thank goodness for little orange trail markers

the hike started out on what looked like a fire road and then meandered up the mountain to the ridge line where it became this... overgrown, narrow single track mixed with what looked like animal trails here and there. if it wasn't for the BEAUTIFUL little orange and yellow and purple and pink trail markers i never would have made it. thank you trail marker put-er uppers!

coromandel town from the clouds

view south towards whitianga

a tuesday hike

hello from week two at the coromandel peninsula! work at the cafe continues to be great fun and i have been baking up a storm in the kitchen! on tuesday (day off) i did a loooong hike up into the mountains for some stunning views of both coasts and the towns of coromandel and kennedy bay. the weather (surprisingly) held out and although the track itself was really wet and slippery it was a great day out.

this is a photo from 1/2 way up, looking out towards coromandel town and waiheked and auckland in the background.

bunk mural at driving creek cafe

a wwoofer from the past painted this rad mural on the bunk house wall... i love it.

bunk house at driving creek cafe

here's my current living space - my bunk is the top left. It doesn't look like much but at least it is WARM and dry and there are no bugs or mice or unwanted guests (like the waiheke shanty).

live sand dollar

sand dollars!

i have never seen so many sand dollars (both alive and dead) in all my life. the beach was covered with them.

turk's bay at low tide

coromandel town valley

yesterday was day 2 of my 3 day weekend here in coromandel town and i decided to have a hike about. mehow suggested i go at low tide and head up the road from the cafe and hang a left through the campground and walk to town along the beach. so i did that.

just beyond the cafe are some rolling hills and farms and pine trees (!) before hitting the bay. it rained off and on (as it usually does) but was quite a nice temperature to be out in the world.

yaki

(teri)yaki is the cafe kitty. super sweet and always starving.

mehow and craig

the team: mehow and craig. mehow studies astronomy and astrology (and owns the cafe with his wife, jess, and makes fantastic coffee). craig is a studied physicist and likes to make a mess and play computer games and eat cheese toasties and hopes to become a scuba master.

mehow is convinced that i was not born at 2:42p on april 23rd, 1982 in berkeley, california but that i MUST have been born at least 1 hour later because it only makes sense that i would be ruled by mars and influenced by virgo and NOT leo. he has me reading astrology books and pointing out the flaws in the cosmic universe that have me being born at 2:42p. needless to say, the conversations are interesting and entertaining.

sleepy coromandel town

peace and quiet. that's all you'll get in coromandel town in the winter.

i arrived just after 5:30p on thursday via the bus from auckland. the ride up the coast, through the town of thames and winding along the shore north was gorgeous and the sun was out and shining for most of the trip (still a chilly temp, though). the bus driver dropped me off at the corner of driving creek road, just past the "downtown" part of coromandel town (that you will miss if you blink or sneeze or look the wrong way), and i walked the 50 meters up the road to the driving creek cafe.

mehow, the owner and my new boss, was just getting in the car to leave when i rolled up. he managed to give me the penny tour in about 5 minutes and told me to make myself comfortable, another wwoofer would show up some time in the night, and that he would be back in the morning. um, ok. so, i'd be living in a cafe. alrighty.

the cafe is on the outskirts of town, on the way to the driving creek railway - and it seems that during the winter the train tours are the only tourist draw to the town - so customers are often either on their way to, or coming from their train ride. we get a few regular locals but so far it has been pretty quiet. the cafe is cute and cozy, there is a wood burning stove in the main room and some comfy couches off to one side. there are good windows for natural light and a front patio and garden seating (more for the summer).

the menu is strictly vegetarian and 90% organic and it is all really delicious. so far my jobs have been taking orders, doing dishes, cleaning, making smoothies, baking cookies and helping anna sarah with meal prep. on sunday i got to make melting moments, which are delicious little butter cookie sandwiches with butter cream filling... so good!

the crew is mehow on the coffees, craig (wwoofer from england) and i on dishes, orders and smoothies and anna sarah as the cook. we are only open friday, saturday, sunday and monday during the months of june and july but will open back up for 7 days a week mid-august.

makin' the best of it

this is me making the best of my time on waiheke... at the beach on a beautiful day. waiheke is definitely worth visiting and if i fly out of auckland on my return back to the states, i think i'll schedule some more days on the island in the summer/fall weather.

my camera timer works

me on the beach in a TANK TOP at onetangi, waiheke island.

sunset at onetangi beach

pohutukawa

this is a 200+ year old pohutukawa tree on the beach near rocky bay on waiheke island. the pohutukawa is also called the new zealand "christmas tree" because in summer/december it blooms with bright red flowers. this one was the perfect climbing tree - its branches twisted up and around each other providing the perfect holds making it quite easy to get very high.

fish and chips and a flat white (latte)

new zealand knows how to do chips (fries). dad likes photos of food. here was lunch with sam at the lazy lounge cafe in oneroa on waiheke... it was yum!

waiheke bush

looking over towards rocky bay and the mangrove trees at low tide.

SHEEP

yep, even waiheke island has the famous new zealand sheep... and a lot of them. island sheep. beach sheep. they know they've got it good.

coromandel peninsula

view of the coromandel peninsula from stony batter on waiheke island.

big guns

this is where they were going to keep the big guns if they ever needed any...

stony batter tunnels

sam and i did the self-guided tour through several km of tunnel, down and around the hills at the far end of the island. it was incredibly dark (no surprise) and cold (also no surprise) and quiet as we were the only two people in the tunnels for the duration of our 45 minute exploration.

peanut and violet

sam and i drove around waiheke island. on the far end (from the auckland side) is an area called stony batter. stony batter is a series of tunnels and old bunkers that were built and outfitted for wwii but were never actually used (as there was never really anything to use them for). when you go out to stony batter you can tour the old tunnels and there is a small museum with old guns and photos and newspaper articles about the area. on our drive around the island we hadn't intended to do the tunnel tour but when we got to the free museum we were greeted by 7 of the friendliest sheep in the world (rose, peanut, violet and others i can't remember). they walked right up, like dogs, wanting to be pet. they didn't pester us for food or anything, they were just super content to lean against us and nudge our hands with their heads.

so we had to do the tour. and we were really glad we did.

cigarettes are bad for you

this is sam, from holland. he rented a car and invited me to go wine tasting and ride around for the day. in this picture, he is hiding his cigarette behind his back. when he goes back to holland (next week), he dreams of opening a chain of pasta take away restaurants in holland and belgium. go sam.

the kid

like i said before, the kid was really cute... and if nothing else i feel sort of bad for him as he has had 4 nannies in the past 6 months or so. but, there was no way i could have stayed there longer. even after i moved out of their house and into the hostel, i still watched him for two days and i took him to the beach and the library and around town - he is a very sweet little baby.

i can see clearly now...

almost immediately after the wwoof host dropped me off at the backpackers - after i mustered up the courage to end it - i was walking to the market and saw this rainbow, which i absolutely took as a sign that i had done the right thing (for me) and gotten myself out of the awkward situation. i don't regret coming to waiheke and trying it out with the family, because if i hadn't, i might not have mad it out to this beautiful place in the middle of the ocean... but i'm still glad that i didn't stick with it for 6 weeks as i'm fairly certain it was going to make me miserable - and my trip is too short for misery.

my bed, in the shack

yes, this picture makes it look quite cozy but i had improved this room 100% before "moving in" and still wouldn't unpack any of my belongings. the room definitely belonged to the mice and they made their presents known in several ways. also, the room was barely insulated, with no power, and the temperature at night was barely above 45 degrees at night. i slept with two hot water bottles every night, in head-to-tow wool (and earplugs, of course).

ostend harbor

view to coromandel

here is a shot of the islands on waiheke's coast and the coromandel peninsula out in the far distance.

waiheke island

so, despite my waiheke wwoof not being ideal (and being downright awkward/uncomfortable), i stuck around the island for a week trying to make other arrangements. i based myself at the kina backpackers' hostel at onetangi beach and managed to meet some other really great travelers as well as the owner, luke, and his pup, tiny. being the off season here in new zealand means that even when booking a dorm room, i usually have the room to myself, and waiheke was no different. for the 4 nights i was at the backpackers i had my own room, and for 3 of the nights there were only 4 people at the whole place, me being the only girl. it was quiet, but not bad. the beaches are gorgeous and the buses run regularly between the 3 towns and there are a few really lovely markets and cafes and shops to browse in.

on the first night at kina i met a troop of girls from minnesota (!) who were in new zealand for two weeks before heading to oz for another two before going back home to mn. the 4 of us stayed up late at the kitchen table, drinking wine, chatting about travel and teasing our new friend, sam, a youngin' from holland (a 21 year old lad).

waiheke is blessed with a perfect grape growing climate which, by somehow, makes really good wine. there are several dozen small boutique wineries on the island and the gals had been lucky enough to go tasting at a few of them over the weekend, and had bought a few bottles to share with us (yay!). the girls left on tuesday, but sam had a rental car and suggested we go wine tasting and cruise around the island. unfortunately for us, the wineries are only open on the weekends during the winter - so we didn't get to taste at any of the estates, but we did give ourselves a full tour of the island, checking out the stony batter war memorial and all of the beaches, before buying some local wine in the market to drink with dinner.

after 4 lovely nights at kina backpackers i was contacted by the driving creek cafe in coromandel town, and asked to come over there to wwoof. so, adios to waiheke - i hope to meet again in the journey, but for now, i move on.

mad fish rock

i'm back! finally! so, what have i been up to for the last week? well, here it goes:

i headed off into the sunset on tuesday with suzie, after saying a sad goodbye to the chooks and the cows and bella and alistair and my wwoofing friends in cambridge. suzie dropped me off at the hamilton bus station and i made my way back up to auckland for the evening. in auckland on a tuesday evening leaves little to do in the winter so i stumbled on some totally yum japanese food for dinner (absolute hole-in-the-wall with a single counter and room for 9 customers that served gyoza and miso soups with fish, shrimp, pork, beef, veggies and noodles... good stuff) and then took myself to the academy theather (rad, artsy theater in the basement of the auckland public library) to see "this way of life," a kiwi documentary about a family living on the south island with their 6 kids and attempting to live off the land and raise their kids "right."

on wednesday morning at 10 i boarded the ferry in auckland for waiheke island (a 35 minute ride). it was a beautiful day with no clouds out and no rain - which seemed like a nice little window after the weather we have been having. i arrived on waiheke and took the bus towards the town of ostend, as instructed. i had asked the driver which stop would be closest to the cafe that i was suppose to meet my new wwoofing family at and the driver told me he would holler when i was suppose to get off. the driver forgot about me so when i asked him again later in the ride he said i should have gotten off two stops back but would now have to walk... no problem. i got myself situated and headed back up the road.

now, i'll end the gritty details of my wwoofing on waiheke and bullet it out for you:

a) the family members were nice, quirky, hippy and interesting
b) the baby was cute
c) their house was cool (straw bale house, completely solar), but not a working farm
d) the family was stressed with opening a new store/cafe
e) the family was constantly arguing, swearing, fighting with one another at every moment they were together
f) the wwoof accomodations were a modified shed on the property, that was also inhabited by all of the island's mice
g) their wwoof exchange was room and meals for me in exchange for 10 hours of babysitting and house clean-up 6 days a week and 4 hours of babysitting on the 7th day
h) other than playing with the baby, the position was sort of a solitary confinement as the house was 10km from the nearest bus stop and another 4km to the nearest town

so, needless to say, it didn't work out for me. i was suppose to be there for 6 weeks but only lasted 4 nights before i moved myself out and to the hostel and began looking for another arrangement.

a teeny, tiny blog post before i catch the bus

so, it has been an interesting week. i left the lovely paradise of cambridge and the earthstead farm (not to mention my cute cows, the chooks, my awesome-wwoofmates and suzie and alistair) last tuesday and spent 1 fabulous night in auckland before catching the ferry out to waiheke island.

waiheke island was beautiful.
the family i was wwoofing for - i made it 4 days - was not ideal.
needless to say i spent 4 days with their baby at their house, and then removed myself from the situation and checked in at the kina backpackers on onetangi beach. best decision, ever.

i'll post more photos and elaborate a bit when i can... now, i head to coromandel town on the coromandel peninsula to wwoof/work/host an organic cafe called the driving creek cafe. i hear good things.

xxoo
jk

goofing around

gee and i were goofing around at the entrance to the hamilton gardens... this is "little bull" and he reminded us of joy-bell, so we decided to take some funny photos with him. this is me and gee surfing the bull.

the chicken tractor!

my favorite part of the hamilton gardens was the sustainable backyard exhibit and the chicken tractor. the chicken tractor is the 6 plots of raised garden beds that use footprints of the hen house (in the background) as their base. the hen house is then rotated ever 2 or 3 weeks and the chickens do all of the tilling and fertilising for the veggies... brilliant!

don't tell anyone... i picked it

yes, i was a bad tourist and i picked a piece of lavender from the kitchen garden at the hamilton gardens for this pose... it smelled sooooo good.

the american modernist garden

gee made me pose in front of the american modernist garden sign at the hamilton gardens.

amber and angie

amber

not that i have favorites, but this is one of my favorite cows on the farm... amber is adorable.

wwoofing

wwoofing around with doreen at the chook yard... in uniform.

the chinese garden

me and my osmond wwoofing buddies... doreen and gee, outside the chinese inspired garden at the hamilton gardens.

the hamilton gardens

on thursday after work, doreen, gee and i went over to hamilton and to the hamilton botanical gardens. the day started out on the cool and overcast side but the sun came out in full force in the afternoon. this is a photo from the italian villa inspired garden section. we three were pretty much the only visitors we saw - which was great - but the groundskeepers were doing a lot of work on the exhibits, which was a bit distracting. it was a great afternoon, regardless.