Update

Just a quick post to say that the blogs will probably be every 2 weeks for now. Leaf plucking is hardly the most thrilling thing to do, let alone write about and Charlotte is doing so many hours at the motel that we aren't really doing anything exciting at the moment. There will most probably be one this weekend.

Almost time to start opening those advent calendars!

James and Charlotte

Ake Ake Vineyard: Week 1

Monday 14th November

Our first night in the bus was a comfortable one. There were a few cockroaches, mosquitos and spiders around but we just tended to ignore them. John had told us the night before that we could start work around 9, so we weren't in any rush to get up and out. After getting some washing done using our portable washing machine (we could do washing through the owners washing machine but at an hours work for 3 washes, we didn't reckon it was worth it), we ate our morning porridge and headed up to the house to wait for John. He was bang on and he led us down to one of the many fields of grape vines that were growing in the premises. The vines we were starting on were of the Pinot Gris variety, which make a dry, white wine. Our job was a pretty simple one. Pluck off the leaves that are covering up the grapes that are growing. We also had to hook or tie the vines on to the guiding wires if they were out of control but that wouldn't be very often. Plucking off the leaves would expose the grapes to sunlight (there was plenty of that around), wind and a spray that would be applied to prevent mildew. John showed us how to do it on the first vine before Charlotte and I took a side each and headed up our first row. We felt we started off quite slow, which we would, and that we were taking off too many leaves. When we started to get the hang of it though, we were taking off just enough and flying along the row. It helped that as the row went along the vines got smaller. Come lunch, having worked 4 hours, we were probably half way down the row. Despite only working 2 and a quarter hours after lunch, we managed to finish off the first row and make a decent start on the next one. We stopped due to a mixture of needing the toilet and large grey clouds rolling in and threatening rain. John and Aynsley were pretty happy with what hours we worked, as long as come the end of the week they totalled 40. So we finished our first day having done 12 and a half hours, which just about covered the accommodation. We'd been invited to dinner at the house with John and Aynsley as well as their 2 children, Jaluka and India, so come 6, we headed up to join them. Just before, Charlotte had made a phone call to a local motel that had a job going and arranged an interview for the following day, which was very positive so early on in the stay. As the family are vegetarians we had macaroni cheese for dinner, which didn't really bother us, as it's no different to what we usually have anyway. We were offered wine with it which we gratefully accepted and spoke about travelling mostly, before moving on to music. They tried getting us into some Kiwi music but honestly, it was all slightly bland and similar. We had a good evening and really enjoyed the red wine that they make, despite not being red wine drinkers. We left around 10 and settled in for another night in the house bus.

Tuesday 15th November

John had told us when we arrived that they weren't expecting much of Tuesday and low and behold, we awoke to pouring rain. He'd also said he didn't expect us to work in the rain, so we didn't bother heading out. To be fair, Charlotte had an interview at 10, so she had an excuse. I'd said that if it was dry, I would work but if it was raining, I would accompany her to the interview. At half 9 we dashed to the car and drove into Kerikeri and to the motel. It was bang in the centre, so we couldn't fault its location. I sat in the car whilst Charlotte headed in for the moment of truth. It wasn't really an interview in the end. Charlotte filled out a form of questions while a couple of ladies scrutinised her CV. She was told that she probably wasn't long term enough but that they would ask the boss and see what he said. Charlotte seemed pretty convinced that she would get it as they needed someone desperately. Despite this, we still hedged our bets and headed out of town to an Olive Oil bottling place that had hired people from the vineyard before. Charlotte went in with a name to ask for as well as being able to name drop Ake Ake. She came out very positive and it seemed she had been in the right place at the right time. The lady she had spoken to had told her she was just putting together a job and took her name and number just incase. The fact Charlotte was asked if she could work 8-4 Monday to Friday made it seem like a sure thing. We just had to keep our fingers crossed. After the short job hunt, we spent our time looking round a few shop before retiring to the house bus for lunch. We were stuck inside for the rest of the day as the weather never eased. Instead, we planned to do an extra long day the following day to make up for lost time. We braved the shower that we'd have to put up with for 8 weeks and hated every minute of it. We'd been told that the hot water tank was small and whenever we'd had a shower so far, the hot water had run out on us. We had burgers for dinner though, which went some way to cheering us up.

Wednesday 16th November

With the previous day having been such a washout, we were determined to get a good amount of hours under our belts and get ahead of the game. We started at half 8 and, despite the strong winds, it was a pleasant day out amongst the vines. After lunch, Charlotte received a phone call asking if she could report for training at the motel the following morning at 9. We were very pleased with how quickly Charlotte had found alternative employment and would definitely be grateful for the extra income. We had to knock off at 5 after doing 7 and a half hours each, as we had a pub quiz to attend. John had told us he'd come and get us just after 7, so we squeezed in a horrible shower each and wolfed down our tuna and pasta just in time. The quiz was at a pub called Rock Salt in the centre of Kerikeri. We were introduced to the other members of our team, Hamish and a lady who's name we've forgotten already and sat down to await the questions. The rounds were pretty eclectic but also pretty standard to a pub quiz that isn't the Henty Christmas edition. John had given us the lowdown before we got there and told us that their weak subjects were sport and, let's say Popular Culture. I was pretty confident I could help out with sport but Our knowledge of celebrities could be written down on a piece of confetti. We had sport, film, music and some other categories like alphabet and number related ones. Unsurprisingly, Charlotte and I struggled on questions relating to New Zealand in any subject but there were a few answers that the team wouldn't have got without our input, such as a Cribbage related one and the majority of the sport questions, in the end we came 5th but did win a lucky dip price of what we think was a $30 tab on our next visit. I love a pub quiz and it was a nice change from our usual nights in. John wouldn't be in attendance the next week, so it would just be Charlotte and myself with our 2 new quiz friends.

Thursday 17th November

Charlotte was due to report for her first day of cleaning training at 9, so was up at 7 getting ready. Whilst she ventured off into the unknown, I headed out in to the field to carry on plucking leaves. I obviously didn't get as far as I would have with Charlotte's help but I felt I'd covered enough ground when I took cover from a passing rain cloud after 2 and a half hours work. I had wanted to work longer but didn't fancy getting soaked to the skin. Typically, by the time I'd got back to the bus, the rain had passed and there was beautiful blue skies in every direction. I considered going back out but before I realised, I'd locked the key in the bus. Being a bloke, I refused to admit defeat and go and ask for a spare key. Instead, I formulated a plan that involved slipping something round the latch and then pulling it open. I'd done it once about 10 years before when I got stuck in the bathroom at home and had to break a comb to slip the lock, so I was pretty confident. The only problem was I didn't have anything that I could get round the latch. Fortunately, there was a conveniently placed ladder next to the bus, which I put up on some slippery decking and just about managed to get my shoulder far enough through the window to grab my cap, which I used to shuffle the key close enough for me to be able to reach it. It wasn't as satisfying as the great comb escapade but I was pretty chuffed with myself and thought I deserved lunch. Rather than face the vines alone again, I waited for Charlotte to arrive back and tell me about her first day at the motel. For this bit, I did suggest that Charlotte write it as it's easier for her to write about what happened to just her but she would have just ended up putting “it was alright” and it would be a bit pointless. So I'll just say that she did think it was alright, pretty straightforward and she enjoyed it as it brought out the OCD in her. By this time I'd had a 2 and a half hour lunch break and couldn't really be bothered to face the vines again but we went out and did a couple of hours each to keep up to date. Despite the small kitchen set up we had in the bus, Charlotte managed to cook up a pretty impressive veggie curry for dinner. Charlotte has taken on doing the cooking, as there are very few lights in the bus, so it can get very dark. There had been a lot of rain recently and it was evident with numerous slugs and snail trails in the bus. It's safe to say we weren't exactly enjoying our time in the bus so far but we were persevering.

Friday 18th November

This was a pretty straightforward day. I spent 4 hours in the morning putting my rain jacket on and then taking my rain jacket off and plucking some leaves on the side. Charlotte spent 5 hours cleaning at the motel. In an attempt for more money, Charlotte popped in to the onsite café when she got home to let them know that she may be available during the evenings for dishwashing. We had every intention of heading out to do some more plucking but, thanks to the constant showers, we decided against the idea and left the final 4 hours of the weeks until the following day. We had an easy veggie stir fry for dinner and then settled in to the bug infested bedroom for another night of bites. Charlotte had nipped to the shops on her way home from the motel the previous day and had picked up a bug spray device that we had mounted on the wall. So far, it hadn't seemed to take effect, so we changed the setting to every 15 minutes rather than every 30 to see if it would make a difference. It certainly didn't make a difference to the slug that was crawling along the wall just above my head. I chucked him in our compost box to get him out of the way.

Saturday 19th November

The weather was finally starting to show a bit of an improvement, although it didn't make much difference to us, as we only had a couple of hours each left to do to reach the target of 40 for the week. As John was spraying the vines where we'd already plucked, we started at the opposite end and manage to get almost 2 shorter rows done and dusted in the short amount of time. A few weeks before, Charlotte had popped our tent and camping gear on a New Zealand site called Trade Me. We'd stuck it on for $250 and kept our fingers crossed. By the time the auction had come to an end, we'd had 1 bid on it and it had sold for the $250. Despite having put a title saying that it wouldn't be available till mid November, the person who bought it would be in Kerikeri to pick it up. After a few weeks of tense negotiation, he eventually agreed that he would come up from Auckland, the weekend after the 15th, which is the current weekend I'm writing about. We weren't sure exactly what day or time he was coming, so just had to wait him out. After lazing around for the remainder of the day, Charlotte eventually received an email telling us that he would be round the following day to pick it up. John and Aynsley had told us about an event happening in town to coincide with the half marathon that had taken place earlier in the day. It was a street party and they would be hosting a stool there. We thought we'd kill some time in the evening and head in to town to check it out. The main shopping area had been closed off and there were stalls flanking either side of the road. We parked up and heading in. It turned out to be slightly underwhelming but we guessed that it is seen as a pretty big night for the locals of the small town. There was probably aboust 50 stalls, 45 of which were representing local vineyards and shifting 100ml glasses of their wares for about $7 a pop. It didn't seem worth spending our money that we'd earned on a vineyard, in wine from various other vineyards. The other 5 stalls were selling usual street party/fayre fare, like candy food, donuts and chips. We didn't hang around for long, wandered round the town briefly, swung by the supermarket and headed home. The supermarket trip was for some pittas for dinner and a bottle of New Zealand's own soft drink, that  they have always, to us at least, seemed pretty chuffed about. It's called Lemon and Paeroa (L&P for short) and was originally made from lemons and Paeroa spring water in the town of Paeroa, which is at the base of the Coromandel Peninsula. The slogan claims that the drink is “world famous in New Zealand”. Unfortunately, it's now made by Coca Cola and made in Auckland rather than Paeroa. Dinner was a left over veggie curry, which was left over from a couple of nights before. We washed it down with some L&P and, despite both liking it, were both wondering what the kiwis found so amazing about it. Due to the half marathon, Charlotte had a busy day ahead of her the following day, so we were tucked up with the spiders and slugs bright and early.

James and Charlotte

Northland: Oh so familiar

Wednesday 9th November

Charlotte beat me up by a solid hour and by the time I'd found her, she had done all the washing and it was ready to be hung out to dry in what looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. After breakfast, we slapped on the sun lotion and headed out to explore Whangarei. Our campsite was conveniently located at an access point to a walk that followed the banks of the Hatea River, from downtown Whangarei all the way to the Whangarei Falls. We started about 10 minutes from town and headed in the direction of the falls. It was already a hot day, so we were glad for the shade that the rainforest was providing as we walked parallel with the murky waters of the Hatea River. We briefly joined a road, before turning off and heading through forests and pasture. We reached the falls in just over an hour and were very impressed. About 4 jets of water cascaded over the edge 24 metres above us to create a fantastic spectacle. A bridge ran across in front of the falls to give us a perfect view too. Once we'd appreciated the falls from beneath we headed up to the top to get a different view. When we reached the top a couple of Maori teens were hopping from rock to rock right on the edge of the falls but we decided to avoid that excursion, knowing my record with stepping stones. A 24 metre drop would not be favourable. Having seen the top, we followed a path down the opposite side we'd come up and headed back towards Whangarei. We walked almost all the way back to where we'd started near the campsite but took a path that veered off to the side and led up Mt.Parihaka. It was a steep climb up seemingly endless steps and by the time we'd reached the top (or what we thought was the top) we were sweating considerably. It wasn't the top though. It was just a pathway leading to a dead end after we ignored the new set of stairs going downhill. Those stairs didn't go downhill for long though and we were met by yet more ascending stairs. Finally, we made it but we were slightly peeved to see a car park just below us and numerous chubby tourists looking pretty pleased with themselves. We found some shade to sit in and eat our lunch before paying a visit to the nearby lookout. To be fair, it was worth all the sweat and effort. The view across the city and countryside across to the Pacific was fantastic, despite what seemed like a young couple trying to settle an argument (no, it wasn't Charlotte and me!) right in the middle of the platform. Once they'd got over it and moved on, we took a few snaps and headed down a different route to the one we'd come up. The pathway took us to a road which we then followed to a place called the town basin. The basin was where the harbour was and it had been developed to be the “cool” part of town with the visitors centre, restaurants, bars, cafes and arts and crafts stores in abundance. We had a browse of the arts and crafts stores and went in a fudge shop with the hope of getting some form of fudge flavoured ice cream to cool us down.  Despite being a speciality fudge shop, their ice cream selection was particularly unfudgy, so we took a pass and headed off. We left the town basin behind us for the time being and headed in to what is known in New Zealand and Australia as the CBD, or the town centre to you and me. We had a peruse through a couple of used bookshops but only came out with one books. The day was getting on by this point, so we decided to swing by the basin once more and sat down to rest our weary feet, enjoy a beer at one of the bars and sit outside and watch the world go by. They were expensive beers but went down really well on such a hot day. We did well not to go back for a second round. With that, we walked the 10 minutes back up the road to our campsite and finally got a proper rest at about 6. The heat of the day had tired us out good and proper but with getting back late, we weren't sat down for long with showers to get and a huge chicken and veg stir fry to cook up for dinner.

Thursday 10th November

We ended up getting to bed pretty late the night before. We spent a couple of hours chatting to a German man who had just started his travels in New Zealand. We gave him some advice on what to do and where to go and by the time we looked at our watch it was half 11. We were still up fairly early ready to head out and enjoy yet another beautiful Northland day. We slapped on the sun cream and said goodbye to our new German friend. The plan for the day was to drive out to an area nearby called Whangarei Heads to do a walk and enjoy a picnic. We picked up a few final items for the picnic on the way out of town and then drove along a scenic road that went past mangroves, numerous bays and holiday homes. It took us about half an hour, by the time we arrived it was gone 11. The walk was a relatively short hour and a half hike around a coastal headland. For the first part we had to navigate our way around some placid looking cows, although Charlotte didn't think they looked as peaceful as they were. From there we made some steep up and downs until we reached the top of the headland and a small viewing spot that looked out across the azure seas of the Pacific and the white sandy beaches it broke on to. It was a lovely spot, reminiscent of the Mediterranean. We'd worked up a hell of a sweat and a decent hunger, although we still had around 30 minutes left of the walk. We passed by one of the white sandy beaches, resisting the temptation to dip a toe in to the Pacific for the first time (there would be plenty of opportunities for that up in Kerikeri anyway) and followed the pathway back up to the cow infested field. The final stint was all downhill back to the carpark and it was finally time for lunch. We'd gone all out for the picnic. We'd bought our first lump of cheese in almost 3 months in order to make cheese and onion sandwiches. We cooked up some frozen sausage rolls (we'd looked for a pork pie or 2 but they don't seem to exists over here). We even had a blanket to sit down on. We laid it down on a grassy verge overlooking the bay (and some form of refinery in the distance) and tucked in to our feast. By the time we'd finished, we were so full we could hardly move but forced ourselves to just so we could get out the sun and stop the burning. We took shelter in the sweltering car and decided our next move. We'd had enough of sweaty walks, so decided to call it a day and head back to Whangarei. We had thought about going to a garden in the town but we ended up getting a bit distracted. We paid a visit to the iSite, found a pin badge and got directions to a factory that made clocks and other crafts out of ancient Kauri trees. It took a little effort to find it and when we pulled up we weren't completely convinced. It was just a warehouse with a lot of old wood strewn around out the front. The man smoking out the front didn't exactly make it inviting. We went in though and were swiftly followed in by the man who'd been smoking. He told us about the wood used to make all the things inside the warehouse and where they get it from. To be fair it was quite interesting and it didn't seem as uninviting as it had at the start. We were told the trees had been recovered from swamps as they had been flattened by an unknown natural event around 50,000 years ago. Rather than rot or turn to stone in the swamps, like most other wood would, the Kauri stays as it is as it's protected by its gum. He left us to have a look around, which we did. Now, we went in with no intention to buy anything but it quickly became clear to us that we could be swayed. The pressure was taken off us a bit when another couple came in and had a look around. Before we could say “cuckoo” they'd picked one out and were buying it. We didn't notice until after they had gone that it was the one Charlotte and I were most keen on. We cursed our indecision and carried on looking. Eventually, after about an hour, we were sure we'd found one we liked and took the plunge. Rather than lug the clock around with us we opted to get it sent back home to await our arrival. Just before Charlotte put the card in to pay a lightning bolt struck and I remembered that as Top 10 members (that's the campsite company we use most often) we get 10% off all purchases. What a relief it was that I remembered just at the right time, we'd have been incredibly peeved if we'd arrived back at the campsite and it had come then. Anyway, that memory pretty much meant the delivery home was free, so we were pretty chuffed with that. The clock cost a wee bit, but we'd been after a crafty, wooden item to get as a souvenir, so something made from Kauri, a tree we'd enjoyed seeing in the forests so much, seemed appropriate. We headed back to the campsite to take the late afternoon off. It was still hot when we got back, so we sat in our camping chairs and felt the shadows creep up on us as the sun set. We needed a break from rice for the night for dinner, so opted for pasta instead and had it with some frozen veg that we'd forgotten we'd had sitting in the freezer.

Friday 11th November

This will be a nice short day as we didn't really do anything of note. We packed the tent away in the morning ready for one final stop before reaching the promised land of work and money. We briefly got collared by an American over breakfast, who obviously wanted to lead the conversation in the direction of Donald Trump. We humoured him for a short while before splitting when a horde of Spaniards entered the room. After brekkie, we were ready and hit the road. We were following in footsteps we'd taken back in April by driving out to the west coast, through the town of Dargaville and up about 30 minutes to the campsite for the Kauri Coast. We stayed at the same campsite back then and it had stuck in our memory for a couple of reasons. We'd had our first taste of sandflies there and ended up with small itchy welts all over our ankles. It was also the place that I'd fallen from stepping stones into a river which had caused me to lose my phone. We weren't back to pick it up, instead we were there to do a walk we'd missed out on on our previous visit. The weather man told us to expect rain though, so we pencilled it in for the following day. Just incase, I'll explain why the area is called the Kauri Coast. 50 million years ago the north of New Zealand from Cape Reinga, down past Auckland to the Coromandel was covered in humongous Kauri trees. A mixture of disease, disaster and logging had depleted their numbers to 1-3% of what they were. The Kauri Coast is where the majority of the Kauri remain and we had seen them on our previous visit as well as down on the Coromandel Peninsula. We checked in to the campsite and got the tent up, noticing some sandflies drawn to the whiteness of the tent. We weren't getting any nibbles though, which was an improvement. When the tent was up, we got a load of washing done and had lunch. Afterwards, we went for a wander around the campsite and paid a visit to where I'd come a cropper before, I didn't fancy a go this time and we noticed that the rope that I'd trusted was no longer attached from pole to pole. We guessed that other people may have made the same mistake I did. For the rest of the day we read our books on our site, slightly disappointed that it didn't rain, as we could have got the walk done and dusted. When the rain did come, we were already in the kitchen room cooking up our rice, veg and Portuguese chicken for dinner. Full to the brim, we toasted to my Nanna’s 90th birthday with a beer we'd picked up when we were down in New Plymouth. The final hours were spent playing Cribbage, where I was shown a thing or two by Charlotte, who managed to close the overall score gap to 1, or maybe none. We can't actually remember. Dan the weather man told us we were in for a stormy night. We were just hoping for good weather for our steep hike tomorrow.

Saturday 12th November

We weren't in any rush to get up, as we wanted to let the weather pass before heading off for our walk. It just so happened there was a conveniently placed England v Scotland game on television that helped to pass the time. It was 11 by the time we departed the campsite but it was still pretty miserable and drizzling. It was a short drive back to the highway and along before turning left and heading along an unsealed road to the tiny settlement of Aranga Beach. We popped by on our previous visit and had been mesmerised by national speed limit road signs along the beach, this time, we wanted to conquer Maunganui Bluff. It wasn't a long walk but it looked steep and the weather was pretty shoddy. We parked up, secured the car and set off. The first part was fairly easy as the track ran along the bottom of the bluff. After a while, we exited the wooded area we'd been walking through and started along a very narrow, exposed pathway that left very little margin for error. One wrong foot or a rouge gust of wind and we could have easily been sliding down the hill towards the white waters of the Tasman Sea. On our travels it had always amazed us that, no matter the weather, the Tasman Sea was always loud and rough. Whenever we'd been along the Pacific Coast, the ocean always seemed placid and calm. The prevailing winds come from the west across the Tasman, so we put it down to that. We made it passed the exposed, steeps pathways and started climbing up claggy mud slopes before we entered a rainforest. From here the going got tough. It was a steep climb, the pathway was littered with rocks that were wet from the overnight rain which made them treacherous and strong winds had evidently been through the area recently, as there were palm branches strewn across the track. The going up wasn't too bad, it was the coming down we weren't really looking forward to. Eventually, after a few small stream crossings, the pathway levelled out, we passed through a small field of New Zealand flax bushes and then we reached a fence of a farm. We had no choice but to turn left and follow the fence up a constant hill. The going was made slightly rougher by having to dodge numerous cow pats along the way. All the cows seemed to be beyond the fence we were walking along but we guessed a couple had made an escape for them to be leaving their trace our side. After about half a mile of cow pats, we found the 3 or 4 culprits and they just stared at us as cows do as we took another left and headed up to the summit of Maunganui Bluff. We'd ascended 459 meters in an hour and a half, which seemed slow but the damp rocks slowed us down considerably. There wasn't a lot to see at the summit apart from the grey and white Tasman Sea crashing on Northland’s endless sandy beaches and farmers fields. The low cloud made everything look grim and dull, so we had a quick snack and headed back down the way we'd come up. We dodged the cows and their muck yet again before setting of down the slippery pathway. Again, it was slow going but there were plenty of solid trees dotted along the pathway that we used to keep our balance. We made it down in the same time it had taken us to get up, so we were pretty pleased with our attempt. It was also good to be back in one piece. The narrow, cliff top pathway was being whipped by winds on our way back but it wasn't too bad. When we got back to the warmth of the car, we tucked in to a huge late lunch that we'd brought with us. The leftover sausage rolls disappeared pretty quickly, as well as some peanut butter rolls and crisps (too many carbs). We had a quick look at our map but found there weren't anymore walks left to do in the area, that we hadn't already done at least. We returned  to the campsite and freshened up, ready for our final night in the tent. On our drive along the unsealed road from Aranga Beach we were stopped in our tracks by a large group of wild turkeys parading across the road. If we'd had a shot gun handy, we would have been tucking in to turkey for dinner for the foreseeable future but it's not something we'd considered picking up for our travels. We had our knives we'd made but they were big turkeys,so they could probably put up a fight and could probably run faster than we could. We played a bit of Cribbage and read some books in an attempt to kill time before dinner. After a massive late lunch, we weren't exactly hungry. When we did eventually eat, we cooked up some beans and pasta, adding a little bit of cheese to spice things up for a change. It seemed like a fitting dinner to end our camping days in New Zealand. We still had a lot to do and see in the country though. It have felt like the end of an era in some ways but we still had lots to be excited about. Just before we got into the tent we went for a wander down to a bridge on the campsite. We'd been told that underneath the bridge were glowworms. It was pitch black but through the gloom we could just about make out the faint lights of the glowworms, similar to the ones we'd seen at the Waitomo caves just on a smaller scale.

Sunday 13th November

We fell asleep to the sounds of a Morepork amongst the trees beyond the tent. A Morepork is an owl native to New Zealand and got its name because it's call makes it sound like it's saying “morepork”. We were awake early but still managed to flitter away an hour or so sitting in the tent before we bothered to get up. Unfortunately, overnight drizzle had made the tent wet and, as was almost tradition, the tent would have to be out away wet. We still left it for after brekkie but that made no difference. The road we were driving we'd already been along so we didn't have to make any stops as we'd seen it all. We did stop at Tāne Mahuta, the Lord of the Forest for one more peek though. It's the biggest Kauri Tree in existence and it was just as incredible second time round. It was only a flying visit though and from there we drove straight through to Kerikeri and Ake Ake vineyard, that we'd be working in for the next 8 weeks. We were met by Aynsley, John and their son Luca and then shown to where we would be living for the duration of our stay. It was a house bus set next to the bottling shed. We'd seen and viewed it on a previous visit, so we knew what we were getting ourselves in for. It was bigger than we remembered, which was probably a positive. We were left  to settle in and had no work for the day, so after a quick lunch, we swung by the supermarket to fill our cupboards and fridge. We spent $124, which we were pretty pleased with. The rest of the day was spent settling in to the house bus and getting everything in order. John popped his head in the door whilst we were having a cup of tea (we'd had horrendous teabags whilst camping and had treated ourselves to a box of PG tips when we'd gone to the supermarket earlier, they tasted so much better!), rattled off a few things, told us we'd start around 9 the following day and then asked us what wine we prefer. We told him and he was back in 5 minutes with a couple of bottles for us to have, which was very nice. We spent some time playing a new card game we'd taught ourselves called Cricket, which pretty much follows the same premise as the game of cricket, with wickets, run outs and 6’s and lasts for quite a while. The wine was cracked open over our pizza dinner (wine snobs would scoff at our choice of accompanying food) and was really nice, though we only had a glass each as we didn't want to seem like alcoholics and finish them both in one evening. By the time we were done it was pretty much time for bed. We took in the supermoon rising above the trees on our final visit to the outside toilet before settling down to the first night of many in the undoubtedly bug infested house bus. We weren't looking forward to how many bites we'd end up with come the 8 weeks but we were happy to be on the verge of some income.

James and Charlotte