New Zealand Day 4 (Whangarei)

On Day 3 Rich picked up a rental car and quickly figured out how to drive on the left side of the road from the right side of the car. :-) Believe it or not, it's the first time he's ever had to do that since we typically take public trains/subways or rent a car/driver if it's the kind of place where that's affordable. But in this case, we had to rent a car to go and visit the Hales and their parents out in Whangarei so it was trial by fire. He did great. We washed our windows every time we wanted to turn, but eh. No crashes.

Can you spot Ryan? This was the first of four stops at various play lands we spotted roadside in NZ & AU. Ryan loves them and is quite dismayed Kona does not offer any.

We stopped at a petrol station to prepay our road tolls. Here's Ryan doing his part to help Mother Earth by supporting such a wonderful green company... :-|

Ry needed a rest stop on the way to Whanagarei, which quickly turned into an impromptu hike for all of us. :-)  

After meeting up at Karen's, we drove out to Dargaville, the tiny town where Dylan grew up. It was definitely off the beaten path (and the reason for Pukefest #3, since I got car sick on the long, winding road there). But Lordy was it serene and gorgeous. We loved it out there at his parent's home, which they built themselves and somehow managed to capture nearly every amazing view imaginable. It felt like we were smack in the middle of Yellowstone, with nothing but rolling green hills and wildlife in every direction as far as you could see.  

Dylan's parents are modern-day, self sufficient farmers. With the alternating sunny and rainy weather there, they're able to grow a huge amount of produce for themselves. I was taken with their homemade strawberry planter- so creatively resourceful! They even fashioned a workshop out of a used shipping container (I've been obsessed with what people can do with those container these days). 

 Rich and Karen the way back from collecting eggs from the hen house...

Some of the family's sheep grazing right outside the back door

If you find sheep* as entertaining as I do...enjoy! 

*I would love to help shear one, which we were not able to do on this trip or while in Iceland, so I may have blown my only chances. I also dream of milking a cow, which at 40 years of age, I still have not been able to do either despite various trips to dairies. Very sad. I did achieve my dream of collecting eggs from a hen house, at least!