After a brief stay at Te Puke and an unsuccessful few days jobs hunting, I decided to continue driving south towards the Hawkes Bay Region. Unfortunately the hostels in Napier and the nearby town of Hastings tend to be fully booked in February and March as a mass flux of backpackers migrate here for the fruit picking season. Luckily there was an available hostel in the small village of Bay View (A few km north of Napier) and within a few hours I had a job lined up as an apple picker with several other backpackers. Lets hope this contract rate pays a reasonable wage unlike the Mandarin thinning in Kerikeri!
Despite my initial qualms about undergoing contract work again, I quite enjoyed the apple picking. Filling up a crate that was at least l m2 and about 60 cm deep was very time consuming and at only 32 Dollars a bin you had too work hard to earn a reasonable wage as you are constantly filling up the basket attached around your stomach, clambering up and down ladders and stretching for those big juicy red apples that always appear to be out of reach. Towards the end of the day, you can start to appreciate what pregnant women go through as the weight of the baskets soon took its toll on the back. However by week 3 it was nothing but a dull ache.
It was quite an eventful 3 weeks in the Hawkes Bay area. Firstly we had a raging fire outside the hostel at 5am in the morning as some idiot had set a stack of wooden crates on fire in an attempt to burn some car tyres. Why someone would build a fire within 5 metres of the stationary mobile homes that were modified to dorm rooms is beyond comprehension. Luckily there was no wind that night and despite being woken up by the panicking girls there was no damage to the rooms other than the lingering smell of burning rubber. To cap it off, a week later I was even accused of starting the fire by the neighbouring garage, trying to goad me into a reaction looking to take out their anger on the backpackers that were parked on their unfenced land. But don't let that put you off staying at the basic but homely hostel with the memorable pig on a spit every Sunday evening - a roast dinner that was almost as good as my mother's roast.
Despite teaming up with Tom, Pascal, Annie and Anja (from Manchester, France, Montreal and Norway), becoming the group's taxi driver in a vain attempt to save a bit more money. Which like most of my plans it backfired and after an extraordinary stroke of bad luck I somehow managed to pick up three punctures in 2 days. However onething travelling has taught me is to always be positive: its only money and a blow out on a main road would be a lot worse. Still I didn't stop me hitting the gravel roads, where all the decent walks commence from.
There isn't a lot to do in Napier or Hastings so going walking was a productive way of spending our days off and with New Zealand spectacular scenery not getting outside is a crime to this beautiful country. My recommended walks would be the Waipapa Falls (30km north of Napier) which was a 2 hour return walk along the beach with a secluded 5 metre high waterfall and swimming hole hidden just behind the beach. A 2 hour forest walk through Tangoro Nature Reserve (20 km north of Napier) and their 2 waterfalls.
Our last 24hours together as a group was spent 20 kms south of Hastings as we braved the weather and we did some beach camping at Ocean Beach after our last day at work. It was a nice way to cap off the apple picking and when the group went fast-food hunting for dinner I got to have a nice chat to the Norwegian Anja who I have now got a crush on, and acting like a teenager in love I even brought her a toy kiwi before she left to go to Wellington - hopefully she won't forget me in a hurry! 2 hours later the group eventually returned with a tepid lasagne Which was devoured in no time.
The rest of the evening was spent with small talk before going to sleep the right side of midnight and despite 6 of us initially started on the beach only me and the two Scandinavians girls (Mette, a Danish girl joined our group in our last week here) braving the cloudless night as the two guys and Annie all slept in the car.
From the sound of it, everybody had a restless sleep with Tom claiming I kept him up with my snoring. I know I got rudely awoken up at 6 am in the morning with a black Labrador licking my face. After a morning swim in the ocean we made the short trip to Cape Kidnapper to commence another walk.
This is probably Hawkes Bay's most famous walk, the 12km walk to Cape Kidnapper's peninsula can only be completed at low tide where you are greeted to the thousands of nesting Gannnets. Interestingly this Cape got it name from the 1700's named by captain Cook after a failed kidnapped attempt by the Maoris on a Tahitan boy who escaped by jumping into the sea after Captain Cooked fired upon the natives.
With a few hours left of day light we stopped at Te Mata Peak for another walk to the highest point in the Hawkes Bay region. Well the guys had the energy to make to climb up the 399 metre peak while the girls were left in the nearby village of Havelock North where we were rewarded with a beautiful panoramic view of the Hawkes Bay with it ridges of hills, the clear blue river flowing through the vineyards and the pleasure of watching a glorious sunset. Unfortunately with all this overwhelming views it meant I was late in picking up the girls and after seeing off the guys (who were driving down to Wellington) I returned back to Havelock North to receive the silent treatment. Lets say I wasn't impressed after putting myself out for these girls over the last 3 weeks only to be ignored when I did something I wanted to do.
Even giving the girls a chocolate bunny as an early easter present the following day did little to improve their (more specifically Annie's) mood and it was only after some truthful yet hurtful text messages she started to understand my side of the argument. But for now I had a bus to catch to Wellington and for only 2 Dollars a ticket with Naked Bus I had no intentions of driving. So time to relax for a few weeks and finally meet up with some old school friends and watch come cricket.
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