So, we've been threatened in to writing a new blog. Not threatened with anything in particular but still threatened. Also, I wont name the one who has made the threats, but they know who they are and it's neither big nor clever.
Anyway, we haven't got a great deal to write about. We are still relaxing and wwoofing in Queenstown and looking after Rodney the fox terrier, who is currently in training for his big race at the Wanaka A & P show.
We've been keeping ourselves busy during the long summer days doing odd jobs around the house and garden. We've fed and cleaned out the chickens, mustered a mob of 30 or so lambs from one field to another, kept the constantly falling crab apples in check, cleaned Valerie’s cottage so it's ready for the next Air BnB customer to arrive, sold through 50 of the hay bales we'd shifted and therefore filled that gap with the remaining 40 that we'd been drying on the next door neighbours driveway, squared up a few hedges using the worlds smallest hedge trimmer, cleaned out the neighbours garden whilst they're away for the husband to undergo his triple heart bypass and given the chickens a sprinkling of bug killer, as Valerie told us it helps keeps the mites off of them.
When we haven't been working, we've either been planning what to do on our final leg of our journey, cooking dinners in order to give Valerie a break and walking Rodney with the 2 Japanese wwoofers that have joined the fold. It's been nice to have other company however, it has been frustrating when they come and ask us what to do, even though Valerie ran through a list of jobs with all of us present. We guessed we wore them out on one of our longer walks, when we arrived home a full 20 minutes earlier than they did.
One highlight, if highlight is the correct word, was a Skype call we had with the Norris household whilst they were in a slightly inebriated state at 1:30am UK time, in which they tried in vain to get our return date out of us in an attempt to fix their own sweepstake. We will only disclose our return date to one person and even that will be at the last possible moment, so other sweepstakes are encouraged (we may be open to bribery!).
As I've been writing this over the past week, things have been going on around it.
We'd been reluctant to give the Japanese wwoofers any ideas about what they wanted to do, as we wanted them to think for themselves a little bit. Unfortunately, that never came and Valerie asked them if they wanted to go and see Glenorchy, which is a small town 45 minutes from Queenstown. They said yes they would love to get to Glenorchy but it was pretty apparent they had no idea where it was or what there was to do there. As neither of them could drive in New Zealand, it meant Charlotte had to drive them and of course that I had to tag along too with Rodney in tow. The drive there was entertainment enough for Charlotte and myself. We'd told them that Glenorchy was was very scenic and the drive there was pretty good too, however, we weren't sure that a “wow!!” after every bend was completely necessary. When we arrived in Glenorchy, we parked up and headed off to give Rodney a walk. In all fairness, Glenorchy is incredibly scenic and even Charlotte and I, despite our grumpiness appreciated the tall mountain peaks that surrounded us. Despite it being summer, there was a small bit of snow on a few of the mountains and the trees showed that Autumn was well on its way. We all walked around Glenorchy lagoon before heading in to the tiny town centre and having a look around the lakeside. We took a snap of the old rail shed, which is a bit of a New Zealand icon and then headed back to the car to head home. It was a short jaunt but it got us out the house for a few hours.
Another highlight was when the Japanese put their hands to something worthwhile and cooked us all up a traditional Japanese dinner of miso soup and sushi rolls that contained salmon and tuna. Charlotte and I are both quite sceptical when it comes to sushi but we had to give it to the girls, we throughly enjoyed it and it was a welcome break from the norm.
Finally, the highlight. Yesterday, Saturday 11th March was the day we all went out for a trip to the Wanaka A&P show. Wanaka is a town about an hour north of Queenstown over a range of mountains. We only really went for one reason, which was to cheer on Rodney in the annual Jack Russell race. When we arrived we registered Rodney but were told to keep the fact that he was actually a Fox Terrier on the down low. We had about an hour to wander the show grounds and take in the various stalls and events that were taking place. As the time drew closer though, we had a mad dash around the grounds to try and find Valerie, so she could start Rodney in the race. It was a bit of a melee to try and get him there but they were in position and ready for the off. To get the Jack Russell's suitably wound up a man on a horse dragged a dead hare in front of them and once the horn sounded preceded to run down the length of the ring dragging the hare behind the horse with 60 terriers legging it after him. We'd been training Rodney on a daily basis over the last 4 weeks in various disciplines. We'd done sprints, long distance walks and even took him up to one of Valerie’s fields which is heavily populated with rabbits that Rodney would hunt down and chase. He'd rarely catch them but the exercise and hunger was good. With crowds around the ring 4 people deep, we had no chance of getting a good view, so once the horn was sounded and the dogs were off, we had no chance. The best I could manage was sticking my camera above the heads and hoping the photos came out okay. Rodney is visible in one and Valerie can be seen carrying handbag and hat, chasing after Rodney. From our location it was impossible to see a winner but when the voice came over the tannoy to say the winner, by some distance, was wearing a red ribbon, we were fairly confident. When the owner was asked to name the dog and Valerie’s voice confirmed “Rodney!” we all let out a cheer. We made our way round to the main tent where Valerie and Rodney were and gave our congratulations to Rodney, although he wouldn't have been there without our intense training. For winning, he was given a jacket that had “1st Wanaka A&P show” emblazoned on, so we made sure he had it on as we continued to wander around the grounds. It brought him plenty of attention and a couple of people even stopped and asked if they could take a photo of him. As the day was winding down we sat and watched some horse jumping and waited for ages for Valerie’s ex-husbands daughter, Lucy (bit weird and tenuous, I know) to compete. She knocked over one fence on her first attempt and with loads of other riders still to go before she rode her second horse, we gave up and headed home. In the end, we found out she came second in her event, which would mean she went clear but not quite fast enough.
Oh a couple of other quick highlights. We made some plum jam from some plums we'd acquired from a next door neighbours gardens and on the night of the sushi, a small bird called a fantail invaded the kitchen and started feasting on the countless flies that were buzzing around.
That's all for now, there will probably be one more post before we leave New Zealand on March 30th.
Many happy returns to Charlotte’s grandmother Gillian, who's birthday is today, Sunday 12th March, which coincides with Charlotte's too.
