About Sylvia:

Sylvia and James when we went to the beach for the afternoon. So cold.

I met Sylvia at The River House as a unexpected guest; James apparently picked up to hitchhikers a french girl and Sylvia and invited them to do woofing at his house. It was a more than welcome surprise since being trapped in the house all day and only having James to talk to at night was a bit wearing. Sylvia has come for Germany to do her one year post graduation country tour. Apparently it is common in Europe to spend one year after graduation backpacking a country or two and it seems especially common for Germans to come to NZ since I have seen so many of them at every hostel. She will be spending a few months on the north island, a few months on the south and then a few weeks in australia before heading home. Sylvia has an older sister (by 10 years) and lives with her parents which are sending her money every month to help fund the trip although she did save a lot before coming. She also has a boyfriend of two years named Tobias and they work together as lifeguards at the local pool. They love to surf together in the Baltic but he'll go out when it's freezing and she'll just make sandcastles on the beach. Her English is not very strong (i'm impressed by how much she understands!) so she is working on that while she is here as well as figuring out what she would like to study at Uni (university) back home.Yesterday I taught her a new word: drown. That combined with the crazy look on her face was hilarious. It's great to travel with her since I get to learn about Germany and share things with her that we see for the first time together. It's more fun to travel with someone if only for a while. Always nice to have someone to share things with.

Woofing

We have been working in the garden for the past few days on a number of things with the digger and wheel barrows. The first day of gardening with the 3 of us (James, Sylvia, and myself) began early on Friday morning when a dump truck brought what appeared to be a small forrest of mulch to the front garden close to a little alcove of trees. The rest of the afternoon was spent loading the wheel barrows with the digger and dispersing it around the alcove which was about 25 -30 feet in circumference. Perhaps more judging by how many steps it took me to cross it and how small my steps are. The work was not too hard, just tiring. It is not nearly as tiring and doing any sort of gardening in the south with the blistering heat and humidity. Here it was a pleasant 18 or so with a nice breeze so it was chilly if you stood still but very good to work in.

By the end of the day my arms were dragging from loading, dumping, spreading, and loading again. What was worse was that we didn't even get to go out and do anything fun that night at all not that we had the energy to do so in any case. I think it was harder on Sylvia than on me. The next day included more spreading but not as much since we had the added help of James 2 kids (really just one since the other, Tom, is lazy) and Jacob a strong young welch man. The next two days were fairly the same. We repotted Nicko Palms into larger containers which was much lighter work for us girls overall. The only downside is the massive amount of bites i acquired from sand fly and a few cuts from the plastic bags used for the plants. The huge plants where then put in the alcove since it is protected from the wind but still gets good light and there is no grass thanks to our mulching efforts. The first day of that we did 32 and the second day we did 45. Each one of these plants when done weigh more than my pack which is 60lbs and poor Jacob had to move them.By the end of that second day though my arms are burring all over from shoveling and packing topsoil into their bags and my back and thighs burn from the exertion as well. No wonder James is so blasted skinny.

Day at the Beach

Jacob at beach 

shells on rope from trees on beach

fire on beach

Jacob and James getting mussels for lunch. too cold for me

Silvia, Jacob,&  James all getting mussels for lunch. They taste like chewy ocean

About Tom

Lucy and Tom showing us the way to the sand spit. Tide is out so we are walking on the river bed.

Tom is James's youngest son who is about 9-10 years old and is a little bit of a brat. Of course that may just be around James since it could not be more obvious that Tom is his fathers favorite. He likes trucks and spending time with his dad in general. He doesn't wear shoes to school which apparently is pretty common around here.

About Lucy:

Silvia, Myself ,and Lucy

Is a nice little cookie who is bright, a good listener, and very mature for her age. I think that has something to do with her being the older sibling. I like her, she's fun. Her dad is rather harsh on her, Tom is obviously his favorite in all things. Again it may just be the older sibling in me but it just stings me to see the youngest wine, get preferential treatment, and the older one get scolded for breathing in the wrong direction.  I'm glad she got to hang out with us girls.

The River House

View from the back deck

Living room in morning light

View from my bed is the river

End of the second full day at the river house and not much to tell. The house itself is beautiful, filled with good north light all day since most of the north walls are huge sliding glass doors. When I find a proper Internet connection I'll post some pictures. Im here mostly because
It's a free place to stay, food and all, in exchange for house cleaning, cooking and gardening. The first two are not bad at all but the gardening is a little ruff. The temp is perfect for it, 65 and sunny with a nice wind but the plants are something else. This subtropic climate has the weirdest things so I go very slow. I can just see myself being sent home from some crazy bug bite. Also, little fun fact, when they say ' lookout for worms ' they don't mean worms at all. They mean snakes. The birds here make strange humming noises too so when I'm bent over in some enormous plant that looks like it should be on ' Jurassic park' I'm a little less than amused with the local wildlife.

About James

Boat ride

James it the owner of the River House and of his own concrete business. I don't believe I ever saw a man not sit still for so long. He is always bouncing around doing this and doing that, loosing stuff, and is the most frustrating controlling scatterbrain I think I have ever spent so much time around. A perfectionist and manager to the T who is not always good at delegating. My main irritation is when he sakes for your opinion or for you to do something your way and then argue and correct you the whole time you do it.
On the other hand he looks out for his mates, neighbors, and the environment. He loves music,photography , and the arts so his house is filled with light and a few nice pieces of work. He also seems to take time for his kids who live with his ex-partner across the river. I have found in NZ that people do not refer to spouse as 'my husband' or ''my wife' but as a 'partner' which I find curious. He loves being outside and working in the garden and is mad as a cut snake. just saying.