It was one of our coworkers, Larisa, birthday so we all packed into 3 cars and drove back to Oamaru, the closets civilization, to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D (yeah we were living large). The theater in Oamaru is so strange it looks like a tiny convenience store on the outside but then you walk through a tiny hallway to where the theaters were and the theaters are huge, they even have couches! For never having seen the cartoon version of the movie it was all very exciting to me. However our little chef, Felix, who works 6:30 in the mornings, fell asleep in the theater, just too much excitement. Most of our time is pretty boring because it just consists of working at the café or going to the pub because that is all there is in Omarama.

Sorry this one is extra long we have almost no wifi here at our jobs!

We found jobs in Omarama! We made it down to Omarama from Christchurch in 3 days because honestly who is ever in a rush to start a new job. We stopped in Timaru to camp because it was the only campsite with a toilet on the way to Omarama, or so said campermate (the app we use to find freedom campsites). I guess it wasn’t 100% a lie because there were toilets just no roof for the toilet and it was only kind of down pouring…But you know what none of that matter because we saw a Blue Penguin, the most adorable kind of penguin.

We spent a couple more days in Nelson where yours truly went into the ocean even though it was borderline freezing.  We went to wine tastings and breweries galore. The Germans had seen a New Zealand movie that they wanted to show us called “What We Do in the Shadows” and it turned out to be hilarious! We hit up some of the craft markets; the Nelson markets are the best markets we have seen to date. 

Well Maggie finally got to see her Bruce Springsteen, even if it was just from working the food trucks. I am not a super Springsteen fan but he’s all good in my book. What I loved more was how American people got for this concert. There were American flags everywhere: on stage, they used them to usher people, flag bandanas, and some people just brought full American flags, it was great! Before the concert got started we had to help set up the trucks.

We got back to Auckland and parked in the Bangladeshians’ drive way, set the alarm for 5am to head out to work the Guns and Roses show. Saeed drove us to work in his car and it was so nice being able to go above 80 km/hr so easily, it felt a little like a roller coaster. We ended up working from 7am to 2 am. It felt so good to be back at food trucks! Of course Mags and I were put in separate trucks and she of course got the truck with a better view of the venue, so I didn’t get to see her until 2am! My night was so hectic, my line was never ending the entire show. I don’t know if any of these people even went to watch Guns and Roses preform because they were always eating the food! In the midst of the madness one of the customers knocked over the ketchup and it splattered everywhere including on me.

I gave Maggie the gift of a Maggie day! She stayed and went to the library to get Wi-Fi and charge for the day and I was headed off to Mount Tauhara, a 3-hour hike. I packed a sandwich and I was off. I met 2 Irish, a Spaniard, and 2 Germans (of course), all of them backpackers. It was pretty tricky to find the trailhead. Apparently it was actually 10-minute drive from where the sign was so we all packed into the Irish car and finally found the trailhead. It was a very interesting trail; the first 10 minutes were through a cow pasture, like inside the fence!

The day we woke up after having dinner with Selena and Raphie had crappy weather so we decided to wait to hike Mt. Maunganui. Instead we went to our favorite place the library for…you guessed it Wifi. We spent a good part of our day in the library mostly because all of our electronics had died and we needed to recharge but also because it rained the entire day. We left the library to go to Leisure Island, a tiny island you could walk to from Mt Maunganui walkway. As we walked up to the island there was a sign that said it was a natural habitat for penguins!!! I freaked, I love penguins. however we never saw any penguins on the island. We made it back to the van to watch a movie and color, because what else do you do when it’s pouring rain outside! For dinner we decided to treat ourselves and eat out at BurgerFule, one of Patrick’s favorite restaurant. On our walk there we ran into Nils (Our German from the food trucks) and all of his man bun glory!!