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!

Our next adventure came pretty quickly.  Biddy and Colin lent our services to their neighbor Bridget down the road in exchange for a night at The Hut.  The Hut is exactly what it sounds like–a small hut that Bridget built and rents out to backpackers, travelers, and whoever else wants to spend the night in an amazing spot overlooking the mountains and hills of the Mt. Bruce area.  What a spot!  A short but steep hike brings you up to The Hut and I imagine that if you have any troubles you feel like you leave them all behind when you get there.  It’s a beautifully constructed place with everything you need–wood stove, outdoor bath, comfy bed, coffee, bottle of wine, steak, etc.  Oh wait, we brought the wine and steak, but this place is so great it feels as if the wine and steak came with it!  We had to mention The Hut here because it’s such an awesome place and anyone passing through the area should check it out.  And, we really enjoyed the short bit of time that we spent working with Bridget.  And the venison sausage was great!  Thanks Bridget!

One of the things that we wanted to do during our trip to New Zealand was learn how to make cheese.  We couldn’t have picked a better place than Cwmglyn Farm under the care of Biddy and Colin Fraser-Davies.  Simply put, this is cheesemaking at its finest.  Each wheel of cheese is made from one cow and a cheese connoisseur is sure to have their favorite cow.  Molly and Emily, the two winter milking cows, are treated to Huggie wipes of their udders, and a snack of molases while Biddy and Colin tended to the milking each morning.  The care that they took for their cows was evident in the quality of milk, cheese, and butter that Biddy produced.  As Biddy assured us, healthy well cared for brown cows will produce delicious cheeses and she is right.  We consumed more delicious dairy in the last week than we have in the last 4 months!  On the morning that we helped with cheese making we were very excited to learn that as Biddy would say “the cheese almost makes itself”.  Needless to say with the ease of the process now evident, (although I’m sure Biddy’s skill and experience made this process seem easier than we will find it!) we are excited to try this out when we have a home and kitchen- hmmm?.   For the details on cheese making Biddy and Colin’s website is a great place to start complete with step by step directions.

Another exciting part of Cwmglyn Farm is the model railway that Colin has created.  We thought we had an idea of what playing with trains was all about when Jackson was in his train phase a few years ago, but this takes it to a whole new level!  Colin has created and assembled one of the largest model train layouts in New Zealand–you’ve got to see the pictures to really understand what that means, and even then the pictures don’t capture it all.  The sprawling tracks and surrounding towns of the layout take up a 16 meter by 10 meter shed–built specifically to house the railway.  Once a month, Colin and 5 or 6 of his friends actually run the trains on a timetable and we were lucky enough to witness the railway in action.

In addition to learning a bit about the cheese making process and experiencing the model railway, we were happy to have the company of such great people.  We need to say a huge thank you to Biddy and Colin for welcoming us, teaching us, bearing with us when the quiche we made for dinner was not done until 7pm, and giving us a cozy little space to stay in complete with a woodstove and my absolute new favorite thing, an electric blanket.  If you’ve never owned an electric blanket it should certainly be the first item on your birthday or Christmas list.  Sadly, we left the electric blanket and farm behind in search of more adventures.

Colac Bay is a beautiful gem of a place on the south end of the South Island.  The surfing is great, the moon rises over the ocean, and the locals are incredibly friendly.  Julie, the owner of the restaurant (an an incredibly generous hostess) had asked us to stay through the Easter holiday to help out when things got busy.  We didn;t know what we were in for.  Easter is a HUGE deal here.  The nearby town of Riverton hosts annual horse races over the Easter weekend and things get busy at the Pavilion.

Through our first week at the restaurant we worked on lots of odd jobs–gardening, scrubbing decks, refinishing chairs and tables, and doing lots and lots of dishes in the kitchen.  The big project, however, was the renovations to a small room off the side of the restaurant to transform an old storeroom into a new bar.  This project was the definition of a community effort.  We felt as though we met most of the town as we helped with the renovations and through the restaurant.  The restaurant staff was great, and we ate gourmet lunches and dinner every day.  A huge thanks to our two chefs Dan and Rina for all the good food.  We also owe a huge thanks to Mary, maker of incredible desserts among other things and the most perfect Pavlova in New Zealand.  We got to know Mary’s boys Ricky, Nigel, and Bevin as well through the bar project, and we enjoyed a rauckus evening hanging out with them, playing music, and laughing an awful lot.

It was a big push to get the new bar ready for Easter weekend, but everything fell into place and the Foreshore Bar was packed on the weekend (And check out the vintage surfboard hanging from the ceiling courtesy of Don!).  People know how to have a good time in Colac Bay.  One thing we loved about our nights hanging out with everyone is that there’s lots of singing and music and it doesn’t matter how talented or untalented you are–just sing!  Easter in Colac Bay is really a three or four day party and we just happened to be around for it.  Woohoo!  I spent a good portion of the weekend driving the restaurant “courtesy coach” back and forth to Riverton to bring people to the races, bring people to the bar, drive them home from the bar, etc., while Joanie took a few turns as bartender/waitress when things got really busy.  In all it was an awesome two weeks.  There’s so much more to tell, but we just don’t have the time.

We did get a chance to go to the Riverton Races on Eater Monday, and Julie generously gave us two “sponsor’s tickets” which meant we had free beer and food all day at the races.  We got off to a great start at the track, picking a $50.00 winner on our first bet (We need to thank our Irish friends JP and Sorcha who inspired us to pick Celtic Dreams in that race).  From there it was a mixed bag of winners and losers, but we left with more money in our pockets than we came with.  We’re ready for Belmont when we get to NY!

Speaking of beer festivals. we had an incredible time at the beer and wine festival that we worked this past weekend.  It was held at Okurukuru Winery right on the coast south of New Plymouth.  The winery is set on a series of hills that overlook a beautiful stretch of coastline.  You can see Mt. Taranaki, New Plymouth, and miles upon miles (or kilometers upon kilometers) of beautiful blue ocean.  A number of other wineries and food vendors set up booths at the festival, and there was also a nice variety of delicious food (including one of my new favorites–biltong).  And, of course, we were there selling Mike’s Ale and Lager to the thirsty crowd.

It was the perfect day for a festival–sunny and warm, the live music was good, and folks seemed pretty eager to have a cold one, or two, or three as they danced around.  So, we spent the day pouring beers, drinking beers (what better way to advertise, right?), and watching people who drank beers.  This was big fun!  We saw, among other things, several very sunburned people, an unsunburned but very bare ass of a man whose mates pulled his pants down, and a few people who must have been very tired because they fell asleep lying halfway into the bushes.  What an interesting experience being on the other side of things for a change!  There was also a “fashion” show which consisted of folks from the crowd strutting their stuff on stage–I’m still not sure if this is something they signed up to do, or something their friends signed them up for.  Either way it was entertaining.

As good as all of the beer drinking and pouring was, our highlight of the festival had to be the “extreme” helicopter ride that we took.  For a small fee, we went for a 15-20 minute ride along the coast, over the hills and New Plymouth, and around the festival site.  This was not the average helicopter ride though.  We took off in a flash and went straight up and then turned hard and dove toward the sea.  The pilot did what was probably the closest thing you can do to a flip in a helicopter, and it felt sort of like being on a roller coaster.  Joanie lucked out and got to sit in the front seat next to the pilot.  She had a headset on, which came in handy when the pilot pointed out the naked guy sunbathing, who he then proceeded to buzz past closely.  Once we were back on the ground we went back to the beer booth, but watched many more flights zip overhead.  The festival seemed to be a big success–we sold all the beer we brought with us.  Hopefully we provided some help and didn’t drink all the profits.  We can’t wait to see what the Wellington festival brings!

Ahhh, there’s nothing like beer.  Even better, there’s nothing like good, organic beer.  Picture this:  A small organic brewery set on the west coast of New Zealand above the White Cliffs.  Two beers, ale and lager, masterfully brewed with the finest ingredients–barley, hops, yeast, and rainwater.  That’s right, four ingredients.  Nothing else.  Outside of the brewery is an avocado orchard full of fruits, and when things are quiet, the sound of the waves crashing on the cliffs.  At night, a brilliant starry sky with Orion and the Southern Cross shining bright illuminates the path to a small cottage among the avocados.  Can it get any better than this?

For the past four days we’ve been here at White Cliff Brewery enjoying our first week of WWOOFing.  The brewery was easy to find–it’s just off the main road that takes you down the west coast and a giant beer bottle greets you from the road–there’s no missing it.  We arrived here on Sunday and have spent the last four days working (there must be a better term for this) and having fun.  The brewery is a true family business–Mike, Rene, Ron, Jill, Dylan, and Christie run the brewery and adjacent White Cliffs Estate function center.  Our hosts are an incredibly generous family and it’s a real pleasure to get to share their company, work alongside them, and help out however we can.

Helping out has come in the form of weeding the grounds, transplanting comfrey, cutting firewood, tasting beer, bottling, and our favorite task–labeling!  Ever since we visited Maker’s Mark, Joanie has wanted to try her hand at labeling bottles.  Now she is a real pro at the job and hopefully Smuttynose will take notice!  The brewery just underwent a rebranding and the labels are just one of many improvements that have been made in the past two years.  Check out the brewery website here for a look at the new brand.  You might even want to order a shirt once they update the online shop–and at the same time see my first “modeling” gig.  I think I’ve found my true calling in life–beer shirt model.  There must be someone out there willing to pay me for that!

We work about 4 hours each day and then join everyone for a delicious lunch usually consisting of lots of fresh food–tomatoes, avocados, lettuce, plums, breads, cheeses, an African style beef jerky, etc.  There’s a bunch of chickens on the property here too, so we’ve got our pick of fresh eggs every day.  After lunch we’re usually finished with work, grab a pitcher of beer and are on our own for the rest of the day.

We’ve been taking advantage of that time off to walk along the beach below White Cliffs (only accessible at low tide), head into New Plymouth to see the Festival of Lights and listen to live music, or catch up on skype calls, reading, or finding the next WWOOF farm.  There’s a beer and wine festival on Saturday that we’ll be helping with and the next few days will likely be busy with preperations for the festival.  We’ll be sure to post some pictures–it’s being held at a winery a bit south of here with an absoultely incredible view of the ocean.