Spent another month at Roxbourgh, pretty cold but not to bad some mornings it was to cold to pick the fruit, so not much money being made.

  When the fruit was finished I spent a couple of weeks working in the pack house with the kids, mostly because I think if I left he would have lost 3 workers not just me it was pretty cold in there and I was grading the apples so my hands were always wet and cold but was making more money than picking so wasn’t worried. Then we were told that the boss had sold the staff house and we had to be out, so we stayed on and helped clean out the house of everything, burning anything that he didn’t want, so we had a huge bonfire it was great, the kids bought marshmallows and had a great time.

       On the weekend Sheryl and I went for a drive to Queenstown just to check out any work for me, but hated Queenstown and thought we would go somewhere else. Then Sheryl got a call from her old boss at Jason’s Travel media asking if she wanted to go to work for them in Tasmania, for three months, well we talked about it and thought it might be a good idea if she went, but on her terms, which they agreed to so that was settled. But that meant we needed to find somewhere to park for at lest 3 months, because I couldn’t drive the bus and the car, so we went back to Queenstown but drove through to Glenorchy and tried there much nicer place than Queenstown, so we stopped at the camping ground and asked if they had long term parking for busses they were not really interested, so asked if there was any work around, they said “try the pub”

So we went down to the pub had a drink and then started chatting to the guy behind the bar asking if there was any work around and I told him I was a chef and he said straight away “ when can you start”  then he told us were we could park the bus out side there  staff house. So that was pretty easy started the next Monday and Sheryl fly out a week later. So some where to park and a job for 3 months, was a huge kitchen and pretty messy so spent the first week cleaning and sorting things out, then wrote a new menu which the locals loved and started coming back to the pub for meals, we had some pretty busy days and nights which was good, also they sold pies but had trouble buying enough to keep up so made the pies as well, which went down well with the locals again, called them “Road Kill pies” which people thought was a bit of a hoot, sold out all the time and was making dozens of pies everyday but it was great fun. Made allsorts of pies some that the locals asked for, there were a lot of Poms there and they wanted   steak n kidney pies, as well as steak and mush, and mince, chicken and Thai green curry, vegetable  and vegetable satay, and the “road kill” special ones which I never told what was in them but people bought them anyway J. Well ended up spending 8 months working there, the kids did some work in the kitchen, and when Sheryl came back she did some work behind the bar, after the first week the boss came up to me and tried to talk me into staying for longer. Well it worked instead of 3months it was 8 months got a pay raise and a few other extras, we had a computer till system and he started a locals card for cheep drinks which was great for me because I was the only full time worker I got half price drinks JJ, so many a happy night was had after work. Glenorchy is a nice place and most of the people there are alright there is a big mix of different cultures, with a big British Isles mix, but most of the people were cool and easy to get on with but  like any small community there was always someone clashing but never to serous.

   I thought it was a bit of a shame that they were starting to build out the town with loads of building and houses going up, as well as big subdivisions just out of town. It was cool because there was so much to see and do there with lots of tourist attractions because a lot of the    Lord of the Rings was filmed round that area so always lots for people coming and going.

    We spent Xmas at Glenorchy and bought a boat for Xmas, a present for everybody, we took it skiing  a couple of times out on the lake lots of fun, took Sheryl a bit to get used to driving it but once she started no one else was allowed to drive it J