My Newest Love: Skydiving

For more skydiving photos, click here.

I went skydiving today. And I can't wait to go again. It was the most surreal and amazing experience of my life. Perhaps the greatest rush I've ever felt. I was told it would feel like you're falling, and I was told my ears would hurt, and I was told many, many things. But I think everyone's experience is unique. I can say that my very sensitive ears did not become apparent to me until my parachute opened. And I never felt like I was falling, but as close to flying as I've ever come. I cannot describe how thoroughly I enjoyed myself.

I jumped from 15,000 feet, strapped to the tummy of a man who has been skydiving longer than I've been alive--17,000 jumps; highest jump: 48,000 feet, highest jump without oxygen: 35,000 feet. The man was a professional.

For my dive, we jumped at 15,000 ft, the max for a tandem dive. We reached 200k/h and fell over 10,000 feet before the parachute opened, for a total of around 1 minute free falling. It was absolutely incredible. I would recommend skydiving to anybody. I think I'm going to try Queenstown next for a snow-capped peak backdrop. CANNOT wait!

I'm going to try to upload my DVD from the jump, so check back for that in a bit!

Happy Kiwi Christmas!

Christina, Abi, and me at Huka Falls, Chrsitmas Day. To see more pictures from the day, click here

I had an absolutely lovely Christmas day. I arrived in Taupo on Christmas Eve and was told that there would be a potluck dinner the next day. I hurried to the Pak n’ Save (a New Zealand grocery store not unlike Meijer, but yellow and black instead of red and blue, not to mention somehow more dismal…and you thought it was impossible to top the dismalness of Meijer, hah!) and got some grocery to stock up for Christmas and Boxing Days, which both close down a lot of NZ civilization. I was all excited because I decided I’d make a red and green Christmas fruit salad, complete with pomegranate seeds! I got strawberries, kiwifruit (of course), cherries, a green pear and the pomegranit and went back to the hostel. Shortly thereafter, I met my roommates, Abi (British transplanted to NZ’s capitol, Wellington) and Christina (German). They were both a bit older than me but probably by only 10 years at the very most.

Christmas morning I got up and had breakfast, then began assembling my fruit salad. There were very few serving dishes available, so I decided to use a bunt cake tin, which ended up looking interesting and different. Anyway, afterwards I went on a little run along Lake Taupo, which is just lovely. I then showered and headed up to the kitchen for the potluck. There was a very interesting variety of foods present, as our chefs hail from far flung corners of the globe. There were several varieties of German potato salad (surprise, surprise!) and some French potatoes too. I walked up to this ADORABLE Frenchman standing at the stove over a steaming pan of partiflette (not sure if that’s the right spelling…) He smiled and asked if I wanted to try some and I was like “Sure!”, of course, and he proceeded to heap a mound of it onto my plate, which was ok because it was delicious. Apparently it’s from around les Alps. Anyway, some people just used whatever was on hand to come up with some interesting pasta salads…some of these pasta adventures turned out better than others. I was beyond delighted to see my fruit salad not only disappear rather quickly, but also being photographed by one of the guests! It melted my heart, this girl was just taking great care to get a good shot of it. And then a Yugoslavian woman told me that she thought it was really nice. It made my day!

Abi, Christina, and I had decided the day before that we’d try to hike to the Huka Falls on Christmas Day if the weather cooperated. We set out around 4 and returned around 8. It was a perfectly beautiful day and we passed everything from Silver Ferns (New Zealand’s native national tree and a proud symbol of NZ’s spirit of beauty and uniqueness) to hot spring rivers. We saw lots of families out and about enjoying the day; lots of people were bathing in the hot rivers. There was this crazed Rottweiler that we spotted wresting something in the water, and I was bracing myself for the trauma of watching it haul out a wriggling, bloody, 50 pound trout up to the shore (yes, my mind was just running wild). I was even more shocked to watch it finally dig out a rock the size of a soccer ball and gingerly muzzle it up to the shore at least 15 feet away. It could barely keep its head upright the thing was so heavy—it made my teeth just ache, watching. Anyway, then it just went to town on the thing before it’s dad managed to get its attention away from the rock, which the dog seemed to be convinced was alive but really needed to be dead. It was hilarious. Anyway, can you tell I miss Miss Rosie Pose heaps?

Anyway, it was a lovely hike and I really enjoyed Christina and Abi’s company. When we arrived home we pooled our resources and managed to produce a beyond satiating steak and salad dinner—perfect for a cool summer night. A few glasses of wine and some chocolate, and the day was complete and perfect, as Christmas Days thousands of miles away from friends and family go. If New Years is even half as good I’ll be thrilled.

In case I never wished you Merry Christmas, and even if I did, I hope it was wonderful for you.

Fotos!

Me, at the Wintergarden in the Auckland Domain.

Actually, this is me, at Wintergarden in the Auckland Domain. Such a beautiful place. The picture above is of a statue at the Wintergarden.

View of Mt Eden Village from the bus stop to Auckland City. You can see Mt Eden in the background.

Steffi, Me, and Nicola walking in a "winter wonderland" at Christmas In The Park.

Not sure why uploading photos worked today but didn't work yesterday or the day before that. I did nothing differently today except expect less. Hmm.

I'd really like to make my regalings complete with photos...

Does anyone out there (who ideally has more experience blogging than me) know anything about getting pictures onto the thing? Why isn't it working? It worked last week. What happened between then and now? I am quite irritated with this situation. Anyone have any advice?

Christmas in the summer might be less weird than having Easter in the fall and and Halloween in the spring, but it's still pretty weird...

My God, how the time flies. I have been here now for a grand total of 16 days. Which sounds like a lot more when you say "over two weeks", but it still feels long. I have been a bad blogger for the last week, so I'll have to do a quick wrap up of the weekend.

Mt Eden has been an interesting experience. Within the first hours even, I had dubbed my hostel "a haven to hipster British ex-pats and awkward German tourists", which is in ways an apt description and in others a bit unfair. In truth, I have come to like this place which I prematurely judged as unfriendly. It couldn't be further from unfriendly, especially, as I've found, when you make an effort with people and don't write them off at a glance (this sounds obvious, but the crowd here seems rather unapproachable in the beginning). I have met some really interesting people and had some great conversations with the people who've stayed for days, weeks, months in this little house. Anyway, there are a lot of Brits and even more Germans, but there have also been a few French, one Dutch, one Spanish, and one friend I was particularly fond of from Poland named Yhatzig. I have done everything from clean out the drains in the kitchen sinks and showers to lend a pair of my jeans to a (male) Liverpudlian who needed something "more presentable" to wear out, here at my hostel where I have now been staying for almost two weeks. I agreed to clean for accommodation, which is actually a rather common way for backpackers to save money here in NZ, and wanted to leave immediately when I arrived. But I am feeling differently now, and might even miss the place when I go.

Anyway, there is a German girl named Steffi who is staying in the same room with me and even arrived the same day, also to clean. She is doing the whole working-holiday scheme too, from Germany, through another affiliate organization of IEP. She is very sweet and we've become friends in our time here. It's nice to have someone to talk to, hang out with, and occasionally go places with here.

Last weekend, Steffi, Nicola (another German from IEP) and I went to a music festival in Auckland called "Christmas in the Park." It's an annual free event hosted by Auckland City Council and Coca-Cola and it's basically like a big summer party for all ages complete with music, fireworks, carnival rides and Christmas music performed by rising local and some well-known national performers. It was fun, though it got a little too cold once the sun started to go down, as it does here in Auckland.

Let me just say that Christmas in the summer is, ("a joke", suggests my singularly fellow American in the hostel), I'd say it's a weird parallel universe. I have witnessed the following and subsequently pondered the oddity of a summertime Christmas: Eating a candy cane on the beach...ice cream trucks playing Greensleeves...fireworks in the park to the tune of Jingle Bells (which many Kiwi's cannily sing "Oh what fun it is to have a Kiwi holiday, hey!") I learned the alternative lyrics to this Christmas standby in a rather adorable way. Which, oddly enough, brings me to the subject of my employment situation.

I have agreed to work in Parnell, a sweet little suburb of Auckland that is really probably the one nested mostly closely within Auckland's city center, which is cool. Anyway, I will be an au pair there until the end of April, looking after two precious little Kiwi girls, Katie, 5, and Sophie, 3. I met with the family and their current au pair over the course of my first and second weeks here and had been corresponding with them online before I left the States. I think it will be a fun job. I basically take care of them and try to maintain the smooth-functioning of their house of 4 as best I can. I will live with them, work M-F 8-5 and occasional weekend nights. The one interesting twist is that Sophie goes to a French kindergarten/pre-school 2 days of the week (and Katie was going prior to being enrolled full time at kindergarten as of last year) , so I will be required to speak some French with them during the day. It should be interesting, and I think it will be fun. Fun fact: everyone refers to kindergarten here as "kindy" (pronounced kin-dee). (And this has nothing to do with the current subject, but they also sometimes refer to sandals as "jandals" and I have not yet stopped thinking that that's strange and incomprehensible...)

Anyway, I swear that that is related to Kiwi Jingle Bells, and here's how. I did a little trial run/torch passing couple of days last week with Katie, Sophie, and Beth, the current au pair. I was giving Sophie a bath and trying to distract her from thinking that she was getting water in her eyes, so I suggested singing a song and when I began singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" she immediately objected "Why can't we sing Christmas songs???" It being summer, this thought does not naturally occur to a Northern Hemispherian, so I thought, "Yes, excellent, what a great idea!" I started out with "Up On the Housetop"...Sophie had never heard it and neither had Katie. But when it was Sophie's turn to sing that's what I got--the adorable Kiwi version of Jingle Bells (insert Kiwi accent and trouble pronouncing most of the consonants that trip up a typical three-year-old and your heart will melt on the spot).

Anyway, this story is being told all out of order, but it doesn't really matter I guess. The Christmas in the Park concert happened on Saturday and then on Sunday Steffi and I went to the Wintergardens in the Auckland Domain (also the site of the Christmas concert, though slightly adjacent to the concert ground). The Domain is the oldest park in New Zealand, though I can't remember when it was set aside as such. It is beautiful. Imagine the Cleveland Metroparks having the spirit of Central Park and then consider it being about 10 times more gorgeous than both and choked with (extremely well-kept) rainforest greenery. It really is amazing.

I reckon that's about enough out of me for now. I'm experiencing technical difficulties due to which I was unable to post any photos to break up this rather lengthy post. So please check back later for pictures!

Where in the World is New Zealand?

I do not expect everyone who cares about my being away to actually know where I am, except that it's a place called New Zealand on the other side of the world. So, maps.

Here is Australia (which most travelers I run into down here affectionately call (and spell) "Oz"). The tiny island below it is Tasmania, and then further east from Tasmania are the two major islands that make up New Zealand. California makes a good comparison to New Zealand in terms of size. While California boasts a human population of 38 million, New Zealand only claims around 4 million. In spring time, New Zealand's sheep population reaches 44 million or so.






Here is a map of New Zealand. You can see that Auckland is in the northern part of the North Island. People generally refer to places in New Zealand as being on either the North or the South Island. I am super excited to make it to the South Island, which is generally regarded to be the wilder and more remote of the two. Wellington is the capitol, and also considered the cultural capital. People sometimes call it Well, (and they refer to Wellington boots as "gummies", for gumboots, which Brits generally refer to as Wellies). Anyway, Christchurch and Queenstown are the major cities of the South Island, Queenstown being known as the adventure sports capital and Christchurch, from what I know gets its reputation from its student population (and Kiwis often refer to Chritchurch's students as "scarfies"...I thought that might be because they wear school scarfs, but apparently it's just because they wear scarfs to keep warm down there!)

I am currently staying here in the city of Auckland, which has many smaller suburbs. About 1 million people live in Auckland and its suburbs. I drew a couple of circles and a line on this map. The line is Queen Street, the major artery of Auckland city (I've mentioned it a couple of times now). The circle to the left of the line indicates Parnell, the suburb where I'll be working as an au pair starting in January. And below the line is a circle indicating Mt. Eden, where I'm currently staying.



Thanks to everyone who has been posting. You make me smile!

Day 6: Move to Mt Eden

I moved to Mt Eden today actually, to a smaller hostel where they hired me to clean for accomodation. This is a very common way for backpackers to save money in NZ. I didn't have to work today, so I climbed Mt Eden, where you can see most of Auckland from above. Behind me is the city center where I had been staying up until today.

Mt Eden is the tallest summet in Auckland (it's only about 200m, though). It was once an active volcano, but not the crater is covered in grass and...cowpies! There is a sizeable heard of cattle which lives on Mt Eden. They have a healthy no-nonsense attitude towards tourists. They get this look in their eyes where you can see the whites all the way around the pupil that just tells you "Move or I'll stomp on you", and then you move.

One of the coolest things about Mt Eden is seeing a volcano, a major city, and a heard of cattle all in the same glance. It is very peaceful and there are only a few tourists, really. I enjoyed my hike a lot. It was pretty hot today, climbing up. Another thing I have noticed is that you really feel the sun a lot more here. I am not tanning so much as I am freckling, which is a distinct effect of the hole in the ozone layer. The New Zealand Skin Cancer Society has its own brand of sun screen (and they call it sun cream here).

Here is a pretty good view of Auckland, cows, and crater.

Auckland!

I arrived in Auckland after 3 long flights and 30 odd hours of travel at 6am to find out that check-in would not start until 1. After so much hurry-up and wait, punctuated by turbulance, I was just happy to be sitting somewhere. I stowed my luggage and set out to explore Queen Street, the main drag of Auckland city.

Here is a picture of the harbor at the bottom of Queen Street where the ferries leave for the Hauraki Gulf Islands. There are four islands outside of Auckland. I'm going to try to visit them in the next few weekends.

I had been so excited to to get out of Christmasland (any given square-inch of the USA) where green and red deck halls and more. Ironically, the Sunday that I arrived the streets of Auckland were closed down for the annual Santa parade, which wouldn't be complete without hoky Christmas jingles and a three story papier-mache Santa posted up on the side of a building accross the street from my hostel. Santa had a motorized finger that wagged backa and forth, and a motorized eye that used to wink. But since the wink motor was broken, Santa's eye was stuck mid-wink, making the other bug out by comparison. So this weird giant Santa was staring down over thousands of people giving the stink eye. It was pretty hilarious and I didn't even care about the fact that I was expecting a nicely toned down Christmas display and got that instead.

There were a lot of non-Christmas parts of the parade. It started almost like a cultural parade with different international clubs from Auckland walking down the street in costumes and playing instruments. Then the second half was school clubs and cartoon floats. There were a lot of little kids who had a lot of fun, and it was great to see a lot more people out and about than normal, so I got to get more of a sense of "who" Auckland is this way.

The next day I went to the IEP (International Exchange Programs, BUNAC's affiliate organization in New Zealand) office for orientation. There were only 4 other people there, from Canada, the Netherlands, USA, and England. Most of the people that I have been meeting are European. Lots of people from the UK, lots of Dutch, Germans, and lots of Asians. Most of the Asians though are either just on holiday, or just working, but not both, unlike most of the Europeans (and me). It is a realling interesting and diverse crowd of people.

Initial impressions:

*Crossing the street in Auckland is a delicate art. People do NOT j-walk (if they value their lives). I swear that I have seen drivers speed up and try to hit people trying to take their right of way away. At least they honk when they try to hit you, as if to warn you. When you want to cross the street you have to wait a long time while people accumulate at the corner and then all the traffic stops and you cross to the corner you want, so you can cross diagonally.

*It is perfectly acceptable to walk down the street, even Queen Street, in your bare feet. Some people that I've seen haven't even been holding shoes in their hands.

*Food is served extra hot here (temperature-wise). I had blisters on the roof of my mouth the first day!

*As far as I can tell, the water does not swirl backwards when you flush.

*The combination of planes and elevators gave me some pretty bad vertigo the first couple days.

*There is every kind of Asian cuisine that your heart could ever desire in Auckland. And it's pretty tasty, so far.

Sarah