We somehow always find ourselves back at Maddie’s parents’ house! One because her parents are amazing and two because there are SHEEP! They also have so many pups, working pups and little pups! This time before we left Maddie’s house she showed us the shearing shed (maybe, I’m not sure what they actually call it but that’s what I’m going to call it).The next couple of days were more same old same old worky work. Then we all decided to have Mexican night because dang we miss Mexican food! We made some bomb margs and tacos. It was also Fefe’s (Felix, the French) first taco ever he had no idea what a taco was. Thank god we were here to educate him!

We had our last day of work or what we thought was our last day of work! This always tends to happen to us when we work jobs. We are the worst at saying no, damn middle children syndrome. Anywho we took the next two days to do exciting things. The first place we went was the blue pools. We drove 2 hours for a 15 min walk… not our finest moment but that’s ok. It was a really pretty walk and if we were being more adventurous and less practical we could have jumped into the pool, but our rational side got a hold of us because it was freezing. The view of lake Hawea was really pretty.

I waited forever as Maggie struggled with her hair

That night we packed up the van and headed to Maddie’s house because my dream was going to come true the very next day! We ended up sleeping inside a real house that night. We haven’t done that in at least 2 months. It was also the 1st time Mags and I had separate beds. We woke up the next morning around 7 and Mr. Gibson made us a real breakfast with eggs toast and the most amazing bacon ever! Then it was off to work because today is the day we became shepherds… or at least shepherd apprentices. We learned so much it was amazing. You would have thought we would have taken more photos but we were literally awe struck we forgot about photos until about 30 minutes until our day was done.

Mr. Gibbson has 5 work dogs; Rock, Jess, and Queen are the Huntaway, the ones that do the barking to heard the sheep and Spy and Skip are the Heading dogs, the ones that heard the sheep by zipping behind them and staying quiet. And these dogs are absolutely amazing and smart! That day we were shifting sheep and the pups were having a hay day, they love this stuff. They get shifted every three days so that the grass and land doesn’t get too run down. We shifted at least 12 mobs of sheep. Yeah it’s called a mob not a herd of sheep, who would have thunk. We also learned a lot of new swears and combinations of swears from Mr. Gibson…I think it’s how he shows his love for the pups! At the end of the day Mrs. Gibson made some grilled ham and cheese with apricot sauce, so good. The Gibsons also gave us our very own dog whistles, was that a mistake…absolutely. We are now the most annoying people in NZ.

But that’s not all we did that day. The Gibsons live on the most amazingly beautiful land that is also surrounded by amazing beautiful land. Just up the road they have an exhibit of whalebones from before NZ became a landmass. Then up the road in the other directions they have the elephant rocks. These stunning giant rocks in the middle of green grass are where they shot parts of Narnia, so of course we made a stop!

The next day it was back to work for Mother’s Day, our actual official last day on the job. It was a semi hectic day after having so many calm days at that café. But at the end of the workday we celebrated our last day and Wincy’s birthday. The owners of the café put on a most generous spread of food. We were so stuffed! We called in early because the next day Mags, Maddie and I were off to Queenstown. I know Mags and I have somehow brainwashed someone into being our friend and wanting to on their own accord to spend 2 full nonstop days with us.

So calling it in early really didn’t do a damn thing because we didn’t even hit the road until 11. We took our leisurely time getting to Queenstown stopping at every winery we passed. We even treated ourselves at one of the fancier ones. Also this is all happening by having 3 grown ass adults sit in the front bench seat, and some how I, even being the biggest one, got stuck sitting in the middle seat. We all looked ridiculous. But we finally made it to Queenstown, the place all the tourist go and man is that ever true. We didn’t meet a single other Kiwi besides Maddie and we brought her. Queenstown turn into the New York trip Mags, cousin Anne, cousin Kelly, and I took. Meaning it turned into a self-guided food tour of the city, the best kind of tour. We went to Balls and Bangles twice, once for donuts and once for crazy milkshakes. We also hit up the Minus 5 Ice Bar to put Maggie in her element. While Maddie and I were freezing Maggie was hanging out with no jacket on! We went to a Chinese restaurant and had to actually eat with chopsticks, yeah that was a sight to be seen, your hand just cramps so much. We went into the Patagonia so Maggie could get her fix but this time it was me who got overly excited. Patagonia has this vest that I have loved but never got to buy because they always ran out of my size. But in NZ they are 2 years behind in there Patagonia so there it was in its glorious maroon and navy glory. I didn’t end up splurging for it though because it was a pretty penny, but trying it on was great! Then we went to world bar where they make the shots in a tea pot and you just take the tea pot back to your table…it’s pretty cute. Oh also I got donuts from a random man out of a box for free!! Free Box Donuts!

By this time we were all so tired so we decided to head to the campsite. This was the 1st time we have ever slept 3 people in Paggie Waggie. While it is a bit cozier it can 100% be done. And by some weird fate I also ended up sleeping in the middle too. I for one loved it, I have never been warmer, Mags on the other hand was over heating. In the morning getting out of the van proved to be more difficult, we had to do so gymnastic type moves to free ourselves of the van but it was all good! Today the food tour continued. We went to Devil Burger, Cookie Time Factory, Remarkable Sweet Shop, and of course Fergburger. Everything was so good, we even ended up eating Ferburger 2 hours after we bought it to bring home to the fam and it was still amazing even after it’s reheated. Of course you can’t go to Queenstown without dropping some cash it’s just not human. So we all got matching hats from Kathmandu, where the cashier was from GA, we discussed not traveling with our accents… she just understood! Maddie got some UGG because they were having a killer sale, also the new UGGs are actually very cute good job UGGS. Maggie and I decided to make our big purchase of a shepherd jersey. It’s this super heavy wool but fleece lined zip up that we are going to need in the winter living in a car, so money well spent.

Tomorrow we have to leave these amazing people, wifi, wash machine, kitchen, and daily showers…its going to be a very sad day. But unlike the other places we have been and had to say good bye to all our friends, we have already made plans to see all of our friends form here again…they cant get rid of us that easy!