On to New Zealand

Our last week in the USA is over and we now move on to New Zealand for a month. Oh, we’re excited! We really liked our time in the States, however after 6 months it was really time to move on.

Working with Mike and Misato on Hawaii was a fitting ending, where we helped to produce big colourful plates and vases. Our job was to lay out the tools, protect Mike from the heat and manually open and close the doors of the heating drum. We also pre-warmed the colours for Mike to use. He was a bit sceptical of whether we could do this with the 16cm long pieces, therefore Misato would do it. But in the end, both of us were allowed to have a go, and all went well.

During this time our hosts, friends of M&M, flew to the mainland and left us in charge of the house and the dog. In the beginning we confused ourselves a bit, as one thought the other might have already walked and fed the dog, however we got there in the end. Patrizia and Bill were lovely. Patrizia isn’t a glass maker as such, but produces glass beads and jewellery which she sells online.

Our final day we spent back in Honolulu, from where we had started. Here we stayed with our second CouchSurfing contact and together we went on a long tour of the island, Oahu.  We jumped in the water at some of the famous surfing beaches, where the waves were as flat as a pancake and perfect for swimming.

After an 11 hour flight and a short overnight stay at the airport, we arrived in New Zealand and hitched a lift towards Hamilton to meet with Karin Barr. She’s originally from Stuttgart and married a New Zealander, and together they run a big dairy farm. Karin works with glass casting and introduced us to something we knew very little about. The next day we all visited Graeme Hitchcock’s studio, where once a month she meets with two friends to work together, exchange new ideas and have fun.