Part of the Rainbow Community

A little bit further of the beaten track from Takaka, there was a hidden hippie community. They were called the Rainbow Valley Community and started up in the 1970's. People that were my age back then decided that they wanted to create "a small and friendly village in a place of natural beauty and tranquility, where diversity and individuality are valued." Those people were old now, but their kids and grandkids (called rainbow children) grew up in that lifestyle. I checked out their website (http://www.rainbowcommunity.org.nz) which made me very curious. The psychologist in me wanted to explore their way of life and was very excited to be a part of that community. You could stay a night in their small hostel and that's what I did. It was beautiful and you could not only feel but almost touch the peace. I didn't meet a lot of people but I went through some of their old picture books of how the community started. The location and hostel were beautiful and I slept amazing. Some of the people staying with me were making bread, locals would just come into the house and they were based on 'trading'. Robin was the woman with the eggs, carol had goats and made her own cheese and other people were trading their vegetables. I loved this system and was really grateful to be a part of it for one day. The next they I went into town. If there was anything I was excited about, it was to see al the shops with hippie clothes and jewellery. But arriving in town I realised that it was Sunday. I thought: "Shall I go back to Nelson, or spent another night in Takaka?" and the answer wasn't hard to make. I found myself this relaxed hostel called "annie's nirvana lodge" and settled in. I started talking to this guy, asking what was beautiful around to see. He told me that he'd been living here for a month and actually never went to the nice things close by. I was planning on mountain biking the whole way, but he offered me to go together in his car and explore Takaka regions. I felt on a small road trip and we saw beautiful things like: the Labyrinth rocks park, Rototai beach, the grove and Rawhiti cave. Staying another day was definitely worth it! Later that day I also wanted to explore Pupu Springs. These springs contain the clearest water in the WORLD! So I took one of the free mountain bikes and went up. The road was though and the sun wasn't helping. It took me a little hour to get up there with all the little hills. The springs were clearer than I could ever imagine. You could see EVERYTHING! It was a nice walk and I was proud of all the things I'd done that day. Just one last thing to do... There was this movie playing in "the village theatre" and I really wanted to go. The movie was called "The eagle Huntress" and it was a movie/documentary about a young Mongolian girl trying to break the tradition that only boys could be an eagle hunter. The cinematography was stunning and I learned a lot about he Mongolian culture. What a productive day!