Let me give you an idea of what kind of town Blackball is. Blackball is situated in a valley and surrounded by mountains, which are now beginning to get covered with snow. It rains a lot and the weather is very variable, and can dramaticly change in an hour. From a sunny blue sky to a terrible rain or from an incredible starnight to complete darkness. The misty nights can have something spooky about them, especially because Blackball is quite a remote place. As a small town, everybody knows everybody and nothing goes unnoticed. A night at the pub as an "outsider" seems like a test at first, but once you earn the thurst of people it is heartwarming, hilarious and absurd at the same time. I love the place.
As I have said before I was WWOOFing for Wendi there. Wendi runs a little crafts/secondhand shop and has 5 kids, 4 cats and one dog. Two of the kids still live at home: Austin (14) and Lilly (15). The house is a very disorganised, but charming place and the backyard is filled with about 12 wrecked cars. When there is firewood and coal available the stove heats up the house, otherwise it gets very cold at night. I can't properly explain it, but this house felt like home to me.
Another important piece of news I should share with you, and you might be shocked, is that the Queen Bee is no more. I had been thinking about selling my loyal travel companion for some time now, and when temperatures dropped below freezing I finally made the decision that it got too cold to travel with her. In a days time the van was sold for 2000 dollar to a second hand car dealer. He didn't want all the camping gear though, and so I was forced to take apart the cozy interior that had been my home for the last 7 months. Then I dropped the van off in Cobden, about 20 km from here and hugged him one last time. Ever since I have been hitch-hiking as a mode of transport.
The first trip I took from Blackball was meant to go to Punakaiki, but Steve, who picked me up, went to Karamea, about 200 km further on the road and at the very end of the road, so I decided to go with him. I stayed in the most incredible backpackers I have been to, called Rongo, and also commenly reffered to as the republic of Rongolia (http://rongobackpackers.com/). I wanted to stay there for a while, but I had to be back on friday to help Wendi with a catering job in the workingmen's club. So the next day I hitched a ride with another American to Westport. From there on I wanted to make it to Punakaiki, but stranded in Charleston, a little ex-goldmining town, that had once counted 18000 inhabitants, and now only has about 300. I went to the local workingmans club for a beer and met another American, Dano. He and I got anlong quite well and he offered to drive me to Blackball the next day and help Wendi out at the WMC.
As we came home in Blackball after the job, we noticed there was a large croud hanging out in front of the hilton. Suffice to say, and I beg you to believe me without further explanation, that it was a crazy night in the Hilton...
Some one told us that night that we should do the Croesus track, so the next day me and Dano bought a salami and walked up the hill. We invented a revolutionary sandwich : toast, forest honey and blackball 'italian' salami, try it!
Well that's enough for now I think. Just quickly mention that I have now left Blackball for good (at least as far as this trip goes). I am on the road again, and enjoying the hitch-hiking. Oh, and yesterday I attended a jam in Woodstock.
Check out the new pictures!
 South Island |  Blackball |
1 opmerking:
Blij dat er eindelijk weer nieuws is, broer! Lift ze!
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