End of the Road

We are sitting here at our last helpx stay in Kaipara with 2 days left before we catch our plane to Vancouver.
We managed to sell our van, quicker than we thought, Champion is now in the hands of a British couple. They are doing the same thing we did. We're a little sad to see him go! I have a whole new appreciation for Nissan now, can't believe how well that 19 year-old van runs.

We've mostly just worked for the last couple months. We had a great time in Kerikeri, we did a house-sitting work stay up there in the far north. It was a good place to be for the winter, mild weather, great fishing, and we had lots of time to explore the Bay of Islands.

But, after 11 months living in a van, we are certainly looking forward to going back home. But we're still a little sad to leave, this country has been so good to us, and we've had so much fun.
We've had more than enough time to explore every little corner of the country, and seen some of the most unique and beautiful scenery & wildlife.
Final thoughts? New Zealand is definitely an outdoors kind of place! A land of incredible mountains, rivers, waterfalls, endless beaches of every description, and so, so much unique to only this country. Truly a one-of-a-kind place, and so accessible because its small, the distances are short.
Overall we've had an incredible, once in a lifetime trip that we won't forget. We will miss NZ.

Thanks for reading!

Lee & Jill

Aug 7: Tiritiri Matangi Island

Tiritiri is an island sanctuary in the Hauraki Gulf, just a short ferry ride from Auckland.
Its an open sanctuary, meaning its open to the public, but they take care to keep it pest-free.

There are some amazing native animals here, as soon as we stepped of the ferry we were seeing birds that we never saw anywhere else in the country, like Saddlebacks and Stitchbirds.
The island is small, it takes about 1.5 hours to walk a complete loop around the entire perimeter. Its full of trails and bush walks.

They have some extremely rare and endangered birds, like the Kokako- a big grey-blue bird that doesn't really fly, but runs along branches and hops between trees.
Also rare is the Takahe. They are easy to spot since they're the size of a chicken and like to graze on the grass by the lighthouse.
The Takahe are a species hanging by a thread. They were thought to be extinct, but a small population of around 250 birds was discovered in 1948 in Fiordland. The total population is now only 200. On Tiritiri they have 4 pairs and some young chicks, so its good to see they are hanging on.

It was an easy 20 min ferry to the island, and they have a bunkhouse so we stayed the night. It was a very cool little trip, probably our last expedition in the country, since its time to focus on selling our van and getting ready to leave!