Cows!

Walking among cows :)

Here are a few impressions of Tim's farm. It's a dairy farm with about 60 cows. So far, we have mainly done small tasks, like burning old wood, putting rubbish away (into a huge plastic bag, 3m high. I stood in it to get everything stuffed in :), setting fences up etc.
Today, Kay went on a tour to take photos for the website of the cheese factory. We walked through a herd of cows with two bulls in it - a weird experience for us, because they follow your every step and are not afraid to get close.

On the way we had a stop at the Hundertwasser toilets. Really nice!

this is where the other WWOOFer lives. From the inside it looks like a usual living room :)

Impressions

Getting North & WWOOFing

Uretiti Beach

We decided it was time to get north. We took the Highway 1, which resembles a 'Bundesstraße' in Germany - only one, sometimes two lanes per direction, speed limit 100 and even some houses and farms along the way, just next to the street.
First Stop: Uretiti Beach campsite, yet another night next to a wonderful view at the sea :)
We are really happy we brought our tent, because the three-matress-bed isn't really a solution - we have to get rid of at least one of them soon. For now, we have put two matresses into the tent, which is really comfortable and pure luxury :) We even have coffee in the morning!



Right now, after another night of camping in Puketi forest park, we are at a dairy farm in the Bay of Islands, our first WWOOFing place. We spent most of the first day burning a huge amount of wood and carrying it around. Let's see what the next days will bring. Now there will be some time to edit photos for Kay, so you have somthing to see soon!

Beaches and Sunshine!

You just gotta love the weather in Northland!
Walking barefoot along beautiful beaches, having to think of the sunlotion every day, breakfast at 8am outside - that sounds like winter, doesn't it?

We only spent one night at our second couchsurfing host. Anna is a very funny, super active person, talking and laughing all the time and always up to find something to do. We shared the flat with her, her two flatmates and two other couchsurfers from France. It was a funny evening, but we decided to move on afterwards - because having found a campsite next to the beach we could't get ourselves to drive back into the city.
Getting there was almost as good as the beach itself: A so called "Gravel" road, curves and curves and ups and downs, surrounded by ferns and palm trees. It felt like real jungle. Take a look at the video in the entry below ;)

As we reached the end of the road, a place called Whatipu (spoken Fatipu), we were overwhelmed by the view. Everything seems just so much more alive here: small rivers, hills full of trees we've never seen before (they looked a little bit African, weird as it sounds), sunrays all over the endless Green...
We will have to give you some pictures to see for yourselves, as soon as Kay has them ready.
So we had a walk to the beach - a black sand beach with very rough waves and wind. Incredibly beautiful!



We stayed there for the night, in hope of an even more beautiful sunrise and set up the car for sleeping. We found out that three matresses are maybe a little bit too much. Yes, we had a very soft bed. A VERY soft bed that sank in about half a meter when we sat on it :) But it was pleasantly warm in our new little home and the rain didn't affect us at all.

By the way: we made a decision about our car's name. It's 'Sam' now, since it's gonna carry us all the way to 'Mordor' and back again :)



So, rain was not so bad in the night, but it messed up the sky at sunrise and Kay didn't get any more photos :) We broke up our camp and drove the beautiful gravel road back to get to yet another great beach: Karekare. This one was really huge, also black volcanic sand and with a very nice walkway leading through forest and over dunes. This was the time for me to get off my shoes :)

Djungle roads (video)

This is the amazing road to Whatipu!
We were warned about Gravel roads, but this one was really fun.

New entry is coming soon ;)

Changing Places

Our car and us are ready to go!
Yesterday we bought some new wiper blades so that driving in rainy weather is actually possible again. Now we spend our time driving and walking around the town.
Driving on the left side is not as bad as we feared. So far I've been the only one driving and Kay navigating, but it's easy to get used to and you can hardly get lost in Auckland. Having an automatic car also helps not getting too confused.

Now we have a new matress to sleep on and heaps of cooking equipment. The only thing we'd like to change any time soon is to get some more space in the car with a wooden construction as a bed. But for now, it's ready for sleeping.

The plan is now to find a farm for one or two weeks of WWOOFing in Northland. Let's see where we end up ;)
Today we move to the next couchsurfing host: A shared flat with several people. We leave on sunday - you can look forward to some nice pictures of the seaside!


This is a small graveyard we saw on our walk today. Overgrown with trees (also palm trees) and with some nice old statues.

Parking in NZ

As you can see - parking can be interesting in NZ - sometimes I have the feeling, they wanted to spare every little hill, 'cause bulldozing it might anger the fairys..

WE HAVE A CAR! :D

Hey there!

We spent the last few days at the house of a family, originally from Russia, who gave us a whole room for ourselves to sleep in. They have two little sons and seem to be loving outdoor activities, so they could give us a few suggestions on what to do.

Now, after a weekend of looking for our new home, we finally have it! It is a Honda Odyssey '97 (great name for a travellers car, isn't it?), whose former owners are Germans as well.
We met them on the first car market on Saturday, where they gave us some useful tips about most everything, for example insurance and how to smuggle someone over the ferry between the two islands (which they didn't really recommend) :)
We checked some other cars as well, but this one was just perfect: already equipped with camping gear and a bed, everything worked well, automatic gear, not too small and not too big and not very old, either (in comparison to other campervans).
So we met them again on sunday, tested it and made a deal.

Apparently it is tradition among backpackers here to give their car a name for good luck. We were not able by now to agree on a name. So now we need your help to find a name for our car! Pls leave a suggestion in the comment section below =)



 

How to dress in Auckland's winter

As you can see winter in Auckland is really bad - the locals complain about the cold temperatures and the rain all the time. We're yet looking to find both... Until then, the palm trees here are really cool.