We said our goodbyes and I headed off to the Britomart station to meet up with Mark and Andrew from camp. We went to the Kelly Tarlton Aquarium. It was fun, but certainly not worth the $33 to get in. Ouch! Then we walked down to Mission Bay, with a quick stop at the Michael Joseph memorial. Hung out at the beach at Mission Bay while eating gelato. Yum! Then it was time to say goodbye to Andrew. Mark asked me back to his house to meet his entire family (all of his sisters and brothers). It was really nice to be in a large group of people again. I was really missing the EcoQuest noise. Ate some pizza and caught up with Chris (from camp) and his girlfriend who were also traveling around New Zealand. Then Marc and his sister Lara drove me around town to see some of the sights. The first place we went was back to Mt. Eden to see the “edge of the world.” We laid upside-down on a large platform with our feet wrapped around the iron fencing while leaning our heads off the edge. The city looked beautiful at night. Then they drove me to the Telecom Christmas tree. It was amazing!
Then we walked up and down Franklin Street looking at the decorated houses.
The next morning around 4:00 a.m. I woke up to catch my flight to Christchurch. The flight was bumpy and there was a little drama about my bags being too heavy, but I arrived safely later that morning. Then I wandered around Christchurch for about 5 hours before I had to catch my bus to Dunsandel. I took pictures of the city and some of the earthquake damage.
I sat in a few cafes and pretty much just wandered around Christchurch until about 1:00 when I went to the bus station. The bus ride was very short and it dropped me off right in front of the Dunsandel Store where Honey Andersen, my WWOOF (willing workers on organic farms) host, works. She is a lovely woman, so generous and a great cook too.
We headed to her house (a short walk from the store) where I met Mara, another WWOOFer from New York City who would be WWOOFing with me. The next day we started work. Honey has obtained a pile of bricks from someone’s chimney that fell over in the earthquake and she wants to build a pizza oven with them. So Mara and I spent a few days cleaning the bricks and power-washing them. There were so many but they are all finished now. Some other things we did were plants things in the garden such as corn, cucumbers, basil, lettuce, and spinach. We would take care of the chickens (or chooks as everyone here calls them). Pick strawberries and raspberries for dessert and general maintenance such as watering and weeding.
They days I have spent here have been really nice. Sure it’s been some tough work, but it’s been pretty mindless which has given me the opportunity to just relax and think about life. I’m so glad that I decided to WWOOF and even happier at having WWOOFed at Honey’s lovely place. Just going to leave you with a picture of Honey’s dog. His name is Tama which means boy in Maori.
Now I'm back off to Christchurch tomorrow for two days. Meeting up with Sara, Holliday, and Sam. Then meeting Penny (from camp) on the 23rd for Christmas in Blenheim. Then to Picton to meet Sam and catch the ferry on the 26th. Wellington for the 26th and 27th then flying back to Auckland on the 28th and out to LAX later that afternoon, then to North Carolina, and finally New Hampshire. It will be so nice to be home. 8 more days!
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