No hard work in Double Cove!

Hello hello. Well, we just spent three idyllic days at Double Cove in the Marlborough Queen Charlotte sounds.. (mainland Marlborough is where all the great NZ Sauvignon Blanc comes from) Robin and I have had nothing but good luck in New Zealand. Everything turns out right for us. After our day off in Picton, we headed off to work with some WWOOF hosts, Trevor and Lyn, in Double Cove. The weather was a bit scungy, but lightened up for our boat trip. Trevor picked us up in his orange boat. Earlier in the day, I had talked to my family on Skype, and they asked, "How big is the boat you're getting picked up in?" I answered, "orange," which I knew wasn't a size, but was all I knew about the boat. Well, hindsight is 20/20. Now that I know the size of the boat, I wonder why I didn't realize that large, or even medium, boats are rarely orange.

A map to illustrate our route from Picton to Double Cove.


Trevor driving his little orange boat


Robin and I squeezed into the back with our packs


The little orange boat is called a Naiad, and is made in Picton. They use it as their main form of transportation. The white boat is an old, wooden boat named Rebecca.



Our first night, we were shown around our bach (beach house). We had our own house! We had dinner with our hosts in their home, and then knitted and read in our bach while the rain fell. We were told that penguins, yes penguins, live under the shed next to the house. So I got up to look out the window every five minutes, waiting for the penguins to march up the hill and go to bed. We never saw the penguins... We're starting to think that they're like little elves, living under the house, heard but not seen...


We did see the Weka, and fed it crackers! Wekas look like a cross between a duck and a chicken with intimidating legs and claws. They came down to our door in the morning for breakfast.



On our second day, we were meant to be painting the exterior of the bach to earn our keep. But it rained! And as soon as the weather cleared up, Trevor took us out on the Naiad to feed the blue cod, collect mussels and peer down at sting rays in the crystal blue waters..


Cod like white bread



We did a bit of work, dusting around the bach, but we had so many breaks for morning tea and lunch and such, that it really didn't amount to much. Oh well, our hosts were just happy to have us there. It was kinda like a trip to grandma and grandpa's! It was fun poking around the bach, oh so 70's in it's decor. We made an origami mobile (fish!) for the bathroom.



Our third day was beautiful! There was a rugby game on in the morning, so we didn't get around to painting. We went over to the neighbor's house and swept. Then Trevor showed us the jellyfish, and after lunch we went for a swim and laid out in the sun. Swimming with jellyfish was like swimming in a sea of bouncy balls. They were Common Jellyfish, so they didn't sting us. Just bounced off our arms and legs as we swam.




We went for a walk after our swim, and listened to the enchanting Tui birds. At dinner we watched the horse races with our hosts. Their son-in-law's horse won! Then we went back to our bach and played a board game, the New Zealand Four Square Checkout Game where the board is a Four Square shop, and we had to pick up all the items on our list: Marmite, Edmond's custard powder, sponge pudding mix, and other Kiwi favorites.






It was sad to say goodbye to our bach and all our friends: the blue cod, the Weka, swimming jellyfish, and singing Tui birds...) but today we are off to a new host in Nelson, 2 hours away. On our boat journey back to Picton, we saw dolphins jumping in the bay.


Tui