Better Keep Moving: Space Jam

The other day, something crazy happened.

Let me explain the background first, since it started a week ago with a super cool coincidence. Andrew, the guy who picked us up when we were hitchhiking to this farm, turned out to be acquaintances with Greg, the son who's currently running the farm. He told us we would love it at the Harris' (which we do), and stopped in Kaikoura to show us the baby seals:

Anyway, we talked a lot with him, and he was really excited about the fact that we were Americans. This is a pretty normal reaction, so we didn't think twice about it. He also seemed really interested when he found out we had recently spent some time in Wanaka.

"Did you see the NASA launch?" he asked excitedly.

"The what? No..." I responded, confused but interested.

It turns out he was talking about this. NASA had recently launched an unmanned balloon from Wanaka in order to assess the Wanaka location for future launches. His excitement was soon explained: his wife is part of the New Zealand-based team working with NASA on the project.

Anyway, we finally got dropped off at the farm for the first time (Andrew conveniently knew exactly where it was, thanks to his friendship with Greg), where we met our hosts and virtually forgot about the ride.

Fast forward a week. Greg called us in from feeding the puppies one day. We thought it was just an early afternoon tea, as sometimes happens, but he instead had some news for us.

"That was Andrew on the phone," he said slowly.

"Andrew, as in our driver Andrew?" Mariah asked.

Greg nodded and took a sip of his tea before continuing.

"He told me his wife is looking for some helpers for a project they're working on..." He went on to explain that they were specifically looking for Americans (I guess for legal issues, since it's through an American company) willing to work for a week or so for free. Apparently Andrew had told his wife about us, and when she found out we've been WWOOFing around New Zealand and were Americans, she talked Andrew into calling Greg and asking permission to "steal" his wwoofers.

So, long story short, later that day we ended up back in Andrew's car. We were on the way to Donna's (his wife's) office. Remember how his wife was working on that balloon launch? That's right--we would be working (more or less) with NASA. NASA!!!!!!! It was absolutely unbelievable.
We assumed we'd only be "manual labor" of sorts. The only qualifications for this "job" were apparently a Bachelor's Degree, American citizenship, and two arms. But hey! We'll take what we can get.

Fast forward several hours. Continuing with the theme of new experiences in New Zealand, we suddenly found ourselves in a giant building--and they were working on some serious space equipment that we couldn't begin to understand. Pictures weren't allowed, unfortunately, but we already have some memories to last a lifetime.

We spent the day working with one of Donna's Assistant Aerospace Engineers, or AEs, named Richard. He was a rather dweeby middle-aged man with thick glasses--exactly the type of person I'd expect to work for NASA. He spent the day asking us to run a number of errands which usually involved finding specific rooms and fetching various supplies.

It wasn't the most exciting job I've ever done, but our first day flew by nonetheless. We went back to Donna's office that evening to get her report--basically, whether or not they wanted us to stay.

"Well girls," she said. "Richard said you've been working hard today! We'd love to have you for the week, if you're willing."

We both agreed enthusiastically. She must've loved the enthusiasm, because her next words were:

"Do you want to see something amazing?"

She took us back out into the giant room (I don't even know what those places are called... sort of like a warehouse but for spaceships?) and led us toward a couple of her coworkers, who were all wearing suits. Like, serious NASA astronaut suits. We were in awe, obviously.

Then Richard stepped forward, holding one thick suit in each hand. "Want to try them on?" he asked.

We put on the suits. It was amazing! They're so heavy, but more flexible than I expected. As we were dancing around in our suits, pretending obnoxiously that we were floating in space, Donna got our attention. She pointed at an entrance to the giant rocket-like thing (again, I have no idea) that they'd been working on.

"You two want to take a ride? Consider it a welcome gift."

The next few hours were unbelievable. Apparently the scientists here were taking the ship for a sort of "test run," which means they would take it into outer space, then land it safely back again on the same day. They strapped us in, butterflies in our stomachs, and, well.... words simply can't describe the experience. Luckily we snuck our iPhones into our suits, so we captured the whole thing in photos: