WWOOFing- the beginning

So my first wwoof site is amazing. I’m not sure if I’m getting a typical experience, but I know that I am lucky. My hosts Tim and Kerry have been hosting for 39 and 40 years, respectively, which means they are some of the first ever hosts in New Zealand. I’ll go through a ‘day in the life’ here and then again at some other point of my trip. Here we go! Today:
~7:15 - woke up in my little house (bedroom and bathroom)

7:45 - went to the main house for a breakfast of muesli, yoghurt (the dairy is so good here I can’t even), honey (from their bees), and blueberries from the garden. And large amounts of tea

Between 8 and 9 - start working on something, today it was moving firewood from the field to its shed with the help of the tractor trailer

11sies - coffee time! Was introduced to the crumpet- I love it. Toasted and then you "fill the holes with butter while it’s still warm" and then I put apricot jam on it. Discussions about the different rules of Wilderness on US public lands with Tim (wishing I remembered more from Public Lands class!)
11:30 - walked through the cow pasture with Tim as he pointed out my task for whenever in the day I want to do it: pulling out invasive thistle. I knew my work on the Idaho Corps invasives hitches would be useful...

12 - relax a bit and put on a lot of sunscreen
12:30 - went out to work on the thistle, listened to my audiobook as I worked (the Broken Earth Triology, thanks Anna!) Heat aside, I quite like the task- it’s breezy here and the 4 cows ambled over out of curiousity. And the pasture overlooks one of the quintessential Marlborough vineyards.

1:30 - Kerry calls me in for lunch, delicious pizza. I eat a plum too- it’s plum season here. We talk about the effect of the LOTR empire on New Zealand people.

2 - high tide (the river is affected by the tides but is all freshwater) so it’s time for a swim/ bath. They are having well problems on the property, and besides I loove bathing in natural bodies of water when I can. I headed down to the river, turned off the electric fence and climbed over to get to the water. I found the swimming hole- there a ladder leading to a little platform and a rope to help you get back up the back. Across the way a lot of people swim at the public beach. So nice to have private access though! I swam to the sandbar and washed my clothes and self with Dr Bronners, then swam back very refreshed. Did I mention that it’s about 90 degrees here!?


3 - more relaxing, chatting with people on the interwebs, then I climbed up into the treehouse/ platform to write this post. It’s very shady and cool up here. People are blasting music on the river but besides that this place feels very secluded.
I will continue writing this at the end of the day!
4 - relax more and wander the garden, peeping at the monarch crysalises, get ready to go out on thistle patrol again

5 - thistle time- it’s very satisfying to sweep the pasture with my eyes and yank out the invasives, almost like morel hunting but not tasty
6:30 - another dip in the river to wash off the sweat, then I tried to commune with the cows a bit. Goal for the end of the week: pet one
7 - more chillin in my cabin, reading guidebooks
8 - dinner! It’s such a treat to have summer meals all of a sudden, and most of the food comes right from here. Tonight’s dinner included: taters, corn, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, pepper, red onion, and beef! They keep a photo of each cow they are currently eating on the fridge.

9 - go check out the bike situation and map of the area with Tim to prep for a morning bike ride to the beach
10 - bed!
Every day I have so many more ideas for posts, we shall see how many come to fruition. For now I’m just feeling good that I got one done by the first week mark. You’re welcome, mom!

in search of Lunch Cake overseas

Well my bag is packed, my car is inspected and registered, I said goodbye to a lot of people, I saw the lunar eclipse, I showered , I journaled, I vaguely attempted to clean my room. So, totally ready to to embark on my international adventure! I do not know if I have ever done an international Cake For Lunch post, but I just downloaded every app that I could potentially need and Blogger was one of them, so we shall see if I end up following through.
Mostly my prep week has consisted of looking at all the stuff I think I need, asking wise friends if they think I don't need items on my list, ignoring what they say because I love bringing EVERYTHING, and rearranging things every so slightly. I have also done lots of tiny errands and made lots of 'daily goals' lists so that I can feel better about checking things off.

One of my goals for this year was to be better at decision making. I don't expect a full transformation, but I at least want to practice just making a decision and not lamenting too much if it was the wrong one. For example, I had to decide to take my slightly bigger but quite moldy frame pack, or my new but small and less-loved but clean pack to New Zealand. I decided on clean, so there's no going back! This trip in general will be a good test of decision making. Of being OK with decisions I make, of not deliberating too much, of realizing that sometimes I will make a bad decision and it might end in misadventure but it's all part of the ~journey~. To be continued... hopefully on the sooner side!