Pukininny

Tag 80

The night was shitty. First, I couldn't fall asleep (last checked the time at 2:00 am), tossed and turned, and then had shitty dreams. Completely exhausted, I finally opened my eyes at 10 o'clock.

Actually the right strategy to prevent jet lag. Well, except for the dreaming.

Good thing we were at Cape Reinga yesterday, because today there are only clouds in the sky. But that gives me the opportunity to tidy up my suitcase, do the laundry, and just do nothing.

I haven't worn at least 1/3 of the clothes. If I had known that beforehand, I would have saved myself a lot of carrying. Next time. Don't worry, we won't be taking such a long trip again.

So what else did we do? Carsten went swimming in the sea, oh yeah, and then we bought olive oil. The highlight of our day.

Actually, we wanted to look for souvenirs in the neighboring town. Suddenly Carsten had a can of oil in his hand. 'Pukininny', a strange name for an olive oil. But the story behind the name is quite cute:

'When Grandson No.1 began to speak, he called Grandfather Keith 'Puki' and the name stuck. When Grandson No.2 began to speak, he called Grandmother Barb 'Ninny'. This name also stuck, so we decided that Pukininny Olives had to be the name of our grove. Although unusual, we love it .......'

The store didn't have a sample, which was a shame, but we don't buy a pig in a poke. So we went out again and as soon as we were in the car - voila - the phones were in our hands and Google was our best friend. And behold, the producer is only an 8-minute drive away, even with a direct sales. Since we didn't have anything better to do, we went there. After some searching, we found it.

An older lady welcomed us. As it turned out after a short time, Helen and Malcom are two Australians from near Perth who are currently doing a 3600 km hike, yes you read that right, from Cape Reinga to the end of the South Island and are currently taking care of the house for their friends who are olive farmers.

An interesting couple, I would say around 60. They both lived in Switzerland for a year and also did a lot of hiking there. And when they are not hiking, they live 5 1/2 hours south of Perth in the middle of nowhere. They have to drive 55 km to go shopping, so you can't forget anything.

And now they are hiking through New Zealand for 6 months. Crazy. The two are very nice, we get a sample of the oil with white bread and salt. It's delicious and we take a can with us. We chat for a while longer and then start our way back home. Carsten wants to go to the sea again,

because the afternoon has turned out to be wonderful. And then there's still the barbecue waiting for us. Today we're having salmon and halloumi cheese with tomato salad.