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Published: November 14th 2006
Chris from Koromiko
In his 'corporate drag' on my last day in Wellington Well, after ten months this is my final blog from New Zealand! It does feel quite sad to be leaving, but at least i'm not coming straight home, i'm off to Brisbane in the morning. It has to be said that New Zealand has been a great place to spend the last year, to see its wonderfully contrasting countrysides and experience life as a semi-kiwi for a while. Most of all Wwoofing as been an excellent way to get to know locals and learn about saving the world of course! Just thinking about it i've wwoofed at ten places, i've had amazing experiences at them all and would recommend it to anyone as a way to take time to really look at the world and your place in it.
Without making this sound like an award speech, i'd like to again thank all my hosts for this experience:-
Audrey and Dorothy at Caretaker Farm in Matakana, Mike, Rae and girls at Smorganics in Silverstream, Julie at Sherrington in the Sounds, Red and Sarah at Ironbridge Motueka, Peter and Pete at Autumn Farm Taraka, Lisa at Te Nikau Retreat in Punakaiki, Emma at Birdlands, Little River, Sally and Richard at
Hawkes Crag in Little River, Ron and Gerry at the Queen Charottle Wilderness Park in Marlborough and most recently Chris, Kris and Andy at Koromiko in Wellington. Thank you all so much for the part you palyed in the last year of me!
So since I left Wellington last week i've been having a great time finishing off the last few things to see on the North Island. Firstly I stopped off at Turangi on the South shore of Lake Taupo to get some tramping in along the Tongario Crossing. The track crosses the path of two volcanoes, some impressive lakes and back down into rainforest. Its the film location for Mount Doom in LOTR, so it was very busy with 100's of other walkers, not really what i'm used to. From here I meet up with a Canadian girl called Zoe who gave me a lift to Taranaki along a road called 'The Forgotten World Highway' which is an impressive drive if not a little worrying that over 10 km is unsealed. Along the way we stumbled across a little town called Whangamomona. Now apart from having a really stupid name this little comedy western-style town is also
Republic of Whangamomona
Border crossing made from an old dunny! noteworthy for having declared itself an independent Republic, complete with a welcome back to NZ sign as you leave 'town'!!!! If you think thats silly apparently there president is a dog!
Our stay in Taranaki was well worth it, in a hostel on the side of the volcano that gave us the chance to actually see it through the ever chnaging clouds. Zoe was somewhat of a professional tramper and suggested we try to do the whole 12-hour walk in one day! Seems like a crazy idea at first but I agreed and had a great time even if my legs did die the next day! From New Plymouth I bused upto Hamilton, then Thames to see the Coromondel. Got a bit wet tramping around Thames but the region was beautiful. Next stop was the Bay of Islands in Northland where I made friends with a Dutch guy, got some nice pictures of Bays and hot weather at last. Went up to Cape Reinga - the most northerly part of NZ, drove along the 90 mile beach and surfed down the sand dunes, all that tourist crap. So there you have it, my last few days in green little
Aotearoa.
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Swine!
Brisbane! You globetrotting tinker! If you meet a guy called Yorick Say hello from me. Alas I knew him well. xxx