Sorry it’s been a bit, a girl has been a stressing!
Well I spent a week and a half in Christchurch, and let me tell you Christchurch ain’t that big. It’s ok I did some couch surfing made some friends went to some parties. I walked dogs for care.com and volunteered at the ASPCA to see all the dogs. I woke up a house of people because I can’t cook and introduced people to al dente rice (also known as under cooked rice…Fun fact chicken can be brown outside and still be pink inside…I’m a master chef) I made a group of people all under the age of 27 watch A Big Year so they could also prepare for Maggie’s return (it’s a Cellucci family classic). I did not make friends by forcing this movie upon people, but I did make friends by making them watch the best movie ever, Elf. Oh and of course I did so much walking because I can’t figure out their bus system.
Then the night before Maggie got in there was major flooding and Christchurch was put under a state of emergency. Yeah you can have and emergency because of rain. Then Maggie finally returned to me! And she brought brother Kevin and twizlers. We stayed in front of Ben’s house, mostly because we missed the boy! We did so many wineries, hit up Hamner Springs, and Greymouth and Hokitika. We even passed through Franz and I was able to drop off some beer for the boys up there.
We drove through Wanaka to show Kevin the best tourist attraction, the man who works the crepe stand. Unfortunately pretty tall man no longer works there, Kev was pretty broken up about it. Then we hit up all of the wineries down to Queenstown because Kev actually knows all about wine. Then of course the rental van started making noises so we had to call AA. This ended up turning into a 6 day ordeal, yeah the rental van went to hell in a hand basket. People never let me handle motor vehicles even if it’s just picking them out. I met with 5 mechanics in Cromwell, and turns out everyone knows me I’m famous, so up swing!
We ended up having to rent a car from Jerry, who is an absolute angel! So we were able to make it to Queenstown and the Milford Sound! Then we had to drive all the way back to Christchurch so Kevin could catch a flight. We did find some pretty bomb donuts in Christchurch this time though! We picked up a new rental van and I followed Maggie in a rental car all the way back to Cromwell (we pretty much live in Cromwell now). We had to unpack the old van to pack the new van and return the rental car it was an ordeal. But I did find love in the form of chocolate and cheese naan from the Indian take away joint!
This naan is the single most important thing I have experienced in NZ
Milford Sound
Cromwell Giant fruits, of course I took my picture next to it. Fun fact parts of my hair is actually frozen here and I broke parts off.
Then Mags and I were off to the Catlins. We went to the southern most point in the south island, Slope Point (I love dumb(Maggie’s term not mine) things like that!). We hit a lot of icy road and man PTSD came right back. Luckily Maggie handles the ice like a pro as we slid our way to Nugget Point. Come on Nugget Point you can name something nugget and not expect me to show up. Luckily Nugget Point was also stunning. Then we made the long haul back up to Ashburton for our new job, but not before stopping at Fat Sally’s for dinner.
Twizlers are amazing and really essential to road trips.
So now we are in kind of in the middle of nowhere working for a tulip factory. Let me tell you we have no idea what we had gotten ourselves into. We 100% were not made for factory work; this is one of the few times Mags and I have actually been truly grateful that we have degree. God bless those people who can do these stupidly mundane tasks for an actual living. We were suppose to be here for 3 weeks we have already mentally made it 2! And I have been moved to the top of the line because apparently I’m a giant so I’m in charge of starting the line of bulbs. Yeah they let me use and control heavy machinery, that was their first mistake.
I was asked by a lovely Maori man if I was native. I was clearly confused and said no I’m from the States. He said yes I know are you native, an “Indian”. Um 1st I don’t know if that if offensive but whatever. I actually get this comment all the time people always ask if I’m Native American. It’s usually followed up by a comment about my angular face, sunken in eyes, or broad shoulders. But not this lovely man he said I just thought it because you are so jolly. This is the 1st time I have ever heard that one but I guess he is a “native” of New Zealand so he is the authority on the matter. He said I’m way to smiley to be working here and that it was a waste. I think that was a compliment but honestly I couldn’t tell.
End Notes
Mr. Robot is great everyone watch it. The main character is basically Amanda with out the crazy.
I have been having the worst cravings for American food ever and not even good food. I’m talking fig newtons, spaghetti Os, taquitos and papa johns. I take that back Papa’s is good food no it’s great food!
The job we have starts at 6am which means we have to be up by 445 to be there on time. This is not great news for Mags, she sucks at mornings. This means I have been cooking breakfast so watch out world Ima learn to cook!
We bought cereal and that was a mistake. We inhale cereal like its air finished a pack in a day!
We also had some pretty good Texas BBQ. We found a food truck called Truck Norris, so obviously we gave them our business. I ended up getting fries mac and cheese topped with pulled pork. Best part was they were playing Wagon Wheel, NCs pride song!