nhawi

our final housesit

so our final house sit in NZ is over and we have headed to turkey for the next leg of our adventure. I guess a few words of reflection are warranted. NZ has been an absolutely wonderful experience. I think our blog posts over the last 5 months have pretty obviously reflected the enjoyment and pleasure we have found living in NZ.

we were blessed with a virtually never ending summer, we found our own little heaven in piha and sal was moved to comment that NZ was the first place that she had felt she could live outside of nhulunbuy – something i fully concur with. We walked beautiful beaches, explored amazing tracks thru the middle earth like forests and every bend and corner revealed another incredible landscape.

we found great food and coffee, we connected with sal’s family in a way that would never have been possible with just a quick visit, we looked after a huge range of animals in our house sits, from cats, dogs and chooks thru to sheep and cows. The house sits allowed us to really see various areas of NZ including the Coramandel, Waikato and Tauranga areas as well as some suburban auckland spots.

particularly special was spending time with jeremy and leesi here, so much time has been spent together over the years in nhulunbuy – it was wonderful to all get together in their home and home town!

eveywhere we went we found people incredibly friendly and helpful, in fact I cant think of anywhere i have ever been in australia or elsewhere, that people were so friendly. (other than nhulunbuy!)

i am going to finish with my one whinge about kiwis, i only do so to show that I am not romanticising our brothers and sisters from over the ditch. Sorry, but kiwis are shocking drivers, they almost never drive at the speed limit.

on windy roads, (of which there are a few in NZ!), they almost stop to go round the bends! The only time they ever approach the speed limit is when you want to pass someone you have been stuck behind as they crawl around the corners!!

i am pretty sure if thats the worst thing I can find about this country its no bad thing! so thank you NZ for a wonderful 5 months , i am sure we will be back and you have certainly set a standard for the rest of the countries we visit.