Free advertising…..
In some hostels we visited, I have left the GayGoat URL in the picture below can you guess how many times I have advertised GayGoat.com?
Answers as a comment please.
Relaxing day…..
This morning I awoke early so I could get some money from the ATM and pay the hostel host when he arrived at 9am.
I found the nearest ANZ bank and took out some cash. Afterwards I went to McDonald’s which offer free wifi, so I paid NZ$3.40 for a coffee and logged on. The Internet was awfully slow so I had a wander to the library which offers free wifi and computer access, unfortunately it does not open until 9am. I headed back to the hostel annoyed that I paid NZ$3.40 for sloooooow Internet (when you are on a budget every cent counts!)
Later in the day Sangeet, Marlene, and I were sat in the common room chatting, well at first I was also chatting then I nodded off. When I awoke a couple of hours later they were still chatting. We talked about the meaning of life, death, love, Sikhi and the Sikh Gurus, karma, Christianity, it was an interesting afternoon of deep conversation!
Afterwards we went for a Chinese dinner at:
The Hong Kong restaurant
36 Esk Street
Invercargill
New Zealand
E: [email protected]
T: + 64 3 2188531
They have vegetarian and meat dishes but they are cooked separately, the starter of spring rolls was not nice the mains chilli tofu and vegetable with chilli and garlic sauce was very nice.
As we needed to use the internet, we walked to the library. As we walked we talked about our home towns. We invited Marlene to come and stay with us when she came to visit England. Marlene said “we have a small apartment so you cannot stay with us but you can come and have dinner”. We really appreciated her honesty and directness as it is very easy to make offers without backing it up. Marlene needed to get to Queenstown tomorrow and as she was unable to get a bus ticket we offered to take her…..our plans in New Zealand are very flexible as we first thought we would be WWOOFing for ten days.
We returned to the hostel which had more backpackers, mainly from Europe…..so now you had the people talking in French and the Germans did not understand…people talking in German and the French did not understand…..I did not understand any of it!
Hostels…..
In some hostels we have noticed university students, they work and stay at the hostel whilst attending university. They would work around the hostel for 2 hours day and in return their accommodation is paid for. Also most do not like the student accommodation/life, for example drinking, messy accommodation.
In New Zealand some of the hostels are kept very clean, you could even say better then some hotels. In the morning the students would clean the showers and in some cases the rooms. Some hostels have a fantastic atmosphere where you would meet fellow like minded travellers.
Saying that you do get the opposite as well, where some hostels are just awful in this case you just stay the night and move on.
It also helps joining a hostel organisation, we are members of YHA, you get certain benefits the main one being £2/3 off a nights accommodation, does not sound like much but soon adds up!
YHA:
http://www.yha.org.uk/
Hostel international:
http://www.hihostels.com/
BBH:
http://www.bbh.co.nz
Nomads hostels
http://nomadsworld.com/
Last day…..
A few of our fellow WWOOFers showed an interest in attending a Kundalini yoga class so this morning Sangeet held a Kundalini yoga class at 7am in the Station, it was amazing to see everybody attend especially when we all went to sleep after midnight. The Kriya was ‘basic spinal energy series’ a kriya which especially works on the back, perfect for the work we are doing. The energy in the class was amazing and everybody thoroughly enjoyed the class.
After class I headed to the main farm and met Shaun, I commented that he works very hard, Shaun said that he has been up since 4am, I thought wow he must have been milking the cows or feeding the chickens. He said “I have been on Facebook!”
We were supposed to be WWOOFing for 10 days but I threw in the towel, I could not handle the sleeping arrangements, it was very cold at night! Usually with WWOOFing you do not work the day you arrive and your last day, but Sangeet wanted to work as she wanted to learn more about organic farming.
As I need some muddy clothes washing, Marlene, Ruth and I headed into Balclutha to the laundrette, I say laundrette it had two washing machines and two dryers! After I loaded the machine we headed to a cafe for a coffee.
Afterwards, we headed back to the farm. When Sangeet finished working she came back to the caravan covered in mud, even had some on her face! She spent the morning planting Russian Kale and Rainbow Chard and after a battle with a hose and the muddy field watered them!
I was very sorry to leave especially as Shaun who is a hardcore farmer came over and hugged me! His advice to me was “stay away from the garden”!!!
We had lunch and took an hour saying our goodbyes. As we were heading to the car, all the WWOOFers who were staying on joined us to send us off. As we walked past the pig, Peit said that pig eats for two! This coming from Peit?!!! The goodbyes were emotional for us, it felt like we were saying goodbye to family, we bonded so well and will be in contact for many years to come I hope!
Marlene and Ruth joined us on the trip to Invercargill, they had booked into a BBH hostel:
Southern Comfort Backpackers
30 Thomson Street
Invercargill
T: (03) 218 383
The hostel is close to the city centre and has a fantastic atmosphere. Sangeet and I decided to book a room here.
We relaxed in the comfortable and very clean lounge and met a few different people, another guy from Germany, a girl, Rachel, who moved to NZ from Ipswich, a couple from London and a Swiss guy. After chatting for a while, Ruth, Marlene, Sangeet and I headed into the town to either find a cheap restaurant or a supermarket, Marlene had been dreaming about going to PAC and Save (a very reasonably priced supermarket). We ended up finding an Indian restaurant:
Sagun Cafe
29 Esk Street
Invercargill
New Zealand
The restaurant does not look anything special but the food is tasty, they do meat and veg dishes. Sangeet and I shared a butter masala paneer dish, reasonable value at NZ$14.00.
We then had a walk to a supermarket called countdown where we stocked up on essentials like biscuits and chocolate!
Back at the hotel we relaxed in the common area with Ruth, Marlene and the Swiss guy before heading to bed.
More weeding…..!
Today we started at 9:30am and were weeding around the garlic and shallots patch, this was outside, we were fortunate to have sunny weather, Shaun provides the gumboots, gloves and the right equipment in this instance it was a small fork. This work is on your hands and knees, very tiring and hard work!
Around about 12:30 Shaun joined and told me off for using the big fork….I thought it was easier but he said you could easily damage the roots.
After we had finished, we had a walk around Shaun’s farm which is impressive (10 acres), Chloe the dog decided to join us.
Sangeet made biryani, it was nice.
Afterwards we had a walk around Clinton. This is a small town which consists of the following shops: gas station, antiques, grocery (NOT owned by an Indian!) and a couple of cafes.
In the evening we had a new WWOOFer arrive from Germany:
Julia
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog, feel free and have a look around. Here is a bit about me, as you may or may not have guessed my name is Mandeep, I work to travel as opposed to work to pay bills and die! Every trip for me is an adventure, I have been very fortunate to stumble across amazing places and meet awesome people along the way.
Why gaygoat? When I first started this blog I was a vegetarian, so gaygoat – happy goat! Also you have to admit it is catchy and a URL you will not forget!
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