Just A Quick Hi

Hello, hello!

I am sitting on my little bunk bed in a hostel in Te Anau tonight. I am (somewhat) guiltily peering over my laptop, watching this woman packing her backpack for the Kepler Track, which she is starting tomorrow morning. She has rented out all of her gear and whatnot and is frantically trying to figure out what to take. She has a HUGE loaf of gourmet "naturally baked" bread laying out on the floor. "Is this good?" she asked me a few minutes ago. Um...sure. If you like squished bread! Do I take shampoo? she just asked. Oy! Sorry, lady. You have signed up for four days of no showers. I don't think she has a clue what she's gotten into.

Of course, instead of helping her pack, as I ought to be doing, I am sitting here on my bunk bed, writing about it. Ellen, Ellen...

Luckily, Bjorn and I are starting the very same hike tomorrow morning, so I am sure we'll see a good bit of her over the next few days. (And Bjorn, good soul that he is, has just stepped in to help her out. Does his goodness count for me, too?)

We have spent the last few days sitting on our hands. We had a big budget spend at the beginning of the week and were therefore forced into retreating off into the woods somewhere, to a free campsite, for a little time killing.

We had a great time, though. We picked up two hitch-hikers at the hostel in Invercargill and carried them with us, for two nights of free camping at Lake Monowai, and then onto Te Anau yesterday morning. Our hitchers were Matt and Jessica, newlyweds from Boston. They married in August and are taking an 8 month honeymoon - traveling for two months around the States, WWOOFing in Hawaii, driving around Australia, and now New Zealand! How fun! They were super nice, and I hope we run into them again somewhere down the road. I have a feeling we will...it's a small country.

We will be back from the Kepler Track on Monday, and our tentative plan from then is to run up to Queenstown, do another 4 day trek around there (the Rees-Dart Track), and then get ourselves to a little town called Gore by March 3rd for two weeks of WWOOFing! We have found the perfect little placement. It's an older couple, living on a huge sheep farm. She spins, dyes, and knits wool straight off her own sheep, and then sells her goodies in nearby cities. He breeds racing horses. They have a million sheep, an organic vegetable garden, and they live right on the Motuara River, which is apparently the reason Gore is the Trout Fishing Capital of the World (though I don't know if that is just a self-proclamation)! How fun! So we are about 95% sure that is going to work out. And we'll spend two weeks living with these folks, learning a bit about what they do, helping them with their gardening, taking knitting lessons, and on and on! Fun!

Okay. I have lots of walking in my future so I ought to get onto bed now. If this lady doesn't keep me up all night packing, that is. Hehe.

Love to you all!