Communal Living

After 7 months I have finally unpacked my toothbrush onto a shelf, in our very own bathroom, at a beautiful hostel we will be looking after for the next month. Tony and I are finally at a place we love and things are starting to look up and go our way, but getting to that point is rarely an easy route. We left the South Island on June 25th and headed for warmer weather and more exploring in the North Island. Our final days of vineyard work were cold, windy, and water logged. The winds had been so strong that giant trees had fallen over in the road, making it difficult (but unfortunately not impossible) for us to get to our jobs that day. After standing in several inches of water in the windy vineyard, we were simply done. The next three days it there was more rain while we packed our bags and attempted to plan our journey out of there. We had arranged a work exchange at a small town called Turangi in the central North Island bordering Tongariro National Park. For 2-3 hours a day of light housekeeping, we would get a free room with our own sink and have plenty of time to explore the area.

Pumpkin sopapillas with our Chilean friends.

Our last day in Blenheim we got quite a surprise when we pulled our bags and luggage out of the corner to discover all of it was covered in mildew and mold.  This included our hiking backpacks, day packs, and even a few things on the inside of the bags. Let me just clarify that we take very good care of our tents, sleeping bags, therma-rests, etc to make sure that they do not mold, so finding out that our gear had been victims of this nasty stuff did not make us happy. The garage we were living in had no ventilation at all, which would make the walls sweat and windows foggy all of the time, plus who knows what was happening in those walls with all that rain. We hung everything out on the clothes line and washed the bags with a lemon juice-salt mixture. I could imagine no other way we could have left that town. That night however we had a wonderful going away meal with our housemates. The landlady made a delicious leg of lamb, roasted potatoes and kumara (sweet potatoes), and cheesy cauliflower. The three girls from Chile made some amazing pumpkin sopapillas with homemade pico de galo and I made a sweet potato and a pumpkin pie as the requested “American” dish. By the way if you ever in a place that does not sell canned pumpkin or sugar pumpkins, butternut squash does the trick just fine (thanks Kandy for that trick back at Thanksgiving). Having that wonderful international meal did make somewhat a bittersweet place to leave.
The next day we were supposed to leave on the ferry at 10:30am, but due to freight trucks backed up from the recent bad weather, we got pushed back to noon, then 2, and we were finally on our way by 4pm for the three hour ferry crossing. This delay meant we would miss out on some of the sites I wanted to see in Wellington, so instead of getting the cheap campground hut outside of town, we got a “secret” hotel room from Hotwire. It was a tiny little room, but it was downtown and I had my own bathroom for the third time in 7 months. We ate a “2 for 1 special” at the Little Beer Quarter and rested up after our travels. The next morning we walked by the bee hive shaped Parliament building, down the boardwalk to the Te Papa museum, through some neat buildings, and had a Starbucks on the way back to the car. We arrived in Turangi later that afternoon and found the hostel we would be doing the work exchange for. It was on the strange side of town, surrounded in by a cinderblock fence, and had paintings all over the building and the fence. 90% of these are not painted by anyone who has a trace of artistic ability, we are talking words scrawled out with bleeding letters, countless travel messages sloping to one side,  creepy Gollum, the Cheshire cat, and so many flags. After driving by twice, we finally just went inside. The managers were incredibly nice, but very spacey people, with a little 8 month old girl. The lady couldn’t hold a conversation with Tony for nearly 2 days because she couldn’t stop laughing at his accent when he asked a question.

The decorated lounge area

Our room had a double bed and a sink as promised, with a Maori lady chanting with a stick painted on one wall, a sketched out anime unicorn on the other, and some sort of anime rabbit holding balloons filled with fish, sheep, and spirals on the other. The owner would randomly stop by and stay at the hostel with his 3 school age children, who would run around screaming at one another, strangling the cat, trying to make the dogs fight with each other, and all around the warm environment you would expect from this decorated place. We were able to escape for a night and were able to explore Rotorua for an evening and treated ourselves to a wonderful Indian dinner and Hobbiton the next day.Whether you are a J.R.R Tolkien fan or not, the Hobbit houses are worth seeing, and absolutely so much fun. They are as adorable as you can imagine and the beer and cider from the Green Dragon Pub aren’t too shabby either.

Outside of the Green Dragon Pub in Hobbiton

We arrived back to Turangi and continued explored some of the “fly fishing only” rivers that the town is known for, and the rainbow trout are starting to spawn and fisherman are slowing drifting into town to get their fix. Tony landed a job at one of the fly shops tying flies and is ecstatic everyday that another dream has come true. Meanwhile the owner of the fly shop got us in touch with another hostel  (or backpackers as they say) in NZ. We met with the owner of the backpacker and fell in love with the place immediately. There are only 6 rooms, a huge washroom, cozy lounge, modern and sleek kitchen, a back yard with a covered deck, and fly fishing nooks and crannies everywhere.  There are places to hang your waders outside, rod holders inside and out, a drying room, a fish cleaning station, and all the information you could want for hiking and fishing in the central north island, and did I mention I have my own bathroom. The owner lives about half an hour away and just needs us to help check in visitors, make a few beds, and keep the place tidy in general in exchange for a free room. Sold! We have been here for a few days and have met some amazing people staying at the backpackers.

One of Tony’s latest fly’s from the shop

Our first visitors were David from Australia, and then two women on a month long trip from California on a mission for some adventure and scenery. We became friends around a cozy fire, snacking on popcorn and apples, and discussing things to see in the South Island. David is here to fly fish for 10 days and needless to say him and Tony hit it off pretty good. The next visitor came to us under stranger circumstances. I opened the door to a young German guy (Fred), standing in hospital pants, a Sims wading jacket, holding fishing boots, and  being dropped off by a police car. His campervan had been rear ended while turning into a fishing spot and was taken to the ER wearing full fishing gear. Luckily enough we always had room for another fisherman in the group. The owner was visiting and we all sat around the lounge drinking hot chocolate and whiskey discussing the next days plans.

Dinner with the the fly fisherman at the new hostel.

Today we all went fishing and some of us were lucky enough to even catch a few for dinner. Tony and Fred caught and smoked the fish, Dave bought the wine and made the rice, and I made homemade wheat bread and baked zucchini slices. After our feast the boys had “craft time” (aka tying flies) while I did the dishes, and sat by the fire with a cup of tea. After traveling for 7 months, living in a tent and van, working with sheep, wrapping grape canes, staying in paint covered spacey hostels, we have finally ended up in the perfect place and everyday is a new experience.