Even wwoofers need vacation

First stop: the Coromandel Peninsula. 22 March 2005
It took Brian a good day to get used to the fact that "campervan" in New Zealand means something entirely different than what it does in the States. I had failed to remember there was a difference when I emailed them about the campervan reservation I had made and had thus gotten him psyched for a big ol' vehicle complete with toilet, shower, kitchen, and maybe even a sun roof. Imagine his surprise when we were given a van with a mattress in the back. "But just think what great gas mileage we are getting," I kept saying.
Fortunately we didn't have to spend a lot of time in the van. We drove all the way to the tip of the peninsula, over approximately 387km of unsealed (gravel) roads that you could never see the end of because you were always going around a curve or over a hill, to get to the heart of the trip: the Coromandel Walkway. Stony Bay to Fletcher Bay is about a 7 hour tramp, return (round trip), and when we woke up, there were nothing but stormy clouds in the sky. "I better get up anyway," I thought. "Kristin and Brian have been talking about this walk since they got here." So I got up. "Well, if Bronwyn is getting up, I guess we're still going on the walk," thought Brian and Kristin. So they got up too. Armed with ponchos and plenty of peanut butter, we walked into the bush (woods), expecting the worst. It sprinkled on us a bit, and then about an hour into the trail, we turned the corner and POOF - there was the sun, shining on the most gorgeous piece of coastline we had ever seen. We stopped to eat some peanut butter of course. And it only got better. Only in New Zealand is a sheep pasture also a DOC (Department of Conservation) trail. We were saying hello to the wooly sheep and admiring the sea, all at the same time. It was absolutely lovely.
Onemana, Easter Sunday
Lucky for me, Kristin and Brian came to New Zealand just before Easter, so we got to spend it together. We free-camped (parked near public toilets) in Onemana (conveniently located right on the ocean facing east) the night before Easter so that we could wake up to the sunrise on the beach. It was magnificent. We even saw a rainbow after the sun came up. Never having free-camped before, I was a bit skittish with the locals - I kept expecting someone to come up and yell at us or something. So I was a bit worried when an older couple walked up to us, inspecting the van. Brian of course struck up a conversation with Frank and Anne, and we had a lovely chat. "Have you done any free camping?" they asked. "Well," Brian said sheepishly (or maybe it was me that was sheepish), "we free-camped here last night." "Good on ya," they said (which in New Zealand means 'Well done' or whatever else you want it to mean). I've never been so surprised in my life. They proceeded to tell us about their trip to Europe in which Frank had accidently driven on the wrong side of the road.
And speaking of good interactions with locals, in Rotorua we did a short tramp at dusk to see a waterfall, and when we finished we ate our dinner in the van before moving on. A police officer drove up to the carpark (with only our van in it) as we were eating and asked, "Is everything ok?" "Yup," said Brian, "We just walked to the falls and we're eating dinner and moving on." "Good on ya, mates," the officer replied and drove off.
It was a great vacation.