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After 8 months on the road and numerous countries visited I'm home. At first it felt strange to be back, it almost felt that time in Leeds had frozen while I had been away but I guess that's the way it is when you go away for a long time. Whilst travelling almost every day is an adventure, travelling long distances, seeing new places and meeting new people.The excitement of travelling  makes it feel like you have done so much in such a short space of time, it's easy to forget that life goes on as normal back home. 

Anyway now I'm home its given me the chance to reflect back on what I've done and what I wish I'd done. One thing I know for sure is that I'll definitely be back out on the road at some point to explore places I've visited and places that I didn't have the chance to. As well as reflecting on what I've done  it's also time to crack out Photoshop and start processing the 6000 plus pictures that I have taken over 8 months, Sometimes I wish that I had taken more photos but I feel that I did take some cracking pictures. I've also begun to build the Crooked Images website so I can have an online portfolio and hopefully sell some prints. 

I feel that I achieved so much while travelling, I really want to keep pushing forward and keep things fresh and learn new skills. I've already decided to take a studio photography course so I feel that I'm moving in the right direction, who knows I may even take a few art classes to help develop my artistic eye. I feel both mentally and physically stronger then I have in years and feel that I can and want to do pretty much anything right now, in the words of John our last WWOOFING host ''Don't just look at it...hit it'' 

Last Travelling Post

I've decided that this is going to be my last travelling post and it's going to be a short one; we’ve been at what will be our last woofing place for over a week now and will probably be the last place we stay at until we head up to Auckland to sell our car. We've woofed here before and have been told that we are welcome to stay here as long as we want, we’re not complaining, the work is interesting, accommodation good and we are really, really well fed. I can’t see us having many more adventures while in New Zealand, We’ve travelled through South East Asia and up and down New Zealands North and South island and survived, I've seen things that I may never see again and met the most amazing people who I do hope to see again.

We’ll be heading back to England early August and I’m looking forward to meeting up with friends, family and having a pint in a good English pub. After travelling for 8 months I’m ready to get back, unpack my bags and get back on with my life in Leeds so thanks for taking the time to read my blog and sharing my adventures.

The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry..

No matter how carefully a project is planned, even though we plan to the best of our ability, something may still go wrong with it.

Hey Look at me getting all fancy using a quote as a title for my blog but that’s exactly what has happened to me and my buddy Lloyd, the work we had arranged in Blenheim has been cancelled at the last minute so the plan from my previous post has all gone ‘tits up’. Soooo here is the revised plan, it’s not ideal and it does mean cutting our journey short, but with funds running low and not been able to find work that will see us through we have decided to WOOF our way north for a few months and then head over to Hong Kong for two nights giving Australia a miss on the way home then head back to blighty. It’s not ideal but rather than be stressing about money and travelling the length of the country to try and find work that might not even happen we have decided that this is the best option for us, at least we will hopefully be able to enjoy the remainder of our trip and not be stressed unless our windscreen gets chipped again.                                      

I really don’t mind spending my remaining time here woofing, so far its been the best part of my time here in New Zealand, We’ve been blessed with fantastic hosts who have really looked after us and shared their lives, advice and stories plus we have had the chance to do work that we normally wouldn’t have had the chance to do back home. I never in my life expected that I would ever be planting trees on the most beautiful landscape or pointing an outdoor wine cellar or working on a farm. So looking forward and trying to be positive I’ve learnt a lot about myself and what I am capable of. Over the past few years I’ve also tried my hardest to get out of Leeds and maybe pushed myself too hard and ended up burning myself out, now that I’ve been away and spent time in smaller cities and towns I’ve come to learn that Leeds isn’t so bad and I can now see it in a different light.

The only thing I’m not positive about is that my best buddy James won’t be there in Leeds when I return; he has decided to move to Brighton with his wife Jo. James has been a good friend to Lloyd and I for many years and has been a source of constant support when I’ve been through tough times and needed someone to talk to; he has also been a brother to me even more so than my own. I’ll miss been able to give my buddy a call and meet up for a swift pint or coffee and miss his wise Gandalf like advice!

Jamesy boy you will be greatly missed and Leeds will be an emptier place with out you! Good luck and stay in touch!

On the up?

So after my last post which was a bit of an outburst of frustration things have calmed down a bit. We unfortunately decided that we had to head back north to Nelson since we will hopefully have 3 months, fully time work in a factory in a few weeks time. I really didn’t want to leave Wanaka and Queenstown as they are really chilled out places plus we both really wanted to work a ski season, anyway so our plans have changed and here is the new ‘improved’ plan if the factory work happens.

• Work for 3 months in the factory.
• Save money like mad.
• Treat ourselves to beer on the weekend.
• When 3 months have passed shoot back down to Wanaka and snowboard and party for a week.
• Travel back north doing activities and drinking along the way.

Another beautiful WOOFING sunset

Queenstown...I miss you already

So as I said we’re back in Nelson, we left our woofing hosts, Miranda and John on the 13^th May and drove north only stopping to spend the night in a hostel and then setting of again in the morning. Lloyds been driving and reckons we have driven more than 6000 kilometres since we first bought our car and set off from Auckland (work that out into miles yourself), I feel bad for Lloyd since I don’t drive he has to do all the driving, I’ve even started sitting in the back of the car and started to call him Jeeves, his birthday is coming up soon so I might buy him a pair of driving gloves.

We’re now at our new woofing hosts place with Geoffrey and Briar who will be looking after us for the next few weeks. We’ve started work already helping to construct Geoffrey’s work shed, and it sure beats weeding for 4 hours a day. Geoffrey and Briar are both counsellors so are both very easy to get along with and very positive people, the only downside is that they are vegetarians… I’m a carnivore and vegetables bore the hell out of me, we’ve only been here 1 day and I’m already craving a kebab.

A rant and some nice pictures

After a short telephone call to my parents I’ve decided to do a short piece on the problems with travelling. I originally phoned my parents as I needed to hear some supportive words after having a run of shitty luck, we had our car wind screen chipped after an on coming truck flicked a stone at us while travelling to Queenstown to look for work, after arriving there and walking round to hand out CVs we didn’t get the best response from any place we went into to enquire about work during the winter season and now I’m full of cold and aching from working outside in the pouring rain, in the back of my mind I hear the quote from Withnail and I ‘’I feel like a pig just shat in my head’’ and ‘’We’ve  gone on holiday by mistake’’. The parents response during the telephone call was ‘’but you must be having the time of your lives down there etc etc’’. Yes travelling is an amazing experience but just like being at  home you do have your ups and downs and sometimes it’s a right pain in the arse as you’re constantly having to think and plan ahead plus sometimes you travel long distances and don’t spend long in one place. People must think that you spend all your time partying and living it up, this really isn’t the case, since arriving in New Zealand we’ve not had many nights out as we’ve been trying to save money and have been WOOFing in some quite remote places, most of out money has spent has gone on petrol, food and accommodation, I’ve not even had an hair cut for 2 months and am beginning to look like Stig of the Dump! (could be the reason I didn’t get the best responses when job hunting!)

As I’ve said in previous posts we both want to find somewhere to settle and find a flat/houseshare for our remaining months in NZ, I mean you can only enjoy the novelty of staying in hostels for a short while, fighting for a place in the kitchen and been woken by people coming in late pissed up or leaving rooms extremely early can knock a bit of the ‘fun’ out of travelling. You tend to take advice from other people you meet for example we were told to get to Queenstown early and start looking for work only to arrive here and be told that there won’t be anything for at least another month, 1 month is a hell of a long time when living on a really small budget. Even when we arrived here our woofing host told us that now is the best time to start looking, in hindsight could it be best to make your own decisions and not ask people for advice and find out for yourself when you get to your destination?

Despite my moaning I’ve got to say Queens town and (see pictures below) Wanaka are the pretties places I’ve seen so far in New Zealand the landscape is amazing  so I’d would really love to find work here but we will have to see!

(This piece is dedicated to Caro lin and her stinky cat get well soon)

The Long Road South

After we had arrived at the south island we decided to head across to Nelson and spend 1 night there since we were pretty eager to get as much distance in as possible. Nelson seems pretty nice but very small, since we were tiered from travelling we decided to check into a hostel and take it easy. One thing I don't like about hostels is that you have to check out really early at 10am, 10am isn't early if you have to get up for work but while travelling sometimes you want to have a nice long lie in and have a nice easy morning. We were up bright and early the next day for a long drive to punakaiki, the landscape on the south island is more impressive than the north island and it's defiantly getting colder. We drove along the coast line with it's crashing waves and jagged rocks sticking out of the sea it looked amazing.

It didn't as long as I thought before we got there and luckily we Lloyd had a great idea where we could stay for 1 night. The hostel we stopped in was situated in a small forest near a beach, it really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere  and there we were the only people there so that was a big bonus.

Near the hostel was a rock formation called Pancake Rocks, we went to have a look just as the tide was coming in.

Pancake Rocks

That evening we also took a walk down to the beach, I've never seen waves as big as they were down there, it really made you think that mother nature could easily kick your arse if she wanted to. It's a shame from the pictures below you can't really appreciate the size of the waves!

The next day we were up early again to drive down to Fox Glacier, the landscape as we drove further south was amazing with snow capped mountains jutting out of the earth and more wild coastal scenes.

Fox Glacier

Mount Cook and Mount Tasmin

Reflections

Tomorrow we will be up bright and early for our last,hopefully long drive to Wanaka where we can hopefully find some work, keep your fingers crossed for us people!

Wellington

We finished our last stint of woofing at John and Karens and headed south so we could do the Tongerio crossing. Sandrine, one of our Woofing companions wanted to head south too and since we had a car we were more than happy to give her a lift. John and Karen have been perfect hosts, nothing is too much trouble and before we left they told us that if we had any problems, ran out of money or needed somewhere to stay all we had to do was give them a call and they would help us out.

We headed off to do the Tongerio crossing and drove south for about 5 hours and spent the night in a hostel, before we checked into the hostel we called into an information centre to check out if the crossing would be possible to do the next day, we were told that the weather forecast was not too good and we should call back in the morning, if the weather was fine we would be able to do the crossing then. When we woke the next day it was raining so we didn’t even bother going back to the information centre, we decided to load up the car and head for Wellington so we could continue our way onto the south island, Sandrine decided to head further south with us too, it’s nice to have someone else to travel with and it also helps with the petrol money too! The driver to Wellington didn’t take too long when we arrived we found ourselves another hostel and got ourselves settled in. We decided that night to go out for a few drinks, it turned into a heavy drinking session with shots of Bourbon/Jagermeister and countless beers been downed…and lots of silly dancing all in all a great night out. Lloyd and I decided to blame our hangovers on Sandrine since it was her idea to drink shots. We had a quiet day due to the hangovers and Lloyd and I decided to go and see the Avengers, it’s not a bad film if you’re into your comic books you’ll probably enjoy it.

The next day we went up to Mount Victoria from the top you get an amazing view of Wellington, as you may have heard Wellington is called the windy city and it’s true that it always seems to be windy here especially when you get to the top of  the mountain. After we had finished at the top we walked down to Wellingtons museum, the museum itself is really nice, we looked around a few floors and then decided to go and have a coffee.

Wellington, the windy city

Lloyd and I are ready to look for work now, we both seem to be in the same frame of mind and are ready to find somewhere to settle for a while now and stop moving for a few months. We’ve been on the move since the 5^th December and have moved locations every few days; the longest we have stayed in a destination is while we have been woofing, don’t get me wrong travelling has been great fun so far but it would be nice to unpack the bags for a bit and settle somewhere, make new friends and really get a feel for a place.

Today (30^th April) We headed for the south island, its about 3 ½ hours on a ferry, Sandrine did the crossing with us and then she jumped on the Kiwi bus to see some other parts of the south island, she is heading for the Queenstown too so I am sure we will all meet up at some point to have a few more shots of Bourbon and Jagermeister! Lloyd and I have just arrived in Nelson where we might spend a few more days before we head further south as I have said we’re both eager to find some work in Queens Town or Wanaka so the way I see it the sooner we get there the sooner we can get ourselves settled 

Age

Okay I thought I’d do a blog piece that has nothing to do with travelling since I’ve been in the same place for a while now and nothing much has happened since my last post. We’re still WOOFing and we’ve been working alongside two other WOOFers who are quite bit younger than Lloyd and I. It seems when you meet people when travelling the same question always seems to rear its head and it’s the only question that does my head in, one of the WOOFers asked me the question today… ‘’HOW OLD ARE YOU’’, the rest of the conversation went something like this.

Me: ‘’Old enough’’

Woofer: ‘’25’’

Me: ‘’No’’

WOOFer: ‘’27’’

Me: ‘’No’’

WOOFer: ‘’29’’

Me: ‘’No’’

WOOFer: ‘’30’’

This could have gone on for a while but I got up, left the table and went back to my work. To me age doesn’t really matter (unless your're really old and cracking onto a girl at least 20 years your junior, see previous posts) and I can’t understand why it comes up in a lot of conversations, maybe I don’t like it because I haven’t yet done what I want to with my life and feel that time is slipping away or maybe I’ve made one two many mistakes in my life and wasted years doing things that I’m not really happy doing. Should I by the age of 32 be settled, have a mortgage and kids, have a career and know what I want to do with my life or is it how society determines what we should have done by a certain age? Maybe I should go buy some anti ageing cream and learn to stop thinking too much about it….

WOOfing adventures

It feels like a lot has happened since my last blog, Lloyd and I arrived in Napier did a bit of camping and then headed out to our new WOOFing host. When we originally booked our new WOOFing host we looked at the reviews at we thought that this was really going to be a great place to work but when we got there I pretty much had a bad feeling straight away. On our arrival we were led to a tiny caravan at the bottom of the garden (this was to be our accommodation for the week), the caravan was that small we barley had any room for our bags. Lloyds bed was barley wide enough and my bed was not long enough, we barely slept our first night there and we were quite tired the next day.  It was raining so we couldn’t really do any work so we spent the day hanging around waiting to be able to do some work, that nights sleep was not really the best either and we both woke again feeling shattered, been tired is not too bad but the caravan was also full of mosquitos and sand flys. We started work that morning and we were both disappointed with the work we were given, pulling leaves off of trees so they don’t rub against fruit is not the most interesting work and we were both totally fed up and tired. We decided to go and have a chat with our hosts and explain to them that we were leaving. 

We packed our stuff and headed out, we originally planned to go out and do a bit more camping but Lloyd suggested sending our previous hosts a text to see if they needed any help. John got back to us in a few moments and we were soon on our way back to John and Karens. We were given such a nice welcome back we felt totally at ease with going back. The work here is good and I feel like I am learning new skills, far better than picking leaves off of trees, in fact Lloyd and I have been helping john build his out door wine cellar. Most of it has been built so Lloyd and I have been chipping out concrete and repointing the wall. It's really peaceful here and chilled out and the sunsets here are amazing , I've posted a few pictures below. We have now been back here over a week and will be leaving on the 21^st to start our journey south towards Queens Town!

Napier

All right people, this blog is a bit of long one since it’s been almost a week a since I last wrote one, I'll also update it with pictures soon since the camp site I am currently on has limited,slow internet access but in the meantime I hope you enjoy!

Lloyd and I left Raglan and drove over to Rotorua, the drive didn’t take us that long so when we arrived we booked ourselves in to a hostel then went out to explore. Rotorua literally stinks the whole town smells of sulphur as it was built on a geo thermal site and I have to admit there’s not a great deal to do in the town centre. We decided to spend 2 nights there so we could go and do some white water rafting, I wasn’t too sure at about rafting at first, I’m an artist, I value my life, I don’t like the thought of throwing myself off bridges or from planes but I’m glad I did it as the whole experience was a good laugh even going off the end of an 8 meter high waterfall was good fun. I have to say as well I look pretty damn good in a wet suit, I think I’m going to buy one and start rocking the surf/rafting look around Leeds city centre when I get back.

We left Rotorua the day after and decided to pick up some camping equipment and start camping for bit, so with tent and sleeping bags in hand we set off again and found ourselves a camping ground, the grounds keeper seemed a bit weird and I wasn’t sure if she was going to come and kill us in the middle of the night so we decided to go get a bottle of vodka and get drunk, we had a few beers left from previous nights in Raglan so we thought we should finish those as well. Getting drunk while camping was great fun and the booze helped get me off to sleep!

We left the camp site at around 10am the next morning and set off for Gibson, we decided to take the scenic coastal route. I’ve decided that I really love New Zealands coast line; it’s really rugged and baron and beats Bridlington and Scarborough hands down. This scenic route took us longer than we expected and we arrived in Gisbon quite late and with a storm brewing we had to get our tent up pretty quickly, that night it absolutely chucked it down, I was woken by the rain splashing off the tent and the wind howling outside luckily it stopped raining long enough for us to pack out tent in the morning.

Since we are going back to Gisbon to do some more WOOFing we decided to head down to Napier to camp for 2 more nights. When we set off to Napier we had a quarter of a tank of petrol left, I noticed this and said to Lloyd ‘’do you think we should get more petrol’’ Lloyd remarked ‘’no we’ll be fine’’ If I ever hear those words leave Lloyds mouth again I’ll probably burst into tears and start screaming. We were about 100 Kilometres from Napier when the low petrol light came on, at the time we were driving through the hills with no houses or petrol stations in sight, the only thing we could see were rolling hills, rain and low level cloud. We drove along nervously half expecting the car to crawl to a stop but luckily just as we were arriving in Napier we found a petrol station.

Napier is a nice looking town, all of the buildings are in an Art Deco style, I think I read somewhere that the city was destroyed by an earthquake in the 40’s and rebuilt in the Art Deco style (let me know if the dates etc are incorrect). The city is built by the coast so we took a walk down to have a look at the beach; the sea was absolutely wild I’ve never seen it as rough as it was here. We’re due to travel back up to Gisbon to start our next WOOFing job, our hosts seem very friendly and have been given really good feedback plus they can also get us discounted surf lessons, I really enjoyed surfing In Raglan so weather permitting I’m sure as hell going to give in another go, we also have another job lined up after that and then we plan to start moving our way down towards the south island where fingers crossed we will get a job working a ski season somewhere. I’m just about ready to get a job and find somewhere to settle now, I’ve ben travelling for about 4 months and it really has been a great experience but I’d really like to be able to at least unpack my bag for a while and really get to know an area properly.

Raglan

We left our WOOFing hosts and headed off towards Raglan, on our way we stopped off at Cambridge to look at camping equipment. Lloyd and I plan on doing a bit of camping between WOOFing as we work  a bit of camping on 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111our way down the north island. I’ve never really been bothered about camping but it will be good to give it a go plus the equipment we’re buying is on sale so in the long run it will be cheaper than staying in hostels.

Raglan is a really nice town, very small but very chilled out. There are a few licensed cafes so if you want a coffee or beer there is a good choice of places to choose from there are also lots of independent shops. There are lots of activities to do that are mainly water based like surfing or kite surfing. The majority of people in Raglan are surfer types apparently Raglan is one of the surfing hot spots so I can understand why.

Lloyd and I have checked into a Back Packers hostel it’s really nice and the other people in the hostel are really nice and laid back, check out the view from the hostel balcony!

On Saturday Lloyd and I signed up for surfing lessons, I was quite nervous to start with but the instructors made sure everyone was at ease and relaxed before we got in the water. The first part of the lesson was on land where we were given instructions on how to get onto the board and how to stand once you caught a wave. The second part was where we got in the water and gave what we had learnt into practice. The hardest part for me was getting out deep enough; the waves absolutely batter you as you try to get out deep enough. Once you get out deep enough and you see a wave coming you have to lay on your board and when the wave is close start paddling, you really feel the speed when the wave starts to push you along. Depending on your balance you then have to try to get to your feet, it does feel amazing when you manage to stand and balance for quite some distance. Lloyd and I did plan on going out again on Sunday but I am aching all over from the previous days efforts so we decided to give it a miss, I will give it a go again if the opportunity comes along.


We spent our last night in Raglan drinking with a bunch of people we met in our hostel, like I've said before it's all about the people you meet that make travelling fun. I've posted a few pictures below from my time in Raglan, if you ever make it over to New Zealand this place is definitely worth visiting. 


Just a quick note too, I've finally updated my travel pictures, just click the travel pictures tab at the top of the page!

I thought I should do a quick post since I haven't posted for a while. Lloyd and I have just finished our last mornings work at our WOOFing hosts place. Between us we have planted around 700 trees, made about 800 bamboo stakes, drunk 30 cups of tea, drunk 3 litres of lemon and barley juice, eaten 70 biscuits and I have approximately 1000 sand fly bites.

Lots of bamboo stakes and trees

I have really enjoyed my time here, we have worked hard, eaten a lot of good food and the weather has been great. Next we head over to Raglan to have a few days off and to  learn how to surf and then we have another WOOfing host lined up. John and Karyen have been great hosts. John is a really nice funny guy and has lots of stories to tell and Karyen is a great cook. They are both semi retired but John still seems to put a lot of hours work in.

Night Fall

John on his tractor

Lloyd the farmer

Our main plan is to get down to Queens Town and try to find work during the Ski Season, I really want to have a go at snow boarding, not sure if I'll be any good but I reckon it's worth giving it a go. If we don't get jobs there I guess we will have to re-evaluate our plans but I'm sure it will all work out, any way next stop Raglan!!!

Putaruru

We've been at our new WOOFing placement for two days now; our hosts are a nice couple called John and Karyen. Their property is a massive piece of land, part nature reserve and part dairy farm, the work that Lloyd and I have/will mainly doing is planting trees along a hill that runs alongside a river and also digging out a pathway so people can easily gain access to the riverside.  The farm is in the middle of nowhere and it’s really peaceful out here though in time I am sure that I will miss the city, to be honest I’m already looking forward to getting to Wellington so I can enjoy a bit of night life!

Middle of nowhere

At the moment we are working in the morning and having the afternoons off, we have breakfast at 8 then John takes us to the river on his quad, have a break at around 10:30 (lots of tea and biscuits), work until around 12:30/1:00 and then John takes us back for a big lunch that kareyn has prepared. The rest of the day is ours to enjoy so there’s no complaints from me! On their land is a massive hill with rocky outcrops, apparently it was once part of a Maori burial site. Lloyd and I walked up the hill, it was quite a hard walk after a mornings work, I took plenty of photos New Zealand is a great place to photograph totally different from South East Asia. 

It’s quite hard work but John is really easy going and doesn’t want us to overwork ourselves.  It’s nice to do manual labour rather than been sat behind a desk worrying about deadlines or having to chase a million and one things. It’s also really good to work with Lloyd again, we used to work at Habitat along with our other buddy James so it’s a bit like old times, there’s plenty of taking the piss out of each other and general messing about as we go about our work.

Travel Music

Its been raining all day today and our car is been serviced so because I haven't been able to go out and explore I thought I would do another quick blog.


While travelling through Asia we spent countless hours on long train and bus journeys and the only way to combat some of the boredom was to listen to music, saying that not all journeys were boring and listening to music sometimes added something to the journey. When listening to music I tend to jump from album to album and track to track, I very rarely sit there and listen to an album in one go unless it's a new band that I have discovered or an album that really grips me. Here's a list of my essential travel playlist:-




Austra- Feel It Break   www.myspace.com/austra 
Beat and the Pulse 
Darken her Horse
Lose It
Spell Work


Bloc Party- Slient Alarm   www.myspace.com/blocparty
Banquet
Helicopter 
This Modern Love


Blood Red Shoes- Fire Like This   www.myspace.com/bloodredshoes
Light It Up
When We Wake


Crystal Castles (both albums)   www.myspace.com/crystalcastles
Crimewave
Airwar
Courtship Dating
1991
Vanished
Through the Hosiery
Reckless
Black Panther
Celestica
Doe Deer
Babtism
Year of Silence
Empathy
Vietnam


Deftones        www.myspace.com/deftones
Diamond Eyes
Digital Bath
Change (in the house of flies)


Fever Ray   www.myspace.com/feverray
Seven
Triangle Walks
Keep the Streets Empty for Me


The Knife-Silent Shout    theknife.net/
Silent Shout
Neverland
The Captain
Forest Families


Ladyhawke  http://www.myspace.com/ladyhawkerock
Magic
My Delerium
Oh My
Crazy World


PG.Lost-In Never Out  www.pglost.com/
Prahanien
Jura
Heart of Hearts
Crystalline
Gomez


Subways-Young For Eternity  www.myspace.com/thesubways
Rock n Roll Queen
Oh Yeah
She Sun
Somewhere


Yeah Yeah Yeahs  www.myspace.com/yeahyeahyeahs
All 3 albums pretty much start to finish


I have loads more albums but at the moment these seem to be the ones that I have been really listening to as well as a load of Russell Brand podcasts that my friend Lloyd passed onto me. I really hope that I can find some bars in new Zealand that have live music or a half decent play list or duke box.

Work and Play

We've now finished our last day of work at Morepork Lodge, It has been hard work but I feel like I have really achieved something during my time working here. I’ve never worked in this kind of environment before and its all been new to me but WOOFing is so much fun and if you come to New Zealand you should really give it a go. Here is what our host had to say about us on our profile feedback:-

We were lucky enough to have Ian and Lloyd stay, work and play with us in March 2012..we were their first WWOOFing hosts...so I was out to draw blood. I succeeded! Ian and Lloyd are two hell of a nice guys and REALLY hard and honest workers and willing to give anything a go...show them once and then leave them to it knowing a thorough job will be done...and we had a laugh along the way!!..I thought I might get away with throwing them a piece of bread and some chicken bones but alas, they have a good appetite cos they work so hard! Typically the work included clearing scrub, gorse and weeds, lawn mowing, spreading post peelings, paddock tidying,  helping me fell trees, wood chopping, window and deck cleaning, meeting and greeting our BNB hosts when were not here ( so testament to their personalities!) We had the guys here for a week and they worked 3 full days at our request so as to beat the weather, then had 3 days off. Guys, it is great to meet you both, and we would recommend with out hesitation these two great guys to help out on your property They have their own transport which is also a bonus! Good luck and safe travels to you both....cheers... Paul and Barbara 

Our great hosts Barbara and Paul

Paul and Barbara have been amazing hosts and we have both been really well looked after. Paul is really funny and is good to share a joke with and Barbara is an absolute sweetheart.  The food has been great and It seems we both really worked up and appetite. All in all Paul and Barbara have been like parents to us during our week here and as our first woofing hosts I will miss them when we leave. If you do stay in this part of New Zealand on a holiday I would definitely say come and stay at Morepork lodge, it’s a really nice place and the view and grounds are beautiful.

Morning mist 

If you are wondering what a Morepork is it’s an owl, I originally thought Paul might really pork and imagined him saying to Barbara ‘’More Pork for the Barbie Barbara’’ hence the name Morepork but alas we were lucky to see a pair of Moreporks, Paul pointed them out in a tree.

During our time here we pretty much did the following jobs,  clearing scrub, gorse and weeds, lawn mowing, spreading post peelings, paddock tidying, helping Paul fell trees, wood chopping, window and deck cleaning, meeting and greeting  BNB guests when our hosts were not around. Like I said its been hard work and Lloyd and I have both had blistered hands, cuts and aching bones from the work we have done but I have enjoyed the whole experience so much. We now have another host lined up for the 21^st March and we can stay there for anything from 1 week to a month, I guess it depends on how  much we enjoy ourselves and how we get on with the host.

Blistered ''artists'' hands from log splitting

We've worked 3 days and now have 3 days off with full board and food, not a bad deal at all! Today being our first day off we drove out to Kerikeri and visited an old stone house and walked around a bit of beautiful woodland. On our way back we stopped for a coffee and some cake, there does seem to be a lot of coffee stops around this area not that I’m complaining. It’s nice to see independent coffee shops, something different to Starbucks and Costa.

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I had a bit of culture shock when we arrived in NZ but I do think that getting out on the road and meeting real Kiwis is the best way to overcome this and now I really feel like I’m starting to get into the travelling lifestyle, I really want to enjoy each day to the max and get the most out of my time here, in fact I’m already thinking about what I’m going to do and where I’m going to go next when I’ve finished with NZ, maybe  Iceland or Canada!