Kerikeri- Maungaturoto

Monday 7th- Monday 21st May 2018

On leaving Seven hills, I had ten days to make my way the 240 odd km to Auckland and no plans past catching a bus to Paihia on Tuesday. When I had had the girls drop me in town to make plans in case my phone didn’t come back to life, I had booked the bus and a motel room in Kerikeri for the night in between. Not my usual as it costs twice as much but the only hostel in Kerikeri never seems to have vacancies. While I’d seen a few places with the other wwoofers, I had spent much of my time on the remote farm while here and decided the cost was worthwhile before carrying on south.

Having carried out our morning as usual at the farm, Caroline and I packed our bags, cleaned our rooms and then said our goodbyes to both Julia and Shaun Paul and the other woofers. Once dropped at my motel I dropped my bags at reception and then the two of us made the 10 mins walk back to town( 5 if not carrying luggage!). We ran a couple of errands so that I was set with food for the evening and Caroline for her next wwoofing gig. Having half an hour before her pickup, we decided to grab a coffee and spent most of the time waiting- courtesy of a busy cafe and ...well....there's always that one customer – and discussing the possibility of catching up in Auckland before Caroline flys to the Cook Islands. It would mean getting to Auckland a day before I originally thought to but like i said- ive no set plans.

Once Caroline had left I finished my drink (no I’m not so lazy that I couldn’t help her carry her stuff for 2 more mins walk, my drink just arrived that late!) and then made my way slowly back to the motel. On arriving I found that the power was still out but I got checked in anyway. Proving much quicker than using a computer would have been!

Once in my room I settled myself in before deciding to go for the walk I’d read about before it got dark, leaving the next morning free. Heading off it took no more than 15mins to reach the Stone store and it’s such a pretty site. I spent maybe an hour wandering over the bridge and inside. At this point I was wondering if I’d have time to do the falls walk because I didn’t want to find myself in the slippery forest as it got dark. Still, I felt the need to do it. Both because I’d be leaving Kerikeri before I got another chance but also it was just good to be doing something active.

It made for a very pretty walk, and also a secluded one with me seeing one other person at the beginning and a dog later on at the falls( I heard the owners but never saw them) There were a few big properties being built with views over the river but they were all set back on slopes. A few times I came across small pools the river flowed through and after a little less than an hour of walking and taking pictures, I reached the waterfall itself.

When it comes to Nz and waterfalls it’s a little like Asia and temples. There all very impressive but after a dozen or so you become a bit immune to them. Still while I know this is true I’ve yet to reach that point this time around and for me the solitude and peaceful walk would have made it worthwhile even if the waterfall was lacking. However that was definitely not the case! A beautiful cascade of water and unlike Rainbow falls, i had it all to myself.

Once back at the motel i settled in for the night and started making plans deciding I would stick on Paihia for a couple of nights and sort accomodation on arrival. Normally not something id be comfortable with but given the time of the year a bed wasn’t likely to be a problem in the small beach town.

The next couple of days were pretty lazy to say the least. I had a lovely friendly roommate who just happened to be 81 years old....and she chose a top bunk! She could run circles around me, no doubt! Plus she was a proud grandma, her grandson having just won the rally in Whangarei after a couple of difficult years on the international circuit.

I also spent time using WiFi to decide where to go next and even managed a good enough connection to do a facetime with a friend while waiting for my washing to finish-side note after two weeks of using clothes repeatly on the farm, I may need to just burn the clothes- and tried to figure out a wwoofing gig on my way to Auckland. While I’ve no need for one right now, I feel i do best having something to do even if its only a few hours a day. I’m far too lazy to be left to my own devices for too long and without car it’s hard to get myself out exploring on my own especially with the weather becoming more wet and unappealing.

Getting the gig i wanted took rearranging my time a bit but I found a place an hour and a half or so from Auckland to spend a week. Another animal stop, no less!

Not to give the wrong impression, in Paihia I did get out and about a bit. One evening i joined a group to Sup to the Haruru waterfall. The group consisted of our German guide Ben, a family of 3 Kiwis on holiday up north and two Brita- one from Scunthorpe and the other from Portsmouth...it’d looked pretty bad to began with but as soon as I revealed my bmouth allegiance a truce was called 

The group was really nice and it was a bit of a light workout for me while trying to keep up as Ben was the only one to join me SUPping, the others being doubled up in kayaks. The waterfall itself wasn’t too impressive or pretty but the fact that we could go right up into the spray was pretty cool though I made sure to kneel down so I wouldn’t make an unexpected dip! By the time we turnt around to make our way back to the boat the sun was beginning to go down, giving us a nice pink background behind the falls.

In my last day in Paihia I caught the ferry across to Russel and enjoyed a walk to a local beach. The tide was in so I couldn’t follow the shoreline but I kept as close as possible on the paths and got pretty excited that I might have seen a Kiwi though I knew it unlikely given it being daylight. A quick Google search would reveal it being a Weka instead.

When I reached the beach I was looking for, I arrived just as some dolphins made an appearance out in front of me and the few others on the beach. I must have spent a good 15minutes at least watching them play before they moved away and I decided to sunbath a little. Of course that’s exactly when the – up to now- brilliant sunshine disappeared behind dark clouds! Still given that we’re now well into Autumn I’ve been awfully lucky that there’s still days like this to enjoy even if it’s often half days.

Leaving Paihia on Thursday I made my way to Whangarei, both a good and bad choice. Whangarei is a city and for me at least, not an appealing one. I think the main thing going for it, is that it’s the gateway to the northland but it’s phrase is ‘ Whangarei, love It’ so I may well be missing something.

One day I went to the clock museum which was actually quite interesting. It reminded me of some of the clocks in my nan’s house growing up and I never knew there were so many different types...or I guess I never really thought about it or the history behind them. My favourite was a jukebox that spent time on a cruise boat many many years ago.

After the museum I wandered the shops in the so called hub area before stopping to get a drink. While here a massive group of kids began coming through, many with hockey sticks and despite having seen the banner in town with NZ's hockey team on it, it took a local to tell both me and the other tourists what was going on.
Recently the Gold coast had hosted the commonwealth games and the Nz women hockey team had come home with gold. What I didn’t realise until now was that 5 of them came from the northland and 3 from the actual Whangarei district. I spent the next hour with the growing crowd as the black stick girls got welcomed under an arch of sticks and a Haka performed by the local schools group. It was impressive to say the least!

My time here was just as lazy if not
more so than the last place, though more because of the rain on all but the one day. Realising that it wouldn’t improve before I left i spent one afternoon exploring the waterfalls which were impressive and donning my waterproofs I made the 40mins walk through the forest to the Kauira trees. From here I found another path to another waterfall but this one wasn’t as pretty as the majority I’ve seen.

My aim had been to visit Abbey caves in which you can see glowworms but given the weather and it being another hours walk almost I made the decision to leave it and just note it down for future reference. As it was I had another 4 miles walk home in the rain anyway.
While here i also spent some time trying to figure out my visit home in August. One thing about traveling and staying in hostels is the WiFi connection. Even if you can get good WiFi, you can’t trust it to do things like banking or transactions too much so you have to get a little creative.
On Monday I caught a bus to Brynderwyn, where my new woofer boss picked me up to make the short drive to her ‘town’.
Karen has a group of different animals all of whom were rescued. From time to time she takes wwoofers in and so the next few days would be spent learning the routine so that at the weekend I would be able to cover for her while she attended a donkey conference.

Yep you heard me right. Donkey.
So Karen has a pigme goat Gus and Simone a wild goat that turned up a couple of months ago and adopted Gus. Two different herds of sheep 5 and 6 strong respectively and three cows; 1 silken hen and 3 ducks; a cat named Putee,- short for Amputee as she only has 3 legs. And then 6 Donkeys.

On arriving I met 4 of the Donkeys with the two youngest being away taking part in a commercial right now. The next 3 days passed pretty quick with a laid back kind of repeatation. My day would begin after breakfast at 8.30am and consist of 2hrs learning the Donkeys morning routine which means we do stable duties, brush the girls, clean their eyes, sunblock Pocohontis nose and hoofpick them- there seems a lot more to the care of their foot than a horse on an average day and the girls certainty weren’t keen on my doing it.

2 hours into the work day we would stop for a tea with biscuits (my wwoofing gigs sure have spoilt me so far!) before going back for another two hours. The girls would be taken into a different paddock and sometimes we spent more time doing all the sheep’s feet to stop foot rot along with Gus and Simone too. And when time allowed id be pulling weeds and moving fire wood too.

On the days that went to plan we would break for lunch when the girls came back to the yard for a 2 hour siesta. (did you know donkeys sleep all facing out in different directions for protection?) After lunch we would generally take a break too because if the girls catch sight of you anywhere or even hear you, they’ll just keep bellowing. Never before did I realise how noisey Donkeys are!

I got into the routine of binge watching The 100 on Netflix and having a Pilates work out while Karen would go out and spend some time with the animals before finishing the girls routine for the night. After dinner we would generally veg out on the couch usually sorting things – did I mention I got my flights home for my friends wedding sorted here- and watching catfish...again I’m getting addicted. For anyone who doesn’t know, Catfish is a tv programme which follows a team that investigate online relationships. As in someone gets in touch because their ‘in’ an online relationship and want to meet in real life but arnt sure that the other person is who they say they are. It’s like a train wreck. You don’t want to see but you also can’t help yourself!

Thursday differed slightly as I had to do the whole days routine with the Donks as I’d be on my own for the following 3 days. This meant getting up at 7am for the first feed and after lunch I would be doing their 2pm feed, their 4pm walk and the last feed and afternoon stable duties. I also had to practice getting Gus into a separate paddock with his morning ginger biscuit so Simone could have hers and I have a clear path up to check the Cows. On top of this the 2 youngsters came home so I got to meet them as they tried to settle back into the herd dynamics.

My days alone with the girls was interesting. I had been contemplating joining a pet sitting site over here but being responsible for so many animals again especially when their not ones I’ve not spent much time with, has reminded me how terrifying it can be! The first day went so smoothly right up to Gus getting stuck in the yard as the girls came back for their walk. Now I had to play musical animals with a goat who had already ate himself ill getting into things he shouldn’t earlier in the week and with 6 donks, who just wanted their food. Now. Plus a little goat who didn’t understand any of what was happening!

The next day was more trying. Non of these donks like me dealing with their hooves and as id realised my very first day here, they will try for little adventures every chance they get. While diverting Cinnamons and Pocos latest one I came back to find little Josey having a coughing fit. Once that was finally put behind us I made dinner and settled in to watch the royal wedding. I’m not a royalist as such but I do quite like how ‘real' Harry and Wills seem but I have to say I didn’t expect him to look so stressed throughout with only a few brief smiles. And did any one else get slightly worried at how long the love surmon went on? And yep...Im sticking to that description. I mean, he had me hooked...for the first 3 minutes. But after that,I just started making silent bets with myself over who out of the royal family would let there smirks out in full force first! Still it made a break from the usual news out here. I mean an actual piece of reporting this week had been about dogs peeling on lampposts! But that may soon change with mycoplasma bovis having arrived in Nz-I'll take some fun with the royals while I can.

My last full day at Bending tree farm passed fairly uneventfully. The girls made another break for it and I tied Cinnamon- the shiest of the lot- up for a brush and fuss. When Karen got home later that evening all animals were fed and sorted for the night with Puree already asleep on my bed.

The next morning Karen had told me she would do the Donkey feed so I joined her at breakfast time and then we did a little tidying up in the house before going out and sorting the animals. We spent a couple of hours compacting what we could of a days routine into the morning before we had to make a move for Auckland. I had a concert to get to that evening and Karen would be driving me the hour and a half there as she visited her son for his birthday. Along the way we stopped at a truck stop diner where Karen insisted on buying me lunch as a thank you and discussing ways to capitalise on making the soon to be famous Jewel into a star.