Maggish

Well it's been a while! Shaheen and I are back in Christchurch now, after having worked for a month on the Banks Peninsula at Onuku Farm Hostel (which is the best hostel in NZ in case you wanted to know). It's good to be traveling again, but I'm definitely going to miss it there... One day I will actually put some pictures of up. Hopefully I'll get the chance once I'm in Wellington. Right now, I'm staying at Coachman Backpackers, right near Cathedral Square. It's really nice and new and definitely refreshing after having stayed in a tent for the past few weeks. It was nice just to sit back and watch TV for a change, so thanks to Christin for suggesting the place! Tomorrow we'll be headed west to Lake Tekapo and then pretty much ... read more

Yesterday, we spent the morning at a big open-air market in the parking lot right next to our hostel. We met up with Brent, the owner of the organic farm we had contacted about WWOOFing and arranged for him to pick us up Monday to start. So we've officially got our first job in NZ! We also picked up some really nice organic fruits and veges while wandering around the market. We spent the afternoon wandering around a bit and then sat and read at Queens Gardens for a while. Then we stayed in for the evening and watched 'The Piano', for its Kiwi pioneer theme. After dinner and some NZ white wine we headed back to the room. No one else had moved in so we took advantage of having it all to ourselves and ... read more

Rainy rain rain! Yesterday was another washout. I don't want to blame Nelson itself, but the prospect of staying here and working for a few months no longer sounds exciting to me. Maybe it's the weather's fault, maybe I'm just too impatient and can't wait to get traveling again, but whatever the reason is I was really glad when Shaheen walked in yesterday morning and confessed that she was having doubts about staying here as well. So we decided to throw out our tentative plans (after all, they were only tentative) and see some more of the country before settling down for a semi-permanent job. We then spent most of Wednesday afternoon in the lounge with a big map of the South Island, a Lonely Planet, and notes with recommendations from all of our friends and ... read more

We spent this morning walking around Picton and going into all the little shops. We ended up buying sleeping bags and then went on a little walk over a little bridge to the other side of the harbor and sat on Shelly Beach and watched ships. For lunch we stepped into a little Dutch bakery right down the street from our hostel and it turned out to be an excellent decision. It was incredibly delicious - mmm. We sat on the Villa’s porch and ate our baked goods until it was time to catch our bus to Nelson. Thus far, Nelson seems a little different than what I was expecting. It’s less like a little artsy town and more like one giant suburb. According to our bus driver, it’s also the second largest town on the ... read more

Yesterday we spent almost completely on the bus. Shaheen and I did a heap of crosswords and even broke out the travel Chinese Checkers. It took us about 12 hours to get here because we hit some construction traffic on the road, so we didn't get to our hostel (World Wide Backpackers) until nearly 9pm. However, today was wonderful! Our best day in NZ thus far. We woke up early and ate our free breakfast. Then, after dropping by the ferry to reserve our tix for the next day, we walked around town for a while. We passed the Beehive and went up Lamdon Quay and then took the cable car up to the botanic gardens. We hiked around there all morning and it was beautiful - especially the rose garden and the begonias. After lunch, ... read more