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Fenny and I spend a little time relaxing in a hammock under the cloudy sky. We've been told that there's a "Muffin Happy Hour" from 4pm to 5pm every day, where you get a muffin and tea/coffee for $3 per person. We were excited about that, so we trekked off in that direction, stopping here to relax for a moment before continuing. The muffin happy hour is at the Bush Retreat, which is a restaurant that appears to be accessable only via an overgrown, muddy path with little makeshift bridges and fences. Here we are at the first fork in the road. At this point, the path to the Bush Retreat appeared a normal dirt road. All was quite well. The second fork in the road leading to the Bush Retreat. It still looked pretty normal. Still a road, right? Now the fork in the road is more like a little dirt path leading off the road... Still on the path to the Bush Retreat. We have muffins and tea on our minds! The path is getting a little -- rustic. Here's a little makeshift bridge. It's... rustic? Lost. We took a wrong turn and went about 8 metres off-course. Fortunately, 8 metres isn't too far to backtrack. And here's why we took the wrong turn. This didn't look to us like a place we were supposed to go. But we were supposed to go here, so we stepped over the barbed wire and continued to the Muffin Happy Hour! Arrival! The view from the Bush Retreat is startlingly similar to the view from every other spot in Onuku Heights (where the farmstay and Bush Retreat are located). This view is a little lower, and there were some trees in the middle of it all, but otherwise, it should look quite familiar to you by now. The man came out and asked us if we wanted an umbrella to eat outside or if we wanted to eat inside. We told him the umbrella outside would be preferable, so he set us up and got us situated. I settled in and started taking pictures. Here was the interior of the Bush Retreat kitchen. Our hosts I must admit had names I didn't catch. At the Onuku Farm Hostel, they tell me it was Aya and Chris. Here we are all hanging out, eating muffins, and drinking tea or coffee. End of the meal. Pictures of Fenny. It's all good. So then we paid our bill, and I tried to look cool. But no matter how hard I try... I still just look like a tourist. Fenny tries the nice toilet. Maybe you haven't seen any sheep pictures yet, and you'd like to see some? Well, no problem! Fenny and I will oblige, no worries! Here, have some sheep pictures. These sheep had no fear (at least, relative to the other sheep) -- they almost walked past us with only a metre or two to spare, and hardly ran very fast once they were past us. We took pictures for you. Here. Take a look at this plant that grabbed my hand and tried not to let go. The little thorns on this sucker are very, very sharp and tiny. They didn't hurt much, but quickly and easily grabbed ahold of your skin, clothes, or, as Fenny found out, hair. Bastard plant from hell. Fenny doing her best matador impression. Fenny cruises up the hill into the blue, blue sky! Just in case you haven't seen the view from our cabin, here are a couple of pictures for you. Some cloud pictures. Cute white clouds on top of blue, blue sky. On the left, Midori. On the right, Toshie. Two Japanese ladies staying/working at the Onuku Farm Hostel. Midori had just arrived that day, and Toshie had been working for about a week (?) at that time. Keeping track of the stories of the various Japanese ladies who were working at Onuku has been quite difficult, as there are a lot of them who work in New Zealand for accomodation, travel, return to Japan, then re-return to New Zealand multiple times. The Onuku Farm Hostel is quite a popular destination for single Japanese ladies. I'm not sure why. I think because it's listed and rated quite well in the Japanese version of the Lonely Planet. In any case, there were a LOT of Japanese ladies who had been to the farm hostel multiple times. Fenny, Midori, and Toshie have a nice discussion. Happy Japanese women and a Taiwanese woman talking talking talking! |
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