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April 13th-19th
For the past 6 days we have been staying with another helpxchange host. Chris and Jackie, who live on a great property in a place called 'pyramid valley' so named after the surrounding mountain ranges. They lived with their three docile (but massive) dogs and their 7 month old baby Charlie. We helped out on the farm, attempting to move stock, (which was harder than it looked, as sheep arent half as stupid as they look.), demolishing some units in a laundry (always fun smashing stuff up with a big hammer), collecting firewood, some housework and the mammoth task of clearing the land of tree shavings(macropina), which turned out to be a great work out for the arms, received lots of nasty cuts and scrapes in the process. Their baby was very cute and Jackie showed us how he could dance to 'Baby dub'. We really enjoyed our time with Chris and Jackie, they were really interesting people (Jackie worked in film and had some funny anecdotes about celebrities and Chris was a carpenter/surfer/builder/key grip/ drummer so had a pretty packed life). Their company was really easy going and we were well and truly spoilt for food, Jackie cooking up delicious meals every night like lamb curry, fish pie and fresh raspberry and apple muffins for breakfast. Yum! We had time to explore the area visiting a neighbor who had dinosaur bones buried in his garden, riding bikes round the gravel roads with mountains beside us and also visiting 'Hanmer springs' . This was a great way to relax, the smell of sulphur was a bit off putting but the 41 degree water on an autumns evening was a delight. We were sad to leave their place as we'd felt so at home there, the food was great, interesting conversation and the work was physically demanding but rewarding. We set off south to check out Christchurch.
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