Life in Havelock North

Fruit Picking - Done

At last the ordeal is over! For our final week we ended up working with pears. They turned out to be much nicer than apples and at times larger. It all came to an end when we had to pick pears that were the same size as golf balls! Needless to say it was taking us a fair while to fill the bin and so we sensed our time working on orchards was over. Unfortunately it wasn't really a happy ending to the picking. We found out that we should have been given a contract at the start of our employment and that would have explained to us about our rights and rates of pay. As we didn't have this we didn't earn quite as much as we should of. The person we worked for was breaking the law and our only hope now is that he pays our tax so we can claim it back when we leave NZ. It has been a sad ending to our picking career but we have learnt a lot about this type of work and will certainly be buying fair trade from now on!

The Dingles!!!!
For the last week we have had the pleasure of staying at Chateaux Dingle! The lovely Warwick and Marilyn rescued us from the campsite and invited us (two randoms) to stay with them while we finished our picking work......and a bit longer! While we have been with them we have had the pleasure of joining them in various events throughout the week such as Marty's music ( a pre school music session), helping to sort out the charity shop for the church and going to Bible in school lessons. we have also learnt many useful life skills - how to play the card game 500 (watch out Stephen and Kirsten!) and make bacon and egg pie (yes Zoe cooked it!). It has been great fun and we will miss being with them......and Marilyn's cooking (absolutely fantastic) and of course Warwick's jokes (some of which are funny!!!!) and not forgetting Suzy (even though she slept on our clothes!).

St. Peter's Church

While staying in Havelock we have been attending the most fantastic church. It has been full of welcoming and friendly people. We have never met such a interesting, varied, kind and caring community. We especially like the C U 4 T service in the evening. This involved a meal before a more informal service. David was attracted by the food and Zoe by the great music! Some of the best talks and conversations we had were in the kitchen either preparing the meal of washing up - when David wasn't flicking people with tea towels. We have made some great friends with whom we hope to keep in contact.

Hit the Road Jack
Tomorrow as leave to carry on our travels. For fans of Lord of the Rings tomorrow we will be making our way towards 'Mordor' which we plan to climb on Tuesday weather dependent and from which we will have a great view of 'Mount Doom'. From then it is down to Wellington for a short stay in the capital and then across the cook strait to the south island.

P.S. Marilyn and Warwick - can we book in at the chateaux for later in the week??? David will rid you of any flies in the kitchen!