Pity about the widespread alcohol and domestic violence problems.

See also the Communities Article I wrote and the music files Volco 1, Volco 2, West Coast Band West Coast Man

I travelled across New Zealand for 6 months WWOOFing (working on organic farms) getting to learn about the culture and people.

Big Trees and lot of Weeds I saw NZ rural life, met Maori people saw giant 2000 year old Kauri trees. Walked up mountains, in forests and across beaches. Caught a 2Kg salmon in my hands, got chased by a sea lion, saw the glaciers. I covered the whole of NZ with the exception of Taranaki.

Staying and working on organic farms and communities (see pc85). Weeded , planted, sheep fenced, mulched, no dig method, gorse cut helped at the Music festival , helped with computers , tidied up, cleared

For more details see the postcards : 1. First Impressions 2. Tourist in Auckland 3. Tourist in Northland 4. WOOFing on Communities 5. NGAHURU WAIORA 6. The Big Trees on the NorthlandWest Coast 7. The Coromandel Peninsula 8. The Clearing House Cafe 9. Northern Coromandel 10. Rush South = 11. Christchurch 12. Dunedin 13.South south 14.Glaciers 15. West Coas 16. East Coast 1 17. East Coast 2 18. Hamilton

Other links http://www.destination-nz.com

FUTURE : later get a ticket to Australia especially to visit Melbourne. Then back to NZ onto Fiji to Korea where I suppose I will find out about teaching English (The economy is picking up so the money might be reasonable)

next area see the Australia Index