Right okay, so I'm going to catch up with myself today, were up to Chritmas day which was nice and unmaterialistic.. I had fun training and brushing thr horses and all that and watching movies and next door had a hangi as they are maori so we went over theirs too..
I got back to the backpackers pretty late, and it was very quite there, just one german couple and the girl kept crying as she was homesick..
Boxing day I just cleaned and then Alan and bea were going into balclutha so asked if I wanted to come along, we just wandered round Warehouse rally as that was pretty much the only place open.. I'm looking for some jeans but didnt find any that fitted properly. I need a farmers store (their jeans look better on me!) i did like these jeans in H and J Smith but they were about 4 times what i wanted to pay so funnily enough I didnt buy them! They looked great and if I wanted backpacking and working on farms etc and genrally ruining all my clothes then I might have bough them..
anyway, the backpackers was full on Boxing day and the next day, in one cottage was a group of 6 people from the north island, it would have been cool if they were in my cottage but the cottages are completely seperate so you never see each other, in my cottage was a big german family and the kids woke up at 5am the next 2 days.. which meant I did too..
I spend most of my afternoons seeing the local attractions.. one day I walked to surat bay (about 5kms) which was lovely, lots of sea lions on the beach etc and it was a beautiful day for a change (apparently this is the coldest summer in over 25 years..), it was a nice walk too, I did try to hitch but its surprisingly difficult around here, the cars either

• Smile and wave (what is that going to do for me really?? I want to shout and them!)
• Look down and try to ignore me.. (so much so I worry they are going to crash their cars!)
• Zoom past almost hitting me and since its all gravel roads here sending dust flying towards me...

so lots of healthy walks for me.. another day I walked to Jacks Blowhole.. took at 3 hours in all.. it is a cool hole about 200m big and 50 metres deep 200m from the sea and when you look down there is sea water in it linking from caves all the way down.. at high tide and in storms the water sprays out.. It was great! I was relieved to get a lift back again though (a nice dutch couple let me squeeze in their campervan)

The next day I walked to Pounawea (an hour or so) and did some estuary and bush walks which were nice.. I hitched back and the guy and his 6 year old wanted to go to Jacks Blowhole on the way back so we went there again which was cool, we had a nice afternoon and chatted away..

In the evenings i had been going for a swim or aqua aerobics so have been healthy lately as well as mowing all the lawns around the backpackers etc..

Aqua Aerobics is funny! This 18 year old girl leads the class and theres 3 of us in the class, Ida aged 73 and Edna aged 76! Its great cos it makes me feel really fit and healthy next to them! I da cant swim so she has a float tied aorund her.. its really funny but I guess you have to see it to know how it is!! anyway it gives me something to do in the evenings!! teh pool is absolutely freezing so after and evening swim there and the added energy of keeping from dying of pneuemonia I'm pretty tired!!

MY boss Bea went a bit weird on me yesterday.. the day before she had asked me I I wanted to go on the big dig on the 30th and a new years even party on the 31st. i said yes.

The next day (yesterday) she said I couldnt come to the party as she didnt want to pick me up and bring me back (fair enough) but she went on saying she wasnt going to take wwooffers without cars as she feels pressured to drive us everywhere?! Excuse me I have never ever asked her to give me a lift anywhere and I didnt ask to go to the party!?! She then tels me the next wwoofer whoes meants to be arriving in a week or 2 has postphoned until feb 1st and would i like to stay till then? I dont think she was bext pleased when i said I probably wouldnt stay that long, so she then wanted to know exactly how long I was staying so I have agreed to stay another week until Friday January 5th. i then plan to go to Curio Bay which is still in the Catlins.. I'll stay for 1 night as a tourist, longer if I manaage to get a wwofing job around there.. its ven more rural there though so i'll have to be really prepared and take food to last me..

Anyway, back to yesterday, The backpackers was quiet and i cleaning the windowns hoping someone nice might check in the beackpackers (preferably male and fanciable) when a guy phoned and said he would be arriving in 2 hours. Bea asked me if I wanted to come back to theirs and weed for $10 an hour (but I would have to hitch the 16kms back) I would normally say yes, money money after all but I had a feeling about this guy due to check in and said I was going to go and site see with this guy (proor guy wasnt going to know what hit him poor thing!)

Anyway, a couple of hours later I saw a car drive up and thought Hmnn nice car.. doesnt look like a backpackers car.. then nice guy gets out and I think yay!!

We had a great rest of the day.. we went all these places I wanted to go.. cathedral caves (wow beautiful, huge, amazing) and a lovely sandy beach and sandy beaches always make me happy! even when its freezing I feel the need to start jumping around in the waves.. I think he thought I was insane but we had fun.. we had to walk through the rainforest which since hes only just arrived in NZ was really exciting for him and he flet it was like being in a jungle so we ran about for a while being jungle animals (as you do! his favourite was my tiger impression which some of you may have experienced before!!)

then we went to mclean waterfalls which were beautiful and impressive.. it was in 3 tiers so you go to the first bit and thought oh thats nice and then theres a path behind which your not sure whether to go to.. and then you come acroos this huge waterfall!!

we spent ages at these places chatting away and listening to Austrian music (am getting alot of different music lately - the other night I was listening to israeli muisc with 2 israeli girls - who were lovely by the way.. lots of gossiping, one was crying as she misses her boyfriend who wants her to go back home to him..) anway back on the sotry I was telling.. the day went really quickly.. so before we knew it it was 7pm and we headed back towards Owaka, went to the pub and go a bottle of red wine, went back to the backpackers and he cooked (hes a 5 star restaurant chef). I have to say it was one of the best meals I have ever tasted.. we had a throughly nice evening and I think bea was wondering what was going on when we were having out big goodbyes this morning.. doubt I'll ever see him agin but it was a nice day!

Today I did the cleaning, (Christian was hanging around with our long goodbyes so it took longer than usual).. then Bea took me to kaka point but we had missed the big dig I knew we would since its stared at 9:30am and we dont even start cleaning until 10am.. anyway we had a nice time looking at sand sculptures and eating kumera chips wrapped in newspaper on the beach.

Then I came to the backpackers where I have had a thoroughly lazy afternoon reading and writing letters etc. so dragged myself out to cafe to do my emails etc..

New years Eve tomorrow (despite what the date at the top of this may say - i think its set to US time?) so HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!!!