Hello, is this the creepy residence?: 22/10/2011

The ferry crossing went by without any real interest. I went and sat in the bar and listened to the band that were playing for a bit, then read my book for the rest of the journey. I did venture out onto the observation deck to take these pictures though, it was extremely windy out there! The views of the Marlborough Sounds as we came into Picton were beautiful, but unfortunatly my camera ran out of batteries on the approach.

Coming into the Marlborough Sounds

When I got into Picton, I seemed to wait for what seemed like forever at baggage claim, watching strange things go past. Because it's a ferry and not a plane, people had checked all kinds of things, including a very very large bag of carrots! I'd been told to look for a red van, which I found and was greeted by a German guy called Dave. We waited for another passenger then set off to Sequoia Lodge. I met Mike when I got here, the owner. Regular readers will remember (hopefully) who Mike is from a post I made in Texas. He's the one who lived in Overstrand for 8 years and taught at Great Yarmouth High, Acle High and of course my school, Cliff Park! I can't say I recognise him, but that doesn't mean anything since he could have taught a subject I didn't take, or since he was a sub, a set I wasn't in. We chatted about Great Yarmouth a bit and England in general, then he showed me my room. Staff generally stay in the staff dorms, but I'd been put in a double room behind the laundry room. This suits me perfectly, because I get my own room/double bed, and I like the smell of the tumble-drier. I'm pretty sure I'll get moved into the dorm on Sunday though, when another member of staff leaves and there's a bed free, so I'm going to make the most of it whilst I can.

After I'd dumped my pack, I made a cup of tea and met two girls called Cheryl and Hayley. Cheryl is from Scotland and Hayley is from Yorkshire. Got on with the girls pretty instantly so we chatted for a while and we all went into town together to look around and go to the supermarket. Picton is a really nice little town, we walked down what seemed to be the main street, noticing the really creepy massive white cross that had been mounted on the hillside. It looked like something out of a horror movie, no joke. We looked in a few touristy shops and I bought some envelopes to send my letters home, and then we reached the 'beach'. I say it like that because it really was tiny, probably not even the width of a one lane road and not very long either. But the water was lovely and blue, with people swimming and there was lots of grass for picnics and sunbathing. We wandered up the other side of the street and found a Scottish pub, funny since they're usually Irish pubs here. We also found a bead shop, full of glass beads. Gabrielle was right when she said I'd look at beads differently, I found myself thinking "I know how to make that...".

See the little beach where those people are? That's how small it is.

After we'd done our shopping, and I'd dropped a six pack of yoghurt all over the supermarket floor, we headed back past the creepy cross to the hostel. There wasn't much going on, so we made an early dinner. I made some pasta with my aubergine left over from the vege lasagne and some garlic, with some chicken I got from the supermarket deli. It was pretty nice really. We realised we'd forgotten beer, so we trekked back to the liquor store and got some Coronas and some limes. Well, they were limes in the end, but they were yellow, very strange. Had a couple of drinks back at the hostel whilst realising it was supposed to be the rapture (again) and decided that if the world was going to end we might as well get wasted and go out with a bang. We drank some more, and sang along whilst the guys played the guitar, but come 8pm we had to help serve up the chocolate pudding. Oh yeah, that's another reason this hostel is amazing, the guests get free hot chocolate pudding and ice cream every night! Post-pudding, the drinking continued and we hung out with two guys from Germany before going to see how the rugby was going since it was getting chilly outside. It was getting a bit late, and since I'd been up since 6am I decided it was time for bed, but not before we made some cheese toasties, lush.

This morning I got up at 9am and helped myself to some free breakfast! Work starts at 10am, so after checking my email real quick, I was assigned to 'Odd Jobs', which today involved getting fingerprint marks off of things like doors and windows. That only took an hour, so I spent the second hour helping Hayley out in the kitchen. The work is pretty easy, and it's only two hours a day, so I definitely can't complain. We had 'cookie time' about 12.15pm, apparently a daily thing where us staff sit and drink tea and eat cookies, again no complaints from me! So now here I am. Hayley and Cheryl have gone to buy some things for dinner, we're going to share some mince nachos with salsa, sour cream and avocado which I think will be delicious. I had a snoop on the 'swap-a-book' shelf and found Barack Obama's book "Dreams from My Father", so I swapped out one of my books for it since I think it will be a really good read.

The girls just got back and I'm going to make some lunch... I bought myself a cooler bag since I saw lots of people in hostels have them and it's just nice to have all your food together really. Here's some pictures of the hostel too!