New Zealanders are incredibly nice, unexpectedly trustworthy... and it scares me. Why would someone leave their business in the hands of 3 men they met a week ago? What would make them feel secure? They don't have our passports, any collateral, or even our last names. It's insane I tell you, but maybe they've mastered the art of judging people. Because if there were 3 young chaps like ourselves hosting my hostel, I'd feel like I put it in safe hands.

So we've gotten stuck in Oamaru. It's a quiet town that boasts itself as the largest town in New Zealand. It barely reaches 15,000 people. But we've been staying at this hostel for free in exchange for doing a few things around the place. So far we've laid down flooring, set up a theater, built an outdoor kitchen, and hung pictures and shelves all about the house. Now Kelly has gone to Christchurch to celebrate her 30th birthday and that leaves the three stooges in charge. Little known fact, New Zealanders love using that as a reference towards us all the time.

But Christchurch, damn, that's a fun city. We had a blast there, enjoying the botanical gardens that stretch around the river near the center of town. It was also our luck that a Documentary Film Festival was happening during our stay. We dropped our things at a local hostel outside of the center and were dumbfounded to a) share a room with two kids that patrick shared a dorm with in Auckland weeks before, and b) that they were a couple. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend the extra couple bucks at a hostel for a private room? Just not my style I suppose, or maybe they're cutting economic corners left and right.

The town kept us busy for a few days until we could meet up with some folks I met in Fiji. They are an odd couple. World travelers and such, but jesus, they smoke a lot of weed. They treated us great and fed us dinner, all in exchange for nothing, just company. We stayed there two nights and then hit the road for Oamaru. I tell you, Oamaru treats you right, and we haven't even been to the whiskey distillery yet. The penguins were by far the coolest thing to see in this town, and it's sort of frightening how many times we've been to the recycle yard to pick up junk to build with at the house. And I guess I did learn a little about stone sculpting in the process. Yeah, things are chillin.

Well, anyway, that's what were up to these days. Next stop is Dunedin.