Yesterday, it was exactly one month that I have been in New Zealand. In a lot of ways it feels like way longer than that, but at the same time, there is absolutely so much more to see that I don't know if I'm going to be able to get it all done in time. A lot of people said that I would get bored in New Zealand after 9 months, because it's such a small country, but I definitely don't think that's going to be the case! If anything, I think I'll wish that I had more time.

Ian and I spent a total of about 2 weeks WWOOFing around Warkworth, about an hour north of Auckland, with 2 different families. I got a lot of experience pulling weeds, and also did some other things like painting a hot tub, feeding chickens and lambs, and playing with an adorable 4 year old girl named Holly, from the last house, who fell in love with me immediately, and also the bet cat I've ever met, a tortoiseshell named Chi Chi who slept curled up right next to me all night. Oh man, I loved that cat.

After we left Michelle, Nigel, and Holly's house, we headed to the Coromandel Peninsula, which is southeast of Auckland. It's a pretty rugged and undeveloped part of NZ, with lots of regional forests and protected land. Once we got there we spent 4 days camping in the Kauaeranga Regional Park, which was really nice. We went on our first multi-day hiking trip, which was great in all the right ways. I was sore for about a week afterward but it was definitely worth it! The first night we just camped at a drive-up DOC site, and then the next day we headed up to Pinnacles Hut, about a 3 hour trek mostly uphill. We didn't stay in the hut, but stayed in some backcountry campsites next to it which we had all to ourselves, but we still got to use the Hut facilities (running water and stoves!). The next day we did a 2 hour side trip up to the top of Pinnacles, which I wouldn't really call a mountain, but I guess it kind of was. It was steep enough to be a mountain, that's for damn sure. It was completely unlike other hikes I've done, but it was so worth it. A thousand-step staircase led to 20 minutes of climbing up ladders and scrambling through rocks, and then you reach the top and you can see almost all of the entire peninsula. We went up on a foggy day, so we couldn't see that far, but it was just as cool to have the fog there. It was really beautiful.

After Pinnacles, we hiked back the way we came and then took a detour to go to Billygoat Basin, another backcountry site. And I do mean backcountry. Once we got past the hut and made the turn to the Basin, we didn't see anyone for the rest of the 2 hour hike. Our campsite was a clearing with an outhouse. It was perfect. We made an awesome fire and cooked a real camping meal--baked beans and Spaghetti-O's, word! The next day we did an easy one hour hike back to our car, and then illegally camped in a motorcamp on the way to our next destination.

We made our way a little bit further north up a lovely seaside drive to our new WWOOF house, which is Dharma Gaia Peace and Mindfulness Center. I know, I know, you can start throwing granola at me right now. But it's actually been pretty amazing. It's a Buddhist center based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn, who I really love and have read a lot of. We attended a Mindfulness Weekend retreat, and did a lot of meditating and ate incredible vegetarian food. We're WWOOFing here for a couple more days and then we're off to...somewhere else. :)

My Internet time has run out so I have to go! Love you all as always. XOXOXOX.