We spent a whole day cleaning and repacking ‘Joy’. We washed, cleaned, and made a For Sale sign for ‘Marta,” my girlfriend’s car which we left behind in Christchurch with a friend. Joy packed with 3 backpacks, traveling gear out of two cars and the three of us squeezed in between, we left Christchurch. The following week we saw a lot of the road and the car as it was pouring down with rain. We stopped and walked around in the Marlborough Sounds at the very rare dry moments. In Nelson we visited some old friends that were in South Africa with their sailboat Lemanja at the same time as me, so it was awesome to catch up with them again. But the sad weather got boring and annoying very soon as there’s not much to do if you live in a car with three girls, so we rolled onto the ferry and back into Wellington. In Wellington we said goodbye to one of our travel mates, as she was flying out to Australia. Leatitia and I left Wellington the same day and arrived in Wanganui late at night making a few stops on the way. We were looking for a place to camp out for the night and drove onto a small dirt road. It was dark and we realized after a few seconds that the dirt-road had ended and we were now on the beach. As I tried to turn around the nose of poor ‘Joy’ went for a dive into the soft sand. No more turning around, we were stuck on the beach… As we stepped out of the car we felt the wet sand and saw the tide coming up only about 20 meters away from us. So we started digging and tried to get more grip under the wheels by putting the carpets out of the car under the wheels. Meter by meter we moved the car. I looked around from digging and saw a light coming towards us further on the beach. A small 4-wheel drive stopped behind us. ‘Move girls!” “we can’t, we’re stuck!” I answered. “Ah okay, go aside.” Four big Maori guys jumped out of the vehicle. One sat down behind the wheel and the three others went behind the car. In the next minute they lifted up the whole car and pushed it through the sand 50 meters uphill. While they were already back in there car we were still trying to process what we just saw! We thanked the guys and asked them if they knew a place where we could camp for the night. “Well, I have a lovely family and a house, just park in the backyard. Come on, follow me.” We got invited to a lovely Maori family. They gave us some delicious food, we had a warm shower and could camp out in their huge backyard. The next day one of the family friends we met the other day invited us over to his farm a couple km out of town. He owns a lot of land and he brought us to a place where there used to be an old hippie community. The houses are still there, but the people moved out about 8 years ago. Not many people come there, as the easiest way to get there involves crossing a river and a one hour walk. We stayed a night in one of the houses with a nice fireplace and a stove. It was just amazing! The next day we went back to the farm where I get invited to catch a horse and went riding on one of the them. After that I practiced some shooting at cans. I might have to practice a bit more as there where no holes in the cans afterwards… After two good days out with nature and some great people we left the lovely countryside of Wanganui. In Taupo we stopped for a dive in the hot-river and in Rotorua we had a lovely day by the big lake. The weather had finally turned around and the sun was now burning on our skin. We are walking around in dresses and swimming in the sea, awesome! The sun stayed and we moved on to Tauranga where we climbed to the top of Mt. Maunganui and enjoyed the beautiful beach. We are now back in Auckland after a short visit to our friends from Anasazi who are still up in Whitianga with their three kids. Being back in the big city is a bit of a shock after being out with nature for so long. I had completely forgotten about the existence of traffic jams, noise of busses, and the fumes of cars, not to mention all the people running you over being busy with god knows what! So well, I will start heading back to Guppy and peace as soon as possible.

Laura