Milton & the Catlins

We stayed two nights with Kerry in Milton, with grand plans of gold panning that didn't quite materialize after a night of fun and poor morning weather. Instead we visited a local beach, Toko Mouth, and an old train tunnel where we saw our first glowworms. Kerry's backyard kittens gave us an adorable sendoff, and on our way out of town I saw a sign advising us to "be happy." Will do!

Collecting Cockles

Beach covered in cockles at low tide

Our last day in Dunedin was a fine one, and we made the most of it by collecting cockles and heading out to Long Beach. Cockles, or clams as we call them in the US, are not part of my normal diet, but I'm always keen to try new things.

Otago Peninsula & Dunedin

We CouchSurfed in Dunedin with a nice but very busy girl named Annabelle. She wouldn't be able to let us in at night until 10 or 11 pm, so we found other CouchSurfers to hang out with in the meantime. A sweet girl named Tarsh invited us over for dinner when we arrived, and we made veggie burgers with her and a few of her friends. 

Couchsurfing in Otago

We spent our last day in Christchurch tracking down a tent and lunching with our friends Elise & Sylvain, whom we first met in Auckland at Olive & Graeme's. It was so good to catch up with them again after all these months.



The scenery on our first day was beautiful, as expected. We hugged the coast for a while, spotting hay bales beside the ocean before heading inland to rolling hills of bright green farmland.

Moving South

I'm been a bit behind on the blog, because our internet connection has been up and down on the road.  A lot has happened in the last few days!  We drove south from Whangerei on Thursday, stopping along the way at a cheese shop and spending more than we should have on some very fine cheeses.  One, a walnut cheese, reminds me of pecan-crusted cheese balls from Smith family Christmas gatherings.  Being a cheese lover is an expensive habit, so after this moment of weakness we have resolved to return to our frugal budget.

Cruising in Auckland

For our first two nights in Auckland, we stayed with a cool CouchSurfing couple named Jess & Fletch. They live in an area of town called Kohimarama, yet another Maori place name that I found hard to pronounce at first. On Saturday, our third day in town, we went for a drive in their 1964 Impala "Yank Tank," as Fletch called it. I've never seen a car with pillarless windows before. We had them down for part of the drive, but had to roll them up again when it got chilly.

On CouchSurfing

I spent some time this evening trying to find accommodations for our first few days in New Zealand.  I decided to see what CouchSurfing offered first, then check out hostels as a backup plan.  Before I get into the results, a bit of background on CouchSurfing is in order.

Sam & I once found a couch on the side of the road in Texas.

I have been CouchSurfing since I watched a movie about house swapping and wondered if there was something like it for people who don't own houses.  Months later, I was in Edinburgh, Scotland enjoying my first taste of CouchSurfing.