Suckas! I celebrated New Year's before ALL Y'ALL. It was really incredible. We camped on the beach in Nelson, went into town, counted down to 2010 on the dance floor, all with my friends from all over New Zealand- German #1 from my second day in NZ, Germans #3 from our first wwoof site, and Ben/Theo from our last wwoof site in Karamea all boogied with us at a club called Little Rock. The wind back at the campsite was ridiculous- new stakes had to be bought and we finally got out tie strings to keep the Blue Lagoon from blowing away. Ben and Theo's tent actually DID blow away earlier, so we figured we had to reinforce them, and attempt to use the cars as a windblock. It wasn't nearly as bad that time we tried to sleep by the river, but it was definitely noisy.
I just saw Avatar in 3D, which I was very impressed with. I didn't love 3D for UP!, didn't think it was necessary, but I thought that it was very cool to see this movie in the theaters with the new technology. It was really well-done, and I recommend it. We invited German #1, and she said with a wrinkle in her nose "Oh, is that a fantasy?" and I retorted "Don't talk to me about wanting to see a fantasy, you just said you wanted to see New Moon!" and that got her quiet ;) (Twilight is ridiculously popular whyyyyyy?)
Today is errand-running in town. Plus maybe getting my ear pierced...?
We worked on my uncle's vineyard for 3 days, and it's definitely tough repetitive work, but we got a couple hundred bucks for it, so we're keen on doing it a little more in the next few weeks before looking to settle somewhere to get a real job. The idea is to hold out until February, when all the University students head back from summer break (isn't that CRAZY!? It's JANUARY!) so we can swoop in and steal all the jobs they're leaving behind. I'm hoping to find something in tourism, ideally tour guiding, so I'm going to try to make my way over to Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers on the west coast. Wouldn't that be amazing? If no guide jobs are to be had then I can go for waitressing or whatever is available. We'll have to see. If I can't get a job then I'll have to come home! Hoping it won't be that soon, but maybe at the end of February it will be time to pack it in. And four months away isn't so bad...
Getting excited for my concert in Auckland! I'm catching a ferry again from Picton to Wellington on Jan 13th, then on the 14th a bus up to Rotorua, where my friend Freddy (one of my roommates from BASE) will meet me and we'll drive the rest of the way to Auckland for the concert on the 15th. I'll have to find a way to get back to the south island for more vineyard work the following week, so it'll only be a day or so up in Auckland. So much travel, ugh...
One last thing. I had my first burrito in two months. It was absolutely delicious. It was at this place called The Golden Bear, owned by a guy who lived near UCLA. I introduced myself as Brady's niece, and he goes "Hey, what did you order? Do you like avocado?" and I totally got comped an avocado on that burrito. It was amazing, I felt so taken care of and back home in Cali. Seriously, one of the bartenders was from Santa Cruz, and there was a couple sitting at the bar who were from Sonoma. It was like I was really back home, where there's "no accent" :) Best $14 I've spent on food. Except for that steak sandwich that one time at Licorice Cafe. But still. Made me happy.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
What's brown and sticky?
Daniel, our new wwoof host, is teaching me to drive a stick shift today. Oh dear god. At least it will be on the beach at low tide- I shouldn't hit too many things.
I really really like it here. When we got off the ferry from Wellington to Picton (from the N to the S island) we realized we had no idea where we were going to stay. We tried calling some wwoof hosts but couldn't find anything, so we pitched our tent that first night. The next few nights we were able to do some wwoofing in Canvastown, next to Havelock, but left Monday morning because it was really short notice and they had people coming in the next day. We moved on to Nelson and decided to pay for a night at The Bug Backpackers, which ended up being a really great move. The staff was suuuper friendly and the place was one of the cleaner hostels I've been in so far. They had free bikes for exploring the city (of course I get a flat and have to walk back to the hostel to get a new one...), which is when I found the church with the christmas tree display and the choir singing. That night they had everyone help with christmas decorations and had snacks and sangria, making it a proper party. I met this lovely man Saul from Mexico, nearish to Guadalajara; we looked up how to play "Feliz Navidad" and completely rocked out, getting the entire hostel to sing with us. The staff invited us back for Christmas Day, but we had to make our reservations for both the 24th and 25th, which was a little less than ideal, even though it makes sense. We put our names down anyway, and hoped that we would find a cheaper option for the festivities, even though we really liked the vibe of the backpackers and knew that it would be fun if that's where we ended up.
We called some other wwoof hosts and talked to Daniel up in Karamea, who had a posting on the wwoof website as needing some help asap. We had been calling people trying to split up our foursome into pairs, but Daniel said he could definitely use all of our help, so we drove the scary road through Buller Gorge (where the first LOTR movie ends, by the river! Reallllly gorgeous, pun intended) and ended in the small small town of 650 people. Dan owns Saracen's Cafe and the Bush Lounge and Bar, and we sleep upstairs. He had to take a chainsaw to one of the walls yesterday so that we could climb up without going through his room. He's awesome. Jackie and I have gotten to do a lot of our wwoof work IN the cafe, meaning we wash dishes and bake cakes. We've also cleared up the garden in the front and back of the property, and I got to help dig the garbage hole with one of those huge digger things, claw and all. I felt pretty badass. Even though it's not exactly "organic"...
We work with Andrea, the manager, and Chad, the only employee, and we're told that every once and a while they have "Britt Britt" time, where they put on Britney and dance around the cafe. I told Chad this morning that we're not leaving until we see this happen. Andrea is really funny, gossiping about everyone that walks through the door, basically telling us everything we need to know about anyone in town. And she's a really great person to work with because she just makes us food. Or lets us have whatever's leftover at the end of the day. Sooooo many meat pies... oh, yeah, and we made like 70 meat pies yesterday, helping them stock up for the summer season. It's actually a fairly involved process, but not all that difficult, if you have all the right ingredients, but all and all it took 3 days to complete! One day for the filling (chicken, asparagus, cream, stock, salt n peppa), one day for assembling the pies (cut out top and bottom dough parts, add filling and cream cheese, seal in, egg wash on top) and then another to bake them. We were told that sealing the pies was the most important, because they WILL explode in the oven. We've also made Hummingbird Cake (banana, pineapple, walnuts, cream cheese icing), apple raisin cake, bacon/tomato/onion/cheese muffins, and corgette cake (zucchini bread). Then Andrea and Chad just make us lunch, like pumpkin soup and garlic bread, or today we had pizza bread with barbecue sauce, ham, onions, tomato, and melted cheese on sliced bread... amazing! And that's just what they "whip up" at the last second. I've seen the things they make in this cafe- Burgers the size of your face, delicious eggs benedict, pies, giant bowls of coffee... it's magic here.
Also, it being a small world, two more American wwoofers walked in two nights ago, and one of them is the first cousin of Nick Young, someone from Glee Club. Seriously, what are the odds? Theo and his friend Ben went to Carlton, and I knew a bunch of people from there who did the UMinn program last summer, plus Andy Willats, my APES teacher graduated from there. But the boys didn't know any of the people I knew. They're both really nice, and it's cool to have other American wwoofers, because you just have a common understanding of things, or can talk about the Daily Show, or this funny video from youtube, etc. Hoping they'll follow us to Nelson for New Year's Eve, because that party is just going to be off the chain.
We will be here through Christmas Day, where they're having a HUGE bbq at Little Wanganui, Kirsty's (Dan's bbf) hotel down the road. Justin and Lisa are working there today while Theo, Ben, Jackie and I get the bar ready for the Irish band playing tonight. It's going to be a fun party- we met the lead singer last night, Colum, and he's legit from Dublin with thick accent and all, who says I can jump up on stage and play with him! Justin's going to work the bar, and the rest of us are going to be eye candy :) Then, Sudnay is Jessie May's 5th bday party (Kirsty's daughter) and we're having Fairy Bread (white bread, no crusts, butter, sprinkles, cut in triangles). Finally Andrea invited us to her family's bbq on Tuesday night, and told me to bring the guitar for entertainment. So, my task between now and then is to look up more songs on the internet so that I don't bore everyone with the 10 songs I know... must expand le repertoire!
Hope all is well with everyone back home! Don't forget I love to hear from you!!!
I really really like it here. When we got off the ferry from Wellington to Picton (from the N to the S island) we realized we had no idea where we were going to stay. We tried calling some wwoof hosts but couldn't find anything, so we pitched our tent that first night. The next few nights we were able to do some wwoofing in Canvastown, next to Havelock, but left Monday morning because it was really short notice and they had people coming in the next day. We moved on to Nelson and decided to pay for a night at The Bug Backpackers, which ended up being a really great move. The staff was suuuper friendly and the place was one of the cleaner hostels I've been in so far. They had free bikes for exploring the city (of course I get a flat and have to walk back to the hostel to get a new one...), which is when I found the church with the christmas tree display and the choir singing. That night they had everyone help with christmas decorations and had snacks and sangria, making it a proper party. I met this lovely man Saul from Mexico, nearish to Guadalajara; we looked up how to play "Feliz Navidad" and completely rocked out, getting the entire hostel to sing with us. The staff invited us back for Christmas Day, but we had to make our reservations for both the 24th and 25th, which was a little less than ideal, even though it makes sense. We put our names down anyway, and hoped that we would find a cheaper option for the festivities, even though we really liked the vibe of the backpackers and knew that it would be fun if that's where we ended up.
We called some other wwoof hosts and talked to Daniel up in Karamea, who had a posting on the wwoof website as needing some help asap. We had been calling people trying to split up our foursome into pairs, but Daniel said he could definitely use all of our help, so we drove the scary road through Buller Gorge (where the first LOTR movie ends, by the river! Reallllly gorgeous, pun intended) and ended in the small small town of 650 people. Dan owns Saracen's Cafe and the Bush Lounge and Bar, and we sleep upstairs. He had to take a chainsaw to one of the walls yesterday so that we could climb up without going through his room. He's awesome. Jackie and I have gotten to do a lot of our wwoof work IN the cafe, meaning we wash dishes and bake cakes. We've also cleared up the garden in the front and back of the property, and I got to help dig the garbage hole with one of those huge digger things, claw and all. I felt pretty badass. Even though it's not exactly "organic"...
We work with Andrea, the manager, and Chad, the only employee, and we're told that every once and a while they have "Britt Britt" time, where they put on Britney and dance around the cafe. I told Chad this morning that we're not leaving until we see this happen. Andrea is really funny, gossiping about everyone that walks through the door, basically telling us everything we need to know about anyone in town. And she's a really great person to work with because she just makes us food. Or lets us have whatever's leftover at the end of the day. Sooooo many meat pies... oh, yeah, and we made like 70 meat pies yesterday, helping them stock up for the summer season. It's actually a fairly involved process, but not all that difficult, if you have all the right ingredients, but all and all it took 3 days to complete! One day for the filling (chicken, asparagus, cream, stock, salt n peppa), one day for assembling the pies (cut out top and bottom dough parts, add filling and cream cheese, seal in, egg wash on top) and then another to bake them. We were told that sealing the pies was the most important, because they WILL explode in the oven. We've also made Hummingbird Cake (banana, pineapple, walnuts, cream cheese icing), apple raisin cake, bacon/tomato/onion/cheese muffins, and corgette cake (zucchini bread). Then Andrea and Chad just make us lunch, like pumpkin soup and garlic bread, or today we had pizza bread with barbecue sauce, ham, onions, tomato, and melted cheese on sliced bread... amazing! And that's just what they "whip up" at the last second. I've seen the things they make in this cafe- Burgers the size of your face, delicious eggs benedict, pies, giant bowls of coffee... it's magic here.
Also, it being a small world, two more American wwoofers walked in two nights ago, and one of them is the first cousin of Nick Young, someone from Glee Club. Seriously, what are the odds? Theo and his friend Ben went to Carlton, and I knew a bunch of people from there who did the UMinn program last summer, plus Andy Willats, my APES teacher graduated from there. But the boys didn't know any of the people I knew. They're both really nice, and it's cool to have other American wwoofers, because you just have a common understanding of things, or can talk about the Daily Show, or this funny video from youtube, etc. Hoping they'll follow us to Nelson for New Year's Eve, because that party is just going to be off the chain.
We will be here through Christmas Day, where they're having a HUGE bbq at Little Wanganui, Kirsty's (Dan's bbf) hotel down the road. Justin and Lisa are working there today while Theo, Ben, Jackie and I get the bar ready for the Irish band playing tonight. It's going to be a fun party- we met the lead singer last night, Colum, and he's legit from Dublin with thick accent and all, who says I can jump up on stage and play with him! Justin's going to work the bar, and the rest of us are going to be eye candy :) Then, Sudnay is Jessie May's 5th bday party (Kirsty's daughter) and we're having Fairy Bread (white bread, no crusts, butter, sprinkles, cut in triangles). Finally Andrea invited us to her family's bbq on Tuesday night, and told me to bring the guitar for entertainment. So, my task between now and then is to look up more songs on the internet so that I don't bore everyone with the 10 songs I know... must expand le repertoire!
Hope all is well with everyone back home! Don't forget I love to hear from you!!!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Thought #2
Stopped into a church I passed along the way
Well I got down on my knees and I began to pray...
I was talking to the man at the front of the church who was directing people to the xmas tree display, which was really cool- all of the local businesses had a small tree decorated however they wanted and had little descriptions of it. Anyway, I asked the man if the display would be up for long, and he said no, so I said, oh dear, I have to take it all in now. And then I realized for the first time that this is my first Christmas away from home. He asked me where "home" was, and I said "California", and for some reason I started to cry. Maybe it was that the choir practicing in the back of the church began to sing a carol in four part harmony, and it made me miss choir so so so much. Maybe it was the realization that I'm really far away from home for one of my favorite holidays. Or maybe it was realizing that even though I'm far away from home I feel like I'm exactly where I should be. That I'm becoming the adult, the woman, that I know is really me, and it's not as scary as the me back in California thought it would be.
California has been my home for 22 years, and it will always be fond in my memories as the stage of my childhood and adolescence; but now I feel I'm really becoming an adult, creating a new me, and suddenly California is just too small. Only a handful of people know this, but when I get back to the states, I'm not staying in California. I need to really continue my growth in a new place. Like... moving in with Jackie in Minneapolis. It doesn't matter that it actually feels winter there. What matters is that it's not living in Piedmont.
That is, if I ever come back to the states...
*evil smile*
Thought #1
*Grumble* I hate it when I can't be petty.
My friend Cynthia has been sending out daily Buddhist encouragement via email, and they always seem to pertain to what I'm going through, surprise surprise. This is the latest that was particularly apt:
"Shijo Kingo suffered on account of calumny. But the Daishonin told him, "Never let life's hardships disturb you." Those who resort to libelous accusations are defeated as human beings; no action is more lowly and base. We should not be swayed in the least by such despicable actions. Just as we do not put garbage into our mouths, we must not permit such rubbish to enter our hearts. The Daishonin encouraged Shijo Kingo to shut the cowardly behavior of his accusers out of his mind. The Roman philosopher Seneca says that the arrows of slander cannot pierce the heart of a person of wisdom."
*Grumble*
It's good advice.
In other news, I have the chicken pox again. At least, it feels and looks that way since I have bug bites frickin' everywheeeeere. Ouch scratch ouch.
My friend Cynthia has been sending out daily Buddhist encouragement via email, and they always seem to pertain to what I'm going through, surprise surprise. This is the latest that was particularly apt:
"Shijo Kingo suffered on account of calumny. But the Daishonin told him, "Never let life's hardships disturb you." Those who resort to libelous accusations are defeated as human beings; no action is more lowly and base. We should not be swayed in the least by such despicable actions. Just as we do not put garbage into our mouths, we must not permit such rubbish to enter our hearts. The Daishonin encouraged Shijo Kingo to shut the cowardly behavior of his accusers out of his mind. The Roman philosopher Seneca says that the arrows of slander cannot pierce the heart of a person of wisdom."
*Grumble*
It's good advice.
In other news, I have the chicken pox again. At least, it feels and looks that way since I have bug bites frickin' everywheeeeere. Ouch scratch ouch.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Justin's here!
Yaaaaaaaaaay JLauf is here! We met up by the Te Papa museum yesterday and since then it's been nonstop smiles in Wellington. Except when all the bars were closed. But that was a minor detail, since we were together :)
Today we're going to try to see some sights in Wellington today- the cable cars (compare it to SF!), the observatory, gardens, and actually go into Te Papa (which translates from Maori into 'Our Place'... awwwwwwwww) which is supposed to be a BOMB museum. Also going to reunite with Julia because i LOVE her and she lives in Welly.
We are couchsurfing with this reaaaaally nice girl Emma, who's so incredibly cool and has been allllll over the Americas, and plays music on a record player and has an AMAZING collection of Elton John, Edith Piaf, Beatles, Eric Clapton.... she's just great. And we're on this great hill overlooking Wellington, with really scary narrow streets and cool wooden houses that reminds me a lot of SF. Figures that they would copy us and have cable cars too.
Going to attempt to fix my phone today, as well as get my IRD #, which is the NZ version of a social security number, so I can work on the south island on some vineyards (which has already been set up by my uncle Brady, because he's THE MAN).
Onward in Windy Welly!
Today we're going to try to see some sights in Wellington today- the cable cars (compare it to SF!), the observatory, gardens, and actually go into Te Papa (which translates from Maori into 'Our Place'... awwwwwwwww) which is supposed to be a BOMB museum. Also going to reunite with Julia because i LOVE her and she lives in Welly.
We are couchsurfing with this reaaaaally nice girl Emma, who's so incredibly cool and has been allllll over the Americas, and plays music on a record player and has an AMAZING collection of Elton John, Edith Piaf, Beatles, Eric Clapton.... she's just great. And we're on this great hill overlooking Wellington, with really scary narrow streets and cool wooden houses that reminds me a lot of SF. Figures that they would copy us and have cable cars too.
Going to attempt to fix my phone today, as well as get my IRD #, which is the NZ version of a social security number, so I can work on the south island on some vineyards (which has already been set up by my uncle Brady, because he's THE MAN).
Onward in Windy Welly!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Alpaca and Horses and Emu, Oh my!
I like it here. Kelly, our farm dad, is a great guy. Super funny. Works us long hours, about 4 a day, but it's not so bad. We take lots of breaks. He's probably the closest thing to a real cowboy that I've ever met. He rides horses bare back (everyone rides horses here, esp Maori kids, Jax and I almost got run over by a kid riding a horse ON THE SIDEWALK in Opotiki. I was less than pleased. But yeah Kelly goes on horse riding bushwalks in like groups of 40.. they all meet up and take a ride through the bush and I'm going "I want to play!"), wrangles sheep, builds his own houses, cooks up nachos (and other delicious food. We're learning so many dishes here in NZ. Kiwis just know how to cook. We are well fed). Plus, he's best friends with Lynn, our previous host, who's my new hero, so we know he's good people. Lynn warned us that people get hurt here, though, because Kelly likes riding his horses everywhere... So we were all worried, but it's so not bad. He gave me and Lisa a riding lesson the other night, he's a great teacher. We rode bareback too! Got walking down no problem, but then Kelly did try to get us up to a canter right away, and it was muuuuuch more difficult. Maybe that's what Lynn meant.. anyway, we wanted to actually go on a walk with the horses, but our time has run out here at Upsand Downs Farm. I wish we could have stayed longer, but since we somehow acquired a schedule it hasn't worked out.
When I first called Jackie back in August to see if the invitation was still good for me to meet up with her and Lisa in NZ, I assumed that they had already made a bunch of plans. See, I've only ever really gone abroad with a group (Piedmont Choirs and Glee Club) or my family (Paris/England) or on a program (Argentina), and I've always had an itinerary. Always. So I just figured that J/L had already figured out what they wanted to do. So I ask
Me: I mean, is it still okay for me to come? I don't want to mess up your plans.
Jackie: Um... What plans?
Me: You mean you don't have an itinerary already?
Jackie: Um... What's an itinerary?
And that's how we've been operating. No schedule, just floating on the wind, letting the universe direct us to new opportunities. Being open to staying or leaving whenever we want, taking the time to stop at random wineries or take random walks along the side of the road... it's been very freeing for me, not NEEDING to be in any given place at this certain time in this specific attire and sing this set of songs. None of that. Just... whatever we feel like. And that's what we do.
But NOW we have this ferry ticket next week that was wicked expensive so we can't miss that. And Lisa has friends in Hawkes Bay, which is on the way to Wellington, so we want to stop there, meaning we have to cut our wwoofing gig with Kelly short. Then we have a few girls that we connected with through CouchSurfing, so we have a place to sleep in Wellington. And Justin Laufer just got into NZ from Oz last night and he's meeting us in wellington for Jackie's birthday! Oh, right, that's why we have a ferry ticket- Jackie wanted to celebrate "22" in wellington, and her bday's on the 7th, so we made the ferry ride for the 9th. That was dumb, we should have given us more time in Wellington, but I wanted to be on the south island to meet my uncle (well, my uncle in law's brother..?) and thought that I needed to be there in early December for various reasons which turned out to not be necessary. But whatever, it's actually kind of nice, because I've been in touch with him over email and he's THE MAN and he's set up all these wwoofing and temp work stuff for us through mid january which is much more than we're used to. We can barely plan a day ahead. But yeah, we're going to be able to replenish our bank accounts, which is fantastic, since we all like having beer money. I mean souvenir money.
ANYWAY, the point is that, suddenly, after about a month of not making any concrete plans, suddenly we have the rest of the year planned for us. And that's just so bizarre. I'm not really complaining, but it's interesting. I don't so much like being tied to a schedule, because floating on the wind is so much more poetic.
I'm soooooo excited to meet up with Justin! Eeeeeee.
I'm slowly but surely uploading pictures to my flickr account- my photostream is cmanderson113, please check it out!
Going to attempt to kayak later tonight. We'll be in a sort of marshy area, so hopefully there will be enough water... that always helps...
Don't know when I'll get internet again before Christmas, so don't expect a new post for a few weeks. I'm going to try my hardest to NOT pay for internet for a while. Again, depleting bank account, but soon to be better!
I want to leave you with a list of all the animals on Kelly's farm:
Chooks (Chickens)
Roosters
Geese
Ducks
Sheep
2 Goats
4 Horses
2 Emu
5 Alpaca
I keep saying it's like Old MacDonald's farm. This German wwoofer showed up today (seriously, Germany, wtf!) and said "I feel like I'm in a zoo!" True dat, Tim. True dat. I also keep thinking of a lyric from BNL's "If I had a million dollars"
If I had a million dollars I would buy you an exotic pet
Like a llama. Or an emu.
And that's kind of my life.
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