Te Koha

There is a room. In the room our beds. Our belongings. A fluorescent light found only in Elementary schools and basement workshops illuminate the whitewashed plaster. An old monitor accompanied by keyboard. Microwave door ajar, set to high, five minutes. A coat rack, with a rifle case. A rifle in the case. A rifle in case Micah gets sassy.

Nelson Airport

Nelson airport is small, n security, and a roaring cafe. Small Turbo props await through the morning mist. The sea lays before us. I was going to say something stupid. Something negative. But I gave it a day. I have noticed Karma has followed us. Whenever something negative I have done, it has come back to haunt us. Karma has followed us, and until now, I thought little of it. However, this day I am a firm believer in Karma. If I have done wrong, wrong will most certainly befall me. If I think love, love has been thought on me. Unless those are not smiles but smirks people shoot in my direction.

We Leave Nelson

Well, it has happened. We have to come home in Mid June. However, you don't need to stop watching and following the blog. We still have three new, unique, and enriching places left to go. Three weeks. Pictures like Kelsey has never shot before. Writing like... well, writing. I do what I can.

Nelson

A market in Nelson differs from Golden Bay. Not homogeneous, either in stalls or in wanderers. The musicians still fill the corners, and they are equally happy, yet the finesse we hear here betters. A vendor over zealously petitions Kelsey to try on a wool cap, and says I don't need it as I am woolly enough already. Funny, but I am the hat person and Kels is not, so sorry Jamie, I was going to get you one, but, well, they weren't so great, or at least cool enough to tempt a woman with hands tucked behind her back imploring us, er, Kelsey to " yes dearie, try one, try my precious, they are so nice, so sweet, yes dearie..." followed by a cackle. We grimaced and departed quickly.
So yes, we are in Nelson wwoofing on a property situated, wait, guess, on a large hill or small mountain. We sleep in a caravan, and drink stevia tea which grows on the property. So good. So sweet.

Goodbye, goodnight

We prepare now to leave Golden Bay. Over the weekend, we partook in a celebration. Throughout the evening, we spoke with locals, transplants, hippies. They spoke a recurring mantra: we love it here not for one aspect, but many. We hitched from Takaka with an US expat couple. They did not follow jobs, they enjoyed the quality of life and community, and the job followed. The are now designing sustainable housing and communities. Everyday is the same, the sun shines, it grows hot, and then clear nights. At the party, a roaring fire (by permit) incited howling, dancing, singing. They leave stressful jobs, home countries, or feel the demand to return home, rich and poor alike, meld, find the life, find the community they love, for which the have searched. A light dust covers their eyes, not just from the drought and dust. We will shake the dust from our shoes, clothes, and shake the ennui from our eyes.

Verbosity

A something occurred today which provoked a thought: we are all subject to our own grandeur. One measures importance by one's own importance, or perceived importance to others.
We are leaving golden bay in a week. We will be traveling to Nelson for a week, then to Levin, then to Gisborne.

Figs

Figs, not dates (too cold and wet for dates), which the hosts, thus us as well do not dry. I have been spending my moments off putting bags over exposed fig bunches to protect them from the birds. It is funny to see these birds inspecting every fig on the tree. They peck and prod, chirp, poop, then jump to the next branch, and repeat. Eventually they, locate a ripe one, and begin to peck vigorously, wherein I come running out yelling, they scatter, allowing easy collection of the slightly damaged, but ripe fig. Needless to say, I cannot guard the figs when working in the mornings, thus the bags. SO think of this as you sit down to eat your dinner on Thursday, it will be Friday morning for me, and I will be eating figs.
Kelsey can find her own.