Tiff and John have once again answered correctly! Too bad US Customs wouldn’t let us send you a prize from here. Losers. We are back at White Cliffs Organic Brewery with the Trigg family and there could not be a better place to close out our time here in New Zealand. It’s amazing how much is happening at the brewery and how much has changed since we were here almost 5 months ago. The brewery is expanding, production has increased, a sweet new keg system is in place, and things are as busy as ever. Of course, what hasn’t changed here are the delicious Mike’s Ale and Lager that we readily enjoy after a hard days work. If I were a proper beer connoisseur and critic with an array of adjectives I could go on and on about these two brews (and the new whiskey porter that I wish I could fill my luggage with). But, instead I’ll just say that the goodness of this beer can only be surpassed by that of the people making it. With the recent spat of rainy days it’s been nice to have a roof over our heads, but it’s been even better to be enjoying the company of Jill, Ron, Dylan, Christie, Mike, and Rene. This is by far the closest thing to home that we have in New Zealand. We love the brewery!
We jumped back into things quickly and have been busy labeling beers, planting shrubs, cutting trees, moving rocks, packing cases and pitching in wherever we can. We’ve actually been here for 10 days already which is almost as hard to believe as the fact that we have less than a week left in New Zealand. Four and a half days to be exact. It’s a little bit crazy to think about that. We’ve gotten used to life here in the most peaceful place on earth. If we could just convince our family and friends to come we wouldn’t need to leave! That said, we are also feeling incredibly excited about returning home to see everyone and figuring out where our path across the country will take us. It’s a good thing we extended our stay in NZ because we’ve seen so many amazing things in the past couple of weeks. There were the kiwi and octopus sightings, the giant kauris, the Three Sisters area, but we just recently had a true NZ experience in sighting our first wild weta. Take a look at this thing!
We’ve also been able to watch one of the most talented digger drivers we’ve ever seen. If that doesn’t sound exciting, check out this picture of him getting the digger off the truck sans ramps.
In a few days we’ll be off to Auckland to sell our car and get ready to fly to California. We’ve got a lot to do to get ready to leave. We’ve acquired some things along the way that we’d like to bring home and we’ve worn through some things that aren’t worth bringing back. We need to sort through it all but haven’t found the motivation to actually do it. If you don’t hear from us in another week or so you probably know where to find us!
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No convincing needed! I can make sauce in NZ as well as in NY. Start looking for some property!