10. Rush South

Suddenly I realised it was halfway through summer and I had not been to the South Island, so I decided to head south ..to Taupo, Wanganui, Wellington, Nelson and Takaka in the North West corner of the South Island where I WWOOFed at the Rainbow Valley Community for 2 weeks. (beautiful setting in a valley adjacent to the national park, a river running through with nice swimming holes,

unphoto : spiritual waterfall

unphoto : giant Remu tree it takes 7 people to circle it.

Also visiting were a street performing family from Holland . Then helped at the Music festival at the Riverside Community (a communistic place founded by conscious objectors during WW2) sorry I lost the sound files

Then I went back up to Takaka to the Tui Community (good article) for a week.

Rich, well planned with community. Meals 5 days a week. But lacks atmosphere maybe it's too large , and many people are very private (why do they live in a community then ?) ...Has a Cool Hippy Conference centre.

Again great setting right next to the beach river and Abel Tasman National Park.

unphoto : walking the tracks, before the drought closed the National Park (not Very exciting trails to me)

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