Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Though I am writing this on U.S. Thanksgiving Day as we already celebrated our Thanksgiving last night--in the most traditional fashion we could manage given we are in a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving (nor do they have canned pumpkin pie filling!) and we had to work all day picking apples.

SO much to update!

Most of the past week has been work, work, work, come home, shower, eat, pass out. Nothing too exciting. Although last week we did head over to Cardoness for Mark and Pam's goodbye dinner--it was lovely, as usual. We also got to meet more of the family as Chris, Neil and Sarah's son, had his wife and children over for the event. We, unfortunately, couldn't stay for a nice game of Petanque as we had free tickets for a Ukulele concert given to us by our flat mate, Lacey, who works at the Hawke's Bay Opera house. 

It was actually quite a fun concert, as we are not particularly ukulele fanatics. They had a guy from L.A., Ukulele Bartt, play as well as a Kiwi band called the Nukes. They were a trio and one of the guys played a "banjolele" (a mix between a banjo and ukulele) giving their music a fun, bluegrass feel.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, though I wish I had. However, the concert was in the atrium, or courtyard, of the Opera house. There were random tables set up, as it was very relaxed and they had wine and snacks for sale (though we didn't buy any). People even brought their own ukulele's to play along at the end! The concert was all a part of the week-long Hawke's Bay Ukulele Festival. The next day they were trying for the Guinness Book of World Record's for the largest Ukulele jam! Not sure if they achieved it or not, as we didn't attend.

The next night we actually went with another roommate of ours, Nakul, to train at his Indian restaurant. They are going to need extra staff from time to time and Nakul brought us in to train. It was my first experience working in a restaurant, and it was pretty fun (and also, luckily, pretty slow since it was a Sunday night). The whole staff is Indian but all the patrons were Kiwis, so it worked out. 

We have decided to move on from the apple orchard as we simply weren't making enough money on a piece rate (half of the minimum hourly wage) and new opportunities have come up. If we had all the money we needed, we possibly would have stayed just for the experience and sheer character building (as the work is quite physical) because our boss was incredibly nice and he had an adorable yellow lab--but our bank account was beckoning to us to find something more lucrative. Hopefully, on Monday, we will be working for  new contractor who is happy to pay us at an hourly rate doing mostly vineyard work, with some vegetable and fruit work here and there. This new job will actually allow us to save money rather than simply make enough to meet our weekly expenses. 

Though for today, it was back to Cardoness to do some more work in the vineyard--paid this time! It was a long day and we were tuckered out by the end! Luckily, we have tons of Thanksgiving leftovers so we won't have to worry about cooking for the next few days.

We introduced some of our flat mates to the tradition that is Thanksgiving. However, turkey is not a popular poultry item in NZ. You are much more likely to find lamb, beef, and chicken. Thus, we opted for a nice roast chicken as it was cheaper and we actually had the time to cook it! We also had boiled artichoke with a dijon dipping sauce, mashed potatoes (I made those), corn pudding, and bread stuffing. Also, apple pie for dessert! It was quite delicious and while we certainly missed having Thanksgiving back home with our families (and for myself, pumpkin pie), it was nice to celebrate together and bring some of our own traditions (the weather, however, is decidedly late spring rather than the fall foliage that we are used to this time of year).

However, me must say what we are most thankful for right now is the kindness of strangers! So many new people we have met have been willing to go out of their way to help us out and make sure we are looked after. It's a nice feeling since we are so far from home! We spent our post-dinner time hanging out with our flat mates, enjoying a nice bottle of wine we bought, and showing them pictures from America and our travels.

We leave you with this short video of our first (and possibly only) New Zealand Thanksgiving!

Working Hard

Phew! Working in an apple orchard during the New Zealand summer is not easy. For the last two days, so far, we have been doing apple thinning on an orchard where we take extraneous fruit off the tree in order to lighten the weight and make sure all the remaining fruit become well developed. It's a pretty tedious process, involving setting up our own ladders, climbing up and down, and getting up pretty high in order to get all the fruit. Even after our first day, we knew it was going to be a pretty strenuous 6 weeks, and if we manage to make it through to the end, we will both be pretty darn tan! We apply lots of sunblock, however, and we both wear hats to keep our faces shaded, but it is HOT. 


There are two other Czechs and one other Kiwi guy who works with us--we take different rows, though, so we don't interact too much. The owner is a perfectly nice guy and he has an adorable young yellow labrador running around. He likes plastic, which we learned the first day when he chewed the top off our sunscreen and tried to get at the bottle as well. I also noticed, when the owner John discovered our sunscreen bottle, that the plastic water bottle I had brought was nowhere to be found. We found the cap, but never the rest. Oh well, he's such a cute dog you can't really mind.


Our night last night with Mark and Pam was lovely. John and I went early to grab some dinner at the pub where we were meeting. We had a nice time with Mark and Pam, talking about what we both have been doing since we left Cardoness. However, Mark and Pam's last day there is Sunday, so they have invited us over for a barbecue before we go to our Ukulele concert on Saturday night. Weekend plans already!


After that we headed to the movie theater in town to see Harry Potter! It ended up that we got there two hours early, at 10 p.m., but the doors didn't open until 11. There were already three girls sitting outside waiting, so John and I decide to join them. By the time the doors opened, there were quite a few people waiting and the theater ended up being totally full by the time the movie started. There were some extremely enthusiastic fans, as to be expected. People dressed up, brought wands (a.k.a sticks), two guys came running in with suits on house brooms. They catered to the madness by having trivia before the movie as a way to pass the time and practically handed out their "Harry Potter" ice cream they had created for the event as a prize for a correct answer. John and I stuck with hot chocolate and a latte. John was rather amused by the crowd, though of course he said it was "just sad." However, he did not end up sleeping through the movie like he said he would do and instead ended up watching the whole thing and even laughed at the funny bits! He liked it, I know it, though he will insist otherwise. Don't believe him. :)


But we left the theater at 2:30 a.m. (good timing actually, as there were only three previews before the actual movie), and got home and to bed by 3:00 a.m. only to wake up at 7 for work--which has made this quite the long day! We are hoping to adjust to the physical demands of the work soon, and in the meantime keep looking for any work (and we mean ANY work) that will take us indoors!

Work!

We are now gainfully employed! Who knew things would work out this quickly? First a flat room and now a job! We were just relaxing in our room today after doing some much needed laundry when we both got a text at the same time and lo' and behold it was Pick NZ with some work! So we went this evening to check it out. We will be doing apple thinning on an orchard about a 10 min drive away. The guy who runs it is very nice, he has two young daughters, and he says that he expects there will be work until Christmas which is great because that is how long we were planning to stay here. So that is a huge relief. We are also getting payed at a contract rate, basically per tree, so the more and faster we work, the more we earn. Though he says once we get used to the work and get a rhythm going the average is about $15/hr. This is good because we can set our own hours and work for however long we want. Or we can take a day off if we want!

So we're feeling very luck right now and it's quite a relief to know we have some income coming in! If we play our cards right hopefully we will make enough to save up and replenish our funds a bit.

When we got home the girl who rents us the room said she had free tickets for us! She works at the Hawke's Bay Opera house and this Saturday night is a performance of a guy who plays the Ukulele and will be performing in the courtyard of the Opera House. So now we have a nice event to go to this weekend. Tomorrow night we are meeting Mark and Pam for a beer at the pub in Havelock North before going to the midnight premiere of the new Harry Potter! The cinema we are going to is a boutique cinema so there are only three theaters and they don't serve popcorn, but wine and cheese!

It's turning out to be quite a good week! The sunset was correct.

A Place to Stay

After much calling, waiting, viewing, and more waiting we have found a place to stay! We looked at several flats and finally settled on the one that met our needs the best. It is a boarding house located in central Hastings, right around the area where we are looking for work. It is a rather large house with several bedrooms and tenants, about 5 others I believe, but it is clean, spacious, and we have unlimited internet! We are also able to stay as short or as long as we want--we are not tied down by a minimum length of stay. Here are some photos of our new pad:

This is our room. It's small but cozy with a twin bed and the other is a full. 

Here is the entrance to the room: we have a small set of drawers and a wardrobe to hang things.

Here is the kitchen. It's a decent size and has a grill, oven, toaster, microwave, fridges, a tea kettle, and even a rice cooker! Well suited for any type of cooking. 

Here is  picture of the front of the house. As you can see it's rather wide and there is a small yard that I am standing in that you can't see--but it has some nice trees and flowers.

And here is a courtyard in the back of the house that is spacious and would make for a nice place to eat on the warm summer nights (that are just now starting to arrive!)

Overall, we are pretty content with the place and think it will make a satisfactory "home" for the next month and a half while we work in the area. We still have not found solid work yet, but we have been applying to many places and people keep telling us it's about to get busy and that we will definitely find some work soon! We may even have two days at the end of this week at an orchard, but we have to call again tomorrow to confirm. So wish us luck! Things are looking up!

End of Cardoness

Yesterday marked one month that we have been in New Zealand and this morning we departed from the wonderful Cardoness Lodge. Our experience in NZ thus far has certainly been a positive one and the time has flown by!

We couldn't be happier in our decision to forgo Wellington for the time being to head North. Cardoness was a nice change to have some solid productivity during the day and to eat healthily and VERY very well! We definitely warmed up our muscles, as well as our appetites, and got a little tan to boot. The last two days were sunny and hot--but they provided a clear view of the scenery--including the mountain ranges in the distance that had been previously covered by clouds. Apparently it was the mountain range used as Mordor in the Lord of the Rings movies!

But Neil and Sarah couldn't have been better hosts and their son, Chris, was great to work for, as his passion for their wine was apparent and we learned a lot from them. They have even offered to ask around their own contacts for any work that could be available to us. We also hope to go back here and there to do some day work on the vineyard and occasionally join them for dinner. Or perhaps we will run into them at the monthly Quiz Night! But they have been most helpful in offering advice and assistance during our stay here and it was wonderful to meet Mark and Pam as well. We hope to keep in touch and possibly see each other again as we travel around New Zealand. 

Our last day with them we headed to a local pub after work called the Chook and Filly where Neil treated the four of us (me, John, Mark, and Pam) to a round of beer and some fun games of pool. I proved to be decidedly not talented, while Mark and Pam were quite humble about their pool talents! We still had a good time and I learned a bit more about how to play. It was a great way to spend our last evening there.

When we returned back to the lodge Sarah had prepared a wonderful meal for us. Salmon, new potatoes, and asparagus with Hollandaise sauce. Now, I had never had salmon as I generally don't like much sea food, but I had it AND I really liked it! So there you go, constantly expanding my horizons. The whole meal was delicious and was topped off by a scrumptious strawberry meringue, tea, and another game of cards.  

We were also treated to a beautiful sunset on our last night. It had been a lovely day and the sunset, to me, (I'm sure John would find it a bit hokey) seemed indicative of good things to come as we move on to our next experience!

Cardoness

Well, we were lucky enough to extend our stay at the Cardoness Lodge! We've been enjoying the work and the food even more. Every day we get three delicious meals--we have definitely been spoiled. On Friday it was the British holiday "Guy Fawkes" day to celebrate the guy who, in the 1600s, tried to blow up parliament. So to celebrate, they blow up fireworks! 

The day before we went to go grab some beers with Mark and Pam after work at a local bar called Roosters. It's a microbrewery but their beers are good and rather cheap! It was definitely popular with the locals. 

Then on Guy Fawkes night we went into town with Mark and Pam and watched the fireworks from the side of the road as it was $10 to enter the park where they were being shot off. We mostly caught the tail end of them, but after that we headed up to Napier where, the word was, you could light a bonfire on the beach. And indeed, there were tons!

We found some hot embers that another group had left behind and got it restarted to make our own fire. The boys were determined to make the fire as big as possible, even when it started raining! But we did end up having a nice, big fire and even found some leftover small fireworks that we were able to set off. It was a fun evening and a nice way to celebrate the occasion.

Saturday we had the day off as it was really windy and so John and I ventured out to get some lunch at a local cafe. We just had burgers but they were huge and delicious and it was nice to get out and see some more of the town. 

Earlier in the week John and I cooked dinner that night for everyone. We made lemon chicken and creme brulee for dessert! Then on Saturday night Mark and Pam made dinner for us and it was equally delicious with dessert fondue to top it off! We also learned a new card game after dinner that Neil taught us called Swift. It's kind of like spades if you have every played that. It was lots of fun and Pam and I tied for 1st place but she won in the tie breaker round. It was still good fun.

For the moment we are enjoying our last few days here at Cardoness while looking for work and a new place to stay--hopefully for the long term (next 2 months). The holidays are coming up so we are hoping to be settled by then!

Working Hard

It's been a few days, so I thought I would provide a quick update!

Well, our legs and backs are sore but it's been well worth it! We've thoroughly been enjoying our week at the Cardoness Lodge thus far. We've been learning all about wine making and engaging in the process! We learned this week how to shoot thin two different ways--cane thinning and spur thinning. It's a lot of standing on your feet but we only work 5 hours a day so it's not too bad.

We get up, enjoy a nice breakfast, work from 9 to noon, enjoy some lunch, head back out at 1, and work til 3. Drinking lots of tea in the meantime. After work we then have the rest of the day to do whatever--which is nice! We are also provided wonderful dinners every night and it's great! We haven't eaten this well since we arrived in NZ.

We are working with another couple--Mark and Pam--from Great Britain. They have been in the country 4 months and have worked here before, but they are very nice and great company! They are both 30 but don't mind hanging out with some early 20-year-olds.

Last night we ventured out to "Quiz Night" (trivia) at a local pub with Neil, Sarah,  their daughter Kelly, Mark, and Pam. Didn't do too well, but it was fun regardless! During the day we have been working with Neil and Sarah's son Chris, who is the wine-making extraordinaire! He's been educating us a lot about the whole process. 

So, despite our soreness we are enjoying our time here. We are constantly looking for more work in the area and are hoping something comes through soon!