featherston

Hey everyone we've been in a little town called featherston for the past week. After visiting Edward and Auriga for the weekend, we headed off to church in the neighboring town, featherston. After deciding to fast for work, we showed up and realized it was the week they all bring a dish and have a huge pot luck after church. Classic, of course we choose this day. After taking a few plates(10) to go, we asked around for work and were invited for dinner at the branch presidents house. We quickly accepted and headed over to the Coldicutts, a couple in the ward, for some much needed patch work on wileys pants. Sister coldicutt must have patched 5 pairs of trousers and a shirt by the time we needed to be at dinner. She's a powerhouse on the sewing machine. At dinner, we were healthly fed and played games with the Bennets 4 kids who are really really awesome. We were invited for the night to stay and quickly took up the offer. In the morning after breakfast we decided it was time to pack up and head out to the spit again for a surf trip. We showed up mid afternoon and were packing to hike into the spot when i realized the minor ding i had in my back up board had turned into a cavernous hole...After considering my options, 1 get really mad and throw the whole board into a nearby rock, 2 hike in and bodysurf the grinding right pointbreak, or 3 break out the big wave board and work on my soul arch bottom turn, i decided to go with number three and grabed my heafty 6'6 board for the trip. Once at the spit, the waves were good but the wind was bad so we had a rock war and found other ways of entertaining ourselves until it got good. i would compare this time in our lives to that of the lost boys....We were throwing logs at each other and banging on pots and pans to make music. Basically anything destructive, negative, and dangerous was accomplished along with reading our scriptures...weird right? THe waves never got good that night so we went to bed with better hopes for the next day. We awoke to pumping seconds, the point wave, and were on it. After a few hour of wiley and taylor ripping and me finally getting my bottom turn down we were worn out and headed in for a food and sleep break. We decided to paddle out for another session mid day and then wiley and i had the bright idea to surf the spit (a wave that breaks a half mile out to sea) as the sun was setting. We were met half way walking there by the farmer/land owner frank who in a not very nice way told us to get off his property...aka heres my gun and my really angry rabid dog and well i'm kinda angry too look. Wiley, who had met him before tried to convince him we weren't any trouble and somehow convinced him and we were allowed to paddle out....all the way out to the spit...yay!!!! The next morning we were greeted with rain and good waves. After an all day surf we packed up for the hike back to the nice dinner that awaited us in featherston at the Coldicutts. We, along with the missionaries enjoyed a nice indian style home cooked dinner and were invited to stay the night. The next morning we attended district meeting with the missionaries and enjoyed some fresh and well needed American cooking from the missionary couple in the area. Featherston had truely been a blessing to our poor famished bodies as they were from our loop around the south island. That night The coldicutts asked if I would sing with them in their singing group which would be performing in a local bar and singing I will survive... How could I say no? It was the funniest thing I've ever done and I think wiley and taylor really enjoyed my singing with the group. We were able to get work out of the whole thing and were set the next two days with some work around the area. We spent plenty more time out with the missionaries and the families around the area who we are very greatful for. THey helped us save up our money by feeding us and giving us a place to stay. It was like a little bit of home was in featherston. We made the long drive up to gisborne the other night which ended up with wiley puking all over the road, (taylor and i had already had the same experience earlier that week) there must've been something else in featherston....but we all survived and now we're back in good old gisborne! Tonight we're cooking dinner for the bishops family and we'll be off to the northland. Hope all is well at home!

there's something fishy going on around here

After nearly a month on the south island, we've fled for the warmer weather and sunshine back on the north island. We left the perfect barrels of curio bay a day or two after the last post not because of lack of surf obviously but because we were all concerned about losing our feet to frostbite. After a week there we figured north to Duniden would be a great option. Once there, we surfed super crowded st. clair and were over it. Plus there were no barrels and it almost seemed colder! Our plans of being there for a week quickly dissipated and we began our journey to the legendary right pointbreaks of Kaikoura. (of course we celebrated the local holiday first though with tons of fireworks)... The ride to Kaikoura was long and arguous and was the first and only drive so far that we've taken two days on. On the drives we have a lot of time to talk seeing that we don't have a radio and no one likes my singing or the kazoo (thank you bobby). We cover a wide range of topics from dude your leg is touching me, I sat middle last time, the waves are gonna be SICK!!!! and my personal favorite, I cant wait to eat a burrito! Once we get on the subject of mexican food its like we all go into a trance and immediatly get along. We have each vowed to not eat at all once back in the states until we all have a huge double wrapped burrito from Corrales in our hands.. The only problem with talking about it is that it always ends up in a horribly dishearteining stop at a local market or gas station only to remember that we're in New Zealand and the nearest mexi food place is over 1000 miles away.....anyways, we made it to Kaikoura and much to our delight found sun and glassy water. The next two days weren't good for surf but we got some diving and reading in. Tuesday we scored hard though and found out why they say Kaikoura pumps. The right point picture is of an epic little wave we got and we took it right before session number 4 that day. Midway through the day we were at mangnamanu for a inbetweener session when i noticed taylor on the beach looking quite over it. He waved me in and when I got to shore i noticed a nice big gash on his forhead. On closer inspection, after deciding to go to the hospital for possible stitches, we found the cut to resemble exactly in every way, the scar on Harry Potter's head. Oh yes we now have a fully functional wizard with us on our trip. Four stitches, a day out of the water, and 2 liters of ice cream were the end result and wiley and i were back to the surf for sessions 4 and 5 of the day. Also, a quick side note, while taylor was in the hospital, Wiley and I went for a quick surf check aka super sick solo session at a right point. Not to say I believe in karma or anything but the evidences of taylors newfound magic was at hand. Wiley told taylor as we dropped him off that we weren't gonna surf(a lie of course). Midway through surfing, a bee (bewitched no doubt) flew 150 ft into the ocean, landed on Wiley's neck, and stung him with out being agrovated at all. He was pissed and asked me to get the stinger out at which request i flicked him in the neck 3 or 4 times and with each flick said "sorry dude!" and had no luck at getting it out. haha The next few day's wiley looked like a boofed fat kid. it was like our fat childhoods all over again. We stayed for a few more days hanging out with some friends we'd met but decided to head north with high hopes of being warm and getting work since we are all low on cash. One last thing of course, we booked our ferry ride on friday the 13th...Why does that sound like a bad decision? The day was sunny, warm, and perfect leading up to driving our van onto the ferry when all of a sudden...BAM a massive southernly storm front hit us and the crossing was delayed. I thought we were all gonna die and the crossing was horrible. I will never travel on that day again, but we did get to watch movies on the ride which was sweet and the movie was... 17 again! YAY! We're safe now and happy back in martinborough.

The Catlins

Its cold...

We made the long drive from the west coast to the southland last week to be greated by pumping surf, something we all dearly needed. Since we're all runing a little short on cash and don't really want to work we have come up with a little list of ways to save money and not save money.

3 ways to save:

1. Travel by wind

2. Surf all day so you don't think about eating

3. Stay on a beach where the waves are perfect...everyday

3 ways not to save:

1. Breaking surfboards

2. Driving an hour to check onshore waves when its pumping back at the place you started out at

3. Discovering the local shop has double scoop ice cream cones for... only 3 dollars!!!