Friendly Faces

The country side of New Zealand is beautiful and sometimes spectacular, which makes for a great and interesting hike. But the awesome people we have encountered along the way, have left the fondest memories!
On behalf of the team, this blog post is dedicated to those who have opened up their hearts and homes to us often smelly and scruffy looking "blokes".


Gabrielle at Hukatere Lodge on 90 mile beach.  She was so welcoming to us...Enthusiastic and bubbly...since we could not stay the night, she sent us on with fresh fruit and goodies!




Lance, Tracy, and son Ephren were gracious enough to host me while my feet were healing from all those blisters!!  They are dedicated to living a self sufficient lifestyle and were so gracious to help me in my hour of need.  I had a great stay with them.

Keith & Raewyn are recently retired and enjoying their new life.  They offered good company and a restful break after a long road walk...with a good cup of coffee and yummy sweets before we continued on....





Janine & Robin and Grub & Vanessa were fun and hospitable couples. They put on a fantastic BBQ... hydrated and fed us to the max...great sense of humor and good laughs.




Wayne & Ara and son gave us a friendly invite for lunch on the beach.
 



Sheryl & Grant...what a treat to get poached eggs for breaky inside their motor home.




Sharon & Ralph are an adventurous couple from New York who immigrated to NZ via sailing yacht.  They invited us to stay the night and took care of  2 very tired hikers after a long day of road walking.




Denise & Urs are a Swiss couple now living in NZ...put us up for the night...comfy beds and good feed with Italian Polenta...excellent!!




Leonie & Julian invited us to share their picnic on the beach.  Leonie is a Podiatrist and gave our feet a full inspection with some very welcomed advice to ease our walk!

Warrick & Theresa invited us in and treated us like family...gave us a fantastic feed...minus having to do the dishes!  Salt of the Earth family.




Thankyou everyone for filling our bodies with great food, conversation and great memories
We will be adding more friendly faces as we go!

We also want to mention the following people that helped us out....

• Fran in Nungaru who hosts TAT through hikers on a regular basis.
• Owner of Nungaru Hardware...many thanks for the free bottle of cooking gas.
• Glynis and Kathy in Whangarei:  Glynis is the driving force of Special Olympics Whanarei and drove out and found us on the trail to make sure we were taken care of while in the area.  Kathy comfortably hosted us during our stay.  With Beni suffering from a knee injury, Glynis gave him transport when/where needed.  We also had a great reception from the Mayor and some of the SO Athletes...escorting us through the Mall in Whangarei.
• Cody from Puhoi River Canoes...very professional and helpful in setting us up with needed canoe's for our trip down the Puhoi River.
• Anthony with Central Backpackers in Hamilton:  Very welcoming and offered such warm hospitality during our stay.

     In upcoming blogs I will be talking about some of the unique bird life that exists in
     New Zealand and also the type of gear that we carry in our back packs.
    
     Question:  What is a "Moa"?

     Until next time----------see you later matey's.