The Incredible South Island

So as I was saying in the last post, Margaret was waiting for us outside the gate. It was raining out, so she went and got the car from us (a car sized minivan from some Finnish people they bought two weeks ago) and we all piled in. We headed to her home where she lives with her husband, Orm, and her son, David. David married a woman from Japan named Yuri and they have two boys, Mana (4) and Aki (2). They were SUPER adorable. We slept in what Margaret calls the "dormitory". It's actually their garage, but there are four beds set up in it because they often take in travelers in their home.

For dinner, we had make your own sushi, which was interesting. It was the first time I had ever had it, so it was an experience. The family was SUPER cute and we got to know them really fast. We spent a lot of time playing with the boys because they were so friendly and fun to hang around! My only embarrassment of the day was when we first got there, I saw the two kids with their long hair and cute little features, so I said, "Hi, girls!" And their dad goes, "Um... believe it or not, they're both boys." OOps!!! That evening I was still in a drunken stupor from the two dramamine I took on the ferry, so I went to bed really early.

The next morning, I woke up and read for a while (I actually read a whole book over the weekend... "A Thousand Splendid Suns" I'd recommend it!). We had some delicious breakfast (homemade granola which they call muesli) and then we were off for a day in Nelson! Margaret drove us there (2 hour drive) and we got to see some incredible sights. I took a TON of pictures, and luckily the rain more or less held off. We stopped on the way at this little country store where you could buy ice cream mixed with different fruits and the machine actually combined them.. so we got frozen yogurt w/ fruit flavors. Yum!

When we got to Nelson, we went to the visitor center and a gift shop and then just walked around the town for a bit. We found a place to have lunch and had fish and chips (my new favorite combo... with garlic mayo for the fries). Afterwards, we did a little more walking, then hopped in the car and went a beautifully huge beach. The sand stretched on forever toward the ocean... it was crazy!

Then we came back home and had some delicious dinner (ice cream included!) We relaxed for the night, did some reading, and got to bed early.

Sunday, Margaret let us borrow the car for the day (our first time driving in New Zealand!!) We just drove to a nearby town called Blenheim by way of some beautiful vineyards and then stopped at a park in Blenheim and read for about an hour and a half. Then we headed back towards Picton and visited Margaret at the shop that she volunteers at that is all fair trade items. It was really cool. We got some pizza for lunch (Chelsea about had a heart attack she was so excited). We chilled for a little while and then had to head to the ferry! The whole family came with us... it was so incredible. They saw us off at the ferry (David, Yuri, Mana, Aki, and Margaret) and I most definitely cried. It was so hard to leave such kind and loving people!

The ferry ride back we just took a bunch of dramamine and parked ourselves in the corner in some comfy chairs. Before we knew it, the whole Wellington Community Choir (like, 50 of them, I swear) made a huge as (Kiwi term), blocking us into the corner. Of course, because I'm so afraid of the dang ferry, I was panicking about not being able to get out if there was an emergency. Chelsea and I were getting SOOOO angry, haha. It was legit though. So after a few minutes, I was so tired that I just passed out on the floor and slept most of the way home. Annabel and Nisha were there to meet us when we got there and drove us home. It was so nice! I most definitely wasn't ready to teach again!...