The plate is happy. but the toast hasn't slept well and is seeking revenge.

that's from a card in a shop we saw today in motueka (pronounced with the word "tweak" in it). i don't have much time because the internet cafe i am currently sitting in is closing, but just to calm all of your worried minds, i am safe in nelson, having two wonderful days behind me, headed to christchurch tomorrow to meet up with jordana, my mom's cousin, who will be joining us for the next month.

two days ago we went into the takaka information center to find out about kayaking trips in the nearby abel tasman park that everyone who is anyone hikes all over and through. we only had a day between wwoof and travel, so we wanted to ask someone who knew. we spoke to wout kelis, a dutch kiwi man who worked there. we mentioned our wwoof situation at happy acre - with the indoor tent and no food and blah blah blah complainig as we liked to do, and he said "you should've told me - i need people to work on my house - painting and things." we looked at each other (nabia and i) and told him we could come work for him the next day if he'd put us up and feed us. and he offered to take us kayaking himself too, by the way. he said ok. he told us the address.

We spent our last day at Happy Acre Spider Farm of the Bare Feet and Strange Names weeding (such gratifying work - whacking things with pitchforks and pulling huge roots out of the ground) and it ended with a nice dinner - everyone there, salad, dhal, spicy onion sauce, roti, and rice. it was the first dinner they had cooked for us. not a fair exchange at all, in hindsight, but it ended fine. i bonded with grant because he wanted to pick my brain about computers, and i got to download our pictures and burn them to disk for free. Our final morning (tuesday), we had some oatmeal again (4th day in a row), cooked in our outdoor kitchen on an outdoor stove, but this time we mixed in blackberry jam instead of just dates and apples. yum. we said goodbye to grant, amrita, mukunda (age 2), and ananda (age almost 8), because they were leaving to go into town because they didn't have any food for ananda's breakfast. that's a hint as to the operation of this gang... but we snapped some pictures and had a hug from amrita - so that was a good note to end on. we finished organizing our pictures and high-tailed it out of there. took down our living room tent too. sadly we missed out on the drumming class that was to be that afternoon. so it goes.

we walked an hour up the road and toward the beach to wout's place (how's wally to add to my list of men, matt). we waited for him there and then got to use a power sander and paint while standing on a board resting on two ladders on the side of the guest house he runs at a place called Paton's Rock. We worked about 2 1/2 hours until we finished and then he took us on a fantastic tour of the bay. it was completely unexpected and absolutely brilliant. we saw beautiful views and the farewell spit (a narrow very long beach that is totally natural and goes for over 30 km) and the water and the hills and oh my god it was beautiful.

then, on top of all that (4 hours of touring), he insisted on taking us out to dinner because he couldn't cook. he let us pay for his one drink. it was delicious and i actually had some vegetables. and no rice. and then i had some chocolate with sour lime. yum. anyway, huzzah for wally. big ups.

we slept very well in real beds with real blankets in his guesthouse last night and had a lovely kayak this morning in the bay. really cool. then we hitched to marahau, which is a town so small it doesn't exist. then we hitched to motueka (where i saw the cards - more funny to come). then we hitched to nelson. always following our instincts (it's ok, mom) and really meeting some lovely interesting people.

ok. gotta run. off to christchurch tomorrow.

love. and thanks for the support :)
amy


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