Magical Mangawhai to Tauranga

Our next host after our wonderful stay at the Animal Sanctuary was with Geoff and Lynne and their two (14 and 16) children in "Magical Mangawhai." Originally they had asked us to stay for a month to help with several events planned with their "mobile adventure activity" business called ROCKUP (click me).
Our first day working, Geoff asked us to dig up a rotten fence post and replace it with a fresh one. After 3 hours of digging, we asked for a little assistance to pull it out, at which point Geoff and Lynne paraded out to help us construct a levering system. When we finally managed to loosen it Harley, Lynne and I were all sitting on the raised end of pole, which was chained perpendicular to the one in the ground. We comically bounced up and down with as much force as we could muster, while Geoff pounded the rotten pole with a mallet to loosen it up. This whole scenario lasted about an hour before the issue was fully resolved.  The following day, after we had washed 4 vehicles, dried a "bouncy castle," and loaded the trucks with Saturday's supplies, we borrowed bikes and rode into Mangawhai proper. As it turned out, a few events were cancelled, so we organized a ride into the Waikato region with Geoff that Saturday - to end our very brief stay in Mangawhai. Ultimately, this wasn't such a terrible turnout because our 'room' was a renovated water tank outside that smelled like mildew, a very lopsided bed, and shower limit of 2 minutes!

The ride we caught with Geoff brought us ~3 hours south, just below Katikati. Luckily we were able to find a host on such short notice, but we had to find a way to travel a 30 minute drive southwest of Pahoia school, where the community event was taking place. After helping set up and trying out the pirate bouncy castle and rock wall for ourselves, we said our goodbyes and set off down State Hwy. 2 loaded up with our packs, our thumbs perked up in hopes of a safe ride to our destination. Luckily enough, within a few minutes a young Kiwi picked us up, gave us a tour of Tauranga city and brought us out of his way to the western borders of the city where our next host family resided. Beginners luck!

A cheery chef named Terri, her 3 children (3, 5, and 10), her sister "Auntie Fat," and two nieces (1 and 6) provided us with our most homely accommodation yet.
This is their lifestyle block from afar.

View facing East from Terri's porch.

(above picture on far right you can see Mt. Maunganui on the horizon, has a slightly flat top)

We started off helping Grandad (Bill, as nobody would call him) by loading his truck full of scrap wood from a pine lumberyard, which we did 5 times over the course of two days. Needless to say, we were thankful to be done, free of pine boogers, sawdust-tickled eyes, and splinter fingers. He offered us a ride to Mt. Maunganui one of the days which gave us the opportunity to hike the majestic coastal mount and have a peek around the beach town which the locals usually call "The Mount."

Bill was always happy to make us tea and lunch, whilst sharing his lack of enthusiasm for "people these days", disdain for sightseeing and conversely his love of birds.

In addition to the wonderful family we were surrounded by at Terri's, there was also a handful of pets and farm animals to interact with.

Smooch: The scrawny loving cat, followed us just about everywhere! We would walk into our room at random times of the day to see her sprawled out on our bed, dozing away or gazing lovingly up at us.

Podge: The waddling seal of a dog, a little past her prime years, but still bursting with energy, always had an apple in her gob (there's actually one just below the frame in this picture of her!) In order to get the apple from her one would have catch her off guard or muscle it out of her reluctant, slobbery mouth.

Lucky: The cow that provided us with sooooo much milk during our stay. Harley is a proficient, trained milker, while I have much to learn. We had to separate her from her overgrown calf during our stay, and her moos echoed in the valley for hours.

Smudge: The fleabag that could snuggle, eternally lounging and stretched out across various furniture.

Friday, while Terrie was at work, we had an opportunity to follow the canal up toward McLaren Falls Reserve, a beautiful park with a lake and waterfall.

The week that we stayed with Terri we were lucky enough to be part of their chicken slaughter. The had a slew of meat hens which had been fattening up in Auntie Fat's avocado orchard. We spent an afternoon making some 69 squawking hens clean and oven-ready.

One sunny morning, we made our way down, herded up chickens into a trailer

(gathering as many ripe avocados as we could hold),

and drove them the very short distance around the corner to Terri's where we had a slaughtering station organized. 

Ms. Ash helping put a tender chicken into the defeathering apparatus.

What egg yolks look like before they come out.

Easter weekend was absolutely wonderful, we were lucky to spend it with such an incredible family! Saturday was the annual jazz festival in Tauranga, which we attended with the family.

We even made the very kiwi treat of hot crossed buns with Terri in honor of the holiday.

On Sunday, we celebrated the holiday with Terri's extended family, and even had a chance to try our chicken.

Just a few quintessential kiwi foods:
Pavlova: a soft-centered meringue with fresh cream on top, best served with fresh fruit as well.

You know what these are.

And Terri's homemade beer, best mixed with a tad of ginger beer.

Leaving Terri's was a bit difficult because it was so homey, but I think it will be good to see new things too!

On our way West toward Cambridge where our next stop is, we made a pit stop...
HOBBITON!

Bag End, where Bilbo and Frodo live

Afterwards, we successfully hitchhiked our way to our next destination with a friendly traveling German man ending his term abroad in Hamilton.