Fast Cars and Fruit

So we've been working in the orchard for 3 weeks now and eating just as much fruit as the first day. Thankfully we have learnt our lessons and had no more close calls on the ladders. We have heard that the weather in the UK is miserable at the moment so we are sending warm thoughts your way, sorry to rub it in.

Last Sunday we visited Queenstown, and had a bit more fun now we have some extra spending money. It was a bit rainy so we did what any sensible person does and went to the cinema to see Sherlock Holmes, some things never change. One of the best things about going to Queenstown is the drive, it follows the Kawarau River which sits in a steep gorge. The edge of the river is dotted with doorways built into the stone walls, these tiny rooms were used by the gold prospectors who panned the river in the mid 19th century. The only thing that has changed in the gorge since then is that people now use the old iron bridges to jump off.

One thing we have learned about the Central Otago district is the weather can change in a flash. Some days, like today, the weather will be clear and still in the mid twenties, but tomorrow we might wake up to snow and it won't get above 12 or 13 all day. This happened a few days ago and let me tell you, it isn't fun climbing an aluminium ladder at 7:30 in the morning with bare hands.

Last night to kick off our weekend we went to the local raceway in Cromwell known as The Central Speedway, this makes it sound glamorous and modern. It was neither. We had to drive across a recently corrugated gravel road to what is essentially just a dirt oval. We were expecting a stadium of sorts, but the stadium is made up by the spectators cars parked around the track facing inwards and the stadium seats are the front seats of your vehicle. We sat on the roof of the van for a better view. The setting was nice, nestled in the valley surrounded by mountains, and the racing (and crashes) were equally spectacular.  We munched on chips and bacon sandwiches as we watched the NZ Sprint Car Grand Prix of which there were 6 races as well as other support races including saloon cars and mini stock cars. All in all it was a great night that went on well past dark under enormous floodlights.

Today we are heading to Arrowtown which is an old gold mining town so we will let you know what its like next time we speak to you.

Bye x x x

Week 1 of Fruit Picking

Time flies when you're working hard!

Our first week of fruit picking has begun and ended, it's twice as hard as we anticipated but also twice as fun. I have eaten my body weight in apricots and nectarines with the odd plum thrown in just for kicks. Up and down ladders with up to 20kg of fruit hanging in a bag from your shoulders from 7:30 til 5:00 isn't the easiest way to make a living, but the pay is good and the fruit is delicious. Not to mention a nice long lunch break and 2 tea breaks a day, where tea and biscuits are personally delivered by Simon the owner. Everyone at the orchard is really friendly, Lauren and I have been enjoying getting to know some of the regular workers including a few Vanuatans who come to New Zealand for half the year, earning in a week what would take them a year to earn at home.

We have both had a few near misses up the ladders, both nearly falling from over 10 feet up, admittedly mine was slightly more spectacular than Laurens as all of a sudden I was dangling from one hand with an apricot in the other and no ladder to be seen. I climbed down the tree hoping no-one had seen my misfortune but the laughter made it clear that wasn't the case. Lauren luckily managed to keep control of her ladder thus avoiding embarrassment. We learnt from our mistakes very quickly.

We went to the racecourse a few kilometres down the road to watch some racing, it was different to the racing we get in the UK. The jockeys were in chariots behind the horses, it's probably just as well as a few of them looked a little out of shape. The weather was hot and has been hot and without rain for some time with temperatures all week around the low 30's, to cool down we took a dip in Lake Dunstan five minutes drive from the orchard, the first time we have swum in NZ without a wetsuit. On Wednesday night however the heaven's opened and it rained for 18 hours solid dropping over 2 inches of rain, needless to say that work on Thursday was rained off, we took the opportunity to do a bit of shopping in the nearby town of Alexandra. Back to work for another hot Friday and Saturday.

In all it seems that fruit picking agrees with us, working outside in nice weather, days off when it rains, and a private reservoir on site, to do a few lengths after work to cool down (which is a hell of a lot warmer than the sea). Much too Laurens delight there is a resident Basset Hound called NATO who seems too like her very much, I think it's the biscuits she sneaks him during tea breaks!

This morning we awoke to snow capped peaks all around, yes snow in the middle of summer! It didn't reach us down in the valley but makes for quite a spectacular view. Today is Sunday and we are in Queenstown for, you guessed it, more shopping, a movie, and who knows maybe even a spot of bungee jumping. Then it's back to work for another week.

We'll try not to enjoy ourselves too much!

Speak to you soon!
x x x

More Pictures

These are pictures from a day trip to Moeraki.
I think they're all of animals...sorry!

Happy New Year!

Christmas and New Year have been and gone. We hope you are all enjoying the holiday season.

I can't believe we've been away for 2 months!

The last few weeks have flown by! Most of it has been spent in a at a small beach town called Kakanui on the east coast between Christchurch and Dunedin. We stayed in a beach house with Lauren's Auntie, Uncle and two cousins with great views of a long sandy beach. We had good weather for the most part which allowed us to make the most of the sea. Surfing, snorkelling and sunbathing were on the agenda for most days, with a few hours fishing in the evening off the rocks just outside the front of the house. To begin with Lauren led the pace with 4 fish to my 0 (even though I set up her lines!) but I soon caught up with 5 fish in one day [Lauren: even though they were much smaller than mine ;)].

Between Christmas and New Year Lauren's uncle and cousins were kind enough to invite me on a 3 day hunting trip in Waimate, while the girls stayed home and shopped. The setting for the hunt was fantastic, rugged hills, steep valleys and winding rivers made it enjoyable enough before we even got to the hunting. We were after wallabies, a huge pest to sheep farmers in New Zealand. I was given a rifle and two boxes of ammunition and told to shoot stuff. Each day we would slog up steep hills and sit for hours at a time on ridge lines hoping to pick up a hint of movement. Then after dark we would jump in the back of a pick-up truck and endure a dusty, bumpy ride back to the hut we were staying in for a cold beer. The hut itself was more of a shed, and the tone for the weekend was set by the fact that I found a small owl under my bed. There were 7 of us altogether in the hut and by the end of the hunt we had killed 46 wallabies (only 3 by yours truly). This was all of course much to Lauren's disapproval.

Lauren: Whilst Robin was away slaughtering innocent, cute, fluffy, hoppy animals, me and my auntie Hilary enjoyed a relaxing few days at the beach house, with the occasional shopping trip in between to break up the sunbathing. The day the boys left we were sat on the decking enjoying a nice glass of Baileys when Hilary spotted what looked like a shark swimming in the Bay, on closer inspection with the binoculars we realised that right in front of us in the bay was a pod of 8 Orca. We couldn't believe our luck, we knew the boys would be jealous missing out on this experience so just to rub it in we grabbed the video camera for evidence:)  We couldn't wait to show them...

We left the beach house on the 2nd day of the New Year to head for Central Otago in an attempt to find an orchard in need of two pasty English fruit pickers. After lots of ringing around and a few days in various towns around the area, we eventually got a result. A family run orchard called Webb's Fruit in Cromwell was after a few pickers for their maze of peach, plum, apple and cherry orchard. Much to our delight it came with accommodation and permission from the owners to pick as much fruit as you can eat! We start on the 9th and will keep you updated on this next step in our travels.

Speak to you soon.

x x x

More Pictures Coming!!!