Day 171 - Colville

I'm back in the cool hippy cafe in Coromadel - Egypt gave me a lift and next we are going to the beach, can't wait to swim! The weather is glorious today; bright sunshine and the crickets are all chirruping away happily. Life is good.

Had a great time last night. The pot luck was held in a meeting room of the commune: a huge area of land owned by about 16 quirky old people. We watched the sun go down from the edge of the hill - the view was amazing - then perched on the wooden steps of the meeting room and lit a fire. We drank and chatted for hours, it was great. Below are the pictures of the view and the sunset.







This is a picture from when we climbed the hill behind the centre. It was really wet and windy - reeally bad conditions for climbing. You can see Mahamudra in the background.



And this are some from today - just before Colette and Laura left...
Colette, Laura and Egypt on the swing seat



Colette and Sandra in the Gompa (meditation room)

Day 170 - Colville

Greetings and salutations from the Coromandel Peninsula.

This is the first time I've been able to access the internet for 4 days - quite exciting. There's actually been a change of plan already and I am now helping out at the Mahamudra Buddhist Centre in Colville. This is due to the fact that I rang every single Wwoof place in Whitianga only to find out they were all full! Must be high season in Whitianga. So I resorted to Plan B and rang the centre and found out that they had room and were desperate for people to help out because they had a lama visiting from Tibet.

Bit of a mission getting here. My bus was not going to Coromandel, and NZ public transport being what it is, I had a mission impossible to get to the centre. First I batted my eyelashes at my bus driver to get him to stop in Byron where I changed over to a different minibus heading to Coromandel. In Coromandel I stayed for a night in a random African-inspired hostel before getting a lift with the postman to the centre the next morning. Carl was not quite your typical postman - big & beefy and wearing a grubby vest. His freckled 8 year old son sat between us and asked me questions about animals in India and Australia, and told me he wanted to be "a racing car driver slash secret agent" when he grew up. Both were very entertaining, and I was dropped off at the centre with a "byeee, enjoy being a monk-ess" at about 10.

The centre is a lovely place, with a big green garden. The odd shaven-haired old nun wonders around, wrapped in maroon. And us wwoofers are there to break the silence with our cackling and do all the washing and cleaning. Luckily having fun is not frowned on, so time has gone quickly. The first 2 days were manic: because the visiting Lama was giving lectures, the place was full of visiting nuns and people staying for the 4-day course of lectures, all needing cleaning up after
Luckily the lectures are finished now and the place is a bit quieter. I'm really enjoying myself; we all work in the morning and chill out in the evening. The people are so fascinating - ranging from friendly to wonderfully bizarre, and I've already had lots of fun and had many random conversations.

Tonight is a pot-luck meal leaving party - a bunch of us are going out to a commune near the sea, so we'll stuff ourselves silly and have a good time before Colette and Laura leave in the morning. I'm planning to stay here til tuesday :- I've received a call from John and Jean (my grandmothers old beau and his wife), so I've promised to visit them in Orewa on tuesday. Soo, I'm going aaall the way back to Auckland... at least the bus is cheap.

I am getting very jealous of the people with cars. Most people wwoofing own one (as many of the placements are very isolated), and being stuck out here makes them seem more and more appealing. A campervan has come up for sale for $2100 (bout 750 pounds) and I am sooo tempted. It would be amazing to zoom around to all the little places I can't get to by bus... plus I'll save money on accomodation as I can sleep in the van. Well, we'll see...

It'll probably be a few days before I write again - the 'town' of Colville has only 1 shop and 1 pub so, as you can imagine, internet cafe facilities aren't so great. I'll just hitch a lift with the next lovely person with a car to go to Coromandel!

Day 166 - Auckland

Back in Auckland again, and back in the city garden lodge (though no stripping, some crotchety old lady has nabbed my job in my absence). Talking of the lodge, here is a pic of the snooty hostel cat, Dude, who I found grooming himself sitting down. I laughted hysterically for about half an hour whilst he just glared back at me (rather cross-eyed and evilly).

Since coming back I've turned into a remarkable skin flint; having to hand over $20 for each nights accomodation (up to now everything has been free) is too painful to bear - so I've decided to once again leave the city of sails. I've been sitting in an internet cafe in the city centre for about 2 hours now, pigging my way through a bag of nuts and getting my plans sorted. After revisiting the nakedbus website I realise I have underestimated it's pure greatness. It's bit like Ryanair for buses:- if I book early enough I can get anywhere for a mere dollar (about $2.80 after fees and texting charges). I book online, they send me a text, and I just show it to the driver when I hop on the bus!

So, I've booked a ticket to Whitianga (near Coromandel) for tomorrow. 4 hour trip for less than a pound - not bad at all. When I'm there I'll work on a farm in Whitianga for a week or so, maybe visit Cathedral Cove and Mercury Bay, then go across to Coromandel to the Mahamudra Buddhist retreat (ooommm). Then maybe south along the coast to Tauranga and carry on from there...
Below is the route I just scribbled - this is pretty much the plan for the north, but you know me - the plans never stay the same for long!