From Wellington to work

The ferry crossing from the North to South Island was a nice 3 hourish cruise through the Cook Straight, some really nice scenery along the way.  I spent the first night in the port town, Picton.

From there, I made my way over to Nelson. Nelson is a really nice spot, and from what I've heard they get the most hours of sunshine in a year in all of New Zealand.  I hung around Nelson for close to a week, looking for some work.  Most of the seasonal work (apple picking and such) was getting close to the end of the season or the places already had all the people they needed.  I toured around the area a bit, and did a bunch of reading and job searching.  Most of the jobs I found online were all in the Christchurch area.

Havelock, on the way to Nelson.

 At this point I had been in contact with Richard t'Hart and asked him about the job market in the Christchurch area. He mentioned the name of a vineyard north of the city so I headed down that way (with a brief detour to the west coast) and ended up meeting with one of the guys from the vineyard and I will most likely be starting there in the middle of May. Not wanting to just hang around for a few weeks, I asked the owners of one of the campgrounds I stayed at if they knew anyone looking for at least a temporary worker. They put me in contact with their son who does residential fencing and now I'm working for him!

Ariki "falls" at the head of Buller Gorge.

Buller Gorge swingbridge. Neat area with mining/gold-panning history. 

Heading into the Christchurch/Canterbury area. Reminded me of the area around Cache Creek

On the past Saturday morning Richard and myself, along with several others from the church here, got up just after 5 am to go to the ANZAC day service in Christchurch.  Really quite something, getting up early and seeing so many people streaming to one of the parks in Christchurch.  The service was suprisingly really nice, including the crowd reciting the Lord's Prayer, and the singing of several hymns. Not something someone finds in everyday secular society.

After a breakfast after the service Richard and I headed out and did some touring by car southwest of the city, to areas like Akaroa and the surrounding bays and the roads over the hills in the area. Some really nice country in that area. On our way back through town we toured through some of the areas hardest hit by the earthquakes in 2011.  Most of the damaged buildings have by now been demolished, leaving sometimes whole city blocks flattened to nothing but an empty lot. Some rebuilding has now started but there are also some unstable buildings left standing.  Shipping containers are stacked high against the edge of these buildings, protecting passing traffic and pedestrians.

Akaroa.

Sunday, between the services (the pm sercice is at 5) we again headed out by car to check some of the southern city, namely around the Christchurch port town, Lyttelton.  We also went through several areas where houses had to be abandoned after the quakes, deemed unsafe by the unstable hills behind or under them.  Really something to see these seemingly liveable houses just left to rot.
On Monday (a public holiday in conjunction with ANZAC day) we headed out with a group of youth to do some hiking in the Arthurs Pass area, west of the city.  We hiked around for a few kilometers, checking out the falls and rivers and views the area had to offer.  Part way through our walking around it really began to rain, effectively soaking us all. But all in all, still fun.  That evening we had a really nice dinner with everyone and had a good time just hanging out.

Arthur's Pass area.

"Devil's Punchbowl"

I was supposed to work today but I'm off on account of rain, apparently you can not dig fence post holes when they fill with water as fast as you can shovel them!  So luckily for you all I could update this for you.  For the next several months though, I'm not sure how much I'll have to write here as I should be working full time and probably just doing some travelling on the weekends.

Hope all is well with everyone and you're enjoying whatever it is that you're all up to!

~Korey