Adventures in Middle Earth @throwingsixes - Tumblr Blog

Some pics from Amy’s recent visit.

How much fun can you have in NZ in just two weeks? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

Roadtrip round the East Cape with Izzie

At Vi and Dennis' vineyard near Gisborne

Maranga Cattle Station near Gisborne

As it turns out, I’m right on the edge of Lake Waikaramoana which is one of NZ’s Great Walks. No idea it was here but when I see the sign for it, it seems like just what I was looking for. So I walk around the lake for a couple of hours, meet some nice people who tell me it’s about 3 or 4 hours drive to Gisborne from here. Oooops. That means I am very, very late for my next WWOOF hosts. Needless to say, there’s no phone reception out here. Briefly I curse myself for being so ‘wing it’ with my travelling plans, yet again. But there’s nothing I can do about it now so might as well enjoy myself.

#road trip #Lake Waikaramoana

After 70km of dirt roads: I’m over it. The next place I find to camp I’m just going to fling up my tent and settle in for the night. This one’s a DOC site (Department of Conservation) and it’s free. Facilities are, shall we say, “limited” and consist of a longdrop toilet and a rainwater tap.

When I go to Murapura (edge of nowhere) to head out here (middle of nowhere) I stocked up on things I suspected might not be forthcoming for the rest of the trip – food, drinking water, petrol. Cash? I considered it but then thought: where will you find to spend it? So in the end I didn’t bother.

This is perfect: just what I wanted. I splash about in the stream in my gumboots (brilliant), eat simple food (all I need), watch it get dark (blissful). A peaceful night’s sleep, some yoga, breakfast (Ryan’s strawberries) eaten in the hollow of a tree then I’m ready to hit the road again in the morning.

#camping #road trip

When the sign said ‘wandering stock’ it wasn’t kidding. I don’t think there are any fences in this part of NZ. Cows, horses, sheep, they’re all out to party. This bull is huge.

#road trip #NZ is amazing

I know I said I was going to give the blog a rest for a while but I can’t resist a good roadtrip yarn. I head out from Rotorua, thinking I’ll go through Whakatane then take the road inland to Gisborne. Somehow I’ve got myself on the wrong road (SH 38 is not the same as SH30 apparently) and by the time I realise there doesn’t seem much point in going all the way back. The next sign informs me that there are 95km of unsealed roads ahead. Great. Glad I checked Zasha’s tyre pressure before I left Cambridge.

It actually turns out to be a lot longer than 95km. But Te Urewera National Park is beautiful so I just sit back and enjoy the long, slow drive. A section of the road is littered with car fenders and hubcaps (Zasha and I don’t worry about lost hubcaps – we never had any to begin with).

All the cars look like Zasha, or else they’re pickup trucks. One truckbed is full of Maori kids (and I do mean FULL, I think there’s about 20 of them in there.) Another pickup has a horse attached, trotting along behind it. The horse looks a bit surprised.

This really is the middle of nowhere. I’m driving down this dirt road because it is the only road. It’s a little scary. I realise there’s no one in the world who knows where I am right now. Nothing like a bit of adrenaline to keep your reactions sharp.

Surprisingly, there are a few little towns, or settlements at least, along here. It’s kind of nice to know there are people out here, making their living (Lord knows how), raising their families, living their day to day lives, so far from what most English people would think of as civilisation.

#roadtrip #NZ is amazing

Rotorua doing what it does best, which is being weird and apocalyptic.

#rotorua

Ryan and Mat, doing what Ryan and Mat do best which is playing paper rock scissors.

This game never gets old.

Swung through Cambridge on my way over to Gisborne to see Ryan’s strawberry farm. Helped out in the packhouse and ate strawberry ice cream, yum! And Faye’s friend fixed my car window so Zasha now has three whole windows that work, hooray!

#strawberries #farming

The Year of Epic Beauty

And so concludes my first year of Adventures in Middle Earth. It feels like an achievement to have managed to keep this blog going so long, especially as I often didn’t have internet access and even more especially as I was often too busy adventuring to write about it. So there are a lot of things that didn’t make it on to the blog but I have my memories.

Sometimes I wish I could have done more things in my year but I don’t really see how it would have been humanly possible!

However, I won’t be trying to document everything from now on. It’s taking up too much of my time that I want to spend on other things, like staying in touch better with people back home. This has been a big challenge and one I freely admit I have not always been equal to. Some friendships have endured, even flourished. Some have fallen away. So be it. Some I know we’ll pick up where we left off when I visit the UK in June next year. Some I won’t waste the energy. New links have been forged. I have a new life here now.

So to all of you who sent emails, stories, pictures and tales of life ‘back home’ or even just read this blog: THANK YOU. I appreciate your efforts, even when I was rubbish at staying in touch. I am sorry and I will make more of an effort to be better at this in future.

And thank you especially to Amy who was the only person with whom I felt constantly connected, our thoughts and words winging their way back and forth over the Pacific. Some friendships are built to last. See you on these shores in December for some real-life adventures!