http://bikeandbrewtour.com a cross country brew tour on bikes Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:14:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Even though we haven’t done much bike and brew specific things in the past few months, the twig is still with us.   During one of our trips into Blenheim with our WWOOFing hosts at the blueberry farm, we found ourselves wandering around town trying to find one of the local ... http://bikeandbrewtour.com/new-zealand/renaissance-women/ After the backpacker bus, our New Zealand travels slowed down a bit.  We did our second WWOOFing job, this time at a blueberry and plum orchard in Renwick, right in the middle of all the Marlborough vineyards.  We spent 8 lovely days with our hosts, Jennie and Bob at Windsong ... http://bikeandbrewtour.com/new-zealand/blueberries/ Dec 22, 2009 - Jan 22, 2010 Getting on the Stray bus, one of many backpacker buses that does loops around New Zealand’s north and south islands, was like stepping into another world of travel.  Unlike my previous travel experiences, where the majority of the day is taken up by figuring ... http://bikeandbrewtour.com/new-zealand/the-new-zealand-backpacker-bus-in-1000-words-or-less/ 12/21/2009 Monday morning our alarms went off at 6:30am and we begrudgingly packed up our huge backpacks for our journey back to Auckland.  Our bus picked us up right on time at 7:45am, and we made the 6 hour journey back to the big smoke.  It was sort of frustrating, ... http://bikeandbrewtour.com/new-zealand/a-day-in-auckland/ 12/19-20/09 The next few days we were the only WWOOFers at the brewery, which we thought would be lonely, but actually it was quite nice.  We biked around more and did some reading.  Finished up a few more New Yorkers to lighten the load.  Saturday was an extraordinarily busy day, because ... http://bikeandbrewtour.com/usa/mikes-organic-days-6-7/ 12/18/2009 Friday at the brewery was an insightful day.  We were labeling again, but this time working side by side with Ron, Jill's husband and co-owner of the brewery.  Being a smaller operation, it was cool to see how everyone chips in, be it washing dishes, labeling bottles, or restocking fridges.  ... http://bikeandbrewtour.com/new-zealand/mikes-organic-day-5/ 12/16/09 Its funny, even working half day we sleep a lot more than when we were just chillin’ all day.  We woke up just before we had to start working, grabbed some coffee and then finished us some gardening from the day before.  In fact, we finished that so quickly that ... http://bikeandbrewtour.com/new-zealand/mikes-organic-days-3-and-4/ 12/15/2009 We were a bit exhausted in the morning, some animals – presumably possums – had a party around 2am on the tin roof of our little cottage while we were sleeping.  It not only woke us up, it was kind of creepy.  By the time we got back to ... http://bikeandbrewtour.com/new-zealand/mike%e2%80%99s-organic-%e2%80%93-day-2/ We rolled out of bed at our hostel in New Plymouth, NZ excited to not only be off the typical tourist track, but also going to work at a BREWERY!  We had arranged to work at Mike’s Organic (also know at the White Cliffs Brewery) for 1 week and we ... http://bikeandbrewtour.com/new-zealand/mikes-organic-brewery-day-1/ 12/12-13/09 After the Bay of Islands, we spent another day in Auckland, this time at the hostel next up on the financial scale.  The extra few bucks was totally worth it, as our new digs had a roof-deck with the hot tub, a big kitchen and much more friendly staff.  ... http://bikeandbrewtour.com/new-zealand/another-brand-of-traveler/