Goodbye Aotearoa, Hello Australia

Wintertime in Coromandel, the vacation spot for Aucklanders. I spend about 3 weeks in this beautiful peninsula, a beautiful way to say goodbye to New Zealand.

This is Kiley, when I arrived in Coromandel, my arranged host canceled on me. Frantically I called around, hoping to find a new wwoof host. Nobody could take me, but after many calls I talked to this lovely Canadian who was house-sitting for friends in Whangamata. She was sympathetic to my situation and took me in. We ended up spending a week together, enjoying the west side of the Coro peninsula.

We went to hot water beach, famous for the volcanically active rock bed underneath the beach which heats up the water there. We brought shovels and made an instant hot tub right there at the beach. The water was extremely hot, but purifying.

Next I arrived at the beautiful Mana Retreat on the east side of Coromandel. Here I met many beautiful people and rested my weary traveling bones.

This is The Sanctuary at the top of the hill. There was much wonderful quiet time to be found here. It was simply a sacred place, build on sacred ground.

This is Manuel, my french wwoofer friend who arrived at Mana a couple of days after me. We enjoyed working and cooking together, as well as many hours of ping-pong madness. Here we are at the very top of the mountain that the Mana Retreat is situated on.

This is where I lived at the Mana retreat. It was actually the caravan that the owner brought when he first moved here to start the center. He transformed the caravan into a house, and lived in it while he designed and built the Mana Retreat, and now his guests and wwoofers stay here. It had a marvelous outdoor shower, and a composting toilet.

This is Sol, the founder of the Mana retreat. He was such a wonderful and playful man. He taught me many things, including Tai Ji! He also invited Manuel and I to participate in a sweat that he was hosting at the retreat. This was actually the initiation of the first sweat in this beautiful newly constructed adobe sweat lodge. Here with a group of about twenty, Sol explains the history of the Mana Retreat, and the history of the sweats that have taken place on this land over the past thirty years.

Sol is actually a well traveled Canadian, he landed in New Zealand about thirty years ago, and brought the tradition of the Native American sweat ceremony with him from North America. He reckons that he might have been the first person to perform a sweat in New Zealand.

This is the inside of the incredible sweat lodge before the ceremony began. In the center is where we rolled in red hot rocks. We all sat very close together and endured a three hour sweat. We sang songs, shared our pain, and healed together as new found family. It was such a powerful experience, and for me it seemed a very appropriate thing to do just a few days before leaving New Zealand.

This is Kiri, I met her at the sweat. She offered to take me into her home in Auckland a couple of days before my flight. Kiri is a wonderful person who supports herself as a jewelry-maker. She toured me around Auckland during my last days in New Zealand. She could not however, be there with me the day before I left, and so she even connected me with a friend of hers who took me out to a nearby rainforest on my very last day to reconnect one last time with the land before leaving.

Content with my journey, and readying myself for Australia.

My entrance into Australia has been a graceful one. I'm staying with friends of my parents. "Big Mike" and Lee Erlin, and their two amazing children Connor and Clancy. They have taken me in, and my first few days here have been wonderful.

A hint of things to come. I am carefully feeling out my next adventure in Australia, and it feels good.

Quakers in Whanganui!

After a short trip from Takaka, I arrived on the North Island in Wellington with the intention of only staying for a couple of days before heading to Whanganui where I had found a Quaker Settlement that was willing to host me! I didn't take many pictures in Wellington, but it was a great city that reminded me a lot of both Seattle and San Francisco.

I stayed with a great friend who took this shot of me outside the museum.

Soon after a short stay in Wellington I made it to the Quaker Settlement.

This is Peter my host, who was one of the 28 members of the community. He was simply a wonderful host who provided me with plenty of nourishing dialogue about the dynamics of living in community.

I had many great jobs revolving around autumn work, here I was pulling out old corn stalks. But the best job of all, which I don't have a picture of was using a scythe to mow down a field. I'm a convert, I don't think I'll be using a weed-wacker ever again.

There were LOTS of chickens = Lots of eggs

Autumn autumn autumn

I also had lots of great cooking jobs, here I was helping to make an apple desert using this incredible tool. It peels, slices, and cores an apple all in one go!

Heather here was great, we had lots of great conversations and she even lent me a kombucha culture to satisfy my urge!

Oh man I was so glad to be brewing again.

We also did lots of preserving. This is the last of the tomato season crop that we picked from a nearby farm.
There were lots of fantastic communal meals, people were always inviting over for something to eat.

This is the quiet room where we had the option of gathering each morning to sit in silence for half an hour. I nearly always attended.

Whanganui is a city on the river.

I had the amazing opportunity to paddle a two-hulled Waka down the Whanganui River.

Takaka and the Abel Tasman

I had a long and adventurous journey from Hokitika to Takaka. After meeting my new traveling friend Alex, getting a ride from a 21 year old amnesiac, and a cold sleep in a kiwi orchard... I finally arrived in Takaka which is at the very top of the South Island in the Golden Bay.

Alex and I got stuck in a very small town in the middle of nowhere for a couple of hours. But we had fun anyway!

Welcome to Takaka! I've been staying with a couple of folks who have lived here for their entire lives, and therefore have many stories to tell. This is their farm, with orchard on the left and one of their many paddocks.

This is Terry, for a long time before he started his farm he trucked milk all around New Zealand from a milk factory just down the road in Takaka. Now the farm is his hobby, but also a means of support.

Terry and Sheryl are parents and grandparents of a family that still mostly resides in the Golden Bay. Everybody knows everybody here, and news spreads fast! Sheryl manages the community center and is very busy most of the day with daily affairs within the community. Terry stays at home most of the day working to keep their stock in order.

All together they have about 30 pigs, 60 sheep, 12 chickens, 7 dogs, and a worm bin! This is actually a pretty small operation compared to most farms, but it seems just right to me.

This is Chief, the oldest and wisest of the many sheep dogs here.

There are plenty of hens and roosters here that help keep our egg supply running.

Terry and I were out feeding the sheep one day when we found a little surprise in the paddock! Two newborn lambs were born that night. Unfortunately their first day on Earth was a rough one as it was pouring all day long.

Terry and I have a nice morning routine including feeding the pigs, chickens, and sheep. Here Terry is riding the 4x4 and Chief is helping to herd the stock into a new paddock.

I arrived just in time to help harvest some Granny-Smith apples as well as lots of pears. Needless to say I've been joyfully munching on these home grown snacks since I've been here.

It's breakfast for the pigs! They make quite a ruckus around nine in the morning because they know its feeding time. Once we feed them a diet of bread, veges, and fat scraps they "Oink" with total satisfaction.

Here Terry is feeding the sheep a special health tonic composed of vinegar, honey, and a few other helpful ingredients that keep their insides happy.

And when I'm not working, not even a kilometer away from the house is a river with lots of great rock climbing and cliff jumping. I've been going nearly every day as long as the autumn weather has been holding up.

Here is my favorite spot in all of Takaka. Great rock climbing, lots of rope swings and cliff jumping. I met these two gents while I was there and we got along quite well.

This is Tudor, a friend that I met on a few occasions at this spot. Here he's doing a climb called the "Acid Test." He was incredible! And his step-son to the right was as amazed as I was when he proceeded to climb inverted all the way to edge of the rock and nearly even made it upwards.

Having spent enough days relaxing at the many swim spots nearby, I decided that it was time for some activity. Very nearby is the Abel Tasman National Park, and it is paradise! I planned a four day walk that would take me from north to south along the coast of this amazing park. It was a very well groomed track with lots of tramping huts to stay in overnight.

It's scenery like this that makes the Abel Tasman possibly the most recognizable National Park in all of New Zealand.

The Abel Tasman is home to numerous golden sand beaches for all to enjoy, including this seal who sat out in the sun all day. This was a beach outside of the first hut I stayed in on my first night. I sat here on this beach and watch the sunset, and then woke up early and caught the sunrise. Because it's so late in the tourist season, there were very few people here. I had the beach almost completely to myself.

This is the sort of foliage I was walking through most of the time. I absolutely love the native forests here!

Life was everywhere. Lots of birds, bees, and fungi.

I think I saw this on a postcard once.

I was told that during peak season, you might come across 250 people in one day! But on average in the off season it was more like 25. This is Monia, a German who has been staying and working in Queenstown for nearly a year and was taking some time off. I met Monia on the first night, and we traveled the same route together for three more days.

Along with Monia, we also had a couple of Kiwi primary school teachers, Scott and Ali who were on the same route as us. The four of us made friends during our time together. Here they are crossing one of the many estuaries that we encountered. We had to wait for the tides to be right before we could cross, so our timing had to be just right.

These are a native species called Manuka. These trees create a fantastic canopy for in which lots of life exists. If you stopped along the trail to listen, you could hear the faint buzz of the bees making sweet sweet Manuka honey.

This was the view just around the corner from our last hut. It was a long seven hours hike to the final hut but this was the view from just around the corner. With blistered feet and sore legs, I took the most refreshing swim of my life here.

I got a ride back to Takaka with Scott and Ali, and now I'm finally preparing to leave. Soon I'll be making my way to the North Island, where I regretfully have only a little over a month and a half to explore before I head to Australia.