Crys In Aotearoa

Canada

2007-12-13T19:38:00.000+13:00

Well, as most of you know I am back home again. My last hurrah in New Zealand was absolutely amazing. I would not have traded my experiences for anything.

Since returning to Canada I have been going through a lot of different levels of anxiety, uncertainty, and minor depression. It's been a tough transition and I'm still getting used to the idea of being back. I feel pressured (mostly by myself) to reintegrate myself into society by getting a job, a new home or going back to school. This, I think will take me a little time to achieve. I've decided I really love being a backpacker. As many people have said "student life is the ideal lifestyle except for the school part".... well, to me travelling is the ultimate lifestyle save the need for unlimited funds.

Ideally, I'd like to get rich quick so that I can get back up in the skies, out on the road or into the wild again. I'm young, and though the desire is there, it is not time for me to settle down or commit to one place as my home.

Keep your eyes on my flickr page to see photos from my New Zealand adventures. I have soooo many more to post, and they will most likely not be accompanied by entries.

This, I fear may be my last kiwicrys blog entry. Thanks for reading and keep in touch for my next chapter..... perhaps australia and southeast asia, or india and nepal.......

Vacation News Continued...

2007-11-12T19:37:00.000+13:00

FREE INTERNET!! Yes that's right. A hostel with free internet. I haven't had such luxury in all of my travels. There isn't even a lineup right now. I'm in a little place called Oamaru. Noted firstly for it's closeness to two fantastic penguin colonies and secondly for it's victorian style stone buildings from the late 1800's.

I had originally planned to catch the Naked bus up to Oamaru from Dunedin but ended up befriending 4 other Stray bus travellers who were keen to come up too. So we hired a car, and voila! here we are. The freedom of having a car is fantastic and it also meant we got to see the Moeraki Boulders which I would have otherwise skipped over if I were travelling by bus.

It is hard to believe that a year has passed since I saw Canada last. This is a beautiful place and I have seen and done so many things I never thought I would ever have the opportunity to. I have met so many amazing people who I hope to know for life. I have changed and grown so much... for better? I appreciate bird watching and raggae music now. Who'd a thunk it?

I am both sad and excited about coming home. It is sad to come home knowing what I am leaving behind... but hopefully not losing for good. It is exciting to get back to seeing friends family and surroundings that I know and love. As much as I am still me, I know that I am not the same as I was when I left and I never will be again. Life has changed a lot, but when I get back I'll land right back in that rutt that I left. I hope that I've learned enough about myself and life this year that I'll be able to get back on my feet quick as. (Quick as what? no, just "quick as".... it's a kiwi thing)

I hope everybody has had a fantastic year too, no matter where you be, no matter what you have been doing.

Tomorrow, I return to Dunedin then on back to Queenstown. I hope hope hope that the luggage I left there has not been damaged or broken into. It contains all of my presents plus 4 bottles of wine for the remainder of my trip and for Ryan. I will be meeting up with Ryan on friday! YEAH!!!!

xox til next time.

Mini Update

2007-11-11T18:01:00.001+13:00

I am finished in Wellington for the time being. I have been travelling the south island of new zealand for the past 2.5 weeks. It has been fantastic!! I started in Picton and got to Abel Tasmen on teh first day. There, I went horseback riding and sailing. It is a very beautiful place.
Next I went to Farewell spit. An amazing spot in New Zealand which not many tourists commit to getting to. It is one of the largest sandspits in the world and is soon to be labelled a world heritage site.
I headed down the coast and stayed in a place called barrytown, which is little more than a hotel.\
Then to hokitika where I carved my own Jade/Pounamu pendant. I'll show you when I see you in two weeks or so!! ah!!!
Then to Wanaka a beautiful oasis set in the mountains near a glacier carved lake. A little bit of heaven, I think. Stayed for three nights then on to Queenstown and then down to Milford Sound. Next a not worth mentioning stop in Tuatapere and then.... STEWART ISLAND!! What a gorgeous little wee place. Birds singing in the trees like you wouldn't believe. I have seen so many different species adn got some semi-decent photos of most of them. I have been searching to get a good photo of the New Zealand wood pigeon and I think I've come pretty close now to what I was after. I'll post them when I have more time.

I am now in Dunedin. That's Gaelic for Edinborough, but other than the fact that both cities are surrounded by 7 hills and some of the street names are scottish... I'm not sure that htey have much else in common. Tomorrow I am going to rent a car with 4 friends from the stray bus that I have met on my journies. We are going to go up and stay one night in Oamaru where we will go penguin spotting for little blue penguins and yellow-eyed penguins. Yellow-eyed penguins are the most rare penguins in the world!! I am so excited. I originally was going to go up on the bus, but screw that. A car with friends is waaaay better!!

Have to go. Rushing rushing... vacation is busier than work!

All the best!

a few new photos are on facebook now. Ciao!

Time keeps on tickin' tickin'...

2007-09-11T16:38:00.000+12:00

2007 seems to be spinning out of control. Changes seem to be happening in every direction with so many people that I know....

Carly-Jo is married! Laura & Duncan Too!
Two of my cousins are pregnant!
Ryan, Janet, Jana & Séamus, and my sisters have joined the minions already currently residing in Vancouver (i.e. Kat, Danica, Nerissa, Tal, Rebecca and Allison) for school, life and whatevers.
Engagements seem contagious as Jana & Séamus, Lee & Katherine, Carly & Steve, Adonis & Zoe, Megan & Luke, all dive into the pool.
People are scattering all over the world, from Europe and Northern Africa, to South America, the far reaches of Canada and of course to New Zealand and Oz.

And I KNOW I'm forgetting to mention other important events as well. (sorry!)

Amazing what can happen when you go into hiding for a year! Kudos to all!

Quote: "It's like a song, now I can hold a note for a long time. . . But eventually, that's just noise. It's the change we're listening for, the note coming after and the one after that. That's what makes it music."

Follow Up

2007-08-29T16:43:00.000+12:00

A few people wanna know... WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GIRLS AFTER THE DRUNKEN HUDSON PARTY?

Well. They're both fine. I called the Prague girl the next day and she was feeling much better. I didn't hear back from the other girl, but I know she was fine too.

I am kind of weary about this whole "temp of the month" award I got shortly after "the incident".... Are they trying to buy me off? Keep me quiet? Are they trying to cover up the scandal?

Should I take them down?

CAN I take them down?

Anyways... it was over a month ago. Nobody was hurt and that's what matters. Sorry for the delayed info. Hope it's enough to satiate those "gotta know" lusters.

Chow.

:)

Who does this?

2007-08-20T12:38:00.000+12:00

Somebody destroyed Ryan's mailbox. They ripped it from it's nails (baseball bat?) and dragged it down the road to the end of the block.

Who does this?

It cost $65 for the box and $6 for the new number, (Good thing he has a single digit address!) and it's not as big or as nice as the last. We're hoping for some reimbursement from the landlord.

Full Monty!

2007-08-13T10:15:00.000+12:00

Woohoo!

Ryan and I just celebrated our 6 month anniversary on Friday. In celebration, we went to see King Lear at the St. James Theatre in Wellington. It was an amazing show! Can't compare it to my experience at Les Miserables, but it was definitely spectacular. The entire production, from lighting (amazing!) to costumes (wow!) was brilliant! Ever see rain created out of mist and light.... what an incredible effect!

The acting was marvelous. Unsurprisingly, Ian McKellan did an amazing performance. Surprisingly however, THERE WAS FULL FRONTAL NUDITY!!! AH! As the King went mad he decided to embrace the natural nakedness which was demonstrated by another "mad man" and boy oh boy did it shock me. Very unexpected. I suppose if I'd read some more reviews before I went, I would have realised that it was a main topic of conversation amongst reviewers.

The rest of the cast, as clothed as they were, pulled off some amazing performances as well. Most notably the actor playing Kent, and the actor playing the Earl of Gloucester's estranged son Edgar.

There were a few minor slips, (I think Ian slurred through a line, and a "dead" man gave a helpful kick to help those that were dragging his body from the stage), but all were forgivable. It was a very emotionally driven play done in the typical mood of Shakespeare's tragedies. Death and loss driven from madness, greed and human folly. All of which could have easily been avoided by a few honest words, earlier arrivals of heroes and a twinge of sanity! haha!

The play was the dessert of the day, but we had been eating good food since the evening before. Just my luck, I won "Temp of the Month, July 2007" from my Temp agency. The prize for my fantastic efforts (don't know what I did that was that special) was a $40 gift certificate at a restaurant called Lonestar! It's a chain restaurant that wants to be like Montana's meets Moxie's, but heck, it was $40 off! We ate like kings, despite the fact that we had to wait 40 min for a table which I had previously reserved!

Saturday morning, Ryan spoiled me with a breakfast of lox/gravalax, cream cheese and bagels.... followed by a lunch of fried cheese, breads, guacamole and dukkah! Before the play we went to a French restaurant called Le Metropolitan, where our friend Paul works. He set up our table and spoiled us with his company and recommendations, then we ate one of the most fabulous meals I have had in ages. I can now say I have eaten "beef cheeks," a very rich part of the cow, I must say, with grilled mushrooms and pasta as sides. gah....drool.

To make matters even better, I went to lunch with Ryan and friends the next day, followed by a viewing of Peter Jackson's "King Kong" (I had not seen it before and have just recently viewed the original starring Faye Wray).

Needless to say, I'm doing well. Still reading Harry Potter, when I can get the chance, but I have finally entered into the final third of the book.

Thinking of Carly Jo these days, knowing that her wedding is fast approaching. I am so happy for her! Yet, I am extremely devistated that I cannot be there to support and witness one of the biggest moments of her life!

All my love!

Not for the Faint of Heart

2007-07-26T10:01:00.000+12:00

People never cease to amaze/disappoint me.

Last night I attended my first ever Hudson function. (For those of you who don't know. Hudson is the employment agency that I am currently temping for.) It was their mid-winter Hudson Party meant to celebrate everybody's hardwork and support for the Hudson Co. There were platters of meats and olives and mushrooms and cheese (um, YUM-EEE!)... and platters of mini pot pies and quiches and mini samosas.... PLUS FREE BEER AND WINE!!!

And to think, I almost didn't go because I had gotten very little sleep the night before (about 3 hours). But I felt pretty good so decided to attend anyways and take it easy with my friend Mel and other temps that I had worked with at Kiwibank/wank.

As the night wore on I met a girl from Canada. Cool! She was from Calgary, and just like me, this was her first real trip out of the country, and her first time travelling alone. As soon as the "free alcohol period" was over, party really thinned out. But my new Canadian friend wasn't feeling well. She ran to the bathroom. Too much wine... but she was lucid and she was drinking water and was planning to get a cab home. When I went to check up on her however there was ANOTHER girl face down in a toilet in MUCH worse state. There were 2-3 Hudson Consultants (supervisors/bosses of the temp community) trying to watch over her. She was not lucid. She barely made sense.... And they were going to put her in a cab by herself!!

They offered this other girl a taxi chit and I asked them if the other Canadian could have one too. I wanted to make sure she made it home safe.

Low and behold, Canada and the girl from Prague (?) lived only a few blocks away from each other! Why not just give them one chit to share?!?! :D

OH MY.

Oh... and Crystal, would you mind taking them for us?

um.

WHAT?

I was kind of buzzed that night but I was pretty sober at this point. I was intent on getting Canada home ok, so I agreed. Especially seeing as how everybody else there "didn't want to miss their train."

Prague had a large plastic bag grasped in her hands, and two consultants (one on each arm) guided her down the stairs to the parking lot.

I firmly told the consultants that I was no longer comfortable with taking them home. I was not capable of carrying an incapacitated girl into a house and I was fairly uncertain of putting myself in a potentially risky situation. They're response.... "oh, the cab driver will help you."

Upon reflection on this situation, I realise now they probably should have been calling an ambulance, not a cab for this poor girl from Prague. She had come to the party alone. She couldn't name any of her friends. She couldn't tell us her roommates' names. She asked us what we had done to her. The consultants kept telling her that she did it to herself... that she had done the drinking. I now wonder if maybe there was something else she had ingested that night, and whether she was aware of it or not.

We managed to get what we thought was her address from Prague. I reluctantly took on the duty of getting them home, believing that they were going to be abandoned or else go with me.

Canada was still feeling ill, but was not given a plastic bag. This we realised was a big mistake all too late. The address we had gotten from Prague was 101. After driving around the neighbourhood, we quickly realised that 101 did not exist. Between 95 and 111 there was a school. By this time it was too late and the soil charge would be added to the fare.

At this point I was so glad we were in a van and that they were in the back and I was in the front.

Canada got dropped off finally. The cab driver made sure she got into the house which I was a little uncertain about, but gave in to as I knew Canada was lucid enough to WALK TALK and LAUGH (at my joke about her poor shoes). I stayed with P in the cab and tried to get more clues about the whereabouts of her house.

"It's above a dairy"
"Yellow house"
"Not by the school"

Above a dairy (cornershop).... She lived at #1.... not #101. I had her keys from her purse and luckily the cab driver walked her up the stairs. At this point she was coming around A LITTLE BIT. She went straight into the bathroom. I started knocking on doors in her flat, and found a roommate home. Another foreign traveller, but from Asia. He had broken English, but he understood what was going on. I was very serious and asked him if he could make sure she would be alright. I didn't know either one of them from a hole in the wall but that's that. I didn't know what else to do. At least by this point she was able to carry almost all of her weight alone and she was using full sentences. She was also aware of her belongings and made sure they were in her possession. Before I left I used her cellphone to dial my own number, so now I have her contact info saved.

By that point, I was completely sober and starting to take in the situation. I was, and still am, entirely frusterated that this kind of responsibility was dropped on me. Hudson Consultants threw the party and they knew I didn't know these two girls. They didn't want to take responsibility themselves and allowed me, a volunteer by absolute necessity, to take over.

Around 10 pm, both girls home, I asked the cab driver to take a detour on the way to my house, to the opposite side of the city, where Ryan lives (just charge it all to Hudson!). He also stopped at a service station to clean up a bit. (By the way, the next time you use one of those wipers to clean your windshield at a gas station... Remember that cabbies sometimes stop in the middle of the night to clean out unwanted fluids from the insides of their cars with it. Nice.)

I instructed the cab driver to keep the metre going (though I'm pretty sure he intended to anyways) and I ran inside. Before I could get two sentences out to tell Ryan where I had been, I broke into tears. The fatigue and the stress of the whole situation was just too overwhelming. (I'd been up for 19 hours on 3 hours sleep. woot.)

Ryan offered to take me home from there so I went out to sign the chit for the taxi driver. (A taxi chit is like a voucher that allows a company with a setup account to be charged for a fare.) The driver added a $150.00 soil charge the fare (heck ya!), and it was the first time I'd laughed since I'd gotten in the cab. Add on the actual fare of $50.10 and you suddenly don't feel quite as bad for the cabby. He was not in the best mood, but I thanked him sincerely and gave him wishes for his evening to get better. His reply, "Thanks, I'm gonna go do some cleaning now." haha.

This lack of regard and total indifference shown by the consultants towards the well-being of these two girls was unbelievable! That nobody else was willing to take care of two woman who were obviously unable to do it themselves.... mind-blowing.

I'm glad I was there, sickened that I had to be there, and angry at the whole situation.

I'll call P in a bit. Don't want to wake her too early. I really hope she is okay.

Let's Back it Up a Bit

2007-07-11T13:51:00.000+12:00

As many of you know, I recently (a month and a half ago) went to Tonga! If you haven't yet seen them, check out my pics by clicking on the following image:

Ryan and I spent 9 days travelling around the main island and out to the middle group of islands called Ha'apai. It was a crazy culture shock filled with new types of food, people, hygiene levels, passtimes and even new ideas of beauty. We saw beautiful beaches and walked through dark canopies of tropical trees. We saw colourful parrots and a pluthera of pigs and dogs, both wild and domesticated. There are pigs everywhere, even on the beach! Some of the food was a little strange... not as "Tongan" as we were expecting. One meal we ate included a bowl of hotdogs chopped up and mixed in with instant noodles... mmmmm, fantastic! ha.

Enjoy the photos, and if you want to know more after reading all those captions, drop me a line!

The weather here is freezing cold! I have my iGoogle set up to show me the weather both here and in Victoria... I'm very jealous of your 32 degrees today. It's high of 11 degrees here with showers and wind...

My temp position has been extended again and so I will be here working at MWH at least until the end of next week, YEAH MONEY!! I have no idea where it keeps disappearing to...

ooooh Canadaaaa!

2007-07-02T10:40:00.000+12:00

I was wondering yesterday (July 1st in NZ) if it still counted as Canada Day if it is July 1st while you are in a different time zone. Irregardless, I'm celebrating today, July 1st in Canada.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

As much fun as I might have travelling the world, Canada will always be home, and I will always be proud that I am able to call it so.

Machines and Paper

2007-06-27T12:58:00.000+12:00

Well, it's official. The day after I got back from Tonga, I got another temp positions from Hudson (Employment Agency). Yup. I am a word processor for MWH Wellington. They're some sort of international engineering consulting firm. They're nice people and Hudson pays me one NZD more an hour to work for them than Kiwibank. Essentially, it is exactly what I was asking for two entries ago, to work with machines and paper. The word is that my position is to end on the 29th of June, but rumour has it nobody has been hired to replace me. Being that I have not had that much work to do the past two weeks though, it may not be a requirement to have me here at all....

My friend Anthony is moving away for about 2 months starting on Friday morning. We met so randomly in a hostel almost 5 months ago, and now he's moving on. It's not SO SAD, as he will be back in Wellington before I leave, but still sad enough warrant mentioning to strangers who have never met Anthony at all.

Here is a silly picture of us doing a puzzle in the Cambridge hostel, days after we first met:

We look little bit silly and a little bit red in the face, but I don't have any more recent shots uploaded yet to use.

I'm abusing my internet access during my lunch break to post this blog entry. I will DEFINITELY miss my high speed internet when I am living at Anthony's. I will have to visit Ryan lots and LOTS! (for other reasons too of course!)

I just realised today just how far behind I am in my entries. So much has happened and you have been told so little about it all. Hopefully this will be remedied quickly. It should be pretty easy considering Ryan will be away for two weeks and I will need something to do! haha

Cheers to you and to posts to come!

GUESS WHAT?????!!!!

2007-05-31T17:56:00.000+12:00

I'm BAAAaaaAAACK!!

What a fantastic 9 days! Real post with pictures to come soon :) Right now I'm too busy trying to handle winter again by snuggling in my new scarf and toque with the heated blanket on!

Edit: For Irf's (and any others who were confused) clarification... I am back in New Zealand from Tonga. Sorry, I'm not back in Canada yet.

Picture Postage

2007-05-04T08:40:00.000+12:00

Here it is! The entry you’ve all been waiting for! Da Pictures Da Pictures!!!
First up, a quick shot of the potluck night :

Left to Right: Ryan, Griet, Sashe, Nicholas (front), Anthony, Jade, Stephan, Lou
By Country, Left to Right: Portland, Oregon; Belgium, Brazil, Netherlands, England, England, Germany, Canada
It was definitely a delicious encounter with friends from around the world. It really felt very Wellington-esque.
Also, in follow-up with one of the previous entries…. Pictures of the Rimutaka Incline trail!!
This is Ryan on one of the old bridges… he likes bridges. What a foamer:

We made it to the top after a lovely ascent. When we got there, the rest of the group was enjoying a luxurious lunch by some old rusted out train bits. There was still coal in the old coal carrier:

That's Alex (back left), and Amy (front). They're Ryan's roommates (and I guess, mine too). The other guy is Amy's Dad. I'm not sure if I've ever been introduced to him by his name.

This is Ben and Ryan. Ben, Alex and Ryan all work at OnTrack together. That's the New Zealand Railroad Company. They're all foamers, but Ryan is in denial.

Now, an old railway route isn't complete without ….

TUNNELS!!!

This tunnel was almost a kilometre in length and we didn't have any lights. As you travelled through the tunnel it gets darker and darker, and your senses would start to get really confused. It was hard to stay balanced on the bike, especially while not knowing the whereabouts of the tunnel walls! It was very spooky to journey through, but very invigorating at the same time. Though, I wasn't helping myself much by wearing my sunglasses by accident during my first run through the tunnel! I'm the smartest woman ALIVE!!!

Half way through the tunnel, the slant in the trail switches to a downhill as opposed to up. You emerge at the edge of an overgrown slope of native and non-native flora. Ben and Alex had come up so they could go down to the bottom of the bank to find an old train wreck. The rest of us waited aloft on the trail for them to get back, except for Ryan who took off down the hill to experience the rest of the trail.

The rest of us didn't want to go because where there is a nice run DOWN the hill, there is a nice long hike to get back UP. Instead we went for a walk to the gorge. It reminded me a bit of Kananaskis in the Rocky Mountains:

Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada:

It looks a bit doom-like too.

Rimutaka Gorge, Greater Wellington, New Zealand:

When Ryan got back we were still waiting for Alex and Ben to find the train. We blew grass and owl hooted to try and get their attention.

When they actually found the train, Ryan and I braved the decent down the bushy bank to check out the Train skeleton.

Cow Catcher

Oooooh the mystery, how did this train get here?

What we ended up finding was large mass of twisted rusty metal sticking out of the bank. It was really cool. It had just been stripped and pushed down the bank when the rail company had no more use for it. Maybe it's helping to hold up the bank? Hehe.

It was a brilliant day to be up in the mountains. My boss told me after I got back that I was really lucky with the weather. Apparently the area can get pretty high winds and frequent rain. But not for us on that day! It was absolutely beautiful!

In the next two weeks to follow, we went:

To a Waka Ama Barbeque:

A 'waka' is a boat, in Maori, and 'ama' means 'outrigger.'

To say goodbye to a friend.

This is Sophia from Germany. This is how we want to remember her!

On a hike along the Skyline Walkway, just outside of Wellington:

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

The view from the top was absolutely spectacular. This is looking south at the northern tip of the South Island of New Zealand. The sun combined with the water and the crackled clouds was breath taking. This photo hardly grasps the full beauty of the moment.

We also went Geocaching while we were up there. It's actually how we decided to go on this hike in the first place! We found this guy inside the cache box and decided to let him out to check out the view for a while. He seemed to enjoy it. Just check out that smile on his face!

This catches me up to the end of last week! Aikes. I hope you enjoyed it and that loading all of these pictures didn't make your PC explode.

Ta

Hot Fuzz Part Deux

2007-05-04T08:22:00.000+12:00

After watching the movie Hot Fuzz, Ryan did a bit of net research on the actors and actresses involved. If you haven't seen the movie this might not make sense to you, but I found it to be pretty interesting :)

**Disclaimer: the following may be considered a spoiler by some readers, proceed with caution

In one of the first scenes of the movie, you encounter the main character's ex-girlfriend. She is covered from head to toe, wears a paper mask over her mouth and nose and goggles over her eyes. You can't tell when you're watching the movie, but that's actually Cate Blanchett! Hehe.

Another cameo you might miss if you blink is Peter Jackson as Santa Claus! He stabs the main character during a flashback scene! Great fun!

**

I think I'm going to quit my job at the Kiwibank soon. Had a very disturbing call yesterday..... I won't go into it. Kept me up last night though. This kind of thing isn't my kind of job. I care way too much about everything to not let these things bother me. I should find a nice job working with machines and paper.

x

Hot Fuzz

2007-05-01T12:04:00.000+12:00

Went out to see Hot Fuzz on Sunday :) It was great fun! Very similar in style and humour to Shaun of the Dead, as to be expected. GO SEE IT IF YOU HAVEN'T YET. ('course, it probably came out in North America 5 months ago and is already out on DVD. Everybody here is excited about Spiderman 3 coming out at the same time here as it is everywhere else, what a treat!)

Speaking of Shaun of the Dead, this bank job is sucking my soul dry. I got yelled at repeatedly yesterday by multiple customers for pretty much nothing at all. I'm really not an evil person and there is no need to patronize me, be vindictive towards me, or treat me like I'm the jerk who runs things and is managing YOUR account poorly. Sorry, but I just don't deserve that.

Gah. Yesterday was a bad day. Today, I have my armour on, but it's still pretty thin anyways. I'm so glad I am going to Tonga in May, which is preceded by a wedding. This means that my job at Kiwibank will officially end on May 17th! That's right, less than 13 more working days left to go!! F*ck YA!!!

I think I'll do something a little less stressful when I get back from the islands. Sanity is more important.

Pictures still being updated... so many to go through, but I hope to post some more here soon. If you want a sneak preview, click on the link on the right. A lot of them aren't named or sorted yet, but have at 'er. Cheerio!

p.s. I'm at work while I'm writing this. They block the strangest sites, but luckily, not this one :)

Hurricanes! v. 2.0

2007-04-15T20:04:00.000+12:00

After last night's fiasco of writing a novel length entry only to have a web crash of unknown origins cause me to lose the entire thing, I have finally regained my calm long enough to make a second attempt.

I haven't written much lately, mainly because I seemed to have settled in. It's funny how much a blog cools off when the things you do start to feel too normal to write about.

In truth, however, I have been up to many great adventures with Ryan and many of my other friends here in NZ. I laugh when I read about scrimping and saving. Since I wrote that my spending has gone from bad to worse. But it's all for things I need to experience or have wanted to do. For example, I bought theatre tickets for Ryan and I to go and see Fiddler On The Roof. For some of you, this is not all that exciting, but to me, it is something that thrills me to no end! When I saw the advertisement for it, it reminded me of my childhood when I used to go to the community theatre with my mom and sisters and sometimes my dad. Fiddler on the roof was one of my all time favs. The mother of one of my childhood friends played the matchmaker and it was a brilliant show. The man playing the main male character in this version is the same guy that starred in the movie, about 30 years ago!! So brilliant! He's still going and he's still gettin rave reviews!

In addition to my spending I have also been getting out and seeing more of wellington. I have experienced some DELICIOUS food festivals, though we missed a few as well. We arrived at the Indian Festival just as they were folding up the tables and taking the garbage out.... oops, guess we should have done a little more research! hehe.

Another great way for me to get to know Wellington and the surrounding areas has been MORE GEOCACHING!!! We recently did a nighttime geocache in which we used a flashlight (here, they call it a torch) to follow a path of firedots through a park. Firedots are tiny reflective dots that are about one cm in diameter, but are HIGHLY reflective. They are stashed amongst the trees and you can only find them if you stand next to the last dot you've found. It was kind of creepy at times, but still superbly brilliant.

Just last weekend, Ryan and I sailed the seas with a bunch of drunken pirates. ok, ok, so we were on a boat with a bunch of people who were dressed like pirates for a going away party. We cruised around the harbour and around the peninsula for about three hours in a NZ Herald cruiser boat. It seats about 25 inside and has a jukebox and a bar! :D Nick and Ang are heading off to the UK for a year or two and wanted to go out with a bang and what a great time it was! I didn't really know them all too well, but they were good friends of Ryan's and I felt very lucky to have been included in the experience!

Speaking of getting included in the experience, two of our friends here are getting married here in a month!! And lucky me, I get to go because of Ryan. But I have spent quite a bit of time with the couple am thrilled to get to go! It might ease a bit of the anguish I feel over missing the wedding of two beloved friends back home.

It seems I'm going to stick out the full year here in Aotearoa. I plan to see some of the pacific islands and bits of australia over the winter, then I'll finish off my tour of NZ in November before I come back home. Stretching my visa to the limit, for sure. I realize that this plan will mean I get two winters in a row and I will miss out on some pretty milestone moments in a lot of my friends lives. At least two weddings, graduations, UBC starters and finishers.... The world is going to change so much without me around to watch and celebrate it. But this is something I gotta do. So far, it has been the most uplifting and eye opening experience of my life. I have met amazing people and learned an unquantifiable amount of knowledge about the world and the people in it, including myself.

Friday night, I got to experience my first NZ Rugby match! I live 20 minutes away from the stadium and it took me two months to get there! It was brilliant!! I went with my English friend Anthony, and Ryan. The game was full of everything it needed to be a really great game to witness, including break aways, minor misses, arguably poor reffing, huge plays and huge screw ups. My eyes were shining with excitement by the time is all wound down, despite the fact that it was freezing out. Good thing we knew the stadium was outdoors, so Ryan and I layered up with polypro, sweaters, jackets, toques, scarves and gloves. Despite our efforts however, by the end of the game we were still FRRREEEZING!! We warmed up over chocolate cake and hot drinks.

Yesterday, Ryan and I met up with Sashe and Griet (the couple getting married) and had lunch at our favourite spot, The Market. It is an old building down near the waterfront with a little foodcoart inside. It is more like some kind of ethnic fair though, with each stall containing food from different areas of the world, from chinese and japanese to Mexican and lebanese. I had sushi :) YUM!! Not quite Kotos from back home in Campbell River, but still pretty damn tasty. After, we went ring shopping at a jewelry store where a replica of "the ONE RING" is kept safely behind glass. So cool. It fit Ryan perfectly :) Not that we were trying on rings or anything too..

We rounded off the near perfect day by celebrating Ryan's one year in Wellington with a pot luck. I keep taking for granted the fact that despite the similarities, New Zealand and Canada still differ culturally. Not to mention, England, Germany, Norway, Brazil and Belgium differ as well, all in the same way..... We had to tell everybody invited what a pot luck actually was!! haha! It made for an interesting text to Anthony because I accidentally sent him the message " a pot luck is when everybody brings their favourite fish to share with the group." Ooops. Still getting used to the predictive text. Who would have thought that the sentence would still make sense. He didn't bring fish after all the jibing for my misspelling, but it was still highly amusing.

The night was a pure success. Everybody brought excellent food, everybody drank too much wine and everybody had a wonderful time!!!

Today, Ryan and I and two of his roommates and a coworker/friend and one of his roommate's dad all went out Mt. Biking in the Rimutakas, a mountain range where the old railroad used to travel through. We rode along where the old track used to lay, so the grade was slowly rising, but never steep, and the path was wide and flat. IT was PERFECT!!! It was an absolutely gorgeous day and on the way back it was like one endless downhill!!! There were some other highlights, but they are best described with pictures, so that update is to come.

Phew! What an update. Thanks for reading! Needless to say, I'm doing well!

News?

2007-03-20T17:57:00.000+12:00

Hello! I am alive. I am well. I am working full time and spending my weekends gallivanting around the North Island! I apologize for my slowness in updates and still existing delays in posting pictures.

There was a Chinese New Year Celebration here in Wellington, which absolutely made my week! It wasn't extremely huge or anything, but it was definitely different. Lots of Chinese food and goods for sale. Funny though as many of the vendors (or a larger ratio than I was expecting) were Caucasian, not even asian at all. Strange. They were selling everything from calendars to postcards, to chinese ricefield hats, to calligraphy. I got my year (the dog) and my chinese name on a mini canvas. I love it. I wish I could have gotten one for my sisters too, but I didn't have enough money.

Two weekends ago I climbed Mt.Ruapehu. If you were to google that name you'd come up with a whole shwack of news about the Lahar (breach in the side of the lake on top of the mountain that causes massive mudslide) that happen on sunday. Yup. I was standing on top of that mountain just 8 days before the lake spilled 1.3 million square metres of sulphurous water down its slope. So cool. It could have been dangerous and scary, but there were no injuries and no major structural damage. Something about how the lahar originated that made it less violent than it could have been.

The mountain climb was invigorating, terrifying and satisfying. The views from the top were fantastic and we got to slide half way back down the mountain on a snow slide. I sat on a gortex jacket and just flew down the face of the mountain it was brilliant!! It took us four hours to climb up, and only one hour to get back down! haha! So much fun. Not to mention we made it back in time to catch the ski lifts back down to the parking lot :D

This past weekend I went up to Napier to say goodbye to my friend Miriam, who I have posted about before. She has finished her tour of the South Island and is currently making her way up the East Cape, around the bay of plenty towards Auckland and her flight back home to Germany. Ryan and I drove up on saturday and returned on Sunday. It was 5 hours up and the same back. What a whirlwind trip, but we are both really glad we went :D

I'm still trying to find a new place to live. I was turned down for another place on sunday. I guess I'll just have to keep my search going.

Work has been getting pretty interesting. We are temps and we are only trained to do and help with certain things. Thus, we are forced to ask for a lot of support from our surrounding reps and supervisors. It's a might bit ridiculous, but we accept our situation and the people around us are still being gracious with helpful answers. I was yelled at yesterday by a lady in her 60s. She was trying to get information on her mother's account and I couldn't do that because I couldn't bring up the right information to validate her as an authority on the count (aka, couldn't give her security clearance). It was a really scary experience and I had to take a break afterwards. It's not nice to feel like you've been told off by a grandmother. You just feel more guilty or something than you should.

Despite the fact that I have completed four weeks of work and will be receiving my third pay cheque tomorrow, I am still barely making any money. All of my weekend trips keep sucking me dry. I have decided to lie low this weekend and try to scrimp a bit. Mr. Visa is hungry and soon.... very soon I will need to feed him.

Cheers to my friends and my family near and far. Without your support I would not be here, doing these things, seeing these sights and experiencing this adventure.

Time Flies...

2007-03-05T20:54:00.000+13:00

WOW. It is already March and I was just starting to get used to the fact that it was february.

I spent the week of the 20th to the 27th in Queenstown with Tia. What a brilliant week! It was so quick though I can hardly believe it happened. We were extremely happy to see each other though. There is something to be said about what family can bring to your life that nobody else can. I have been truly blessed with wonderful family. We kayaked in dodgy kayaks in high winds. We hiked up a hill and snuck a free ride back down on the gondola. We sunbathed, and ate out. We bussed to Wanaka and Mountain biked around the town and surrounding area. We went to Puzzling world and to Rippon Winery. The day was so good that we stayed past the last bus. We decided to hitch back and after an hour of no luck we fortuatously caught a ride with a middle aged mother of four on a business trip to Queenstown. Perfect. Beautiful day to be out. We also went to Milford Sound. Toured in a bus on the way down, and boated out into the fiord. It was really quite beautiful out there. Felt a lot like BC but a little more dramatic with it's glacier carved mountain side. I miss Tia quite a bit now. Tis the season to be missing family harshly. But I feel very blessed to have had that time with her. Her friends that put us up were brilliant as well. Putting us up in their newly renovated house with a view of the lake and mountains. They bought us food and drinks and drove us to really cool places around town.

Since I've been back I have started working for Kiwibank. A relatively young NZ bank that operates out of the postshops (post offices, really). I have only three more days of training then I am off like a lamb to slaughter. Not really. My trainers and phone coaches are extremely knowledgable helpful and friendly. I'll be just fine.

Now it's movie and dessert time again. Ryan and I seem to be doing that quite often these days. Perfect way to round off a summer day I think.

LOVE AND HUGS! Cheers

Queenstown

2007-02-21T16:01:00.000+13:00

A few weeks ago I found out that my sister Tia was going to be coming to New Zealand. She was going to be in Queenstown for like ten days. After much debate and research I finally bit the bullet and bought a plane ticket. I am now in Queenstown sitting in an internet cafe while my sister is on the computer next to me. It feels SOOOOO GOOOD to have family around. It's so natural and relaxed. It feels like I just saw her yesterday, instead of LAST YEAR.

I was really getting to that home sick and tired phase and now everything has switched for the better. I have a job starting the day after I get back to wellington. It is working in a call center for Kiwibank. Inbound calls only, so it will be inquiries mostly. I should be fine as long as i am quick to learn the policies. I will be paid well, it will be in the Central Business District, so should be easy to get to no matter where I find my flat, even though I am really loving where I am staying now, I can't be a freeloader forever.

I have a boyfriend. I am seeing more of the country. I can finally say that I have been to the South Island now! I am in Queenstown!! So beautiful here. The weather is hot and the lake is lovely. We have a view from the house that we are staying at that allows us to see the sun set and the sun rise, as well as a daily view of the lake and the mountains opposite the town. Seriously. This is happy Crys to the maximum.

Will hopefully update with pictures soon. Cheers!

Happy Valentine's Day Ever-body!

2007-02-15T16:03:00.000+13:00

Well.... Where do I start? I have been keeping it a secret from most of you, but it seems the perfect holiday to break the news. For the first time ever. I have a valentine. A real male female partner relationship type valentine!

His name is Ryan.

This is an update of the last week or so, and about how I met him.

My friend Miriam is from Germany and she has a car, so on one of her days off from work, we went out to a beach to relax and tan on the sand. This is the day we had:

None of them really need any explanation. It was beautiful and there were quite a few little families and people around to watch and secretly photograph.

We ended the day with Fish and Chips at the top of a hill overlooking a bay. We had fish and chips, a massive portion, for only $4 each!! It was real, fresh battered stuff too.

The whole rest of the week was a blur. I was trying to find work but to no avail. I went out to a bar called Shooters, it was a little like the sticky wicket in Victoria. I met a couple new people there including a guy named Ryan, from Portland. I had a great time and was invited with a few of the others to come to his house for HOME MADE PIZZA. You can see how well this is all going already.

I wish I had taken more photos that night, so I could showcase the pizza. Seriously guys. You think my pizza is good, you should try his! Maybe it is the pizza stone he uses? Or something... I'm going to nab his dough recipe.

We had our first official date on Saturday. He introduced me to geocaching. This is an ultimately geeky but totally awesome hobby... What happens is you go online and find co-ordinates that you program into a GPS. Then you go out and hunt for the mystery "cache" or box. Inside you find a log of the people who have found it, then you find miscellaneous toys and trinkets that people have left behind. You write a note and leave something new or exchange it for something already there. Anything you find is free for the taking. Then you re hide the cache back in its spot so somebody else can find it. It's like treasure hunting for grownups. I LOVED IT!!! We went all over town and found FOUR caches. The last of the four was found at Red Rocks. A beautiful area on the edge of a scree covered slope overlooking the water.

The next day we went to the zoo:

Cotton-Top Tamarins:

Funny Signs:

Good Company:

RED PANDAS!!!!!

These guys were so cute. They bumbled around like koalas, but without the hooked hands so they could amble around on land. We saw them in the mid afternoon which is when they are most active. SO COOL. I WANT ONE!! I guess I'll just HAVE to go to Nepal now, seeing as how that is where they are from.

When I was researching for my trip to New Zealand, the Wellington Zoo was on my list of places to go. These guys were on the top of my list for animals to see.

Yup. So Ryan and I have been pretty much inseparable since. He's a really great guy. We have very similar senses of humour. We have a lot of interests in common too. He is an awesome cook! I just... he's just.... I don't know where he came from, but I think I'll keep him around for a while. I wish you could all meet him. Maybe someday you will?

Miss you all!

Take care.

Ketchup-Catch up

2007-02-06T14:33:00.000+13:00

Photo post:

Luging in Rotorua. You pay to get to the top on the gondola, then you get free rides back up on the ski lift after you luge down! It was an awesome day. Definitely value-for-money as Sam and Julie might say.

That's Dave in the front car with Julie. He was in our dorm room and joined us for the day of hill racing. He is from England. SO MANY BRITS HERE!!

On the way to Taupo, we whitewater rafted. We didn't pay for the picture CD. I wish I had now, but to keep with my theme, NO REGRETS. It was a blast, but highly commercialized. I wish the river was longer and wilder.

No pics posted from Taupo, though they do exist. We stayed there three days doing nothing other than rock climb and minigolf while we awaited clear skies for skydiving. The stray bus continued on to Wellington on one of the hottest days we'd seen in a while. Luckily, the air conditioning on the bus had broken as well. It was also the day we got to check out a bunch of geothermal activity. Ya, that's right. Kerosene Creek, a naturally heated stream, aka Hot water on a hot day:

We also stopped and saw bubbling mud, but yet again, no pics to post at the moment... I only loaded so many and now I don't have the cd with me.

Next up:

I think this is the worlds largest waterfall... as in the most amount of water flowing from it, for its type or something. It's the world's largest something, but I can't remember what, it's definitely not the highest:

Wellington, FINALLY. We arrived about two weeks ago. We partied hard when we got here. It was the first place we'd seen with a night life after 8 pm since we left Auckland! Here's the gang goofing off at the park:

We rode the Cable Car too, it is one of the big attractions in Wellington. It's like getting a piggy-back ride on an 80 year old granny. erm... but not:

It was late when we got to the top and to the Botanic Gardens. This is Wellington at dusk:

We were just about to head into the gardens when we were distracted by voices from on top of this tree:

The tripping tree, they called it. It was full of young adults smoking and chatting and enjoying the view. It reminded of the tree in my grandma's front yard when we were growing up, in that you could sit on top of the branches and look out. Though the one in my grandma's yard was only about 4 metres high and didn't have anybody smoking in it.

Another view of Wellington from the Botanic Gardens:

Once my gaggle of friends disappeared to the south island... sad... I signed up with a temping agency and on my way over I saw this in the bay:

He was just gliding along the surface in slow motion. He was so calm and cool. I have never seen a stingray in the wild before.

Despite the disappearance of great people. I have made new friends since. This is Nick from England, but he is now a kiwi, Anke from Netherlands, and Neil from NZ:

The boys are still here in Wellington, but Anke has continued on to Napier.

This last weekend was SEVENS weekend. It was huge! it's a huge two-day Rugby event in which teams from all around the world come to compete. It is a fast paced game, 15 min instead of 80 and you play 7 players against 7 players. It is like speed rugby on Crack!! so exciting! I didn't have tickets, but I got to watch some on TV. In addition to a lot of Rugby excitement, there is also a huge two day party where everybody dresses in costume and roams the streets of Wellington. I didn't get to many shots of costumes, but it was crazier than any halloween I have seen before. Flintstones, cowboys, Borats gallore!! Here are a few shots to show how busy the city was:

You have to realise that this is a street that is usually only dotted with a few groups of people this late at night. It was about 2:30 am and I was on my way home!!! can you imagine what it was like at its peak? Too much for me. I had to go home and sleep! But it was crazy fun while it lasted. I am glad I made new friends for it.

This is my good friend Miriam from Germany, we went to the beach together yesterday and had a blast laying in the sun and treating ourselves to FOUR DOLLAR FISH AND CHIPS!!! They were delicious and the serving was HUGE!!!! That's like $3.30 Canadian. I should have taken a photo. This photo is actually from two days ago when we walked around town enjoying the day:

We also walked through civic centre, where this famous centrepiece (everybody takes photos of it) lives:

and that brings me to today. Waitangi day. It is a national holiday here in NZ. What a perfect day to try and do some job hunting! haha. Wish me luck!!

Welling-town and up to now

2007-01-31T22:18:00.000+13:00

I am so completely behind on my entries. I don't know where to begin. I guess I will just drop in a few photos of the past couple weeks. These weeks I will call "The Julie Sam and Chantelle days," because without them, none of this fun would have been had.

We stayed in a really cool hostel in Waitomo, two weeks ago. It was called Juno hall, and they had a pig and a deer and some goats. Here are Julie and Sam making friendly with the animals:

He was not soft at all. His hair was tough like petting a shoe brush!

My caving experience, was absolutely brilliant. This is the crew I went down with:

Three New Zealand guys, whose names I regrettably have forgotten (Jason?), Silke and Maria, Terry and Peter (from Korea), and our two guides out front Regan and "Snappy."

We filled the second afternoon by watching very fuzzy rabbits get shorn.

Don't feel bad for the rabbit getting put on the stretcher. They will overheat and die if they are not shorn four times a year!! They also won't mate until after they are shorn either. Strange little creatures. So used to living up in the Paresian mountains then some foreigner thought it would be fun to raise them in New Zealand!!

After all the caving and full-on excitement of Angora rabbit shearing, we discovered it was a pretty sleepy town, so we entertained ourselved by taking photos of sleepy cows on the horizon. I think between the four of us, we took about 20 photos!! haha. Four tourists on the side of the road at dusk snapping photos of stinky cows. But in our defence, it did look pretty cool:

We hung out with Regan, my caving guide, that night at the one pub in town:

Later that night he took us out on a night walk through the woods (along a trail) to see glow worms. The sky was so clear too so you could see the stars and the glowing gnat larvae... it was all very magical. Regan is a pretty cool guy. We were all really greatful for the journey out there.

We finally made it out of Waitomo. The stray bus driver had to beg me a ride on another bus just so I could get into rotorua. Unfortunately, that meant I missed out on getting to see Julie go Zorbing. Ya, that's right she paid to have herself flung down a hill in a big plastic ball with a bucket of water dumped in it!

Damn. I wish I had gotten to see that!!!

Oh well, maybe on the way back up the island... sigh. I hate saying that.

Anyways. I need to close this entry as the internet cafe is closing. I guess it is a good thing as I have already spent $7 on internet time as it is. So much more to say!! I wish I had time to say it.

Til next time. love you and miss you all!

Whirlwind

2007-01-23T14:25:00.000+13:00

sooo much has happened in the last week. I can't load pics at the moment, so you'll have to use your imagination.

I have been to Hahei on the coromandel peninsula.
The bus broke down twice on the way there.
Then the bus broke down again on the way to Raglan. This time instead of sitting on the side of the road for two hours like last time, we sat around for an hour and half outside a supermarket. At least it was next to the river and had park with a bunch of mangroves surrounding. Raglan is one of the top surf beaches in New Zealand. I didn't surf but I did hike :) Went up to search for a lookout point that didn't exist. haha. We peered through the trees while standing on boulders to see a glimpse of the city and the sea.
Next day we (this means, me and the bus tour group I was with) went to Waitomo!!! One of my goal destinations. I signed up for a blackwater rafting trip with a company that my bus company didn't work with, so I set myself up to stay the night. I went black water rafting THAT day. If you don't know what blackwater rafting is. I'll try to explain. It's underground river travel basically. So, spalunking with tubing, flying fox, 30 metre abseil, and rock climbing up waterfalls. All this was enhanced by the glow worms. Tiny gnat larvae that glow to attract their prey and trap them in sticky webs. It was brilliant! I could have stayed down there all day long if it wasn't so FREEZING!!! I was shaking like a leaf! They stopped and gave us hot things to drink, and I was shivering so much my cup almost fell out of my hand! The tour I was on was called The Black Abyss. It was 5 hours underground with two guides. Our guides were awesome. They all wore funky speedos/bikini bottoms over top of their wetsuits. I really liked the trip and am so glad I did it!

I had planned to split with my new hostel mates the next day. While they were out blackwater rafting the next day, I sat on the side of the road waiting for a bus that never came. Two hours and three phonecalls later... still no bus, and no answer. I was CHOKED. They paid for my additional night in the hostel, but this also meant being way-laid for meeting my friend Chris in Rotorua. We won't touch that one though. I was too overwhelmed by that to really talk about it on here.

I got a good laugh when my hostel mates (Sam, Julie and Chantelle) got back and there I was just treking back up the hill to the hostel.

Turns out the bus had broke down again! And nobody bothered to inform me. I had a great time hanging out with the crew at the one pub in the tiny town that closed between 1130 and midnight every day ! haha. I swear we must have woken up the town on the way home. It's a really neat little place, Waitomo. It reminded me of Quadra Island as you could see every star in the sky on a clear night.

We made it to Rotorua the next day. There, we went luging ! rode a gondola up a hill and rode down on these rickety plastic luge carts! it was great!

And yesterday... I... WENT WHITE WATER RAFTING!!! this I have no proof of because they wanted to charge a lot of money for our photos. IT was a really great experience though. We rode over a 7 metre waterfall which is the worlds HIGHEST commercially ridden waterfall. Yup. I did that.

We checked out some more geothermal activity on our way to Taupo. We hit up Kerosene Creek which looks like a regular river but the water is SUPER warm!! Like a freshly drawn bath!! Seriously. We were there on a super hot day and it was so disappointing to stick your feet in HOT water!! We also saw some bubbling mud pools. I can't remember what they were called, but they bubbled and boiled and shplooshed all over. It was really cool.

Taupo is where you will find New Zealand's largest lake and cheapest skydiving! I might check out the lake, and I will be the photographer when the other three jump out of the plane. Besides not being able to afford the $500 ride, it just might not be my kind of adrenaline rush. Give me back the caves or the river ANY DAY though!!

I am still so excited about all the things I have done. I almost didn't get to do any of those things that I wanted to, as teh bus broke down soooo many times that I kept missing out on activities and being left behind. So I called Stray.... that's the name of the bus company. They upgraded my pass to include my trip all the way to wellington and back to auckland. That's a good $170 bonus on top of my pass. I'll take it! so things are going forward a lot more smoothly now.

AH! lovin' it. Miss you all! Cheers!

Auckland City War Museum and New Years!

2007-01-15T17:43:00.000+13:00

I'll try to make this as quick and descriptive as possible :) Sonia and I had a blast on the saturday, then come sunday we thought we'd try to hit the museum AND the zoo in one day. HA. We got to the museum and it was HUGE!!!

The museum is usually free with a highly recommended $5 donation. However, we dug into our wallets and paid the extra to get to see the Maori performance:

The performance showcased traditional Maori song and dance, which oddly enough includes the guitar instrument (since the late 1800s), weapons demonstrations and the HAKA!

This guy was great:

The museum was full of amazing things and by the end of it we were extremely tired and giddy. Some of the highlights included:

Maori Carvings and instruments. The instruments below were very similar to the ones Riki played for us at the Rangers' station.

There was a huge display on Volcanic activity, seeing as how that's what New Zealand geography is all made up of. We got to pick up rocks, and see a real casting of a Pompeii victim. THAT was cool.

We learned about it in grade school, but actually seeing this really put it into perspective. What a horrific way to go....

We even got to experience an imitation eruption! They herded us into a little fake living room and we got a 5 minute demo on what the end of auckland would feel like, including fake news broadcast, a bit of shaking (lame compared to what I was expecting), power outage, and a "view" of the harbour as it erupted. It was pretty cool. I was a bit afraid to go in, but then after was disappointed at how gentle they were on us. I guess it's a museum, not a theme park, afterall!

There was also a whole bunch of information on old fashioned dress, food and lifestyle. They had a stuffed elephant in this exhibit as well, which I thought was odd. It was an elephant who just didn't make the cut when it came to being ridable at the auckland zoo (funny that, being a wild animal) so they killed him and stuffed him and put him on display, then retired him to the basement. His name was Rajah, and I never took a photo. Maybe it was too sad. We cheered up quickly when we found the giant wall of candy:

The giant "swimming pool":

The giant moa (the feather's were harvested from kiwis, not actual moas, they are extinct):

The giant weta insects (yes, they still exist that size here today):

The giant plane:

And, then we got sad again at the giant war memorial:

An entire floor dedicated to the wars fought by New Zealanders. Including both World Wars.

We ended up getting so tired by the end that we started imitating carvings from the pacific islands:

It was a great adventure, even if we didn't have time for the zoo, but that's ok, we saw a bunch of live animals at the museum! Such as an octopus, cockroaches, stick insects, fish, crayfish, seahorses and:

Frogs

We also saw some "not so alive" animals as well:

Kiwi Bird!!! If you ignore the glass in the corner, and the little indicator number, it looks just like we really saw him in the wild! or.. at least that's what we tell ourselves...

Ferret, Weasel and stoats. The weasel is the smallest and is about the height of an unsharpened pencil.

After the museum I rushed home, packed my bag and met Sonia back at the hostel. We got all glammed up and then went out to the local backpackers club. It was an interesting night full of interesting people, but we still had a great time with each other. Don't we look spectacular?

Haha! All the best to you all throughout this year! HUGS!!

Waiheke Island and The Fiddler

2007-01-12T10:28:00.000+13:00

After the first week of CVNZ, Sonia and I were thick as thieves. She was planning to see as much as possible while she was in New Zealand, so that meant packing her weekends full of activities. When she mentioned going to Waiheke Island on Saturday, I jumped at the chance to join her!

We paid $42 each for our Waiheke trip. It included the return ferry ride, a bus tour and all day bus rides on the local transit. It seemed like a good deal at the time. Little did we know that there is NOTHING to do on Waiheke, especially when it is cloudy, except spend money. We were going to go to have a "snack" at a pub at Onetangi beach but discovered that a "snack" would cost us like $20 each! yuck. So we made our own fun on the beach instead:

It was a beautiful island though and the tour guide was kind of funny. He kept telling us about how much money people spent on houses and the like. One guy just sold his peninsula for $12 million:

The closer peninsula is an old Maori Pa site. It's the one in the background that sold... Speaking of which I've been meaning to sell MY peninsula... I should get on that... ha.

Despite the lack of activity, which I suppose was mostly due to the weather, we did manage to appreciate Waiheke's never ending views:

Nude Beach:

Not Nude Beach, aka Palm Beach:

It is generally known, when two beaches are side by side... the left one is the nude one.

"Turtle Islands":

We tried to go to a market, but it ended up being closed just before we got there. We have such great timing really. But that's ok, because I walked to a shop nearby and bought a disc (aka frisbee)... which I still haven't used. We went into a different little town centre and bought ourselves lunch. Sandwiches and Sonia had a Chocolate milkshake:

They had pictures of this store on t-shirts so I took a picture of it because it must be important:

Then we headed back to the ferry. We are glad we went to Waiheke, but we are doubly glad that we went with each other because we were what made it interesting for us to go... not to make you think Sonia and I are full of ego. Even if we are awesome, and... oh... right, back to blog. We caught the five o'clock ferry, checked out the infamous sculpture on the hill that I thought looked like enormous pieces of discarded duct tape, and headed home:

We lasted about 30 seconds on the rooftop of the ferry before we ran for cover. We almost got blown off the boat while trying to make it down the stairs. It probably didn't help that we were laughing so hard! haha!

After we got back to Auckland we decided to hit the town:

The Fiddler:

Me, Mike, Rich and Sonia

Now, when Mike came by the pub, Sonia and I were sitting in the window, he waltzed in with his backpack and all. He got a beer, ditched his bag and though he had the choice of the entirely empty bar, he asked to sit at the last window seat next to us. I suppose it's what any bright guy would do really, but I still think he's great for it.

They had currency from around the globe stuck to all the walls and ceilings around the bar. Though they had real Canadian elsewhere, I was most amused to discover Canadian Tire money!!

We met guys who worked for Cirque Du Soleil, setting up the rigging and all the technical end of things. Some were cool, most were kind of greasy or egotistical. Guilliam was cool, he is from Quebec and was the one who pointed out the Canadian Tire money to me! hehe :

Greasy ones:

We had a really good time that night:

Mike was a young lawyer from California who had just been practicing in New York and was on his way to Australia. Rich was his friend that came to pick him up. They hadn't seen each other in 6 years, and we got party with them a little bit for their reunion. They were our favourite people in the place.

I'm so glad I met Sonia, she really made that day the awesome that it was.

Week One with Conservation Volunteers New Zealand

2007-01-10T14:33:00.000+13:00

On boxing day morning, I rose early and met up with my team at the Britomart (big bus and train station downtown) to head out and do some volunteer work. When I got there, however, the huge team I had heard rumoured to be coming had been reduced to myself, a 57 year old man named Graham and our 23 year old team leader Sonia! haha! Everybody else had canceled at the last minute. Sad for them though, because I had a brilliant time! Besides, it meant there would be more food to split between the three of us :D

The first day we went out to Hunua Ranges Regional Park, southeast of Auckland. We were originally supposed to be hiking out to the mountains to clear drainage ways along the trail system, but because we were such a small group we stuck around the volunteer house. We tore down the chicken coup and weeded vines from the trees along the roadside!! go conservation nz!!

This the edge of the volunteer house. The coup was just to the right of the shed, and we removed vines from the trees on the right side of that!:

Sonia and Graham at Hunua Falls

We only spent one day in Hunua, then we headed North past Auckland again and then to the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. Aritaki Visitor Centre, on the way to the Rangers' Station:

The grey sky, was more brilliant grey/blue in real life, but the view can still be admired behind me in the frame. It looks out onto Lower Nihotupu Dam and Big Muddy Creek.

This well endowed Maori Pou(guardian post)(not to be confused with a totem pole, we ain't in North America!) was the centerpiece of the centre, though there were loads of interesting features inside as well.

We got a little lost on the way to the Rangers' station so we pulled into a golf course to ask for help. That's where I spotted this car:

It was raining the day we arrived so we just got to meet the Rangers, Riki and John, and an Arc in the Park activist, John Staniland. We were treated to about 3 hours of information and presentation on what John and others are working on in the area. He told us about the birds he is working to save, where they live and he even made a few bird calls for us! He was a longwinded fellow, but he was brilliant and passionate about what he does. I felt very lucky to have been there to learn and listen. It was the kind of information you pay to learn at a conference or something :) Unfortunately I don't have a picture of him... only this Chicken, who lives at the house next to the Ranger station. He has free reign of the area and just walked freely into the kitchen and had a nap! :

Also in there yard, lived a duck and a Pukeko. The hen had the run of the land, then the pukeko, and finally the duck. It was funny to watch them fight over food!

Pukeko. Also affectionately referred to as the purple chicken, or bird with HUGE feet.

We then got a tour of a good chunk of the park in the 4X4 Ranger Truck. We went along a river, up and down some sand dunes, along a beach and back again. It was brilliant :D Regular old citizens don't get to drive in the places we were. It was very awesome!

The beach we drove along was called Te Henga or "Bethell's Beach." This cliff has a Maori name that I have forgotten but that translates into "Nose of the Ocean." I think it is very aptly named.

Even though the sky was grey, Te Henga was a beautiful place, with a lot of Maori history.

We spent the night in a place called Little Huia. A tiny little nook that was home to less people than Hoolieville (that's the tiny area I lived in on Quadra Island, pop. 112). At first we thought we were staying in the bunk house which was a concrete room with a bunch of bunks, some had mattresses, others had cobwebs, then we realized that the other building behind us was the main house. It was much cleaner and much more comfortable :D!! Thank goodness!

There was farmland all around the house. We braved passing the electric fence to climb the green slope behind the house and get this view:

The next day we spent out on the Waitakere farmlands. They have a paddock along a huge slope that is overrun with thistles and weeds that they are planning to replant with native vegetation, like Native Toe Toe (pronounced more like toy-toy).

We also hacked out thistle bushes with these big scythe like tools! It was great fun! We got to wear "chaps" thick green leg coverings to protect us from the thorns! But we got our revenge on anything that got through... Take that and THAT and THAT!!! Its amazing how thistles ressemble ex-boyfriends and enemies sometimes....

The Rangers were great fun to work with. Riki, shown below in the middle, has been working out there the longest though and had the most knowledge to share about the area and the Maori culture. Which reminds me... he said something about a Hangi sometime soon, I should call him.

As you can tell.. it was absolutely horrible and ugly working out in the ranges. No nice scenic views of rolling hills or.... oh... wait.... It was brilliant!

After they took us out to the Gannet colony at Miruwai Beach on the west coast.

The Gannet colony was so exciting, but it smelled pretty bad. Click on the photo for more shots.

The Rangers treated us to milkshakes/coffees at this beachside cafe. The Ranger who looks like he is tipping his hat is Chris, the ranger allocated to that area:

On the morning of that friday, our last day in Waitakere, we build a boardwalk over a muddy patch along the Lower Kauri Trek through the Cascades Kauri Park. No kauri trees near where we were, but we drove most of the way to the trek access anyways.

It was a brilliant trip and Sonia and I have bonded and are now good friends. We only got in a total of about 8 hours worth of work that week due to the weather and Ranger tour distractions. But it was so wonderful all around. Besides, we definitely made up for it in the second week. That entry is to come soon.

More images from the Little Huia house:

This entry is so long, yet I still feel like I have left so much out from that week alone! Cheers everybody!

Overwhelmed

2007-01-06T13:31:00.000+13:00

I hardly know where to begin as I have not been keeping my posts up to date this past while. But here goes Christmas:

I was luckily enough to spend Christmas with the Crawfords this year. I went out to the family farm for Christmas day and got to play croquet and bocce and partake in the food and games with the whole family. It was absolutely brilliant! :D

The neighbours were flying kites. I absolutely love this shot!

Grandpa Val

The other neighbours had alpacas. She runs some sort of animal rescue program for alpacas, and these freshly shorn "sheep gone wrong" now live on her farm.

Three month old foal. He was too people shy to touch, but he was beautiful to watch.

Cranium!!! Boys vs. Girls. We whipped 'em good :D

The croquet was great, even if I wasn't all that good at it. The boys/men were pretty sharp at it though. This is Brian on the right and his dad on the left. It was cool that Brian and his sisters were all in their 20s so I wasn't the only one in that age group there.

I feel very blessed to have been part of the family during their Christmas. I wish I had a picture of Sonia the grandmother of the family. She was a very sweet woman and she knit a shawl and gave it to me for Christmas. It was a brilliant day :D

away I have been for quite some time

2007-01-01T01:28:00.000+13:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I have been very busy doing many things... and away from internet *gasp* say it ain't so! Yes. I have been out in the bush, exploring and saving the New Zealand wilderness. I have met some incredible people and i have had some amazing times!

More to come soon. Miss you all. Especially tonight. May you all have a very wonderful and Merry New Year! ( I can't say it enough! )

lackadaisical

2006-12-24T14:55:00.000+13:00

ho hum. lazy day this Christmas Eve. The plans that were to be this day have been waylayed due to COLD weather and other people changing their plans. I suppose that is alright with me. Though a bit bored, I am by no means hard done by!

This is the view from the harbour bridge last night. I was treated to an italian style meal at a quaint little restaurant near the sea. It was a wonderful night with good food and wine and ice cream afterwards with the kids! There was a funny man singing in the corner singing away songs that were meant to be played faster and with a little more rhythm, but he was a crooner, it's what he does.

Notes

2006-12-22T22:15:00.000+13:00

I've added some photos below to previous entries that originally had none. Also, I wanted to remind you to check my flickr.com photos.

There are plenty of photos from my last two days in Katikati. Which includes my adventures along the Katikati Haiku pathway.

Enjoy!

The parents of the Crawford house have arrived and they exhausted from their travels. They will hopefully be more perky tomorrow after a good nights sleep :)

Happy House - Remuera, Auckland

2006-12-22T13:01:00.000+13:00

I've arrived and what a treat has greeted me here! The Crawford's have a wonderful home. It is bright and new and HUGE! Well, bigger than I am used to. It is in a really beautiful uptown community. I haven't met the parents yet, but the Nanny (Pip)and the two children (Pia, 11, and Rory, 12) are very nice :) The children are quiet around me, but that is understandable as I am a stranger. Right now I am listening to the cleaners work around the house.

When I was first shown my room I was so delighted. It has a double bed with white comforter and extra pillows for show. The bathroom that is mine to use has an elegant shower with the best designed showerhead I have ever seen! It adjusts along a pole to make as high or as low as you like, within the limits of the pole length. It is the first shower I have used here that has allowed me to shower the whole time while standing upright! Oh Blessings!!! (that's for you annie)

As well as a beautiful home and family, they have two pets. One is an older cat, Rangi, who has just been to the vet, so she is not highly interactive with me. The other is a pooch about four years old. His name is spooky and he is a Swedish Vallhund, which is a very rare breed that used to be referred to as the "Viking Dog." He kind of looks like the mini-me version of a husky! hehe. He is a fun little dog. I just got back from taking him for a 40 minute walk around the neighbourhood. His short little legs did quite well keeping up with my long gate. We even had a race up a hill and I only won by a step or two. Poor Spooky is exhausted now.

Pip and the children are away at the mall. I opted to stay home as being at a mall will only encourage me to spend money I don't have! Before they went though, she dropped me by the Conservation Volunteers office in Ponsonby (another suburb of Auckland) to get registered for my Volunteer expedition. I am really excited about it now. I should be going to some of the nicer parts of the parklands around Auckland. All of this excitement has left me ignoring the fact that I have made no plans yet for new years, or any days thereafter. But I am blissful in my ignorance. I have a feeling, that like everything else so far, I will pull something amazing together when the time is right.

Needless to say, I am "quite happily situated here." (That's a P&P quote from A&E). I am looking forward to meeting the mom and dad of the family and have high hopes to be spending a very very merry christmas here.

Last Day On The Farm

2006-12-21T10:38:00.000+13:00

Well, it's official, I'll be leaving on the 2:05 bus to head back to Auckland. I'll be there at 5:47 pm. Yup.

It feels so strange each time an adventure ends, and not really knowing what is around the corner...

I've been working on my resume. But here, they call it a CV, and it is supposed to be 6-8 pages long! They want details people! The content contained in your CV is supposed to be equivilant with that of a first interview. Can you IMAGINE being the employer, having to go through a stack of CVs each about 7 pages long!!! OI. No thank you. But it is the standard here. So 7 pages I shall write.

I discovered that Fritz's wife's name is Nan yesterday. But I still don't know what the other lady's is (Cindy's good friend).

Nan wanted to take a picture. "I help you" she says, and took my picture :) She is a very cute lady. She has a very beautiful face, deep lines that tell a story.... I wanted to take a picture of her, but she is shy.

Christmas should be good with friends of the family, even if I can't recall ever meeting them. I am glad I am not in some random hostel with other waifs (not that they aren't special too).

Cheers! Happy Holidays!

When it rains, it pours. Rain Logic Lesson

2006-12-19T17:47:00.000+13:00

When it rains here, you can't pick kiwis. When you can't pick kiwis, you don't make any money.

I haven't made any money.
Therefore it must have rained.

This can still be proven to be false, so its not a valid argument.
But in this case, it IS true. Despite what Charles (my old logic prof) would say.

Stay warm in that snow my friends and family in Canada! Take care.

Words for the more patient readers

2006-12-19T15:46:00.000+13:00

I appologise for the strange order in which these posts are coming. As much as I could modify the datestamps and all that.... I'm not gonna. So I hope you still manage to enjoy!

After an awesome vacation style trip up to Northland, I spent the first night back at a place called X-base backpackers. It was $29 NZD/night which included 1/2 hour free internet, a free dinner (fish and chips, that sort of thing) and one night stay in an 8 bed dorm. I guess it was a good deal, but for some reason I didn't like the atmosphere there. I met one guy there on my second and last night, and he wasn't even staying there!!! He was Canadian though, and we had a nice chat over lousy dinner.

The next couple days were boring,and I think I posted about them already, but here is a shot of the sterile hostel I ended up in over that weekend (dec 8- 11):

But it did afford a good view of the street below:

I have now been in Katikati, a small, arsty town reffered to as 'mural town', staying with the Thompson family at their beautiful home. They themselves do not own the kiwi farms we have been working on, but they manage the upkeep of about 16 different orchards. That's A LOT of kiwis!

When I arrived in Katikati off the bus I hung out reading the blank newspaper with statue guy while I waited to be picked up.

When my ride came and I met my host, David, for the first time, I didn't know what to think. But as we drove he told me there were other workers staying at his house and he had a wife and children. All of those laughs I had with Jade that morning about my dodgy plans to stay with some random guy out in a small town fell to the way side.

I survived my first day out in the orchards fairly well. Even though the 5'8" clearance of the kiwis kept me in a constant slouch/limbo lean/half kneal the entire time. It was a short work day, only 6 hours as opposed to 8. I was out there with about 18 other people. Everyone there was shorter than myself. There was one tall guy there with his mate, but he was a pruner and didn't have to analyse the kiwis to the degree that the rest of us did. We were thinning the kiwis, aka picking out the bad ones. Each orchard has rows upon rows of plants, stuffed full of kiwis.

This particular orchard was lined with Orange trees. You are constantly surrounded by other fruit that is actually ripe enough to eat. You have no idea what fresh is until you eat fruit like this straight off the tree.

The first three days of work passed very quickly. I stuck mainly to myself and my host family as the other groups tended to be quite clique-y. They all spoke their own languages amongst themselves so it was hard for me to find an easy in. Until friday night.

There are two locations where the seasonal workers tend to live. One is here with the Thompsons and the other is in a large house not too far away. It was filled to the brim with other backpackers who had come here to find work. On friday, they hosted a barbeque... more sausages than you can shake a stick at. Beer, and laughter everywhere. (I wish I had remembered to bring my camera. It was all ready to go, I was just a doughhead and forgot to grab it on the way out the door.) It was a spectacular night. There were people there from Holland, Sweden, Thailand, Burma, Canada (only me), Brazil, Chili and my favourites from Czech Republic. There was singing and entertainment of all sorts. A lot of the guys showed off their diabolo juggling skills, while two guys brought out torches and JUGGLED FIRE for us! I managed to befriend Irena and Lucas who are also staying here in the family's house. We were joined by two guy from Czech, Petr and Meric, as we gabbed on the couch with Joe and Nat (friend of the family, and the daughter of the family).

FUNNY STORY: It is traditionaly in Thailand to add a prefix to the names of respected people amongst your acquainences. In this case, Joe gained the prefix /pi/ (pee), to mean like 'uncle' or 'sir.' Unfortunately for him, when the two sounds are combined, you get /pi dzo/ (pee-jo), which, in Czech, is a fairly rude slang term for a part of the female anatomy! Poor Joe! At least he was a good humoured guy who could take the joke with great ease. It was the standing joke for the whole evening and into the next day.

The next day, this past Saturday, I went with my host family, Pi-Joe and another border, Ezikial, to Tauranga to do some christmas shopping. I decided, however, that I didn't want to be tempted to spend any money so I took a walk instead. I soon got it in my head that I would try and walk to Mt. Maunganui. It was a famed mount and deamed the one place you MUST see if you are ever in Tauranga. When the weather is good you can see as far as Taupo boasted one of the travelers I'd met in Auckland. So, off i went. I took it slowly at first. I wandered towards the water, as I couldn't even see the mountain from downtown. Then I passed a Maori Waka, tromped through a small park, passed a rose garden and looped through a graveyard:

I walked for almost an hour, feeling cocksure (as much as a girl can feel that way)that my expedition would not be in vane. As I thought I was getting nearer and nearer to the mountain, it only seemed to look further and further away. Every time that I got the inkling that it was a fruitless effort I kept walking anyways. I was determined to make it "come rain or come snow." Though after I passed a large wharf full of boats (and spotted a boat called "Island Girl") I ended up entering a huge industrial zone *grumble*. I began to think that this:

...was as close as I was ever going to get to the Mountain. I had to be back by 3 pm to meet my ride back to Katikati and by that time it was already past one. I ended up pushing on anyways, until I came to a sign advertising a climbing gym. I decided that maybe climbing for an hour would save my expedition from being entirely foolish. Instead, however, I ended up meeting two really friendly guys who provided me with all the information I needed to find the bus (there was a stop just outside their bay door) that would take me straight to the mountain or straight back into town, whichever it was that i chose. I chose mountain. 6 min wait for a bus that only comes every 30 minutes was brilliant. It dropped me right at the base of the mountain where I was greeted with white sandy beach and green/blue Pacific waters.

The base of Mt. Maunganui is farmland, and was littered with sheep.

I charged up the hill, determined to make it to the top, even if my watch was screaming at me "NO TIME! NO TIME!" I did the 40 minute climb in about 30 minutes. And by that time my watch read 2:25 pm. What kind of fool wears a sweater to climb a mountain? Me, of course. But I made it. Brow shiny and eyes glistening. I made it, and yes... the view was worth it:

I had to half run all the way back to the base of the mountain, but I made my 2:50 bus back into town. I arrived at 3:15 which was just about the perfect time to meet the rest of the group. What an awesome adventure. I felt so accomplished actually making it to my goal destination and back within my time limit. I think it might have been more of a thrill than the actual splendor of the mountain itself. Which is saying A LOT.

When we got back to the house I was suprised to be included in a large Thai style feast called /su ki/ (soo-kee). It is similar to a traditional fondu (not the chocolate kind), but instead of a vat of oil it was a pot of broth boiling away in the center of the table. You put vegetables and meat into the pot as it brewed and then served yourself as it became cooked. We just kept adding more and more food. It was like a never ending pot of soup and it was SOOO good! I was so full by the end of it. We also had strawberry champaigne and Sauvignon Blanc wine from a local winery. It was wonderful.

That's Fritz closest to the camera, he's a real character. He is really cheeky and likes to make people laugh. Then it is my hosts, Nattly, the daughter, and Cindy, the mother. Their friend, bin? ban? something like that, is sitting next to them followed by Ezikial (another person who has been staying with them for 7 months now), Pi-Joe (hehe) and Fritz' wife. Fritz is his nickname, I can't remember his real full name.

I stayed up late talking to a friend on the internet. I swear, after today (I have been on here for about 3 hours, having lost and rewritten my entry) and that night the family must think I am some crazy internet junky. *sigh* I suppose it is sad because it's so very true... hehe

Luckily, they started the work day (yes, we work on sunday) later than usual, so I was not left behind. Because of the late start though it seemed like an extra long day. Blah. But it was much more pleasant now that I had made friends. This is Irena and chubby dog that was hanging out on the orchard with us. She was absolutely filthy with dust from the farm but she was loving the attention so much Irena could not refuse her.

Today, it was pouring rain when we all woke up in the morning. My steal roofed garage was rattling and tinking like crazy. No work for us this morning. Later in the afternoon we tried, but after 20 minutes at it, the rain began to pour down on us and it still hasn't stopped yet, though it is much lighter. It is warm outside and smells of fresh rain... one of my favourite combinations.

I am really beginning to appreciate how this house is almost always buzzing with people, especially Cindy's Thai friends. I like sitting and listening to the Thai chatter, even though I don't understand any of it. Maybe it is because it reminds me of family visits with my dad's side. It is comforting to be surrounded by asians that I don't understand :D hehe.

They also have three lovely cats. Two very cuddly and one that looks like my brown tabby Ruca, but is fat enough to have maybe eaten her! One of them is sitting purring on my lap right now. She is a long haired pretty black cat. I am glad to have her.

I wish you all the best, and for all of you that have made it through this entire entry in one go, WOW, you are amazing in my eyes.

Recap With Pictures

2006-12-18T13:51:00.000+13:00

Ok ok, so most of my posts have been pretty rushed. I didn't want to write at length and bore you all in this catch up entry, just in case some of you won't be able to read it all *irf-cough-irf*.

Auckland Nov 30-Dec 2

The most exciting event I got to witness in auckland:

The Crossing of the diagonal sidewalk....

Auckland is also home to the southern hemisphere's (and possibly the world's) most creepy santa clause:

He beckoned you with his pointer finger and his right eye winks at you!!! AH!

Another highlight is the various parks and green spaces you can find around the downtown area. This is Albert Park:

Complete with statue of the Queen.

And its crazy trees... :)

Unfortunately, I missed the hari krishna parade that took place, in downtown Auckland, on the 2nd; but lucky for me, I got to spend that day on the top of Rangitoto Island. The largest and youngest Volcanic cone in the Greater Auckland area.

The ferry boat

The forest bit

There were pockets of lava rock everywhere, even inside the thickest part of the trees. These dark piles of stones looked like fresh dirt from a distance, but were actually jagged hard formations left after the lava cooled 600 years ago.

This is Jade, one of my dorm mates, who accompanied me on the trek to the top. It was an absolutely beautiful day, with full sun and just a few spots of white fluffy clouds.

That's me and the view, and then Jade and the view. We are so squinty and photogenic at the same time :)

I stalked the little birds until I was quick enough to catch one on camera. This is one of my favourite shots!

We took the long route around to the ferry and stopped at a little windy beach on the bay to the right of this photo. It was gorgeous, but we had to hoof it pretty hard to get back to the boat. We made it with mere minutes to spare! We were so exhausted!

NORTHLAND Dec 3-6

I travelled from Auckland to Paihia, then from Paihia up to Cape Reinga, and back again. It was a whirlwind adventure that makes me glow just thinking about it. I met incredible people on my journey and acquired some brilliant stories and other things to smile about. I went kayaking, biking, hiking, wading, and SAND SURFING! I hung out at the pub, I snacked at bakeries and other nooks around town, and loved every minute. Here are some highlights:

The first evening I hung out with my hostel room sharer peoples. That's (from left to right) Adam from Wales, Daniel from Chester, Donna from London, and Matt from Wales. They were all crazy and wonderful.

I'd been taking photos of the moon the night before, so this bright exposure was accidental, but rewarding as well. The boys were brave enough to get past the "chicken wing and tippy-toe" stage of wading and dove right in. I on the other hand, kept it at waist level.

The kayakers: Daniel (our guide), Matt, Adam, Four German Girls, and Daniel (not our guide).

This oyster catcher was absolutely mad! She was protecting her nest and at one point began to swoop at us to stay away.

We biked up and down some crazy steep hills to get to Haruru Falls. I look refreshed and happy, but my legs were like rubber.

This Kauri tree is 300-400 years young. It is a baby among giants. There are Kauri trees in other areas of Northland as old as 1200 years. The largest tree ever recorded was in 1850. It was said to be 23.43 metres in girth alone.

Cape Reinga. A very spiritual place for the Maori people. It is where the spirits of the dead pass through on to the land of their ancestors.

90 Mile Beach. An official motorway of NZ. Another guide harvested tuatua, a clam like animal, from the sandy surf and allowed some of our passengers a chance to try the delicacy ... raw! Needless to say, I think the name 'tuatua' might have something to do with the sound people made when they spat it back out! haha!

Matapia Island. The Maori spirits pass through the giant hole on their way to Cape Reinga. It is the cleansing of the spirit.

SAND BOARDING!!!

An awesome last night in Paihia, involving our first night in the hostel pub as well as another adventure to the Salty Pub around the corner. This is Daniel, Dave, Will, Matt, a guy from Virginia, and Adam...all looking giddy.

Before the bus left to take myself and a few of the others back to Auckland, the boys and I went to Russell. The famed town used to be known as the Hellhole of the pacific as it was a whaling town which filled with pubs and brothels to entertain the dirty sailors. It is now, however, a tiny lazy town with old buildings and a story about a flagpole.

SWEET AS, BRO!!! The ferry ride over was on a little tug type boat that took its time chugging across the bay.

Flagstaff hill. You really can't learn this kind of cool, it HAS TO come naturally.

Sundials serve very little purpose when there is cloud cover. Even though this one was intricately tiled with a map of the bay of islands.

I think the ducks were a little too used to being fed by tourists, because they became meaner and meaner the longer we sat there and ate. One actually nipped Adam in the butt, but that might have had something to do with Matt putting crackers in his back pocket!

Then, I went back to Auckland. Said goodbye to the boys, maybe forever, maybe just til next time.

I hope you enjoyed this little photo blog :) Another one about my day in Auckland and my adventure to Katikati are still to come!

The thick and thin

2006-12-14T22:00:00.000+13:00

That's right. It's a dog eat dog world out here in New Zealand. The competition is tough to be allowed to stay, and the expectations are extremely high. If you are too fat, your face is too round or you skin is the wrong colour.... that's right, you're gone. No chance. If there isn't enough room and you're in the way, you have to go. If you've got a big nose or any type of scarring, don't even think about trying to survive here. God forbid you have any deformities such as a siamese twin or a misshaped appendage. There is no room for the imperfect here.

That's right. Be wary 'hairy berries', we, the kiwi pickers of New Zealand lack compassion and empathy. We will not be lenient with any of you or your friends. Beware our power to snare and remove!

*insert impending doom march here*

Auckland Suckland

2006-12-11T15:40:00.000+13:00

After four tedious days wandering and sleeping in Auckland city I have managed to push off and start a new adventure once again :D

Tomorrow I leave on a bus bound for Katikati, a small town near the Bay of Plenty on the Northern coast of the North Island of New Zealand! I will be staying there until the 22nd of Christmas working on a Kiwi farm.... the fruit kind. It will be a rigorous week or so and then back to Auckland I shall go for Christmas with friends of my uncles :D I am excited to have plans again. Sitting on my rump over this past weekend has been a real downer.

Cape Reinga. That's the Tasman Sea on the left, and the Pacific Ocean on the right :D No wonder the Maori saw this as such sacred ground. It is so beautiful there.

I will be checking in to ACB tonight, the first hostel I stayed at. I feel the need to spoil myself as I will be making a bit of money over the next little while. haha, yay for Christmas holidays picking Kiwis in New Zealand!!!

I might not have access to internet until Christmas, so love and hugs to all. Take care! and Merry Holidays!

Back In Auckland

2006-12-09T22:26:00.000+13:00

Here I am back in the big city. What a crappy way to re-enter into the city. I tried switching hostels. I was in a place called X-base backpackers for two nights. I met almost nobody, and spent too much money. I feel like the only plus side was getting to talk to a Canadian (from Edmonton) over dinner and getting some laundry done :) woohoo! I have wasted away yesterday trying to find a new place to stay and have found myself at a place called Choice Plaza Backpackers. This place is HUGE! I have an entire dorm room to myself. It is clean and bright and each floor has an international theme. I am staying on the "Europe" floor. And to top it all off it is only $20/night. It sounds too good to be true because it really is kind of a lame place. Hardly any people, and a crappy common room, but I guess if you save $7 you save $7, right?

The weather has been on crack the past couple days. Rain, sun, storm, sun, rain, sun, sun, sun, sun, rain! I feel like it is spring in Victoria.

I got a cell phone today :) I figured out how to use it too :D Unfortunately, I dont' know how to instruct people on how to call me as there is a whole country code, city code, thing that I don't quite understand.

I had such an incredible time in Paihia, it seems worlds appart from where I am now. Check out my flickr.com link on the right hand side. I have uploaded a TON of photos.

cheers. My time is up again. I really have to start writing entries BEFORE I turn on msn ;) haha.

Cape Reinga and Paihai

2006-12-06T22:45:00.000+13:00

Just got back from a four day trip to Paihai, which included a trip to the tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. It was so incredible and I want to show you the pictures, but I won't get to post them until tomorrow at the earliest, unfortunately.

My first day there I was so exhausted from my hike the day before that I just toodled around the town and checked it out. I have never seen such a tourist orientated place in my life! Every store, ever niche was dedicated to tourism.

It was a beautiful place though, anyways. The hostel was not as fancy as they seem to claim it to be, and had I not been sharing my room with awesome new "mates," I would have checked out one of the other 6 hostels on that street. haha. If you see the town, the idea of 6 hostels in 3 blocks is shocking. The town is TINY. WEE, even.

Running out of time with the internet so will be brief. I have kayaked and biked through the bay of islands. I have sand boarded down an 85 metre high dune. It took me a long time to actually work up the courage to walk to the top. I was totally terrified to do it. It didn't help that I just happened to be the only girl in my entire tour group! haha! I finally made it to the top and, well there was only one way down. woosh! all the way down. It was such an adrenaline rush I forgot to be afraid. I was so excited I ran (struggled) up to the top of the dune again and immediately threw myself down the hill again. SAND EVERYWHERE!!! I have visited the ex-"hell hole of the pacific" and I have met a large bundle of incredibly awesome people.

I am pretty exhausted now and am going to head up to bed. I hope that my bunkers are quiet for me. Pictures and more detail to come. Miss you guys.

Too much sun today

2006-12-02T18:37:00.000+13:00

Hi :)

What did you do today?
that's nice.
me?

Oh. I just climbed a volcano and ate lunch at an elevation of 260 metres with 360 degree views emersed in sunlight and a light breeze.

Ok. so I'm being a jerk. I had a really good day though. Even if I look a bit like a racoon for foolishly refusing to put on sunscreen even though I brought it with me. I had fully intended to bring my camera with me to the Internet Cafe so I could upload a few photos for you guys, however I failed miserably to remember to bring the camera. I think it has to do with the 5 hours of hiking starting to take its toll. I am exhausted!

Tomorrow morning I have to be out and ready for the bus at 7 am! I hope I will make it. If I don't I have to pay another $27 for my hostel and rebook for monday. I'd rather just get to go tomorrow.

I always think of such insightful interesting things to write on my blog, except when I'm sitting in front of a computer.

I am having a wonderful time. Good people and Beautiful places. I think four days in Auckland is enough for now though. It's not the capital of New Zealand, but it is the largest city. It is like a hub for tourism and other economical boosts for NZ.

Onward and northward to Paihai and Cape Rienga! I might not be on for a while, but I'll think of you all and next time I'll remember to load some pictures!!

Long Days and Short Nights

2006-12-01T21:56:00.000+13:00

I have only been here two days and already I feel like I have left you all behind in the dust. Not in my heart of course, just by way of keeping you informed of my adventures. I have been on two free city tours around Auckland. Yesterday I went with a company called Kiwi Experience. We went out to Northhead and tromped around in the pouring rain. It was extremely beautiful even if it was wet. I have a great appreciation for the fact that it was warm and not cold. It was unfortunate however, discovering that my jacket really isn't waterproof, and neither is my day pack. ARGH! my poor water damaged lonely planet guide... not to mention poor Sudoku haha. :(

I had an awesome trip out today in the sun and light showers with a company called Stray. The tour guide was from Langley, BC, and had a crazy "i don't know if i'm canadian or kiwi" style accent. He was incredibly off the wall and funny. And the tour was awesome.

I have signed up for a bus trip to the north end of the island. I will get to see the Bay of Islands rumoured to be the depot for some of the best water sports and activities in New Zealand. I will also get to see ancient forests and surf down sand dunes. And to top it all off I will get to go to the northern most point of NZ and see where the two oceans meet. Apparently they are two different colours and you can see the line of swirling water where they meet.

I am in such a rush to not have to pay more than $2 for my internet. SO I will go. 2 min left! ah!! post post!

It's True

2006-11-30T13:07:00.000+13:00

I am here. I am safe. I am dawg tired! I arrived in Auckland, after a restless 12 hour flight, at 5 am NZ time. This was also after I sat for almost 2 and a half hours in the Vancouver airport while our plane lined up to be de-iced. It was the only flight out of about 5 flights to LA that night that didn't get canceled. It's quite incredible that I didn't miss my connector. Makes me feel like this was something I was supposed to do.

I am in good spirits having met a guy from London this morning who ended up joining me for breakfast and may meet up with me later... if we chance to run into each other. I also have dinner plans with my dorm mates. Now I just gotta figure out the what to do for that whole working part of this holiday and I'll be set.

Though it is the middle of their spring, it is cloudy and not that exciting out right now.

This place is like Canada... body shop, mcdonalds, starbucks, and other places with different names but for services that mimic what we have, e.g. 7-11 = star mart.... only some things are weird. It took about 30 minutes of bus ride before I finally stopped feeling a queezy stomache clench whenever we turned around a bend on the left side of the road... like some strange instinct warning me that we are in danger of running into somebody, haha. They have sidewalks that cross diagonally in the intersections... which I have seen in tv, but not in real life. It's kind of cool to watch this massive flow of people spurt out into the road, then suddenly clear. I'd post a picture for you, but I forgot to bring my USB cable with me here.

I don't feel all that far away, especially as how I have access to free internet while I'm in Auckland. Wishing you guys all the best. I'm going on a free bus tour of Auckland tomorrow. And who knows what after that.

Is this enough?

2006-11-10T21:47:00.000+13:00

A little more cowbell:

I hope I meet the standards now....

;)

Haere Mai!

2006-11-07T11:35:00.000+13:00

Just in case I haven't told you yet. Three weeks from today, on November 27th 2006, I will be flying out of Vancouver and heading to New Zealand, the land of the long white cloud.

FAQ's:

1. How long are you going for?

I have a one year working visa, and an open return ticket which is valid up to one year as well. So depending on how much I hate/love it in NZ I could be gone anywhere from two weeks to twelve months.

2. Where are you flying into?

Auckland.

3. Are you going with anyone?

No. Just me.

4. Where are you going to stay? What kind of work are you going to do? Where are you going to go? Who do you know there?

I've signed up with a company called S.W.A.P. They're hooking me up with my working visa, my first two nights of accommodation, an orientation, employment resources, as well as on going support system which provides services such as a mail box and internet access. I'll be staying in various hostels as I travel around. When I find a place I like and want to stay, I will get a job, find stable housing and rest my travelling shoes. I have a few contacts in NZ, mostly friends of friends, so I will be having coffee around the country with pseudo strangers of all shapes.

5. Are you CRAZY!!!?

Yes. But, also excited.

6. Can I come visit you while you are there?

YES! I welcome any and all of my friends and family anytime during my adventure. Sorry, I won't be paying for your ticket though. You know I would if I could.

Please feel free to keep track of me during my journey by reading my blog and sending me emails! I'll try to update whenever I can and look forward to hearing from all of you as well. I like knowing what you're up to...in that creepy stalker sort of way *cough* I mean, like any good friend should.

Kia Ora! (Good Health!, in Maori)