do 4 hours work but Linda came out at about 5 and told us to go in and get warm by the fire. We didn't need a second invitation. By the time dinner came around we were starving and were frustrated by the help yourself nature of the food. It would be so much easier if we were just given a plate of food that we could eat rather than being worried about how much your taking. After dinner we were bored to death by Ricardo talking about Brazilian politics before heading to bed, ready for our departure the following day.

James and Charlotte