Before and After Fiji

“Before and after Fiji”

Well, before Fiji I was working at a nursery in Blenheim. I put grafted grape plants in boxes with vermiculite (a mineral that may contain asbestos). Though the work was not at all interesting, it was a good place to work. We got tea/milo (hot chocolate)/coffee made for us three times a day and on Fridays we had a raffle and morning tea (translation = snacks).

After Fiji I took the bus down to Wellington and the ferry to Picton (costs just as much to fly.. so it was silly). After one night in Picton, I rejoined Joy and Annie. Well, Joy and I rejoined Annie on D’Urville Island in the Marlborough Sounds where Annie had been Wwoofing (working in exchange for room and board) for the past two weeks. A crazy German girl came along. We had Christmas with the Bee-keepers Annie had been working for. Actually, on Christmas day we took the boat over to some friends of theirs. I had gone for a hike, trying to think about whether or not to go to Aussie because I had not idea we were going somewhere for Christmas lunch. Apparently the question had been asked three times that morning. I, however, had been on the phone with my dad, trying to hear what he was saying (the connection was pretty bad), and had not heard the question. No matter, the food wasn’t ready when we finally got over there. Anyway, we had a second Christmas in Nelson where Joy, Annie and I exchanged gifts. It was weird, because this does not feel like Christmas at all. No snow- no Christmas. I cannot believe it’s been almost four months since I arrived in NZ. Sometimes it feels like forever, sometimes it feels like it’s flown by.

Oh, I mentioned that the German girl was crazy. Well, there’s a reason. To put it this way, it’s a wonder she’s still alive. We hiked up to the top of the Island and there was some sort of hole in the ground (an old mineshaft or something), and she decided to climb down it. She didn’t climb all the way down, thank God, but with the rock being as crumbly as it was, and the hole so narrow, it’s a wonder she didn’t fall down and break her neck or something else (like a leg, or hit her head). She refused to listen to Marci (a girl from Montana) and me, telling her to stop what she was doing and come back up. Getting help for her, to the remote island, would have been left to us. She has no notion of safety at all. She was a little scared, phew, so she came back up. However, she kept insisting she couldn’t have hurt herself falling from that height. BS. It’s truly a wonder she’s not dead.