Due to the fact that I was still on California time, I got up exceedingly early, but with a headache from having slept too long. There was a lovely sunrise and I was able to set off fairly early to head north. I had to meet Graeme, the person I’m now wwoofing with, in Kerikeri, but decided to take the roundabout way of getting up there. I took a road that went all along the coast that led into Russell. It was a beautiful drive and fortunately there was no one else on the road because I stopped for the numerous scenic opportunities that arose. The weather once again was wonderful and there were excellent clouds everywhere. Because I had no real time restriction, I took the little detours out to the coast and saw several little coves with an assortment of beach houses. I took some short walks, went tide pooling, got gas from an antique gas station, and just had a lovely time driving around.
In Russell I stopped and found out about the ferry that would take me back to the main road in a much quicker manner, and then had a quick lunch. I was joined by four mallards and about 30 small birds for my meal, which was quite interesting. Then I took the ferry over to the mainland and drove up to Kerikeri. The town is nice and small but doesn’t feel too small. I met up with Graeme at his office; he’s a surveyor and deals with people who want to subdivide their land etc. Because he had to keep working he recommended that I go visit the oldest buildings in New Zealand, so I took a quick drive up there for a bit. The buildings are somewhat interesting, though I only went to the free section which is the lower level of the big stone building. They had the front half set up like how the building was when it was a store during colonial times. Around the area were lots of very friendly chickens who came out of nowhere and crowed outside my car window when I wasn’t looking at them.
I then went back into town and had dinner with Graeme at an Israeli restaurant. Apparently Kerikeri has a good mixture of people from all over the world which is what keeps it from being a stereotypical small town with small ideas. The meeting we were going to that night was for people who want to make Kerikeri totally self-sustaining and deciding how to create a better internal network, etc. We went to a person’s house down the road which had a huge open room with plastic garden chairs set up looking at a screen projected onto a bed sheet. They meet once every two weeks and watch a video relevant to farming. I was watching the people set up the dvd, and they were having a terrible time figuring out how to get it to play on a laptop and then had the screen very small compared to the projector. I couldn’t help myself and had to step in and get the thing set up properly and they were all impressed. However, when it was time to start the movie, the disc froze and wouldn’t play, so I had to fiddle with it while everyone waited patiently for the movie to start. The video was an independent movie/documentary called “The secret life of Farmer John” and was about a farmer/hippie in Illinois and his life story. It was a bit odd and didn’t seem to apply too much to what was going on here but people enjoyed it. Unfortunately I was still on CA time and was totally wiped out and asleep and it was only 8:00.
We drove to the house which is quite a nice little place in the middle of nowhere. Upon arriving, I got out of the car and looked up and saw a huge herd of cows about 20 feet away, staring at me as I unloaded my stuff. They are the neighbors cows and are very curious when something is going on. Apparently they will just sit and stare at you for hours, not even chewing, if you are doing something near them. Anyway, I have a bedroom that I’m now sharing with another wwoofer but once again I crashed and went to sleep very quickly.
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