After a few stops to see the Giant Kauri trees we headed back to the sheep shed in Matakana. A few weeks ago we met Rowena in the local cinema while hiding from a rain storm. She brought us home and let us stay in their remodeled shed. We were invited back for a few amazing day with them. Tom took us flying in his club's Cessna 172 from a grass strip. Rowena opened up her wonderful kitchen to us as we exchanged exchanged traditional meals. Ours were slow cooked ribs with cornbread and hers was a lamb shoulder with papalova for dessert. Most of the day was spent filled with endless story telling. Tom explained an interesting form of fishing. Called kite fishing where a kite would take baited hooks out to sea rigged with a piece of sugar. Once the sugar melted the kite would drop and the fisherman would pull the hooks back in.
We had a great laugh as their nephew's truck was parked outside when we arrived. It was a yellow Dodge Ram truck with a black stripe and a Mighty Mouse sticker. Lone Star edition. Tom and Rowena, along with their friends called it a Yank Tank and thought of it as more of a parade float than a truck. Especially after Tom found out it was even more useless after seeing it was 2-wheel drive.
Our last night was celebrated with a night out to dinner. The four of us felt that we had known each other for a lifetime. I even started to call them my aunt and uncle.
It was an emotional goodbye driving out of town. This is yet another place I cloud easily call home. Rowena and I even looked at property for sale on the web. For now we are heading back to Auckland for our last week in New Zealand.
Shadow back to work.
Papalova
Heading to the beach.
Country Mouse and Shadow
1 comment:
Just finished reading all the entries of your trek! Looks amazing, but challenging!!! It is still high on our bucket list ... so we may touch base with you guys about questions if we ever make it a reality.
Thanks for sharing!!!
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