Saturday, Sept 11: I can't believe it had been nine years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Life is flying by! Never did I believe I would be here nine years ago!
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| Bluff - Southern most town of NZ |
It is so nice knowing we have a few extra days to take our time while we explore. We spent the morning at the i-site reading brochures, writing in our journals, and charging our phones. Our next stop was Bluff - the oldest European settled and southern most town in New Zealand. My flatmate, Leah Russell is from here!
That night we were searching around for a place to stay and came across the Bluff Homestead. We were confused at first because we were expecting a campervan park, but there was only a nice house at the end of the road! It is a beautiful house built in 1973 and overlooks the Bluff Harbour and Southern Alps. We knocked on the door and Andrew answered. He explained that people usually stay here to WWOOF - World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Basically, travelers can receive free accommodations and meals in return for a variety of volunteer work. I had heard of this and always wanted to try it, so we jumped on this amazing opportunity!! We decided to do this instead of Stewart Island because we really need more time for that and it's super expensive to get there. Wwoofing turned out to be an amazing, spontaneous alternative. That night it was great to have a kitchen to cook in and a table to sit at. We stayed up late talking, plugged in our campervan, and had a nice sleep in.
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| Digging potatoes |
Sunday, Sept 12: We got up pretty late today. We were lounging in our van when we hear yelling outside so we stopped talking to listen. There was some kind of dispute going on with Andrew and his neighbours about property, a fence, and trees. It got very heated! and they started cursing at each other, it was so scary/awkward! We hesitantly got out of the van to have our scrambled eggs and toast for brunch. A little while later the police showed up at the door! But they were super nice and were there to help settle the dispute. Crazy stuff!! Before Andrew tended to the cops, he showed us our first wwoofing jobs ever. Steph and Courtney cleaned the house while Cathy and I worked in the garden digging up potatoes. I haven't had to do much manual labour like this before. It was a blast! It was like a treasure hunt turning over the soil and finding all the potatoes. My back definitely hurt by the end of the three hours. Oh also, funny story, I had a cartoon moment when I stepped on the ho and it came up and smacked me in the head. Hahaha. But it was all worth it because the potatoes were a part of the amazing meal we had that night. We had freshly caught elephant fish, tomatoes, and cabbage. It was incredible. Then us girls talked and bonded all night. I love wwoofing, I would love to go on a long wwofing trip some time. It would also be sweet to be a wwoof host so you could meet people from all over the world and get work done for you. Andrew's wife is returning tomorrow to a nice house and plenty of fresh potatoes. I am so proud of our work! We stayed one more night and got up early to continue our travels.
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| Bluff Homestead kitchen |
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