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Blenheim and the Vineyards
At long last i have enough energy to get back on my arse and hunch over a keyboard so that i can bring you the joys of our past month-and-a-bit spent in Blenheim.
We arrived in Blenheim a bit fed up after a week of job searching in Nelson with no luck. The bus journey here took about 3 hours, going round in circles and genrally feeling car sick for a change. It was the amazing hills and montains that made the journey so rough, but that was ok as they are amazing. As we travelled closer to Blenheim there were miles of vineyards. There are just rows and rows of these imacculate green vines and the immense green hills in the background. When we arrived in Blenheim the hills changed from green to yellow, as if the grass had been dried by the sun. I always think the hills look like they are coated in a soft downy suade.
We arrived at our hostel to be greated by a nice lady called Karen. She told us that we should have work in the next few days. We were shown to our dorm which we shared with 12 people. We both had top bunks which we right in the middle of the room. I felt straight at home there which was funny really. I would say it was homely of really clean but it was just nice. No sooner had we started unpacking than a hunky German guy came over and shook our hands and introduced himself as Clark. Me and em both gave each other a knowing look!! he he. We also met a guy called Mike that day ( for weeks we couldnt remember his name and called him mark or matey boy!) who was from london as was always around the hostel for me and em to chat to.
Nothing much Waitangi Day
The next day was Waitangi Day, the day when the maoris and brits sigend a treaty to live togeater- or so they say. There is a lot of controversy over this as the Maoris think that the treaty was written differently in both languages when translated, and the agreements dont match. So when looking around Belnheim, and making complete tourist fools of our selves by asking in a furtnature shop what celebrations were going on there were none. We did discover, however, that Belnheim has lovely park, a small passenger train ( as last a chance to ride at some point) a beautiful clear river with fat eels, a punting boat, a river cruise and some beaver sculptures. On the down side the town is dead - bit like a service town, big but quiet, and as a result we imagine that the towns people turn to theier fine wines in order to ease their pain. On the way back to the hostel me and em end up scouring the pavement and kerb for pennies and low and behold she find some. In our immense poverty at this time we have never been so happy. Everything is a big joke. As i write this i feel as if it was only a few hours ago. But so much has happened since then...
take it easy till the next instalment of ''LIFE IN BLENHEIM"
It seemed everybody had decended on the backpackers and was awaiting work on the wednesday. we met a guy called Mike, from London; really nice chap very laid back, knew pretty much everybody in the hostel. And he had a pretty cool graffittied camper van. Also met Stuart, a Northern Irish guy who was staying our dorm room. What a bloody miserable sod, but you had to love him, was like getting blood from a stone but eventually he came out of his shell bit more, and we had a few drinks with him. Found out that most of his miserableness was over girls...though i think it was all his doing had too many on the go!!!! Also met some Japanese people in our dorm who also did poi and were making there own so i was pleased to have some people to learn of share poi with.
Wednesday, our first day at work, an early rise to be picked up in town at 7, Clark our roomate was also there. though we couldn't seen Ram who was the contractor we were supposed to be meeting. Eventually after people shouting across the street and gesturing to vehicles we jumped in a car with a couple hippy Cheqs,we weren't even sure if we were even going to the right place but nevermind. We were still none the wiser to who Ram was either. After about 40 mins of driving and stopping and starting on the vineyard we got out of the car and followed some others like sheep. A guy who couldn't speak/understand a great deal of English got our first names down then showed us roughyl what we were doing!!! i mean roughly, it was a bloody nightmare. He went down the row lifting some wires out then putting them back in, apparently making sure the vines were in and getting rid of dead ones, so off we went apparently on contract work , so we didn't know how much we were getting paid or anything. He gave us 4/5 rows to do each and just let us get on with it, after getting to the end f the first row he came and said i didn't have to move as amany wires aas i had been, though he never explained it properly in the first place!!!!!!, and he didn't understand any of my questions!!! So atleast i could do it a bit faster now though it seemed not fast enough , i didn't wanna do a bad job everything had to look right for me. but before i'd finished the 4/5 rows he told me to move on and do some others and the same with Sam. What the feck!! So off we went to some others, by this stage nobody had mentioned a break or anything not even where the toilet was .
We started of on some different rows a little way in to be told that we had to go and redo some of the others ....oh what a surprise we hadn't even had chance to finish them. These people were f**king idiots. We asked him about breaks and lunch(by this time we hadn't realised it was gone lunch time) he said we take breaks whenever cos its contract. Me n sam had just about had enough of the disorganisation, he wouldn't even tell us how much we were getting paid per row/tree. Sam eventually got out of him something about 2 cents a tree. which was ridiculous, we'd made about $10!!! this was just not on, there was just no point anymore and it was scorching to, with no water point been shown to us!! Eventually we went home, as soon as we got back we went to speak to Karen at the hostel, we felt bad to moan to her, but we didn't even know who this Ram guy was. It turned out we'd met him right at the end of the day but didn't even know it was him. She told us that it wasn't on and was unlike Ram. She spoke to him, and also looked into organising a different contractor. But for the next day she suggested going back just to get some work done, so we did.
Wow miracles can happen, or maybe a word or two sometimes makes the world of difference. The next day we met Ram and we went to a different part of the vineyard, doing different work and on an hourly rate, with toilets and shade, it felt like luxuries compared with the day before. Though poor old clark had to do the same job again, we had talked to him bout it in the evening and he wasn't too impressed either. Stuart( grumpy as i like to call him) was working with us today as well. Oh and yeah we also got proper breaks!! The job we were doing was netting with what could only be bread clip, clipping the nets together arouind the vines to stop the birds eatting the grapes before harvest. A slightly monotonous job but not to hard and seemed to go pretty fast. Ram was a good man and gave us all an extra 15 mins pay too. Due to spraying there was no more work till the monday though and we needed to work the fri and sat really too.
When we returned to the hostel, we spoke to karen let her know our day was good and see if she'd got another contractor, indeed she had luckily. Two people had dropped out and so we were going to wor with Morris. So we had to phone Ram to let him know. In the hostel three German girls were also working with Moli, Denise, Hannah and Hannah. They were all a few years younger than us, we felt like old farts. They were nice girls though.
The first day for Morris, we had to wait a while outside though karen had warned us that his time keeping wasn't great. For some reason in my head i had pictured an old farmer type. Though you could pretty much say he was the complete opposite, he was a big Tongan guy dresed in yound clothes with gold in his teeth, a really nice friendly guy, though i didn't realise that he was Morris to start with.
When we arrive dat the vineyard we were put with an old Tongan guy as our supervisor, he showed us what to do then drove round supervising and supplying the boxes etc.. We were working with the really small vines placing boxes( 2 milk cartons) over themand taping them to the bamboo. It had to be done just right though he was pretty strict, and you had to be very carefull with the leaves etc... As we strated up the first row he came and told us if things needed to be different or changed, i was beginning not to like his attitude and as it happens rightly so( expecially six weeks later after many a story of this disgusting man). He started to help me with my row(em) and was getting really annoying and a little close, then without me really realising what had happened he touched my breast deliberately and inappropriately!!! Stupidly because i was so dumbstruck i didn't say or do anything. later i told Sam and deliberated what to do. I didn't really ever want to see him again, but also didn't know whether i wanted the bother of saying anythiong and to whom???
Eventually i decided to tell Karen at the hostel, i felt so bad cos we'd only been there a few days and ot seemed lie we were constantly winging bout something. But i just had to say summit, she was really good about it and i got a little upset, she understood that i didn't want to see him again but also said for my own good i should stand up to him and not let him win but she said its obviously my desicion. Karen rang the contratcor and told him and he said that its just not on, and that i should go back and talk with him and i wouldn't have to work with that supervisor again. So i was going back.
Saturday, i spoke to my boss and he asked me what had happened , he said that the supervisor had admitted it, but he'd played it down a bit. He said its not on and he would have a word with him, so it was all ok. When we got there it wasn't nice seeing him but i was ok. we wre doing contract work as a group, which was good money. For six hours taping and cleaning the plants( taking of eletrels!!) we earnt about $140. Though we did have more problems with the dickhead supervisor, because apparently we were going to slow, but he couldnt organise a piss up in abrewery anyway!! Sam shouted back at him and told him that maybe he should treat us and me with a bit more respect, that what he did the day before was just not on. After we'd finished the job, he did actually apologise of a sort, and so it felt a lot better. We found out from other workers that other people had had problems with him in the past too.
Chilled on sunday, spoke to Rachel R for ages on the phone, which was really nice catch up on the gossip. chilled out and went down by the river, all was gonna be good. Went for a drink with mike and Stewart in the evening, could only find one place open, what the feck everyones drionks on a sunday( or maybe thats just us brits), nice bar but little expensive, had some yummy macs. Stewart told us some stories of his girl problems or should i say girls!!! what a nightmare.
Well the next week was very eventfull, yet again. work was still more boxing and taping.The hostel was generally lots of people drinking, and the most exciting oint of day for everyone was the trip to new world(supermarket). There was a good vibe in the vineyard with lots of banter and shouting mainly in portuguese and spanish, as there were lots os south americans.
Immigration:
On the tuesday just before we got into the vineyards, we were stopped by the police and immigration. It was quite funny people were getting all agitated though there was still alot of laughter. We had to right our REAL names down and our nationalities. The guy driving our bus was apparently illegal and was saying goodbye to everyone though he didn't seem to worried, maybe he was trying to keep happy. we couldn't help but find it quite funny these things seem to always happen to us, we had to take pictures but others were too. After about half an hour or so of questions and people fart arsing about with phones and clip boards we were on our way and morris was still there talking to them. There seemed to be alot of confusion and talk over the van radios. we seemed to be going really fast and me and sam thought we were all on the run at one point it was hilarious, then people were swapping vans and stuff and the guy who was illegal started to walk off down the road, i thought he was gonna hide but then somebody told him to get back in the van. All seemed ok, we eventually started work. Though one girl had given herself in and was deported, the other chap manged to get away with it!!!
I was working with a guy called Ian who is from indonesia and the girl was one of his friends so he was a bit down, He's a really nice guy and we chatted most of the day. he taught me a bit of malay but i can't remeber it.
Supervisor:
The dickhead supervisor didn't really seem to have learnt his lesson he was also slapping other girls arses and had done so before. This man had some sort of power trip. later in the week he also picked a fight with Claudio, a chap i was working with. Claudio accidently missed a plant, though the supervisor wouldn't let him redo it he just flipped and grapped hold of his bag, yanked it up around him then crabbed hold of him. I had already started shouting at him cos of the way he was speaking to him.Sam happened to be really close when he laid his hands on him, so she started screaming at him to stop, loud enough so everybody turned to see what was going on....next thing Lema ran to help too and he took his hands off him after more people were shouting. Then the boss came along to see what was going on, we explained and so did the supervisor in Tongan!!! Sam was very shook up and extremely pissed off as expected. The boss told us to jump on the jeep thing and got everybody to stop work.
He spoke to us all together and was very diplomatic about it, he asked us to say what ever we needed to say individually and listen to each other , no talking till someone has finished. If we had any problems with the supervisor we should say. The supervisor said his side of the story, basically spouting a load off clap trap, and apologising but we didn't believe a word, he seems to be too good at apologising. Claudio then had his turn, but he didn't want to speak so I decided to speak for him, something had to be said, but i was bit nervous speaking in front of the whole group and don't know how well i put my point across, Sam helped say summit too; regardless of anything he shouldn't have been violent, everybody agreed with this. The bosses brother also helped out and commented on men not touching the girls!!! we all knew exactly who he was talking about. Basically not only is he a perfert he's a violent p**ck too, with a power trip...every story we've heard since proves my thoughts right and even goes beyond.
The outcome was that he was stopped from being supervisor for a while and him and his wife were also working on there own on a seperate job in the mountains for a bit too. I personally think he should be f**king shot ...actually no thats too painless maybe savaged by a pack of wild dogs.
New found friends:
Well less of the moaning. After the incident Claudio became an even better friend of ours , he started teaching us some Spanish. Then one evening came out for takeaway with us !!! What a joke that was; we went to a Chinese takeaway but he insisted he wanted salad and that was it wherever we were going all he wanted was god darn salad!! He was gonna ask if they'd whip him up a salad in the Chinese but we told him that might not be the best of ideas. So we went on the hunt for salad, the only place we could find in the end was McDonalds salad, to be fair it looked ok and it was salad. All was good we went down by the river to eat with couple beers....evidently all was not good the salad was too cold!!!! what the feck to cold .....what planet was this guy on i thought to myself. He left his salad in the sun for a bit!( but inevitably he didn't eat it, in fact it didn't get eaten till two days later when me n Sam ate it on the beach!!) Bloody Chilean men!!
We then went to his house, a kiwi guys house who rents rooms out to travellers. Claudio's cousin Claudia also stays there and Marcel( another guy from work....who yes if you've been catching up with everything now happens to be my boyfriend but that is another part of the Blenheim story soon to come!). The three of us Me Sam and Claudio, just too make sure i hadn't confused the matter, had a few more beers and played some cards and talked alot. It was a good night lots of laughs, and Sam and Claudio got on very well (the start of something between them).
The next night ( saturday) i think if i can remember right( it was a while a go now), we went for a drink in town, me, sam, marcel, stewart(grumpy), and claudio. We had been told about a Brazillian night in one of the local irish pubs!! Some people had warned us against it but most people thought it would be a good night. What a bloody joke, when we got there people had some random attire on that didn't look brazillian at all, somebody was dressed as a mario brother which was quite funny, and there was bad live music/singing that also wasn't brazzilian! So we had one drink and headed somewhere else... the other irish bar Paddy Barrys. This was obviously the place to go, pretty busy with lots of young people. Had a good time...a few drinks and a bt of dancing, met Sophia ( German girl from work) in there too with friends from her hostel.( this was the night i think that her and Lemas relationship hit it off) Though i didin't notice and Marcel didn't even realise it was Sophia!!!
The next day we were heading to the beach, with the Chilean crew and Carlos, Claudias boyfriend i think!! also another lady a friend of theres , i can't remember her name. We arrived at there house and they were having lunch and drinking some chillean alcholic drink but i couldn't stomach at that time of day with hangover from night before!!! Off to the beach with the bosses kayak, apparently he didn't know we had!!!
It was blooody hilarious, the beach we went to was pretty but the waves were horrendous...and marcel and Carlos tried to launch the kayak in it!!! Carlos got knocked over by the wave and the kayak crashed on the shore too... though to give them credit Marceldid get out into sea in the end. Was nice chilling on the beach with new amigos. Marcel had a go with my Poi which was also hilarious and had himself in the knackers!!! Sam and me decided that we would have a go with the kayak thing i'm not sure why though when i thought the others were insane for doing it. We weren't very successfull...Sam got knocked over( she was braver than me) and we managed to loose a crucial part of our bosses Kayak (plug/lid kinda thing!!!), not sure if he ever found out about it. All in all a good day.
Jeep/buggies things:
Sam and me got to drive them around....we were working, tucking vines in and picking up fallen ones but it was good fun... wizzing around like kids!!!
The next week was full of love in the vineyard!!!! Also met Sophia's French friend Tiphane, who we got along with really well, her and Sophia both speak Spanish which puts us too shame.
On the friday of that week, Me, Sam, Tiphane and Sophia all went around to the Chilean house!!! as it was one of Tiphanes last nights. She made crepes, and claudia made delicious caramel chilean sauce i can't remember name of!!( will update soon ) We made a fruit salad , an attempt at being healthy. It was all yummy, must get the recipe for the crepes and sauce...mmmm. It was a good night lots of laughter and drinks again. Marcel had bought a bottle of Tequila, and sophia was well up for drinking as much as we could ....so a few Tequila slammers later most of us were quite drunk (well me and sophia anyway), we also played 21/pontoon as a strip/drinking game ...luckily it didn't get too far though.
Though i only liked Marcel as a friend, over that weekend we ended uo more than friends. We went for lunch on the saturday and watched a movie and i began to like him more and more. He's really nice guy, always happy and having a laugh. We both didn't want to take thoing sto seriously as we knew it couldn't go anywhere ...so we just enjoyed the week as we were leaving on the weekend to start our travels again. Oh and i forgot On the saturday night, night after crepes night, we went to party at bosses garage, and me n Sam managed to polish of a whole box of white wine between us!!! Not good i swear there was summit else in it.....as i made complete tit of myself. Marcel was there too and we were a couple so to speak. I started dancing around the microphone, doing kareoke and dancing with Kitty (sexy Tongan guy), Obviously Marcel wasn't too impressed!!!( apparently i was taking his top off) what a prat i am... then i started crying !!! as i don't reme,eber everything i'm sure its not all true!!
Anyway to try and cut a long story short, Marcel forgave me for being a drunken idiot, and the nex week Me to stay another week in there house for only $40 and work an extra week and Sam too. First off i said no we had to go ...but then Sam had mulled it over and thought it would be good plan and we needed the money so seemed good one.
(* somewhere in here we also ended up working for the bosses brother for bout a week which was also good though we missed our other pals. We got to do a days harvesting, which was knackering but a good experience)
So there we were, everybody thought we were going but we stayed and moved in with them, could quite possibly be the worst thing to do ...but what the hell. For me it was a good week and friendships grew stronger.
The last supper
Me n Sam cooked mexican food for our last meal with much help from Sophia as i was quite drunk through not eating much and we'd started on the wine while cooking and Sam was bit tipsy. When going to dish up, in my slightly drunken state i forgot the pan was dodgy( after warning Sophia earlier) and ended up spilling most of pan full over the floor luckily me n Sam had bought half of new worlds condiments for the meal so we had enough for all eight of us. Claudia, Carlso, Claudio, Lema, Sophia, Sam, Me and Marcel. I think everyone enjoyed ...there was lots of histarics, photos, drinking( the sodding Tequila was out again) and a few tears( from Marcel i hassen to add, though i had my far share before and after that). He bought me some lovely going away presents too.
The next day Marcel worked...no real goodbye which was good (couldn't handle that). Claudia, Claudio and Carlos took us to the station...we were sad to say goodbye but looking forward to more adventures.......
Goodbye Blenheim( though I (em) may return so au revoir)
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