#raggamuffin2016

As of March 7th, I have finally left the Chateau and am back on the road doing what I came here for; exploring, camping, and WWOOFing! I can’t say I’m sorry to leave the Chateau; with the exception of a few people, I generally dislike most of what’s out there. The job and business itself, the accommodation, and the lack of accessibility to everything all make me excited to be reintegrated into the world beyond.

However, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to put some money in the bank, have some good conversations and laughs with people I would not otherwise have found myself with, see some beautiful scenery, and experience a lifestyle so outside of what I’m used to.

Also, without the job I wouldn’t have had the pleasure of getting to know/spending so much time with Jackie and Corey, who turned out to be two of the funniest, nicest people I’ve ever met. In particular, the four of us (including Julian) had two weekends together that I’ll definitely remember as highlights of the trip.

The first was the weekend of Feb 20th. I woke up on February 19 feeling as though I was on death’s doorstep. Nauseous, coughing, and with daggers in my throat, I packed for the weekend road trip we were heading off for that day. When we left, it was pissing rain and only a few hours before we were scheduled to go river rafting. We drove to Turangi—the closest town at fourty-five minutes away—through the aggressive rain with me curled in the back under numerous blankets.

However, by the time we got to the river, the sun was shining, I was dressed to the nines in hilariously unflattering (but warm) clothes and life-jacket, and had effectively convinced myself I was no longer sick. The two hours down the river were actually a lot of fun. In the past, I’ve maintained a stubborn aversion to typical tourist activities because I find they are often over-priced, over-done and adrenaline-provoking, while I am cheap, pointedly alternative, and don’t like being scared. In this way, the trip was a bit of step outside of my comfort zone, but like (almost) everything I’ve ever done that slightly intimidates me, I had a great time. Our guide was hilarious, no one died, and we got free beer and hot dogs at the end.

That night, we continued to drive into Auckland city so we didn’t have much trekking to do in the morning before the festival. It was dark when we got into the city, and were fairly blindly following the advice of a free camping app that led us to a park near the water. We set up the tent in the middle of a thick tree thinking it wouldn’t be visible there in the morning, and unassumingly passed out after brushing our teeth with beer. In the morning we woke up to many joggers, dog-walkers, and a disgruntled looking woman in a bath robe drinking coffee, dragging on a cigarette and staring at us only feet away from the camp. The bright orange tent was not well camouflaged as it turned out, and after finding out we were in one of the richest suburbs of Auckland and the head of police lived only a few houses down, we jetted pretty quick.

The day at the festival is a blur of dancing, singing, rotating between shade and sun to avoid heat-stroke, and laughing hysterically. We were lucky enough to catch the end of Savage, see Boo yaa T.R.I.B.E., Diana King, House of Pain with Everlast, Inner Circle, Xzibit, Macy Gray, and Wutang! Unfortunately, the Game didn’t show up because he was too busy partying in Dubai, but what can you expect. Our attempt to after-party in the van which was parked in a parkade in downtown Auckland was promptly stopped by a security officer, and we wondered around town and ate kebabs before passing out—four people to a single bed—in our hotel room.

The next day we drove to Tuaranga, spent the afternoon at Mt. Maunganui, and the night at Sam’s house again, then drove home in the morning early enough to get us all back to work almost on time.

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This weekend, and unfortunately our last weekend together, the four of us decided to camp in Raglan, a small town just outside of Hamilton. We left the Chateau on Monday morning, drove to Raglan, wore moustaches, set up camp, walked to the beach, and drank much red wine in preparation to film us doing a cover of the “wine song” by the Cat Empire. We had an absolute ball practicing, doing the song in one take, filming b-sides, and of course, drinking wine.

We wanted to go to the bar and get some food that night, and we had been told earlier that the town was only a ten minute walk down the beach. But of course, it took us more like fourty-five in the dark and everything was closed when we got there at about 9:30. We got some slightly depressing kebabs and walked back.

The next day, we checked out NZ’s biggest waterfall, went to the beach, the skate park, and successfully made it into town to get some great burgers before getting lost continuously on the way home. Then alas, yesterday we said our goodbyes in Taupo as Corey and Jackie drove back to the Chateau to work, and Julian and I got on a bus to Wellington. We are now WWOOFing for a nice old lady for a couple of days before we head to the South Island next week!