New Zealand's South Island. Where to begin? It's home to the hip college town of Dunedin, the mighty and mysterious fjordland, a (probably) magical rain forest up the west cost, and more Lord of the Rings filming locations than you can shake a stick at.
Read MoreHome, Home on the Rangiora
To be fair, one cannot exactly be ON Rangiora. It is not a singular thing, but a small city just north of Christchurch. Additionally, we were more specifically in West Eyreton - which is less of a town and more of a series of intersections, thus the terrible pun of a reference to the nearest populated area with a substantial Centre and collection of local and chain businesses. Regardless, this is the area that we spent three weeks of work exchange with a generous local family.
Read MoreThree Characters
Above is the sunset sky over some barley fields next to the workstay we've been at since arriving in New Zealand at the end of January. We had a day long layover in Auckland before continuing on south - time enough to realize that we are well and truly out of Southeast Asia. The roads here are wider and don't carry a quarter of the motorbikes, street food relatively just doesn't exist, and there's a quiet stillness that I think we only found a few times in Asia*.
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