Well Wellington is not my favorite place! It had some up sides like way outside of the city! We saw seals and baby seals. By the way seals sound nothing like the sound we are taught as children, I feel lied to. There was also a lighthouse, so of course we climbed all 251 stairs to see it. Maggie even made it to the Putangirua Pinnacles. Now that I know she can make it up Mt. Taranaki, I’m dragging her to every damn mountain I climb, no more solo hikes!

Of course we had to stop by Rivendell (Lord of the Rings things) for Maggie and Stephan! The day we drove to Rivendell Maggie killed 2 birds with the car, she was having a rough day!

Back in Wellington we did some city life things. We went to Cuba Street which is hipster central, and you know what hipsters are good for…food, they are really good at food! I got a really good Cuban burrito and milkshake (of course) and we fell in love with a gelato place, Kaffee Eis, not only was the gelato amazing but they had wifi and power outlets. We ate at a Malaysian restaurant to prepare us for our upcoming travels in May!! We are going to love Malaysia the food is sooo good and so cheap, our 2 favorite things. In more food news we went to a night street market where they just had food. Mags and I decided to be adventurous and try some sort of Asian pancake crepe thing that turned out to be pretty good!

Of course we can’t go to a place and not go to a brewery, and because Wellington is hipster central we decided to hit up 2! Garage Brewery, which is a more popular more well known one. The bar was horribly set up though and did not have super friendly atmosphere. But they did make a stout that was associated with Milk (Milk Bar the amazing cereal, ice cream, cake store in New York that we visited on our self guided food tour of NYC). The better brewery however was the Black Dog Brewery! It was so cool on the inside and they brewed their beer right in the bar area! Everything in the joint way made out of beer memorabilia from the seats being old kegs to the tables being lined with bottle caps. They also gave more information on their beers and how they were made and what they taste like. WOW listen to us, Wellington has turned us into hipsters please someone help us! Four our last meal we had some “southern styled” food. While the hushpuppies and beignets were not great they were fine for being not in America and not in the south. However the cornbread was unforgivable!

Then it was off to the bus station for our 12-hour bus ride to Auckland! Maggie was particularly excited about the trip with her carsickness and all! After a torturous ride we stopped by the pack n save to get us enough food for the week and then we were off to the boys (Bangladeshian) house! We are back in Auckland to work a couple of events before we go to the South Island. But really we are just here to get a free ticket to see Bruce Springsteen! Also we missed the boys and Greg and Christine (owners of the food trucks). The boys woke up early and drove us to Greg and Christine’s where we unpacked our stuff and moved into their guest apartment!

Our first day of work was actually spent on the backend of food trucks. This means a lot of cleaning and organizing but no worries we had a good time doing so! I somehow got designated as the butt of every joke and prank. I had dirty water splashed in to my face, I was tricked into getting sprayed with the sprinkler, I had powdered put on my back, and was tricked so many times into shaking gross hands. I was almost killed on a fork lift because I was tricked into sanding a truck while I sat on a forklift and Saeed abruptly and quickly raised the fork lift and I almost fell off, and then it happened again but this time Maggie was with me and we got stuck as high as the fork\lift could go and then the dumb thing wouldn’t turn on to get us back down! But it was all good fun! I actually miss all the jokes my friends and I use to pull on each other.

That night we slept on the floor because there are no beds, but we have had worse! Besides staying with Christine and Greg means free showers and an occasional lunch or breakfast and a wash machine. The only problem is they have 2 cats and Maggie is of course allergic to cats. I am usually scared of cats but these 2 aren’t bad I actually really like them! One kept coming into our room and while Maggie would stay clear of it I had to try to get it out of our room. Mind you I have no idea how to pick up a cat, they aren’t like dogs where they are super chill about it and kind of settle in your arms. Cats are like jello and just slip and slide everywhere.

Working on the lime farm is actually a hoot! We do a lot of sweating because we work in greenhouses in the sun, so I’m having a blast and Mags hasn’t died yet, so win win! I was in charge of fertilizing the lime trees so I had to climb under and through the plants, which have more thorns than I have ever seen. Greg suggested wearing a raincoat while working but one: I was sweating so bad in my jacket and two: I would rather cut up my arms than ruin my rain jacket. It rains way too often here not to have a good rain jacket. So suffice it to say my arms are scratched to shreds. Maggie on the other had had to water all the lime trees. So while she didn’t get cut up she did have soaking wet shoes.

The guys tried to get a reaction out of me by telling me I was fertilizing with chicken shit but little did they know I grew up around horse shit and let me tell you horse shit smells way worse! So ha jokes on them. The next days task was picking up branches as Montu and Jahid trimmed the trees! This meant both Mags and I had to climb through the thorn trees. But that’s ok our day got to end early and we went back to the boys’ house and got some good wifi.

OTHER NOTES

Bangladeshian word
Dhonnobad – Thanks
Valobasi – my love
Kamon nacho – Hello
Balo ase – I’m fine
Doya - Please

Oh by the way I married Maggie off to Jahid, one of the Bangladeshian. She might not be too happy about it but everyone else is on board.

Molly accidentally video chatted me on facebook and you know what I think I miss her!

The lime farm is huge I have never once taken the same path back to where I was or not gotten lost.

The cats here love me