The Last of New Zealand

It has been another week so I thought it would be best if I updated you on what I've been up to. Since we finished bailing on Sunday, we were able to take a break from the farm on Monday. Bob brought us to Motueka early Monday morning to catch the bus that his son Locke daily drives up to the Tasman Ntl. Park. Having the connection to Locke got us a discount and sped us through the campsite reservation process in order for us to catch the water taxi that was waiting to depart upon our arrival. Connections are good. We rode the water taxi deep into the park, stopping to see the cormorant nests and seal pups on the way out. A water taxi is just like a land taxi only it transports people, usually those with money or small kids, to the best parts of the park via the ocean. After a day spent relaxing or hiking people usually take the taxi back to the entrance, but we took the alternative option and spent the night. Upon arriving at Tonga Beach, we realised that the campsite which we were registered to spend the night at was only a little over an hours hike away, and being that it was only 10am we decided to hike in the opposite direction. At the end of the beach our trail headed for the hills, but since it was high tide a salty river separated us from our destination. Nevertheless, we decided to forge on and crossed the river with our packs raised above our heads. Luckily the water only made it up to our chins. After hiking for a few hours amongst a constant buzz from the cicadas, we made it to our lunch destination, Awaroa Bay. After lunch, we headed back to the beach that we were dropped off at and to our astonishment the river which we had crossed just a few hours previously had almost completely disappeared. Our taxi driver was right when he said this park experienced the largest fluxuations in tides in all of NZ, with areas dropping and raising 4.5m twice a day (that's almost a 15' difference). We made it to the campsite at Bark Bay before five and set up our "tent" (check out the picture below). We then found our dinner, which consisted of NZ's famous green mussels (they covered the rocks which were exposed during low tide) and a paddle crab. The paddle crab wasn't that big but since it pinched Ian we had to punish it somehow. Later Bob told us that paddle crab is the best tucker that the ocean has to offer (that's coming from an ex-fisherman and mussel farmer). As the sun set, the sand flies came out in drones. They still were nothing compared to the mosquitoes back home though. Good thing we had our "tent", which the forest ranger described as original, to keep them out... not. The next morning we started early and made it to Torrent Bay by 11am. We relaxed on the beach here and made it back to the entrance of the park by 3:30. After our long hike we were happy to right away find a little burger shack called the Fat Tui. The burgers were unique but very delicious. Ian had their veggie burger option and said it was the best veggie anything that he's every had.

From Wed. - Fri. we helped out around the farm. We raked up stray hay mounds and collected bananaed bails from the paddocks. This all went into yet another compost pile. It has been fun driving a manual truck around and shifting with my left hand. Work has kept us busy in the mornings and relaxing and reading has made our afternoons go by fast. I forgot to mention, but Sunday night Bob realised that a neighbor's dog had gotten into the paddock where our sheep were grazing. It had attacked 5 of them, bitting their legs and rumps, and escaped before Bob was able to see it. He had to put two of the sheep down, which was very unfortunate since the hay was the last of his worries, but at least the other three were able to be saved. A picutre below shows me holding a lamb which was injured while Bob prepares to treat the wounds.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we plan on going to the local speedway at night for a demolition derby. Bob used to race cars here and still loves watching the races. Bob told us that he has a friend with pet eels, so we are planning on going to see and feed them on Sunday. Then on Monday we're going to say our goodbyes and head to the West Coast. Bob is giving us a lift to Westport, but after that its hitching for us again. Our tentative plan is to spend two days in Paparoa Ntl. Park and then either take a bus to Hamner Springs or straight to Christchurch to catch our flight on the fourth. We only have seven days left in New Zealand so we need to make the most of it. Though this doesn't seem like much time, we've only been here for three weeks, so there's still plenty of time to see more of NZ and try to stay out of trouble.

This was our first tidal pool crossing. Luckily it didn't get much deeper than this.

Ian was a little reluctant to eat the mussels. He was only able to find a few pieces which he deemed edible no matter how hard I tried to convince him to pop the whole thing in his mouth. We ended up boiling about ten mussels as our hors d'oeuvres and then used the shells as spoons for our pasta.

Our "original" tent (aka sand fly refugee camp). During the night we tightened our mummy bags as much as possible to limit the amount of skin that was explosed to the hungry beasts.

This lamb had what they call "Fly Strike". Since it had been injured by the dog, flies were able to lay their eggs in the open wound. We had to shave wool from the affected area and apply a poison to kill the maggots.

Farming

I am on a 20 min compulsory break now, so I thought I'd let you all know what I've been up to. Yesterday afternoon we started bailing hay, and we haven't really stopped since. We bailed for 3 hrs before dinner, 4 hours after dinner (until the starts were out), and then 3 hours this morning before our tea break, then 2 hours after tea break until lunch and now I'm on this "compulsory break". Moving hay bails is a lot of work, and not too much fun. I don't mind the physical part, but I am just not the fondest of the hay dust. It has been windy, so with every bail I get a blast in my eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears... actually it just about coats my body until I shake myself free. Ian has given in to wearing a t-shirt sleeve as a face mask, but I haven't caught on yet to that style.

It is hard for me to beileve, but I have already been on the farm for a week. Time has been flown by, and I now feel like I am part of the family. My host dad is Bob, who has to be around 60 years old, but he is still able to keep up with us young lads. My mother is Cecelia. She is a Filipino woman who only knows a bit of English but still makes sure that we are taken care of well. After every meal she asks us if we want tea or coffee with milk or sugar. She has also been awake every day before we stumble down the stairs around 6:45 for breakfast and has our cereal, and cooked fruits ready for us to eat (at this time she also asks us if we want coffee or tea). I also have two siblings here, Chloe who is 13 and pretty shy and Benje who is 17 and our work mate. They all moved to NZ about three months ago, and are adapting to the Kiwi farm life very fast. I find it interesting that the Filipinos are taught and speak English with an American accent.

We have been busy every day that we've been here, including today which is Saturday. We are expected to work 6 hours a day for our free room and board, so we work from 7-10:30, at this time we have a tea break, and then 11 to lunch which is at 1:30. Here's what we've done so far:
Monday: We pulled out drip irrigation that was installed improperly in the terraced gardens. It was burried under grass and dirt so the holes were plugged and itw was no longer was able to drip. We also moved cut timber, about fifty 2x6in boards, from an one area of the farm to a garden house. The wood was was wet so it was a tiring and demanding task.
yTuesday: We cleaned out a greenhouse and moulded potato patches.
Wednesday: We starting construction on the greenhouse roof and also started to build two large (3x3x10m) compost piles. We cleared a few swampy paddocks of hay and built the base and then just kept adding layer after layer of dirt, "chicken shit", and more hay. These piles stood taller than us by the time they were completed and now lay covered and are starting to decompose.
Thursday: We finished the rafters of the greenhouse. We then started a third compost pile. In the afternoon I made rhubarb dessert with Benje for our family dinner.
Friday: We moved more hay to our last compost pile. Around 3:30 in the afternoon we started bailing hay, and that brings me right about up to where I am now.

We had our afternoons free from Mon - Thurs, so we got a chance to explore the surrounding area a little bit. On Monday we biked roughly 15km to Motueka and relaxed on the beach by a sunken ship. We relaxed and read a variety of organic gardening/horticulture books on Tuesday. On Wednesday we tried to bike again, but Ian broke his bike chain while trying to ride up a hill right after the village boundaries. We read and then went for a run on Thurdsay (Ian has been running everyday, but I joined him for part of it on Thursday). And now we've been bailing since Friday and plan on doing so through the weekend. After this Bob is going to give us a break for a few days and we're going to spend it in the Able Tasman Ntl. Park, which is just 30 min north of here. This park is known as NZ's most beautiful park since it has pristine beaches, old-growth forests, and great tramping trails. I hear there are more seals up there, and possible some penguins too.  Bob's son drives a water taxi, so we might hitch a ride with him and explore the centre of the park for a few days.

More about NZ:
-Bob said he doesn't know of a pub in NZ that doesn't sell take-away beer. Now that we have been bailing hay we also have been drinking "take-away" beer during our breaks. It comes in a plastic 2-litre bottle, but used to come in a slightly larger glass bottle called a flagon.
-The guys who stopped in for an hour or so to help us bail hay had an argument on which was better: Vegemite vs. Marmite. To me they taste the same. Vegemite is the Australian version and Marmite is the NZ version. They both are byproducts of beer production, consisting of the used yeast and added salt. I have yet to acquire a taste for this (by)product, but Kiwis (and Aussies) eat it as Americans would eat peanut butter.
-Here on the farm we have a bird called a Plubber (they look like a cross between a heron and a gull) and they eat our potatoes. Therefore we need to cover all the plants with nets so they don't pull out the plants, eat the small potatoes, and leave the rest to die.

Our home. We live in the upper section and another family lives in the lower section. It is nice, but inside it isn't as fancy as it appears from the outside. It has a wonderful view though. We can see the ocean from our verandah.

Where we spent our Monday afternoon in Motueka.

There are many large trees in NZ, and they're not that old. Apparently everything just grows incredibly fast here.

Cecelia, Bob, and Tessa (the sheep dog). Tessa is eyeing down the sheep in the background, and right after this photo was taken she herded the flock to the next paddock with ease.

Ian, Benje and Bob bringing in the bails to the barn. I hopped off to open the gate.

Bob pulling the hay bailer out of the mud. Most of the paddocks are muddy, so we need to be careful to keep the trucks and tractors rolling.

It may be cheesy, but this is us brining in the hay. Too much fun. At this point we had been doing it for over 24 hrs.

From Seresin Estate to Te Mara

Thurs, Jan 12th
Today we had the opportunity to tag along with Scotty and his dog Blaze and drove down the windy roads of the Marlborough Sounds to Water Fall Bay. This is where Michael Seresin spends most of his time in New Zealand, when not bossing the workers around at the vineyard. It is a secluded 12 million dollar ocean front home that is usually accessed by boat from Picton. We took the truck because we had to transport four large natural gas tanks which will be used in the weeks to come to host classy dinners for NZ's richest. Michael built a little restaurant on his property to display the estate's wine, and since Blenheim, a town of 20,000, doesn't have much to offer rich blokes like Seresin. The restaurant is only used for five or six dinners a year, hosting up to 50 people, which get to sail into the bay. Scotty is the caretaker of the property and he spends most of his time out here by himself, so we were glad to accompany him and lend him a hand. He is a very kind, hard working man who has worked for Seresin for the past 12 years. Before he was offered this job he planted most of the pine timber forests in the area. He told us he would plant 1,000 trees per day on the "hills" of this region of NZ (keep in mind that these hills have to be pushing the limit before they become mountains). We spent the morning weedwacking and raking the grass driveway. Next we filled dips in the yard with top soil, moving wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of dirt around the yard. We finished up the hard day's work splitting wood and reorgainising wood piles. After work, Scotty took us out on the Nukutere, a 50 foot duo diesl engine yacht. Ian and I got to wear that captain's hat and drive the boat around the sounds, while sipping on a few beers which Scotty provided. We found a secluded bay and dove off the boat into the water. We didn't stay in too long since the water was cold, but it felt good after a long day of work. We didn't get back to our home until 8:00 at night and made sure to let everyone know that Scotty slaved us away all day. The truth is we did to a lot of work, but the boat ride made it all worthwhile.
Fri Jan 13th
Today we had of a change of pace and actually worked in the vineyard. We moved up wires which hold up the plants in an orderly fashion and plucked off stray vines with Aurelien, the 18 year old French intern who arrived yesterday. He doesn't speak much English, but he has moved into the Tatou House with us so we have been learning to communitcate via hand gestures. We spent the whole day moving the wires on the Pinot Noir grapes, and only got rained on a few times. Today was officially our last day working at Seresin Estate, so the crew was nice enough to give both of us bottles of wine. Ian chose the Momento Resling, while I went with the Chardonay. We said our goodbyes and left the vineyard, but we were still allowed to stay at the house through Sunday (there needed to be someone to entertain Frenchie). Rob and Meg left this afternoon to go to Chch, so Aurelien, Ian and I had the house to ourselves for the rest of the weekend. Frenchie and I cooked a mean spaghetti while Ian went for a run. We gave him 35 min before the food would be ready, and he made it back with five seconds to spare. After dinner I wanted to hit up the clubs of Blenheim since it was a Friday night, but we decided that biking the 15 km in the dark wouldn't be that fun, and it was stormy weather anyway. Word on the street is that there are a lot of "aggressive," "interesting," "fat," Blenheim girls who love American boys. I guess we'll have to save that experience for a later date.

Sat. Jan 14th
Today we got up early and headed with Scotty once again to the sounds. He had to make sure everything was tidied up before Michael arrived, but was willing to drop us off on the Queen Charlotte trail for a good ol' tramp on his way there. We tramped along for 3 hours and walked down to Waterfall Bay where we met Scotty and Blaze. Michael was asleep by the time we got there, so we were unable to meet him. Hiking through the forest reminded me of hiking through Jurassic Park. There were heaps of exotic trees to see and birds to listen too. This area had never been cleared for the pine industry, so it was interesting to see what the hills of NZ are supposed to look like. On our way back to Renwick we stopped at a small pub for a drink. Scotty likes to end his days with a beer, so we tagged along. Once back home we fired up the grill and cooked chicken legs. We also cooked up some potatoes and peppers in the oven, coated with Seresin olive oil and garlic cloves from the garlic that we picked earlier in the week. Since this was our last night at Tatou we decided to show Frenchie the river after dinner. We took him down there and watched the sunset over the mountains. We made sure that he knew it was his duty to show the next people our prime river spot, as he is going to be living at the Tatou house for another month.

Sun Jan 15th
Scotty is the man. He offered us a ride to Nelson, as he was making his way there anyway to pick up his daughter. Though hitch hiking is fun, it was really nice to have a friend give us a ride. We drove the 150 km with him and got dropped up by the beach in Nelson to spend our afternoon lounging around and watching people play volleyball. We arranged to get picked up here by our next host, and now we are moved into Te Mara. On the ride over Bob, our host, described the farm which he works for as a mess. I thought we were going to be working with a Maori community, but I guess it is just a group of people with a lot of money who fear the world ending. Their goal was to be completely sustainable, but as Bob described they just wasted a lot of money and didn't really accomplish anything. He has been here now for two months and has started repairing damage that had been done by the previous caretakers, and invisions his work taking another few years.  An example of some of the mess is that they planted apple trees, pine trees, willow trees, and fig trees all together. Sounds perfect, right? Another thing that he has been doing is pulling out thousands of dollars of drip irrigation that was installed improperly so it never worked. He said he has been working nonstop over the past two months, so the family might take a little break later this week. Maybe we'll be able to join them on their advernture, who knows? Until then we will be bailing hay for the next few days. Sounds like some hot work to me!

Thats enough about what I've been doing. Here's a little bit that I've learned over the past few weeks:
American words vs. Kiwi words
flip flops/jandles
pop/fizzy
hiking/tramping
gasoline/petrol
chips/crisps
college/uni
tons/heaps
cookie/biscuit
flashlight/torch
chickens/chooks
field/paddock
porch/verandah
exhuasted/buggard
very/bloody
grocery store/dairy
weird/bizzare
gas station/garage (pronounce gare-ege)
mountain/hill (not really, but they have some big hills)

More about NZ...
- Bird is pronounced as beard.
- There are almost 50 million sheep, but only 4 million people.
- Petrol is $2.19NZ per litre, so about $7US per gallon
- Tea breaks happen often, and they always ask if you want milk with your tea. Tea also follows most meals.
- People have asked if we are from Sweden, France, and Canada. I guess Americans aren't that easy to spot.
- We have seen a few trucks on the road with dead wild pigs straped to the beds. I saw one with 5 pigs. We have yet to see any wild pigs.
- Weet-Bix is NZ's and the All Black's (acccording to the box) cereal of chice. It is basically pressed cubes of wheat flakes that absorbs any amount of milk that you pour on it.
- KFC is unexpectedly the fastfood chain of choice for teenage kiwis to eat at. Scotty said when he was our age he'd travel 20km on his motor bike to go to a KFC. He also called it the Kid or Kiwi Fattening Company.
 

Taking the yacht for a cruise. We went across the sound to Picton, saw the ferry going to Wellington, went to a secluded bay to take a dip and then returned to Waterfall Bay.

The Queen Charlotte track. This was right about in the middle of the 3 hr hike.

Scotty showing Ian after our hike the rope that someone tied to the pier. Ian had to dive and untie it before the tide got too high and flipped the dinghy. (There's the Nukutere, the 50' yacht that we drove around the sounds the day before)

We bushwacked up to the waterfall at Waterfall Bay after tramping through Queen Charlotte. This was the lower of two falls.

Our last meal Sat night with Frenchie. We decided to grill chiken, half of the legs had bbq sauce and the other half with minced Seresin garlic in their olive oil.

We had to show Frenchie where the good chilling spots were at the river so he could show the next WWOOFers.

WWOOFing

We are finally here in sunny Renwick. We lucked out hitching a ride from Kaikoura to Blenheim, as it only took us 2 or 3 min to find a lift. We rode up with a lady from Auckland who was on holiday and touring the south island. She was a tv producer for NZs morning business show. We had a nice chat with her, and even got to stop on the side of the highway to see some lazy seals up close. We made it to Blenheim around noon on the 8th, checked into our hotel, and slept. It rained all day, so we slept all day. We were able to cook our own pasta meal in our tiny hotel room kitchen, which was good since we saved a lot of money. On the ninth we were picked up at 9:30 by Sean, a fellow employee at Seresin. We toured the vineyard, and met some other wokers at their 10am "Smoko" aka tea/snack break, not the traditional smoke break. We worked the rest of the day digging garlic. Sean, Erin, Ian and I dug up an estimated 5000 bulbs, which will be sold locally. They sell for a buck a piece, so I'd say we did our fair share of work for the company. On the 10th we worked with veggies once again. This time Ian and I hoed corn. We started at 10:30 and worked right up until our 1:00 lunch break. By this time our hands were blistered and we were hot. The temp is floating right around 85 degrees here and the sun is much more intense than that of MN. They mentioned something about holes in the ozone layer, or something bizarre like that. So Ian and I have been lathering ourselves in sun screen, but I guess our bodies will just have to get used to it. After lunch we pulled weeds. At least our hands got a break and we were able to sit down to do this job. The beets and beans look a lot better now that they have all been weeded. We get off work at 4pm and our new favorite spot in NZ is down by the river. Our home, which is a WWOOFer house, but has permanent employee residents, is located right next to a pretty big river. It reminds me a lot of something that you'd see in Montanna. Both days we ventured down to the river, basked in the sun, and took a dip. The water is crystal clear and surprisingly not that cold. Today, the 11th, we worked in the cow-pat-pits. We basically turned cow manure with a shovel for an hour, adding basalt and calcium as we went, and then placed it in pits. This will turn into compost over three months and will be used to fertilise the grapes. After lunch we we picked flowers for a few hours. They use camomile and yarro (idk if that's how they're spelled) in their biodynamic processes. We concluded our day by weeding the leeks and concluded our work day with a wine tasting of Seresin's wines after work. Tomorrow we are starting work at 8, going up to Michael Seresin's (the owner/british movie producer) restaurant to weed and work the gardens there. He's coming in on Friday, so all the workers are a little nervous as they prepare to get the vineyard in tip-top shape. He only makes an appearance once or twice a year. I don't know if we'll get to meet him, but if we do we have heard he usually wont even "tell you the time" if you are male. He is in his 60s, has and apparently really likes to flirt with the young ladies.

Internet is very hard to come by here in NZ. Even at our home here there is a limit of 4GB of internet/month, so they don't like us using it. Apparently they've had a few wwoofers who have used up the months limit in a matter of hours. Therefore, I don't know when I'll be able to update the post next. We plan on leaving Seresin on the 14th and we might start our work at the village early (maybe on the 16) so we will have a chance to see the west coast as we hitch our way back to Chch. That's about it! Bye!

The Tatou House, where Rob and Meg live for now and where WWOOFers live while at the vineyard. It was 5km from the main vineyard, so we had to bike there and back.

The 5,000 garlic bulbs that we dug up the first day at the estate. They dried over the next few days

The goats at the vineyard. Michael bought these for his son and now makes the vineyard workers take care of them.

Our view from our bedroom at the Tatou house.

I don't really know how to explain myself. I have been in NZ for four days now and it seems like this is home. It is almost too easy to be a tourist in this country.
Jan 4th - 5th
Upon arriving in Christchurch we met our first Kiwi at the bus stop. Over the next two days Natalie became our tour guide and friend. She showed had an hour to kill, so showed us to our hotel. Twenty four hours later she was still with us. We left her for the afternoon to take a bike tour of the city (which was beautiful and sad since the city centre has been destroyed by repeated earthquakes). We toured through the sea town of Sumner and chatted with local fishermen. After our tour we were worn out and plenty burnt. We met back up with Natalie and had dinner at her flat (aka a house in the US) and met her seven flatmates. The assured us that hitchhiking to Kaikoura would be easy, as the country is on their summer holiday now. They told us stories of when then had hitched and stories about the good and bad (meaning sweaty/smelly) hikers they themselves had picked up. All of them agreed that NZ would be the safest and easiest country to hitch hike in. It was a wonderful time, and we spent the rest of the night there eating and sipping on beer until we caught the 11:10 bus back to Chch.
Jan 6th
The hike began. We departed from the bus exchange in downtown Chch and took the bus as far north as we could. Here, the driver stopped the bus, came and explained the best methods for hitching a ride. Within 15 min of standing on the side of the road we had our first ride. An ex-military man with one leg and half of an arm brought us 30 min north, and even passed his home to drive 10 more km to a better spot to get our next ride. He told stories of his service in Papua New Guinea and Africa, so the time passed quickly. We waited has his prime spot for another ride for an hour, but had no luck. The sun was frying us (literally) so we decided to start hiking. After an hour of tramping on the side of the road we found our next ride. Two guys from a 50 km north picked us up, and talked about when they hiked across Australia. (This became a common theme - all the people who gave us a lift had hitched in their earlier days). After we told them about our farmstays they offered their house for the night. They said they had a little work on the farm which we could help with, but we decided to keep heading north to Kaikoura. We found ourselves in the hot sun once again, with temps around 28C, and started hiking. The hills got bigger and the roads got narrower, so we started to fear that we wouldn't get a ride since there was nowhere for cars to pull over. We forgot over the 30 min of hiking that Kiwis are amazing. We soon found ourselves in Kaikoura, only 5 hours after we started the hike. Kaikoura is a crayfish and whale town. Kai means food in Maori, and Koura means crayfish. People dive for crays here (these are more like lobsters, getting up to 3 - 4 kg and costing $80 at a seafood restaurant), swim with the seals, tramp through the hills, and enjoy the no worries attitude. We decided to adopt this attitude in Kaikoura, so when we found out that the one backpackers hostel was full, we decided to sleep under the stars. A few locals pointed us in the right direction, and we found a lovely patch of grass under some old pines. We found a little hedgehog next to our campsite and played with him for almost 15 min. We slept soundly and were only woken up twice by trampers, once at midnight and once at 4am (a little late/early to tramp, eh?). We found that we do more in one day here than we'd do in a week back home. The adventure has only begun here.

Jan 7th
We woke up with the birds at 5:15am. We found ourselves sore from our sunburns (mostly which came from our 5 hr bike ride two days earlier. Though it was cloudy that long without sun screen hurts). The night before we arranged to stay at the hostel, so we dropped off our gear and decided to go for a run. We ran to the point of Kaikoura to the seal colony. This was only 5 or 6 km, so I was able to keep up with Ian's pace. After returning we stopped at a local cafe for breakfast and bought some groceries for lunch and dinner. It was now 8am. We still had a full day ahead of us, and decided to snorkel. We were going to SCUBA, but the two dives would cost roughly $200 US, and we didn't want to start giving away our money at this point of the trip. We were able to rent snorkeling gear (meaning a wetsuit, mask and snorkel, fins, weight belts and a gear bag) for $40US a piece. The people at the shop were very informative of where we should go to see the marine life (this being in a heavily patrolled marine reserve), and afterwards where we should go to find and catch crays and Paua (their species of abalone that sells for $95/kg in the markets). Our first dive lasted almost two hours. We swam through kelp and saw an array of fish, sea stars, urchins, snails, and PAUA! We now knew what they looked like, so we were ready to start the hunt. We started our next dive next to the seal colony and were swimming amongst many people who were spearing fish. We searched and searched for cray and paua, but it was a lot harder to find them in this area that was heavily picked through. After 30 min we found an underside of a rock that had two paua. we pulled out our ruler which we had been given at the dive shop to make sure they were legal size, and they were, so we pried them off. Ian brought a knife, which he attached to his weight belt, and we had dinner. The guy at the dive shop took the shell off an gutted them for us and then let us know hot to prepare them. We got back to the hostel, now it was around 5pm and had a feast of paua. The $80 meal was worth it. It tasted a lot like steak and was very juicy. We spent the rest of the evening chatting to the 20 other backpackers, most from germany, holland, and france, but there were a few americans. Around 9 we headed down to an Irish pub with a crew and finished our night dancing to Irish music there and drinking Guinness. We got back around 1am, and were a little tired since we had been awake for 20hrs. This is the good life. It gets light at 5:15 and stays light until 10:30. The temp is around 25 during the day (in the  80s F) and we have are meeting countless people, all which are extremely generous and willing to talk.
Jan 8th
It is morning and we are off to Blenheim. We plan on hiking to a local waterfall to find a ride to hitch with there. Blenheim is 130 km away, but is the next biggest town, so most people will be heading that direction. We have only been here for 3.5 days now, but it seems like home. It will be nice to settle down at the vineyard, but the adventure has just begun! Wish us luck!

Natalie standing next to one of the churches (in Christchurch) that was in ruins. All the "old" buildings in the town were affected much more drastically than the newer buildings. All of the churches had their steeples on the side of the building like this, regardless of whether they were affected by the last large quake (which was in Feb).

Our bike ride to Sumner. The cargo containers are to prevent the hill from sliding onto the road during the tremors. We experienced a 4.0 tremor while we were there the first full day. Needless to say, we were out and about so we didn't feel it.

The local fishermen fishing for crabs at the New Brighton pier.

Trying to pick up a ride while hiking along the road to Kaikoura.

Sheep on the side of the road. This was during our first hike (while we weren't hitching) after we left Christchurch.

This is the hedgehog that became our friend while we camped out our first night in Kaikoura. We were reluctant to touch him at first but played with him for 15 or so min once he got to know us.

The shells of the paua

The paua meat (apparently here in NZ is the only place in the world where you can find black abalone. They tasted delicious once they were cut in strips and fried in butter).

Enjoying Irish music with our hostel friends at the Irish pub in Kaikoua



Just being really happy to be next to the seals. We stopped here while we were catching a ride to Blenheim.

One last Airport!

We made it to New Zealand and the waiting game has begun! All has gone smoothly for me, but Ian had the security dog hunt him down right after getting through customs. They had to tear apart his luggage only to reveal that there was nothing in there, at least nothing worth confiscating. Regardless, the police still recorded his passport number, so he's a wanted man. Now, Ian and I have been waiting patiently for the past four hours in Auckland International for our flight (which is still three hours away). So far we have drank a beer, watched some cricket, taken a 20 minute walk in the warm rain, only to retrace our steps right back to the airport benches. And now we are bored and ready to be in Christchurch. We should be there by  9:50 tonight. Right  now it is roughly 2:00pm on the  4th of January, though back home it is still the 3rd, and seven at night. Here are a few interesting things that I have noticed: 1) Close to the majority of the people traveling from Dallas to LAX had rat sized dogs in carry-on bags. 2) The food and service on Australian's airline flights is phenomenal. They served beer and wine with the meals, and came by multiple times asking if we needed any more tea. 3) Lastly, Ian says the money here tastes like plastic. And is smells weird too.

The free internet station insists that my few minutes has been long enough, so its cheers for now!

The drug dog going through Ian's pack. They had to take everything out and make sure he wasn't smuggling anything into the country. It actually was looking for food. If you claim it you can bring food, if you don't claim it and you have food it's a $400 fine.