Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Another beautiful morning in Paradise

Today’s blog is being posted from the beautiful Rarotonga, Cook Islands. We arrived safely last Friday and are staying with Kara’s grandparents Pa and Jillian in Matavera.  Island life or ‘island time’ suits us and we have found the locals very friendly and welcoming. Although the weather thus far has been terribly warm and very humid (with humidity peaking at 95 today) we have been treated with patches of rain! Who would have thought that rain would be a treat? Raro has offered us plenty of time to relax and catch up on some much needed sleep… but as active relaxers we are in training mode to bicycle around the 32km island next week and have been out in the garden pulling out last years passion fruit vines, as well as checking out the marine life every day. 

A lovely bunch of bananas

Kara having a breather from the bike training

 John trying the local ‘Matutu’ lager by our favourite
swimming spot at Titikaveka

Or perhaps they are checking us out?  John passed his Rarotongan motorbike drivers license, after riding the motorcycle 6km to the police station he was just asked to ride around five cones. There was a slight delay as we couldn’t find the registration sticker on the bike so missioned it to the cook island bank to purchase a new registration after three tellers and an hour later (island time) we bought a new sticker for $2 and then realised there was one on the bike already! 

On the way to get his motorbike licence

The slightly pinkish John trying some local ‘star fruit’

John has also been attempting to master the traditional island art of coconut husking… its taken quuuuuite a bit of practice but now John can husk open and grate the coconut out, in about 10-15 minutes – Pa’s record is 3 seconds for the husking and although we wont be trying some locals can even do it with their teeth. (After the coconut is grated the milk is squeezed out and eaten as part of an island dish called ikimata- or sometimes we just eat it straight from the coconut). Today we joined ‘Pa’ (Kara’s grandfather) on one of his daily cross-island trek. Further updates to follow from the island!

The steep cross-island mountain trek

Top of the mountain

The back garden

Although already it feels like a lifetime ago, we can’t forget to mention our previous week at the sunny Bay of Plenty on Kara’s parents farm up in the lower Kaimai Ranges. It was a fantastic week that went way to quickly. Over the week John helped to build a ‘mooobile home’ for the new calf that was purchased at the calf auctions (see a photo of the cow Hazel, Kara named below). This was quite a feat. We also had the opportunity to let our pyromaniac tendencies loose and spent several days manning numerous bonfires across the paddocks – thick wet logs of wood require much persuasion to stay alight! We really enjoyed the farm work and will continue to look for farm work opportunities on our travels. Farm work is physically tough and as Kara remarked you need to be mentally tough too to keep going. It’s a positive challenge and we hope to stop in again soon.

Tot siens,

John and Kara

Wednesday calf auctions, Te Puke, Bay of Plenty

John feeding 4 day old Hazel outside the new moobile home

Burning off the cut tree tops! 

Feeding the cows

NZ August update

Time to say goodbye....

This week has been very emotional for both of us, with only several days left of work the reality of leaving, and having to say goodbye to so many amazing people is setting in. It is becoming much harder than we anticipated to leave the comfort of our daily job and routines and of course leaving the wonderful people we work with… it’s actually all quite daunting, nerve wracking and scary! Gearing up to travel isn't just a step by step physical process but theres an array of emotions involved that we never really considered. 

By our next blog we will be off on our travels… so where will we be?

On Saturday 18^th August we head South to Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty and will be spending a week at Kara’s family lifestyle block in the Kaimai ranges (see Kara playing with one of the cow’s below); feeding the cows in the morning and chopping firewood – handy preparation for any future farm-stays (WOOFF). This should keep us well entertained!

On Friday 24^th Augus2, 2013 we will leave the wet winter of NZ to go on a three week pre-trip vacation in the temperate island of Rarotonga (in the Cook Islands) before returning to explore the Hawkes Bay and Napier wine region of New Zealand. But… when you don’t have a job anymore, can you still call a 3-week break to a tropical island a “vacation”? Well yes! I think after all the mental anguish then perhaps its just what the guide book recommends. 

Kara on the ‘farm’, telling Millie the cow who’s boss 
(Pyjamas are acceptable as long as Gumboots are worn!)

Some highlights from our last fortnight:

Kara trying her first Stella Artois at the Belgium Beer Café, Takapuna

 Enjoying the Auckland Skyline one more time from the top of Mount Eden (look no rain!)

John at North Head, after exploring the war tunnels

Tot siens,

John and Kara

NZ July update

John at the top of the pinnacles, Kauaeranga Valley, Coromandel

July has been a relaxing but exciting month for us. The countdown is now on until we finish at our respective employment; it feels so close… we can almost smell it!. As part of our immense preparation, we have almost sold off all of our belongings and can quite comfortably say we are living from (large) suitcases already! This month our key highlight was an escapade down to the Coromandel peninsula in our new home on wheels. 



Although just a short trip, we managed to squeeze in a tiring 8 hour trek up and down the Kauaeranga valley pinnacles, fish and chips on Tairua beach, watching the sunrise at Hahei, digging a hole and swimming at Hot water beach, fruit wine tasting at Purangi and exploring cathedral cove south of Cooks beach. It was quite an adventure and the little red van held up quite nicely.

In addition, we have been vaccinating ourselves up… typhoid, tetanus, hep a, hep b, diphtheria, influenza, polio… to name a few! Always better to be safe then sorry with those kinds of bugs!

Tot siens, 
John and Kara

Ignoring the weather bomb hitting NZ and enjoying a soak on hot water beach

Our new home!

Sunrise at Hahei, Coromandel