WWOOFing

So we finally had our first WWOOFing experince at Kinloch which is about an hour north of Queenstown. IT is near the Routeburn track and Paradise, where they shot a bunch of The Lord of the Rings. It is a really beautiful place. We worked with the Glover family. They have three kids and own a B&B in Glenorchy, an inn/hostel, and a souvenir /coffeeshop. We did a bunch of jobs around. We worked on a house that is on the property next to thjeirs that they are renting so that they can house WWOOFers in the summer. We cleared brush, cut down some trees, cleaned, got rid of mold, painted, and moved stuff around to make it look more homely. We also did some mulch, some housekeeping, and I got to go into Glenorchy and work at the coffeeshop! We did some moving around and I redid a menu board and got to work by myself one day as well! It was cool. It was interesting because it was a business so it felt a lot more like we worked for them instead of with. The next place we're WWOOFing we are staying in the family's home so I think it will be a totally different experience!

We also got to meet a woman from Germany and it was wonderful to get to work and hang out with her! Her name is Maria and she actually studied in Minnesota in high school! We hiked together, watched movies/rugby, ate lots of chocolate and popcorn. It was really nice spending time with another traveller and actually getting to know her. She comes to the US relatively often so hopefully we can convince her to come to Colorado.

We got to do some cool thigns. We hiked the Routeburn, hiked Mt. Alfred, which is a mountain surrounded by a mountain range and a lake. The hike was the hardest I've ever done but it was worth it. The end was 100 meters just scaling up shale. Ugh. But it was really pretty. We biked about 7 miles to and from the hike. Big day. We also got to kayak the lake. It was great! We enjoyed our first WWOOFing esperience but we're looking forward to a different one soon!