WWOOFtastic

Ryan and my first successful WWOOF stop was with Deb in Masterton (not Mastadon, I learned), a small town on the outskirts of Martinborough, a renowned Pinot noir region on the north island. It was awesome - she fed us home-cooked meals, introduced us to all of her favorite TV shows (including Dancing on Ice, which Ryan is now OBSESSED with), and let us play with her adorable chocolate lab.

After a week with Deb, we drove up to Napier which was devastated by an earthquake in the 1930s and was rebuilt using only Art Deco architecture. It was really pretty and a nice little town but there wasn't a whole lot going on, and Ryan and I are starting to get burnt out on traveling and paying a ton for hostels and food and gas. Not to mention, the car still is finicky when it comes to starting, so we get stranded in random places for hours at a time, which is arguably sub-ideal to say the least. So, we left Napier, did some wine tasting in Hawkes Bay, which was really nice, and started to make our way toward a lake on the way to Rotorua to do part of a Great Walk. New Zealand has ten massive hikes (each takes around five days) called the Great Walks. It would have been nice to do part of one since we still haven't gotten around to it, but we had a difficult time finding accommodation on the way to the lake and ended up detouring all the way over to Gisbourne, the easternmost city in NZ. We figured we could at least get some tastings in since Gisbourne is known for their Chardonnay.

False.

We spent an entire morning driving around looking for wineries and could not find ONE that was open. On top of that, they were incredibly hard to find. We left Gisbourne for Rotorua, which was actually a pretty nice city and our hostel was great. The next morning, completely broke, we got in the car to head to our second and final WWOOF stop in Auckland. In the car, I phone our hostess to learn that I had e-mailed her a month ago and requested dates in July instead of June (eff). She had no availability for WWOOFers so we went to an internet cafe and called a couple people in the Auckland area and ended up finding a place to stay.

So, yesterday we arrived at Mandy and Terry's. They grow organic and biodynamic grapes and have them sent down to Hawkes Bay to a custom crush facility. Right now, there are two other WWOOFers staying here: Billy from Maryland and Paul from New Caledonia. They're 23 and 24 and didn't know each other before coming here. We're going to be helping out in the vineyard during the week which should be tons of fun. Last night, Mandy made us tacos and we all ended up drinking a lot with dinner, then after dinner, then after Mandy's son John (who is 16) got home from prom. We start work tomorrow mid-day and it looks like we might get some hiking in tomorrow morning (if the car starts). So, it all worked out in the end. Ryan leaves in 3 days, then I leave in 5 for my trip to Thailand and Bali!