Hobbiton Movieset, wahuii :)

Starting with the Hobbit Movienight on Friday we wanted to get into the Hobbit - Mood. Somehow we all made it so fall asleep while watching it. So I have never seen the whole Hobbit. (quite sad..)

26/10/2013:  finish work get a one-minute-shower, grab a few carrotts and the roadtrip starts. Dario, Fabi, Catherine, Melissa and I sat in the scary old boy's campervan listening to thrift shop and were very excited to see the set! It was an amazingly beautiful day AND it was.the last workday on the farm. It was perfect and our mood was on the top!

Matamata – Shires Rest Café – Welcome to Hobbiton! :)

We got a guided tour through the Shire, made some nice pictures, saw the fake tree above Bilbo's house (Wow, they made such a big thing out of a tree - only a tree - and in the end it cost them a few million dollar! Crazy people), having a funny party at the partyfield and finally got a pint in the 'green dragon' where we dressed up and Fabi looked like a real hobbit. :D

Pakoka River Station

Arriving at the Pakoka River Station - the farm I've already been in September - feels like coming home. I know where everything is, know the people and most important: I have my ladies with me. Pretty nice :) but as it is really dirty in the house we started cleaning straight after arriving.

Working.. yeah I've already known what's on: killing thistles, my best friends^^
We killed 305.984 thistles!
Joke, have no clue but it were so many... the paddocks looked like a battlefield.

As the Farm is quite remote (like all of them) I packed my girls after work and drove to some places so that the afternoons are that boring like hiking around, eating or sleeping the whole afternoon 'cause of a sunstroke. One day in Hamilton we planned to walk around at the lake Rotoroa and see Hamilton Gardens. What we finally made was that:

The atmosphere here was pretty good. The owners weren't there and it was all so easy going. When the owners came back it changed and the atmosphere was weird! Fortunately it wasn't for so long :)
While they were here, Steve went out with them to check their bees, got a stitch in his face and after the reaction he looked like that: :D Sorry Steve! :D

Well...we've been to Raupuke Beach with the guys - Dario, Fabi and Steve. Starting with the petrol meter 'fuel empty' and hoping it's enough we've made it to the beach (ouh yes) and finally got over narrow gravel roads to the next petrol station. Yeah, that was fun! :) Melissa and Catherine made a fire while the boys took a quick swim until Melissa burned her fingers so that we got back:/

 

 

 

 

The two weeks there spinned away so quick and now we're not even a week away and miss it already, the nice breakfast with a huge variety of food and Vincent's awesome Crêpes every morning...

True (and little sad) Story: 'Once at a lunch the french guy Vincent (23) who is living there for longer was asked why french people always eat their dinner so late at night. He answered seriously (honestly he was so serious): 'Yes, that is beeeecause.. you know the sun goes down late in France and that is because we eat so late'. :D

　

Raglan Backpackers

After the hostel tour from cutie-receptionist 'Aaron' Catherine and I were eating. Guess what, that's our passion!! ;-) Then again, to „burn calories“ we went out for kayaking. That is exhausting ay...my arms were burning!

We were waiting for lovely Melissa (the third girl of our independent women group) and other members of the Bamber-Family: Maria, Liran, Jackie and Peter. Meeting our friends is good and makes you feeling comfortable and home! Everybody comes together, hugs each other and tells what has to be told..

While eating dinner and having some drinks a GERMAN guy – of course - came to remind us not to forget cleaning our dishes! WTF?! Honestly...we know that we have to do it but PLEASE! let us finish eating...

The same guy came half an hour later – it was 9pm! – for telling us that it's already 'sleaping time' we shall be quiet... Well, okaaaay. good to know^^ Bamber House was the complete opposit. There was a party every day/night.
Anyway we went to a pub to recognize that we were already so tired that we walked back to sleep...

Next day startet quite boring. Rainy. Until afternoon everyone was hanging 'round doing nothing. The independent woman crew sat in the whirlpool and the rest went for a bike tour. Well done guys! At night we drove to Pakoka River Station for a Pizza night with Vincent and the guys there. It was pretty nice especially because the owners weren't there so we enjoyed it without any worries ;)

So far, Raglan was quiet without any exciting actions.

After the others left, Melissa Catherine and I went for a Yoga-Class – I was forced to join them!
At night we prepared ourselfes to go out. YOT-Club was the place to be! It started with a kitchenparty from us ladies until others joined us... That time (10/10.30?) I was too tipsy and got no more air. I went to my room to rest and around 11.15 we arrived at the YOT. There was a live band playing which was pretty good BUT it ended at 0.15... yeah! Raglan Style!

 

Anyway, back to the kitchenparty :) They shaved cutie-Aarons hair when he was drunk. Cool thing to see :) Or not..... (there was another guy crying 'cause it looked so bad)

Sunday's Creativemarket was our destination the next morning to buy a super cool „Pirates Only“ shield for my car. and a candle.
Back at the hostel and what to do next? Didn't wanna hang around at the farm... So why not taking a bike tour?

Bad idea, really bad idea! The shittiest bikes and so so uncomfortable. We made it 1km till our place to rest. I guess that says all...

Meeting the farm-crew and get another coffee made us driving to the farm and so the Pakoka River Station -Adventure begun... :)

Couchsurfing - quite risky, hmm?

...anyway always better than the farm. We were two girls and a boy so it was all right. When arriving in Campbridge we met this really nice family! A young couple with two children. They told us to take whatever we want and just to feel beeing home..

GREAT, that's all for free!    saving Moneeeeey :)

In the evening they had a bible meeting. WTF?!? Bible?! Oh noo! (You know I hate the curch especially the catholic one)
BUT we wanted to join them and actually it was great! They invited their friends (all between 25 - 30), talked about problems, nice experiences and all that happens. We explained them the situation we had at the farm and all the other stuff going on while backpacking.  
           THEN the praying round started: Everybody closed their eyes (I watched them and tried real hard not to laugh..) and the first person started. Everybody else listened... After a while I decided to close my eyes as well... The praying goes round the circle and everyone who wanted could have said something. 
            I thought to be a real part of that group I have to pray as well - even though I don't believe in lord... I thanked everyone praying for us to have good experiences and thanked lord to bring us into that nice family. Also for the awful farmlady to become happy one day - everyone laughed..

So we had fun staying and we will definitely try CS again! 

Fuck That Shit! :O

Wwoofing #1

Well, after leaving our lovely Home at Bambers, we went straight to Omaha. Arriving there and surprise: meeting Steve, the nice guy from the Raglanfarm. Then we met our new host - Dani. The horror began...

No nice to meet you or hartful welcoming but a 'you guys have to clean your rooms first, the last wwoofers didn't leave it really clean..' So we cleaned the room, put all our stuff (a lot by the way) in the rooms and had to start working: Cleaning Horsepaddocks... better said: remove horsepoo :)
We were stuck in horsepoo and that every day. Pretty good workout :D (trying to keep it easy..)

We didn't mind working even though it's exhausting. BUT this woman... she just didn't talk if she wasn't complaning about the other wwoofers.

Dinner wasn't that good, it was icy! Straight out of the refridgerator :(
The next morning we were hungry and only got a SMALL bowl of Porridge. Not even a slice of toast because "then we wouldn't be up to lunch"...! What!?! Are you kidding?????!!!!
Lunch was the same, a scrambled egg plus one slice buttered toast. WOW not even half of my usual breakfast :'( :'(

We tried to escape and searched for Couchsurfing Hosts but it seemed not to work out.

Gladly I received a sms from a woman in Cambridge - 2,5h drive away - that would host us. So we told Dani we have to leave earlier 'cause the other farm (so the lie begins). We didn't want to leave her alone with all the work so we worked for 2h instead of 4.

For saying goodbye, she didn't even look at us. Sitting around the corner she just kept saying 'see you later guys! bye'


Yeah, that was the sign, she wasn't up to meet People, only having stupids to do her work..
Anyway, there's a single good Thing about her: we took a knife and a spoon to eat our Food while driving.     but pssst! that's our dirty little secret! ;-)


Sorry, no pictures from that place

Plans change! Or probably: Don't even start to make a plan!

Ok, after we've been to the nice Lady from Whangarei we had to move out three nights earlier.. Sunday.. Ok, what to do?!? :O
Actually we got a Couchsurfing-place on Waiheke Island/ Auckland but the next day, this guy told us he has no space for us so we tried to get something else... (just didn't want to pay 'cause we haven't had a CERTAIN Job yet)
WWOOFING (staying on a farm, working for accommodation and Food) was the answer. Yep, after we applied for - it felt like a hundred farms, we got one in Omaha from Monday to Thursday.  yeii :)

Only Sunday and Monday night left... Well, luckily I have a few contacts around Auckand and so we've visited Janet in Orewa for a night.

During the drive we've passed Waipu Cove...

and Mangawhai. Beautiful beaches!

After a nice Coffee-Chat with Janet we walked at the beach in Orewa and cooked some Thai-Chicken. Then we made a plan for the next day...
Walking round Shakespeare Park (we walked 3hours and even weren't back at the carpark, so we hitchhiket back to it because we were too exhausted to go on :D)

and have lunch in Devonport.

 

Then we said "let's just go home and sleep in the car!" (our home is Bamber House in Auckland!!)
We didn't sleep in the car, 'cause we got a pretty cool cabin!!

So nice, we saw the whole Bamber Family there and felt so good to be with them! Just comming home and tell everybody what happened!!

My first car

Living

By the way....this is how we're living, for FREE!

 

the seaview 

my selfmade bread! (learnt it in the Bamber's Hostel)