Nadège writes:

Taranaki Mission is now over and we decide to go back up north to Auckland riding along the West coast. This one seems wilder than what we have already seen around this island. Usually, most of the foreign tourists can’t wait for going down to the South Island and they keep on their way of what their Lonely Planet guide book says. And they miss some extraordinary beautiful part of the island, left only for our open eyes.

On the way, Olivier spots some potential flying sites like, among others, Mokau, a nice cliff above the sea right in the village. It’s a perfect soaring site. After asking permission, we pass the night in a garden at the top of the cliff by the cemetery. If anything happens, at least we wouldn’t have too far to go next!

In the morning, Olivier takes off in front of the owner’s house. She is so impressed that she calls the local school and invites them to see the show. We exchange a few words with them, introduce our project and ourselves and discover that today is a « biking-day ». That means everyone have to go to school by fair way, without petrol, by bike, by feet… sounds like Fly’n’roll philosophy!

What a fantastic occasion to offer them a conference about our travel! The teacher accepts our offer with great pleasure, not at all bothered in her school plans for the day. We pass the end of the morning among attentive ears and curious kids about our adventures and motivations, younger and elder people all the same listening.

We finally leave Mokau in the afternoon, our eyes full of smiles and confidents in future. Although our travel is mainly already planned, we keep believe in improvisation witch offer us some beautiful meeting like this one.