Glow worms and Camper vans

The drive down to Auckland was lots of car sick fun.  I originally had the front seat, but had to switch out quickly with Ashlie.  We switch back and forth between front seat rider because we both suffer from motion sickness.   Ashlie had been sick with a cold since she went diving in Tutukaka. I think it made her more susceptible to carsickness than usual and up in Northland the roads are super windy.  Francine had to pull over even after Ashlie was in the front.  EEK!  I just laid down in the back and tried to ignore my own.  I usually can.  Practice makes perfect. 

 I really wanted to see the glow worm caves in Waitomo.  They are supposed to be the best in New Zealand.  Unfortunately, while we were in Tutukaka (which is nearby the caves) there just wasn’t time to go.  Francine suggested we stop by a glow worm cave on the way back down to Auckland.  So I looked through our Lonely Planet and found a free cave on the way there, Abby Caves.  We spotted a cave sign shortly after we made the decision.  This was not Abbey Caves and cost $20.  Neither Francine nor I wanted to pay if there were free caves still on the way.  So we headed off and about an hour later found Abbey Caves. 

Francine, Ashlie and Me at Abbey Caves

 It was a little of a hike to get to the caves.  There were three caves in the complex.  The first one we walked right past and then had to double back.  We checked it out and it seemed a bit difficult to get into, so we moved on to the second cave.   

We crossed our fingers that it wasn’t too far away or difficult to climb.  Luckily it was only a little bit of a scramble down some boulders, then some ankle deep ice cold water to wade through.  Once we were far enough into the cave that we could no longer see day light we all turned off our flashlights and looked up.  It was like constellations that you could touch, if you were a giant.  They were a beautiful iridescent blue color and it was on the walls and ceilings.  I was impressed.  We didn’t stay in the cave for too long, but enjoyed it while we were there.  These little glow worms were pretty cool.

glow worms

  

hiding out from the cops

The rest of the ride was uneventful.  We did give a few hitchhikers a ride into town, but most of my time was spent lying down in the back of the van.  I didn’t want to risk us getting a ticket, so it’s better to lay low. 

Because of our little detour we did run into some rush hour Auckland traffic.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought.  But we did have to drive right into the heart of the city to drop Ashlie off at her friend’s house.  

We had discussed sleeping arrangements before we left for Auckland.  The original plan was for me and Ashlie to stay at her friend’s house, but then we learned that Francine was staying alone at a free parking area.  Ashlie insisted that one of us should stay with her, just for safety sake.  I said I would because Ashlie had been so sick, I thought a warm bed would help her more than a cold camper van.  She grudgingly agreed.  She really wanted the camper van experience.  We were supposed to buy one for this trip, but I had calculated it all out and I couldn’t afford it. :/  

 The free parking area was Point Erin Park, a pretty nice neighborhood and tons of people were there.  

 Francine’s goal in Auckland was to sell her camper van so as soon as we figured out where we were we jumped on a bus to put fliers around.  I am now the hostel queen of Auckland.  Francine and I went on a hostel tour with her fliers.  It was a little discouraging to see so many other cars for sale in the cars-for-sale books.  

 

The camper van I lived in for two days.

Sleeping that night was cool.  The camper van has a bench that folds out into a full size bed and the back had everything you need to cook.  A stove, spices, dishes… it was awesome.  I wish I had bought a camper van when I first came to New Zealand instead of a scooter.  This trip would have turned out way differently.  The next day was taking the van to a let where Francine could sell her van and me wandering around op shops looking for warmerish clothing.

 

 Our last night together was spent in a café putting Francine’s van on trade me and eating nachos.  After that bit of productivity we had Korean ramyan (I picked it up at the Korean grocery store) and then headed off to bed and good conversation.  

 

Carrying these two bad boys.  No way Jose!

 In the morning Francine offered to drive me to the bus stop.  I wanted to take the bus into town, but the logistics of two giant backpacks was almost impossible.  Ashlie had left her bag with us so she wouldn’t need to walk with it all over Auckland with it, but neither of us had planned it through to her getting her bag back from Francine.  Luckily in the end I only had to carry the backpacks together for about three blocks, but even that was difficult.  My arms hurt after.  Ashlie arrived 5 minutes before the bus was due to leave, but we made it and it was off to Hobbiton!

New Zealandy stuff

Here is a collection of things distinctly New Zealand that I have noticed while living here.  This list is not all New Zealand things.  Just what I have noticed or pertains to me.  Enjoy this quirky list.

Afghan - chocolate flavored cookie, usually made from cornflakes, covered in chocolate icing.  NOT a blanket or a person of Afghanistan decent.

All Blacks - New Zealand's number one sports team.  These big beefy guys play Rugby and people are nuts about them, as they should be.  They're good, very good.  they have been awarded team of the year on many occasions and have won the Rugby Wold Cup countless times.  When you come to New Zealand you will see All Black signs on the sides of barns, advertised on restaurant menus, and on every article of clothing you could imagine.  Who doesn't want a pair of All Black undies?  Or All Blacks in their undies? 

Thank you All Blacks for signing a three year deal with Jockey!

Aluminum - This was the first New Zealand word I came across and by chance in Korea.  My friend Dominic introduced me to the proper pronunciation of aluminum while we were cooking for one of our well loved Midumhanaro (apartment building) dinners.  It's pronounced al-u-min-ee-um, not a-lume-min-um, like those thick headed Americans say.  ;)  tomato tomato.  *shrugs*

ANZAC - A holiday, a cookie and short for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.  The holiday is like Memorial Day in the United States.  Everyone pays respect to the soldiers that served in WWI and WWII, especially the soldiers that died in the battle of Gallipoli, in Turkey.  The cookies were traditionally baked and then sent to the soldiers in care packages.  I love the cookies.  They are made of coconut, ginger, oats, golden syrup and a few other things.  My wwoofing host, Rikki, makes amazing ANZAC cookies.  Here is a recipe similar to what she makes, but I would add some raisins or cranberries too.

aubergine - eggplant

Aye/eh - A positive sound.... like yeah.  That was good, eh? = That was good, right?


bickies - A shortened form of biscuit, meaning cookie.

gum boots - Wellys, rain boots, rubber boots.  Everyone has them, I mean everyone.  Even 2 year olds.  They are super stylish.  You could even wear them to the pub.  Probably derived from the shoes the gum diggers wore.  I'm picking up my first pair in one week.

courgette- zucchini 

chips - french fries

chook - chicken

crisps - potato chips

dairy - A corner/convenience store.  The most common dairy is a Four Square.

duvet - A comforter.  Whenever I say comforter instead of duvet I am corrected.  I'm not sure why this is.

flash - something fancy or new.  I often hear about people with flash boats or houses.



haka - A traditional New Zealand war dance.  Originally used to intimidate enemies, now used before games and often taught in school.  They make funny faces, you should check it out.

Pūkana, or the facial expression used during the Haka

heaps - Ashlie got me saying this word.  It means a lot.  Ex: There was heaps of rain the other day.

hen party - A bachelorette party.  The male equivalent is a stag party.

hokey pokey - Deliciousness is what this is, especially in ice cream.  Hokey pokey are small bits of honeycomb toffee.  The ice cream is just vanilla ice cream with these yummy bits in it.

ice block - ice pop, Popsicle

Jandles: thong sandals or flip flops

Keen -to want to do something. I'm keen on that. = I like that idea.  I'm keen to go.  I really want to go... this sort of thing.  Also another word that Ashlie got me saying, and she's not even a Kiwi!

kererū

kererū - New Zealand wood pigeon, beautiful and has a distinctive wing noise from an extra feather.

Kia Ora - If someone says Kia Ora to you, don't freak out.  They are just saying Hi or Welcome, basically a formal greeting.  Sometimes it means thank you and goodbye.

kiwi (3) - kiwi bird: the native and national bird to New Zealand. Kiwi fruit: a popular fruit of New Zealand, but originally from china. Kiwi: A New Zealand citizen.

lolly - candy

I steal blatantly from the internet

maori - The native New Zealand people. Like in North America we have Native Americans and First Nations people. The Maori are an important part of the New Zealand culture. Their language is widely spoken and their history is taught in New Zealand National curriculum. They still have villages all over and actively participate in the New Zealand government.

marmite - A yeast based spread, usualy  used on toast. It's very salty and you only need a little.

op shop - Opportunity shop or second hand shop. This is were I do almost all of my shopping. I got my giant backpack there for $6.

pukeko

pukekeo - A really cool native bird.

pavloava - A meringue based desert. Topped with cream and fresh fruit. There is a war between New Zealand and Australia of who really owns this tasty dessert. I've been making it since I was a young girl when mom asked me to make her one.

pissed - Drunk

rubbish - trash. I get made fun of for saying trash can. It's rubbish bin. Get it right!

Sleepout - A small accomidation, usually consisting of a bedroom. Sometimes they have a kitchen or bathroom attached.

Sweet As - Awesome, or something good. I have not started saying this phrase yet.

Tea - Dinner

 
Tui - Native bird that lives around my house.  Makes a ton of noise.  It's has two voice boxes, so it can imitate almost anything and makes clicks and noise from trees and humans.

Zed - The letter Z.  It still takes me a minute when people say it.

The most northen tip of New Zealand: Cape Reinga

90 mile beach holiday park

Deb (our new wwoofing host) picked us up at the bus stop in Kaitaia.  She is the owner of the 90 Mile Beach  Holiday Park that was about a half hour from town.  She had a cute little dog with her, and she said they had 4 more at home.  A dog lover!  It must be a wwoofing match made in heaven.  After a bit of shopping we headed to the park and there we met Deb’s husband, daughter, Ema (their Au Pair) and Francine (a fellow wwoofer).  That night there was no work for us to do in the park so we were free to do our own thing.  So Ashlie and I headed out to walk the 90 mile beach.

It was stunning!  It also looked the same in every direction.  I walked for about 30 minutes north and nothing changed.  I made sure I kept an eye on the sand dunes on the way back to make sure I saw the sign for the parking lot.  Apparently there are only a few entrances to the beach.  We ended up being able to see the sunset.

In the morning, we didn’t have to clean any of the rooms until about ten so I went for another walk (2 hours all the same).  

 After a quick breakfast Deb got us cleaning windows and making beds.  It was easy work.  That night Deb and her husband made us a dinner of sausages and French fries.  Their daughter showed us some of the Maori staff dancing she had been learning after school.  She was really good and not shy at all.  I still get stage fright.  You got it lady, go with it!  

Cape Reinga

The whole reason we were up at 90 mile beach was to go to Cape Reinga, the most northern tip of New Zealand.  Deb was kind enough to let us take a day off cleaning and go.  The day trip started at 9:15AM.  We got picked up from the holiday park along with the two other girls.  The trip was only $50 each for Ashlie and me, and for the girls it was free!  The bus driver was a quirky kiwi who seemed more than pleased to show us around and tell a few jokes and stories in the process.  He started off by telling us about the ancient Kauri trees that are native to New Zealand. 

 

Skip the next three paragraphs if you are not all that interested in tree history.

Kauri trees are massive trees that are only native to the northern island of New Zealand.  These trees can grow to be five meters wide and thousands of years old.  When western settlers first came to New Zealand they saw how useful the kauri tree was for making masts for ships, tables, boat hauls and anything that generally needed to be strong, water resistant and straight.  The Kauri trees are valuable to ship builder because they are self pruning.  This means there are no knots in the  wood.  These trees grow for thousands of years and are very weather resistant.  So they started logging the kauri.  Also with the start of agriculture on the Northern Island they also started clearing the trees off the land and burning them.  This process destroyed almost all of the kauri.  After 80 years of neglect and gross over-logging the kauri tree became protected.  

Isn't this tree massive!

Now, in order to get this amazing wood you have to dig for it.  I know that seems weird, but hundreds of stumps and trees are buried in the sand dunes.   Before the sand dunes settled in the northern part of New Zealand there were heaps of marshes and wetlands.  When the land became too wet the mature kauri tree’s root systems would break and the trees would fall into the bog, be preserved for thousands of years.  Many Kiwis are sitting on buried treasure!  People will still pay very high prices for this wood.

Later, after many of the Kauri trees were gone settlers discovered a byproduct of the trees that could be as profitable as gold.  Gum!  Resin from the sunken Kauri trees floated on top of the many swamps and bogs in the North.  The Moari’s discovered this scum like substance and used it for waterproofing clothing, jewelry (out of fossilized pieces), chewing gum, fire starter and even tattoo ink.   
 

Gum before and after

 When the European came they realized the value of the gum for export.  They wanted to sell it varnish and chewing gum makers.  This started the Gum diggers.  Much like the gold rush, people moved from all over to make their fortune.  Lots of Europeans came and started digging.  The resin found in the North Island is no longer as valuable as it used to be.  Since the development of synthetic resins the demand is much lower and extraction is often much too expensive.  So you don’t need to rush out to New Zealand to make your fortune, sorry folks.


Our first stop was Huahora harbor.  This harbor used to be a European whaling spot.  It’s quite a protected, so people love to fish here and go boating because the water is so calm. You can see Mt. Camel on the harbor.  Now, instead of whaling the locals do shellfish farming. Pacific oysters are their specialty.

Mt. Camel at Huahora Harbor... and Ema.  Hi!

Next we drove through Te Kao and the driver chatted us up on the local agriculture.  Apparently sweet potato (kumera) is the main product and way back when they used to  dehydrated it.  But they didn’t just dehydrate it in the sun, they did it in a specific location on a huge flint rock.  We are talking meters and meters wide.  This speds up the dehydration process. 

ice cream shop

We also had to stop for Ice cream at the only dairy within 60 miles.  I have eaten more ice cream in NZ than anywhere else in my travels and only in the last two weeks.  It is always amazing.  I got hokey pokey, my favorite flavor.  Hokey pokey ice cream is vanilla ice cream with little bits of crystallized honey in it.

On the way up to the top we drove past beautiful views of pure white sand dunes and sandy colored sand dunes.   This was original called the dessert coast. Settlers planted trees and grass to stabilize the land.  Apparently this part of New Zealand used to resemble a desert and never was considered inhabitable.  Cattle and sheep farmers repurposed the land and planted a hearty South African grass.  This grass kept the soil in place and provided food for the animals.  Now the majority of the Agriculture in Northland is beef cattle.  The pure white sand we saw on the coast is called silica sand.  This sand is highly prized and is pure white.  It is mined all over the world for producing crystal.  These sand dunes have slowly eroded over time and only recently has the New Zealand started creating barriers to preserve this natural wonder.

silica white sand dunes

In the dunes you can also see fresh water lakes.

beautiful

 

We finally got to the star of the show.  Cape Reinga!  This is a renown leaping-off place of spirits.  A sacred Maori place.  According to mythology, the spirits of the dead travel to Cape Reinga on their journey to the afterlife to leap off the headland and climb the roots of the 800 year old pohutukawa tree and descend to the underworld to return to their traditional homeland of Hawaiki, using the Te Ara Wairua, the 'Spirits' pathway'. At Cape Reinga they depart the mainland. They turn briefly at the Three Kings Islands for one last look back towards the land, then continue on their journey.

It was quite windy that day, especially over by the lighthouse.

 

The main show was not the pretty signs or the light house.  It was the meeting of the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean.  You can see the disturbance in the water or tidal race.  This is when the currents are forced through a constriction causing the waves on top of the water.  It was pretty darn magical, that’s what it was.  The bus driver said we were qute lucky to get such a good view.  Often times the horizon is covered in cloud, so you wouldn’t be able to see the surrounding land and sometimes not even the sea.

The meeting of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean

Random fact: The North cape is two kilometers farther north than Cape Reinga.  So Cape Reinga, despite all the tourists, is not the most northern tip of New Zealand.  

Our lunch spot

After our windy photo op we headed out for a picnic lunch provided by the tour.  We had hot tea or coffee, juice, cookies, cheese, granola bars, crackers, slim jims, raisins, and cheesy bacon bread.  I nicked a few extras to snack on when Ashlie and I would hitch later. *shrugs*
 

quick sand river with my toe

The spot was beautiful.  It was in a little cove on the beach.  There was a quicksand river and beautiful rocks along the edges of the cove.  Our driver told us that nude swimmers could stay to the left edge of the beach, but in the end it didn’t really matter.  The beach was a bit too small, everyone would see your naughty bits if they wanted to or not.  Ashlie, Ema and Francine all went for a swim.  I thought they were all nuts.  It was chilly outside, let alone in the water.  Weirdos.

Following our lunch break we headed over to 90 mile beach to do some dune surfing.  To get to the dunes our driver had to drive through a real quicksand river.  On this part of the trip the bus is no longer insured.  This is true for almost any insurance you get in New Zealand.  It will have a clause specific to 90 mile beach, once you’re on it you’re on your own.  The trick to driving on quicksand rivers is to never stop.  If you do, your tires will sink making it quite difficult to move again.  This happens to tourist every year.  The tow truck companies up there must make bank.  In the summer driving in the river is worse because the water is slower flowing.  

Yes this actually happens

Dune boarding actually isn’t as cool as it sounds.  From the name you would think it’s snowboarding on sand.  But it’s more similar to sledding than that.  Climbing to the top was hard.  Walking on sand is difficult, but walking up a sand hill is worse, especially as steep as this one was.  Once you get up there you realize how high it is and it looks scary.  I took the first trip down, out of our girls, and I flipped.  I got sand everywhere.  In my pockets, in my nose, in my hair… just everywhere.

 90 mile beach was next.  The dunes are at the beginning of the 90 kilometers, not 90 miles.  It ended up with the name because of some Europeans that rode it on horseback.  It took them three days to ride the length of the beach, and they knew from previous rides that they could ride 30 miles a day.  But these calculations were wrong because of all the meandering they had to do on 90 mile beach.  When the tide comes up, it comes straight up to the edge of the dunes.  No more beach.   So they would have had to weave between straight stretches of sand and hilly dunes a couple of times a day.

All the girls after dune surfing

hole in the rock

We stopped for a photo shoot of Montipea (horrible spelling, sorry guys), the hole in the rock.  This is considered the last place for spirits to rest before continuing their journey to Cape Reinga.  

Once you are on the beach front you really don’t really want to stop for too long.  There is only a certain amount of time it is safe to drive on the 90 mile beach, about an hour before and after low tide.  If you cut it too close you could end up driving through feet or even meters of water.  The tours are always timed around this little fact, and even with these precautions sometimes buses get stuck out on the beach at the wrong time.  There is only one safe place to pull off when the tide is coming in and actually this year they lost two buses to idiotic drivers.  

ghost buster cleaners!

So on our way back we had plenty of time, but that didn’t stop the bus driver from driving us through.  On the way he entertained us with stories of sharks and seals. The horseback riding story I related to you earlier.  He told a story about a Maori boy who run up and down 90 mile beach in day to relay messages to tribes.  He educated us on wild horses (they are very rare),  gum diggers and shellfish.  I swear this guy could talk all day.  A real nice chap.

We got dropped off right at the 90 Mile Beach Holiday Park, and tucked in for the night.  The next day we worked at the park and waited for Francine’s van to befixed.  Originally we were going to take the bus down to Auckland from Kaitaia, but Francine said she was going the day after anyway.  Also she had a camper van.  The only down side was that one of us would have to sit illegally, in the back.  I didn’t care, Ashlie didn’t care.  So we chipped in for gas and loaded her up.  Off to adventure again!

Cleaning in Tutukaka and History in Kerikeri

REFERENCE MAP AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

sky tower

We spent most of Easter out of the rain in Kate’s apartment.  We were catching a bus in the afternoon to go to Whangrei (pronounced Faun-ga-rey).  Kate escorted us to the bus stop and even had a the bus schedule all figured out for us.  She is a sweetie.  The trek from one bus stop to the other was uneventful, but we did see the famous tower on the way.  That was pretty cool.

 

 In Whangrei we were picked up by Sally, our wwoofing host who lives in Tutukaka.  She talked a lot.  I loved hearing her stories.  When we got to her house she had a cottage pie ready for dinner and we met the other wwoofers that she had staying wither her: Freddy and Linette.  She also gave each of us (the wwoofers) an easter egg.  What a sweetie!

This lovely lady, I feel like has done so much with her life.  She started her own cleaning business.  She has traveled to India, the United States and few other places. She has two adorable boys, who she was breastfeeding and taking care of when she started her business.  And after all that she decided she has enough room in her life to host wwoofer and try and share the New Zealand culture and hospitality with us.  How fabulous!

Brenton is her husband.  We didn't see him too much because he had shift work at the oil refinery.   But when we did see him he was quiet and mild mannered.  Definitely calmer than Sally and didn't talk as much.  The kids, on the other hand, we saw all the time.  Jamie and Alex are full of energy and questions.  But luckily, when we wanted a little calm or quite we would just get them on their computer games and do our thing.  

Tutukaka is known for its rocky shores, pristine white sand beaches, stunning coastal bush walks, and the Poor Knights Marine Reserve.  We didn’t get to do too many of these things, because we were cleaning quite a bit, but we did get to see some spectacular views from the holiday houses we did clean.

pictures from cleaning houses

making a fort with Alex

So we start generally at 8am.  This is when we left to clean houses.  So we had to have had breakfast and be all awake and stuff before that.  The first day I cleaned two houses in the morning with the other wwoofers and then we went back to the house for lunch. After lunch the boys were asked who they wanted to watch them and they picked me.  God knows why.  I had talked to them a bit, but I hadn’t played with them yet.  So after lunch I got dropped off at the beach with the boys.  We made forts, played pirates, and eventually everything evolved into war games.  This led to fighting, as brothers do.  Linette got dropped off at this point so we continued playing then walked to the store for ice cream and lollies (candy).  

The girls in the hot tub

 

At the house Ashlie and I decided to make Indian food for everyone, and it was a hit.  I always feel like Ashlie is much better at making stir frys than I am, so I just end up chopping up everything and opening cans.  I don’t mind at all.  It gives me the allusion that I am cooking and keeps Ashlie's eyes from welling up over onions and garlic.  The last thing we did, after that long day, was we hopped in the Hot tub.  It was very relaxing.

view from Sally's house

 The rest of our time with Sally was split up between babysitting, cleaning houses, ironing and laundry.  She had a staff shortage over Easter weekend; so usually we would not be working this much.  At the end of our wwoofing stay she gave us a little bit of money and drove us to Kerikeri (over an hour away) to say thank you and compensate us for being a bit over worked.  In the end I didn’t mind so much.  We did get to see the beaches, and I even did the lighthouse walk with Linette.  I also enjoy cleaning and cooking.  And cooking for the whole family plus four extra people was reminiscent of dinner parties to me.  

The lighthouse walk

 While we were there Ashlie also got to do scuba diving on the poor Knights Island.  This was the whole reason we came to Tutukaka.  She had a blast, but the weather hindered her dive.  In the end she didn’t get to dive the Middle arch (the best and most famous of the dive spots), but she did get to see the largest cave in the world and that’s pretty cool all by itself. 

To go to Kerikeri we had to be ready at 7AM.  We had a few things to do before we got there, so starting extra early was key for Sally.  We got on the road and after the erands were done Sally decided we should see some of the sites around Kerikeri.  

So our first stop was a public bathroom in Kawakawa.  This beautiful bathroom was designed by Austrian artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

Next was a famous and delicious Kerikeri chocolate shop. Unfortunately the chocolate was too expensive for me to buy any.  Otherwise I would have gotten the gorgeous macadamia butter toffee crunch that we got free samples of.

Makana chocolate shop

 After this bit of site seeing she took us right into Waipapa where our couch surfing host lives.  This is quite close to Kerikeri and Sally’s son was going to visit a friend there as well.  We knew we were super early to go to Russell’s house, I had told him we would be there in the afternoon.  Regardless I called and text to no avail, so we settled in for coffee and some pastries.  

When I found out later I found out he was out on his boat with his current couch surfers. Ashlie and I discussed a plan of action.  He said he wouldn’t be back until afternoon and it was still morning.  We could hang around there, reading, computing and drinking coffee or we could try and hitch somewhere.  We decided on the latter.  We were going to try and hitch to Paihia.  Ashlie had looked it up and it had some historical stuff she wanted to visit.  

Stick out your thumb and smile big.  The Key to successful hitching.  It didn’t take us long to catch a ride.  But they were heading to Kerikeri.  I shrugged “why not” and we went to Kerikeri only about 20 minutes away.  On the way our driver told us about a historical site there.  It was the oldest stone building in New Zealand and had a tour, café and garden attached to it.  It sounded pretty interesting.  He was even kind enough to drop us off there after he dropped off his son to catch the bus to Auckland.

The stone store was pretty cool.  It was a little museum shop inside and you could get a guided tour for about 10 bucks.  I thought a bit of a history lesson would be nice and so did Ashlie.  They even let us leave our packs with them, so we didn’t have to lug it around on the tour.

 The stone store is connected with the oldest building in New Zealand, the Kemp house.  This is where we started our tour with a little old lady dressed in period clothing.  The Kemp house was a missionary house built in the early 1800’s.  In order to build or even live in this house the missionaries needed to get permission from the local Maori tribes and essentially get protection from their chief.  This was never a problem for the missionaries because the Maori knew that they could get guns from them.  Whoever had the most guns were the most powerful tribe.

The house reminded me much of my friend Eva’s childhood home.  It was a similar style to a colonial house.  This house had hard wood floors, made of the native Kauri wood.  We had to remove our shoes before entering to make sure we didn’t damage the 200 year old floors.  The inside was sparsely furnished with narrow beds and a few nice pieces of furniture in the sitting room.  My favorite part was the kitchen.  It was open hearth and you could tell the cooking technique was much different than what we would do today.

The store was a missionary trading post and built about ten years after the Kemp House.  It was built in order to make the stealing of supplies more difficult.  They had a less well built building before or stored the supplies in the Kemp house.  After more settlers moved to New Zealand, and created their own provision stores, the missionary leased out the building to be used by kauri gum traders.  

mamma pig

After our little historical tour we just chilled out waiting for Russell.  He picked us up at the stone store and brought us to his lifestyle block.  Life style blocks, also known as hobby farms, are quite common in New Zealand.  They are kinda like mini farms.  It’s a way for people to get out of the city and muck around with chickens, gardens and what not.  Some people aspire to be farmers and this is a way to get a taste of it, but I think most people in New Zealand see it as a way to become, in some little part of their lives, self sustainable.  They will often have rain water, solar panels and try to grow/raise all their own food.

 

the piglets

skinning the sheep

 Russell’s block had sheep, pigs and gardens.  He butchers all his own animals and hunts as well.  He seemed really proud of his animals.  That day he was scheduled to butcher a couple of the neighbor’s sheep and he said I could watch.  I didn’t see the animal killed but I did see it gutted and skinned.  It was fascinating.  Now I understand how bear rugs could possibly still have the heads attached.

the skins after

 Ashlie was not keen of this idea.  She put her headphones in, played her music full blast and started cooking.  We made another curry that Russell loved, then had a few beers and some good conversation about Russell’s kids and past time activities.  Ashlie and him had a long conversation on diving, and we talked more about hunting.  I’ve never hunted, but always have wanted to.  I found it fascinating that there really wasn’t much of a hunting season, or too many regulations.

 In the morning Russell made us eggs, homemade bacon and toast.  Then he and I headed out to a hike.  Ashlie wasn’t feeling well, so she rested up a bit.  I ended up hikking in the rain, but I loved it!  Russell runs every day on the Rainbow Falls, Kerikeri River Trek.  I didn’t see any rainbows, but I did see a beautiful river and waterfall.  I really enjoyed myself. 

 

 After that he dropped us off for the bus and told me to come back again.  We both really enjoyed his hospitality.  Next we were off to Kaitaia and 90 mile beach, one of the most northern parts of New Zealand.