Thursday, February 23
Hello all and greetings once more from sunny Furneaux Lodge! I have been a bit slack in writing over the last couple of weeks and so here I am again to update you on the thrills and spills of New Zealand. As I write it is the most beautiful evening here with a slight breeze and only a few clouds in the sky, which are slowly turning a lovely pinky-purply colour. It has been a bit of a stormy day, and we spent most of it huddled indoors in front of the fire in the bar reading and playing Pictionary with other bored employees! Our plans of walking to another resort along the Queen Charlotte Track were foiled by the fact that they wouldn’t give us a discount for being staff here and that we would still only get to sleep in bunk beds there, so didn’t really see the point paying $90 for something we are already paying for here. So instead we plan to walk along the track tomorrow and either walk or catch the boat back, depending on how far we get.
As for what we have been up to in the last couple of weeks, it doesn’t really consist of much other than housekeeping outside of our days off. Due to various staff leaving and arriving, I have been moved from the bar and onto housekeeping full-time last week and this (mainly because I complain the least). This is fine as it means I work with Nick and have the evenings free, but does mean that I have to contend with dirty toilets, soaking and washing the kitchen’s repulsive tea towels, and removing people’s used dental floss from their used tea cups. What larks, Pip!
Enough of whingeing, I must instead concentrate on eulogising the fantastic meal we had on our days off last week. We went for a couple of nights in Nelson, which is really a lovely town, and our boss recommended that we go to this “world class” seafood restaurant called the Boat Shed for a meal, which we duly did. Hopefully there will be a photo thereof on the weblog by the time you are all reading this, but it is built out over the sea (an old boat shed, funnily enough) and the legs are covered in oysters and mussels and other various unidentified shell-dwelling creatures. We were seated out on the balcony for our meal and so during the course of the evening were able to watch a beautiful sunset over the water, as the sun descended behind the row of kauri pines growing on a small spit of land opposite the restaurant, turning the sea and the sky a fantastic shade of pink. As for the food, we ate a huge mixed platters to start, with green-lipped mussels, proscuitto ham, venison salami, cured tuna, smoked chilli salmon, gravadlax, cured swordfish tails, and bruschetta. Nick then had moules-frites as his main and I had a fantastic dish of gnocchi with a whole crab, green-lipped mussels, oysters, and king prawns. That, all together with a bottle of 2002 Marlborough Chardonnay, then coffee and port to finish, we were happy chappies by the time we went back to our campervan that night!
The rest of our time in Nelson was spent wandering around the shops, seeing the sights (including full-on culture walking around a cathedral) going for lots of morning/afternoon/anytime tea and cake, and generally enjoying all that civilised conurbations have to offer! A wonderfully relaxed two days, just great to get away from the same old sights, sounds, smells (toilets and burning rubbish) and people here at Furneaux. Not that we don’t enjoy it here but it takes a certain type of person to stay in the same 3 hectares of land and not start to go mad after a couple of weeks!
What other news? I can’t honestly think of very much at all. We have told the boss that our last working day here will be the 5th of March, so we will depart on the 6th and spend a couple of days in Picton (or it’s surroundings as Picton itself is pretty quiet), until friends of ours from Australia (but known to us from the UK), Beth and Mat arrive for a week with us in the South Island. We will then hopefully spend another two weeks travelling around and by that time we hope to have jobs to go to, most likely in Auckland. So that should be our life for the next month or so. Sounds pretty good eh? The novelty of Furneaux is beginning to wear a little thin, although the one-legged weka bird (nicknamed Gimpy) still does provide us with quite a few laughs!
It is getting rather chilly here now so I may retire back to the bar to post this on the weblog and warm my feet by the fire!
Hope you enjoy the couple of new photos. Love and missing-you type thoughts to all.
As for what we have been up to in the last couple of weeks, it doesn’t really consist of much other than housekeeping outside of our days off. Due to various staff leaving and arriving, I have been moved from the bar and onto housekeeping full-time last week and this (mainly because I complain the least). This is fine as it means I work with Nick and have the evenings free, but does mean that I have to contend with dirty toilets, soaking and washing the kitchen’s repulsive tea towels, and removing people’s used dental floss from their used tea cups. What larks, Pip!
Enough of whingeing, I must instead concentrate on eulogising the fantastic meal we had on our days off last week. We went for a couple of nights in Nelson, which is really a lovely town, and our boss recommended that we go to this “world class” seafood restaurant called the Boat Shed for a meal, which we duly did. Hopefully there will be a photo thereof on the weblog by the time you are all reading this, but it is built out over the sea (an old boat shed, funnily enough) and the legs are covered in oysters and mussels and other various unidentified shell-dwelling creatures. We were seated out on the balcony for our meal and so during the course of the evening were able to watch a beautiful sunset over the water, as the sun descended behind the row of kauri pines growing on a small spit of land opposite the restaurant, turning the sea and the sky a fantastic shade of pink. As for the food, we ate a huge mixed platters to start, with green-lipped mussels, proscuitto ham, venison salami, cured tuna, smoked chilli salmon, gravadlax, cured swordfish tails, and bruschetta. Nick then had moules-frites as his main and I had a fantastic dish of gnocchi with a whole crab, green-lipped mussels, oysters, and king prawns. That, all together with a bottle of 2002 Marlborough Chardonnay, then coffee and port to finish, we were happy chappies by the time we went back to our campervan that night!
The rest of our time in Nelson was spent wandering around the shops, seeing the sights (including full-on culture walking around a cathedral) going for lots of morning/afternoon/anytime tea and cake, and generally enjoying all that civilised conurbations have to offer! A wonderfully relaxed two days, just great to get away from the same old sights, sounds, smells (toilets and burning rubbish) and people here at Furneaux. Not that we don’t enjoy it here but it takes a certain type of person to stay in the same 3 hectares of land and not start to go mad after a couple of weeks!
What other news? I can’t honestly think of very much at all. We have told the boss that our last working day here will be the 5th of March, so we will depart on the 6th and spend a couple of days in Picton (or it’s surroundings as Picton itself is pretty quiet), until friends of ours from Australia (but known to us from the UK), Beth and Mat arrive for a week with us in the South Island. We will then hopefully spend another two weeks travelling around and by that time we hope to have jobs to go to, most likely in Auckland. So that should be our life for the next month or so. Sounds pretty good eh? The novelty of Furneaux is beginning to wear a little thin, although the one-legged weka bird (nicknamed Gimpy) still does provide us with quite a few laughs!
It is getting rather chilly here now so I may retire back to the bar to post this on the weblog and warm my feet by the fire!
Hope you enjoy the couple of new photos. Love and missing-you type thoughts to all.
Sunday, February 12
Hi y'all!
Just a quickie to say what we have been up to in the last few days. The weather has not been too great recently (just to make those of you in Britain feel slightly better), but we did have one good day in our two days off. So on that day, we managed to do the 'Waterfall Walk' from the Lodge. It's an hour in total, uphill to the waterfall and then back down the same path. Quite a narrow path though, through otherwise untouched rainforest, and as we went the day after some rainfall, it felt pretty tropical. Although the waterfall is pretty much an overzealous trickle, it's very attractive, with the 'cliff' that the water falls down covered in moss and ferns, and it's all very secluded and peaceful. Lovely.
I swam back from work to place where we stay the night before last as well, about which I felt very smug. Most of the other staff here thought that it was a silly idea and that we wouldn't enjoy it at all, but Ruth (another English staff member) and I went for it and felt great afterwards. Although the water didn't feel cold at the time, my fingernails were an interesting neon blue colour when I emerged from the water... After Ruth and I had swum, we inspired a whole group of the other staff, including Nick, to run off the end of the jetty and also go for a bit of a swim. So we then all rewarded ourselves for our exertions by drinking copious amounts of wine and cocktails and whisky that night with the whole lodge staff crew, as a farewell to Ruth.
Ruth and I also kayaked back to our accommodation the night before our swim, which was good fun. Nick and I had to paddle the kayaks back the next day, and I got very excited when I saw a stingray! Pretty cool. There are loads of green-lipped mussels in the water too, and sea urchins, and I managed (almost capsizing myself in the process) to get myself a beautiful sea urchin shell.
So that was the major excitement of the last week. We are back to work now, and I am anticipating perhaps another couple of 12- or 14-hour shifts this week... I ended up on two days this week doing a full day's housekeeping with Nick and Ruth and then a five-hour shift on the bar straight afterward. Fun. Thinking of the money though! And the possible skiing...
Hope you like the new photos.
Lots of love to all.
Vic and Nick.
Just a quickie to say what we have been up to in the last few days. The weather has not been too great recently (just to make those of you in Britain feel slightly better), but we did have one good day in our two days off. So on that day, we managed to do the 'Waterfall Walk' from the Lodge. It's an hour in total, uphill to the waterfall and then back down the same path. Quite a narrow path though, through otherwise untouched rainforest, and as we went the day after some rainfall, it felt pretty tropical. Although the waterfall is pretty much an overzealous trickle, it's very attractive, with the 'cliff' that the water falls down covered in moss and ferns, and it's all very secluded and peaceful. Lovely.
I swam back from work to place where we stay the night before last as well, about which I felt very smug. Most of the other staff here thought that it was a silly idea and that we wouldn't enjoy it at all, but Ruth (another English staff member) and I went for it and felt great afterwards. Although the water didn't feel cold at the time, my fingernails were an interesting neon blue colour when I emerged from the water... After Ruth and I had swum, we inspired a whole group of the other staff, including Nick, to run off the end of the jetty and also go for a bit of a swim. So we then all rewarded ourselves for our exertions by drinking copious amounts of wine and cocktails and whisky that night with the whole lodge staff crew, as a farewell to Ruth.
Ruth and I also kayaked back to our accommodation the night before our swim, which was good fun. Nick and I had to paddle the kayaks back the next day, and I got very excited when I saw a stingray! Pretty cool. There are loads of green-lipped mussels in the water too, and sea urchins, and I managed (almost capsizing myself in the process) to get myself a beautiful sea urchin shell.
So that was the major excitement of the last week. We are back to work now, and I am anticipating perhaps another couple of 12- or 14-hour shifts this week... I ended up on two days this week doing a full day's housekeeping with Nick and Ruth and then a five-hour shift on the bar straight afterward. Fun. Thinking of the money though! And the possible skiing...
Hope you like the new photos.
Lots of love to all.
Vic and Nick.
Friday, February 3
Hi there y'all!
Just to let you all know that we commandeered the guy who was being employed to fix the lodge's computers to put our one on the wireless network, and after he'd spent about an hour playing with it and fixing all the bugs, we can now use our own computer to e-mail. (We are keeping this quiet from the boss, who had evidently just paid for our computer to be fixed...) Thus, you all might be much more likely to get decent replies to any letters you might want to write to us...
Nick and I have just had our first couple of days off, and went back to the real world for a night in the Horny Ox. Quite a shock to see cars again actually! We are popular now as we have returned with two casks of wine, loads of fresh fruit, and new books to read! And Nick and I also spent a vast sum of money on a decent pair of walking shoes each, so on our next days off we can go and sample the joys of the Queen Charlotte track (on which the hotel is situated) - and the muffins from the wood-burning stove of the next hotel round!
We have a wedding here tomorrow night, so it's all systems go with a marquee being erected, the grass being mown, and all rooms being cleaned and prepared for a big influx of guests. Nick is really getting into his housekeeping, and even had a conversation with a fellow housekeeper last night about the relative joys of cleaning the shower screens versus using meths on the chrome fittings versus bed-making and the production of cracking hospital corners. I am sticking to the bar and conversations with one of the waitresses about how good the crema on my espressos is (excellent).
Right, it's 11.15 which means that it's lunch in 15 minutes (yes, really) and so I will be off to get changed for work.
Hope you enjoy the photos - I think we can forget about the old blog now and I will soon put the Oz photos on here so you can finally see them!
Lots of love, V.
Just to let you all know that we commandeered the guy who was being employed to fix the lodge's computers to put our one on the wireless network, and after he'd spent about an hour playing with it and fixing all the bugs, we can now use our own computer to e-mail. (We are keeping this quiet from the boss, who had evidently just paid for our computer to be fixed...) Thus, you all might be much more likely to get decent replies to any letters you might want to write to us...
Nick and I have just had our first couple of days off, and went back to the real world for a night in the Horny Ox. Quite a shock to see cars again actually! We are popular now as we have returned with two casks of wine, loads of fresh fruit, and new books to read! And Nick and I also spent a vast sum of money on a decent pair of walking shoes each, so on our next days off we can go and sample the joys of the Queen Charlotte track (on which the hotel is situated) - and the muffins from the wood-burning stove of the next hotel round!
We have a wedding here tomorrow night, so it's all systems go with a marquee being erected, the grass being mown, and all rooms being cleaned and prepared for a big influx of guests. Nick is really getting into his housekeeping, and even had a conversation with a fellow housekeeper last night about the relative joys of cleaning the shower screens versus using meths on the chrome fittings versus bed-making and the production of cracking hospital corners. I am sticking to the bar and conversations with one of the waitresses about how good the crema on my espressos is (excellent).
Right, it's 11.15 which means that it's lunch in 15 minutes (yes, really) and so I will be off to get changed for work.
Hope you enjoy the photos - I think we can forget about the old blog now and I will soon put the Oz photos on here so you can finally see them!
Lots of love, V.
Thursday, February 2
Hi guys!
We have finally got a new weblog and hopefully this one will function slightly better than the last… Hope you are all well at home? Now I look forward to loads of letters from you all telling us how fantastic we both look in our photos and how wonderful our campervan is (which we obviously know already).
So, since the last update… We spent quite a few days in the Hawke’s Bay area, looking for work and making the most of a lovely car park with river access for washing! We finally got a job offer and I think I might have mentioned it in my last letter. So on Saturday last week we made our way across the hills (and they were big hills) to a place called Waiouru. The road there was really quite spectacular, in more ways than one. Amazing views all the way, huge hills and beautiful valleys, but a total of 36km of gravel road was pretty exhausting. Poor little van! We stayed the night just off the road in the middle of nowhere, about 30km in either direction to the nearest house. Wow. So after the poor little van had struggled up the hills, down the valleys and over the gravel, we arrived in Waiouru. Wow, it’s pretty remote. 816m above sea level and with literally 3 restaurants, 2 shops, a petrol station, an army museum, and an army training camp. And fortunately, one internet café. We stupidly arrived several hours before our friend Jen was due to arrive on her coach, and so after exploring the aforementioned delights of Waiouru (which took about fifteen minutes, including the time taken to brush our teeth in the museum toilets), we sat in the van and waited.
Jen finally arrived and we went off for a few days exploring around the southern part of the north island. We got some amazing views of a huge mountain, the name of which has escaped both Nick and I at the moment. We spent a couple of nights at campsites and also had a night right next to a dairy farm - fascinating smell… Cow dung and off milk together… Jen seemed to have had a great time, it being her first ever camping experience. Despite having a tent, it was only used for one night, with tent-putting-up being restricted on other nights by lack of space, low temperatures, and rain. So we tested the campervan’s capacity - it can sleep three, but as the mattress is slightly too small for the bad area, one person ends up sleeping wedged down the side… A few sleepless nights did result. However, we had a good time, saw some great scenery, and had a day in Palmerston North, where Jen will be starting work in a week or so. It has been referred to as the armpit of NZ, but we thought it was quite alright, much to Jen’s relief.
We arrived into Wellington and spent pretty much all of the few hours we had there stuck in the tourist information office, as we were served by probably the least experienced girl in there, who overcharged us for the ferry and then had to spend ages refunding us. But we made it onto the ferry, and the ferry made it to Picton, through the wind and the rain (photo taking on entry to the Marlborough Sounds was pretty tricky, as my hand kept being buffeted and I kept getting photos of the sky). We arrived in the South Island to horizontal rain and low temperatures, but made it to a campsite and the rain even had the decency to stop for the evening. And we managed to stay at a campsite with a Jacuzzi, so indulged ourselves, all three of us currently craving a bath!
And then on Thursday morning we made our way through the Marlborough Sounds again to Furneaux Lodge. Not a very inspiring day for the scenery, as it was a bit grey and cloudy, but that was all made up for when we saw a school of dolphins. Wow. I had seen on the website of the resort that they sometimes have dolphins in the bay, and was so excited by the idea of seeing some, and then was really pretty happy when we saw some on the way! Amazing!
So we are now working at Furneaux Lodge (see the amazing views on the webpage: www.furneaux.co.nz). The place is pretty relaxed and it has so far been up to us to ask what to do rather than being ordered around, but I think once we’ve settled in and got used to the boss’ approach we’ll be pretty happy here. We have said we’ll probably stay here for around a month, and then we’ll probably spend another couple of weeks seeing the South Island and then head on up to Auckland for work (assuming we’ve got some by then of course). At the moment, I am doing a combination of bar work and housekeeping (all physios amongst you will appreciate the trauma for me of having to do multiple hospital corners), and Nick is doing a bit of housekeeping as well as having been given the task of redesigning the gardens. Just as well we brought the computer! Everyone seems friendly, and loads of staff are leaving tomorrow so we are on full shift patterns as of tomorrow (although it’s 9.30pm on Sunday and we still have no rosta - this is what I mean about the boss’ laid-back approach). I have today mastered the art of milk-frothing, and have made some spectacular lattes and cappuccinos.
I am now going to go back to watching the tennis on the projector screen they have set up in the bar here, after going to see if the elusive rosta has appeared… Nick and I will be annoyed if we have tomorrow off, as we could have left on the boat tonight. Hope all is well at home. Yet again I will mention the weather - sunny and beautiful again today…
Lots of love to everyone, Vic and Nick.
We have finally got a new weblog and hopefully this one will function slightly better than the last… Hope you are all well at home? Now I look forward to loads of letters from you all telling us how fantastic we both look in our photos and how wonderful our campervan is (which we obviously know already).
So, since the last update… We spent quite a few days in the Hawke’s Bay area, looking for work and making the most of a lovely car park with river access for washing! We finally got a job offer and I think I might have mentioned it in my last letter. So on Saturday last week we made our way across the hills (and they were big hills) to a place called Waiouru. The road there was really quite spectacular, in more ways than one. Amazing views all the way, huge hills and beautiful valleys, but a total of 36km of gravel road was pretty exhausting. Poor little van! We stayed the night just off the road in the middle of nowhere, about 30km in either direction to the nearest house. Wow. So after the poor little van had struggled up the hills, down the valleys and over the gravel, we arrived in Waiouru. Wow, it’s pretty remote. 816m above sea level and with literally 3 restaurants, 2 shops, a petrol station, an army museum, and an army training camp. And fortunately, one internet café. We stupidly arrived several hours before our friend Jen was due to arrive on her coach, and so after exploring the aforementioned delights of Waiouru (which took about fifteen minutes, including the time taken to brush our teeth in the museum toilets), we sat in the van and waited.
Jen finally arrived and we went off for a few days exploring around the southern part of the north island. We got some amazing views of a huge mountain, the name of which has escaped both Nick and I at the moment. We spent a couple of nights at campsites and also had a night right next to a dairy farm - fascinating smell… Cow dung and off milk together… Jen seemed to have had a great time, it being her first ever camping experience. Despite having a tent, it was only used for one night, with tent-putting-up being restricted on other nights by lack of space, low temperatures, and rain. So we tested the campervan’s capacity - it can sleep three, but as the mattress is slightly too small for the bad area, one person ends up sleeping wedged down the side… A few sleepless nights did result. However, we had a good time, saw some great scenery, and had a day in Palmerston North, where Jen will be starting work in a week or so. It has been referred to as the armpit of NZ, but we thought it was quite alright, much to Jen’s relief.
We arrived into Wellington and spent pretty much all of the few hours we had there stuck in the tourist information office, as we were served by probably the least experienced girl in there, who overcharged us for the ferry and then had to spend ages refunding us. But we made it onto the ferry, and the ferry made it to Picton, through the wind and the rain (photo taking on entry to the Marlborough Sounds was pretty tricky, as my hand kept being buffeted and I kept getting photos of the sky). We arrived in the South Island to horizontal rain and low temperatures, but made it to a campsite and the rain even had the decency to stop for the evening. And we managed to stay at a campsite with a Jacuzzi, so indulged ourselves, all three of us currently craving a bath!
And then on Thursday morning we made our way through the Marlborough Sounds again to Furneaux Lodge. Not a very inspiring day for the scenery, as it was a bit grey and cloudy, but that was all made up for when we saw a school of dolphins. Wow. I had seen on the website of the resort that they sometimes have dolphins in the bay, and was so excited by the idea of seeing some, and then was really pretty happy when we saw some on the way! Amazing!
So we are now working at Furneaux Lodge (see the amazing views on the webpage: www.furneaux.co.nz). The place is pretty relaxed and it has so far been up to us to ask what to do rather than being ordered around, but I think once we’ve settled in and got used to the boss’ approach we’ll be pretty happy here. We have said we’ll probably stay here for around a month, and then we’ll probably spend another couple of weeks seeing the South Island and then head on up to Auckland for work (assuming we’ve got some by then of course). At the moment, I am doing a combination of bar work and housekeeping (all physios amongst you will appreciate the trauma for me of having to do multiple hospital corners), and Nick is doing a bit of housekeeping as well as having been given the task of redesigning the gardens. Just as well we brought the computer! Everyone seems friendly, and loads of staff are leaving tomorrow so we are on full shift patterns as of tomorrow (although it’s 9.30pm on Sunday and we still have no rosta - this is what I mean about the boss’ laid-back approach). I have today mastered the art of milk-frothing, and have made some spectacular lattes and cappuccinos.
I am now going to go back to watching the tennis on the projector screen they have set up in the bar here, after going to see if the elusive rosta has appeared… Nick and I will be annoyed if we have tomorrow off, as we could have left on the boat tonight. Hope all is well at home. Yet again I will mention the weather - sunny and beautiful again today…
Lots of love to everyone, Vic and Nick.
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