Ambling Country Gal: Back on Waiheke

So Waiheke, you remember this place where I used to work. A beautiful land of warmth and little rain… Well I’m back!!! And it rains a shit ton. And I get to work in it.

our water tank (It's masive)

This was good for our water tank. On Waiheke almost everyone collects rainwater to be used for their day to day water usage. For showers, washing dishes, watering the garden, so on and so forth. So If it doesn’t rain, we have no water. Because of this Ashlie and I became very conservative of water when we were living there, and I still am now. I save my shower water to flush the toilet. I don’t take a show unless I stink. Dish water can also be saved to water the garden. You know the usual stuff. So the rain was a boon to everyone. We needed it. Our tank was down to the pump. But this puts damper on work as well.

leg bruises, after a few weeks of healing

Do you like being whipped? Well if you do you might want to consider a job in the vineyard. In the winter this job required long sleeves and safety glasses to help you avert most of the blows to your less tender areas. This does not prevent the straggler vines from whipping you in the face. I also have super scratched arms from this exercise of removing old vine from the wires. *shrugs* All in a days work. At first I didn’t like this work, but as I figured out a mythological (yes! As in a fairy tale) way of removing the vines it became easier, or basically I just sucked it up. There is no nice way of removing vines, but patience can be built over a period of time, so you are not cursing at every other vine. The little curly tendrils that attach themselves to the supporting wires are cute. Really. Not little devils to be sworn at… not at all.

tying down vines

Anywho. I have been learning a lot from these experiences. We have also been trimming and tying down the vines that have been left on the plants.

some random guy painting fungicide

A weekend activity I have taken up (Yes! overtime) is painting fungicide on the exposed wood from pruning. This stuff is super dangerous. I read the label after a few weeks of applying this stuff to vine. It has a specific warning on the label to alert the local officials of any of this enter the local water supply. EEEKK!! Good thing I wore gloves most of the time.

bottling

I also got to spend a day in the winery helping with bottling. This is a rare experience, and only somewhat exciting. If the machine is deciding to have a good day we spend hours packing full wine bottles into crates. If the machine is being grumpy we wait around for hours for it to be fixed, or just stop and start a lot. I enjoyed getting out of the rain. And it’s much less manual labor than being the vineyard. Party on and listen to lots of music!

end of pruning!

<-- This is Donna and my end of pruning picture. We did it! We finished all the pruning before August. Something that is unusual. I rack it up to having a great team. We are the Bomb! We were supposed to have a party, but it kinda fell apart. Corey left for island paradise for a week, Josh was back at school and Donna didn’t work on Fridays. So it ended up to be a Miriah and Nicky party! No problem with that. We had delicious slow cooker nacho-ness with salsa and couscous. I went home early to sort out plane tickets and Nicky stayed at work to sort out paperwork so she could go surfing all the next week. I’m sure we will have an end of pruning party soonish. You never know. Either that or fishing. I’m ok with either of these things.

I have friends, I swear. To prove it…

Katja is a friend I met while I was wwoofing in Havelock. She decided to come and visit me on Waiheke while she was staying in Auckland for a few days. We only got to spend one night together, but that was enough. She came to my work and my boss/landlord offered her a ride to the house. How nice was that?! I took the scooter home and met her there.

Next we were off to try and find the sunset. This was a sad prospect, considering the sun was setting as we walked to the bus stop. Unfortunately we missed it, or just caught the tail end of it. Having to travel by bus is so much different than scooter. We took the bus from my house then hitch hiked from the main road to Onetagi. I thought that going to Onetagni was best, because she wouldn’t be traveling in this direction the next day. Also Onetagi is one of the nicer beaches on Waiheke.

We walked a bit then we had dinner at one of the Cafes on the beach. It was a nice little catch up. When we got back to the house I had to get ready for the next day, but we talked about wine and politics before I knocked off. The next day was full of my usually earliness… getting ready for work at 7:30 means I usually start my day at 6. We said good bye, and I’m sure I’ll meet her again, either in Germany or wherever I end up living in Asia.

I also try and do Couchsurfring, but fail at hosting. But wait, wait, wait… I got to host!!!

Couchsurfing! I finally have couch to offer others. I have always wanted to host, but I’ve had a few roommates that weren’t so cool with it or I just hadn’t had space. My high on being able to contribute back to the couchsurfing community was short lived.

I didn’t ask my landlord right away. She is uncomfortable with the idea, and I wasn’t aware. I get it. Granted; these are strangers and people are not likely to lock their doors where I live. I certainly I don’t, and also don’t have a way to do it anyway unless I buy a padlock. I diverse, I asked about it the day before and got a yes from my landlord’s husband, but the next day I was informed it’s not so cool. By this time the ball was already rolling. I was meeting the girls at the ferry at 2:40pm. So because of this miscommunication I got my one and only couchsurfers. Two lovely Uni ladies from Hong Kong came to stay with me. They were only in the country for 10 weeks and were on week three when I met them.

I picked the ladies up from the ferry terminal. I was lucky and hitch hiked there directly. Hitch hiking still amazes me on Waiheke. This guy was heading into Oneroa, but just took a little detour to drop me off. People are so nice.

The Ferry was a little bit late. But that is normal. We then had to walk up the road a bit. The ferry they took was off of the normal bus route. One of the wineries I wanted to take them to was close by but also closed by the time we got there, so we headed on over to my work instead.

I had talked to Haley, who is in charge of the tasting room, about what time was best to come by. She said anything after 3:30. Because we had quite a ways to walk this worked out perfectly. I hope the ladies like walking, because without my scooter there was going to be a lot of that.

Goldie Vineyard in all it's photo-shopped glory

We got to work just in time. Haley was working and her tour group had just left, so we were free to taste and talk. I picked her brain about the wine. I had actually never done a wine tasting, and even though I knew what I was going to buy I wanted to learn a little bit more about the processes. Haley had a bit of information she could impart on me and I absorbed it all. I hope I can work in the tasting room before I leave Waiheke just so I know what is going on with the wine a little bit more. I already know a lot about growing and maintaining the vines and I get smidges of knowledge about the wine process when I am working in the winery, but I have a feeling that being the tasting room I’ll learn so much more and be able to connect the dots to what actually happens.

I bought a few bottles, one for me and one for parents, then we headed off to town to meet the girl’s friends who were visiting that day as well. The bus passed and it was full up, so we had to walk to town. This sucked a bit, I was a bit mad at the bus driver, but there is nothing you can do besides wait an hour or walk. Walking took much less time, plus we could see the beach on the way there.

Once we got to the beach it was about sunset, so we sat and watched it and waited for their friends. The friends never came, so we continued into town and sat down at the Red Crab (a thai restaurant I hadn’t tried yet) to wait. They showed up and we chatted. Everyone was studying English Teaching, so we had a bit to talk about. We talked about all of their experiences abroad and what they thought of New Zealand. It was a good dinner. After we went down to the beach for a walk and everyone started taking pictures of the stars. At first I was surprised and then they explained that in Wellington you can’t see the stars well and in Hong Kong you can never see them. It was fun.

After this it was early, but felt late to me. I always wake up early, regardless if I have the day off, so I am always ready for bed. We waited for the bus and got back around nine. The girls wanted to make a Chinese dessert, but at this point I just wanted to relax and not eat anymore. I showed the girls the house and then headed off to read a bit before bed. In the morning we got up before sunrise, but the girls wanted to take showers so we didn’t get any pictures of the sunrise like they wanted. Instead I took them to the bus stop so they could catch the 9AM ferry. Before they left we took a picture and the girls gave me calligraphy Chinese phrase of “Good Health and wellness”. I love that I got to share my home with them and wish I could do more. Maybe my next house, unless mom and dad are down with it. Then I can do it in NY while I study.

I also got the chance to go to Charlotte’s birthday party. This was supposed to be a surprise party, but Charlotte told me to come. So maybe it wasn’t so much of a surprise. But it sure was a lot of fun. There was a live band most of the night. The police eve came on a noise complaint. Friends had painted a mural on the wall that was just beautiful. Also by the end of the night Charlotte’s friends put on a Burlesque show. Stripping, firing eating and dancing. Over all it was a great night. I met a few people there and got some contacts for later to hang out with. Ever since Ashlie left, I have been lacking on the friend department. This was great for me.