love the road you're on.: Owen River Lodge

Warning: long, rambling post follows.

The three hour drive to Murchison/the Owen River Valley was unbelievable. Becky was the driver for this trip and I was the navigator (I can read maps! No more GPS) and photographer. We have made a pact that we are not allowed to sleep while the other is driving, just in case…And actually why would you want to sleep anyway when there is so much to see. The countryside here is just so beautiful and green and sheepy and mountainous and hilly and curvy and rivery and just perfect really. Around every curve in the road, and trust me there are a lot of them, is something more beautiful than the last. I thought a lot about how I love driving on roads I’ve never been on before – anything could lie ahead and it’s so exciting not knowing what’s around the bend. But of course there are some familiar roads that I miss as well – Goose Creek Road, Kingsbury Drive, and St. Philip Street are a few of my favorites.

We stopped in Murchison for a quick lunch before heading to the lodge. I think Murchison is roughly the same size as Creede (town closest to 4UR Ranch in Colorado, for those of you who don’t know), but Becky thinks it’s bigger. Or was it the other way around? Will let you know when we decide. As we headed out of Murchison for the 20km drive to the lodge, we had that feeling again of what are we doing?!? We were headed for a place more remote than 4UR, in another country, where we knew absolutely nobody, had no idea what our living quarters were like, and to a place with a tiny staff, aka very few ready-made friends, unlike at the ranch where we worked with about 30 people around our age. As we drove down our new gravel road – Owen Valley East – we were laughing to the point of tears thinking of all sorts of crazy/scary scenarios. Drove past a run-down place called Owen River Cottage, started to get very worried that it was actually the place we were looking for, which is Owen River Lodge, realized it was not the same place, thought every barn and shack was our house, stopped the car entirely because we were laughing too hard, drove about 5 km/hr also because of laughter and trying not to look too red-faced and teary when we got there, were greeted by three mean-looking cows and their herder (?) around one curve, and then finally saw the beautiful sign for Owen River Lodge. We have since timed this drive, which took us about 10 minutes the first time, but should only take about 2 minutes. Parked the car in the car park (not parking lot), and headed inside to meet Felix, our boss and the owner/manager of Owen River Lodge, who we had been emailing with for the past several months…

And all of our anxiety melted away! Of course. I don’t know why I even bother with worrying anymore, because it always turns out ok. He is just as friendly, welcoming, generous, and easy-going as could be, with a great sense of humor, as all Kiwis and Australians seem to have. The place is just absolutely stunning. The lodge and the 6 cottages are so elegant but simple and comfortable. The views of the Owen River and surrounding land are spectacular. The people who work here are just the sweetest people in the world. Lovely, lovely people. I want to write a whole post about each of them and have you all meet them and hug them and love them like I do. Please visit the Owen River Lodge website (www.owenriverlodge.co.nz) and come here as soon as possible.

After a quick tour, we followed Felix 6 miles up the road to our new home, the Shearer’s Quarters of a huge sheep farm. This house is by no means luxurious, as it has been lived in off and on for years by men – sheep shearers and fishing guides mostly. But now it belongs to me and Becky. The lovely ORL housekeeper Lily-Anne, Felix’s girlfriend Nikki, and Felix himself have spent hours and hours scrubbing it from top to bottom and making our beds and such. The house has three bedrooms, one of which is unoccupied and still very messy, Becky’s bedroom, and my bedroom. It has two bathrooms, one full bath, and one bathroom with just a sink and a tub. It has a small, cute kitchen, dining area, and living area with a wood-burning fireplace/stove thing, some 70s style velour furniture, and a small TV which gets 2 channels quite poorly and has no DVD player. The house has some cute wallpaper, some hideous wallpaper, and some half-painted over wallpaper. It also comes equipped with some interesting red velvet curtains and very dated bedspreads, although the sheets and towels are nice ORL guest linens that they have given to us. We are in the process of putting our touches on the house and making it a bit girlier. We get great cell reception, but don’t really have anyone to text or call locally yet, but no internet (we use wireless at the lodge). Now the truly interesting thing about the house is this: there are four doors off the front porch – one to the unused bedroom, one to Becky’s room, one to the bathroom, and one door to the main area with the kitchen, dining area, living area, half bath (with no toilet), and my room. Yes, we have to walk outside to get to the bathroom. Yes, it is a little scary that our bedrooms kind of feel like they are in separate houses. Yes, it is very quiet and dark here at night, and yes, we have slept in the same bed since arriving, because we are so used to living in the same room! Actually, I take back the quiet thing, kind of, because we have thousands of neighbors that baa and bleat and moo through the night. Yes, we are surrounded by sheep and lambs and cows. And YES, I absolutely love this house, love this farm, love our neighbors, and would not want to live anywhere else. We also have some human neighbors, Robin and Braden, who run the farm. And of course they are the nicest, most hard-working people, and I can’t wait to be put to work! Did I mention they are also giving us a pet lamb? We’re naming her Mary. I have always, my whole life, wanted to live on a farm, and now I do. I feel so lucky to be in this amazing place.

For the past two nights, we have been invited to eat as guests up at the lodge. The food is wonderful and you will be proud/shocked to hear that I have eaten a fish called whitebait (which is served as a fritter – kind of like a crab cake - with egg, so kind of like a little omelet - and there are about 20 fish in each cake because whitebait are very small and their whole tiny little fishy bodies, complete with eyes, are put into the fritter), prawns, and salmon. Can’t say I really loved any of it except the salmon, but I did eat it. Who’s a picky eater now?! Not me.

The maximum guest capacity is 12, but we are currently at 4 – two couples from the US. Most of the guests who come to ORL are American, Australian, English, or South African. One of the couples here right now is from Colorado and – this is for you 4URers – are friends with the Browns and have been guests at the Humphreys Ranch!! Small world. One of our guests is very Southern and says the funniest one-liners constantly. After dinner one night, Felix asked if she wanted anything else, and she said anything else she’d have to rub on the outside because she was so full. Bless her heart. Another guest decided to knit while out on the river and her husband was fishing!

We started work/training yesterday. Our jobs consists of hostessing (serving guests, hanging out talking and drinking with them), housekeeping, outside work – basically a little bit of everything. Things are done on a much smaller scale here than I have been used to at 4UR, simply because there are not as many guests (12 here vs 45 or 50 at 4UR). The kitchen at ORL is like a regular kitchen with a big refrigerator (no dish pit!), and the housekeeping room is like a regular laundry room. People come to ORL essentially for one purpose: fly fishing. Felix is taking us fishing on Thursday. Can’t wait. The guides here are mostly 40+ but I am sure the 4UR guides would get along with them just fine. They are mostly all native Kiwis, who have been fishing in this area their whole lives, and, knowing Felix and the whole culture of Owen River Lodge, they are the best guides in the area. We have already met some characters!

Still so much more to tell….but I’m sitting outside at the lodge and the sandflies are starting to get annoying. Pictures of the house to come later!