Possibilities

2-25

Woo today has been a good day! I swear, when you just open up to possibilities and tell the universe what you want and trust that there’s Someone up there looking out for you, things start to happen.

Granted, I’m counting my chickens before I cross the bridge, or however the Nesses mangle that saying, but I’m feeling good about things, and here’s why.

Remember that guy I met in the coffee shop where I had breakfast last Sunday? Well I went back there for lunch today because I had the day off and decided to spend the day in town. I went back for lunch and he remembered me and we talked a bit as he made me my fish and chips, which is my favorite meal when I’m in British-type countries. He said that he’d be glad to introduce me to one of the farmers he knew, and if I came back at four o’clock he’d drive me out to the farm so I could see the place. I’m still not used to people being so friendly, and so I’m cautious of even good-hearted intentions like his seemed to be, but I said ‘what the heck’ and decided to give it a shot. He asked me what my name was, as we hadn’t properly introduced ourselves before, and I told him and he said his name was Cor, and that he’s from the Netherlands, which we talked about for a bit.

So I spent the afternoon at the library catching up with the family via Skype, and then came back at 4pm as Cor was closing up the place. He’d been talking about how he had three business ventures in New Zealand since he came several years ago, and I figured one was the café, one was his dairy farm, and he asked if I wanted to see the third one since that was where his car was parked anyway. Turns out the third thing he does is build coffins! I was slightly creeped out at first, I’ll admit. I immediately thought “Lyss would love this guy. A Scandinavian farmer who builds coffins.” They were beautiful, though, and made of all kinds of wood, and in all sizes. Anyway, after I’d ooed and ahed a bit we took off down the road from Dannevirke towards Palmerston North and went for about ten minutes before coming to the milking parlor. As we drove Cor told me that the farmer owned two farms; this one and one near Woodville, and that one of his men had given his two weeks notice recently and another had just had an accident with a truck gate falling on his foot (don’t worry, the labor union was there and decided the farm had no fault in the matter, it was just bad luck), so they needed an extra pair of hands. I met the farmer’s wife first, who was doing the afternoon milking, and we talked a bit about what they needed and what I needed, and then we exchanged numbers. She seems very nice and capable and I said I’d call her in a few days as soon as I knew what my last day at PMS would be. Next I met her husband who was mixing feed for the cows (the cows graze year round but are supplemented with things like coconut oil husks and grape skins from the vineyards) and we talked for about five seconds as he was really busy, and he said that he wanted to talk more to see if we were a good fit, as he didn’t want me coming somewhere I’d be unhappy and they couldn’t afford to hire someone without decent knowledge of farms and such, and so I said again that I’d call in a few days and we’d talk some more, but that I was looking for something temporary and that provided housing and would be glad to give them a hand.

And then Cor drove me back to town and we talked about how he’d lived in Bolivia for a while, and how he’d been an ambassador there for the Netherlands, and about cows and farming and all kinds of things. When we got back I said I’d most likely see him on Sunday morning for breakfast again, and he said that would be just fine, and I should see if I could bring Rodrigo around to speak Spanish with him sometime, and I said I would.

All in all, a very successful day, I think. Granted, I don’t have the job yet, or even know if it’s the RIGHT job, but I feel like these kinds of things fall into your lap for a reason, and there are too many good coincidences happening for them to be coincidences. It sounds like a door opening, to me, and I think I’m gonna put my best foot forward and see what happens. Wish me luck!

Journal 3

2-22

Someone actually found my Yank accent attractive today! This is a big deal, guys! Everyone’s laughed at it whenever I open my mouth, so this is a big step! I’m feelin’ good about it.

And there have been a million and one things I’ve been meaning to say in a blog post, and now of course they’re all gone. Let’s see. Well, if you happened to look at my Twitter feed last week you’ll have noticed that New Zealand taught me not to eat strange fruit even when it looks familiar (a lesson I obviously should have learned sooner). What happened was that I was on a walk and saw a tree with golden cherries on it. It was very Narnia-esqe. Anyway, I thought to myself that they looked so much like cherries they must indeed BE cherries, even though they were golden instead of red, so I tasted one and since it tasted good I ate the whole thing. Two hours later my throat was closing up and my stomach was twisted in knots. It was quite discomfiting. But I slept it off and the next day I was fine again.

Yesterday I learned another lesson from the great land of Aotearoa, vis, always take your camera when you go for a walk or bike, even if you don’t think you’ll need it. I missed an opportunity to get the sun putting rays through the clouds over the mountain range behind the complex. Major bummer.

But speaking of biking, I’m now partially independently mobile! I asked the Boss if he knew where I could get a bike, and he said he had one that he never used which I could borrow. It’s turned out to be a mountain bike with spectacularly low handlebars and a crooked front wheel, but it gets me up and down the hills here and provides me a way into town when I want to go and everyone at the complex has had one too many beers to drive.

Work has been going fine here, and I even got to try my hand at making a couple of blows (what you call a stroke with the clippers) on a sheep myself before I was reprimanded for flicking the clippers outward and cutting too far away from the skin. But hey, it was my first try, so good on me, I think. Wool handling has become easier, but I still hate being pared up with certain shearers. Uncle Ben, for one, is constantly cursing the sheep and will step on one of their legs hard if they wiggle too much. Not a pleasant shearer to work with. Sean, on the other hand, who is yet another Maori guy distantly related to the Boss, is great fun and will talk to you while you’re working and almost never cuts a sheep.

I’m also getting more used to life at the Complex. We haven’t had any more rowdy nights since my last post, which has made me less nervous about things. I’ve also decided that I’m going to be working here through the first weekend of March, which is the Golden Shears Shearing Competition, and then I’ll head off to my next job. Granted, I don’t know where that will be yet, but I have a few good ideas. One thing that this shearing contracting job has taught me is that I’d rather work on a farm and be involved in the day to day tasks than just going to one, shearing, and heading back home again. So that’s something learned.

And another thing I learned about today, which some of you may know about, and which really saddens me, is the death of Bjorn Norgaard. He died in a skiing accident recently, and even though we were never really close at school I had classes with him all through high school, and I know he was a great guy. Very funny, laid back and a very nice person to be around. I’ve been thinking a lot about him and his family today. I hope those of you in Northfield can help them through this, and I’ll be praying for them as well.

And as if one disaster per day wasn’t bad enough, there was another earthquake in Christchurch today, which is a town on the South Island. I didn’t feel anything up here, but I’m pretty sure the two islands are on different tectonic plates. I haven’t heard much about it, except that it may have been worse than the previous one, and many buildings have been destroyed. I was hoping to go down and see how the city was doing on my trip around the South Island, but now that this has happened I feel a bit of a tug towards going there to see if I can help rebuild. I don’t have any building skills, obviously, but I feel like helping hands in a disaster area can always be put to some use. More to come on these developments, I hope.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to end this post on a downer, but that seems to be the way it is. I’ve been a bit sad all day about everything, but I’m confident things will be alright. Until next time, I hope all of you are doing well, and I miss you.

2-24

Well, I’ve been a week in the shearing sheds already. And I’ve learned, over this week of waking up around 4:45 every morning, that I can fall asleep sitting up as easily as lying down! Woohoo!

I’ve also found out what a crazy sweet tooth I have. I find this out every time I live somewhere that’s not within walking distance of a corner store. At about 10pm every night I crave chocolate, and if I buy it now in preparation for the nightly craving I just eat it all too fast ‘cause it’s sitting around! Terrible.

And I’ve found that I really miss having access to the news when I want it. Basically everything I know about the world has gotten to me in hourly news broadcasts over the radio at work, which you can hardly hear over the shearing machines. Lately all the news has been about Christchurch, obviously, and so far as I can tell there’ve been 75 people killed and around 300 currently missing. I’ve been listening every time they talk about relief efforts, but it sounds like the only thing I’d really be qualified to do if I went down there is to help the college kids clean up debris, and they’re already restricting numbers because they have too many volunteers. I did donate three dollars via a Vodafone text initiative, though!

Anyway, I feel like I have a lot of anthropological things to say about New Zealand, like more lingo talk, and my frustration with the macho, patriarchal attitude of the rural folks, but I’m not in the mood just now, so bear with me and I’ll try to have a better update next time!

Journal 2

2-20

Well, today’s Sunday and I got up at 9 (what a long sleep! haha) and saw that Lewis, who’s our driver of sorts, was getting ready to go into town, so I put on my nicest shirt and a pair of jeans and hopped on for a ride to church. I got into town at 9:30 and I knew that the one church I’d seen on the main street didn’t start until 10, so I stopped into a café on the way and had some eggs and toast for breakfast. The owner of the place came to the counter and asked what I’d like, and when I said “is it possible to just get eggs and toast?” he laughed a bit at my American accent and said yes, it was. He was a tidy looking man with thin rimmed glasses and a checkered shirt and a bit of a snooty look which I kind of distrusted at first, but he seemed nice enough. Here’s how our conversation went as he was scrambling the eggs:

Him: So what brings you into Dannevirke?

Me: Well I’m working at PM Shearing, and I came in for some breakfast and church.

Him: (Raising his eyebrows) Paewai Shearing? My advice to you, girl, is to get outa that as soon as you can.

Me: Yeah? Why’d you say that?

Him: It’s a cesspool of drunks, girl! Granted, you get that with a lot of shearers, but Paewai’s one of the worst I’ve heard.

Me: Yeah, I found that out as soon as I got there. I’ve been making due, but I don’t drink much.

Him: Well how long’re you there for?

Me: Through the first weekend of March for the Golden Shears competition. Then I think I’ll find another place.

Him: You know a lot about sheep?

Me: No, I’m just learning. I worked at a dairy farm back in the States.

Him: Oh yeah? I’m a dairy farmer myself. Do you have another job lined up?

Me: Nope, not yet.

Him: Well stop back in here, girl, and talk with me and I’ll see if I can get you set up somewhere. If I don’t need help I’ll know someone who does. All the diary farmers are coming to the end of the busy season, so they’re letting their hired fellas off for a holiday and they need some temporary work.

Me: Sounds perfect! I’ll be sure to come in again soon!

So that was my breakfast conversation, and it made me pretty happy. All except for him being so down on PMS, which made me feel kind of sad.

I finished up my eggs and toast, which was delicious, and headed off down the street to St. John the Baptist Anglican Church, which was a big white church with a bell in the top. I dig church bells. I’d been to Anglican services in Scotland before, so I had some idea of what to expect, vis, a sort of mixed Catholic, Lutheran and Pentacostal service. Sure enough, I knew the first hymn we sang from St. John’s at home and the second one from Victory, the nondenominational church where we went when I was really small. Instead of a sermon today they had a testimony from a woman from the congregation, and it was really interesting and hit a couple of chords in me. Of course, with the familiar hymns and all the nice looking people and the quiet beauty of the church I started crying like a complete dummy, and couldn’t seem to stop. I was the most homesick I’ve been since getting here. I eventually got up to go find some kleenex and when I got to the back of the church there was a lady getting ready to help with the offering and she asked if I was ok. I said I was, but that I needed a tissue, and she walked me around to the church office and found me some and we talked for a little bit about the US and why I was here, and places she’d been, and how this service was unusual for them as they usually had the normal hymns-lessons-sermon-communion sort of thing. By the time we got back into church I’d calmed down a bit, and she gave me a hug and said she hoped to see me again next week, and I said she probably would. I went back and sat down in my pew and then went up to communion and almost started crying again, but got everything under control until the end of the service.

I don’t know exactly why I got so emotional, except that I felt really homesick, and being surrounded by so much love all of a sudden hit me sideways. Hopefully it won’t happen again next week, but it’s nice to know that I have a place once a week where I can feel that way.

Also! The minute the pastor (or vicar? Or father? I don’t remember what Anglican pastors are called) started speaking I almost jumped ‘cause he sounded American! Turns out he’s from Canada, and was glad to know a fellow Northerner. He also introduced me to a sheep farmer in the congregation when he heard what I was up to, and the farmer said he’d let me know if he needed any help. Kiwi’s are nice to begin with, and then you meet church-going Kiwis and you just about get bowled over by their helpfulness, haha!

So that was my Sunday experience in Dannevirke. I’m not sure what I’m gonna do with the rest of the day. Maybe go for a hike.

Journal 1

Well, this blog was really supposed to be more like a diary than a log book, so I’m starting a few journal-esqe entries to give my real feelings about things instead of just giving you guys my itinerary and then occasionally freaking out. This format also works better right now when I only have internet sporadically because I can write these up on my computer and then zip-drive them over to the station’s computer to upload them without using my computer time!

2-19

Alright, so I guess I should set the scene before running off on a whole bunch of stories. I’m currently living at the station complex of Paewai Mullins Shearing, known affectionately as PMS. I really don’t know where the “Paewai” part of the name comes from, but Mullins is the Boss’ last name, and the company has been in the family (which is pretty heavily Maori) for three or four generations. The current Boss’ name is Punga. He’s about 28, with a wife and new baby daughter (by the way, wives are called “the missus” by everyone around these parts. I’m not sure if I think it’s cute or patronizing) and he’s what Kiwis call a “boy racer,” meaning he’s pretty into Western car culture and appears to think he’s a gangsta of sorts. He’s really funny, though, and I like him. I live here in the complex with Tina, the manager, a small, quiet woman; her daughter Abby, a spitfire chick who’s around my age and will drink you under the table and then ask if your unresponsive corpse would like to fight; Lewis, a nice guy in his late 30’s who’s pretty quiet except when he’s drunk; and Rodrigo, who’s about 25, I’d guess, and came over from Chile to learn more about sheep, like me! When it’s just the five of us here things are pretty chill, but when anyone else stops in things can get rowdy, and I tend to hole up in my room. The worst offender in these carousings is a character named Uncle Ben, who’s pretty loud to begin with, and then becomes a really frustrating and annoyingly drunk every day around 8pm. Uncle Ben is, of course, SOMEBODY’S uncle, but I have no idea who’s, as everyone’s related by blood or by marriage except me and Rodrigo, and it’s hard to keep all the family trees straight. But the devotion to drinking seems to be a universal trait with this group, no matter which way they’re related.

Drinking starts the minute shearing gets done. As soon as the clippers turn off and all of the wool is bagged up and we start heading out, the lead manager for the day will pull out a case of Tui, the favored local beer, and hand everyone a bottle. This would be a really nice ritual if it didn’t mean that there was a case of beer being consumed on the way home, so that by the time we get back people are in a pretty fine mood and decide to stick around the complex to talk and drink some more. Again, this would be somewhat ok if we got done around dinner time every day, but sometimes we get done at 2 or 3pm, and then it just seems like people are drinking nonstop until they fall asleep six or seven hours later. And when they’re not sleeping, everyone’s smoking. I’m the only non-smoker in the company, apparently. And the younger generation also partakes pretty heavily in smoking marijuana, so if it’s not one thing, it’s another.

I don’t mean to sound so hard on them. Really, they’re very nice people, but for someone who’s used to being able to take partying, drugs and drinking or leave it, it’s hard to be around it 24-7.

Two real blessings about this place, though, are the fact that I have my own room (which is wood paneled and reminds me of Grandma Hartke’s basement) and that the countryside is beautiful. Both my room and the outdoors have become my refuge, as is usual for me when I go somewhere new. I’ve been taking long walks after work, since it’s summer here and the sun doesn’t go down until around 9, and I’m awed by the picturesque-ness of the rolling green hills, grazing cows, sheep, butterflies, mountains in the distance, waving grasses, brilliant sunshine, sky as blue as I’ve ever seen it… It makes me feel good when I’m down.

So now you’ve got a bit of the feeling of things, here’s how my first three days of sheep-wrangling have gone down.

My official position in the company is as a junior wool handler. What this means is that I’m the person who gets the wool out of the way of the shearer, separates the good wool from the not-so-good wool, and then bags it up to be pressed. It helps to think of the shearing floor as stations in an assembly line, with everyone working together like cogs. On the top of the totem pole you have the shearer, and there may be any number of them depending on how man shearing engines the farmer has in his shear shed. The shearer grabs a sheep out of the waiting pen and flips it so it’s sitting on its rump and shears all the wool off it in a very precise pattern of strokes. When the sheep is done they shove it through a sort of doggie door to an outside pen. While the shearer is doing what they do best, the wool handler (there is one assigned to every shearer, usually) is pulling the good wool (A wool) away in one direction and the dirty or marked wool (B wool) off in another direction with their “broom,” which is actually a broom handle with a special piece of plastic at the end that catches wool better than bristles would do. Then the pressers (usually between 1 and 3 people) grab the A wool and put it in a large bin with a bag in it and stuff it down like you do when you’re raking leaves. They do this until they can’t get any more in, and then they use a giant pressing machine to compress the wool into a sort of bale, which them pops out of the presser and they label the bag with the kind of wool, the name of the farm, and the number of the bag. Viola! The wool is then taken by the farmer to wherever they have it processed, and our part in the equation is over.

On Thursday, my first day, the Boss put me on the shearing gang with the latest start; 8:45am. It was just a sort of introduction for me that day as we had 3 shearers and only about 200 sheep, so it only took about two hours not including the driving time to and from the farm. Friday was a longer day. We started out at 5:15am and drove to a farm about an hour and a half away, which is on the outside limit of PMS’s radius, and did something like 800 sheep with four shearers in about six hours. Today was Saturday, and I was on the gang that started out at 5:45, and we didn’t have to go as far, which was nice. Today I think we did about 400 sheep with two shearers in about six hours.

And tomorrow is Sunday, and that means a day off. If I could, I’d use the day to go to the library in town where internet is only 3 dollars per hour and do some internet stuff, but as the library’s closed I may go fishing with Rodrigo. Probably better for me anyway. :-)

I do miss my family and friends, though. Nights are lonely when you’re sitting in your room reading, listening to people getting drunk and rowdy outside. I could go get rowdy with them, I guess, but I honestly have no desire to. I’ll have a beer socially with them when we’re done working, but the fact is that I just don’t like the taste of the stuff, and the idea of being out of it all the time just doesn’t appeal. I miss Northfield, where I could spend my night listening to music with Gabe, or watching movies with the Nesses, or goofing off with Maddie and Julia. I know I was dying of boredom while I was there, in some ways, but sitting here now I appreciate my family and friend’s ability to have fun with each other without having to resort to artificial ingredients.

Ah well, that’s enough for tonight. I’ll probably end up writing more tomorrow, and we’ll see when I get a chance to post it. Until later, everyone!

P.S. I finally got a NZ phone that works everywhere (my US phone with a NZ sim card only worked in major cities) so now I'll be able to Tweet and text from the station here, which makes me feel a lot better. Hooray!

First And Second Impressions of PM Shearing

Ok, this is going to be a super quick post because I don't have much internet time.

So I was picked up by the boss' wife and baby daughter (very nice and cute respectively) in Palmerston North, and then we drove to Dannevirk where they live, and then about five minutes out into the country where the shearing station is. I was introduced to Tina, the woman who manages the place, and she showed me around the kitchen, laundry, bathrooms, etc. (the place is a bit run down, but that's seems to just be how things look on farms) and then I got my room, which was sparse, to say the least.

I didn't know that I needed sheets or anything, but I figured I could make due with my sleeping bag for a night until I could get into town.

Anyway, all this newness, and not knowing anyone, and finding myself in a place where I felt like I wasn't prepared (as well as not having access to internet or a working phone) freaked me out a bit. I kind of wanted to cry, I'll admit.

Instead, I took a chill pill and decided to go for a walk. Just moving really helps me when I'm panicky. I began to walk towards town with some crazy idea that I'd just walk there and pick up sheets and come back before the Boss got in at 6. Not a very logical plan, but it got me moving with purpose, which also helped. Then, as I walked, I began to think of all the positive things that I DID have. I mean, I had food, I had a sleeping bag and a tent. I had two good feet that had carried me over mountains yesterday, and sturdy boots on top of that. And I'm strong enough to overcome fear that only exists in my head.

I turned and walked back to the station, and by the time I got back I'd calmed down quite a bit. The first thing I saw when I came in was Tina who wanted to introduce me to Lewis, who drives people to town when they need it. Lewis is quiet but seems nice, and he drove me in and I got sheets and a pillow, as well as a bit more food.

I came back, I ate, and I sat around and had a beer with the other shearers (there are five of us who live here now, and several more who have their own places) who told me more about the place.

It's been kind of a panicky day, but on the whole I think I survived it well. The thing I need to remember most is to get out of my head and SEE things for what they really are. When I walked into my room in the bunk house my brain saw an empty room with a pretty gross looking mattress, and my cell phone telling me there was no signal, and I freaked out. What I see now, with my eyes and my heart, is a group of pretty cool people, eeking out a rugged but satisfying life in a pastured valley in New Zealand.

I start training/work tomorrow, and I'm excited about it. The Boss has also said he's going to try to get me a deal on a cheap cell phone and plan that works around here, as I've found that Vodaphone, the company I'm with now, only has service in major cities, and he uses our cell phones to tell us which jobs to go to.

Wish me luck on my first day sheep wranglin'! I hope I'm a fast learner!

Just A Few Quick Pics From Taupo/Tongariro National Park

Boiling mud in Rotorua. Weird!

A waterfall on the way to Taupo. Look how blue the water is!

The still active volcano used as Mt. Doom in Lord of the Rings in Tongariro National Park!

What the first half hour (easy) part of my 4.5 hour hike in the National Park looked like...

It took me two hours to make it, but I got to Tupapakurua Falls!


And on the way back there was a log where backpackers who made it there wrote their names...

So I put mine in too. :-)

Rest

Well, as most of you already know, I got a pretty miserable cold about five days ago, and I've been holed up in Rotorua trying to get better. But here's the update since Raglan:

On my second surf lesson I did finally stand up on a few waves, and it was AWESOME. There's a moment when you catch the right wave, you get into position and feel the perfect balance, and everything's just right. It feels like magic. I can understand why people spend so much time doing it! But honestly, I don't think I'm cut out to be a hard core surfer. Once in a while is fun, but my ears get plugged too easily, and I'm not THAT fond of getting smashed in the face with salt water repeatedly. :-)

Anyway, I woke up on Thursday morning feeling pretty terrible, but I got on the bus and we headed to Maketu by way of the Waitomo Caves. By the time we got to the caves at around 11am I was miserable, with my eyes and nose running constantly and sneezing all the time. Instead of aggravating my mild claustrophobia by heading into damp caves I spent a few hours in a coffee shop drinking ridiculous amounts of herbal tea, which helped a little.

Then on to Maketu (I honestly don't remember much of the bus ride) where we were welcomed on to a Maori marae, which is sacred land with (usually) two buildings on it; a house for eating and cooking, and a house for celebrations and ceremonies and sleeping. We ate a delicious dinner of peas, potatoes, bread stuffing, lamb (I didn't eat it but I heard it was good), and squash. Then we went inside the meeting house and went through the welcoming ceremony, which is quite interesting to behold. Basically, the warriors of the hosting tribe challenge the invading tribe (that would be us) to see whether they come in war or peace. It was super cool.

Afterward they showed us some Maori dances and songs, and they taught the guys the Haka, or war dance, and they taught the girls the Poi, which is another sort of dance. I wasn't too good at it, but it was fun to learn!

Here's our group photo with some of us in Maori clothes!


And then we all got out stuffed mattresses and bedded down on the floor of the meeting house for the night. Despite my being sick as a dog, it was kind of fun to all sleep on the floor in a big room. It felt like old time log cabin days, or living in a long house on the plains.


But I was even more sick when I woke up the next morning, and I knew I couldn't stand another full day on the bus feeling like I did. Plus, who wants to sit on a bus next to someone sneezing and coughing for hours? So I jumped off in Rotorua, got a hotel and settled in to hibernate for a few days, and here I've been ever since!

Rotorua, for those that don't know, is the geothermal capitol of New Zealand, and there are geysers and hot mud pools everywhere, even outside my hotel room window!


So there's nothing to report, really, for the last few days. Just a lot of me, laying in bed, watching tv on the internet (OMG, UNLIMITED INTERNET!), and blowing my nose. I'm feeling a lot better now, though! I'm going to be taking the bus out of Rotorua to Taupo and Whakahoro tomorrow and then after a few days there I'll be getting to Bulls and Palmerston North, where I'll hopefully be picked up for my new job!

Right now, though, I'm feeling kind of homesick. This is partly, I think, because I've had time to think about it, and partly because I'm on that homesick part of the culture shock sine wave, right after the "oh my gosh I can't believe I'm here and everything is so cool!" high. I miss my bed, and my house, and the familiarity of Northfield and having more than five shirts. And my family, of course. But I'm ok, and things will get exciting again, and I'll soon be at my new job (I hope) and then I won't be living out of bags like this.

So, until next time, crew!

Auckland To Hahei To Raglan

Alright everyone, my arms are about to fall off from sea kayaking yesterday and my first surf lesson today, so this post is gonna be mostly pictures. Deal with it! ;-D

I got on the Stray bus in Auckland on Monday morning, and we proceeded to Mount Eden, which is the highest point in Auckland. Here's the view, and a cool map-type-thing they have at the top pointing to different places.

Home is just around the corner!


And speaking of feeling like home, guess what the first crop I saw outside the city was?


But not to worry. We were soon out into the proper NZ countryside and over the Coromandel Mountains for a view of Hahei (pronounced hah-HEY).


After arriving at our hostel/campsite, we went down to the beach and I went sea kayaking with four other people from my group. It was so fun, but hard on the arms! We went to Cathedral Cove, which I can honestly say is the most beautiful place I think I've ever seen in person.


We also paddled out to a couple of small islands with caves through them which we went through, but I was too scared of dropping my camera in the water to take pictures. The water was so clear you could look down through the coral and sea weed to see schools of fish swimming below you! It was amazing.

Then we had dinner (I've been eating peanut butter, bread and apricots for the past two days. Delicious, but getting a little old) and went to bed.

This morning we got up, drove from Hahei back over the mountains and across to the other side of the North Island, waking up facing the Pacific and tonight we fall asleep looking at the Tasman Sea. On the way we stopped by Paeroa, the town with bubbly springs where New Zealand's national drink used to be made (before being bought out by The Man, aka Coca-Cola). I had some, which is still made from Paeroa bubbly water and lemon, and it was quite good!


Then we went on to Raglan, the world famous surfing town where "The Endless Summer" was filmed. It's famous partly for it's fairly constant waves, but also for it's left hand surf break, which means that the waves break around a peninsula which allows the waves to travel for longer without breaking.

This afternoon, I had my first surf lesson. Let's just say that the surf school gets 90% of people standing on their first day out, and I was not one of those 90%. Today I became aware of my flimsy upper body strength and pretty much non-existent sense of balance. But I have not been thwarted! Tomorrow I WILL stand, and I will catch a nice wave. I will ride that board if it kills me.

Or maybe not kills me. Maybe just maims me until I can't stand anymore.

Thankfully I have a peaceful place to rest my head tonight, in preparation for another day in the waves, which is seriously the best workout I can think of. Here's the view from my room:

Weekend On Waiheke

Well, I can cross off one goal on my list!

Waiheke was as beautiful as they say, but I also see now why most people tell you not to go on weekends in the summertime. I was drowning in tourists the whole time I was there! But even that couldn't dampen the beauty of the place.

On the ferry over I got a nice glimpse of the city from the water:

And I love ferries! On the ride back I was thinking how cool it would be to get a job on a ship after I get done throwing sheep around. We shall see!

The first thing I did when I got to Waiheke was take the bus to Hekerua Lodge, where I set up my campsite and said hello to the owners, who had apparently just purchased the place from an older couple just three days ago. I'm not at all exaggerating when I say that Thomas, the guy who now runs the place, could be Heath Ledger's twin brother. Julia, if you're reading this, just know that he has an Australian accent and looks JUST like Heath in 10 Things. It was a little bit eery. Anyway, I set up and set out across the island by bus, making it to Onetangi beach by the middle of the afternoon.


There I baptized myself in the waters of the South Pacific, and applied sunscreen like crazy, but still got burnt. Only my shoulders, though, which is of course what I need to carry my pack with. Such is life.

But you wouldn't believe the number and kinds of shells on this island! When Maddie and Julia and I go to the beach in California, we're lucky if we find a muscle shell unbroken, whereas here, there are tiny conch shells everywhere!


After a day of exploring I went back to the lodge and met Dominique, Frederika and David, from Switzerland, Germany and New Caledonia respectively. We got a couple bottles of New Zealand wine and headed out to a nearby park to watch the sun set. Only later did we realize the name of the park!

I'm so cool, they name things after me in foreign countries. This park also had some pretty cool Maori stones that I took multiple pictures of. You can see my new friends in the background there.
On the way back to camp we stopped in at a pub on the water I got a picture of all the boats in the dark.

This is what it looked like in the daytime.

Then, to bed. I woke up this morning, spent some more time on the beach, and then headed back to Auckland because my Stray bus leaves early tomorrow morning. We're headed for Hahei tomorrow, and then we'll get to Raglan the next night, which is where I'm going to learn to surf! Just crossing off those goals like nobody's business!

Anyway, here's a picture of me waiting for the ferry to go back to Auckland. I wanted to get it from my point of view so you could see what I'm seeing, but it may have come out a little strange as it seems to be framed between my legs...

And lastly, here's my goodbye to Auckland photo. I went for a walk in Albert Park this evening and found a crooked lantern. Reminded me of a tropical Narnia. And it gives you a sense of the way things are in New Zealand: a little topsey-turvey.

Day Out

Well, if all goes to plan, today was my last full day in Auckland for a while. I got up this morning, got a green tea smoothie, and headed out with some mates from the hostel for a quick free tour of the city. We started out by going over to Sky Tower, which most people know as the sort of space-needle-y thing in the middle of Auckland. Here you can see it from a bridge I was on later in the day.

One of the big things to do at Sky Tour, apparently, is to base-jump off of it, so a couple of kids did that, and then we headed on to a point about five miles away from the city where you could look back and take pictures. It was in a really pretty green park, and the wind was blowing and you could smell the sea, and I felt for the first time as if I was really in NEW ZEALAND, rather than just a big city. For me, most big cities are the same no matter what country they’re in. Anyway, from there we went down to the docks and saw where the ferries leave and where to catch the whale watching boats. Apparently the bay is so chock full of marine life that there’s a 99% chance of seeing dolphins and a 75% chance of seeing whales, and if you DON’T see either of these they give you your money back! While we were in the harbor I caught site of THIS awesome guy. Well really, how could you miss him?

No idea what he was there for.

Then to lunch at a cute pub (I had the classic fish and chips) and then to our final stop, the Bay Bridge. According to our guide, this is New Zealand’s cheapest place to bungy jump, so four different kids got kitted up and the rest of us put on our harnesses and hard hats and went for a walk under the bridge out over the water. Here’s me waiting for the jumpers to come down.

For a minute I almost changed my mind and decided to try to jump, but when I saw the first guy balk at the end of the plank I knew there was no way I’d be able to get up the courage. At least not today. Anyway, here’s one of the guys jumping off…

…and from below…

So that was my day out in Auckland!

Tomorrow morning I’m taking the ferry over to Waiheke Island where I’m going to spend the weekend exploring and chilling out on the beach. I found that the cheapest way to stay overnight is to camp (as I’d expected), so I’ll be staying at a beach campsite tomorrow night and possibly Sunday night. Then I ferry back over here early Monday morning and hopefully set out for Raglan, the best surfing spot in the country, to learn how to surf! We’ll see if this all pans out.

What I did discover today was that it would be worth it for me to invest in a Stray Bus pass, which is a bus company like the one I took around the highlands in Scotland. They take you to different cool locations and they have a bus driver who doubles as a tour guide. The bus is hop-on-hop-off, and it’s unlimited rides for a year for 620 NZD, which is totally worth it since it goes to all the major cities from Auckland to Wanaka, and if I want to go farther North or South than that I just pay a tiny bit extra. There ARE two other bus companies like this in NZ; Magic Bus and Kiwi Experience. I’ve heard, though, that Kiwi Experience is basically a city-to-city non-stop bar crawl, and that Magic rushes through things so it’s only good if you have a very short amount of time. Stray, on the other hand, takes it slower and concentrates on hiking and the National parks, which I’m down with. So, given all this, I shall be spending a large chunk of money on one of these handy passes tomorrow.

Mostly I’m excited to get out of Auckland to this brilliant island called Waiheke, which Kiwis say is the chillest place in the country. And this, coming from a Kiwi, means a lot. I probably won’t have internet out there, so I suppose I’ll update you all again on Monday or so!

Later!

I'm Still Here!

Kia ora, everyone!

Well, as I thought, I didn't quite believe this was real until I woke up this morning and was still here. I woke up all sweaty, which was unpleasant (I'm on the 6th floor of the hostel in a tiny room with no ventilation and no windows), but I got 12 hours of sleep and woke up at 9, so I feel like I'm on Kiwi time already!

So, here are a few more notes:
-I sent my T-Mobile SIM card through the wash accidentally yesterday, and it's now gone forever, along with all my numbers. I can only blame this on jet-lag, as I would never usually do something like that. It's a bummer, but the upshot is that if you can send me your phone numbers via email it would be much appreciated in case I need to call from my NZ number while I'm here.
-I wondered at first why New Zealand was called "The Land of the Long White Cloud," but it all started to make sense when I saw it from the plane yesterday and everything looked like it was covered in cotton. It seems that it's cloudy here until about 10 or 10:30 in the morning, and then it clears off and is sunny all day. It's nice!
-I LOVE the crosswalks here! All traffic stops for pedestrians at the same time for 30 seconds, so you can cross either side of the street, or even diagonally without being hit. It's a brilliant system.
-I'm worrying about money already because after scrimping and saving for 6 months I'm now spending without any income, and purchasing anything is freaking PAINFUL. I had to spend 200 dollars yesterday just getting set up here (food, deposit for my room, pair of shorts, internet, locks and straps for my luggage, etc), and I'm not very happy about it. BUT
- I went to a Kiwi grocery store for the first time and bought some food so I won't have to eat out as much. I love going to grocery stores in new countries and seeing what they have. One thing I really like about NZ is that they have country of origin labeling laws, so everything says where it came from, which, for people like myself who like to try to eat local, is very handy. I got me some NZ apples, cheese, granola bars (which they call muesli bars), and carrots! All local! Awesome.
-I've seen information on so many cool things to do that I'm bursting with ideas. A year may not be long enough, guys...

Anyway, I was so busy and jet-lagged yesterday that I didn't have time to do all the errands I needed to do, so I'm finishing errands and planning today, then doing the Auckland siteseeing bus tomorrow, then Waihiki island on Saturday. Still trying to figure out what to do after that.

And now, a quick intro to Kiwi words and phrases, along with pronunciation:
Kia Ora! = Hello! Pronounced kee-ORA, as one word, with the r flipped slightly.
Maori = The native people of New Zealand. MOW-ree, with the r flipped
Dairy = Convenience store
Brekkie = Breakfast
Chook = Chicken, pronounced chook or chuk
Courgette = Zucchini
Heaps = a lot. Used OFTEN
Nought = used for the number zero.
Zed = used for the letter Z
Sticking plaster = Bandaid
Togs = Swimwear of any kind

But my favorite is still "sweet as!" I plan on introducing this to my lexicon asap. In the meantime, I'm off to do some exploring and running about.

Talk to you later!

First Impressions

Alright, here's a quick list of impressions/discoveries/thoughts just to get something down on paper (so to speak):

-I didn't think I was too jet lagged until I started feeling weak and dizzy. Probably from lack of sleep, but just in case I had a hamburger from BurgerFuel, which is a prized Kiwi institution! They put weird stuff on them, like eggs and beets. Quite good, though!
-I've been to orientation for my program already, even though I was planning to go on Friday. That's what happens when you get to your hostel at 9am and they won't let you check in 'till 1!
-The plane ride over didn't feel as long as I expected. I watched two programs on New Zealand agriculture, watched 127 Hours (which was pretty good), fell asleep for either 4 or 5 hours (don't know which, the time changes got confusing), woke up and spent the last 2.5 hours looking expectantly out the window. Here's an excerpt from my journal entry I wrote on the plane:
"At LAX we taxied for just about an age, and then we shot out over the Pacific like a cannon ball. Dinner was tortellini, breakfast was fruit and a muffin...I've had two quick moments of panic ABOUT panicking, but they passed quickly. Just before sunrise the sky was bluer than I've ever seen it. I've never seen the ocean this color either, as the Atlantic was always pretty grey. As the sky starts to turn pink and the sun casts rainbows over the wings, I begin my first day in the southern hemisphere..."
-People have GREAT expressions here. It's like everyone's language got stuck in late 1800's British. On the bus I heard someone use the expression "I'm quite chuffed about it." It was awesome. Also, the Kiwi's constantly say "sweet as!" which just means "cool," but it's hilarious when you first hear it because you pause, waiting for the rest of the metaphor.
-I had a terrifying moment where I thought I'd lost my new iPod, but it turned out have somehow fallen to the back of my pack. It was an awful moment.
-I already have a million ideas of where I want to go and what I want to see, and I'm starting NOW! ...ish. Today I signed in for my tax number (the Kiwi ss #), I'm going to open a bank account, and I got a free Vodafone SIM card from a very nice German girl at the airport who was leaving, so I'm gonna activate that. Tomorrow (provided I feel ok) I plan on spending the day checking out Waiheke island, and then on Friday I'm going on the free trip around Auckland, which includes a walk up the huge bridge to a bungy jumping point high above the city! Obviously, I will not be jumping.
-The Kiwi's are a bit behind on internet tech. Wireless is rather scarce, and when you do find it you have to pay for it, or it's very spotty. Right now I'm on at the IEP office (the sponsor of my BUNAC program) and the signal's going in and out. We also apparently have wireless in the lounge of the hostel, but I haven't tried it yet.
-Some newfound facts about NZ: They have the highest concentration of birds to humans in the world; there's a giant hole in the ozone above the islands so the sun can kill you (literally, the rate of skin cancer here is highest in the world. Way to go, polluting countries *cough*US*cough*); being on a "Tiki Tour" means that you're wandering about without any real plan; gas costs $0.52 per gallon!
-I regret not taking a pair of shorts with me. It's hot here!
-Everyone wears sundresses, board shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops (which they call "jandels"). My kind of country!

Anyway, that's enough of that. I'm doing well (despite being jet-lagged. Sorry if this post is totally nonsensical) and I'm happy and excited to be here! It probably won't seem real until I wake up tomorrow morning and I'm still here!

Until later!
Hei konā rā! (goodbye)