Queenstown is a little fancy for us but we enjoyed it, found our first Amanita Muscaria (awesome red mushies with white spots). Went to Milford Sound and kayaked for hours, wearing our gnome hats in the rain. Some Brits thought they were Santa hats...wtf....... Started the Routeburn Track and tried to keep up with Koos as we trekked along with our huge heavy backpacks. Right away we saw a little owl and were, needless to say, very stoked. The scenery was misty, magical, green and lovely, with waterfalls every 5 minutes or so. Almost got sick of em. One was like 150 meters long. My feet and shoulders and hips started to hurt from the pack but I felt like a bad ass so it was worth it. The snowy peaks, lakes, mushrooms and mountain flowers were very peaceful. We were moved to yodel and got caught by some other hikers twice. It was a trial not to shower for 3 days, and it was so cold at night it almost hurt to breathe in.
Back in Queenstown we made a friend who had a safety mtgs and Mighty Boosh, where we got hooked on "The Moon", our fave character. Youtube it right now.
Left for Lawrence, a tiny old gold mining town, to work at the Lemon Tree Cafe for a week. Spectacularly decorated German food, funny German bosses, nice coworkers and HEAPS of amanitas for us to stare at. We cut out pastry leaves, washed dishes and served customers. Edith Piaf CDs were a perfect soundtrack. We even had 2 days off, although there is nothing to do in this town. Relaxed and watched DVDs (one of our bosses has a Brad Pitt obsession too and has most of his movies). Went to the only pub in town with our coworkers for karaoke, where I unleashed some "forever in blue jeans", Michael Jackson, Poison and Abba. Believe it. Natalie really wanted to sing her favorite song, Heal the World by MJ and I did it with her after much pestering even though I had no idea how it went. It...... sounded ok. I figured out the chorus and everyone was drunk enough to not notice, or simply ignore the new version. The German girls and Robert sang a German techno ballad and got boos, it was pretty funny.
Natalie gave us a lift to Dunedin, and after settling in we went for a run in the park. Koos immediately got flashed by a pervert (glad I kept my head forward and missed it) and we laughed about that warm welcome for awhile. Our Lemon Tree crew met up with us for St Paddys, we all shook our butts and had a great time. Star of the County Down, my fave Irish song, was being rocked by the band right when we walked into the first pub! Koos was encouraged by a new friend to flirt with her boyfriend...... uhhh....... no....... thank you..... but all in all one of my best St. Pats to date.
Ended our NZ travels with a few days in Christchurch, where we finally found life sized gnomes. A dream come true for anyone, right? Yep. Feel very lucky and happy to have spent time here getting to know this rad country. We'll miss it, and Kit, Olly and Jill (who just got engaged!) and all the moments, good and tiring, that made up our experience of Aotearoa. And away we go!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Wellywood
Our last stop on the south island was Wellington, capital city of NZ. We rolled in on Waitangi Day and immediately assumed that was why everyone was wearing crazy costumes - ie drag queens, smurfs, reno 911... but actually we simply had the best luck ever to be in Wellywood for the 7's, a rugby tourney gone wild. It was one of the highlights of the entire trip so far - for visual explanation see facebook pics. We partied our jandals off.
Took the ferry over to the south island and drove around beautiful Abel Tasman. On a sour note I got another staph infection on my elbow, and Koos had the tremendous good fortune to lance and drain it with a tack we burned. State of the art med care. We went to our next wwoof job, Nikau Gardens, which was like MMC/home. Angel cards, prayer flags, no shoes, organic veg food, ganesh and shiva statuettes, meditation room, the works! Takaka was a cool hippie town and we spent our days mulching, harvesting, weeding and caulking inside on rainy days. It was great to have a big bed with a comforter. On Valentines Day we drove to Rosy Glow Chocolates for homemade truffles and then to Wharariki beach, which is one of the raddest ones ever. Our mate described it as Dali on acid. Tunnels, arches, sand dunes, caves were abundant.
From there we drove down the entire West Coast checkin out the wonders along the Tasman Sea. In Franz Josef I saw my first Glacier, and we spent a rainy afternoon at the hot mineral baths drinkin wine. Ahhhhh. However, to end this relaxing time I ran back into town for the clothes I left air drying at the laundromat (possibly the first time I've been away from Koos) and the car decided to explode. Big bang, heaps of smoke, had to walk 2 hrs back to our campsite at night in freezing Glacier country. HELL. It would have cost 2x what we paid for it to fix it so we had to ditch our wheels and try to keep our chins up as we hopped on a bus to Queenstown. Can't win 'em all, but hey.... at least it wasn't a broken leg. (Thats always how we look at the silver lining.... not sure what we'll change that to in the event we really do break a leg).
Took the ferry over to the south island and drove around beautiful Abel Tasman. On a sour note I got another staph infection on my elbow, and Koos had the tremendous good fortune to lance and drain it with a tack we burned. State of the art med care. We went to our next wwoof job, Nikau Gardens, which was like MMC/home. Angel cards, prayer flags, no shoes, organic veg food, ganesh and shiva statuettes, meditation room, the works! Takaka was a cool hippie town and we spent our days mulching, harvesting, weeding and caulking inside on rainy days. It was great to have a big bed with a comforter. On Valentines Day we drove to Rosy Glow Chocolates for homemade truffles and then to Wharariki beach, which is one of the raddest ones ever. Our mate described it as Dali on acid. Tunnels, arches, sand dunes, caves were abundant.
From there we drove down the entire West Coast checkin out the wonders along the Tasman Sea. In Franz Josef I saw my first Glacier, and we spent a rainy afternoon at the hot mineral baths drinkin wine. Ahhhhh. However, to end this relaxing time I ran back into town for the clothes I left air drying at the laundromat (possibly the first time I've been away from Koos) and the car decided to explode. Big bang, heaps of smoke, had to walk 2 hrs back to our campsite at night in freezing Glacier country. HELL. It would have cost 2x what we paid for it to fix it so we had to ditch our wheels and try to keep our chins up as we hopped on a bus to Queenstown. Can't win 'em all, but hey.... at least it wasn't a broken leg. (Thats always how we look at the silver lining.... not sure what we'll change that to in the event we really do break a leg).
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
I just spoke to the people in the Bowie van....
Currently reading: my first naughty romance novel, Pagan Voyager. It is endlessly entertaining and follows the adventures of Vesuvio and his ever present half bone. We are now in the town of Taupo, relaxing by the lake with cold beer and chilly bin courtesy of the Triggs. There are black swans swimming everywhere, snowy peaks in the distance. Met some really weird local boys, and enjoyed frollicking about. Did an all-day hike, the Tongariro Crossing. It passed through some Lord of the Rings movie locales, namely Mt. Doom aka Ngauruhoe. Got some nice lesbians from England to pose in our gnome hats. Saw gorgeous emerald lakes and amazing volcanic areas, steam vents and all. Huka Falls was also a highlight of Taupo - the cleanest, most blue water I have ever seen. The Craters of the Moon were neat too - geothermal steam vents galore, and boiling mud to boot!
Drove up to Rotorua - it really does smell like sulphur everywhere. We thought people were exaggerating when they said the whole place stinks. Oh well, it was pretty. We chilled by the lake, met some Danish sailors, soaked in the mineral tubs and watched the Goblet of Fire on TV. Doesn't get much better than that. Except I was sick. Koos and me are both hooked on the Twilight Series now, and voraciously reading all four books. Do it. Now.
Whizzed through Napier, an art deco city that is adorable. Saw our first kiwis and tuataras at the aquarium, not to mention pregnant male seahorses! Went wine tasting in Hastings and crashed in our car/tried out our stove for the first time, in a rural neighborhood. Really reppin the hoodrat lifestyle. Ahhh, its good to be poor........ Currently reading: Once Were Warriors, story about modern day problems of the Maori.
Drove up to Rotorua - it really does smell like sulphur everywhere. We thought people were exaggerating when they said the whole place stinks. Oh well, it was pretty. We chilled by the lake, met some Danish sailors, soaked in the mineral tubs and watched the Goblet of Fire on TV. Doesn't get much better than that. Except I was sick. Koos and me are both hooked on the Twilight Series now, and voraciously reading all four books. Do it. Now.
Whizzed through Napier, an art deco city that is adorable. Saw our first kiwis and tuataras at the aquarium, not to mention pregnant male seahorses! Went wine tasting in Hastings and crashed in our car/tried out our stove for the first time, in a rural neighborhood. Really reppin the hoodrat lifestyle. Ahhh, its good to be poor........ Currently reading: Once Were Warriors, story about modern day problems of the Maori.
From Palangi to Pakeha
Well, back on the mainland with a touch of culture shock. Currently reading: Falling Leaves. Got used to being called "whitey" aka palangi in Samoa, and learned that we are now Pakehas in te reo Maori, though nobody here calls you that to your face in our experience. One of my favorite things about being in another country is just a nice cold reality check called "not everyone does things your way America!" Especially funny to learn different names for things in a fellow English-speaking country. Some of my faves: chilly bin (cooler), lollies (candy), gone off (moldy), sweet as (cool), pissed (drunk), hard out (tough).
Met a funny German man who told us his favorite German word is tuhuvaluhu (roughly means, a mess made by a child). Naturally we decided to assign this word as the glorious name for our new travel deity. If you wish to think of him in avatar form, think of Chris Farley in a banana hammock. Works for us. Tuhu helps us through the hard parts on the road. For example, finding a car. Bought "Banjida" from Jimenez in Auckland and hit the road after bidding farewell to Kit and the Colonial Rd crew, Jill and Olly and the fundus. Just a couple of hours outside the city we got a flat tire and had to replace 3 of them. On the bright side, the cute Maori mechanic Joey helped us get some safety equipment. We in turn gave him a ride home as he told us about life in Huntley and how hard it sucks. He adorably made us a cuppa and introduced us to the plastic fantastic. Thanks mate!
Continued to Waitomo, one of my fave spots. Here we were constantly delighted by caves, epic waterfalls, hanging bridges, tunnels and karst topography. Celebrated the inaugeration of Barrack Hussein Obama (yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhh) by channeling our inner Indiana Jones and spelunking/abseiling/caving at Rua Kuri (two dogs). We jumped off ledges with inner tubes around our bums, making resounding slap sounds, we saw glow worms (carniverous cannibalistic maggots with shiny shit), caverns, eels, we climbed up a waterfall, we zip lined in total darkness doing battle cries or action themes. It was a spectacular time.
Stopped at the 3 sisters beach, one of the prettiest I've ever seen. Unforunately we also saw a dead goat covered in maggots. Ya win some, ya lose some. Hiked Mt. Taranaki and checked out some of the most magical mossy trees. Climbed over 7,000 stairs round trip. Crippling soreness descends on our calf muscles. Had to turn around when we couldnt see anything but fog and I kept falling on the volcanic rock (no path) and it was freezing. Good times.
Wwoof job #2 White Cliffs Brewery in Urenui, run by the Trigg family of South Africa. Jill is the mom, she was supacool. Her in-laws were Mike, a delightful old man who let us play our music while we helped with bottling the organic brew. "Are they saying down here at the porn shop?" -his response to Sublime. "Sounds like a love sick moose!" -response to Bob Dylan. His wife Ren was scary and racist, and we avoided her as much as possible. The property was lovely and we stayed in an avocado orchard. Saw our first hedgie! Hedgehogs are rad and they eat anything and let you touch them. Not much nightlife here, thought we did stumble upon Scottish music in the park. Sad to leave the free beer, Jill, Dylan and Mike, but not the Trigg family squabbles. On the road again!
Met a funny German man who told us his favorite German word is tuhuvaluhu (roughly means, a mess made by a child). Naturally we decided to assign this word as the glorious name for our new travel deity. If you wish to think of him in avatar form, think of Chris Farley in a banana hammock. Works for us. Tuhu helps us through the hard parts on the road. For example, finding a car. Bought "Banjida" from Jimenez in Auckland and hit the road after bidding farewell to Kit and the Colonial Rd crew, Jill and Olly and the fundus. Just a couple of hours outside the city we got a flat tire and had to replace 3 of them. On the bright side, the cute Maori mechanic Joey helped us get some safety equipment. We in turn gave him a ride home as he told us about life in Huntley and how hard it sucks. He adorably made us a cuppa and introduced us to the plastic fantastic. Thanks mate!
Continued to Waitomo, one of my fave spots. Here we were constantly delighted by caves, epic waterfalls, hanging bridges, tunnels and karst topography. Celebrated the inaugeration of Barrack Hussein Obama (yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhh) by channeling our inner Indiana Jones and spelunking/abseiling/caving at Rua Kuri (two dogs). We jumped off ledges with inner tubes around our bums, making resounding slap sounds, we saw glow worms (carniverous cannibalistic maggots with shiny shit), caverns, eels, we climbed up a waterfall, we zip lined in total darkness doing battle cries or action themes. It was a spectacular time.
Stopped at the 3 sisters beach, one of the prettiest I've ever seen. Unforunately we also saw a dead goat covered in maggots. Ya win some, ya lose some. Hiked Mt. Taranaki and checked out some of the most magical mossy trees. Climbed over 7,000 stairs round trip. Crippling soreness descends on our calf muscles. Had to turn around when we couldnt see anything but fog and I kept falling on the volcanic rock (no path) and it was freezing. Good times.
Wwoof job #2 White Cliffs Brewery in Urenui, run by the Trigg family of South Africa. Jill is the mom, she was supacool. Her in-laws were Mike, a delightful old man who let us play our music while we helped with bottling the organic brew. "Are they saying down here at the porn shop?" -his response to Sublime. "Sounds like a love sick moose!" -response to Bob Dylan. His wife Ren was scary and racist, and we avoided her as much as possible. The property was lovely and we stayed in an avocado orchard. Saw our first hedgie! Hedgehogs are rad and they eat anything and let you touch them. Not much nightlife here, thought we did stumble upon Scottish music in the park. Sad to leave the free beer, Jill, Dylan and Mike, but not the Trigg family squabbles. On the road again!
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