Bombay, New Zealand

My time spent with my host family here in Bombay has been pretty awesome. (Jackie and Andrew the parents, Amy and Jessica the twin girls- not identical the other one, and Rebekah the niece on a working Holliday from holland) Originally I was under the impression that this was an olive tree orchard. Turns out some time ago they got rid of many of their trees.

They still have olive trees here but I didn't get to pick olives or press them or anything! However- wow I still had a blast. They gave me my own room, bathroom, balcony, and living room. They only asked me to work 3 days. 6 hour days but it wasn't to bad. Pruning hedges, pruning olive trees, topping a few olive trees(chainsaw work up in an olive tree is a hoot), cutting down one small tree, weeding, moving heaps of old decking, getting rid of thistle. Nothing way to hard and it ended up being totally worth it!

Like I said, they only asked me to do 3 days work(Tuesday-Thursday), because on Friday we went by boat to their beach house! ON AN ISLAND!! Soooo many fun things! My first day on the island Jackie told me about some of the scuba gear they had, then mentioned that there were scallops in the bay that the house overlooked. 30 minutes later I was collecting scallops!! Then after we cleaned them- I kinda bailed because hey... I collected em :) the rest of the weekend was full of music on the beach, hammock chillin in my eno(who has now been named smokey), another dive for scallops, buscuiting(inner tube being dragged by a boat- aka tubing) , kayaking, snorkeling with the kids and heaps of fun!

The family and their friends who joined us stayed in the main house and I got my own "Batch". I freaking LOVED the batch! My own place on the second floor of split level kind of thing that I had all to myself. It was sweet in a rustic ocean kinda way. Great view every morning!

Being a lifeguard came in handy, on the island another mom and her two kids joined us for the weekend. And they were all able to take it a little easier knowing a LG was snorkeling with their kids.

Next stop is Coromandel, NZ. Bus takes me there tomorrow and Ill be at a winery! So excited but also sad to leave it here. It's kinda awesome. I know this feeling will keep being repeated as I go about my travels.