Woofing, Abel Tasman and Golden Bay

At the end of May i moved out of Josh's house and to see more of NZ and meet people and do some traveling and i thought the best way to do this was woofing (which i found out, to my embarrassment, does not involve crawling on the floor and barking like a dog).  The term originally comes from Working On Organic Farms, but is generally used for anywhere that you work for accommodation and food.  I used a website called helpx.com where people advertise for woofers and found a place not to far away from Nelson called the playhouse cafe and theatre.  I contacted them and after visiting the cafe for them to check that i was human they said i could start on the 29th May.  The owners are Nic and Manu (short for Manuela, from Switzerland) and my first job was to drop the previous woofers off at the airport, go to the bank to get some change and then pick up Evelyne (Manu's brothers friend, from Switzerland) from the airport.  I had been here 5 minutes and they had given me the keys to their van and $500, and all they new about me was my name!  They are pretty trusting people.  The deal here is in exchange for 4 hours work a day i get accommodation and all my meals provided.

Inside the Playhouse

Cheeky Monkey, the house cat

So far i have done a variety of jobs, some fun to learn and do such as making pizza dough, serving behind the bar and spraying the trees in the orchard with a ghostbusters style backpack sprayer and some not so fun such as dishwashing and cleaning the toilets.  Overall it is a really cool venue and Manu cooks the most amazing food and sometimes we are allowed some drinks from behind the bar.

We normally get 1 day a week off and last week me and Evelyne went up to Abel Tasman for a walk along the World Famous* Abel Tasman Coastal Track.  We got up early and drove over to Kiateriteri where we took a water taxi up along the coast to start the walk.

Sunrise on Kiateriteri beach

The water taxi took us by split apple rock and a seal colony

 Not a very good photo of Split Apple Rock

Some seals on Adele island

After about 45 minutes we were dropped off at Anchorage to start the walk.

Anchorage Bay

View from Pitt Head

After walking the Pitt Head loop we headed inland towards Cleopatras pool, i didnt take any photos as we had to cross a river on some rocks and i didnt want to slip in (as i have been known to do in the past) and get my camera wet.  All i can say is that it doesnt look like what you think it would look  like, but is pretty cool anyway.  After that we walked back towards the coast and headed south towards the pick up point of Apple Tree Bay, on the way we stopped for some lunch at another bay and soon enough we were at Apple Tree Bay, although i didnt see any apple trees here.

Apple Tree Bay, with Adele Island in the background

The water taxi picked us up just as it was starting to get cold and we headed home.

This week Evelyne and I went up to Golden Bay for the night to have a look around, however the weather the past few days has been pretty bad so we were not expecting to see much.  We stayed at a hostel in Takaka and as it is winter it was really quite and we got our own room.  Manu had given us loads of food from the restaurant as we had worked for it, so we did not need to buy anything while we were there.  We got up in the morning and headed up the coast towards Farewell Spit and Wharariki Beach and as we were driving along the weather got progressively worse and by the time we got to Wharariki Beach car park it was very wet and windy, but we decided to brave the elements and walk the 1.5km to the beach.  By the time we got to the beach we were soaking, but you can see how nice the area is even in dismal weather.

 The rocks in the sea reminded me of the Goonies

We walked around the beach to a cave where there was a seal colony

After about 20 minutes on the beach we headed back to the car as it was too wet and windy to enjoy being there.  We^hen we got back to Takaka Evelyne suggested filling up the car with diesel, but i thought we would make it to Motueka (only about 35km away) so we started the trip over Takaka Hill, and sure enough before long the fuel light came on.  I thought this was just because we were going up hill and i did not want to run out of fuel on a windy (as in winding, although it was windy(i dont need to explain this one) as well), foggy hill.  The fuel light stayed on on the descent and i think we were running on fumes when i pulled into the gas station, and i will listen to my passenger the next time!

I will be staying at the Playhouse Cafe for the next few weeks and then moving on.

Bonus Photos

*In New Zealand