robin put up pictures again! apple picking, meta's visit, wwoofing, lentz family visit. the works. you should check them out to get a more accurate picture of why life happens to be so grand.

http://picasaweb.google.com/RobinEFail

love,
maggie

there are few things in life at which i truly excel. one of them is hangzoning and over the past week i have had the opportunity to show off my skill set. robin and i have been in wellington staying with caroline holcomb, a friend from unc, and her friend from high school, eva, both of whom have done the robin and me thing by moving here for a year!

the four of us have spent the last week watching season two of dawson's creek, worshiping pacey whitter, cooking together, taking walks, and making hot drinks. it has been so nice to be in one place where robin and i can just be. caroline and eva have also made us the happiest girls ever by deciding to come to the cook islands with us in september!!! with the weather getting cooler, i am already anticipating the warm waters of the cook islands as a welcome change. can't make it to visit in new zealand? why not meet us at the cook islands in september!

i think it is sometimes hard for people who haven't been to new zealand to understand exactly how small it is here. a good example is that now robin and i have picked up THREE hitchhikers that we know. last week as we were driving up the south island to catch the ferry across to wellington, robin and i simultaneously looked at each other and screamed "is that eddie?" as we drove by an asian hitchhiker bedecked with bags on every limb. clearly, we turned the car around to realize that it was in fact eddie, our korean friend from apple picking who we had last seen on the north island over a month ago. small world.

i just finished reading barbara kingsolver's latest book, animal, vegetable, miracle (a memoir documenting her family's experiment to grow their own food for a year. also, blogger won't let me underline the name of the book) and was disappointed by it. being a fan of everything else i have read of hers, i was surprised at my disinterest in the book - and then it hit me! this is a boring book to me because i know, like actually know, all of the stuff she is writing about. i know when to plant vegetables, i how to harvest them, i know different methods for storing them, i know how to make compost. i know what food looks like. had i read that book a year ago, i am sure i would have found it intriguing and her mission novel, but having lived kingsolver's life for the past seven months, it seems silly to me that she could make a living writing about it! ha! my, how things change.

tomorrow robin and i leave the haven of caroline and eva's and are back to another home, carolyn's for what we think will be the remainder of april. :)

love,
maggie