A peaceful rest

My new home is Rongo!
http://www.livinginpeace.com/
I have retreated here, at Rongo, where I am able to extend the positive feelings I took away from the Heaphy trek.
I know what you guys are thinking. This peace loving hippie is becoming even more of a peace-loving hippie. Well, you are probably right.
My stay, here, however, is brief. Only one night. Most people get sucked in for a week or more.
Today, I hitch to Westport, pick up the old sleek blue Avanti Illusion, and continue my cycle travels south along the west coast of New Zealand.
Can't wait!

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I've got NZ in my Tummy!

After wwoofing, I hiked the Heaphy trek.
Hands down, the most Spectacular all around hike I've ever done.
Mom, you definitely have to vacation here.
Physically, the trek was a breeze. Emotionally, I am exhausted from the beauty.
I certainly do not have the vocabulary, skill, or artistic sense to even begin to do justice to the native bush and beaches of Kahurangi National forest, so I will not even make an attempt.
You will have to take my word (or lack of words) for it.
But I can say that NZ is a magical, enchanting place, and if anything is going to turn this atheist into a spiritualist or a mystic, it will be this wondrous little country.

Kids, goats, chooks, buddhists, solar showers, cats, dogs, chainsaws, and yurts!

Lovers,
My wwoofing experience was AWEsome. My beautiful and chaotic home of 18 days, atop a 600 meter mountain in Clifton, NZ, overlooked the entire Golden Bay. The entire community on the mountain lived off the grid, which meant all kinds of alternative living, alternative building, and alternative energies. It was a total culture shock! People living simply and sustainably. People living for their community, their land, their children. People living for a purpose other than the almighty dollar!
That was the beautiful part of the community. The chaotic part was the children! Five kids lived on our property, but many more seemed to come and go with the tides (and the meals!). The children were all homeschooled (which meant - 'learn what you want when you want') and all bursting with energy. Rarely did a moment pass when the sound of the chirping birds and crashing waves wasn't accompanied by the screams of a temper tantrum.
While I was wwoofing, we put on a yurt workshop, which meant I learned two skills. First, I learned how to build a yurt! (Can you say yurt sauna in Mercer!?!). Secondly, I took a crash course in creative vegetarian, organic cooking for twenty!
All in all, I took away an appreciation for a small but powerful community of people who chose to live their lives in a very different way.