Chapter 3 – It’s Summertime (Well…………Almost >.<)

Summer is coming, and that’s also the sign of cherries harvesting season. We had previously asked for seasonal orchard work through the net and finally it pays off. An orchard owner decided to take in five of us for cherry packing job….Woohoo!! After spending for so many days, our pockets almost dried up. But we did not squander all our money. Half of them still are being kept safely in the bank. In fact, we have been so frugal in our expenditures by opting for the cheapest supermarket to get our groceries, and selecting only the cheapest brands at the most economical prices. The most lavish meal we had so far was at McD – burgers and fries….Darn! Eating out in NZ is utterly expensive, so most of the time, we cooked ourselves. Pastas, breads, instant noodles and biscuits became our staple foods. Rice is slightly pricey, so we had it once in a while. Of course, they weren’t as tasty and scrumptious as that of diners’ standard, but we were glad and thankful enough to be able to stick together, and have food laid on top of the table to fill our empty stomachs. Omitorhood _/\_

From Oamaru, we drove to Alexandra and prepared ourselves for the new challenges ahead. Cherries harvesting period depends very much on the weather, so we will have to wait for the owner to call us when the time comes. Meanwhile, we just laze around in Alexandra, reluctant to travel far as the petrol is damn costly, and it gets costlier down south. Travelling from one town/city to another took several tens to hundreds of kilometres. Our wagon averagely runs at 19 ₵/km and one full tank costs over a whopping $100, which is equivalent to RM 250!! *swt*. So, we only visited several nearby places like Clyde and Cromwell. Other times, we just hung around at our hostels, watching dramas/movies, eating and sleeping. Haha…Bunch of lazy pigs!! It was kind of difficult to get free wifi in small towns and countryside area, which otherwise would have us surfing the net whole day long. This is in contrast to big cities like Christchurch, where free wifi can be obtained at the public libraries and several hotspots in the city. Otherwise, we will have to pay to use the service. The cheapest would be $2/hr and again it gets costlier down south, and in remote areas. 

The weather was not set at all for the cherry season. Cherries need full blast of sunshine to ramp up their ripening process and to increase their sweetness as well. But it was freezing cold and windy for most of the time, especially from dusk till the break of dawn, and the lowest temperature recorded so far was 6^oC. At other times on the contrary, the weather was intensely hot and stuffy. Highest temperature reached up to a whopping 31^oC!!! Darn! We had been shrouding ourselves from the hot weather and not wanting to travel to other places for almost a week. Alas, we could no longer withstand any more of the sheer boredom. So, we head off to a town slightly further away from here – Wanaka. The one place that one would never miss out when step foot on Wanaka, is the infamous Stuart Landsborough’s Puzzling World. So, what’s so spectacular about this place? As the name tells it, it encompasses several eccentric illusions and puzzles that will dazzle and bewilder your mind. For $15, we obtained passes for the combo package (includes maze garden and illusion rooms). It’s pretty embarrassing to say that we were on the verge of giving up when we got “trapped” in the labyrinth. Fortunately, we still managed to flounder our way out eventually. Anyway, that almost got us spending the whole afternoon immersing in the bizarre world. Next on, we took a breath-taking view at the Lake Wanaka and had a long walk down one of the streets, to and fro, before leaving Wanaka.