Some people are awesome

We've packed up our things and left our very cute Airbnb to travel to our next one. On route we passed through a town called Oxford. We were optimistic it would be at least large enough to have a stroll around but the shops were not extensive and with the rain it was hard to want to walk along the high street. Instead we called in at the local bakery for a morning coffee and pie to wake us up. We're a little obsessed with pies now because of the fact single portion pies are such a big thing here in NZ. My sister Katherine would love it! Nick had his first try at venison because we've seen so many deer farms around but I stuck to a standard country chicken which was with bacon and mushroom. It's such a filling, warming and homely snack that we're quite hooked on to the point where this may be a pie tour of New Zealand we are currently on! We did get to see Oxford's old jail block: a red building which I honestly thought were toilets. There's two cubicle sized cells and that's it. I'm pretty sure it'd be easy to break someone out seeing as the walls are made of wood but hey it seemed to work for the town in the olden days. Our next stop was a town called Cust, I think someone cut off the 'ard' from the sign. There was even less in Cust but there was a patchwork shop randomly on its own so we called in just to have a little look if there was any amazing fabrics for my quilt. There wasn't unfortunately and because we were the only customers we ended up talking to the owner quite a while because it felt like we couldn't just leave. She was lovely and all but it was a little awkward when she disagrees with the dairy industry. We were still a lot earlier than we could check in so we decided to head to the town of Rangiora which to our pleasant surprise is actually quite big with lots of amenities. It was here while strolling around that I realised my foot was soaking from the water on the ground so I looked at my shoes to discover a large part of the grip missing from the bottom and a long chuck of rubber from the side had gone too. You could feel the fabric inside so it was just soaking water up like a sponge. Luckily we had all our stuff with us so I could change socks and shoes. These were my hiking shoes as well so we are now on the hunt for shoes while near Christchurch. We did discover a UK food store which got us very excited but it was mostly junk food and highly priced. I did give in to some rolos and chewits though. Eventually after killing time we headed to our Airbnb where we were greeted by Sheryl, our host. She was very warm and inviting and you could tell she is a mum. Her husband Rob came home later on and we ended up talking to them both for 4 and a half hours and she made us dinner. I think they missed the company of their daughters. When Rob was a student he cycled over India and ended up getting rather sick so a family in a village took him in and looked after him for a week. That sparked a friendship and they've been visiting the family in the village ever since, even with their daughters. As much as you talk to be about India and try to explain it unless the person has been there it's just impossible for them to understand what it is like. We haven't been to a country like it since and I doubt we will again but 100% I'd go back to India any day in a heartbeat.Read more