I last left off on the night before my birthday when we first arrived in Pahia, New Zealand during our road trip. Long story short, it was one of my best birthdays yet. We woke up and had a delicious breakfast at a nearby surf cafe, went for a 3 hour hike through forest and mangroves and ate lunch on top of waterfalls. In the evening, Angie and Laura treated me to dinner at an amazingly great seafood restaurant (Only Seafood) where we met a couple guys from Auckland and our waitress Catherine, all of whom joined us in our pub crawl following the meal. We capped off the night with some dancing and midnight ocean swimming where the water glowed a dim green any time you moved (some micro-organism is responsible for it, I forget the name). The next morning I dropped off Angie and Laura at their new Help Exchange host, a high end bed and breakfast in Keri Keri. Then, I made a 3 hour drive back to Auckland to drop off the rental car and caught a bus the following day back out to Pahia, my new home for the coming month.
I'm currently staying in the Saltwater Lodge, owned and operated by a friendly and laid back couple whom live here along with their 1 year old daughter, dog, and cat. The place was built new a couple years ago, features 19 rooms with private bathrooms, a modern well equipped stainless steel kitchen, a large chillout room with 11 couches, a large video collection, and its all located less than a block from the warm summer water of Pahia. As one of the cleaners here, I receive free accommodation in exchange for just 2 1/2 hours of cleaning each morning. I share the cleaners room with Julia from Germany, and the Danish twins Julie and Sidse (pronounced Ceaser without the r).
A typical day starts out at about 9:30 where I'll wake up take a quick shower, and make a simple breakfast. At 10:00 we start on the rooms, each of us with our own roles for servicing a room or preparing it for new guests. I have what Simon (a friend here from Australia) has described as the 'cruisiest' job. I simply make my way from room to room vacuuming with this hilarious backpack mounted vacuum and topping up the tea and coffee packets. It's almost too easy of a job for the quality of accommodation I receive in return. We finish up between 12:00 and 1:00pm where we prepare a lunch together then have the rest of the day to ourselves.
The owners here, Lucy and Gareth, have a bunch of friends in the area so it's common to be invited to different activities during the day. I've already got to go out sailing twice. Once on Pete's 119 year old sailboat, along with a bunch of other people from the lodge that day. At that age, the oldest boat in the Bay of Islands and second oldest New Zealand made boat in all of New Zealand, there's a lot of hands on work to keeping up the speed and keeping it afloat. I had a blast learning how to raise the mast, steer the vessel, and 'tec' (spelling?) as we changed directions and adjusted the sails for optimal power. Pete was entertainment for the rest of us in his own right. He's a middle aged school teacher that lives on a boat in the harbor, never wears shoes (even in the pubs afterwords), and has the mouth of a sailor, voice of a drill sergeant and the no none-sense personality of a New York police officer. Most of the people were a bit timid as he barked orders but after an hour or so with him it turned into a joke for the rest of us as we laughed at about everything he had to say. I won't forget the face of the girls on board when they were shown the toilet facilities; a green bucket with some left over urine from its last use. Also hilarious was Simon being yelled at by Pete as he was about to pee upwind from us. It scared Simon so bad he nearly fell overboard, unit in hand. We were also really lucky to see a pod of Orkas (killer whales) about 50 meters away, something incredibly rare to see deep in the bay where we were.
A couple days ago, Julie, Sidse, and I got a chance to go out and sail with Rob, Willy, and Dan. Rob owns a boat that's a bit larger and younger than Pete's. The weather was absolutely perfect that day. We got a bit further out into the bay where we passed by quite a few of the more than 100 islands found in the Bay of Islands. It was more of a relaxed trip where we mostly laid back on the bow and took in the summer sun and breeze as we cruised through the open water.
We've gone for a few hikes as well. One was a 5 hour hike through forest and down through the beaches of Opua. At one point we found this cool sandbar out a 100 meters or so into the water. I thought it'd make a great picture to be out there seemingly walking on the water so I went for a swim and the others got some pictures of me running Jesus-esque in the middle of the bay. On the way back in as I was about to climb up some rocks Carin yelled to me "Maybe you should swim to the sand over there instead." Just as I was asking "What's that?" I lost my footing and felt a shooting pain in my foot as it scraped over the rocks below, cleanly slicing my right foot like some poorly placed chef knives and dying the tidepool a shade of red. Grosser still were the small blood sucking bugs I had to pick out of the wound once I swam to the sand on the other side. Fortunately, all is well now and my foot is nearly healed, just a bit tender still.
We play pool almost nightly at the nearby pool hall, 'The Sandpit'. Carin, a girl from the UK that has now since moved on traveling the rest of New Zealand gave me a bunch of pointers and explained the rules (UK rules of course). I wouldn't call myself good yet, but I can already tell a huge difference from when I first started playing. They hold tournaments regularly that attract the local pool crowd. It's impressive to check out just how good you can become with years of practice. It's a great place to kill some time in the evening and if you bring in your ipod the owner lets you hook it up to the sound system and DJ yourself. However, be sure that you play at least one or two games of pool before attempting to in New Zealand. New Zealand rules require that if you lose a game without knocking in a single ball you're required to take off your pants and run a lap around the table in your underwear. At the amusement of the rest of the hall, I found this out first hand in my inaugural game against Carin.
So that pretty much sums up Pahia living at the moment. I've got too many pictures to post them all right now so I'll upload some more soon. I'm sure I'll have some more stories to share as well, so stay tuned! ;)

Everyone sort of looks beat in this picture since we were tired from just finishing up our work for the day, but I wanted to show off our quality eats anyways. (From left to right; Me, Julia, Sidse, and Juli.)

I'm a week behind in writing about this trip now so after this massive, novel like post, I'm going to condense the next few days. I'm now back in Paihia in the Bay of Islands staying at the Salt Water Lodge, just 100 meters or so from the water. The owners here are really friendly and I'm waiting for a position to open up (likely Thursday) that will allow me to work a few hours a day for them in exchange for accommodation. I met a bunch of long-termers at this hostel, many of which are doing the same thing I'm doing here, stopping over to make some cash for a month or so before continuing on. I'll write more about it once I catch up. Internet access here is pretty expensive at $4 NZ an hour so I won't be able to check in every day.

-TUESDAY- November 14th

We woke up early Tuesday morning, packed up, and continued on making our way north. After about an hours drive, we stopped at a Kauri rain forest hike. The walk was somewhat short (about 30 minutes) and mostly along an elevated wooden path in order to protect the 'delicate shallow roots' of the trees. That sort of became a joke with these signs posted every 50 feet reminding you that the roots were delicate and shallow so that you would stay on the path. Regardless of where you walked the sight was incredible, albeit I haven't been in a rain forest before so it was extra impressive to me. The shade provided by the tall dense trees was welcome on this hot day. It also formed these rays of light that broke through the canopy creating a nice contrast of light and dark greens. It felt like an animal was going to jump out and attack us it was so quiet. Fortunately, there aren't any dangerous animals in New Zealand, nor are there any native mammals at all.
After the little hike break we hopped back in the car and drove further along the 12 highway that reminded us a lot of Hawaii. Along a 20km stretch of the highway we drove through another forest. The road was pretty fun, zipping left and right with banked turns, palms and ferns stretched out overhead, and crossing over numerous streams. We stopped at a cool cafe after exiting the stretch of forest. They specialized in organic foods and had some creative dishes. I ended up getting a slice of cranberry, cream cheese, chicken, pizza that might be my new favorite style of pizza. All along the walls they had some great inspirational photography of the New Zealand landscape.

After this we passed through Opononi, an unreal looking place where massive sand dunes sit in the middle of a bay that's otherwise very green. Sand dune surfing is really popular with the locals in this area. We found a great spot to stop over and grab some photos here. I couldn't get enough pictures and ended up ignoring multiple requests from Laura and Angie to, "Come on!", "Lets go!". Finally, some stupid car got in the middle of the picture and stopped, ruining my great shots... wait... that's our car! I looked in the window to see the two girls laughing hysterically at me as they drove off. I hopped up and started running down the hill after them.

.... POP ...

There goes my shoulder again. Dislocated; I've lost count of how many times it's happened now. After 15 minutes or so I managed to get it back in and we continued on. I laid in the back of the car and napped a bit to help ease the slight pain in my shoulder and bigger pain my ego suffered. The last thing of interest for that days driving was a little ferry crossing in Rawene. The water was kinda mucky so it wasn't really picture-esq, but it was cool to see a highway lead right onto a ferry in the water.
We ended up getting to our destination for the day around 5:00 or so. I believe it was Awanui, but really can't say for sure now. We stayed at a lodge on a cliff overlooking the bay for just $21 NZ each. It was a nice place that felt more like an apartment with 4 bedrooms and a community kitchen and living area. As we prepared dinner I met a couple German guys that I shared my room with. They've been traveling around New Zealand for the last 7 months with nothing but their backpacks and hitched rides. They camped most of the time on beaches or forests along the way, just stopping in hostels to clean their clothes or when the weather was particularly bad. I believe one of them was named Hannah and I never did get the other guys name who at the time was out fishing for that nights dinner. Angie, Laura, and I made some dinner ourselves and ate at dusk on a picnic table right at the cliffs edge where we watched boats come in and people pack up from a day on the water.

-WEDNESDAY- November 15

The sun we enjoyed at our dinner the previous night was the last bit of sun we would see for the next 3 days. It stormed all night which always makes it easier to sleep but so much harder to get up in the morning. After a typical breakfast (a banana with peanut butter smeared over it) we packed up and checked out from the hostel in anticipation of the days destination, Cape Reinga, the very northern-most tip of New Zealand.
We brought the German roommates along for the day trip up there so the car was packed tight with 5 of us in our tiny 1995 Toyota Corolla. After being denied to drive yesterday because of my shoulder, Angie and Laura so graciously allowed me to drive this day... Pouring rain, muddy unpaved roads, and an old car with nearly bald tires carrying 5 bodies that likely weighed close to the car itself. Thanks guys! Despite the horrible conditions and the herd of cows that blocked the road at one point, we made it to the tip after about an hour and a half of driving. It sounded amazing up there. I say sounded because we couldn't see anything more than 10 meters in front of us. I'm not sure if there could have been a worse day to make the trip up to the point. Regardless, we hopped out of the car, shielding ourselves from the bite of the cold rain upon our faces, and walked down the final path to the lighthouse at the end. Normally, at that point you're supposed to be in awe of the sight of the clear blue Tasman and Pacific Oceans clashing with waves up to 10 meters high at the bottom of steep cliffs lushly decorated with tropical plants... We saw this:

Of course it wasn't a complete loss. We did see the world famous lighthouse (once we were within a few meters of it), and the cool AA sign pointing out major points across the globe, and we all got a nice rush of adrenaline as we slid around the treacherous muddy banks and turns on our way up there.
Before making our way back to the lodge to drop off the Germans, we decided to make a quick detour to the sand dunes just a few minutes away from the tip of Cape Reinga. After crossing through some unfenced herds of cows, and nearly being ran off the road by a tour bus, we made it. We had seen dunes the day before but didn't get a chance to get up close. Unfortunately, between the rain that was still falling, and the stream you had to cross to get to the base of the dunes, nobody was up for climbing them. "Well, whens the next time I'll get a chance to do this?" I thought as I ran and leaped across the cool stream of water getting just a bit wet. Other than a single other guy dragging his boogie board up the dune, I had this mountain of sand to myself. I climbed a couple walls of sand on all fours and continued up towards the highest face I could see. Upon making it to the top, I was greeted by this wide open plato of sand with a 360 degree view of the rain forest behind me and the ocean out in front of me. I spent a few minutes up there taking photos that really couldn't convey the vastness of this adult sand box. I took notice of how soft the sand was as I began making my way back down the steep face. You could jump forward and fall a great distance and still just gently sink into the soft sand when landing. I hopped with both feet together the rest of the way down, jumping further and further with the speed I picked up on my way down. The last few jumps must have been close to 15 feet, I had a blast! I ran most of the way back to the car with a stupid grin on my face. Meanwhile, everyone else sat wet in the car, obviously eager to head back; so we did.
After dropping off the Germans back at the lodge, we continued on and drove the rest of the way to the Bay of Islands, the destination we were most excited about on this trip. We drove through the famous Keri Keri, sight of both the oldest stone building and wood buildings in New Zealand, before reaching the town of Pahia. We got to Pahia later that afternoon, enjoyed some cheeseburgers at this groovy surf cafe next door to the Salt Water Lodge, and later got a couple drinks at the Pipi Patch before calling it a night.

to be continued...

Wow, I truly had no idea how varied, surreal, and simply beautiful the landscapes would be on this roadtrip... There's quite a bit to write about, so I'll break up the trip into a couple different posts over the next day or two. Long story short, I made the 3 hour trip back to Auckland today but I'll already be on my way back out to the town of Paihia in the Bay of Islands tomorrow via bus. I loved the place so much that I'll be getting a job there and staying for a while.

Oh, and I wanted to say thanks for all the happy birthday emails from everyone (I'm making a best effort to respond to them). I really appreciate the kinds words and thoughts. And yes, it was one of the best birthdays yet. :)

- MONDAY -

At about 4:00pm Monday afternoon, Laura and I picked up the rental car on our second attempt at finding the place. During the first attempt she stubbed her toe badly enough where it filled her right sandal with blood and minutes later broke the sandal completely by tripping again. The mutilation of her feet has become an ongoing theme. We managed to find the place the second time around and navigated through the downtown Auckland traffic back to the hostel where Angie and our bags waited. We piled in and hit Highway 1 heading north out of Auckland. After talking a bit with a guy at the front desk of the hostel, it sounded like our best bet was to stop off in Dargaville, just a couple hours north east. In the next few hours I got my first taste of how vast, green, and untouched the New Zealand landscape was.

After just 30 minutes of driving outside of the city, the highway quickly shrank down to just one lane in each direction. It would remain this way for the rest of the trip, regardless of where we headed. Something also worthy of noting is that we never again encountered a traffic signal after leaving Auckland. We rolled and winded through an endless sea of grassy green hills, sprinkled and patched with trees (many of which I had never seen before). Most of the trees looked similar to pine and palm trees. An odd combination of trees to see growing next to each other so frequently. It's times like these where I wish my vision was better than 20/20, for nothing limited your view other than your eyes themselves.

(Above - A typical view out the window of the car.
Right - After coming up with this idea for a picture, we found the perfect hill for it on the side of the road)

We traveled wide-eyed and in awe until about 7:00pm when we made it to the town of Dargaville. The town center looked like it was straight from the 1950's with single story, low ceiling shops lining the road with a style and construction quality that was fitting of the time period. We were one of 3 or 4 cars to be seen driving on the road here as we circled the center a few times checking out the accomodation available. In total, there were two motels and a hotel. The prices were reasonable, around $20-30 per person but we decided we'd save some cash by camping or sleeping in the car. With the sun soon setting, we wanted to make sure we were at a place that would offer a good view. What place better than the beach just a few Kilometers down the road? The single road into the beach actually leads directly onto the sand where you're free to drive around wherever you like. We stopped at the thought of our Toyota Corolla getting stuck in the damp sand. A man to our right walking up the road saw this and cheered us on, "Go for it, you'll make it!". We laughed, and got to talking to him a bit. He sounded like he was American, yet upon asking him if this was so he acted very offended. After joking with us a bit, he admitted with a grin to living in LA many years ago. He said he came out here to visit when he was younger (not quite as young as us), fell in love with the place and wrote a small check that bought himself beachfront property with a breathtaking view.

With the sun now dipping behind a mask of clouds sitting upon the horizon we made haste; parking the car a few meters up the road, grabbing our couple bottles of cheap "sparkling wine" from the trunk, and running down to the sand. Here we found a nice little cove nestled between some vegetation and palms that offered some shelter from the ocean breeze. We popped open the bottles, losing one of the corks in the wind overhead. Pointing out towards the open Tasman Ocean, we guessed where Japan, Australia, and Africa might be in relation to us as we sipped from our community bottles in the glowing light of the setting sun.

We cruised up the street a couple minutes until we got to a camp ground where we parked the car for the night. I managed to throw together the tent for the first time, all with just the dim light of a small flashlight. We spent the rest of the evening laying on our backs admiring the stars and pretending to point out the skewed constelations of the southern hemisphere's sky.

To be continued...

On Friday, Angie, Laura, and I waved farewell to John (sadly Niel was away) and the Ranch that was our home for the past weeks. Thanks John and Niel for making us feel so welcome and feeding us so well in your beautiful home!

(Pictured: Angie left; Laura right - "This way?!")

We made our way back to Auckland by bus and into the YHA Auckland International Hostel. We took it easy on Friday, getting in a nice day off for the first time in the last couple weeks. The afternoon was spent lying around in our hostel room enjoying overpriced chicken burgers from Oborto's. We had a corner room with an awesome view offered by the two walls that were nothing but windows. In the evening, we huddled around the glowing screen of my laptop watching downloaded episodes of Grey's Anatomy.

Then Saturday came, the first and last day of indulgence for a long while to come. We threw on some sharp clothes, (well about as sharp as a backpacker can look) and made our way down Queen Street to the restuarants by the Pier. We enjoyed a bottle of red wine and an Italian dinner by the waterfront. Afterwords we stopped by an Irish pub and, had a couple drinks and heard a few songs by a live band. The girls ran into an Irish couple they had met a month back while in Australia. The crowd here was a little older and tamer than we were aiming for that night so we decided to make our way to place more suited for our age-range. We cut through a couple alleys and down a few blocks to the Globe Bar. This bar and dance club, in the basement of a popular backpacker is one of the hottest spots for backpackers traveling through the city. We had an awesome time, dancing like idiots with people from all over the world. We spotted Edward's (John's son) girlfriend here, Iris. It's funny, Angie and Laura talked about going cheap and getting guys to buy them drinks throughout the night. However, by the time we wrapped up the night and made our way back, I was the only one who got anything free. I got a jack and coke from a New Zealand guy that thought California was cool, and a girl that said I had to try a lemon vodka.

In a few minutes I'm due to meet up with Laura and Angie. We'll be picking up our car for hire (rental car) at about 2:00pm. Over the next 4 days we will be traveling across the northern teretories of New Zealand. We'll be driving up the 12 highway along the west coast, then to 90 Mile Beach at the northern most tip of New Zealand, down through the pristine Bay of Islands, and then back down the east coast of the country before returning to Auckland on Friday. We'll be staying one night at Gilbert's place, a surfer from Opononi that I met through couchsurfing.com. Other than that the trip is very open ended, we'll be stopping off at anything interesting we see along the way, eating when we get hungry, and sleeping when we get tired. I'll be sure to take tons of pictures along the way and post again when I get the chance. Later!

Ranch Life - Continued...

As I was saying in the last post I made, since Monday I have been living with John, Niel, and Edward.

A typical day starts out at 7:00am, where I'll stumble out of bed, shuffle over to the kitchen and get some water boiling for the morning tea. After getting dressed and finishing up the first of many cups of tea to come throughout the day, I'll make my way through the garden, over a small bridge above a stream through the yard, and to the horse pin (seen to the far right of the picture above). Here, I'll move the the two young horses, Kiri and Luby Lu, to the opposite pins before preparing their morning feed, cleaning their pins, and putting on their coats. After then leading the two horses out to the paddock where they'll roam for the rest of the day, I'll feed the chickens and collect the mornings eggs that are sometimes so fresh I have to push the nesting hens off of them first.

After this morning ritual I'll grab another cup of tea (always with milk and two teaspoons of sugar) and do whatever needs doing from here. I've laid stone tile in the courtyard, gardened and weeded, burned trash, detailed a 1967 Jaguar 420 (correctly pronounced 'Jag - U - R'), cleaned and PH balanced the pool, and I'm currently in the process of preparing the tile roof for some paint I'll be applying in the coming days. I'll usually work, have some tea, work, eat, have some tea, work, have more tea. 7-8 cups a day seems to be the norm around here, with Edward sometimes drinking into the teens if he is studying for exams.

John and Niel make excellent company. They're both originally from the UK, enjoy Land Rover off-roading, collecting Jaguars, interior design, international foods and performing the labors involved in keeping up 8 acres of their own. John is borderline obsessed with antiques, spending a good hour or more checking the local ebay (trade-me) for 'good deals', and at about 7:00pm every night you'll hear him ohhing and ahhing over the newest 'British Antique Roadshow' on the living network (NZ HGTV). Niel, on the other hand, loves computers, tech stuff, and researching the two. He's almost worse than me when it comes to researching things before he buys them. He spent 3 days reading about dryers before special ordering one to the local home appliance store. They also both work as Insurance Investigators, most commonly visiting the shipping docks around Auckland to inspect insurance claims.

(My room)

3 days ago, a couple more help-x'ers joined the party; friends, Laura and Angie, from the midwest of the US. Angie is good with horses, has participated in various meets and competitions and also makes some delicious meals from limited ingredients. Laura has a bit of riding experience also, laughs at just about anything (a lot like Cindy), and loves snicker bars (I placed one on her dresser just minutes ago while she was sleeping, cant wait to see her reaction in the morning, haha). The 3 of us work, prepare meals, and hang out most of the day. We share a similar sense of humor so we spend most of the day laughing and get along well.

On November 5th, we celebrated Guy Fawkes day. You can think of it as British / New Zealand 4th of July. Not so much similar in what is celebrated but rather how it's celebrated. After Saturday night's firework show we 3 Americans agreed that New Zealand has way better fireworks. It may have been their more lenient firework laws. We sat no more than 100 yards from the point in which they were firing off the rocket. Some would hurt your chest because the explosion was so powerful, others came back and touched the ground before going out completely. We got lucky and it was a full moon directly behind the portion of the sky where they were going off so you could see this amazing cloud of smoke that blew overhead. It was an awesome show that sadly none of us brought camera's for. The next day, we spent the afternoon at the annual New Zealand Jaguar show where we lost a drawing for a free vacation by just one number. John and Niel were still happy though as they drove away in their latest addition to the Jaguar collection, a 1998 XJ6 Sport if I recall right. At the same point I was pretty happy cause I got to drive the 1967 Jaguar 420 on some green rolling hilled backroads once we got home. Pretty fun week, still trying to get in on some Land Rover off-roading soon! ;)

Check out the 1 week old baby horse. The other day as I was kneeling down he came within a foot of me and was sniffing about; I'm told that's rare for such a young one.

I was picked up from the hostel at about 2:00pm on Monday. John pulled up in his silver Range Rover, I tossed my bags in the back and we were off. John asked what I had got a chance to see so far and named a few places. My replies were something like "nope; not yet; no haven't been there either." "Great," John said, "We'll see them all!". We immediately made our way towards the unique sights of Auckland.

First was Mount Eden, a now dormant Volcano whose summit is the highest on the Auckland isthmus, just minutes from Downtown Auckland. We circled our way up the mountain on a single lane road bordered with lush green grass that flourished in the nutrient rich volcanic soil. The wind grew stronger as we progressed upward. Finally, at the top we came to a small area where we parked and hopped out. We made the mistake of both opening our doors at the same time and the wind, now gusting strong enough to throw you off your balance, instantly cleared the front seats of some stray paper that laid on the dash. I watched the paper quickly fly out over the mountain side and out of view and I stopped in awe, for behind the paper lay one of the most incredible views I've had the opportunity to see. We were at a single point of land mass higher than all else in the city. It was a 360 degree view from which you could spin around and look below upon the 2 bays of Auckland speckled with boats, the highrise buildings of downtown, the suburbs that looked like small terracotta tile with green grout, and at least 3 other dormant volcanoes that sat silently in the distance. At this same point atop the cone of Eden, you could look down into the crater of the volcano from which molten debris last ejected 60,000 years ago. In its place now, some 300 feet down, lay a small herd of cows grazing at the bottom.

(You can see Mount Eden pointed out in the picture to the left. Photo taken atop One Tree Hill)

The next destination was One Tree Hill, named for the lone sacred tree that once stood upon its top. This hill (actually another dormant volcano) has a rich history. It was the home of the largest and most important Māori tribe (indeginous people of New Zealand) before the European settlers came. The tree that originally stood upon the hill was a sacred totara tree. It was cut down by a white settler in 1852 for firewood. Two pine trees were planted in its place. In 1960 some boy scouts cut down one of the pine trees. The remaining pine tree that stood upon the hill was a source of great controversy. The pine tree, which is foreign to New Zealand, was seen as an insult to the Māori. After a number of attempts made by the Māori at cutting it down, the damaged and dying tree was removed in 2000 out of safety concerns. For this reason, the now treeless One Tree Hill is often referred to as 'None Tree Hill'. The above picture of Mount Eden was taken from atop this hill.

Before finally making our way to the ranch, we drove by the renowned Auckland Museum. We didn't go in the museum so I don't have a whole lot to say about the place, but the massive open green grass vistas in front of it were pretty impressive.

So we made our way back to the ranch where John, Niel and Edward (John's 24 year old son) live. The area is mostly rural. There are fair amount of single family residences, each with several acres to their own. The roads are lined with grapevines, kiwi orchards, and incredibly green grass everywhere. You go to the local shops and everyone is greeted by their first name...

to be continued (sick of writing at the moment, hehe)