It's official, our jeans will never fit right again. There are no dryers so we are constantly pulling up our drawers, it’s the new norm. We spent part of this week at Sue’s and part at Ian’s, house sitting while he was out of town. Our poor baby cows are growing up so fast. They finished up their last round of milk and are on to grain and they do not appreciate it. They start mooing at night like we have neglected them and its heart breaking. We met a new friend Trudy, who comes to the house to help Nadine, Emily’s mum. We love her and there is a very good chance we will be with her family for Christmas brunch!
On our way to Ian's we had to stop at our favorite ice cream shop! (Listen grams I’m about to be paying for my own food and fuel so needless to say I will be malnourished. This ice cream is a luxury item we can afford at the moment and we deserve it!!) I have had ice cream in about 12 (thanks Aditi) different countries so far and man NZ ice cream is very near to the top of the list!
When we got to Ian’s we found out our little bungalow had already found a new home so we slept inside this time. He has a wood-burning stove to keep his house nice and toasty! However I want know how in the hell do forest fires even happen? We spent 2 hours trying to get a fire going, and we were trying to start a fire, a contained one but still how does nature do it so easily. Long story short we never got it going but we live and we learn. The next morning we (Maggie) tried our (her) own hand at making corn fritters and it was not a disappointment! Wooo we did something right for once!
Most of our week was spent driving around because WE BOUGHT A VAN!!!!! It’s not all set up yet and we still have a mechanic check but it’s looking very promising. We went to go pick up the van on Monday the 14th. But the week before we were driving around like crazy buying the essentials like fairy lights (priorities) and bedding.
1st van selfie after we threw everything we own into the back.
They love lights in NZ
Good news guys Maggie also loves Christmas music and because there is no thanksgiving here we can listen in November without judgment. Even better news Mags still wants to be my friend even after hearing me sing! Mom can attest I rarely ever know words to songs and even when I do my singing is atrocious. We had to drive the rental car up to pick up the van this means Mags and I would be driving separately on the way back home for the 1st time. We did great the 1st 2 minutes and then somehow we had different directions and Maggie went left in the van and I went right…and I haven’t seen Maggie since, jokes. After a minor panic attack we both pulled into different parking lots and called to try to figure out where each other were. 10 minutes later after confusing phone call we figured it out!
We drove through rush hour traffic to get the van home and let me tell you Mags is freaking pro at driving this submarine. When we drive and have to make a right hand turn it’s literally a two man effort! I have to keep an eye on my side of the road and Mags keeps asking if she’s good (meaning no cars are coming) and then we say a quick prayer and pray to god we have enough umph to pull out into traffic.
We are officially a member of the New Zealand Motorhome Caravan Association; it’s an elite task force not for the timid of heart! We also have insurance, which a defeat in itself! Then we headed to Countdown to meet other Mike, from Mike and other Mike (guys that run a VW campervan revamping garage that we met earlier in our trip), in a parking lot! We are always meeting other Mike in parking lots. He asked if we wanted to go to the Northland to pick up a car that broke down, and of course we said yes why not, hopped in his car and took off. Little did we (or he for that matter) know how far away Northland was. We left the parking lot at around 6:00 and it took a 10-hour detour to the Northland when it would have only taken us 30 min to just go to Mikes shop. But we loved every minute of it. We picked up the car and the person who broke down, who turns out works for the ministry so we can commit a crime now and get off scott free! On our way back we visited the main attraction of Kawakawa, the Hundertwasser Toilets, the most photographed toilet of New Zealand. Yep that's how in the middle of nowhere we were, the toilets were a tourist attraction, we just needed to pee pretty bad after 6 hours of driving.
Tile Toilets, we showed up around 2 am so I had to us a different picture.
We had seen these giant meals online but Mike being the champ he is ordered it for us! We were giddy just looking at all the food you can order as a package.
We were at the NZMCA when Mike picked us up. And there's Clevedon right next to it. But nope we drove all they way up to Kaikohe and back.
We arrived at Mikes at 4 am and woke up at 8am to start the next day; college has prepared us well for moments like these. It took us another hour and a half to set up the van (we actually got to bed around 530), not even really set it up more like shove stuff around so we could lay down. We left Sue’s in such a mad dash that we just chucked everything into the back of the van! It was our 1st night in the van and I think Mags and I are going to love it!
So many vans. Some he is revamping and some people are just living in on his property.
The people staying here now are building their vans on their own with the help of Mike and other Mike!
Mikes place is awesome it’s kind of like a hostel but everyone sleeps in a van, if you don’t have a van they have tons, and it’s free, no even better we are going to get paid (we are pretty sure, we have to talk out the details) at Mikes! Right now there are 2 guys from Scotland, a couple from France, and people for the UK and that’s just for today!
These are Mike's children Charlotte and Kate! They are just adorable and love hanging out in our new campervan!
Things We Have Learned
Maggie and I will never be Céline Dion. We tried so hard to sing O Holy Night by her but we fail in epic proportions, especially at those high notes.
Apparently there can be a storm that covers the ENTIRE country. It rained on every part of New Zealand for an entire day!
The Pokeno Ice Cream shop is actually the best in ice cream in the country. We just found that out, good thing we went!
When someone asks you if you will be around for tea, they mean dinner. Luckily we accept all forms of food and drink offered to us or we wouldn’t have been receiving dinner.
We slept through the tsunami and earthquake! We didn’t even know it happened until we got all the emails and texts (thanks for the love). My favorite text comes from Papa Bear who just sent “Shake, rattle, and roll” Like many disasters we experienced in Boston I had no idea it was happening, maybe we should watch the news every now and again…or we can just depend of people back in the states to keep us informed! Thanks guys!
We also had to buy mugs! I collect them from everywhere I go, mum hates it. And Maggie just really likes tin mugs!