Saturday night Caili

Today is my last morning on John’s place. It’s an appropriate leaving – it’s raining again, perfect weather for a late morning bacon and egg breakfast. Oh – NZ does have bacon bacon now (not just Canadian style – but the funny thing is, they call it “streaky bacon” ;)

Yesterday we went into town and checked out the local market. It felt more like a mass yard sale than a farmer’s market, but it was fun. Fresh grown food spread out next to boat motors and old clothes. I picked up a bag of dried persimmons and a bag of dried feijoas (a soury type, green fruit). The rest of the day was spent doing WAY more work than we were supposed to – cutting down and removing a horribly invasive (and nastily thorny) bush called gorse. I had a great time, though I am no paying the price – I have massive amounts of tiny splinters in my arms, which will all eventually fester out I guess. Goody! Last night I tried to decide which was worse: Pacific Northwest devil’s club or gorse. Last night, I thought devil’s club (when I thought all the spots on my arms were just scratches). Today – gorse wins. Luckily it’s not painful – I’ll just be wearing long sleeves for a bit (and hope they don’t scar, ewww).

After taking a much overdue shower to remove as many gorse pieces and dirt as possible, I dressed in some of the few clean clothes I have left (oh man, I need a laundromat!) and ate a pretty simple and quick meal. John had told us about a Celtic caili (kay-lee) that was going on in a town ½ an hour away. He wasn’t interested in going, but gave Dominic and I all the details. So we headed out. It was a great time. A caili is basically just group dancing (though don’t confuse it with line dancing, which I find much less interesting). I had gone to one “contra” dance in Juneau and had had a good time, but didn’t remember any of the dances. Dominic and I weren’t the worst dancers there, but we were the best either! I danced with another guy for a few dances too. He had a bit more coordination than my fellow WWOOFer, but still didn’t know exactly what was going on. There were several REALLY fun dances – including a wave of some sort where the whole line of couple goes under each other’s arms and then over each other’s arms. It was crazy and fun and pretty hard to describe.

It was a good Saturday night out in a local town! Met great people and had many, many laughs.