Visit with the Cocklin's

The 3 days we spent at the Cocklin's were such an awesome unexpected surprise that it was already a highlight in my books. They were pretty amazing hosts that the time there really felt like a vacation. And for that reason they most defiantly deserve their own blog post.

Having some good times watching Trevor surf at the beach.

On Wednesday after we arrived and setup our van in their yard, we built some more storage space in the ol' man van. Now we got more room above for our food and Trevor's surfboard and our buddy Chris can sleep a little bit more comfortable on the floor underneath the bed. Its quite the setup I tell ya. We then enjoyed our first home-cooked meal of the trip and ate it down in matter of minutes, I know its been only a few days, but the potatoes and noodles are getting a bit old.

Thursday, we were planning on going motorbiking at a place not far from Sam's but they had all the bikes rented out and so we were out of luck for the day. But we headed into Russel, in The Bay of Islands, were we did some small things that needed to be done and just wondered the town for a bit. Sam promised us to take us out possum hunting that night and spent the whole day telling story after story of his experiences with possums. Apparently they're the cockroaches of NZ that were shipped over here from Australia to destroy the trees and eat the native bird's eggs. So basically they are pests and over-populated.

That night he took us out, and we were not disappointed. Popping possums out of trees with the 12 gauge may sound like a cruel thing, but it was awesome, there was plenty of excitement and energy in the air after we would spot one and everyone got a chance to whack 2 or 3 possums. We headed back home with 7 or so in the back of the uke (farm truck) and left a couple more in the bush that were no good. You can sell their fur for $5 a pop, so not a bad nights work.

Bringing home the bacon...

Friday morning we woke up late, and then were able to go out motorbiking at their neighbours farm. It was surprisingly my first time ever driving a bike, which is kind of pathetic growing up on a farm and having buddies with bikes. But Trevor and Sam were vet's when it came to the sport. So we headed out into the backwoods on these old 200cc's that were a solid start for me, but below the abilities of the other guys. They day was a really awesome experience, I never thought that my first time riding would be in NZ going through the rolling hills on the farm. We rode for a solid half day and all left with smiles on our face. The rest of the day was spent playing cards and chilling around Sams.

Tearin' it up!

A pretty awesome place to go biking if you ask me.

Saturday morning we were off, we said our farewell's and said our thank-you's, it was time again to hit the road.

Lates, N8

PS. Heres a quick video from the possum hunt, NZ Possum Hunting on Vimeo, viewer discretion is advised.