The first farm and travels in between

Hi everyone. We miss you all. Time seems to be flying for us and we hope you are all well. Don't hesitate to email us or comment and let us know how you are doing.

Sorry for the lack of updates. It turns out that wi-fi is very prevelant in New Zealand; almost every camp ground and cafe has a hotspot. However, it also turns out that almost every wi-fi network in NZ costs money; even when you buy something at a cafe; thus, the lack of updates. BUT... we've made it to our first farm and they let us use their connection.

We made it here (a farm in Wainui, near the larger town of Whakatane (pronounced fhuk-a-tan-ee)) last Thursday after a week or so of riding from Auckland. As mentioned in the last post we were hoping to WWOOF in the Coromandel; we couldn't find anyone that need help so head for the Bay of Plenty. We'll be here until Tuesday when we will then commence on leg 2 of our bike tour, this time around the East Cape towards Gisborne (pronounced giz-ben). This part of the tour should take 10 or so days and goes through the center of Maori country and is quite remote from what everyone tells us; it is supposed to be a lot better ride than going through Roturua, though about twice the distance, so no geysers and corn boiled in thermal springs for us just yet. Then it is on to our next WWOOFing appointment in Taupo (near Mordor!... um, I mean Mt. Tongariro National Park).

Well, click through for the pictures of our first leg of the journey and the farm we working at.

This is not from our trip but it is pretty awesome and funny.

Find Lindy in an Auckland park!

Our first camping stop on the island of Waiheke.

Blowing up a sleeping pad (they are really comfortable; thanks Grandparents Fowlers!).

Lindy is taking a breather; you'll know why when you look at the next picture.

See the ocean? That is where we biked from for the first part of the first full day of cycling on the Coromandel Penninsula (pronounced pen-in-chtu-la). We had to stop about 10 times riding up that pass. All other hills have seemed minature in comparison; good thing it was on the first day?

It's the Shire Sam! Seriously, most of NZ looks like this; a big fat green desert, mostly deforested.

That mountain in the background that looks like a clump of clay that God rolled around in his hand and then dropped onto earth is called Castle Rock.

And this is the Kuaotunu beach; it is by the camping ground where we spent the night after the giant climb over the mountain range. Oh, by the way, we got up to 70 km/hr coming down.

Our bikes with all our gear on them. That is Simpson's beach in the background. It was freezing that day, with a southerly wind coming from Antarctica; it was a bummer we were biking south, into the wind.

When we made it Whitianga (pronounced fhit-ee-ang-a) we didn't have much to eat so stopped at a place with vege burgers and kumara chips (sweet potato fries), we also got thickshakes (don't order a milkshake in NZ unless you want frothy milk with barely any taste to it).

Hot water beach was our next destination. Low tide wasn't until near 11 pm so we waited until then to dig a hole in the sand and soak in our very own, kiddy pool-sized jacuzzi fueled by the lava flowing 60+ meters underneath the sand.

Lindy at hot water beach (the moon was full that night so we could see as we dug our hole in the sand; too bad a drunk guy from boston came by and decided to dig a hole right down the slope from our so that all our water went flowing out and all we were left with was a shallow hole of hot sand):

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Lindy with her new hair, looking chipper after we passed all the racing cyclists (there was a race that day around the Coromandel, the winner rode 200 km in about 5 hours, it took us about 5 days to do that).

And me.

Kung-fu master!

This was the bounciest tramopline I have ever jumped on. This campground in Athenree in the western Bay of Plenty also had thermal hot water pools that really helped our fatigued muscles.

And then we had too much water to drink:

And then, after a night camping right next to the beach, and a train track, we made it to the Hughes' farm in Wainui. This is a view from our little cabin.

A few days ago, a French couple, who are also WWOOFing here, and I picked a wheelbarrow-full of grapefruit while Lindy painted a new sleepout. She then helped squeeze all the grapefruit to make juice!









That's all for now. Our next update probably won't be until we make it to Taupo after November 22.