WWOOFing in Diamond Harbor

We arrived Sunday night and met Wendy and Micheal, our WWOOF hosts. We did some weeding, raking, power sanding, and nail setting this morning and then set off to explore the town. We took a hike on a Mt. Herbert trail but didn't reach the top. Most of it was in pastures so we ended up turning around after an hour.

Accomadations are set up in a garage which can be a bit noisy in the wind but we both slept well last night. Not quite the same as some of the other plush places we've been staying but easier than setting a tent up each night.

They aren't connected to city water at the farm so they rely a lot on collecting rain water from their roofs and storing it in tanks. Apparently water can be scarce at times (not right now thankfully) so it is always important to conserve it. Really changes your perspective on the weather when a rain might mean being able to take a shower and flush the toilet! They also have their own "sewer" which is a natural filter that all their grey and black water goes through before watering the orchards.

Today was more weeding, mulching around trees with the weeded grass, and some heavy duty weed-whipping. Mind you weeding back home was picking a few short weeds out of the garden but this weeding is pulling dense knee high grass out by the fist full. It's in among the flowers so there isn't room to get the weed whip in.

Friday we'll head north to the Nelson region for a kayak trip that the Christchurch club is organizing.

Christchurch

We are currently hanging around Christchurch for a few days to take in the sights. We've been to the cathedral downtown, to a yarn store to pick up some more NZ wool, and we booked a surf lesson off New Brighton beach for Friday morning. Tonight there is a fireworks display near where we're camping. We also bought tickets to see the NZ rugby finals, which are being played between Christchurch's provincial team, Canterbury, and Wellington on Saturday night. Should be a fun couple of days. Now, some random photos:

Jason (far right) with the kayaking group on the Hurunui.

The two of us at Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island.

Meg waiting for the kayakers on the Hurunui River and taking in the view.
A little dark, but you can see our 92 Toyota Camry on the left of our campsite at the Kai Iwi Lakes on the N. Island.Jason coloring in the children's corner while Meg picks out yarn.
The Pass Stream flock running from our car.

Tailing and more

On our way south we stopped near Rotorua and visited Buzz and Patsy (mates of Mike and Linda). They took us on a boat tour of their lake and shared some mussels with us (Megan wasn't too keen on them). In the morning we went to watch the whitewater rafters go over some falls and then left with packed lunches, some gourmet yogurt, and a jar of honey. We wished we had more time to spend there but are hoping to pop in on them again on our way back to Auckland at some later date.

In Christchurch, I picked up a kayak and on Sunday paddled down a section of the Hurunui River with Becs, Bill, Graeme, and Doug from the local paddling club. The scenery was amazing even if the paddling was relatively tame. Looking forward to doing lots more paddling.

We headed to a little farm (Pass Stream Farm) where Sue and Bruce (more mates of Mike and Linda) have a heap of sheep. On Tuesday, I got to help with tailing the lambs (bobbing the tails so they don't get full of poo and attract flies and such). It was fun to be doing some "work" and interesting to learn a bit about raising sheep from Bruce. The only bummer was losing my wedding ring which we were never able to find. Since I'd found the ring in the Mississippi River myself, I can't be too bitter about it. Maybe the Golum that Megan thought was in the cave will pick it up. Bruce and Sue are actually trying to sell thier farm so there is a link with pictures of their place below (or if you're looking to buy in NZ). The views were magnificent and the food fabulous.
http://www.realestate.co.nz/1101510/images

We're in Christchurch right now and will be attending a bee club meeting on Saturday. Sunday we head to Diamond Harbor (just south of Christchurch) for WWOOFing.

Another quick update from a library in Waihi

Mike and Linda have put us in touch with a bunch of their mates around the island. They've been fantastic and have become our "home base" while we're here. We freshened up (shower/laundry/sleeping in a bed) on Tuesday before a wonderful dinner with them before heading off again Wednesday morning.

We're sprinting south to Wellington to take the ferry to Picton to drive to Christchurch to get there in time to go whitewater paddling on Nov 1. It's a little sad having to fly by and not spend as much time exploring as we'd like to but we plan to come back to the North Island later to do more exploring.

On one of our stops, I decided to try snorkeling and look for mussels. As I climbed back out, Megan noticed pools of blood on the rocks at my feet. I'd cut them up on the rocks/shells. It took 5 bandaids to cover the cuts on my feet and a few on my hand. Lesson learned though.

After the kayaking, one of Mike and Linda's mates said we could stop by where he'll be doing tailing - putting rings on the lambs tails so that they eventually fall off. We're looking forward to helping with the operation.

It's been a little tough to keep the blog updated with all the things we're doing so I think it will turn into something of these quick updates along with occassional recaps that include photos. It's fun to realize people are keeping up with our travels so it's fun to share what we're doing.

Clowning Around

As we drove around, we stopped along the way to check out the small towns. One of them happened to have a playground and I couldn't resist having a go at some of the spots. This one was sort of a cup that you could sit in, pump your legs and torso like on a swing, and it set you spinning. Or at least I think that's what you're supposed to do? I got it going pretty fast and Megan made me stop when she said my face was turning red.

In Whangarei (Oct 20) we stopped for a picnic in the park and hiked to the falls where I decided I had to go for a swim. The water was a bit chilly so I drew a lot of stares from the other tourists. It was incredible looking up at the falls from below and swimming away on my back.









The flowers and plants here are quite different from those we're used to in Minnesota. We've taken pictures of a few of them. On each of the hikes we go on, we are often stopping to admire the ferns, flowers, and trees. It is impressive how quickly outside of Auckland there is a natural feel to the land (vs. the suburbs that sprawl from Minneapolis).

Lang's Beach Area - Oct 16 to Oct 19

On the way up to Lang's Beach we spied a cememtary that looked interesting. All the stones were facing out to sea. A lot of the family names were Scottish and some of the deceased were from Nova Scotia. We learned later that the nearby town had been settled by immigrants from there who had been forced to leave Scotland, left Nova Scotia because it was too harsh, and tried Australia before ending up in New Zealand.

Mike and Linda offered up their beach house for us to stay at and we took full advantage of it, staying for 4 nights. It was a fantastic place looking out onto the ocean with the sound of the surf putting you to bed each night. We enjoyed just relaxing about, walking on the beach, and sleeping in. The stars were amazing here and we took the opportunity to learn some of the southern constellations and even saw some of the Orionid meteor shower.

North of the beach house was the town of Waipu which had some caves. We stopped by with the intent of going in them but found that our headlamps were a bit dim and there was a fair amount of water that we had no idea how deep it was. We returned the next day armed with fresh batteries for our headlamps and a better torch (flashlight). The water was now low enough that you could see the bottom (had only been 8" deep previously but we couldn't tell that). We tramped through the cave, sometimes in the water but mostly on muddy rock. Inside there were stalagtites and mites and even little glowing worms. They showed up as little green dots on the cave ceiling. When you turned out your light it almost felt like being outside with the glowworms being like stars. I really got a kick out of the caving since in the States everything is "Don't touch" or "Stay Out". Here you could explore as you wanted and touch the stuff that looked like a pile of mud to find out it was just a solid pile of minerals left behind. Megan halfway expected Gollum to pop out and ask for his Precious.

Quick update from a library in Kawakawa

We stumbled into a library with free internet so we thought we'd give a quick update. Photos and other details to follow at some later date.

We headed north from Auckland to Waipu, Lang's Beach, Whangarei, and are going to Maitai Bay tonight. Mike and Linda, who we know only though a mutual friend, let us relax at their beach house for a few days while we got settled. Now we're camping out the back of the 92 Toyota Camry wagon (same color as Jason's Volvo wagon) that we bought in Auckland. We stopped at a thrift store and bought some vintage cassettes to play in the radio. Other adventures have included: swimming through a waterfall, getting our credit card eaten at an ATM, climbing hills, stargazing, and hiking into caves.