Hi all. We left Napier and headed up to Gisborne, allegedly one of the sunniest places in New Zealand. It poured the day we got there, which put a serious damper on our camping ambitions. The sun did find its way to us eventually, and Christopher, a Scottish friend we met on top of a rock in Dunedin and ran into again in Kaikoura, also found his way to us. The four of us drove through rain, hail, and slippery NZ roads and ended up here, at the Flying Nun hostel.



The Nun ended up playing a leading role in our adventures in Gizzy. We stayed just one night, along with the rest of South America. We never thought we would hear so much Spanish in New Zealand. The next day when the sun came out, we went north to camp, waving goodbye to a hostel with a very strange room keeper and the only free wireless in town. If we thought we were driving away for good, we were oh so mistaken. Half a day later, Lauren realized that she left her BACKPACK under the bed. Back we went. Day and a half later, Danielle realized she had left her booties there. Back again. The best part of it all was that every time we would go back, we'd sit on the front porch and try to steal the free internet. Good thing these girls have me around.



Camping makes us feel happy. We made another amazing dinner in Connie's kitchen and had ravioli, veggies, and wine before going to bed at 7:30. We had to go to bed early if we were going to be the first people in the world to see the sun on Thursday morning. Look it up. Google it. Gisborne.



Ha. So. For the last few weeks, we haven't been able to figure out how to put the back seat up in our car. Not that we wouldn't want to be riding around three in the front, but with Christy coming in a week, we decided we should figure it out. The first night we slept in it, we simultaneously layed down and heard a distinct click. We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and went to sleep. The obvious solution now was to go to a Holden dealership and have them show us whatever trick we needed to know to get it back in position. We pulled up, unpacked the whole car, and sure enough, seat's fixed now.





Scotland sold me his guitar after 12 hours of serious bartering, and now we've left Gizzy for Tauranga. I'm typing on the couch of a house where we are "dog sitting" for the weekend while the family is away. This involves feeding the dog once a day and staying in their beautiful home. Lauren just made a couple batches of her famous oatmeal cookies and some peppermint tea, and we are watching The Devil Wears Prada projected on a giant screen in the living room. We have a personal hot tub, a kiwi and avocado orchard, and a tennis court. We also are sleeping in separate rooms for the first time since September 30th.