Days 66-68: Kerikeri to Cooper's Beach to Pukenui to Cape Reinga!

Monday was "back to work!"  Fun was over and we had to keep focused on what we had to do ;)  We didn't actually leave town until after noon because we went to some newspapers and met with Owen, who is our contact for the Northern Crossing Race that we'll be participating in...Did I blog about that?? Ok, just sort of mentioned a race on Saturday...Well ya!  That's it!  So by the time we made it back and started out on the road, we were a bit behind schedule. 

We made it to Cooper's Beach just before sunset, and we noticed along the way how people were starting to get more and more friendly as we got further and further north!  We had 2 offers for a place to stay on that day, but we turned them down as we were put up by the Taipa Beach Resort for the night!  We were lucky enough to stay in the Suite at the resort, where we were on the beachfront with everything that would be in an apartment, including our own private spa and a king size bed!  THANK YOU SO MUCH to the TAIPA BEACH RESORT for your kindness and generosity, and for letting us recharge our batteries before the end of our trip!

Tuesday we got an earlier start and arrived at our next destination in Pukenui quite early!  So we had time to enjoy the sun.  We were put up once again by a wonderful place called the Deep Water Lodge.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!  It was a perfect place to relax and unwind.  We read our books, then went into town, had some dinner, met a friendly man named Michael who invited us to breakfast the next morning, and then headed back home and went to bed early.  It may have been our excitement for the last day, or the amazing sleep we had the night before, but Sheree and I couldn't get to sleep at all that night, so we spent hours chatting and giggling, and divulging lots of stories and secrets to each other, in a game called "Never have I ever..."

At Michael's for Breakfast

Wednesday was the day!  The day we were to make it up to Cape Reinga and call this trip completed!  But first, we decided to keep our promise to Michael and join him for breakfast.  He may have regretted inviting us over, as he eventually found out what crazy girls we are :)  He made us some of his famous dip to take with us for our lunch, but we forgot about it, so he came to drop it off to us at the Deep Water Lodge, and he was in for quite a surprise...










For our last stretch, we decided to dress up!  It's not every day that 2 girls get to complete a trip across a country on a bicycle...so why not get a little bit dressed up for the occasion??  We had found some hula skirts and lei's at the $2 shop in Kerikeri, so naturally we just made some coconut bras to go with it and complete the outfit!  When Michael arrived to bring us our dip, he was a bit shocked to see what we were wearing!  We were lucky enough to leave our bags at the Lodge, so we didn't have to worry about carrying everything up to the end.  So we just had our little backpacks on the back of the bikes and we headed off towards the Cape!  There were quite a few shocked looks and anyone who was not in a car asked us what we were doing... Sheree had stopped and arranged with a Postie to give us a ride back, and when we got to Cape Reinga, he was there waiting for us, and had spread the word a bit, because were greeted there with a round of applause!  The actual ride there was one of the most challenging ones!  Maybe because we wanted to just get there and be finished, but it seemed like it was hill after hill, and they kept getting bigger and steeper!  We were dead tired by the end, and we were amazed that we could still be this tired after biking 2600 kms.  Shouldn't we be in shape by now?!  But nothing mattered when we got to the end.  We were so happy to be finished, and the sight was amazing!  It was a gorgeous sunny day, with the water sparkling from the sun behind it and the lighthouse as the symbol that we were imagining as we dreamt about getting to the end... We walked our bikes down the long walkway as we took in the beautiful scenery and chatted with all the people along the way, as the wondered where we had come from and why we were wearing hula costumes :)  Lots of people even wanted to take our pictures!  So we sat and ate our lunch (Thanks for the dip Michael!) and took some photos and chatted with some people, and they even gave a donation!  And eventually we headed back up the hill, and our postie gave us a ride back to Cooper's Beach...

We were able to relax and feel a great sense of accomplishment as we stayed at the incredible SANCTUARY IN THE COVE for 2 nights of absoute paradise!  Bruce not only put us up in his amazing luxurious cabin, but also made us feel so proud, by treating us like queens and constantly told us how great of of thing it was that we had done!  He even took us around town and introduced us as the famous girls who cycled the country for charity!  He just made us feel so good, and it was the best way we could have ever imagined the end of our trip could be!  Thank you so much to Bruce! 

FINISHED!

So this is it... My last blog entry for this trip.  It has been an amazing ride.  With lots of ups and downs, both literally and figuratively :) We've both learned so much about ourselves, about each other, the country of New Zealand, cycling, fundraising, people... It has been such a great experience in so many ways.  The one thing we know for sure, is that this trip never could have happened without the help and support of the countless wonderful people that we came across during this trip.  Thank you so much to each and every one of you who supported us along this trip.  From the Couch Surfers and accommodations who hosted us, to the friends and family who sponsored us with donations, to the strangers who stopped on the side of the road when we were in trouble, to all of you who gave us an encouraging word, to the businesses who gave us what they could to help, and even to those of you on the road who tooted their horns to push us to keep pedaling... We appreciate all of you so much, and we really couldn't have done it without you!  I know that this world is filled with both goodness and badness, but after this trip, I am confident that the goodness if far more prevalent than the bad!  I am so proud to have met such wonderful people along the way.  You will always be remembered :)

Days 62-65: Takapuna to Mataia to Ruakaka to Kerikeri

Getting Ready to Ride out with Dylan!

Thursday morning, we were delighted to get a text from our beloved Dylan, who is our World Vision contact, who has been our support and help throughout this entire trip... He was going to join us for part of our day going out of Auckland!  We always get excited when people join us!!!  So when he arrived at Tomas' house, we started north, which happened to be through the area where Dylan had grown up, so he knew the area well and was able to guide us around and we didn't have to worry about getting lost :)  He rode a little way with us, but had to eventually turn around and get back to work, and right when he did, the rain started!  But luckily it didn't last long.  There were about 5 sun showers throughout the day and we couldn't complain because they were basically enough to just cool us down, and then the sun would come out again...

Beautiful Rainbow!

The ride was quite an abnormal one.  We had 2 punctures, both on Sheree's back tire, bringing our puncture total to about 7, all but one of them being on that tire!  Then we stopped off in a small town, where they told us to look out for the multimillionaire's house on the way, where he has giraffes and water buffalo as pets!  We eventually found them, after staring at a giraffe statue way out in the field, wondering if in fact it was a giraffe or not... It turns out it was a statue, but we eventually saw the moving ones!  And then on the other side of the road, was the most perfect and beautiful rainbow I had ever seen! 

Mataia Homestead

After that, we got to our destination, which was called Mataia Homestead.  A wonderful lady named Jenny had given us this gorgeous house to stay in for the night.  It was surrounded by a beautiful garden and orchard, where we could help ourselves to the fruit and stay in separate bedrooms and even play the piano!  We watched "Once Were Warriors" which is classic Kiwi film that I had heard I had to watch, and we both bawled our eyes out for about half the movie, then went to bed early and woke up nice and refreshed and ready to hit the road again!

Friday we headed to Ruakaka, where we stayed with friends of Sheree.  It was a lovely family, that welcomed us and made us feel at home right away.  We had a great meal and relaxed and watched another movie that made us cry yet again (Sheree and I have both noticed that we've been extremely emotional on this trip!) and got to bed early again :)

Beach Day!

Saturday we kept on going to Kerikeri, where we were greeted by another Couch Surfer who was hosting us named Tom.  It was one of our longest days yet, riding 115kms from Ruakaka to Kerikeri, so we were dead tired when we finally got there.  But Tom made us feel right at home, and knew exactly how to treat us after a long ride, helping us relax and then we just chatted and had a nice dinner.  We enjoyed relaxing and chatting with Tom so much that we decided to stay another day, and give our legs a bit of a break.

Enjoying the water by the Stone Store

Sunday, our day of rest, we went to the farmer's market, then headed to the beach with Tom and his friend Garth and his son, where we attempted to go surfing!  But the waves weren't great and getting wet in the freezing cold water on a windy day didn't seem worth it if we couldn't surf the waves, so we just went for a walk along the beach and enjoyed the beauty of it.  Later, we went back to Garth's house, and had a nice coffee, and chatted about desserts for a really long time now that I think of it!  We invited them over for dinner, went home and then spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen, making up a nice big feed!  When Garth and the kids came over, we ate until we could eat no more, then played BOGGLE!  Boggle, if you know my family, is a favorite thing for us to do, so I really enjoyed it!  Then it was time to head off to bed again, so we could get back on the road again...

Days 59-61: Waiheke Island to Takapuna

Beautiful Waiheke!

Monday and Tuesday were very tough days.  We had to work oh so hard at being on vacation on Waiheke Island!!!  Ed and his two boys were excellent hosts and kept us well fed and showed us around the island.  We enjoyed the beach, saw the beautiful views, relaxed in the hammocks, listened to music, drank lots of wine, and even played some cricket!  It was a perfect way to avoid the crazy Auckland roads and get in some relaxation time at the same time.

By Wednesday, we had made a new plan, which was to get up to Cape Reinga early, in order to be back in Kerikeri on the 21st, so that we could participate in a bike race on the Saturday.  So, to be able to get that done, we had to leave paradise a bit early to have enough time to get to Cape Reinga and back by then.  So we spent Wednesday morning relaxing at Ed's place, and then we rode out to catch the ferry back to Auckland, and landed on the northern side of the city, where we met our next Couch Surfing host, Tomas!  Tomas is one of the Ambassadors for CS Auckland, and he was going to a CS meeting that night in town.  So we finally got a chance to go out for a night and meet some other Couch Surfers.  Our trip has revolved around Couch Surfing so much, but we had yet to make it to one of the meetings...well, besides the one we attempted to go to in Wellington, but we couldn't find any of them!  So we had a nice night out in Auckland, where we met tons of CSers, and even got to play some jumbo jenga!  But we had to call it an early night, because we had to ride again the next morning...

Days 56-58: Morrinsville to Bombay, Bombay to Waiheke

Riding with Mom from Morrinsville

After 2 straight days of fundraising in Matamata and Morrinsville, we took Friday to relax and enjoy some home time.  We thought about going to the beach, but by the time we had any motivation to do anything, it was well past noon.  So we just relaxed, had some internet time, did some cleaning up and rearranging of or stuff, downsizing even more so that our bags were absolutely as light as possible, and we had a lovely dinner out with Sheree's mom and bro.

We made it to 2000kms!

Saturday it was time to get back on the road.  Sheree's mom decided to join us for the first leg of the trip!  It was fun having her with us, and really cute to see mother and daughter riding together :)  But eventually she had to turn around and go back home, and it was back to just Sheree and I... It was a pretty flat and easy ride, until we got to the last 5 kilometers or so, and the hills started!  We had been so spoiled with flat and easy rides, that it was a new challenge to get up the hills, even though it was nothing compared to what we had done before.  We finally got to our destination, staying with a Couch Surfer farmer, in the middle of nowhere, but conveniently placed for us to have a place to stop before going to Waiheke.  Simon was a great host, and we enjoyed a nice poker/pizza/movie night with him.  Thanks Simon for a great night!

With Simon!

On Sunday, we didn't have too far to ride, so we took our time.  Sheree decided to go back to her roots and help Simon milk the cows :)  And I decided to go back to mine, and book some plane tickets for some more traveling when this is all done!  When we finished with that, we all came back and attempted to make eggs in a hole (or eggs in a basket?) for breakfast.  We said goodbye to our new friend Simon, and then headed off along the back roads towards the ferry to get to Waiheke Island.

On the Ferry to Waiheke

It was another hilly and windy ride, but we were more mentally prepared for it, so it wasn't that bad.  Well, except for one hill which was probably the steepest that we had had on this whole trip, and we had to walk it for a little bit.  But it wasn't too big, so not so bad.  The ride only took about 3 hours, and we got to the ferry where they had graciously donated us some tickets to get across!  THANK YOU TO SEALINK!!!

Once we got across to Waiheke, we had a few more kilometers and a few more hills to go, but we eventually made it to Sheree's friend Ed's house. And here we'll be taking a bit of a break from riding, as it is so beautiful here, and we might as well have a bit of a vacation, right??  So that evening, we enjoyed the view and the company of Ed and his son Charlie, as we looked forward to spending some more time and getting to know these great guys!

Days 52-55: Rotorua to Matamata, Matamata to Morrinsville

Hot Pools in Rotorua

In Rotorua, we tried to see if we could put together an on the day fundraiser, but it just didn't work out.  But Louise, our host, gave us a great option.  She had one of my Thai massages, and then donated the money to the charity!  It was simple and gave us the day to enjoy Rotorua!  We walked around town, saw some hot pools, then went home, and got a bit of a taste of farm life, as we collected pine cones for fuel for the fire, and then enjoyed a nice hot coffee with the family.

Matamata, AKA Hobbiton!

That night, looking at the weather forecast and seeing 3 days of constant rain coming up, we decided to change our plan of going to Tauranga, since it's not much fun to go to the beach in the rain.  We decided to go home...well, to Sheree's home at least!  And that way we could do a couple sausage sizzles in the small towns, and not have to worry about the policies of the big towns.  So we rode to Sheree's Dad's house from Rotorua on Tuesday.  Wednesday we did a sausage sizzle in Matamata, and Thursday we did another one in Morrinsville.  It was nice and easy, and we made about $360 at the two of them. 

Out in Hamilton!

Apart from doing sausage sizzles, this has mostly been a time of just relaxing, recharging our batteries, and having family time!  Thursday night we got all dressed up (taking advantage of the access to a wardrobe!) and went out on the town in Hamilton with Sheree's brother and sister, and her friend.  We danced the night away, and just enjoyed doing something different for a change!

Days 49-51: Taupo to Rotorua

So, Sheree and I were getting pretty sick of doing just the typical old fundraisers like sausage sizzles and raffles, so we decided to spice things up a little bit and do something different.  For Taupo, we decided to put on a Speed Dating night!  We contacted a few places, and PLOUGHMANS bar and restaurant was wonderful enough to let us use their upstairs, and gave us a discount on some drinks to help us out.  Friday was all about advertising.  We got straight to work... The first thing we did was to join a bunch of NZ dating websites, hoping to be able to send messages to singles in the area to invite them to our event.  But we were disappointed over and over again to realize that we had to fill out enless information about ourselves before being able to send messages, and not only that, but some sites wouldn't even let us send any messages without being a paying member!  So in the end, after a heck of a lot of work, we had only sent out 4 messages, and we were now members of countless online dating sites!  The next plan was to make up flyers and post them around town.  We put up posters in gyms, stores, and we even stopped people in the streets to invite them and gave them some flyers. 

With Terence, our CS host in Taupo!

The next day was the 100k flyer, so we took the opportunity to do some advertising there.  We made up a big sign with a heart on it saying "Single?  Speed Dating Tonight!" with all the details, and as we stood at the finish line, we danced to the music while getting lots of looks and laughs and comments, but it was quite a lot of fun.  We were also there to see Terence, our Couch Surfing host, cross the finish line!  It was quite impressive, as he was feeling sick that whole day, and still managed to finish the race!  By the way, he is training for an Iron Man competition in about 9 months.  Good for you Terence!

One of the hot pools on the way to Rotorua

As the night progressed and it was nearing the time for Speed Dating to start, we were getting a little bit nervous.  We had no idea how many people, if any, would show up.  We stood and watched at the window for people who looked like they might be single and might be coming up.  In the end, there were only 2 people who showed up, a guy and a girl.  We felt terrible for them, because they expected to meet lots of people, and really only got to meet each other and us... but we played some cards and chatted and had some drinks, and in the end we all had a great time!  It wasn't exactly speed dating, but it was fun!  So finally, we only made $40, so it was our worst fundraiser as far as how much, but it was our best fundraiser as far as how much fun we had!  Thanks to you guys who came out and made it so much fun!


Sunday it was time to get back on the road, as we headed to Rotorua.  It was a nice day, but a smelly ride, as we started to get into the sulphur area of the country, with all the hot pools and steam coming up out of random pools and holes in the ground.  It was pretty cool to see!  We stayed with some family friends of Sheree, and they were absolutely lovely.  Lorence and Louise are a sweet couple who live on a farm on the outside of Rotorua, and they made us feel at home right away. 

Days 46-48: Ohakune to Turangi, Turangi to Taupo

Us with breakfast at Powderhorn Hotel

Since we had such a long day on the way to Ohakune, we decided to take a day to rest and recuperate, and we might as well do it in a place as nice and beautiful as Ohakune. We looked into doing an impromptu fundraiser there, but with the amount of people out and about on a Monday, it didn't seem worth it. So we just took some of the scenic walks around town and by the hotel, and then we went back to the wonderful Powderhorn Hotel, where they put us up for two nights to support us on our journey! THANKS SO MUCH! The staff were incredible, the heated pool was a heaven for our sore muscles, the food was more than we could eat (and we can eat A LOT!) and it was just so nice to live in a bit of luxury before heading back on the bikes.

Saying goodbye to my World!

We got back on the road on Tuesday morning, heading to Turangi, and we had quite a nice ride with lots of sun and not so many hills! The only sad thing that happened was that my world, which I was unable to let go of since the lantern parade, got ruined by the wind as a big truck wizzed on by! I guess it was for the best though, because there was no point in me carrying it around...

Cycling around Mt. Doom!

When we got to Turangi, we were greeted by another wonderful Couch Surfing host named Johanna.  She was one of those seems like professional hosts, as she had hosted hundreds of couch surfers, and was very good at making us feel comfortable and welcomed us with an amazing vegetarian meal.  It was perfect!  She also hosted a couple from Slovenia, so the 5 of us had a nice tea and conversation, sharing lots of Couch Surfing stories!

Couch Surfing with Johanna

In the morning we took the opportunity to go white water rafting, and since it was a beautiful day, we decided to take up that opportunity!  It was one of the most beautiful things we had seen on our trip.  The water on the river was so clear, and the walls along the gorge were green and flowing with water dripping down, and the sky was blue and the company was great!  We even jumped out over a waterfall into a freezing cold pool, where I almost hyperventilated because of the cold, but they warmed us up with some hot chocolate.  It was great.  After that, we had some lunch with Johanna, and hit the road again.

Arriving at Lake Taupo

We got into Taupo pretty quickly, as it was one of our shorter days.  We had a nice ride, and arrived full of energy.  50km days are great!  We stayed with another Couch Surfer named Terence.  He was preparing for a 100km bike race from Rotorua to Taupo called the 100k flyer.  So we had lots in common with him, and we chatted about bikes all night after sharing a nice dinner, and brainstormed about how to do our next fundraiser...

Days 44-45: Palmerston North to Apiti, Apiti to Ohakune

Juliet, Sheree, and Lance

It was another Sunday morning, and it was time to hit the road again, but we were happy to be riding with the company of the incredible Lance and Juliet.  It's great when we stay with cyclists, because they not only know the best ways to treat us, but they also join us when we go!  Lance came with us for about an hour or so, but then went back for the car so he and Juliet could drive back.  So it was just the three of us ladies for a while.  We marvelled at the beautiful colors and the leaves starting to fall off the trees, and enjoyed the beautiful views while sharing great company.  It was one of the most beautiful and pleasant rides for the most part, but we all faced a few challenges.  Each of us at some point had a bit of an asthma attack, which was weird because none of us have ever had asthma!  It may have been the altitude or the weather, which was doing weird things by changing from rainy to sunny to cloudy to hot to cold... And Sheree and I had the challenge of keeping up with Super Juliet, who was quite a bit faster than us! 

When we got close to our destination, the paved road turned into a gravel road (or metal road, as they call it here) and we slowed right down but kept on going.  About halfway through the gravel road, Sheree noticed that she had a puncture!  We don't mind punctures so much, now that we know how to fix them, and we feel pretty good about ourselves when we do fix them!  But...we had unloaded our bags into Lance's car, and we had absolutely nothing on us to fix it!  As we started walking the bikes, we feared that rolling to tire over the gravel might not be good for the tire frame, so we hoisted the back of Sheree's bike onto my handlebars, and walked the bikes together the rest of the way.  (Its sounds more complicated than it actually was!)  When we got to the house, it was just about when Lance was about to get in his car and look for us, as it took much longer than they expected for us to arrive there. 

In the Limestone Caves

We stayed there with friends of Lance and Juliet, a lovely couple named Mary and Steve, and their son Pete was there also.  They took extremely good care of us with everything we could possibly imagine...a nice hot shower, tea and muffins, an delicious dinner, and Pete even took us out to explore the beauty of the area.  He was so passionate about the nature and wonder of the area, and is even planning to open a backpackers in the future so he can share it some more.  He took us to the Limestone Caves, where we saw glowworms up in the tops of the caves as the water dripped down the green walls and throughout the cave.  It was amazing!  And then we went on a short hike out to a hut where people can stay the night or go hunting and just enjoy the amazing views over the mountains.  We watched the sunset over the hills and talked about love and just had a wonderful evening! 

With the broken tube...

Beautiful Views along the way...

The next day ended up being probably one of my best and and worst days of this trip!   It started off by Sheree wanting to pump up her tire a bit more before we left, but it somehow broke the tube and we couldn't fix it, so we used our spare, only to find that we ere given the wrong size tubes, so we eventually stretched out the smaller tubes, hoping it would work enough to get us to the next bike shop. We were a couple hours behind schedule but we were moving...then we heard a hissing noise and and realized that the stretched tire had been stretched too much, there was a kink in it, which caused another puncture. That's when I realized that I left the puncture repair kit on the counter at the house! We did have another one but it was packed so far into my bag that I had to remove everything from my bike to get to it! So after a bit of yelling and cursing and crying and hugging, we eventually got it all fixed up and were "on the road again"...still having that song in our heads from watching a DVD that Mary had made, convincing the council to pave the road to their house, which featured that song.  Some of Steve and Mary's neighbors had stopped while we were fixing the tire and they said they'd call them when they got home. When we got back to biking, Peter came up to us in his car to check up on us. I guess he tried to call but we didn't have service so he came, brought us the puncture repair kit, and made sure we were ok. What a great guy! :) After that, it was pretty much uphill all the way to Waiarua, and when we got there we weren't sure if we'd make it to Ohakune because the sun was going down and we were exhausted. By when we stopped to ask about the road, we were happy to hear it was only another 27kms and flat! So we went for it, and we were never so happy to reach our destination as we were that night!! What a day!!

Days 40-43: Palmerston North to New Plymouth to Palmerston North

Leadership Day #2

We spent half of Wednesday in Palmy (Palmerston North) with meetings and internet and organizational time, and then we headed West to New Plymouth for the second of the two Leadership days with Ruth and Chris.  We set up for the next day, and Thursday was basically a repeat of Tuesday, just in another place.

Thursday night we had to say goodbye to Chris and Ruth, when they dropped us off back in Palmy and headed back to Wellington.  Our hosts in Palmy were a wonderful couple, Lance and Juliet, that we came in contact with through Warm Showers, which is a site just like Couch Surfing, but specifically for cyclists.  They immediately got on board with what we were trying to do, and Lance helped us to organize a fundraiser there in Palmy.  We hadn't planned on doing one there, but with his help, we knew we couldn't pass up this opportunity!  He did all of the organizing for us, and we just had to be there!  Thanks so much Lance!

Our World Vision Lantern

And us in the Parade!

On Friday we were to be in a lantern parade, where the people in the city made their own lanterns, moving around the town square to put them on display in a parade.  We made our lantern a globe and an eye, to symbolize World Vision, and with the words "WORLD VISION" hanging in between the two.  It was a lot of fun to make, and it turned out quite well.  We fixed them to our bikes and walked through the parade with the mayor of Palmerston North, all 3 of us wearing our World Vision t-shirts :)  It was quite a sight!  The participation in the parade was quite impressive, and the energy of the locals both participating and watching was great!  Even the bit of rain spitting down didn't put a damper on their spirits.

Some of the participants in our game!

The next morning, the festival continued.  There were rows of stalls set up all around the square, with people from different cultures, selling food and drinks and treats of every kind, as well as constant performances up on the stage to keep us all entertained for the day!  Thanks to Lance, we were able to get a stall and raise some money for World Vision.  We had the idea of playing "Count the Jellybeans" but then Lance embellished the idea, coming up with "Count the Fish" instead!  We borrowed 43 neon fish from Wet Pets, and Lance bought the tank, and for a gold coin donation, anyone could come along and guess the number of fish in the tank!  It was a great hit with the kids.  They were really attracted by the fish, and loved trying to count the fish as they moved all around the tank.  Some people said it was impossible, some sat there for what seemed like hours trying to count them, and some just threw down a random guess.  In the end, there were 3 winners who guessed 43 fish.  We put the three names in a hat and drew out the name Neeve.  Congratulations to Neeve, as the winner of the fish tank, and she can go to Wet Pets and choose 2 of her own Comet Fish!  Thank you to Wet Pets for donating the 2 fish as a prize!  We also sold some World Vision postcards that I made up from some of my photos from Kenya, along with the World Vision logos, and Lance had them printed off at Destination Manawatu (THANK YOU!!!).  It was a great opportunity to share about some of my experiences in Kenya with the people that were interested in the photos! 

The day ended at 4:00, just as it started to rain, but we were happy to have had a really pleasant 2 days in Palmy, and got a chance to be in the cultural festival, in a parade with the mayor, and to meet the wonderful local people of Palmerston North.  We went back home and shared a lovely dinner with Lance and Juliet (made by Lance, the celebrity chef I might add...) and went to bed, after our bikes had had a long break, ready to be ridden again the next morning...

We managed to raise $190 in Palmerston North.  Thank you to everyone who participated in the parade and the cultural festival, who helped raise money for the famine in Africa, and for making our stay a lovely experience!

Days 37-39: Porirua to Levin to Palmerston North to Hastings to Palmerston North...

Riding with our First Cycling Buddies!

 

Sunday morning, it was time to hit the road again.  Gabrielle and Martin decided to join us on their bikes for a part of the way.  We didn't expect a couple in their 50's to be difficult to keep up with, but these two were impressively fit and fast, and we were huffing and puffing to keep up with them!  They even helped us along by teaching us about streaming (at least I think that's what it's called!) where they ride right in front and block the wind, making it easier for us!  So, after about an hour or two, we stopped at the dairy, had an ice cream, and then had to say goodbye as they went home and we continued on...  



We continued on towards Levin, where we stayed with a lovely retired British couple named Gill and Johnathon, a little bit outside of Levin.  They let us use their hot tub, which was heaven for us after a day of riding the bikes, and they made a nice roast for dinner!  Dinner was so nice, but the best part was just hearing and sharing stories and laughs...another incredible couch surfing experience!  We also learned about the Time Bank, which you should all join, and I will hopefully join when I have a real home.  You can do work in your community for time instead of money, and then someone can come and do something for you for that time.  What a great concept!  Love it!

 

We got to Palmerston North the next day, just as the rain started pouring down.  Luckily we didn't get that wet, as we arrived in almost perfect timing.  This house that we arrived at was one that we got connected with through Warm Showers, which is basically a Couch Surfing website, but especially for cycists!  So we dropped off our bags and bikes with them, but unfortunately we couldn't stay long, because our new World Vision friends from Wellington came to pick us up and take us to Hastings!



  

Playing the Simulation Game



We were asked to join Chris and Ruth for their leadership days, where they would be encouraging and empowering student leaders from the high schools in the area, to do the 40hour famine in their schools.  They wanted to use us to show the students some examples of leadership in different ways, and also just to help out with whatever we could.  It was a perfect idea for us, because not only did it give us a few days of a break from our bikes, but we could also have a chance to learn more about World Vision, the Global Food Crisis, and to get us more excited about what WV is doing about the GFC!  It was lots of fun, and did exactly what it was meant to do, and we got a chance to get to know two really incredible people, who are totally passionate about what they do, and are making a huge difference in the world!  I have so much respect for what Chris and Ruth are doing.  It's not easy to get kids to be motivated and excited about something that's completly selfless, but they are doing an amazing job! 

Days 33-36: Wellington to Porirua

On Wednesday morning, we got started on our planning for the Wellington fundraiser.  We started out by going to the information center to get all the names and numbers and locations of anyone and everyone that might be able to help us with our fundraiser.  We were hoping to do a repeat of one of our better fundraisers, perhaps a car wash or a sausage sizzle.  They were easy and simple and we knew that they worked.  Unfortunately, in the big cities, there seems to be a lot more rules and a lot fewer people who are interested in helping out.  None of our prospective fundraisers seemed to be going anywhere, with a lot of people just telling us that they couldn't help us.

However, we did have a voucher from the lovely Fox Glacier, which we were going to raffle off, so we decided that here in Wellington would be a great place to do it, with plenty of people around and that they wouldn't mind buying raffle tickets.  So we got the permit from the council and set up to sell tickets in two locations, outside of Westpac bank, and outside of the Warehouse.  We thought we would do better if we were separate, to get to more people.  But we didn't have much luck separately, and besides being discouraged with the amount of people not buying raffle tickets, we were also bored, not being able to talk to each other.  So we scrapped that idea and Sheree came over to where I was at Westpac, and we tried it together.  We didn't have much luck together either, but at least we could hang out together!  Unfortunately, we had another mishap... Z had been amazing to donate to us a $50 petrol voucher which we added to the prize of the Fox Glacier tour, but in Windy Wellington, there were a couple of times that the wind blew everything off of the table, and at some point we realized that the petrol voucher was missing! We searched everywhere, and we still don't know if it was taken or if the wind blew it off the table... We had also the day before, decided to do the 40hour famine, in an effort to encourage the kids to do the famine, and also to hopefully get some sponsorships.  So, with our lack of raffle ticket sales, the petrol voucher disappearing, a random lady yelling at me for "working" (which I didn't and still don't understand), and being cold and hungry on top of all that, we were not having a very good day!  We decided to postpone the famine, and do it again when there was someone who would sponsor us, because all it was doing at that point was putting us in a worse mood than we already were.  So we went and ate Indian food!  Yay!  Food had never tasted so good!

Gabrielle and her amazing Cheesecake!

Later that night we went back home (oh by the way, home had moved to Porirua, where Sheree's cousin was living, in order to have some family time!) and we had a lovely meal, and decided to sell a few more raffle tickets around the neighborhood.  We did a little bit better, although not much, and brought our tickets sales about up to $100.  When we went back home, Gabrielle (Sheree's cousin) made everything better with her amazing dessert!  It doesn't matter how bad your day is, when it ends with a nice piece of strawberry cheesecake, nothing can be bad!

On Friday, we went to the World Vision Wellington office, to help them out with a few things.  This was great for us, because we got a chance to learn a bit more about World Vision, to meet some more of the staff, and to see how they run things and just to get more involved with them.  We just made a few calls to the schools around the area, inviting them to participate in the 40hour famine, and in the meantime, got a chance to talk about ideas and fundraisers, to share and hear stories, and just basically to get excited about what World Vision is doing around the world!  It was a huge turn around from the day before.

The Girls making Bracelets

Making a WV Banner!

And then on Saturday, it was an even better day!  We went to civic square, where the Wellington Girls College (that means high school for you Canadians) was doing a 40-hour sweat shop, instead of a famine.  They were making bracelets, selling sausages and baked sweets, and singing and dancing in the streets!  It was amazing to see the level of enthusiasm of these girls!  Not only had a lot of them been awake all night working, but they were totally excited and full of energy.  But what really impressed Sheree and I, was the way that these girls were working together, and how there really didn't seem to be a dividing line between the different social groups within the school.  Each girl seemed to interact with each other girl, and there seemed to be no segregation between the different social groups!  I'm not sure what it was, but I really think it was the very fact that they were commonly working towards a goal, which was to help out a cause that it outside of themselves!  The singing, the dancing, the joy... it was all so encouraging!

Days 31 & 32: Nelson to Rai Valley, Rai Valley to Piction, Picton to Wellington



The Ride from Nelson!

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to Nelson on Monday.  We didn't have very far to go, so we took our time in the morning, and headed off just after lunch.  Ellie, our wonderful Nelson host had very kindly told us about the monstoruous hill that we would have to climb on our way to Rai Valley, and she said that when we see the spray-painted white star, we would know that we were at the top...of the first hill at least!  After a long, but absolutely stunning climb up that hill, we were happy that it wasn't as bad as it seemed, and we cruised down the other side of the hill, then did the next one, also not as bad as the first. 

Made it to Picton!

We got to Rai Valley and stayed with Sheree's Auntie, so we got to have some nice family time.  We chatted with Mom (Sheree's mom that is!) and looked at photos, and enjoyed a wonderful meal together.  It's great to have some family time!

On the Ferry

The next morning we headed out to Picton to catch the ferry.  We had to be there at 6, we got there a bit early and got our last fish 'n chips of the South Island, then got on the ferry.  We owe a huge thank you to the INTERISLANDER FERRY!   They gave us a free crossing to help us out.  We were so greatful to them.  The ferry was so nice, but with us not being in any vehicles besides our bikes for the last month, we seem to get a bit of motionsickness in cars and ferries.  But we managed to keep everything down, and were happy to land in Wellington.

We went to stay with Klara, who is the sister of a girl that we met in Bruce Bay, and a friend of Marik, the one who helped us wash cars in Hokitika!  So it was great to meet up with her, had a nice chat and see how much she looked and sounded like her sister!  We were quite tired from the day, so we went to bed early and passed right out, getting some good sleep for our Wellington adventures...

Days 28-30: Nelson and Golden Bay

On Friday, we got straight to work on organizing our Nelson fundraiser. Our original plan was to sit outside of a fruit and veg shop and sell some fruit juices, but we couldn't get a hold of any of the managers. Then we found out about the weekend market, so we thought we could set up a stall there instead! But we were quite disappointed with the organizers of that, who basically accused us of using World Vision's name and taking the money ourselves, and wouldn't even look at the blog or our contacts or allow us any way to show that we're actually legit. So, we were basically on our own for this fundraiser. Thankfully, BNZ was nice enough to allow us to sit outside their bank, and the city council granted us the permit, so we got to work doing what we could.

Fundraising in Nelson

Our next idea was "Bigger and Better". We started out with a pack of cookies and crackers from the city council (THANK YOU NELSON CITY COUNCIL!) and went around door to door to trade it for bigger and better things! We had a lot of people who just wanted to give, but didn't want to trade, so we ended up with quite a lot of things at the end! We were going to have an auction or raffle with what we got, but in the end we decided to play a little game on the street. For the people who wanted to play, they would make a donation, roll a dice, call a number, and if they rolled their number they could choose a prize! It worked out perfectly, because we had just run out of prizes by the time the traffic had started to die down. We didn't make nearly as much as we had hoped, but we put the $70 into the account, and headed home, a little disappointed but happy to have made a little, which was better than nothing!

The next day, we took a proper day off to take our minds off of fundraising for a bit! Since we were so close, we decided to go to the Abel Tasman National Park, but by hitchhiking! The ladies of Nelson were good to us that morning! Our first ride was a mom and her two little girls, who kept us entertained until they turned off and we tried for a second ride. Then 2 more lovely ladies picked us up and took us the rest of the way, and also stopped along the way so we could take photos and get some delicious fruit! They also told us about International Biking Naked Day! This is a day to promote cycling around the world, for health and planet reasons, and the nakedness I guess is just to attract attention! Well, of course Sheree and I were totally excited about this idea, but a little disappointed that the one day we didn't have our bikes, was the day that we come across this! But we figured we'd go anyways, and see how we could get involved...

The Maori Spring

International Biking Naked Day!

We had a few hours to kill, so first we went out of town a bit to see a spring that is sacred to the Maoris and it was absolutely gorgeous! It was the clearest water we had ever seen! It was a beautiful sunny day and about an hour before the festival, we started heading back to hitch a ride there. We didn't think it would be so hard to get a ride a few kilometers, but as we were walking and waiting and hoping for a ride, it hit 3:00 and we were sure we would miss it! But luckily, a guy in a very crowded little ute stopped because of the desperation in our faces, and took us straight to the festival, just in time to see them start off down the street, bodies painted, completely naked on bicycles of all kinds, from kids to old people, excited to promote their great cause! At this point, the only thing we could do was smile and take photos... We had no bikes to join, and just stripping down and running after them didn't seem appropriate. But then...! We noticed a poor naked guy, struggling to stay on a unicycle! The definitely looked like he needed some support, so being the super helpful girls that we are, we got on either side of him, and gave him our shoulders to support him all the way to the end! We were pretty pleased with ourselves, that we had figured out a way to make it somehow into the festival! And we made a new friend too :) After a very successful and fun day, we hitched a ride back to our Nelson home.

Sunday was another rest day, and since we were in the company of such a wonderful host, we wanted to spend the afternoon hanging out with her! She's just the type of person I love! Relaxed, friendly, and likes to play games!! So we spent a few hours first going to a multicultural festival, which was awesome by the way, and I finally got to see the Haka! And then we came back home, did some baking, and brought a few of our new friends over (including some ransoms we met while fundraising, and the naked unicyclist) and had a games day! It was such a fun day, and after that weekend, we weren't bothered at all that the fundraiser didn't go so well... We love Nelson!!!