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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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When Lee left she took the sunshine with her, leaving us with a cold rainy day. We trudged sadly to our next (and probably last) WWOOF hosts of the country, Terry and Erina of the Pear Tree Cottage ( www.peartree.co.nz ), a B&B located halfway between Queenstown and Arrowtown. They welcomed us into their lovely little house, warmed by an excellent fire, and then set us up in our cozy caravan/bedroom outside. When we asked what time we should be ready to do some gardening in the morning, they told us that it depended on the weather. The next morning, it turned out to be snowing. This was extremely exciting for two kids who have been in summer for the past 11 months, but it made it a bit tough for weeding. When the sun did come out, Jenny was able to help by trimming back the immaculate flower gardens, including many lavenders which smelled like heaven, while Ben was trained in the use of a weed-whacker to knock down thistle and things in the paddock where the horses were grazing. When the weather was not so welcoming, Jenny was invited to help sew beads on to a wedding dress (Erina is also a professionally trained tailoress) and to clean up the cottage after the guests had moved out, while Ben was invited to continue with his weed-whacking. It may have been an unfair distribution of labor.
On time off we ventured into Arrowtown, which is ridiculously cute, where we stumbled across a giant accordion band in a bar, and one night enjoyed a double date with our hosts for dinner and a movie. We also met up again with Ben's cousin Nick and his wife Ai, and their two outrageously adorable daughters Tsuki and Kika. They didn't take us out on a boat this time, but we saw the plot of land they will eventually build their house on, and we got to chase the girls around a tennis court. Mark my words, if there is a superior race of humans who will one day rule the world, it will surely be trilingual half Japanese girls with kiwi accents. They do it to me every time.
Before leaving town we saw a movie about Janet Frame (the 2nd most famous Kiwi author), and got a long list of recommendations of where to go next. We also got news that Ben's Nana might be a bit under the weather, and so we set out on our journey north to see the west coast on our way back up to Blenheim.
previous travel blog entry
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