Two weeks of fun and work

No internet for a while has made it hard to update, but we're back! We've spent the last couple of weeks in the Northwestern corner of the South Island, hiking and kayaking in Abel Tasman National Park, biking around Takaka and Golden Bay and working on a farm. We left Sandra and Ken at Te Hapu farm yesterday after a great week wwofing (working for food and accommodation) for them. We've done everything from planting potatoes and organising a shed to digging a huge whole and demolishing a garage. We even got to be a part of the annual sheep shearing! We were wool pressers and our job was to press the wool and move the sheep between differnt pens in the shearing shed. It was such a cool experience! The spectacular views and great food didn't make our week any worse!

We spent the whole day yesterday driving thorugh pouring rain from Te Hapu down to Westport, where we are now. There's not much to do here (except taking advantage of free, unlimited internet at the library!) so we're heading down to Greymouth and our next wwoofing place today. Here are some pictures from the past week :)

Letting out our inner dancers at Pupu Springs, the world's largest fresh water spring.



Amanda is a Chinese tourist at Rawhiti Caves, a gigantik cave in Takaka.



Hiking the last part of the Abel Tasman Coastal Track! The track went through rainforest and along beautiful beaches and we had an amazing day!

Abel Tasman Coastal Track

At the top of Gibbs Hill! After a relatively easy walk along the coast the track went inland over Gibbs Hill. It was STEEP and we were tired after a whole day of walking.  Every time we turned a corner we were hoping that it would be the last but the hill just seemed to get longer and longer... The views from the top made it all worth it though!

Our last day in Abel Tasman National Park! We rented kayaks and paddled along the coast, from Wainui to Wharawharangi Bay. We stopped for lunch and a swim at a desterted beach and enjoyed a couple of lazy hours in the sun before heading back.

Te Hapu farm, just outside the house!

Caroline driving the jeep!

Ready to demolish the garage!

On the garage...

Happy carpenter!

Te Hapu farm

An afternoon walk through the sheep paddocks.

Demolishing was FUN!

Shearing day. Amanda, Caroline and Sandra moving the sheep between pens in the shearing shed.

Shifting sheep!

Travis and Roger, the two shearers. It takes them about a minute and a half to shear a sheep!

The shearing shed

High mountains, long beaches and blueberry scones...

After traveling around the North island for a few weeks we have now reached New Zealand's South island! It's a little bit colder than we hoped it would be but a warm hostel in Takaka made our day today. Yesterday's sunshine and hike in Abel Tasman National Park was amazing and although today has been rainy, we've had a well-needed break from all our adventures and have been taking it easy. Here's what we've been up to the past few days!

We found a cool cave on our way to Aratiatia Dam.

Evan, Marie, Amanda, Casey and Caroline ready to hike Tongariro Northern Circuit.

In front of a waterfall on our way up.

We made it to Lower Tama Lake! Beautiful, ey?

Lower Tama Lake

At the top!

Amanda found her sunscreen. Necessary, even though it's cold!

Fun on a bridge :)

Beautiful views on the way to Palmerston North, where we slept for a night before heading to Wellington.

We pimped our ride! Sweet as!

Wellington by night.

We took a ride with the cable car. This is in the museum, it's the first one.

Beautiful, early morning. Perfect for a ferry trip to the SOUTH ISLAND!

Ready to drive onboard!

Ready for the SOUTH ISLAND!

Cook Strait

Cook Strait

Driving off the ferry.

Cheap fruit = happy girl!

 

Hiking in Abel Tasman National Park

After 8 h of hiking back and forth to Anchorage we were pretty tired. It was an amazing day with a lot of sun and gorgeous views!

 

 

 

 

Driving to Takaka

A rainy day at the cozy hostel we are at right now ended with blueberry scones!

Freezing feet and fantastic photos!

Here comes an update on what we've been doing the last couple of days! We have experienced a lot of different things, seen a lot of beautiful views, met some cool people and had a lot of fun! We're getting used to life in the car and everything that comes with it; a lot of driving, getting it warm before we go to sleep, cooking on our portable stove, waking up with cold feet in weird situations (continue reading...). Even though we enjoy life in the car a lot we also stay at hostels now and then. 

We have been traveling around the Coromandel Peninsula for a couple of days, then made our way through Rotorua and are now in Taupo. Enjoy the pictures and our stories :)

The road between Thames and Coromandel Town, soo beautiful. Speedlimit: 100 km/h almost all the way (!!!) ..but no, we didn't drive that fast!

On the Beach hostel in Whitianga, our best hostel experience so far. The view from the kitchen was incredible, the never-ending Pacific Ocean!

Happy girls after our first run in NZ, followed by a cold (but refreshing) swim in the waves in the ocean, fantastic!

Digging our own hot tub at Hot Water Beach outside of Whitianga.

The water, coming from thermal springs under the sand, was about 39 degrees. The waves coming in were much colder!

Caroline doesn't look that tall in the Cathedral Cove

Cathedral Cove   

                  

  Enjoying life and the ocean.

We went there with Alana and Danny that we met at our hostel, nice guys!

Amanda has been shopping at the Farmer's market in Rotorua. This morning we had been sleeping in our car on a big parking lot, it seemed so good, lots of other camper vans were camping there too so we felt really safe. When we woke up at about 6 am we realized that we were surrounded by a big Farmer's market! All these camper vans were obviously staying there just to wake up early and be prepared for the market. Haha, we were sleeping in the middle of a Farmer'sa market! A lot of laughing! ..and we got to buy fresh vegetables and taste lamb just outside our door ;)

Trying to hug the huge Redwood tree.

Blue lake, outside Rotorua, where we later went for a COLD swim.

Green lake, next to Blue lake

Amanda's ready to swim in Blue lake.

In Rotorua we went to Tamaki Maori Village to eat a traditional Maori hangi (dinner) and enjoy typical songs and dancing. 

Happy and hungry girl before dinner!

Our front porch for two days in Rotorua, a geothermal park with steaming springs that smelled like rotten eggs. This is also where the Farmer's market was... :)

Being very touristy at the Lady Knox Geyser in Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland.

Champagne lake in Wai-O-Tapu didn't smell very nice..

Cool yellow lake

We had an amazing evening, dining noodles right in front of Great Lake Taupo with Tongariro National Park in the background.

Happy hikers in Redwood Forest

Happy hikers found two happy American hikers, now happily hiking together! :) 

At Huka Falls in Taupo.

Backpacker's shower!

..on the hike we found these WARM waterfalls, incredible!

The river next to them wasn't as warm...

Evidence: The pictures on postcards are real.

..but reality is of course even better..

Today the weather isn't very good so we're planning on just taking it easy, maybe even treating ourselves to lunch. Tomorrow we're heading to Tongariro National Park to hike and after that we are heading to Wellington before we take the ferry to the South island.