Helensville, NZ
Despite rumors to the contrary, there’s a lot more out in the farms of New Zealand than Kiwis, possums and sheep:
Sometimes things fall into place and life moves on when we’re least expecting it. After about a month our battles with taxation came to an abrupt and, if annoying, at least vindicating conclusion, we got a job offer in Australia and received an invite for one last Kiwi adventure from an unexpected source.
(but more on that later)
Even our trusty Kiwi-mobile had an appropriate sense of timing and the good grace to know when our adventures together had come to a close. After several months of loyal and reliable service all across this country in what will always be fondly recalled as the Great Kiwi Roadtrip our noble steed did us one last favor: he (it was a he, it had a tow hitch) managed to beguile our landlord’s son’s girlfriend. When we announced that we were hoping to sell our car in two weeks or less she mentioned that she was in the market for a used car for university. All it took was one test drive and a peek at the engine and we managed to sell our New Zealand car for exactly what we paid for it. So we got to have a car in New Zealand for only the cost of insurance and registration (translation: pennies per day) and we helped out a college kid in the process who was grateful enough to give us a ride to the airport to catch our flight back to the South Island.
Love the win-win .
Helensville was great because it was an experience we had not had since Mexico: it was the opportunity to live, to simply be, in a foreign land. It was the chance to taste the local ice creams and have lamb for dinner (soooo good), to attend the church, get to know some people, participate in their daily lives and to take evening strolls with simply stunning scenery.
Instead of the epic conquests of swimming across the equator, sailing thorough coral reefs and hiking massive volcanic mountains; as you have seen Helensville was about the small adventures of discovering the international language of bacon and finding out which way the toilet flushes in the southern hemisphere.
It was neither the rushed vacationing lifestyle we as Americans have been raised to participate in or the cruising lifestyle we have become accustomed to in the past few years. Helensville was about living in a place instead of simply travelling through and was something we very much wanted to do in New Zealand.
And like everything else in this amazing country, it did not disappoint.
If you’d like to see more of living the dream of extended travel in a foreign land, check out our time in La Cruz, Mexico.
Greg and Tiffany are traveling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures. If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, 3-day delays for wine tastings, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out at www.CoastGuardCouple.com
