Taking It Easy And Hitching In Oliver

So I got some work, more or less!! I went up to Summerland last Thursday (awesome name for a town) for a days roofing with Dan, a friend of Katie's (a sweet girl I met on the bus between Whistler and Vancouver). It was all good and looks as though Dan can give me work through September starting in a week. Nice.

However, this post is more about getting between Oliver and Summerland. They are about maybe 60km apart.

To get up to Summerland for the days work on Thursday I caught a ride with Robin (mentioned Robin last post). I went hiking with his group on the way up to Summerland, of which the average age is about 60! Was good fun though.

After work on Thursday and learning the job won't start for a week or so I decided to go back to Oliver to relax for the week. So threw the thumb out for... A dude, about 65yrs old, in his beat up pickup truck and dressed like a hippy pulls over. Great I think, throw my pack in the tray, climb into the cab where he has ZZ Top blearing from the cassette player. I yell "I'm heading to Oliver" and he yells back "Oliver Express" and thats all we say, for 10 mins anyway. The dude then turns the music down and asks if I have anything to smoke!! haha classic. As it turned out I did so we had a cheeky smoke. The rest of the trip I spent listening to this old fella tell me crazy stories of him taking rich American woman into the woods, getting them hammered on magic mushrooms and having a "good time with them" Sounded kinda creepish but was funny to listen too! Then this poor fella has to put up with these woman forever writing to him telling him they love him! Hilarious!! He then invited me to his place to check out his 1960's snowmobiles of which I had heard all about in detail....crack up times, crack up dude!!

Then went back up to Summerland yesterday with Katie and her brother Jamie (they were in Oliver on holiday) to spend the night with Dan and his wife Toni and their son, plus two young nephews they were looking after. Was a good day and night.

Katie and her bro headed back to Vancouver today so I hitched back to Oliver again. I got picked up by a good Indian fella who was driving a sweet 1970s something hotrod pickup. Nice. Anyways, not too much longer he picks up another hitchhiker. Nothing funny about this except the guy was a full blown cowboy! So here I am, sitting between the cowboy and Indian in a red hotrod pickup....! Thought it was fairly comical!

Anyways, more r+r for me for the next few days. Hoping the work will kick off during next week at some stage. We will see.

To Oliver

So as mentioned we finished work at the cherry orchard on monday and I managed to buy the bike off that Quebec guy - Joeslyn. So last day at the cherry orchard camp we all got up for communal pancakes, then we tidied up camp, got our pay cheques, bottles of wine, and pizza and all hung out for a few hours and got mildly drunk in the sun. Was cool but as per usual sucked saying bye to some really top people, but thats how it goes.

So with my 20ish kg pack on my back i jumped on my bike and headed south, with intentions of making it to Oliver. I must have rode about 30km, mostly on track when i discovered two things about the bike (which I knew when i bought it but didn't think too much about it), 1) it was far too small; 2) the seat which was pretty hammered was super uncomfotable, especially when you got the weight of the pack too! So I made it as far as a lake called Vaseaux Lake and camped for the night. Beautiful lake and I had food with me so it was all good!

Left Vaseaux Lake this morning, only to rediscover an uncomfortable bike and a sore ass from the previous day (jean shorts aren't real good riding attire) so managed maybe another 10km before i retired my little stallion at a fruit stand on the side of the road. Someone will love it again! Anyways, hitched a lift the rest of the way to Oliver with a guy Jaret. He was cool, invited me to some nurses party tomorrow night in Oliver. haha Said he'll introduce me to many woman! So I may have to attend, if I'm in town!! Then meet a joker called Robin when I went to his motel to ask rates. It was too expensive but then he drove me 3km to his buddies campground which is mint and cheap, and gave me a bike to use. Ideal!! So while I was chillin with Robin (who is 63) he asked me if I wanted to go hiking with his club up in Penticton tomorrow, and then I recieved a call about work up in Penticton so tomorrow I'll go hiking with Robin and the hiking club tomorrow, then meet Toni about the work. Will probably stay in Penticton if the work is all go! Toni said on the phone they need someone immediately! Good news!

So after tomorrow I'll either have a couple weeks work in Penticton or I'll come back to Oliver and party with some nurses! haha Either way I am happy, we shall see...

The Cherries in Penticton

One week later and I am still in Penticton (well, a 45min walk out of Penticton) on the same cherry orchard. Turns out I'm not cherry picking sensation!! haha in fact I am very slow at picking therefore I earn very little!! haha But while living is more or less free while we work it makes it worth while! And have had a blast with everyone. I know say good morning and good night in french and can swear a little....

So our last day on the orchard was meant to be yesterday but there is still more cherries so last day is tomorrow. Then we get paid out on Monday. Plan from there is a little hazy. I hope to buy a bike off this Quebec guy ($30 for a speed demon!! Sweet rig!!)and then i think i can just ride town to town with my stuff on my back and camp here and there and maybe pick up more orchard work from time to time. My masterplan is to now stay in the Okanagan region till end of September and then make my way to Fernie as all the winter jobs come on line in October.

Not much news from last week though. Have been pretty much work the morning away then chill at the lake or go on exploratory walks in the avo. I am loving it!! And definitely looking forward to wherever I end up next, maybe a town called Oliver. Sounds beautiful! Will write it when it happens...

Cherry Picking Sensation

I have to start this post by finishing off my tent saga story...

So the morning rolled around where I thought I was gona get this tent off the garage sale girl. Well, turned out she was in a completely different town about an hour up the road! haha so that fell through. But earlier that morning i landed a job just out of a town called Penticton, about an hour south of Kelowna. I organised a ride with these 4 fellas, all from either Quebec or France so they all spoke french and just enough english that we could communicate. So tentless I headed south with 5 of us jammed in a VW Jetta (small sedan) with packs and tents. Tight.

Lucky for me one of them was jumping on a bus to go somewhere else so I asked to buy his tent which he sold to me. So stoked! So Im not wet if it rains...:) My tent saga ended!!

So I have work at a cherry farm. Pretty much I turned up at the farm on Friday avo with these random french dudes that gave me a lift, got a rundown from the orchard owner on how it works then got pointed where to go camp. Must be about 30 pickers staying. Its pretty much tents in amongst the orchards with a little run down shed with kitchen, lounge and bathroom. So I set up camp, meet everyone and soon discover everyone speaks French. Most are from over Quebec way! haha I'm definitly a minority and everyone laughs when I say I'm from NZ and don't speak French, but everyone knows enough English to communicate. So anyway, everyone is "hippyish" i would say. So its like im living in a french hippy commune. haha everyone seems to just smoke pot, pick cherries, smoke more pot, eat and sleep. Then cause we cant pick past 1pm (start at 5am) cause of the heat every afternoon is more or less down to the lake for swimming, more sleeping and yep, more pot smoking! Looks like this week may be a bit of a hazy and relaxed one. Good fun though!

Turns out you can make money picking cherries if you like! I have only done one day, and because I am very amatuer I was also very slow, and you're paid by bucket picked. So my first day, 6.5hrs work and I made a cool $31 or so! haha what a laugh. Will see if I improve by Thursday, if not maybe fruit picking isn't such a good idea! haha its nice chilled work in the sun though :) the good people must make about $160 a day, and what makes it good is you just camp so no accommodation costs! so can be good, i just need to get faster!

So will be doing this till thursday then back hunting for more work. ideal! till then....

A Fucking Tent!!!

So made it to Kelowna. This place is sweet. Way smaller chilled city. Have pretty much been searching for work, which there seems to be plenty of in the area. Story of the day however belongs to the tent I need....

So I got a job picking cherries, 2 weeks work, perfect. I thought I'd hold off getting a tent till I got a job so I didn't buy one unnecessarily. So I get a job, its an hours drive out of town in a place called Salmon Arm (I think). I organise a ride and have about 4 hours to find a tent. Easy, hit Walmart, Canadian Tyre and Zellers, all big department stores and all out at the city mall. Good amount of walking between each. EVERYONE is sold out. Shit. I run out of time before my lift goes for my job, so I have to let the job go. Fuckers. So I decide I need the tent still. Get a bus to Westgate (West Kelowna), hit all the same shops again with shitloads of walking, all sold out! I sat down in the isle in the last store I was in and just swore. Hung over, hungry as all hell and dehydrated as a romans sandel after walking prob close to 10kms for the day in jandels. I was shitted. So thought, fuck it, won't let it get me down. Thought Ill just go to Pinticton tomorrow (more work down there) and surely they'll have a tent somewhere. That was the plan....

Just discovered a website (craigslist.ca - anyone coming to canada needs this saved to their favourites list). Emailed a girl who is having a garage sale just out of chance they had a tent. They do!! Saved. Sorting it now but gona try pick it up tomorrow. Who would have thought a tent could be such an ass.

So deciding now if I go to Penticton tomorrow or not. I think I probably will, sounds mint down there, and theres Katies mates who maybe keen to hire me to help with some roofing. Mean. Or otherwise vineyards and orchards galore!

Best sort my shit out. Sweet!

Whistler tackled

Boosted form Vancouver up to Whistler. Have been there for the last week. Stayed with Dani who has settled in there for an unknown amount of time. So crashed at hers in the staff accommodation which was mint and she has some rad housemates. Weather was mint and hot for most the time I was there so made it super easy to get out and explore the place. Dani had a few days off so showed me around spots she had discovered. Managed to get up the mountain and do the peak to peak gondola. The amount of terrain up there is mad and that gondola is loose! Will be a crazy winter destination! Explored the the Lost Lake area one day on bikes which was really cool. And managed to get up in the bike park one day too, which is your loose downhill riding on bikes that aren't short of motorcross bikes without the motor! We geared up with all the armor and hit it. Absolutely loved it!! So much fun hitting all the jumps and going down some crazing insane terrain and having the bike do half the work for you. haha Took one stack and paying for it still with a bit of missing skin, but in the words of my mate Alex, if you don't take one spill during your day you weren't pushing it hard enough!

Also had a few nights out in Whistler. Caught up with my other buddy Laura who was in great form! One night after she finished work ew were were gona hang out over ONE beer, that turned into me getting home at 130am and pretty wobbly on my feet! Sums Whistler up! Helped that the bairmaid new Laura and fed us shots all night. Good times!! Party scene there is pretty sweet and full on, but at the end of the day its just more people drunk in another pub or club blowing a tonne of cash. Not to say that isn't a whole lota fun but yeah...!! haha

Decided Whistler (and i did suspect this from what I had heard of it) was a bit too much of a resort for me, and was a bit too commercial. Was mint to go and play for a week but not somewhere I'd like to spend my season. Think I'd either kill myself or go completely broke living there! Still dreaming of a slightly smaller 'real' town. The dream remains.

So anyhow, have left Whistler. Boosted back to Vancouver and got my SIN (tax) number. Had my mate Sus put me up for the night. Her parents were super nice, slept in the most comfortable bed of my trip so far and her Mum made me ANZAC biscuits! So stoked! Then took a bus up to a city called Kelowna, where I am now. There are a lot of farms, orchards and wineries up here so hoping to get a little bit of work, would be nice to get work through till maybe September/October but will wait and see what comes up. Met a girl on the bus between Whistler and Vancouver. She was awesome and chatty, her name is Katie and is gona chat to friends of hers up here about some work for me, so maybe something will come of that. Will wait and see.

Right now I have to update my resume and start applying for work, so until next time. Out