New Zealand: Hit the ground running, only to spin your tires.

We touched down in New Zealand ready to jump back into work.  Not as easy as it sounds.  Things seemed to move slowly as we tried to figure out the best way to jump into the harvest culture here.  Apparently, we had a pretty good semi-consistent schedule in Argentina.  Hopping on board with a different operation here hasn't been as simple as we'd hoped.

The first few days were full of driving here and there, searching out the combines, making lots of phone calls, and showing up somewhere only to be told there wasn't much we could do at the time.  After one such turning away Saturday morning, we graciously accepted a change of plans and spent the afternoon trying to put together a homemade grain cart.  Not my idea of fun.  At all.  Needless to say, I wasn't much help.  After that almost-disastrous adventure, we set off for the coast.  We figured, we're only about 30 minutes away, let's check it out.  On the way...

 Rain.

Story of our lives this week.  Every time we turn around, it's raining.  Doesn't usually last too long, though.

 The sun did come out then.

It was a beautiful beach on the west side of New Zealand.  You can drive out on the sand, and we have a rented truck, so we braved the sand.

Which was black.

How cool is that?

I've always been curious to see a black sand beach.  From what I understand, it comes from volcanic rock being crushed to fine sand by the waves.  The beach was wide and lined by tall, grass covered cliffs.  We found a waterfall and, of course, Jonathan climbed it.  I stayed on the ground.  

Yesterday was Sunday and we attended a local church in the morning.  With the rain, there wasn't much we could do with the combines, so we took off in the afternoon for another adventure.  A place called Cathedral Cove.

We got sidetracked on the way when we saw signs for Hot Water Beach.  

 Gorgeous blue-green water color.

It was a little disappointing, though, since the water seemed pretty normal temperature to us, maybe slightly warmer for this time of year, who knows.  

 Run!  Before you get your feet wet!

Turns out, there was a little hike down to Cathedral Cove.  It was a nice 30 minute walk through lots of diversity--jungle, rolling, grass-covered hills, rocky cliffs, ending at a beautiful beach.

One such jungly spot.

This doesn't do it justice, of course.  It was so exotic!

Cathedral Cove

It was amazing!  A cathedral in the real sense.  The sound of the waves echoed off the cavern walls like a choir in a church!  Jonathan did run all the way through over on the left side of the picture.  I didn't because I was a coward and didn't want to ride home all wet.  He says it was worth it.  By the way, anybody recognize this place?  I'll give you a hint, 4 kids walk out of this cave from another world.

A spectacular pedestal rock nearby Cathedral Cove.

On the way back from our adventure, we headed out to one of the combines to finish an install.  It turned out to be a rather miserable time.  It was late, and soon after we arrived it started raining.  At least Jonathan was already wet from his splash in the waves, right?  Several hours later (that's always how it goes, takes longer than you think) we made it back to the hotel and, boy, did a shower feel good!  After a short night, we set out early for a meeting at a farm a few hours south, after we dropped off the homemade weight cart to get some electrical work done.  It was a beautiful crisp morning, mist rising off the hills.  So far, sunshine today!