by Mandeep Gaygoat
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
by Mandeep Gaygoat
After a VERY cold night we had breakfast at the ‘station’ a communal area which sleeps about 5 people has two settees a log fire, this is where we have breakfast, lunch and dinner (dinner is cooked by us on the weekends, Shaun provides all the required ingredients) wow reading this back it sounds amazing it was actually not my standard! Especially when we have a resident mouse!
There are other fellow WWOOF’ers here, Piet from Germany, Fei Fei from China, Evita from Argentina, Marlene from France. A great set of people who were so welcoming.
Piet
Loves his food!
Fei Fei
A Chinese girl who does not how to cook rice!
Marlene
You can just hear her mind churning away ready to ask another question
Evita
Gets rash when she starts gardening, also she wants to protect animals. Me: “so are you vegetarian” Evita “no I eat meat” me “!?!!’ (Puzzled)
For farming work we had to do some weeding!!! I hate weeding at home and I travel half way around the world to do weeding!!!
As it was our first day we had to do 5.5 hours, this is very tough work, i was amazed that Shaun has to do this as well as other very hard work seven days a week. Alongside us was Pia, Shaun’s ex girlfriend, she is very knowledgeable about organic farming also has an astrological approach to farming and seeding. About half way through our weeding it started to hailstone, in this part of the country you can get the four seasons in one day, wind, sun, snow and rain!
We stopped for lunch at 1pm for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (my new favourite) and cheese with lettuce (Sangeet picked the lettuce from the farm, so you could not get any fresher and very tasty lettuce!)
After lunch Sangeet and I did another 1.5 hours of weeding. Afterwards we went to Balclutha a town about 30 minutes away, as Sangeet was cooking for everybody in the evening, we wanted to stock up on a couple of items. I also saw a laundrette there perfect for drying our clothes which I did later in the evening.
Before I went to the shops. I started the log fire, when we got back I saw Piet had done some improvements, good old German engineering! The fire was giving great warmth to the station.
In the evening we had another WWOOFer called Ruth from Germany. She together with Marlene helped Sangeet cook the dinner, we had lentil curry and potato, cauliflower curry. Everybody enjoyed the meal very much. Whatever is left is taken care of by Piet!
Ruth putting her nursing skills into use
After the fantastic dinner we all sat in the station chatting, every so often somebody would put another log in the fire…..the heat in the station was nice and very cosy. When we went back to our caravan it was freezing, it was tempting sleeping in the station with the mouse. On the way back to the caravan we noticed the sky, with so many stars it was a beautiful sight, unfortunately we could not stay out too long because of the extreme cold.
by Mandeep Gaygoat
After a comfortable night at the hostel we had a wander into the city centre. The city looks very similar to a Scottish city like Edinburgh and Dunedin is the gaelic word for Edinburgh! We sat in the central ‘Octagon’ area and used the free wifi offered by the city. Afterwards, we made our way to the library where you can use the computers for 30 minutes (free), you go to the second floor register your name and they give you a PIN number to sign in with. It seems like the South Island is better connected to the Internet and at faster speeds then the north island.
Afterwards, we walked around a few shops with Nolan as Sangeet needed some pumps. After buying some pumps, we found a ‘vegan’ restaurant called:
Circadian Rhythm Cafe
72 St Andrew Street
Dunedin
T: 03 474 9994
They do a NZ$10 buffet which consists of lentils, potato curry, curried chick peas and boiled rice, it is not a bad deal. If buffet does not take your fancy you can buy a ready made meal from the counter. Please note although the restaurant says vegan in its name they use cows milk, and one item had egg, so please do ask before buying. Also they have a very good selection of gluten free items. Nolan and I chose the buffet and Sangeet had the lentil cottage pie with roasted vegetables.
After a filling lunch the three of us went our separate ways, Sangeet had a walk down to the old train station which is very impressive (we drove past it later), I went back to the library to use the Internet and Nolan went to the art gallery.
Train station:
Library:
We met back in the Octagon just outside the town hall at 3:30pm, from there we walked back to the car and headed to the Otago peninsula. The drive was amazing overlooking the water. Sangeet and Nolan wanted to see the yellow eyed penguins so we headed to the sandfly overlook.
The drive to Clinton, where we are going to do our first WWOOFing, is 1.5 hour. We drove up the dirt track and arrived at an amazing house with very smart gardens and lots of sheep. I thought wow this will be fun, the owner said the house you want is back on your left. We had driven too far! At first sight the house was not so amazing. Shaun who is our host is a great guy, the accommodation for the WWOOFer’s was not at all what we were expecting. We are staying in a VERY basic caravan, you can feel the cold, hear trains passing in the night and see stains on the blankets. We are supposed to be here for 10 days!!! I really do not think I can last three! As a host they provide all the food and accommodation in return for you working on their farm, in the evening we went to Shaun’s house for dinner. He asked us to take our shoes off before entering, then when we went in there was a dog and cats wandering about all over the place. I do not like animals in the house, especially not the kitchen! There we met four other WWOOF’ers from Germany, France, Argentina and China, all very friendly and talkative.
For dinner we had lasagne which was fantastic apart from the handful of chillies Shaun likes to add to foods! He made Sangeet gluten free pasta.
We headed back to our accommodation which is about 50 yards from the main house, showers and toilets! It was VERY cold we put on extra layers of clothing but could still feel the intense cold, we could tell it would be one chilly night! Sangeet made the caravan as cosy as possible and as we lied awake shivering wondering what what else was sharing our bed, we could not stop laughing as we thought about how crazy the whole situation was!!!
Our accommodation:
by Mandeep Gaygoat
This morning we had a wonder around Kaikoura, it was very quiet, last night we noticed 95% of the motels had vacancies (we tried to bargain with them, even though the rooms were empty they would not move from their prices!). We walked on the pebble beach, there is something very calming about sitting on the beach and listening to the waves.
We later walked into town, where Sangeet bought some postcards. We all sat at a coffee shop, Sangeet and Nolan had hot chocolate, I had a gluten free chocolate caramel bar. Whilst Sangeet wrote the postcards, Nolan and I decided to get the car parked about a km away. On the way we passed iSite (travel information for New Zealand) and decided to book some accommodation. We are heading to Clinton to start some WWOOFing work which is about 10 hours away, we decided to drive to Dunedin which is about 7 hours away so tomorrow we would not have to drive so much.
The drive south on route 1 is fabulous, we noticed a train line running parallel to the road, it too was hugging the coastline. I think next time we visit New Zealand we will try the train.
Christchurch is on the way south, where we decided to take a break (after 2 hours of driving along very winding roads), the maximum speed is 100 kilometres per hour. By the way I got caught speeding two days ago, we were driving from Rotorua to Wellington, it was pitch black and I was doing 122kph the fine was NZ$170!!!! – if anyone feels like donating please do let me know!
Christchurch was struck by a major earthquake two years ago, the city is doing a fantastic job of rebuilding itself. After shopping at New World (cheese, biscuits, nuts) in the car in the car park Sangeet made sandwiches, cheese, humus and our favourite peanut butter and jelly! We drove through the city centre. It is a very vibrant and beautiful town, so much better then Auckland. It is less populated and the people seem more friendly. It was around 4:30 pm and we hit rush hour traffic, the drive to Dunedin took 6 hours. We were all shattered when we arrived at out hostel called Hogwartz! NZ$31 per person a night. It is nice accommodation with clean shared toilet and shower.
Hogwartz
277 Rattray Street
Dunedin 9016
New Zealand
T: + 64 (0) 3 474 1487
E: [email protected]
by Mandeep Gaygoat
Today we wandered around Wellington town, it is a nice town, reminds us of a smaller London or Washington, D.C. It was a relaxed wander as it gave us time to post the California guide book, road atlas and other bits and pieces back home. Helps lighten the load.
We had lunch at a restaurant called Auntie Mena’s, it is a vegan restaurant, Sangeet had ‘fried kue tiaw’ (stir fried rice noodles with bean sprouts, mushroom, tofu and vegetables) I had ‘lamb’ curry, Sangeet’s dish tasted very good, I did not enjoy mine….think we have been spoilt by much better restaurants serving better tasting mock meats though the service was excellent and the restaurant had a great energy.
We also popped into a organic wholefoods shop
Our ferry left at 13:30, the ferry company recommend you check in an hour before. At the checking terminal which you drive alongside they ask for your surname and forename, pretty straight forward, if you have an electronic ticket there is no need to print it. At check in they confirm your name and give you the boarding pass, a plastic stick, one for the car and one for each passenger, before boarding you hand the boarding pass (plastic stick) to the attendant. A good way of recycling. As soon as we drove passed the check in booth, Nolan was waiting there so he jumped in.
The ferry is equipped with a restaurant, not much choice for vegetarians, a small ‘cinema,’ outside viewing decks, it also offers some ensuite suites for having a sleep or just for your own privacy. Today we were fortunate with a gentle cruise once you enter the South Island (Cook Straits) the views are amazing. The mountains look stunning and so green, such a fantastic, contrast to the north island (which is also impressive.)
Once we docked at Picton, we headed to the city centre,the shops were closing, we walked around the dock area. It was very peaceful and quiet. As it was around 6pm we decided to head to Kaikoura (it was also getting cold, we had to wear our fleeces.)
The drive was amazing, reminded me of driving along the Pacific Coastal Highway in California. It takes about 1.5 hours from Picton to Kaikoura, about thirty minutes away from Kaikoura we saw seals along the coast and also near the road, we stopped the car and a seal was about ten yards from us and started coming towards us as we watched it from the car, an amazing sight, I got out of the car and walked towards the seal, it just turned around and jumped into the water! After a few minutes Sangeet and Nolan joined me on the rock edge, seeing so many seals in their natural habitat was fantastic.
Afterwards, we continued to Kaikoura, the last time we visited this town was in 2005, we remember it as a very quiet town. Since then there has been some development, a large supermarket has been built and the number of restaurants has grown. We drove to the YHA and enquired about room rates, they were reasonable at NZ$22 for YHA members, at the time we thought it was expensive! We enquired at local motels and even enquired about a two bedroom apartment the motels came out at NZ$110 and the apartment was NZ$200, we are now thinking the YHA is very well priced!
Instead of going to the YHA and booking the room, we decided to get some food!….we headed to a Chinese who could only offer us fries which are fried separately from meat and fish. We noticed an Indian restaurant on the way in (I know, this is going to cause me problems but I was hungry and this seemed like the only good option). Sangeet and I ordered began bharta mashed aubergine, Nolan ordered chicken curry. The waiter was Sikh, he said “because I cut my hair I cannot call myself a Sikh” so we chatted about Sikhi for a while. He gave us the wifi password, boy this was a fast connection, the fastest I have used in New Zealand. We uploaded 900 pictures in 30 minutes!! In New Zealand it has taken about 12 hours to upload 250 pictures. Will def go back and upload more pics and videos. The restaurant is called
Coriander
17 Beach Road
Kaikoura
Phone 03 319 6844
Lunch Monday-Sunday 11.30am-2.00pm
Dinner 7 Days from 5pm-10pm
after a very chilly meal the waiter said try the motel next door he can do rooms for NZ$20, so we decided to have a look, the room shown to us could barely fit in the bed! it was cheap because the only thing offered was a mattress with no bedding. I went back to the restaurant to tell the waiter, he said please hold on, after a few minutes his friend arrived with blankets, even though the blankets were not that clean, it is amazing that here is a Sikh guy who does not know us, tries so hard to help us, he did not promise or say I will help you but does not deliver, he just tried his very best to help. Now that is what I call a Sikh!
We headed back to the YHA and booked the room.
by Mandeep Gaygoat
Today we are catching the ferry from Wellington to Picton, there are two companies:
Interislander
Cook Strait – Wellington – North Island to Picton – South Island
Interislander’s three ferries – the Arahura, Aratere and the Kaitaki, offer a convenient, regular daily rail and commercial freight, car and passenger service crossing Cook Strait – a 30 kilometre stretch of water separating Wellington on the North Island and Picton on the South Island.
The 92 km, three hour journey between Wellington and Picton is one of New Zealand’s most iconic tourist experiences, and one of the most spectacular cruises in the world.
Interislander ferries offer a range of on board facilities for you to enjoy as you view of some of New Zealand’s most unique scenery. Enjoy a movie, a drink in the bar and anything from a snack to a three course meal. A nursery, comfortable passenger areas and lounges with reclining seats with head rests, plenty of open deck space, children’s play area and an Information Centre.
Crossing time is 3 hours for all ferries.
Bluebridge
Cook Strait – Wellington – North Island to Picton – South Island
Bluebridge regular scheduled daily freight, car and passenger ferry service between Wellington and Picton, crossing Cook Strait – a 30 kilometre stretch of water separating the North Island and the South Island with a range of affordable fares.
The Bluebridge ferry service operates two 136 metre ‘Roll On/Roll Off’ ships each with four vehicle decks for 150 vehicles, 2 passenger decks for 400 passengers, using computerized navigation and ship stability equipment, to make crossing Cook Strait a safe and enjoyable experience.
Our onboard services provide our passengers with a taste of warm and friendly ‘Kiwi’ hospitality. The comfortable and relaxing lounge areas mean passengers can watch a free big screen movie or sit back, relax and enjoy the journey.
Crossing time is 3 hours for all ferries
We chose Bluebridge as it was slightly cheaper. When we checked the price on Sunday morning it was $271.00 for one car and two passengers, Monday night the price had dropped to $221.00 perhaps because it was mid week or just not popular.
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