Whistle while you work! Snow white is a twerp!
Trip Start
Dec 07, 2010
1
16
19
Trip End
Ongoing
What I did
Wwoofing!
Otaki, Wellington, New Zealand
Friday, May 13, 2011
Well what an interesting week it was here. The property was beautiful! Complete with Native tree alongside pine (European Import with the first settlers for those who don't know). Apple, Pear, Quince, Feijoa (think hubba bubba flavour jam in a tough outta green skin), Sharon Fruit, Guava, Passion Fruit, Olives, tomatoes, Israeli artichoke (not Jewish artichoke as Flick kept calling it, by mistake….), Grapes, berries, nuts, chickens, guinea fowl, wild rabbits and three beautiful but somewhat snotty Alpaca’s with an apple fetish. There were two houses on the property, Keith and Adrienne, the owners; deluxe pad meets B and B and the more modest home of Roland and Norma, Keith’s parents with whom we actually stayed. Keith and Roland were originally from Zimbabwe (when it was Rhodesia), Norma was South African and Adrienne, Kiwi.
We pulled up in the van, a few hours later than planned as we had a small fuel issue with Govinda, luckily within Wellington and luckily within walking distance of a petrol station. Lesson to one & all, you should always have a fuel can on hand…which we did! Took us about 20 minutes to work out how to use it! So anyway, we pulled up outside Adrienne and Keith’s house for a relaxing cup of tea, before heading to Norma and Roland’s to drop off our stuff. Norma met us and seemed a bit distant yet full of efficiency, she swiftly took our names and left us too it. We headed back out in suitable work clothes to be taken on a tour of the property…stunning! We then had the task of finding some Gardening gloves. Tom got the meaty man gloves, Flick became something out of Greek Mythology as Keith was in shock at the size of her hands and was relegated to gloves that were from the odd glove box! Keith’s eyes actually flashed with the glint of a wolf, "My, what big hands you have. All the better for weeding with, my dear". We did a few hours of work and before the sun disappeared behind the pine trees, we headed back to Norma and Roland’s house to wash up for tea. This time Norma was waiting there, eager to know our names again, as we told her our names again, she looked outraged and asked “Well, who’s Dickie?” We responded that we were equally as unsure as she was. After Tom had a shower and was walking back to the room, Norma stood there calling “Ted, Ted” over and over again! When he got into the room, Flick was absolutely wetting herself and the he realised that Norma had been calling to him. We went over to the other house, after very clear instructions about umbrellas, keys and torches from Norma. We sat down to a delicious home grown, homemade pumpkin risotto served with a flower salad (!) in a kitchen that quite literally sparkled. It was straight out of House and Garden Magazine. We enjoyed some great wine before heading back over to the house where we were sleeping. As we settled down for the night feeling full after a delicious meal and immensely pleased with ourselves that we had landed into such a beautiful experience.
Well….we would love to tell you that the week continued in this glorious fashion….it didn’t! Norma and Roland did continue to call us every other name other than our own. Something Keith picked up on as he seemed to detest the name Flick and settled on Rose! Adrienne turned into a bit of a hater as Flick was perpetually told the people from the South East were pathetic, by the end of the week everyone in England was pathetic, or maybe it was just us. This was odd as she was constantly telling us of her proud Anglo heritage, pure English, although it was Yorkshire and Cornwall and they aren’t pathetic, or are they Adrienne? Are they? Well sorry England we’ve let you down, but you can imagine that something that was barely funny the first time was just really exasperating by the 100th time. That is the point. We didn’t know where we stood! We were working too hard, we weren’t working hard enough. We needed a day off, we had to make sure that we worked every day. In a way it wasn’t too bad, Keith and Adrienne worked during the week, so we only had their company for about three hours a day! Note to those who manage and recruit: It is so hard to work hard for people who are cruel. We weeded and netted an Olive grove, and then Tom threw his back out, an old re occurring injury! We still had a small vineyard to weed, so while Tom rested Flick got her hands dirty, whilst singing and dancing very loudly and largely to Paolo Nutini. (Not the real Paolo Nutini, the iPod version). In fact whilst Flick was absorbed in a very loud and probably tuneless rendition of High Hopes, a neighbour pulled up to pick some apples, something Flick didn’t realise until the car was driving away as Flick gave an embarrassed wave and listened to all the local farm dogs howling! Oops. After a day of crouching up and down pulling weeds, Flick could barely walk the next day! Or the day after… Or the day after that. As we both walked along the local beach with Kapati Island in the distance, out to sea, we looked older then Norma and Roland and were starting to believe that we really were pathetic!
So as the week ended and we said our Goodbyes, Tom being called Tim by Roland right up until the last minute, we felt more than ready to move on. Roland and Norma had been fantastic company with an excellent sense of humour and we left promising to look after each other! We then headed over to Keith and Adrienne’s to say Goodbye. We had our diagnosis finally given to us:-
“Well, we think that you are very mature and a bit different from our usual wooffers”. This was delivered with great thought and with perplexed faces. AS though that was the answer to all the problems they had had with us. Very odd.
What we wanted to say was:-
“Well we found you to be incredibly cruel and short sighted” Ideally delivered with real earnest!
But we didn’t…..ever the polite/ pathetic Brits, we said our Thank You’s and headed off into Wellington.
We were very excited as we had planned to meet up with Hellen and Phil Swale, a couple who were friends with Polly and John (Flick’s Mum and Dad, from before they were married)! Tom/ Ted/ Tim was going to see an osteopath and Flick/ Rose although still vaguely walking like John Wayne could finally move without wincing! And Dickie? We still had no idea who that was!
