Mongrel tents, Crazy ladies and George (group email)

Time continues to fly. The long-anticipated visit from my wee sis has been and gone, as has (finally) the long dry summer. Yes, it's raining. North Island farmers can heave a sigh of relief after months of drought. It's less fun for my NZ family who are renovating their house, and for me who, well, is frankly not doing much at all at the moment.

Kathy and I had 3 great weeks together on the road through Northland and the Coromandel. We sailed, swam, snorkelled, duneboarded, explored deserted bays and are quite kauri-forested out for the timebeing, thank you very much.

As always, brief highlights:

- Ngawha Springs: non-touristy, cheap, little-visited set of sulphur spring hot pools

- Matai Bay: gorgeous secluded beach all to ourselves with enough wind to fly a kite

- Driving all the way to Cape Reinga for it to be shrouded in mist and rain

- Mongrel tent: only our NZ family could manage to lend us a 3-person-tent dome with a non-matching 2-person-tent flysheet

- Sailing in the Bay of Islands; I'm hooked!

- Ripple effect vomiting on choppy seas at the Poor Knights Islands

- 2-day hike in the Coromandel to the biggest tramping 'hut' you've ever seen

- George the hungry sheep at Whiti Farm Park

- Maori nightwalk amongst the biggest trees in NZ

- My brave sister doing the Big Swing at Highzone

- Toilets with a tree through them and trains going down the middle of the road in Kawakawa

- Out of Africa circus at Auckland's Royal Easter Show

- Crazy Lady in our Paihia backpackers; she stole my book! (see blog)

- trampolines

I could go on and on and on, it was just such a good trip and I will of course miss having Kathy around.

Next? I'd half considered heading back to Borneo for winter, but Nelson's got some things to sort out so that'll have to wait. I've actually now got myself all set to head back to Wellington for winter: a bit of 'normal' life, a wee break from the constant upheaval of travelling. I've got somewhere to stay, a range of friends, extra-curricular stuff and access to cultural things. Just have to find work to help pay for it and we're off!