WWOOFing

We are finally here in sunny Renwick. We lucked out hitching a ride from Kaikoura to Blenheim, as it only took us 2 or 3 min to find a lift. We rode up with a lady from Auckland who was on holiday and touring the south island. She was a tv producer for NZs morning business show. We had a nice chat with her, and even got to stop on the side of the highway to see some lazy seals up close. We made it to Blenheim around noon on the 8th, checked into our hotel, and slept. It rained all day, so we slept all day. We were able to cook our own pasta meal in our tiny hotel room kitchen, which was good since we saved a lot of money. On the ninth we were picked up at 9:30 by Sean, a fellow employee at Seresin. We toured the vineyard, and met some other wokers at their 10am "Smoko" aka tea/snack break, not the traditional smoke break. We worked the rest of the day digging garlic. Sean, Erin, Ian and I dug up an estimated 5000 bulbs, which will be sold locally. They sell for a buck a piece, so I'd say we did our fair share of work for the company. On the 10th we worked with veggies once again. This time Ian and I hoed corn. We started at 10:30 and worked right up until our 1:00 lunch break. By this time our hands were blistered and we were hot. The temp is floating right around 85 degrees here and the sun is much more intense than that of MN. They mentioned something about holes in the ozone layer, or something bizarre like that. So Ian and I have been lathering ourselves in sun screen, but I guess our bodies will just have to get used to it. After lunch we pulled weeds. At least our hands got a break and we were able to sit down to do this job. The beets and beans look a lot better now that they have all been weeded. We get off work at 4pm and our new favorite spot in NZ is down by the river. Our home, which is a WWOOFer house, but has permanent employee residents, is located right next to a pretty big river. It reminds me a lot of something that you'd see in Montanna. Both days we ventured down to the river, basked in the sun, and took a dip. The water is crystal clear and surprisingly not that cold. Today, the 11th, we worked in the cow-pat-pits. We basically turned cow manure with a shovel for an hour, adding basalt and calcium as we went, and then placed it in pits. This will turn into compost over three months and will be used to fertilise the grapes. After lunch we we picked flowers for a few hours. They use camomile and yarro (idk if that's how they're spelled) in their biodynamic processes. We concluded our day by weeding the leeks and concluded our work day with a wine tasting of Seresin's wines after work. Tomorrow we are starting work at 8, going up to Michael Seresin's (the owner/british movie producer) restaurant to weed and work the gardens there. He's coming in on Friday, so all the workers are a little nervous as they prepare to get the vineyard in tip-top shape. He only makes an appearance once or twice a year. I don't know if we'll get to meet him, but if we do we have heard he usually wont even "tell you the time" if you are male. He is in his 60s, has and apparently really likes to flirt with the young ladies.

Internet is very hard to come by here in NZ. Even at our home here there is a limit of 4GB of internet/month, so they don't like us using it. Apparently they've had a few wwoofers who have used up the months limit in a matter of hours. Therefore, I don't know when I'll be able to update the post next. We plan on leaving Seresin on the 14th and we might start our work at the village early (maybe on the 16) so we will have a chance to see the west coast as we hitch our way back to Chch. That's about it! Bye!

The Tatou House, where Rob and Meg live for now and where WWOOFers live while at the vineyard. It was 5km from the main vineyard, so we had to bike there and back.

The 5,000 garlic bulbs that we dug up the first day at the estate. They dried over the next few days

The goats at the vineyard. Michael bought these for his son and now makes the vineyard workers take care of them.

Our view from our bedroom at the Tatou house.