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Wilson's World Tour
Well we hit Terra ferma in the South Island and decided to drive down the scenic road towards Nelson. We couldn't see much as it was dark an we were both really tired, so we decided to pull over in a layby to ge a couple of hours sleep. When we woke it was the most beautiful scenery, huge forested hills with gorgeous blue water running at the bottom, tiny inlets with big sailing boats mored up and beautiful houses dotted about.
We made our way to Mapua where we were to start our fateful help exchange job with Rory. He owned a small backpackers rental business and also a trampers service where he takes people to the start of a tramp and then picks them up at the other end. Rory had a lorry home which we were able to stay in. It was really nice with a double bed, sink, fridge cooker and loads of space to stretch out. That being the case we moved all our stuff out of Kia Ora (our van) and put it in the lorry house.
Things went well for the first couple of days, we cleaned a few cars, mowed and strimmed his garden, then on the third day we tidied his shed. It was huge old wooden shed which had seen better days and had about six cars in it and all rory's tools. When we finished it was all looking spick and span. We went out to see if we could find some gainful employment in one of the many local orchards. We went to several but they all said the work would be startnig in a couple of weeks. Feeling a bit dejected I suggested we went down the village pub and have a beer. Whilst there Sam enquired if they had any work at the pub/restaurant, the owner said he may well do and asked for our address. We told him we were staying with Rory and his face dropped, he said 'thats the place thats on fire !'
So we rushed back to Rory's and as we approached saw huge clouds of black smoke, it was so fierce that the police had closed the road. We managed to convince the policeman that we were living there and ran up the road. It was quite a scary sight, the entire shed had burnt to the ground, along with all the vehicles that we're parked alongside it and the lorry house we we're staying in. All I could think was, did we leave the stove on or leave something lighted ?. A fireman approached us and asked me to follow him. It turns out that fire was started from a rubbish incinerator which Rory had lit and left. He thought the flames had died down but it was quite windy so it must have blown a few embers towrds the shed and then it didn't take long for the whole place to go up.
It was a strange feeling, kind of sureal that in the space of about two hours we'd lost all our belongings except for the clothes we were standing in. On the plus side I'm glad we wern't there as I probably would've been tempted to try and slavage some of our stuff and put myself at risk.
We lost our passports, flight tickets, rucksacks, all our clothes, waterproof jackets, toiletries, my contact lenses and glasses, address book, our journals, our first 'to my husband & to my wife' birthday cards, camera's, stereo, bedding etc etc. The most gutting things we lost aren't the clothes but the personal things that can't be relplaced.
We we're at abit of a loss as what to do, where to stay etc. Luckily for us someone was looking after us. One of the fireman came up to us and said we could stay at his place with him and his family, use the phone all we needed and email etc. So we followed him back to his house which was only a few k's away. His name is Grahame and his wife is Julia, they are possibly the nicest people we've met in New Zealand and that's saying something ! They we're brilliant, we felt at home straight away and began compiling lists of things to do. With their help we got things sorted pretty quickly, they are amazing humble people who I'm sure thought they didn't do much for us but we owe them a lot.
Everyone in the local community was great, the salvation army allowed us to go and take whatever clothes we needed from their shop for free. We had to do a lot of emailing printing etc and the internet cafe didn;t charge us. Farmers, the local department store a bit like Debenhams gave us $100 each to spend in their store, the list goes on and on. And of course it was great to recieve so many emails from our freinds back home, it meant a gret deal to us.
We could be really bitter as Rory started the fire, in fact, if he hadn't had no insurance, I would've been very suspicous as he was only saying to me the previous day how he wanted to get rid of his rental business !!!! But we're ok and most of things can be replaced, so there's no point dwelling on it.
We now have a job on a hop farm, having spent so many years taking so much out of the beer industry, it's nice to give something back ! Mind you it's the most uncomfortable work ever. You have to crouch down and no position seem's good. The good news is the hop's finsh this week then we're onto apples and theres not as much bending down ! We'll work there untill Mr & Mrs Wilson senior come out on the 22nd of December, which we're both very excited about.
Thanks again to everyone who helped us and even thoes who just sent lovely emails, it meant a lot.
You can't beat the WIlson's down !!!
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