Cutie in Te Kūiti

Just a three hour flight over to New Zealand and it’s crazy how different the world looks suddenly. Goodbye flat landscapes and sandy beaches, hello rolling hills and eerie mornings. Fields of baby calves or sheep every few minutes.

Amy is very excited given her love of the fall. The whole country seems to smell of campfire. “Wow! Do you think they have pumpkin spice in July and August then??”.

New country also means our ritualistic stop at grocery store. Ben: a jar of peanut butter and bread. Amy: straight to the snack aisle to see what this neck of the woods has to offer.

Te Kūiti, which in Maori means “the valley” or the “narrowing”, is also the sheep shearing capital of the world. It’s the host to the annual New Zealand National Shearing Championships. To commemorate this incredible feat, a 6-metre statue was erected in the centre of town and Amy was very excited. She used to be self-conscious when Jake W would mock her and call her “Hick Doyle”, but now she wears that moniker proudly!

We’re staying 2 nights at a guesthouse on a farm and have some roommates - 2 cats barged into the guesthouse as we were settling in. It was quite cute until they started fighting, so we gently escorted them back outside. In the middle of the night, they wanted back in and banged on the door while scaring the shit out of us.Read more