Good morning everyone, this is JP speaking.

So first I want to apologize to all of you lovely people who've been waiting, fruitlessly, over a month for our next blog entry to appear.  As most of you know, we have very limited internet here in New Zealand and during this past month at Hopewell Lodge in Kenepuru Sound we've been using up most of our 100MB download limit per week of internet to look up fun things like: butter volume conversion (cups to grams), horrible-for-you-filled-with-butter-and-sugar baked goods, facebook (of course), ipod apps, and whether Keira Knightly really is Natalie Portman's (or Queen Amidala's) double in Star Wars.

The good news is, we're finally in Nelson.

We arrived yesterday (11/9) around 5pm  at "The Bug" Backpackers lodge and checked into our dorm room. Ashley had mentioned a few times that she wanted to experience the New Zealand dorm life, so instead of paying an extra $15 for our own room, we booked a bunk bed in a conglomerate of 6 international travelers.  Ashley and I shared a bunk bed (she was on the top bunk) and we went to sleep after watching an episode of Arrested Development on her laptop. Anyoung (안녕). I just woke up after a night of hot restless sleep that reminded me of my freshman year in an all-boys dorm  at SPU.  Now I'm sitting outside enjoying a nice luke-warm cup of instant coffee (for those of you who don't know what instant coffee is, you make it by filling your cup about 50% with sugar, 3 or 4% instant coffee powder, and 25%  hot or luke-warm water)  Side note: Harry Potter 7 episode 1 comes out on the 17th here, and we're pretty excited about that. When does it come out in the states?

Today, we start our first day "wwoofing"at the Amber House in Nelson.  More on that once it happens.  I don't want to frighten anyone, but apparently the guy that runs the place has been legally banned from the Nelson i-site (visitor center) for verbally abusing one of the receptionists whom we talked to :/ But I talked to him on the phone, and I didn't feel abused.  Go figure.

So regarding the past month at Hopewell, it was a complete blast.  It's crazy to think that we haven't mentioned ANY of it on our blog, so ill spend a few lines summarizing it and add some funny stories.

People we met at Hopwell that are worth mentioning (in order of appearance):

Mike - owner & manager of all farming & manly things at Hopewell, including but not limited to: tractors, 4WD trucks, chainsaws, butchering sheep, driving boats, smoking fish, playing guitar, cooking, and lighting fires.
Lynnley - Mike's Fiancee and owner & manager of everything else at Hopewell, including but not limited to: cleaning, cooking, hospitality, being in charge, weeding, being really nice and awesome.
Blacky (cat) - sheds a lot, very friendly and likes to sleep by the fireplace.  We became good friends.
Honey (cat) - Not as sociable, tries to steal food from your plate with paw, lots of long fur.
Weka (flightless bird) - relative to the kiwi, easily explains why kiwis/wekas are endangered. Not afraid of humans, diet of mainly bread and food scraps, female only has one foot (Stumpy), make's weird and annoying sounds and its droppings are very pungent.
Jill - previous wwoofer at Hopewell, intended to stay 3 weeks and actually stayed 5 months.  Close friend of Mike & Lynnley, back-up manager of Hopewell.  Very clever, witty, and sarcastic.  Intelligent and fun to be around (when not working).

Funny stories and interesting people, to be continued. Here are some pictures!

on the 2.5 hour drive to Hopewell... ridiculously curvy roads.

 JP, Ashley, Anne

 Fishing @ 6am 

Ashley's first fish!!

 Weka - cousin to the kiwi

 getting ready for dinner.

 Ashley makes some new friends.

View from the top of Mt. Stokes, 1200ft, it's supposed to be beautiful and you can see about 50% of NZ... we saw lots of fog.

 But it was still cool :)

 Love on Mt. Stokes

 Yeah, purple mushrooms... trippy

 Inside our last-night fort, playing liars dice.

Outside our fort :)