Just curious.

Does anyone read this thing anymore? Or is it now a private corner of the internet?

Hello Blog, it has been far FAR too long since we've last chatted. How have you all been? I am currently on Stewart Island, waiting to see what the weather decides it wants to be like today. So far, we've had a good drop of rain first thing this morning, now it's windy and partly cloudy. Who knows what's in store for late this afternoon. I spent a good long time on Banks Peninsula, regarding which I have every intention of doing at least one solid entry. I had many adventures there, walked to many beautiful places, met some really awesome people, made some really great friends, lost some-not-so-great-ones. Worked weekends, managed a hostel, “vice-managed” another hostel, got conflicting information from various immigration office representatives (don't worry, I'm here legally, and shall remain so until the end of May)

Doubtful Sound overnight cruise April 29-30

I think most folks just go for the day cruise, but considering how long it takes to get there without a car, I'm glad that I splurged on the overnight boat cruise. We started off with a bus ride from Queenstown to Manapouri (~50) with a stop at the Five River's cafe near the half way mark. At the visitor's centre, we boarded a boat to get across the lake, then hopped on another bus to get us to the 'cruise ship' for the next ~24 hours. It was a pretty good deal, the meals were prepared on the ship, there was lots of complimentary warm bevvies to be had and the commentary provided was quite good and informative.

The journey continues...

Excited Nicki is excited!

Once we'd recovered, Nicki and I set off to explore more of the South Island. We debated various forms of transportation, but ultimately decided upon the InterCity bus service. Our first destination was Christchurch. This is an interesting city to explore. It is still very much under construction, there are cranes dotting the skyline in every direction. We figured two days would suffice for exploring and hitting up the museums/galleries/botanical gardens/street art that we were interested in seeing.

Wellington, Picton and the Queen Charlotte Track

Travels with Nicki

Red Rocks along the aptly named
Red Rocks Walkway.

I met Nicki during my last two weeks on the farm, and we made plans to go hiking together before she settled into work over the winter. I felt I had earned a vacation after 6 months of wwoofing.

Krumm-Jury farm conclusion.

Holy smokes! I can't believe how quickly the time has flown during my stay with the Krumm-Jury family. It's the first fully properly organic place that I've come across (makes you wonder about who's running this wwoof organization, don't it). I've had the opportunity to do all sorts of different tasks and I believe I've learned a lots of new skills and gained a lot of insight into how much work goes into keeping a place like this going (and why macadamia nuts are so goddamn expensive).

Jinkies! First month on the Jury farm in Tikorangi, Taranaki.

Greetings and salutations one and all.

Time just keeps slipping away from me lately and my current host has lots of different jobs that need doing and is a lot of fun to chat with that I just don't seem to get around to writing up my missing posts!

I arrived at Mac Snack world headquarters on the 8th of January, after spending some time with familiar faces over in Australia. It was simply lovely to spend Christmas with J-Bo and New Years with the ladies Lahey.


This is the first fully organic farm that I've stayed on, and it's a beaut! It's been in the family for generations (since it started to be settled by Europeans), and is the site of the first (legally) imported macadamia nut trees.

Blue dot is the farmhouse, their property is pretty much
bordered west and south by the roads, and north and east by
the trees.