Holly and Randy's Farming Adventure!: Six Days of Travel:60° of Warmer

Day 1:

Left Oamaru and took bus to Christchurch. Holly was the closest to being carsick that she's ever been.
Southern Alps

Arrived in Christchurch and took city bus bus to couchsurf host, where we were offered delicious curry and freshly made granola. It was a big house rented by various young international people. There was a dizzying array of faces and names, originating from places such as Australia, China, and eastern Europe. We had spent two months in New Zealand without seeing a single American, and finally met our first fellow Yankee. He hailed from New Jersey and was by far the drunkest person there, but at least we were represented.

Saying goodbye to the New Zealand countryside

Day 2:

Arose before the sun, trying to be painstakingly quiet and sneak out of our shared 10x10 room without waking our hosts.
Caught the bus to catch the bus, which took us to Picton.
Got ferry, watched terrible movie on the ferry, arrived in Wellington.
Congress building in Wellington

Took bus as close as we could to our couchsurfing destination, super kind woman exiting the bus drove us up the final huge hill.
Knocked on door.
Ten minutes later, still knocking on the door before someone finally opened it. Everyone inside was quite high.
After dumping our bags, Holly laid down and Randy went to get food
Ghandi statue in Wellington,
given by India in 20007

Randy returned and made an awesome chicken curry, and also cooked up some cheap and exotic lamb hearts.

Day 3:

Woke up early again, walked down the giant hill to the bus.
Took the bus to our bus.
Rode all day long.
Drove through Rotorua, a town with lots of geothermal activity. We'd wanted to try out the hot springs, but we never had time. It was interesting to see residents harnessing the geothermal energy to heat their homes.
10 hours later, arrived in Auckland.
Jaye, our previous friendly couchsurfing host, picked us up at the station.
Visited a bit and then passed out.

Day 4:

We explode everywhere we go

Packed and repacked bags in preparation for leaving the country.
Made more delicious burgers.
Were sad these were our last cheap grass-fed NZ burgers.

Day 5:

Woke up excruciatingly early.
Jaye kindly took us to the airport at 4 a.m.
Shrine in Bangkok
airport

Got through security with time to spare.
Were on our way to Sydney, and even though it was only a 3 hour flight. Quantas gave us breakfast.
Had a lovely flight to Bangkok, once again enjoying the perks of international flight.
Shuffled items around so our bags were just barely under the weight limit.
On our way to Singapore.

Day 6:

Had a 12 hour layover at Changi airport in Singapore, and had to wait a few hours before we could check in because it was 1 a.m.
Tried to sleep on the most awkwardly uncomfortable airport bench seats EVER.
Finally were able to check in, and were blown away by how awesome the actual terminals are.
Checked out the rooftop sunflower garden.
Sunflower garden at night

Slept on a fairly comfortable couch thing.
Meandered through other beautiful airport gardens.
Used free internet.
Checked out the free video game lounge.
Finally boarded our flight to Denpasar, Bali.
Arrived in Denpasar, Holly stayed with our stuff while Randy tried to find the Etihad airline office to switch our future tickets.
One of the many tranquil gardens at Changi

Successfully found an Etihad office, but it was only the Office of Reupholstering Airplane Seats and could not help with our tickets.
It was wicked hot and we both desperately needed to change into shorts in the bathroom.
Bought some fresh pineapple juice to cool down.
The Churning of the Milk Ocean

Went to the ATM and became millionaires ($1=1100 rupiah)
Outside a huge crowd of “taksi” guys were vying for our business, but we had been told to go to the official taxi stand.
Were soon in a taxi, glad not to be in charge of navigating the insane traffic, on our way to Kerobokan, our first volunteering gig.

Holly and Randy's Farming Adventure!