Don't worry, I'm a Buddhist

This is a story about how the worst day in the history of the world turned into the best possible adventure.

We left Sherab's home last Monday, Oct 9th, at 6 in the morning. Ugh, such a crime to get up that early and drive the 4 hours to Te Puke, for our second WWOOF job. Through the winding roads and rain (and left side of the road driving getting more comfortable, but we often have to remind each other with a "curb check" to correct ourselves..). Anyway, it was okay.

We get to this little town called Ngatea to fill up on gas. Long story short, there was a huge miscommunication between the three of us and we accidentally fill up the tank with diesel. Shit. The Silver Fox (our 1989 Mitsubishi sedan) doesn't turn on and we're going fuck fuck fuck! Luckily, there was a mechanic right next to the gas station, so we push the SF in and they pump out the diesel. They tell us this happens at least once a week, so a) we aren't complete dumbasses and b) they have a pretty efficient system of getting the stuff out of cars. That makes us feel better. We fix our headlight while we're there, roll the SF back to the gas station to put in petrol, pay $60NZ for the repairs and about $90NZ for the petrol (FML) and we're ready to go!

...then the battery is dead.
FML!

Long story short, we spend FIVE HOURS at the repair shop in Ngatea... which is about five hours more than you would ever want to spend in Ngatea... we got food at this little shop called the Copper Kettle which made us all less cranky. And we all loved that the mechanics were REALLY nice and told us everything they were doing at every step of the fixing. One of them, Bob Anderson (!!) said he wanted to be a geologist, but then his dad got him an apprenticeship with a mechanic, and the rest is history. I gave him a piece of black tourmaline at the end of the day as a thank you, and he was all happy to add something new to his rock collection at home. A man after my own heart. Also, how freaking serendipitous was it that the car breaks down RIGHT NEXT TO the mechanic?

We paid $160 for the final repairs, because our starter was "dodgy", and they had to search through a pile of starters to find the right one (how nice that there was a PILE of starters to search through!?), and Jackie's AAA membership got us that $40 discount from $200 (!!!!) so we finally get back on the road and we're damn pleased about it. But all things considered, it wasn't so bad, we all got to call home and eat eggs.

We had called our new wwoof lady and let her know that we were having the worst car trouble ever, and she said to call her in the afternoon. When we left Ngatea we called her to let her know we were on our way. We left messages. On both phones. We call her for 8 hours, including AFTER we make it to Te Puke. We had an address, and really REALLY vague directions, and we search for her house for an hour. It literally does NOT exist. Her number was 720 off RD2, and the house numbers went from 709 to 728. Nadda in between. So that was insanely frustrating. And she's not calling us back. At all. Left us in the cold. Literally, it was rainy and cold.

So by 8pm, almost 12 hours after we were supposed to arrive in Te Puke, we head into an Irish Pub so hungry and exhausted and order tea, wedges, and a vodka redbull. I tell the baristas our sob story and they go, you know we have beds upstairs? We were on that like ants in Sherab's kitchen. So we also ordered a pint. and devoured the wedges. And the room had a shower and toilet INSIDE. We selpt so soundly. In the morning Jackie and I tried out her awesome Australian aerobics video and we all got to shower and shave our legs yessssss.

We get a text from asshole lady at 8:30 asking to meet us around 10am. We said "fuck you fuck you FUCK YOU". But more nicely. Lisa didn't even want to respond, but I insisted we just tell her no thank you we're leaving because YOU DIDN'T CALL US. So that was empowering. There was no way were were going to stay there after she totally fucked us over. So there.

We ended up camping illegally at this beach the next night. Rules! We ran around the sand in the morning with our swimsuits on. Then we headed to Hot Water beach in the Coromandel Region. We knew we could dig our own pools, but the tide was way too high, so we decided to look for another beach to chill at.

We pull into this winery randomly for lunch and wine tasting. The guy is so charming and pouring the most amazing fruity flavored liquours. We were having a great time chatting and all, so I joked "Hey, you've got a great lawn outside. Mind if we set up our tent and stay a few days, hahaha?" and the guy goes "Yeah sure why not."

Wait, really?
Really.

Four days later and we finally had to leave. We made it into an unofficial wwoofing spot! Danny, the guy letting us squat, is officially our hero. We weeded in his mom's garden up the road, plucked tea leaves on the property, ate freshly picked veggies from their garden, got to use their deep frier (I'm so getting one when I have my own place, I mean, we made french fries and FRIED CHICKEN for goodness sakes! And it was GOOD) and got FREE alcohol. Because Danny is our hero. And he took us to see the local's version of a bunch of the bays, did the hot pools at night, got FREE surfing lessons (I mean, wet suit and board and lesson and all), and tried spotting, which is an INSANE high. Again. Danny for the win. It was really really hard to leave.

To sum up, we turned the worst day into our greatest fortune. We weren't locked into any schedule and ended up having such a wonderful adventure. And it's really only just beginning. We've decided to just let the Universe work for us.

Now I'm in Taupo, which is nearby to freakin' MORDOR, so we're going. We're also going to check out tandem skydiving. Scary! I made contact with my uncle in Nelson, and we will be visiting him the second week of December. We'll be in Wellington the first week of Dec, for Jackie's birthday, and hopefully Justin Laufer will be able to meet up with us and hang out for Christmas and New Years! Yay friends!!!!

I am having the time of my life. Send me emails and tell me about you!