Days gone by...

Gosh it has been awhile since we last wrote and so much has happened!! hopefully it won't be too long...
After our bungy jump and pub crawl with the magic bus crew in Queenstown we headed to Milford Sound.
Milford Sound was as pretty as its supposed to be!! the road to get there is NOT PLEASANT! but Claire had to stay awake the whole time as it was the most scenic road in NZ- so it would seem like sacrilege to sleep the whole way... though on the windy parts it was very tempting! It was very stormy the day we went and the mountains were so beautiful covered in snow and mist... the torrential rain meant the cliffs were streaming with waterfalls- it was just awesome!! unfortunately we also went out on a cruise on this rather stormy day... it was an "interesting" trip to put it mildly- we stayed outside and got unbelievably soaked (but at least we didn't feel quite so ill!!- just may have been why Claire had a cold for several days afterwards!!) The scenery was breathtaking though- can definitely see why it is the top place to go in NZ! Claire refused to follow the usual trend and go there and back from Queenstown in a day- instead we stayed in the one accomodation place that was avaliable! The next day was glorious sunshine and very warm- quite an unbelievable change from the day before!! It was great as that meant we could see it both ways- and although it was spectacular (!) in the sun there weren't so many waterfalls- but we got the best of both worlds :) We went on a wander round in the morning before getting the coach back to Queenstown- somehow (and we were quite annoyed with ourselves after!!) we both fell into a deep sleep(!) partway along the road... and then woke up once we got to Te Anau and stayed awake for the rest of the journey watching Mr Beans holiday!! The wrong way round if you ask me- but we did develop a new appreciation for Mr Bean!! When we got back into Queenstown we set out to find the infamous "Ferg burger" only to find it had been closed for refurblishment *sniff* however we found a lush indian place (that did peshwari naan) so it was all good and we sat outside by the harbour eating our takeout- v nice...
Then we travelled from Queenstown to Dunedin and went to the Cadbury factory- the highlight of the tour was watching 1 tonne of melted chocolate fall 5 stories- lush! Also (quite necessarily) took pictures of the railway station since it is one of the most photographed buildings in the southern hemisphere after the Sydney opera house (which we will also be taking pictures of soon :P)
We had a little rethink of our plans and revised them- it was all very complicated but bascially our original plan had us going round in circles!!
We travelled to Waimate on the Intercity bus (not quite as exciting as the Magic bus!) and started our second wwoofing job- it was quite hot some of the days but most of our work consisted of sitting on our arses weeding in the shade of the trees (v strenuous!) We also made compost, looked after the kids, pickaxed (bit too much like hard work),cut carpet (thrilling!) and carpeted the garden (not something you do everyday!- organic farming does seem to be alot more work- using weedkiller is a far simpler alternative to pulling up the millions of weeds they seemed to breed on their property!!) Our grand project of the whole time was making a gingerbread house with their kids Shannah and Amy- it was AWESOME! and we covered it in billions of sweets! There were also some pretty wanders round the area- one time it decided to chuck it down on us so we climbed down a cliff and sheltered under a bridge... and of course ate biscuits! There was a huge terror one evening when these GIGANTIC moth things came into our room as we had cleverly left the window open- it was soo scary and more and more kept appearing- they were horrible and Sophie bravely got rid of them while Claire spent most of her time hiding in the bathroom... she decided trying to catch the moths wasn't the kind of adrenaline rush she wanted... though Sophie said she found it scarier than bungy jumping at the time (perhaps that was a slight exaggeration!) Another highlight (as I think if we wrote everything this would go on forever!) was the making of sushi and guess what?!? it actually isn't just raw fish!! you learn something new everyday! It was abit strange but nice (not sure if eating seaweed wraps is our kinda thing) and there was a cool bright green paste called Wasabi that seriously made your mouth tingle! Discovered moose brick is also a pretty cool game... Additionally Claire made the ULTIMATE bowl of porridge to determine the appropriate topping... at number 6 was the disgusting (though Sophie wouldn't agree) coconut, number 5 was raisins, number 4 was cinnamon, (this is reminding Claire of top of the pops as she types!) at number 3 (this was a close call) was honey, and in joint second (as Claire is generally quite indecisive so obviously couldn't decide despite many tastings) was nutella (which Claire tried for the first time in Taupo and found is gorgeous) and golden syrup then (drum roll please) in first place... the traditional brown sugar *applause*
Then after a week we moved onto our next placement in Oamaru at Chillawhile- a hostel which is so lush and relaxed its brilliant! We only have to work 2.5hrs here so we have plenty of time to relax and chill out (as the name would suggest!) Oamaru is a pretty nice town- far bigger than Waimate! We have wandered round, found an amazingly lush bakery which smelt so good inside we had to exercise much restraint to stop us buying the whole shop! Also went to a whisky company, went on an old diesel train (unfortunately it wasn't the steam one) and saw their "pet" penguin which happened to live in the shed and was amazingly cute :) Then that evening we went on the supreme penguin tour- how cool are we?! Firstly we went to the yellow-eyed penguin colony and saw a few upclose and Claire spotted all 3 of the penguins that came out of the sea from our cliff top view, so was very proud! Unfortunately they are really endangered...Then we went to the blue penguin colony and had to wait alittle while before they came into shore- felt quite sorry for the guide who obviously felt the need to talk solidly for over 30mins while we waited.... When they eventually decided to grace us with their presence they were unbelievably adorable! Claire was so tempted to hop over the fence and give one a hug but am sure it probably wouldn't of appreciated it... It was quite funny at one point as a scrap started! Right so now we are onto the happenings of the last few days (which have involved *dun dun dun* alcohol :O shocking) - and have resulted in a rather hysterical Claire typing in her PJs still late this afternoon... so where shall we begin... it all started on day 55- after a pleasant day out in the Oamaru gardens which are amazingly pretty :) We baked quiche and cookies (which stuck to the baking paper) and ate out in the token shack listening to tapes- old skool! A guy we had met (think hes called jason) gave us some bourbon and coke which is really good (but unfortunately tastes nothing like the biscuits) - this started off an amusing chain of events which we can still remember (honestly!) as we then decided to open our $5.99 wine (bargain!) and Claire was given a haka lesson which made her thighs hurt as she was trying (and failing) to be macho... At some stage in the early hours, after dancing to a song we played about a billion times- which actually wasn't as great as we thought listening to it the next day (!)- we went 0n the infamous "chalk walk"...
And then (after doing double time so we could have the day off to go to the cheese factory and making what Dylan thought looked like g-strings but were actually facemasks (oh yes Claire actually used a sowing machine :O) ) Oh yeah... basically Dylan arrived to visit us (Claire and him had been keeping in contact since Nelson) and we got in the alcohol (again) and takeout pizza, which was so good- Claire got to have some pepperoni- yay! (being the true vegetarian she is and all...) We played more tapes (whoot) and the infamous kings cup drinking game- which hated Claire with a passion... Then some other stuff happened and we ended up watching a seemingly confusing movie called.... ummm... something to do with smoking...but yeah on the projector lazing on the floor with our duvets... well we slept quite late into the day today and the cheese factory has been given a miss because neither of us could really face cheese tasting today... we will trust it is as nice as its supposed to be... am starting to think its about time Claire got dressed and did something...
so this has finally driven Claire insane... give yourself a huge round of applause and a pat on the back if you have managed to get this far... we'd like to hear from you if you have!!!