Vemka's travels

Hi all!
Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. It's just been crazy, good crazy though. Lets just start in Opotiki, not so good, in the end. The guy that ran the place had some weird policies. He would only except girl-wwoofers and he would appreciate it if they turned out to be willing to move from the guest room into the master bedroom, within a certain time limit.
Well, I wasnt interested in that kind of Wwoofing (and suddenly that sounds like a dirty word) so within a coulple of days I was looking for ways to get out of there. There was an other wwoofer there, Caeley, who wasnt interested in upgrading her bedroom either so after a couple of days we decided to go on a road trip. She had a red van named Waffle. A really cool van actually. Caeley and I needed a couple of days to get over that experience with Mike because he had the worst kind of energy.
After a coulpe of days of driving in camping out in all sorts of places we decided to go and see some of Caeleys friends in Hamilton. I wasnt sure about that because they are all a fair bit younger than me but as I have decided to do some more plunging... I did. And it was so much fun. First we just hung out with them (Ky and Tom) and got our selves sorted to drive to kihihi, where we were gonna do some more wwoofing. But before we did we went on a beautiful hike, just outside Raglan. Raglan.... we drove through that town and I just knew, I'm gonna like this one. I didnt get to spend much time there but I will probably come back. Well, we went for the hike, was pretty intense, with chains to pull yourself up to rocks and everything. This was the real stuff. And the view from the summit was pretty spectacular.
After the hike we went for a swim in the biggest waves I have ever encountered in my life. Pretty cool and I could see why surfing would be the best thing to do in the world. Just you and the elements, not breaking them but joining them. ..
Well, the next day we went to Kihihi, to work in and around the art house. All over NZ, there are art houses for kids. They can come out there after school and work with whatever talents they've got. Not competitive, but as a way of expression. It was all very interesting but since it was still summer, the art house wasnt running yet. So we spend our time weeding and talking a lot. We had our own little room, the guest rest at the back of Shoana's house. Shoana is the main figure in the whole art house movement. She's a very interesting and funny person who cannot stop talking about the art houses, the royal family (who she has met) and all the funny things that are going on in her life.
The first weekend, we decided to invite Ky and Tom over to Taupo, to do a bigger hike, called the Tongariro crossing. Its a 8 hour hike over the top of a couple of vulcanic mountains. It was sooooo beautiful! Hoping to get the bloody pictures on the site soon, I realise that I should have paid more attention to the technical evolution.
Well, the crossing was beautiful and after we did that, we drove up to hotsprings near Roturua and took a well deicerved (spelling?) break in hot, natural (but smelly) water. There were some other people there and they had brought candles and stuff so you can imagine that was a pretty amazing experience.
Next day, we drove back to Kihikihi, and had a day off, since Shoana hadnt returned from her own trip yet.
Last saturday, we checked out the polo fields for the international pologame England-New Zealand was on... So much fun, all these Royal looking people out there, sipping their champagnes. We also had bubly, and we drank it out of silver glasses with one pinky finger up in the air. So there you go. .
That evening we drove up to Hamilton because Kihikihi, wasnt the best place to be on a saturday night after all, who would have thought. But Hamilton was great fun and we poked that city in the eye!
Today is thursday and everything has changed again. Caeley is back in America, Tom and Ky are getting ready to drive down to Wellington for Uni and I'm up in Auckland, leaving for Whangarei tomorrow. It was so much fun to have friends around. I miss you guys back home and now I miss my new friends too, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Poor Waffle, the van is sitting there in Hamilton, wondering where everybody is...
Well, that was a reasonable update wasnt it? I'm not in the most spunky mood though because I'm on my own again. First day is allways a bit rough. But tomorrow I'll see Eddy and Jules and their beautifull kiddies, so that will be fun.
Bye bye, love, fem