Northland

New Zealand is absolutely beautiful. I can’t imagine that there are many places in the world where you can drive through endless fields and hills of green with a mountainous backdrop, go swimming at a beach surrounded by tiny islands, go sand boarding down huge sand dunes and walk through a rainforest all in the same day. My trip of the northland was really fun. For those of you that care where exactly I was, I am on the north island and all of this trip was the area that is above Auckland. I saw an ad posted in my hostel by a guy named Romy who had rented a campervan to do the trip and needed a travel buddy. (public transport here is not that good so the easiest and cheapest way to get around is to rent a campervan so that you can sleep in it too and save on accommodation.) So I answered and we went on the trip together. Some friends of Romys live in the northland so they were our tour guides for the first two days and for the rest of time we were on our own, trying to find all the hotspots J we saw the most amazing country side…it basically looks like something out of a fairy tale haha. We went on a bunch of short hikes that all ended in beautiful waterfalls..NZ is definitely not lacking in the waterfall department J We went on hikes through the forest and saw some great beaches and huge sand dunes..I think my favorite part was the bays in the north though. There are tons of little bays, all scattered with these tiny islands. SOO beautiful. We went SKYDIVING over the Bay of Islands so we got a view of the islands from above. It was pretty amazing. It was kinda cloudy so we didnt see as much as I hoped but it was reeeeaaaalllllyyy cool flying through the clouds. I loooove skydiving and was getting talked into getting certified to do it on my own by one of the guys there so I am looking into it……haha don’t have a heart attack Pop, ill be fine J SO the trip of the north was pretty amazing. The "campervan" was…interesting, haha. It was basically a van that had seats that could be transformed into a bed and a gas stove in the back. So showers and sometimes even a toilet were pretty luxurious haha. Romy and I got along pretty well, which was a plus since we were in such close proximity the whole time…he just made fun of my American accent the whole time haha (hes English). I absolutely loved it up there. It is sooo secluded with all these small towns. On Saturday night we kinda wanted to party a little so we drove for about 1 ½ hours longer than we would have to find a town that had a bar in it…then when we got there we were the ONLY ones there and they said they were closing. So our big Saturday night party was one rushed drink haha…..

Looking at all the farmland made me really anxious to start my farmwork…and also to have free rent! NZ is pretty expensive so I am looking forward to not having to pay for hostels every night! I have my first farm scheduled for Tues the 13^th and have tons more all over the north after that. I am thinking about buying a cheap car here to make it easier to get around…the busses kinda suuuuck to travel on because some of the towns I am going to are so small there is no bus that goes through them….so its just another thing im looking into…

Now I am in this little beach town called Orewa, staying at this cute hostel that is really nice. It feels great to have a shower and a bed!