I hurt all over.

It's me again, cuz who else would it be. I just spent a long week down in Blenheim and now that I have time, I wanted to up date this thing.

Last week was a lot of fun with not much responsibility. Thursday I was invite to go to the Skyline in Rotorua. It was great weather. We went to go in the luge, but they also have a zip line, sky swing, and mountain bike tracks. I also saw an ad for a night time viewing. I definitely want to go back later.

Later that evening, I joined the pub quiz team and had dinner. I really like lamb. And we lost badly.

Friday we had a large bbq and going away party for two people that have been part of the hostel for a while. It involved costumes, a scavenger hunt, and beer. 

Saturday was low key.  Spent it  prepping for my trip to Blenheim. 

Sunday I left Rotorua at 1:30 for a 7 hour bus ride. It was great getting to see the landscape. I also picked the correct side of the bus so the sun wasn't shining on me the entire time.

I spent the night in a hostel in Wellington. Ended up meeting Ramish, an Argentianian on his way to a job interview in Blenheim. We ended up taking the ferry and intercity bus together. 

The ferry ride was smooth. They can get high winds at times. A couple people I meet here made it in last ferry before it shut down due to 12 m swells. Our ferry was at 7 am and we got a gorgeous sunrise as we boarded. 

The scenery was amazing. I sat outside enjoying it for at least half the 3 hour ride. It got very windy, especially in the channels where it funneled at the ship. 

I arrived  in the afternoon and am staying at the Biddy Kate hostel. Ramish and I were put into a four person room with two others. Luckily Ramish was only in town for two nights  and  the other guy that took up most of the floor space left Wednesday. Now it's just Migeul ( from Chile) and I. We have our own shower and washroom though the hot water cuts in and out a bit. 

Blenheim is the major wine producer in New Zealand. It's a large flat area surrounded by mountains. I applied for a job as a contractor working for the vineyards. This was in addition to environmental jobs who I knew would take a while to respond. I've been unemployed for a few months due to surgery and burning myself out and was ready to do something. I also picked a highly physical job to help me get into shape a bit. The 20 km hikes in Rotorua were draining. I'm working as a stripper who tears the branches which were pruned from each vine. I seemed to have found a great company. They top you up to minimum wage which most don't and our foreman has been very helpful and considerate to the workers. Due to this, he has higher expectations of his workers then other companies. 

My first three days were not good. I was so sore and not hitting the goals I wanted. Though it was three days, it was the first time I felt inadequate at a physical type job. Even when tree planting I did really well my first day. My foreman for planting said I was a weird case since I shot ahead of everyone and plateaued for a while. As others caught up to me and exceeded me over the month, I shot ahead again and made decent money.

After getting advice for the foreman on day three I saw a great improvement by the end of the day. Day four I pushed myself and a made more than minimuum wage by stripping 672 plants. Day five was a half day and I did even better with 490 plants. I am feeling much better about the job and waking up less sore than the beginning. Am getting sick of whipping myself in the face with branches and having completely bruised arms but it comes with the territory. 

For now I am going to stay in Blenheim for a couple weeks working. I'll take time to see some sights in  the area on my days off and make some plans for what I want to visit. So far there is Mt. Doom, Mirror lake, and an observatory. Beyond that, I don't know yet. We are also above a bar that the other back packers frequent. Been slowly getting to know the people here but it sounds like most of us will be here for a few weeks, so I have time to mingle.