Bay of Islands

Now we have been on the campsite for a week and it couldn't be more relaxing.
At the beginning we already had a reason to celebrate, as the Meyfarth family has welcomed a new addition. :)

We crowned the day with a boat trip through the Bay of Islands. The beauty of the landscape cannot be captured in the pictures again, but at least we captured the dolphins in their natural habitat. At the end, the boat passed through a 'hole in the rock' with only about a meter of space between the boat and the cliffs on both sides. Slightly creepy.

Most of the other days, it was two hours of work followed by a nap, because two hours were obviously a tough nut and we had to start at 9 o'clock. 😅 The staff (3 in total) are super friendly. Two of them regularly take us fishing. Let's see when Dirk dares to touch a fish for the first time. 😂 Yesterday, Dirk caught the catch of the day, which we enjoyed in the evening. 😁
Other tasks include upcoming work to get the place ready for summer, such as painting, gardening, moving things around, or, in Dirk's case, knocking out one of the workers by hitting him in the face with a thick branch. 🤦‍♀️
Unfortunately, the campsite is located outside, so we always have to hitchhike to go shopping or to catch the ferry, which has worked every time so far.

Thursday was another day off and it felt like every excursion topped the previous one, which we sometimes didn't even think was possible anymore. So, on Thursday, we went to Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of New Zealand. There, the Pacific and the Tasman Sea collide, which could actually be seen because the calm sea, where they meet, creates waves and the seas had different colors. After the breathtaking landscape, cliffs, seas, and beaches, we continued to huge sand dunes where we could ride down on sandboards. Super fun! At the end of the trip, we drove along the famous 90 Mile Beach by bus. It's simply an 88 km long beach. But it's calm and beautiful. Before Cape Reinga, we visited a forest full of Kaori trees, huge trees that want to rival the sequoias in America. The trees were already about 50 meters tall. The largest of the trees are said to be so wide that it takes 17 people to wrap their arms around them.

In the next few days, we still have some waterfalls, a glowworm cave, and even more Kaori trees to visit before we get a paid job.
The food prices are crazy. We really have to live vegetarian here to keep the shopping from exceeding $200 a week, and that's for disgusting toast bread for breakfast. Oh, how we long for fresh bread with minced pork. 😍

So that's our current status for now. Let's see where we end up next.

See you soon. 😁

DIRK and Charly