While we hadn't a working visa for New Zealand, we still wanted to try our hand at a little work while we were in this country. Firstly, we are getting a little tired of, well, doing nothing! I know, you are laughing at us at home and feeling oh so sorry for us but we are laughing with you, believe me - we feel very lazy having not done an ounce of work for six months. Very little separates the days when you're travelling and it's true, every day really is a holiday. The only thing to tell me a week has gone by is when Chris whips up a Bloody Mary cocktail (the full works: he has taken to carrying tabasco sauce, salt and pepper everywhere we go) every Sunday and somehow manages to get his hands on a newspaper from somewhere. He never fails to surprise or amaze me - usually because personally, I haven't noticed the passing of another entire week and realised it is indeed another Sunday, but also because this is a tradition he has managed to keep up ever since we began our adventure in August.
Anyway, back to the theme of work (see how easy it is for us travellers to drift from this subject?!). Another reason we needed to do work of some kind is that we simply can't afford to spend two months in New Zealand. At just under 30 pounds a night for the two of us to stay in dorm beds, we're talking a LOT of money over two months. Money which we no longer have.
It is with these things in mind that we have turned to a global organisation called 'Wwoof', or Willing Workers on Organic Farms. I have done this once before, working on a farm in Corsica for a week and know that it's a good system. It's basically a work exchange - we will work for 4 - 6 hours a day in return for a place to sleep and three meals a day. Thus, we spend nothing even though we aren't earning.
Anyone with NZ$40 can sign up to be a 'wwoofer' and pretty much anyone can sign up to be a host as long as you've got projects going on that you need help with. The one rule is that, as a host, you're supposed to follow organic principles whether you be a large farm or a small household. Some people are 'more organic' than others but it's up to you as a wwoofer whether you are bothered about the amount of organic-ness going on at a place before you get in touch with the people.
Chris and I had organised to stay with Rob, Prudence and their two small children for a week and help them out with a few projects that they had going on. They live in a town called Port Chalmers just five minutes down the road from Dunedin. Dunedin was our first stop on the Magic Bus; what better than to have organised something so early on in the trip.
We weren't the only couple wwoofing at Rob's. Floridians Jack and Alix
had arrived a few days before us and were working on building a stone
wall by the creek in the garden as well as painting the kitchen cupboard
doors. It was fun for us that there were more wwoofers there.
The main project we were involved in here was to help restore a boat. Rob's dad built SeaForth with his bare hands; it was great to be working on something that had actually been hand made by a member of the family even if it did make us nervous in case we messed it up. Luckily, we were mainly sanding down, so we couldn't do too much damage. Man, is sanding long, laborious and monotonous work. I could just hear my dad in my ear the whole day long, "Put some bloody elbow grease into it, you big girl's blouse!". I became tired with this task very early on - I have little patience with such jobs. It was a good test for me, though Chris bore the brunt of the grumpiness that ensued.
Sanding, sanding and more sanding...
The far more physical and arduous task of sanding the side of the boat was given to Chris, mainly because I wasn't strong enough to hold the industrial sander up in the air for more than two minutes.
After a full day on the task we realised that the sander wasn't going to get through the many layers of paint on the hull. The next day Rob brought some highly toxic paint stripper for us to have another attempt - it was again decided this job would be better done by Chris, leaving me to what I do best, sanding the top. And so it was that Chris suited himself up like a ghost buster tackling something far more demanding than the side of a boat.
After an enjoyable week of mornings spent in the fresh air at Dunedin sailing club where I even got to paint (very much enjoyed this), we turned to household chores which didn't only include gardening.
Rob is working on a new bedroom for five year old Pepa. This involved help with the stripping. No, not wallpaper, but stripping actual walls. Wow. It was a great feeling to be tearing walls down, if a little dusty! I much preferred tasks like this where I could witness the effects of my work after a few hours. The thing that got me about sanding was that I could be sanding all day and it still didn't look much different. I prefer to see the fruits of my labour more prominently.
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