Sorting My Life Out!

Walnut Cottage =)

" I think I'll have a drink......... maybe not."

After my brief but far reaching travel with Jens and Benjamin, I revisited Roxburgh to get things in order, like student finance, accomodation and plane flights... fun stuff. Also to write postcards to all of you guys (Be grateful, it is an EFFORT) Long story short there was some controversy and a clash of values which lead to Monique and I taking up residence in Walnut Cottage, a nice place up the hill on our boss's orchard where we spent a lovely few days relaxing and making it homely! Even if the water did have a habit of coming out of the tap brown... One evening we entertained Dave and Robyn for a while and followed that social event with a wild night at the pub buying drinks by the jug (literally), playing pool and exchanging banter with some of the locals... who were exceptionally drunk, but charming nonetheless. They also had a knack for inventing novel games involving calling eachother fuckers to a rhythm. Break the rhythm, down your drink. Simplicity is bliss. Having posted all my non-essentials home now I have ONE bag containing ALL my possessions. (Yes you should be impressed, I am now a human snail) It's a very nice feeling to be living such a simple life not needing too many possessions and will hopefully make my upcoming travelling antics all the more easy! Hope you are all well, the building excitement of the return (only two months away now!) has already begun growing!

Sunrise from Walnut Cottage

Travel Teething Problems

On the run up to leaving Roxburgh there were lots of maturity hurdles to overcome. The cryptic meaning of which shall remain a puzzle I'm afraid. Safe to say there was a touch of romance in Roxburgh. S'all you're getting. Jens and Benjamin went to explore the Catlins for my last week of work and most of my days were spent working, cooking and venturing off to random places in the area. It was lovely weather all week!

Leaving Roxburgh in Style

Then full of excitement and anticipation we packed up Django's Triumph 2000 (which he kindly lent us) and hit the road for our travels. Stopping off at Fairview Orchard store on the way for a quick coffee break and to grab some fruit! Anyway, we got an hour and a half up the road, halfway between Wanaka and Omarama aannnnnnnd broke down. Heart breaking. We ended up hitch hiking to Omarama to find a garage but arriving in the evening spent a night drinking Blackberry wine and playing poker in a campsite.

Style comes to an abrupt end

After long periods of waiting around, fetching the car and discussions with a couple of mechanics it became apparent that we weren't fixing this car for a reasonable price. So instead Benjamin got a bus to Queenstown whilst Jens and I hitch hiked with a random French traveller to Lake Tekapo. Stayed there a night, got a nice takeaway and had a good nights sleep!

Lake Tekapo!

21st Birthday Party and a Car Crash! Never a Dull Moment in Roxburgh!

Saturday night was SO random. Played some poker (with monopoly money) and other card games with some of the new guys here, great fun. Then at like 11pm went to bed and TRIED to sleep. The pub was playing music sooo loudly, so in the end I gave up... if you can't beat them, join them! So I did. Went round there, tried to get myself an orange juice (I did have work in the morning after all) only to have one of the locals insist on buying me a beer. Anyway I accepted and next thing I know a jug, yes a JUG of beer was placed infront of me. People don't seem to order pints here, they're far more hardcore drinkers than that apparently! There was a 21st birthday party going on in a sectioned off area, but within half an hour I was dragged in there by Sarah and Anna who knew the host.

The Damage Done..

Had great fun, danced a bit, ate some free food, drank some free beer (yes FREE.. they had kegs full.) They seem to love their country music here, which is... interesting. Especially when the dance floor is so wet it's like an ice rink and they're all off their faces! Especially Anna. Yes you Anna. Eventually ended up in bed by about 3:30am facing a 7am start for work... greeeeat!

Where the cars ended up..

Work was hectic. A very busy day having us constantly on the go, with Roweena cracking her whip listing out endless tasks that confused my poor tired mind. And then, as I was preparing to bag up some corn cobs suddenly there was a massive sound of grinding metal and smashing glass. Basically there was a pretty serious car collision where someone had tried to turn to visit our store and the car behind had tried to overtake at the same time. The overtaking car was sent spinning into our car park smashing into Sarah's car. (She was NOT happy) So then me and Monique found ourselves sweeping up glass from the middle of the road, and gave the little girl who had been in this car a free ice cream to cheer her up, because she really was shaking like a leaf!


So yeh... life's full of suprises!

First Two Days Of Independence!

So after what I considered an early start I caught the bus to Roxburgh and arrived at my new pad to settle in. (It's all very homely now... not) Then early afternoon I was whisked off for my first professional fruit picking experience. Bring on the apricots! Met a few fellow workers who are all very friendly and welcoming. But yeh, we picked fruit and earned $50 (about £25) in 2 and a half hours, not bad eh! The evening was spent reading, beginning to write postcards and I was also pressganged into playing piano, which I was of course delighted about having gone weeks without seeing one.

                               All my worldly possessions (Massively condensed)

My first full day of work was quite tough really, up at 7am, to work for 8am picking apricots at a different far larger orchard till about 4:30pm. Met a whole load of other very nice people who aren't staying here but actually at a house on the orchard I was working at. There's a very diverse cultural mix here. Actually no, it's not that diverse, it's 80% Asian (Tai Wan, China, South Korea being a few examples, making it a challenge to remember names like Makato and Takako, pronounciation is a bitch) then the other 20% is made up of Germans, French and Canadians. I'm the only Englishman in the entire establishment... apparently I have a very strong accent, though others have said it's neutral. My evening on my first full day was spent seeing the local sights, (a large dam and a cinema that plays one film per week... The Social Network this Saturday at 8pm!! Wow!! ... ¬_`¬) food shopping, cooking and piano playing (for which I received a random $2 tip from the owner... good times..)

                             Andy's Twin Griffiths kicks back and watches tele.

It's been a very strange feeling these last couple of days, while I miss everyone like mad and spend the many hours of fruit picking considering how each of you would mock me for it, the complete independancy has brought a kind of happinness I've never felt before, sort of a realisation I can cope I guess..but it's only been two days so we'll see how long THAT one lasts! Oh and my food box's last owner (her name still scribbled on the side) was Jessika. Yes, with a 'K' and everything. STOP FOLLOWING ME!

                                           The homesickness cures table