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Wow, what an adventure ! I arrived in Auckland early AM Thursday 11 Dec. I got a bus to the Ponsonby neighborhood, and found a coffee shop with WIFI, while I waited for the opening of the registration for the backpacker hostel I had booked online from Missouri. I love the internet !By the next day I figured out how to get a local phone number, and sim card into my phone, so I could text local New Zealand folks to set up my farmstays, and of course sailing. By Friday afternoon I had my first crew position set up for the weekend, up in the Hauruki Gulf. , I met a great guy named Graeme, through a NZ crew website, who owns a 53 foot ferro cement ketch. We had a great sail up to Kawau Island, and anchored for the night, then back the next day, incredible.
We got back Sunday PM to Auckland, and I set about traveling to my first farm visit, Autumn Farm in Takaka, South Island. I booked a 12 hour train ride to Wellington which was a beautiful ride through the middle of the North Island, mostly pastures and sheep and cattle. I got into Wellington around 7:30 PM, got into a backpackers right across from the ferry dock for the night. Then I took the 8AM ferry to Picton, through the Marlborough Sound. Then 2 buses to the farm in Takaka, arriving Autumn Farm around dinner time. They are preparing for a post Christmas gathering here, and I a doing weeding in the garden and learning about native plants, more on this later.
