Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2006
Edit Blog Post
WWOOFing
This stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms in case anyone was confused. From left to right: Jo, Paul, Erica, Alex 3 August
Up early and while I had another round of typing/word tests at a different recruitment agency, Simon went for a '$10 haircut' (unfortunately its quality was commensurate with its price) and got the recommended repairs done on Max prior to our departure up the coast.
We set off about noon and made our first stop the Whangaparoa penninsula and the Shakespear Regional Park. It seems that NZ is so crammed with natural wonders that they can't all be accredited with 'national' status. After a picnic overlooking the sea we continued, enjoying the sunshine and the fact that it was just us, Max and the road...we could stop wherever we liked and so we did, taking in a few detours including The Art of Cheese (a little cheese farm with sampling and a cafe) and a vineyard, which had gorgeous views. I also got a call back from the job agency of earlier in the day with a potential job and further interview on Monday in the Pricewaterhousecoopers Tower which overlooks Auckland Harbour.
After a brief stop at Warkworth, we were directed to the nearest backpacker hostel just up the road in Matakarna. This was a very
Vineyards
This is the first vineyard you hit northbound from Auckland and was called Ransom Wines. eccentric place, with a general boat theme but also a vast collection of stuffed pink panther toys (many living in their own designated Panther House) as well as old telephones and other paraphernalia. I particularly liked the loo, which had 'A Long Drop & Sons' printed on the sistern and a book to hand titled 'Dinkum Dunnies'. We decided to crack out the cheese and wine purchased earlier in the day and enjoyed them while watching a Bond movie on tv.
4 August
We left the hostel early (we must still not have accustomed to NZ time as we keep waking up at the crack of dawn) and set off for the Tawharanui Regional Park which we had a brief walk around once again in gorgeous sunshine. Back on the road and on up the coast in the direction of our farmstay near Pakiri. This proved extremely difficult to find as the area is quite rural with many of the roads being gravelly and poorly signposted. We eventually found our destination - Miller's Ark - and were introduced to our hosts Paul and Jo before being directed through their olive grove and bush-covered sand dunes down to Pakiri
Tawharanui Regional Park
The Maori place names are causing us a bit of bother, especially since our accents sound very alien in English when compared with the Kiwis! It turns out that "wh" is pronounced "ff", which is additionally confusing. beach. This was long, sandy and completely deserted...paradise! Unfortunately we didn't take our camera, intending to return the next day but were then thwarted by torrential rain.
Heading back to the house, which was built by Paul himself and quite Bohemian in style (we were informed that it was built during the hippy era and its shape was based on one of Paul's favourite ceramic designs) we were treated to our first of many delicious, home-grown organic meals. As well as running a B & B the Millers keep themselves busy with an olive grove and also have grapefruit, orange, pear and other fruit trees growing in their garden. Needless to say, the freshly squeezed juice was divine. It would be so easy to digress and rant on about the food at this point but I'll leave it to your imaginations.
We spent the afternoon working in the garden under Jo's supervision, doing weeding and generally tidying up. Mum - I will always appreciate how hard gardening is from now on!!
5 August
Having rained all night the weather decided to treat us to a repeat of our Valparaiso experience and just kept on going. After a hard slog getting very muddy indeed in the garden during the morning, we were confined to some house-based chores in the afternoon and unfortunately couldn't get out to the beach. Erica, a friend of the Millers who was also visiting for the weekend got out one of her latest art projects which we were all invited to partake in, and the conversation was flowing freely as we shared our travel stories and learnt a bit about New Zealand, Erica's painting and organic farming.
6 August
The rain still persisting, we didn't leave our departure too late and were lucky to hear that one route out of Pakiri was badly flooded. It turned out to actually be headline news that a family were nearly washed away in their car, so we gladly took the other route back through Leigh and took things easy in Max, who was generally co-operating. The drive back to Auckland was fairly quick down the motorway and we spent the afternoon sorting ourselves out for the week ahead.
http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_1Jr.html
Advertisement
Tot: 0.094s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0612s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mum and Dad F
non-member comment
Weeding
Glad to think that all those weeks/months you worked for Doddy in Wragby, dealing with weeds as well as conifers were not in vain! You will be delighted to know that we have been wet for a lot of our holiday here in Scotland and that we are weaving our way home now to hopefully drier weather and a midge free environment. Glad to hear that Max was checked over before you started. Stay happy. Lots of love.