The fat cat is dead long live the Fat Cat!

The namesake for The Fat Cat Travelers Community died a month or so ago, but his legacy lives on. I've very much come to love the place and the people and will miss them immensely I'm sure. The hostel is actually a side business that pretty much shuts down in high season when the accommodation is given over to woofers working the primary business - vending of produce from roadside vans. Woofing is a growing movement that seems to be quite popular in New Zealand. It amounts to trading roughly 20 hours per week of work for food and lodging on a short term basis. I've yet to meet anyone who woofed for more than a month at a single location. NZ will give a 1 year working holiday visa to pretty much anyone under 30 so there are a lot of young people around looking for a cheap way to spend time here. I've been quite impressed with the woofers here at Fat Cat, I think the future will be quite okay left in their hands.

We have dinner together every night:

I've been quite sick for the past 3 days but am starting to get a handle on it at last and just have a cough and a bit of weakness left to work through. As such, the only day trip I've managed was a 25 minute ferry boat to Rangitoto island with Kim and Cloudy. Rangitoto is one of fifty something inactive volcanoes in the Auckland area and is the only one that has erupted repeatedly. It last erupted some 600 years ago but I didn't see any hint of activity while there. There's a nice hike to the summit yielding a beautiful panoramic view of Auckland and surrounding areas.  
 

You can see the crater of the volcano on the left side of this picture:

I went to the car fair the first Sunday after arriving here and sold my car cheap to someone I'm sure will make money off it in a couple of months when the hoards start arriving for the summer season. I wasn't real clear on the rules and process to be honest and am left praying it works out okay. I did my part and reported the sale but I'm not convinced he did his part and claimed it and am not sure what to do if he didn't. I was advised by the people running the fair that what we did was okay but then found something indicating different later. Hoping for the best.

Best news yet: Erik will be meeting me in Thailand for a day or two sometime around Christmas! I am so looking forward to seeing him already.