by Mandeep Gaygoat
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.
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]
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