Many Happy Trails

I am a bit biased, I admit. I am from California and am proud of the fact. We have everything you could ever want -- beaches, mountains, small towns, cities like San Francisco. What do you like to do? We have it. You like picking mushrooms, deer hunting, swimming, diving, surfing, hiking? We have it. So, when I say that New Zealand reminds me of California, that is a good thing.

We have been hiking almost every day. It has been great. First we hiked near the sea, then in fern laden forests, over mountains, and through gorges. We have seen every different kind of terrain and climate. It snowed on us a few days ago. We went swimming a few days before that.

If you like hiking (tramping in NZ terms) you will love New Zealand. If you like beaches, you will love NZ. If you like skiing or mountains, you guessed it. You will still love New Zealand. It is actually smaller than California; it is about the size of Colorado. There are only 4 million people. The largest city is small by our standards. It is great. As I mentioned before, there are 10 sheep for every one person.

A couple of things we have enjoyed besides hiking.

Meat pies.(and beer!)

Tiny horses (or ponies). 

Seeing where the hobbits live. That's me being Gollum (in the rain).

Awesome Beaches.

 Strange mushrooms. 

And of course....a couple of hiking pics!

So, I know I sound like a Chamber of Commerce ad for New Zealand, but I love it here! I have a lot to say about it and although this post is short and photo heavy, once I get back into "real" internet land, I will talk more about WHY I love it so much. Until then, Happy Tramping! 

Oh and a very late Happy Easter to everyone! I have been out of blogland lately, but am looking forward to reading everyone's posts once I get home!

How To Peacefully Coexist

So, I think I mentioned that we rented a camper-van and are driving around the North Island of New Zealand. 

Have you ever been in a tiny box with the same person for a very, very long time? You sleep in it; you (sometimes) eat in it; you put your dirty socks in it; you drive everywhere in it. It is not self contained, aka, it does not have a shower or a toilet or a power supply, so you spend a lot of time with your head light strapped to your head, playing rummikub inside the van (down by the river).

You also spend a lot of time fighting over who's going to drive, directions/where to go, why so and so's stinky socks are sitting on so and so's backpack, why so and so forgot to plug in or unplug the fridge, where did so and so put the cups.....and so on.

And there is no place to go. You can go and sit in the front to "be alone", instead of sitting in the back. We have made a joke about it -- the front is the study, the back is the living room.

The problem is compounded by the fact that it gets dark around 6, so there is not really anything to do after that. Also, the camping grounds often close their gates around 6 (it is going on winter here), so you can't even leave and go do something. Also, some of them don't even have lights or a table or anything! So you have no choice than to...you guessed it...sit in the van!

We have also only had one place with hot showers, so not only is it dark in the van, but it's pretty smelly! So, why do we subject ourselves to this, you are wondering. Well, despite all above statements, it's FUN! We can go wherever we want, whenever we want to. We can even drive till we drop and then sleep pretty much wherever! We have spent the night near the beach, in prime forest locations, with great views and...even in a parking lot. We have all our food with us -- I can have a ham a cheese sandwich ready in a jiff, no matter where we are! We don't have to carry our backpacks or find out when the next bus is! We can go to all the nooks and crannies that public transportation doesn't go to! It's GREAT! Such freedom!

Anyway, it's been 7 days so far -- we have 15 to go. We haven't killed each other YET (keep your fingers crossed for me). I will check back in a week or so and we will see how it's going then, shall we!

Today's post is part of the A-Z blogfest. H is for How. You can find the rest HERE. 

I leave you with a photo:

Snell's Bay

PS -- Deirdra over at A Storybook World just awarded me this. Thanks Deirdra! 

Great News (and No Net)

I have great news! I was featured over at For The Love of Blogs!! This is like the granddaddy of all good blogs! If you are looking for a new blog to read, new things to learn, fashion, food and fun, this is a great site. AND all the folks who are part of the community over there are really great as well. Thanks girls!

As a side note, as gung ho as I was about the A-Z Blogfest, I have some sad news to report. There is not very much wifi in New Zealand. I KNOW! I thought it would be no problem getting online, but alas, I was mistaken! Sometimes you can find internet cafes, but the going rate seems to be about 8 dollars an hour. And as much as I love blogging, I am just not sure it is worth that much. So. Darn it! I had such great plans! However, I will probably keep up the letter theme just for fun. As you can see, today is G for Great!

Right now, not only are we deprived of the internet, but we are driving around the North Island of New Zealand in a camper-van. What an adventure! The camping facitilies range from a dark "parking lot" to nice ones, like the one we are in now, which has hot showers (NOT common), laundry (yay for not being smelly for a little while) and wifi (for 8 dollars an hour! This will not be a long post *wink wink*)

We spent the last week touring Northland, which is the area north of Auckland. We did a lot of hiking -- we have been *trying* to hike a little each day so we will be "in shape" when we get home (just in time for summer and bathing suit season).

I am going crazy thinking while hiking: adding things to my mile long To Do List, thinking about how and when I will get a job, thinking of the people to visit and the things to see while I am home. It will be really nice to unpack and at least be in one place for a couple of weeks. Then I will have to go back to work!

I will leave you with some photos of the New Zealand scenery.

As seen from the back window of the camper-van.

Northland -- Snells Bay

Typical NZ Resident

Fun fact about New Zealand: There are about 4 million people and 40 million sheep. This = 10 sheep per person!