Vegans and Possum Skinners!

Hello All!

Our travels have taken us off the beaten track to meet some colorful NZ folk. We stopped at a tavern outside of Rotorua. It said it had places to sleep, so we checked it out. A few hours later, we had a place to sleep, and were closing the bar drinking beers with local farmers. For those familiar with Colinton, imagine us at the New Zealand equivalent of the Colinton Bar drinking with farmers. We talked about possum skinning (it's easier when they're still warm!), where to get the best meat pies, milking cows (we were offered a job "pullin titties" at a local farm), and fishing. The conversation ended with a frozen trout slapped down on the bar. It was awesome! They bought us all our drinks too!

Then, the polar opposites... The next day we were ordering some vegetarian pies at a thermal tourist place... (we had to try the pies after the high recommendation from the farmers!). While we walked, two friendly Aussies wanted to be friends with us because they were vegans and we were vegetarians. We walked all over the thermal wonderland and had nice conversation while taking in the sights. Then they invited us (and a random German girl) back to their camper van and they whipped up some delicious vegan lunch, accompanied by beer and wine. (who knew that only some beer and wine are vegan-friendly? Lots are filtered with fish products. weird, eh?).

Then we hit the road. We've camped five nights so far (half our time here). It is bloody cold. I think that Jason's circulation is better than corinne's, so last night we stayed at the "settlers motor inn". It was quaint. We slept in a parked motorcoach attached to a cabin. We had an electric heater! Awesome!

We're done with the typing. Internet is costly here.

Want a few random pictures? Here they are:

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