Sunday, March 09, 2008
Off to Tonga
I have had a great time in New Zealand despite having to spend more time in Christchurch than I would've liked to. After spending two nights in Nelson, New Zealand Erin and I met up with Andrew, Tirzah, and Matt in Takaka (way up on the northern part of the South Island). We bought some groceries and packed ourselves into the little Pulsar to get up to our first rental cottage in Puponga just minutes walk from Farewell Spit. We spent our days exploring Wharariki Beach and the Spit and reading in the cottage during the rain, and we spent our nights cooking fantastic dinners with the wood stove (a marathon pizza night) and getting the car stuck in sand and walking home in the rain. :) On the 4th, we packed up our things and ventured into Collingwood to throw our garbage at the dump. Unfortunately, it was closed so we had to divide up trash and walk around town throwing it in public garbage cans. Then we ventured off for the next house rental we had. It was almost an hour of driving on rough, gravel roads but we glimpsed the ocean as we pulled on to the property and everything was A-OK! We stayed in a little house on the property called the Shearing Shed that used solar power to run the lights at night and a wood stove to heat any of the water used. We had a claw-footed bathtub outside behind the house to bathe under the stars, and the beach was a ten-minute walk down a grassy path. We spent our two full days there exploring the 1000 acre property with seven distinct beaches and lots of rocky pasture land. It was so incredible. A couple nights we walked down to the beach to watch the sunset from there. What a view! We spent two days in the car driving back to Christchurch and camping the one night we were on the road. Once we got to Chch and everyone was situated with a bed, Andrew and I took Matt to his "new" job at a cafe just 10 minutes drive out of the city. He'll work there for a week before he heads up to the North Island. At first, Andrew and I were expecting to have to drive Matt all the way down the Banks Peninsula and since we didn't have to go that far, we decided to explore the coast near Chch. Last night we met up with Tirzah and Erin for dinner and in a few hours I'll head for the airport. On my way to Tonga... stay tuned!!
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Good to read your posting & Sounds like you are Enjoying yourself.Love YOU