Planes, trains and automobiles... NZ here we come!

To be precise our journey has consisted of 36 hours, five countries, three planes, three trains and two automobiles.  Now we're finally here and … well, it's pretty spectacular!!!  Plenty more time for all that though - for now, the journey...

After having heard Robbie and Lucy talk about how the long journey wipes you out so much that it's hard to remember anything from halfway onwards, we decided that we wanted to make an ongoing account of the trip so we could record it in case of sleep-deprived memory failure!  Rather than the standard typed account of our journey we decided that a video diary would probably capture it far better and so that is what we did….

Hopefully that's given a little flavour of our epic journey across the whole globe!  

Now that we're here we're starting to get really excited about all the things the country has to offer... And as we've somehow managed to escape jetlag completely, we're able to get planning straight away!

Ciao for now...

November signing out.

The Invasion, Flatwoodstock and Goodbye Bois de Plan

As I type this entry I am sitting in Heathrow Airport sipping on a cappuccino and reminiscing on our recent adventures and indeed the final stage of our European Summer Trip.  It's safe to say we've had a fantastic time and if you read our previous posts and look at our photos, hopefully you'll understand why!

For the last two months we have made our home at Bois de Plan as part of our Workaway adventure and we couldn't have asked for anything more from our hosts Janita and Pete.  Following on from our last post we've continued to have a brilliant time - even more diverse than before, this time due to the huge influx of different faces who descended upon the place throughout August…  We were warned that August could get pretty hectic and I think that is probably a fairly accurate description!  To give an idea of how much busier it got, at one point there were over 30 people staying at the farm!  It certainly made for needing a well organised plan for sleeping arrangements plus a cooking and cleaning rota!  We met loads of really nice people, family and friends of Pete and Janita, many of whom we'll stay in touch with ourselves and hopefully get to see again at some point in the future.  This is definitely a part of travelling that we felt we'd been missing before Workaway - but that's okay because this last month has certainly made up for it!

We were also made up to be able to stay for the party which has been named "Flat Wood Stock" by Janita's daughter Jane (Bois de Plan roughly translates as 'flat wood', which might make sense of the name choice!).  The weather had changed quite dramatically in the days running up to the party with some really superb electrical storms and massive downpours - a nice change from all the hot weather but a bit of a worry for the party - but fortunately the sun came back out just in time and all was fine.  Everyone puts in loads of effort for the party with cake baking, quiches and pizza for the buffet, a big stage is made out of scaffold in front of the barn and there's a proper PA system wired up with mic's and amps for the guitars and even a screen hooked up for watching music videos in between the live music!  Everyone seemed to have a really good time and there were some good turns up on the stage.  Even Ian joined in with a very special rendition of 'Hocus Pocus' by Focus… something that I think everyone will have a memory of!  The party went on into the early hours although I missed the last couple of hours as I had eaten too much curry and pizza so went to 'lie down' to digest and ended up falling asleep!  Bit of a shame, although I was happy not to have had the extra hours worth of drinking alcohol in my system the next day - I was completely hangover free!

After the party the groups of family and friends started to wain away as everyone went back home and by the end it was back down to just me, Ian and Pete - even Janita was away at a conference so numbers were at an all-time low!  We managed to finish off the trench project by building a fence perimeter complete with a style which we were pleased with.  To finish it off Janita will be planting a selection of plants which will filter the water as it trickles down the the trench to result in a pool of drinking water for the animals.  After having worked on the pigsty conversion earlier on in our stay, we hadn't been involved in the later stages as a couple of Leon's (Pete's son) friends were carpenters and so we happily stepped aside and let the professionals continue!  There was beam reinforcement, plasterboarding and plastering galore and by the time they went home the room was really starting to look transformed.  We were a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see it finished before we left, but there's only so many hours in a day and the guys had worked really hard even just to get it to where it is now… obviously our expectations of seeing it finished just reflect our lack of knowledge on how long these sort of projects really take!

We spent our last couple of days at Bois de Plan packing for our next trip, sorting out the van, playing some more board games and wiff waff (non-competitive ping-pong!) and taking loads of pictures of the animals - we're going to miss those guys!  We had a nice last meal with Pete and Janita, who had returned from her trip the day before we left, and enjoyed our last good nights sleep before setting off for our epic journey to the other side of the world!

So having spent a wonderfully diverse four months in five different European countries in trusty old Agatha and at two amazing Workaway homes, we have learnt so much about travelling on a small budget, life in France, and how to live a green lifestyle with more wealth than money can bring, this post now officially marks the end of our Europe trip - sad that a mini-era has come to and end but mega excited for the next stage!

So, all's that is left to say now is good bye and thank you France!! (for now, anyway!)

Ciao for now, November signing out.

A few pics from some days out around the Auvergne area...  (more pics of the party etc coming soon!)