Northland

   I'm still in Northland, north of Auckland, the subtropical region of the country, and it's getting quite warm. It seems most of the wwoof hosts practicing permaculture are in this region. I probably won't be heading much further south until around Christmas.  

   On my way to my next wwoof hosts, I drove through an old kauri forest. The enormous kauri trees once dominated the New Zealand landscape, but were bled for kauri "gum", and chopped down for timber and to clear the land for pasture. The gum was very valuable and used mostly as varnish by the Europeans.

   My third wwoof hosts were Peter and Helen, a couple from England. They live in a lovely 20 acre valley along with another English couple who had formerly wwoofed with them, both with a couple of children.

  They have cows, chickens, two cats, a dog, four ducks, two geese, and some goslings. Unfortunately the geese didn't seem to want their children, and three were crushed by their mother, the other two rescued by Helen. One was later attacked by a hen and had its leg injured. It couldn't walk on it for days, but was making progress when it suddenly died, probably from the recent wet weather and lack of food. The remaining gosling lives on...


   Two other wwoofers from Bellingham, WA were already there when I arrived. Combining our powers, we cooked up a Thanksgiving Day feast for the Brits. We prepared a stuffed wild turkey, pumpkin pie, bread, salad, and some heady eggnog. Our hosts were impressed, and will now only accept wwoofers on Thanksgiving willing to cook dinner.

   My work consisted mostly of, once again, hauling logs around. This time kanuka instead of olive. The kanuka is like a larger version of the manuka, famous for the honey that bees produce from its pollen. They are both very common, grow easily, and the kanuka makes excellent building material. We used some logs, with the bottoms charred in a fire to resit rot, to build a chicken run. I also helped build a barbed wire fence for keeping in cattle, and dug some potato trenches among other things.
 
   I had agreed through email that I would wwoof there for two weeks, but apparantly they thought it was only one. They also explained that there wasn't enough work for all of us, and they couldn't afford to feed us all. Leaving early was a good thing however, as I got a chance to be a tourist in the Bay of Islands.

   I drove over to Kerikeri, the biggest town in the Bay of Islands region, and saw some historic buildings. The region was the site of the early British settlements and subsequent government. Photo is the first stone building built in New Zealand, where you can buy hand forged nails and other old fashioned knick knacks.

   I spent a couple days in super touristy Paihia where I kayaked, hiked, and visited nearby Waitangi where the famous treaty between the British and Maori was signed in 1840. The treaty gave the British rule over the country, the Maori probably signing largely because it was mistranslated.

   Across the harbor is Russell, another historic town with great views of the area.

   On my way to my current wwoof hosts, I stopped to take a hike over to an old whaling station.

   I'm now at the Mamaki Community staying with Klaus and Vanessa. There are three other wwoofers here, one from Scotland, and two from the U.S. There are a few other familys in the community who share the land. They have horses, goats and chickens as well as a large garden and many fruit trees. I've been mostly putting down bamboo and lime paths between the garden beds.

Click here for heaps of photos! (mostly trees)

You may see some spots and things on my photos. I thought it was something on the lens, but the guy at the camera store said it's something on the sensor inside the camera. I'll have to send it back to Panasonic to get it fixed...