Murchison

Murchison our new home until our parents get here!
Population: around 700
2 bars in town

We are living at a backpackers with a guy named John, and his dog King. There are 3 other people that live there who I work with. I work at the Commercial Hotel and Teegan just got a job at Riverview(I think) cafe. Yay! Teegan found a job instantly. She is also woofing at the backpackers. She only needs to work one hour a day to pay rent. Anymore time she puts in he is paying her. Sweet as! The town is pretty calm and quiet, but it has tons of people coming in and out all the time. It is in a valley surrounded by mountains and rivers. So there is tons of kayaking and rafting for tourists.

We have done nothing in town because we work and it has been raining for days. We have been having a Tom Hanks marathon at the backpackers with everyone that lives there. One night Teegan went fishing with our friend Joel but no luck. Yesterday we had some wine with dinner and then explored the river.

Wellington to Motueka

We caught the boat to the South Island and stayed in Picton for a night. We were contemplating camping but ended up staying in a hostel. Definitely don't regret that decision!! The hostel was cute and had a hot tub which we enjoyed very much. Next day we couldn't catch a bus because they were full so we hitchhiked to Motueka.

We'd been camping in Motueka looking for jobs with little luck, except for Jake. He got a job as a cook for a cafe. We met up with some old friends we had met backpacking in Tongariro. On the way to the beach with them we stopped to pick up some beer, and Tess got a phone call for a job! Ending the day lazing about on the beach drinking a couple beers with friends, perfect!

Tess and I plan to stay in Motueka another couple nights, and hopefully meet up with two friends from the beginning of the trip. After that we're heading to the tiny tiny town where Tess is going to be working for the next 6 weeks, Murchison. We don't know much except its the "white water capital of New Zealand." We are VERY excited and hopeful. I better find a job there, but if not I'll have a lot of time to burn. I bought running shoes today at the Salvation Army for $3 in preparation.

Wellington

Tess and I headed to Wellington and met up with Tess's friend Jake right away. We had never couch surfed before, but luckily we found an awesome place right away. We showed up and were greeted warmly by about 7 people, and we all played mafia. Later that night they went dumpster diving and got a huge score (chocolate, beer and pumpkin!).

Highlights of Wellington: BEST mochaccino we have ever had and probably ever will have in our lives. Hitting the bars, staying up WAY too late playing pool. Te Papa, wonderful museum. The "Christmas Tree" which was basically lights in the shape of a tree and created a beautiful light show every night. Under the tree there were giant comfy beanbags tempting us all to fall asleep to the light show above. An excellent potluck with the couch surfing employees we met complete with a real egg hunt. Visit to the the zoo, and ROLLERDERBY!

Palmy!

We pretty much abandoned the theme of naming posts after the date because as you've noticed, we can slack sometimes.

So we were promised "a wicked time" and we definitely got that. Over the weekend we got to see what life is like at a kiwi batch (beach house). We had to pick up a crate of Tui for crate day, then made a stop at the Tui brewery for pics. We found ourselves on the longest driveway EVER on this windy dirt road and stopped off at "Gorgeous" George's house in the wop-wops (middle of nowhere). They had all these chickens with their chicks roaming around the yard with the dogs.

We drove back out to head to the batch. Together there were 16 people there, family and friends (10 were under 26 years old). We made a giant tee-pee that we unfortunately couldn't set on fire.. watched them ride dirt bikes on the beach, and drank crates all night. Tess sat by the bonfire for a bit while I played spoons with the rest of the family (I have the scars to show for it!). I chose to sleep inside, Tess slept in the yard to watch the stars (and saw over 10 shooting stars).

Next day Brad ditched us and left us with his friends and relatives to go dirt biking. We went jet skiing! Tess went on her own but I chose to get a ride from George. He gave me a sweet ride!!

We all got in wet suits to collect some food in the low tide, but only found Paua and one Kina. The road to get there was pretty borderline.. it wasn't even a road really. We pretty much thought we were going to die. For reals. Anyone that knows anything about me knows that it was probably the scariest moment of my life. A few braved the Kina tasting (including tess). They cracked open the spiky ball with a knife and the inside was just a mess of unidentifiable yellow and black goo, the yellow parts were edible (supposedly). Tess said she wouldn't eat it again.

On the way back we went into the wop-wops again, ie. George's house. We saw some smoke on the hillside downwind of their house and asked.. "Is that ok.. over there?"
After eating a bit we looked back and there was a LOT more smoke and we saw some flames in the nearby brush. We asked if we should call the fire department, and the reply we got was something like "It's supposed to rain tomorrow." Apparently it's the 4th brush fire they have had. The flames at one point were at least 25ft tall.

We went back to Brad's for bbq and homebrew. The Paua was tasty to eat but was reeeally chewy. Next stop for us: Couch surfing in Wellington!

Be excellent to each other

National Park to Palmerston North

why hello MOUNT DOOM

Ok time to stop slacking!! After our wwoofing experience we took a bus to National Park (the town) and stayed at a backpackers readying ourselves for our backpacking trip: the Northern Circuit loop, a 3-day 2-night trip. The trip was AMAZING, I've never hiked so much in my life. The terrain was everything.. hills, mountain, valleys, sand, plains, forest, emerald pools.. The highlights were definitely the homebrew bourbon we were offered by some of the employees at a hut, and all the cool people we met.



After the trip, we travelled with Yotam, an Israeli guy we met at one of the huts. It was pretty nice being able to use his car for a while!! Just pile our stuff in the front, and the back was this huge comfy mattress. The next few days we were pretty lazy. We pretty much just drove around up the East coast stopping wherever we wanted, taking a swim, napping on the beach, going on a few hikes.. more napping on the beach.. Most towns were pretty dead at night but in Taupo we found some bars and danced to live music. Going into Taupo there were hundreds of bikers, it was like every kiwi got on their bike at the same time. They were all doing 160 kilometers (100 miles) and ending in Taupo where they were having this sweet BMX event.

We parted ways with Yotam in Rotorua and took a 5hr bus ride to Palmerston North to meet up with another guy, Brad, we had met in the bush. He was one of the employees who built one of the huts there. We hung out at his place last night (yay laundry and showers!) and tonight we're going to a beach party with a bunch of kiwis. Half the time we can't understand a word they say even though they're speaking English. Here's an example: Hay Mate
just got out of the bush and now its time to bbq at the batch for tea kiwi style. k? It will be a mean/wikid time.
Tea = dinner, batch = beach house (what??)
Sidenote: Apparently we came here on crate day. One day a year they sell giant bottles of beer that you buy in crates. Lucky us ay?

We wanted to add, in New Zealand its not the 6 degrees of separation, its the 2 degrees of separation. Already we've met a ton of backpackers that know people we've run into. Sooo many awesome people here!

Happy Crate Day!

Sitting at a youth hostel in Grisborne drinking red wine and cooking. Tonight we celebrated Haunaka with an Israeli guy we are traveling with!
We are way behind! For a week we were in Tongariro National Park hiking. We did a 3 day backpacking trip which was AMAZING!

November 20th

Teegan and I are currently sitting in a hostel using the internet in Rotarua. We left our woofing place. It felt weird to leave because that is the only place we have been in New Zealand other than Auckland for 2 weeks. We already miss the friends we made there. At the hostel we painted their dining room table with a fern so we left our mark. Our last night Thomas bought wine for us to drink. So we all hung out after dinner drinking and talking. The next day we were a little hungover...but mostly Teegan. Haha!

We said bye and moved on in our journey to Rotarua for a night. We did a walkabout around the town and saw all the major sights. The best was a park full of thermal spots, including a bubbling mud pit. At night we went to a spa which felt AMAZING. It had about 10 different outdoor pools and some overlooking the lake.

Now we are catching a bus to the town of National Park outside of Tongariro NP.

We have still been at the same place woofing. Tess has mostly been organizing, decorating, and cleaning. Teegan sells fruit a lot on the side of the road. The stuff we made recently has been marmalade, yogurt, and more bread. We have also been working in the garden. They bought 5 chickens who roam around, chase sticks, and peck us when we are working. Tess helped the landlord move out because she wont leave... Teegan has been drawing a fern design which we are going to paint on the dining room table.
We had a picnic at the beach one day and have also been able to do a little bit more hiking. A lot of nights all the woofers hang out drinking wine and playing cards. Currently we are living with 2 Brazilians, 2 German girls, an Australian, and 5 French people.

Nov 11-15

Hey!!! Long time to update, we've been working hard for our wwoof hosts. Teegan has been selling fruit out of a van for a few days; its pretty fun, but it can get slow sometimes. The hardest thing is really driving some of these old vans. I (teegan) just want to thank you mom and dad for teaching me how to drive stick, its very useful here. You really get good at it fast when you have to drive such a shitty old vehicle on the left side of the road...takes a lot of getting used to, but I had to learn fast.

Tess has been helping Taryn move in and organize, the place is really looking nice. i'll have to post pictures of it when its all done. A couple of the German guys left, so we miss them a bit. We all want to go on this 4 day hiking trip so we might meet up with them later. Another friend Louis left today, and yesterday a German girl joined us. I'm realizing that I'm going to start getting attached to people and then have to say goodbye a lot, but its so nice meeting so many different people its worth it of course.

I can't think of what else to say, I'm going to make Tess type up something.

Nov 10-11

On the 9th we didn't have power most of the day. We had to cook dinner so we decided to make a spicy peanut pasta with vegetables. We started cooking with the camping stoves and Marcelo had gotten someone to look at the power. FINALLY! Its on!

Some hot showers and then we're told that we're going to pick fruit. A Maori neighbor has some tangelos (like oranges) we picked for a couple hours, then Marcelo shows up with beer for us! Later when we were going to pick lemons, these sheep nearby started running at us and kind of snorting. This one sheep started ramming its head into our legs, and when it was after Teegan she put it into a headlock. The Maori guy chased them off so we could pick the lemons without them eating them all.

A French guy named Louis joined the bunch, and then two French guys traveling together who don't know English as well. Its interesting when there are 3 different main languages, because we often get laughs with the communication differences. One German said to Tess "So are you going to wear your handcuffs tonight?" He meant gloves.

Nov 9

Power still out, no more hot water.. not really looking forward to a cold shower so I hope it comes back on soon! Oh yeah, and that partially baked bread is still sitting in the oven. We've been cooking our dinners with our camping stoves, its almost like camping but we have a roof to sleep under and running water, not all bad!

We would post more pics but don't always have that option, we promise we'll add more to these posts later so stay tuned, we never know what kind of computer access we'll have.

We totally forgot to mention something from the beginning of our trip in Auckland. When the taxi driver dropped us off he told us sometimes there were male prostitutes around. Question: Did he think we were interested?

nov 7-8

Next day we helped Taryn set up their large shed for future wwoofers to sleep there and move in stuff (they moved there recently). We baked a date cake, bread, and made muesli. The first batch of bread went out great but after putting the second batch in for 5 min, the power went out. Luckily Shin finished the spicy rice he was making (we each take turns making dinner) using the German's cooking stove.

We all sat around candle light and played some cards; a game called Assholes. Tess said it was like the game Presidents and Assholes but their version was a lot different, and the decks of cards we were using went from 7-K, nothing lower. The German guys call their jacks "bube" sounded like "boober" and the Queen "Lady." Marcelo had a big craving for wine so went & bought us two bottles, yums!

Next morning, power still out. Marcelo dropped us off at the Waihi beach & we went hiking, it was very freeing walking barefoot in the sand and we found some badass shells. We hitchhiked to town with a nice lady and her baby to take care of some business in town, then hitchhiked home. That night, more cards in the candle light, we love the new games we're learning!!

Nov 6

We took the "naked bus" to Waihi, got picked up by our wwoof host Taryn. She had me (Teegan) drive to pick up some of the other wwoofers and head back to their place. Scary to drive on the other side of the road, but it went fine. We met her boyfriend, Marcelo and theri friend Carlos, both from Brazil originally. They often go off in portuguese, but are pretty good in english too. We met the other tree wwoofers, 2 Germans Timo and Robert and a Korean named Shin. Together we went to the National Park by their house to hike and see the river, very pretty! Their house is very nice too, with a beautiful yard. No washing machine, dryer, dishwasher or internet but we haven't missed those too much.

Nov 5-6

So yesterday we took naps, made some instant soup (which was pretty good for $.75 each) and cracked open the yummy champagne. Tess taught me a drinking game that was pretty fun but stupid. We went out, walking to the bar from last night we liked. On the way we saw this drag queen walk into the middle of the street from the bar, singing and dancing (sorry no pics!!).

The bar was awesome, some nice live music there. A badass Italian guy chatted with us who hated our government but pretty much hated every government it sounded like. There was a little bit of communication breakdowns at points. One of the band members with long dreds came over and talked to us and called his band "electric folk." The night ended with the Italian guy drumming on a bar stool with another patron joining in.. then the drummer from the band joining in. Definitely a good moment with good people.

be excellent to each other!

Nov 4-5th

On the 4th after getting to the hostel, we shopped while walking down to the ocean. Saw some really beautiful photographs on display mostly covering environmental/societal issues. For dinner we went out for sushi and warm sake. I can not BELIEVE how many sushi places are here. Every block you'll find one. We were also surprised how large the asian population is here. After dinner we found a bar called "the dirty dog" and had a couple (expensive) brown beers on tap.

Next day, we found the most beautiful cemetery. It was falling apart and the vegetation was taking over. Moss and roots everywhere, I hate to say it but you had to be there.

Lunch was veggie burgers the size of our heads then to the Auckland museum. Some of the highlights include: drunk talkative guy with a sticker on his head trying to get our number, cannibalistic ants, lots of statues with tongues/penises all over.

Tonight... drink that champagne!! Tomorrow... we're on our way to the first farm, hope they have internet!

Tess: "If I saw a penguin that big I would shit myself."

Nov 2-4th

Greetings from the future (thursday)!! We arrived safely in Auckland and its beautiful outside.


Ok from the beginning...Arriving at the Minneapolis airport, a woman motioned us over and said our plane was delayed over an hour, so she was putting us on an earlier flight. She told us to hurry...our flight was boarding right now. We barely caught the plane and arrived in Dallas Fort Worth, to play the waiting game till our next flight.

Our personal favorite was Los Angeles to Auckland. Despite the many horror stories, we found LA to be the easiest and least painful airport. When we boarded, we heard the flight attendents murmur "those are the ones.." while pointing at us. Later we were asked to switch the seats in exchange for champagne. Uhhh... YEAAH we'll switch seats a couple rows back! 10 min later and they had piled a bunch of 1st Class treasures like high quality headphones for the flight, pajamas, and a hygene kit. When they said champagne, we had no idea they actually meant an entire unopened bottle. woo drinks and sushi tonight ! We're just settling into our hostel and are about to explore/shop. Oh.. almost forgot to mention the hostel is right next to Aucklands "red light district."

Party on, dudes!!!