You sexy mother plucker

Late afternoon after the post wedding BBQ complete with cartoon sized steaks, we rocked up to our next wwoof host only to find they had double booked us. Two other English guys were already staying so after some initial embarrassment on their part we all thought we'd stay and figure it out together. This meant staying in our van as the guys were sleeping in the wwoofing bus. Consequently our hours were reduced from 4.5 to 3 hours a day.

In the vineyard the work consisted of plucking the leaves off around the grapes so air could easily flow around the bunches reducing the risk of mildew. This was fine in itself (you kinda get into it and as the host said - it's an ipod job) but we didn't really get introduced to the site, no walk around pointing out the different grapes, no tour of the winery or restaurant. So we didn't feel it was a proper exchange as we were not learning anything about the wine making process. Granted this was the task at hand but talking to the owners more would have been helpful. We had to bear in mind that it was the run up to Christmas so of course they were busy with the two young kids plus running the wine tours and tastings.

But hey, it also gave us a base to explore the Bay of Islands. We met up with Rory, Ellen and Nick for a day out in Paihia where we took the ferry across to Russell, where the weather turned cloudy, we saw NZ's oldest church complete with bullet holes and to much disappointment was distinctly lacking in pies. Then we all drove up to Waitangi to the site of the famously contested treaty signed between Maori chiefs and the British crown establishing sovereignty (Oh, so you don't have a flag). Plus we got the chance to visit Brendan's place in Mangamuka and see how busy he has been building his place, the hydro power system and digging paths, ditches and terraces.

We had to get some work done on the van - replacing the air con and alternator belts to stop the hideous screeching sound that had gotten worse since Napier. After a week and in the lead up to Christmas, we decided it was best to move on. So after a quick chat with the hosts we left the next day heading north to Northland and started planning our route south to Wellington for the New Year. Initially I had hoped for a family Christmas in NZ but knew it would be better if we moved on.