Things I enjoy about New Zealand (Or, "Things to Google")

Kiwi kids climb trees (and do everything else) barefoot
Manuka honey
Pukekos
Wool, and fibre arts in general
L&P
Fish n chips z (pronounced, "fush n chups")
Watching FoTC in their natural habitat
The Tasman Sea
The Auckland Harbour
Hokey Pokey ice cream
NZ House and Garden Magazine
Tea towels
Toetoes
jandals
Whittaker's chocolate
ANZAC biscuits
Pinot noir
Sauvignon blanc
"She'll be right"
"Good on ya"
Green lipped mussels
Kauri trees
Cheap sushi
Short commercial breaks
Golden kiwifruit
NZ Beauty apples


Things I don't enjoy about New Zealand (or, "Things I won't miss when I go home"):

Certain NZ road rules that don't make a lick of sense
Expensive cosmetics
Horridly expensive internet
The rat tail coif that seems to have made a (miraculous) comeback with young Kiwi males
Indiscriminately bad popcorn
Grammatical errors. They're everywhere.
People are very reserved, and so I try to be too, much more so than I really am
The dismal selection of greeting cards. They're few, never funny, often cliche, lacking sentimentality, and wretchedly expensive.
Tourists. They're everywhere.
I am often shown how pc Americans are when I am made to feel awkward by what is considered appropriate in New Zealand (but would be considered shockingly un-pc, even tasteless, unintelligent, or inarticulate in the States. For example, I once heard a news anchor report that someone "must have had balls").

Five amazing months down, Seven exciting more to go!

I have been a pretty bad blogger in the last few months, only reporting major adventures and glossing over, or completely neglecting to write about the every day stuff. A little update is in order, I believe. But before that, a quick wrap up of my adventure up north!

I spent last weekend in Northland (basically, everything north of Auckland) and actually managed to cover a lot of ground in a relatively short amount of time. The highlights include, first and foremost, Cape Reinga, the northernmost point of New Zealand and one of the only places in the world where you can see two oceans collide. (The other place is at the Straight of Gibraltar where you see the Mediterranean and Atlantic oceans meet.) Seeing the waves of the Tasman Sea in the west literally crash into the opposite moving waves of the South Pacific in the east was one of the most humbling sights I've ever beheld. It was one of those places in this world that I absolutely live for; the places that make you feel minuscule.

Other highlights from the weekend include Kauri trees and gum. Kauri trees are the second largest trees in the world, only smaller than the Redwoods of California, and they can live to be six thousand years old. They are, sadly, quite sparse in New Zealand anymore. The wood is, from all descriptions I've heard, perfect for just about everything so it was milled nearly to extinction by Maori and (to a greater extent) European civilizations alike. It secretes a substance known as gum, resin, or amber, depending on how long it has been outside if the tree hardening. I am absolutely smitten with the stuff, mostly because of its gorgeous smell and delicious color. Plus, the legacy of a 'gemstone' which comes from a sacred tree hundreds of thousands of years old, the younger and alternative forms of which can be used for anything from sealing a boat to healing the sick, is immensely appealing to me. I treated myself to a Kauri amber necklace. The man who made it and found the stone told me that he estimates it to be between 20 and 30 thousand years old. If some twist of fate has led my future fiance to read this, he should know that I want a ring made out of white Kauri amber (or the extremely rare blue or green varieties), thank you!

The last highlight of the weekend was 90 mile beach, which is actually more like 70 miles of vastly wild and deserted sand which does daily battle with the vicious Tasman tides. You can drive along the beach, but it's the only place in New Zealand that most car insurance companies won't extend their coverage. The occasional steering wheel or rear view mirror sticking half-buried out of the sand reminds you why, in case the increasing proximity of the raging Tasman waves allows you to forget why this might be the case. It's probably not a coincidence that such a harsh and dangerous place is also one of the most sublimely beautiful landscapes I've ever visited. The new photo at the top of my blog, behind the title, is from 90 mile beach. To see more photos from the weekend, click here.




So, now for the everyday life update. I have now been away for just under 5 months (whoa!) and have spent the vast majority of that time working in Auckland. My au pair job has been rather stressful, most specifically because only a few weeks after I started it the younger of the two children in my care became dreadfully ill. The Pneumonia Debacle began mid-February and things have really only fully returned to normal in the last week or so. I have never seen a child so sick in my life and it proved to be an enormous challenge for the entire family, myself included. Life was definitely turned upside down, especially during the 10 days that she spent in the hospital. UNderwent surgery to drain fluid from her lung, and had tubes in her for days. I hope never to see the inside of a children's intensive care unit ever again--it's a desperately sad place to be! The silver lining is that I got to see the inside of New Zealand's medical system and, more importantly, the whole experience deepened my bond with the kids and brought the whole family closer together. But I'm still glad to be done with that!



The kids are enjoying their school holidays at the moment. They get two weeks off at Easter and we have been packing in as much fun as possible. It's hard to believe that I'll be leaving Auckland in just a few weeks. I have really come to like it here, and I NEVER anticipated that change of heart! I hated it here at first. But there is a lot to like. First of all, it is New Zealand's "big city". At a population somewhere between one and two million it may seem small to an American or Brit, but when you consider that their are only 4 million people in the whole of New Zealand, Auckland suddenly seems a lot bigger. It has very distinct neighborhoods bursting with character and all quite close together. There are heaps of beautiful, well-maintained parks for walking, running, sitting and reading, you name it. Auckland City Council also puts on a very generous amount of high quality, FREE entertainment, including concerts, art festivals, food festivals, cultural festivals, sports festivals.

Because New Zealand is so small, you don't have to look far for its famous and talented, and these people generally haven't developed the kind of egos that grow in larger, less isolated nations. So they're often willing to, say, give a free concert in a small garden or other intimate setting. To be a spectator at such an event you don't have to expect to fight a huge crowd to take part, because if you miss it this weekend you can just go see something equally cool next weekend. And, when attending such an occasion, make sure you pack a picnic lunch with "bubbles", New Zealand's homegrown answer to the technicality which forbids us to use the familiar term "Champagne" with reference to any sparkling celebratory beverage fermented outside of said terroire. I love it so much more than "bubbly". Bubbles, please. As a side note, New Zealand's bubbles are cheap and tasty, emphasis on the tasty, which is probably why people pack them in their Sunday lunch basket and make for the park with a spring in their step. Definitely a little custom I wish I could bring home. But sadly, I'd probably be arraested if I tried this in the States.



All in all, I have come to like Auckland a lot, I must confess. When I leave in a little over a week, I know that I'll miss my running routes, of which my favorite takes me past the Prime Minister's house just before reaching the Auckland harbour at dawn. The view never, ever, fails to move me. I'll miss that. I'll miss my favorite cafe on Parnell Rise, where you can get the most delicious coffee and blessedly free internet. I'll miss the goofy newscasters on the morning news program that I watch. I'll miss knowing where everything is, and I'll miss knowing that if I'm looking for something from home, I'm most likely to find it in Auckland than any other part of the country. I'll miss driving (on the left side of the road on the right side of the car! Which I am finally used to...I even had a dream the other night in which I was driving, but I can't for the life of me remember on which side. Also, I watched a minute of Amizing Race the other night and the camera was in the car. I had a shortlived and minor panic as the car turned into the right side of the road...as in, I did a little gasp as if expecting a head on collision!) I'll miss the parents that I have met, chatted with and gotten to know while waiting for the bell to ring at the end of the school day, and many of the kids that come running out to greet us when it does. I'll miss the family in Tohunga Cresent that I have come to know and love well .

But, I have a lot to look forward to. Like, the whole of the South Island! I'll be doing a partial tour of the island in May and part of June until making my way back to Auckland for the most exciting part of the journey yet. My family is coming to visit!!! Mom, Dad, Dave and I will do a two-week-whirl-wind tour of New Zealand. After that, I'm pretty sure I'll need a job again, if I'm not desperate for one, and the plan is to head to Nelson for the remainder of the winter and just see what happens. I'd like to be in Wellington for the Wearable Art Festival and Awards Show during the last week or two of September, but after that I don't know how much longer I'll stay before coming back to the States. I can only stay until the end of November 2009, due to the stipulations of my visa and plane ticket.

I started writing a post about the differences between my experiences of American and New Zealand cultures, but after several revisions, rewrites, and reconsiderations, I decided that this topic is probably not best discussed via blog. I'd love to discuss it with anyone who's interested, though, so email me if that's you.

It's always so nice to hear from people at home. I miss you all, and so appreciate your interest, and your support. I hope you're all enjoying climatic improvements up/over there. I am feeling an unsettling nip in the morning and evening air and watching the days get shorter and shorter. Starting to see the other side of the token that had me complaining about the heat in Janurary and February! Summer was lovely, but Auckland's fall is a poor excuse of a season and really makes me appreciate our beautiful Midwest autumn.

SpeLUNKing !

I have always been fascinated by caves. I find them absolutely seductive, really. I even love the sound of the word “spelunking” (although, I mean, how could you not?). So when I heard that the cave system stretches a 50 mile radius from the middle of New Zealand’s Waitomo region, you could say I was intrigued. When I found out that the caves are home to millions of glow worms, caving in Waitomo went straight to the top of my list of must-do’s in New Zealand.

This past weekend I made my first Kiwi road trip from Auckland to Waitomo and I was not let down. I like to think that I have done a lot of cool things in my life. And of all of those amazing adventures, exploring Waitomo’s underground caverns is probably the coolest. I decided to opt for the Rolls Royce of caving adventures in Waitomo, the Lost World Epic, which begins with a 100 meter abseil into a cave and continues for 4 hours upstream before daylight reappears.
My group consisted of an Aussie-Irish couple from Melbourne and five(!) Minnesotans (far and away the greatest number of Americans I’ve seen in one place for the last 3 months). We drove with our two guides, Scott and Gavin, about 20 minutes away from Waitomo Village where we geared up before heading towards the abseiling platform. We had to wear a full wetsuit with jacket and socks, as well as gumboots, helmet with headlamp, and climbing harness. We were instructed on clipping in and out of safety lines throughout the cave and then hiked down to the platform. One of the men in my team, Tim, had a dreadful time stepping over the ledge. We probably waited 30 minutes for him to get through tears and hyperventilation before stepping over the ledge. But to see him succeed was well worth the wait and made the abseil as much of a victory as an adventure. It also considerably extended the amount of time available for enjoying the absolutely stunning scenery. Again, I like to think that I have seen a lot of beautiful places in my life, but this was by far the most sublime. It was an absolute fairytale. I expected to see Peter Pan or Tinker Bell at any moment. I really have no words to describe the beauty of this place. Photos will have to be good enough, though they hardly do it justice.


Click here for more pictures from Waitomo.

After about a 20 minute descent we had lunch and then headed into the caved. The water was about 14 degrees (which is about 50 Fahrenheit), which actually didn’t seem so bad with the wetsuit. We climbed over rocks, to begin with and then we got in. Sometimes I could touch but sometimes not, and then I just held on to the cave walls or bobbed along pulling myself through the water in a sort of modified breaststroke fashion. For the more dangerous passes we clipped into the safety ropes. Some of these went over long drop-offs and one went through a waterfall over a 7 meter drop. That was also tricky for we of the short-legged kind—I was literally straddling a waterfall with 7 meters of empty air and rapids between me and the jagged rocks below, but I made it just fine. At one point we came upon a ledge with a pool below, so you can imagine what that precipitated. Cave jumping! I went twice, and loved it. It was probably only about a 3 meter fall, but I’ve never done that in a cave before, and found that the setting adds a really fantastic rush (to something I did daily in high school)! A little while after we did the jump, we reached a few crevices which required crawling GI Joe style under millions of tons of rock.

The passageways have names like “Shin Break Alley” and “Cow Hole” for rather sinister reasons. The first one’s pretty obvious but I’ll explain the second. Above the cave is a rolling pasture full of grazing cows and sheep. So you can imagine why “Cow Hole” is so-called. As we stood in the middle of it gazing up at the crack of daylight many meters above, one of the guides told us that years and years ago (the specific cave that we explored was discovered in 1906, mapped in the 40s, and finally commercialized in the 80s) a tour group like ours was coming through and stumbled on a cow laying right in the spot where we were standing. The tail end (haha) of the gruesome tale that ensued was that the body was devoured by eels, which are the river’s vultures. Few things in this world freak me out, but eels fall under this category, especially in this case where my imagination figures them as eyeless albino cave freaks with slimy yellow teeth. “Don’t worry, they’re talking about a tuna-like fish. It means something different than what you think,” one of my fellow Americans reassured me. ‘Ok’, I decided, ‘tuna’s still not great, but better than eel,’ and then I tried to forget that anything lives in the water. But later, in “Shin Break Ally” of all places, one of the guides spotted one. I didn’t see it but I didn’t need the reminder. About 45 minutes before we left the cave, the other guide told us to hurry over to the pool that he was hunched over and shining his headlamp into. And then I saw it. An eel. And no, not a tuna-like fish, but the slimy water serpent—AN EEL—that I had feared. The guide told us about its life cycle and how it is born in the river and feeds until it is large enough to head for saltwater where it decides whether it will be male or female and develops the appropriate parts and pieces. Then it swims all the way to Tonga where it mates and then goes all the way back to the river where it came from, and where its parents came from to lay its eggs. So that lent them just enough humanity to end my eel nightmares—that and the thing slithered over my foot to get away from the guide that was PETTING it. Ok, I can deal.

But the best part, the part where I thought again, ‘this is what I came to New Zealand for’, came just before we reached daylight again. Glow worms are an insect larva that lives in damp places where they can hang inverted, which is why they’re often found in caves. They don’t live in caves exclusively, but their lights go out under light, so the caves are a good place to see them any time of day. They spin a sticky thread which they dangle from their fluorescent hind-ends and use it to trap flying insects attracted to the light. We saw the first of them within moments of entering the cave and I stopped to admire them, as I’d been dying to see them ever since I first saw the Planet Earth episode called “Caves” in which they’re featured. The guide assured me that I’d see more glow worms and that there was quite a good spot to see them at the end of the tour. When we reached it everyone sat down and we all turned off our headlamps. Their green-blue phosphorescence illuminated the cathedral ceiling above and they stretched along the passage as far as I could. It left us all speechless and we sat there admiring them until it was time to leave. I have no idea how long we stopped there, but it could have been 5 minutes or it could have been 20 minutes, and no amount of time would have been long enough.

When we left the cave we crossed through the paddocks above the cave system we’d come through, passing “Cow Hole” along the way. When we arrived back at the base we took hot showers and enjoyed a barbeque dinner together before going back to Waitomo Village.
It was one of those things that was really amazing to do alone, but also something that I know I’ll do again when I come back to New Zealand in the future with someone I love. After all, spelunking is for spelovers!

Kiwi Chinese New Year

Last weekend Auckland's Chinese community threw a big lantern festival in celebration of Chinese New Year. It was great fun. There was music, food, lanterns, performances, and LOTS of people. I had a great time and really enjoyed taking pictures at the event. You can see the lantern festival pictures and more comments here.

I Had to Go on Holiday

A glimpse of the Sounds, from the Sounds! This is what I came to New Zealand to see!

So, since my last blog I have taken up residence with a Kiwi family of 4 in Parnell, a “leafy” central suburb of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city (1.5 million or so). I am the Au pair for the next 3 months. Everyone is pretty great, and while any job has its ups and downs, this one has its peaks and valleys. The first two weeks the girls (5 and 3, 5 and 4 as of last week) were out of school for the summer holiday, which is only about a month long in New Zealand. I joined them about midway through, and spent my first two weeks on the job having hit the ground sprinting. But, to my great relief, it was indeed a sprint, as they all went to Christshurch for the last 10 days of the holiday. That meant that I too had to go on vacation. Darn.
I chose to try to see some part of the South Island in my 10 days. Because we’re in the southern hemisphere, the south experiences cooler temperatures in the winter and with my job in Auckland lasting through April, this, I realized, would be my only chance to see any part of it in the summer, as it is too difficult to go there for a weekend.

Traveling in New Zealand is very different from traveling at home because of the combination of the terrain and the roadways. The terrain is very diverse and extremely hilly, making most of the rural (most of the country’s) roadways very twisty and rolling. Thank God I have a strong stomach! Kidding, of course. I’ve luckily been able to fend off motion sickness so far but I don’t think it’s a matter of if but when I’ll get sick along New Zealand’s motorways. Anyway, the curving, hilly nature of the roadways means it takes FOREVER to get anywhere. To put it into perspective, the length of the country tip to toe is about the length of a trip from Ohio (or south/central Michigan) to central or southern Florida. You could comfortably make this trip in two days, and drive through the night to make it in one day if you had to. In New Zealand, to drive the same distance (as the crow flies) would take at least a week. Ugh.

So you can see why going to the south island by bus is more ambitious than it sounds. Also consider the fact that it involves a three hour ferry ride between the Wellington and Picton. I chose to make this journey by bus because there is a cheap overnight bus from Auckland to Wellington. Let’s just say I won’t be doing this again anytime soon. But the ferry was pretty enjoyable, especially when we made our entrance into the Sounds. The boat slows, and things become much quieter around the boat. Long, sharp, green peaks lurch dramatically from the water, forming narrow passage ways.

As the boat is swallowed by the Sounds, I am awestruck by the landscape and it dawns on me that that I’ve finally seen some of what I came to New Zealand to see. Just as I think it can’t get any better, and I look to the water and notice a dark shape liltingly approach the surface near the boat. A little face peeks out of the water. It’s a seal. She inspects the ferryboat passengers peering down curiously. Her eyes are exquisitely beautiful and give her a simultaneously heartbroken and cheerful expression that makes her look eerily human. I am reminded of mariners’ tales of seals that shed their skin and take human form on land. Before I can even think about my camera the seal disappears into the blue. Welcome to the south island. I am brimming with excitement and already glad I’ve made the trip.

I arrived in Picton pretty tired from the overnight bus ride, but felt eager to see some scenery, so I went for a “walk”. Again, because of the terrain and the lifestyle around here, a “walk” can mean a quiet stroll or a sweaty, altitudinous jaunt that carves anywhere from 2 to 6 hours out of your day. This walk that I took that first day was much more in line with the latter. The Sounds make jagged V shapes in the water, and Picton sits in the bottom of one of the Vs. I walked from there out to the end of the sound and back.

The next day I headed for Nelson. Not far away, but timely, as you must navigate around the Sounds to get there. I had heard that Nelson had a lively arts community, boasts bountiful Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, and makes a good hub for day excursions in the nearby Abel Tasman National Park. Art, wine, and outdoor adventures. Me, me, and me. This sounded perfect.

And it was. The first day I went on a kayaking/hiking/sailing trip along the coast and in Abel Tasman National Park, which is the smallest national park, but one of the most beautiful. Our kayak took us from open seas, to turquoise lagoons, to narrow caves along the coast, and finally to a small island colony of New Zealand fur seals. We then had lunch and I hiked over to the next bay, enjoying stunning views along the way. From Anchorage Bay I sailed back to the starting point, Kaiteretere. All in all I was gone all day and it was a great start to the trip.

The next day I was schooled in the art of bonecarving. I learned that traditional Maori bonecarving was typically done with mountain goat or even human bones, but today it’s a means of recycling beef byproducts. Starting with a bovine femur, I whittled and carved and sanded a ring for myself, complete with paua and fern embellishments. There were two couples and another single traveler who made carvings along with me, and we all made something different. Mostly, people made the traditional pendants worn around the neck on a leather string. They have symbolic meaning and are meant to be given as gifts. I didn’t quite feel ready for this leap into tapu (sacred tradition), so I made my ring, which I love. The instructor is a German man named Stefan who has been in New Zealand for over a decade doing bonecarving, and began with Maori mentorship. He is perfect for the job, combining the perfect amounts of know-how with open-minded willingness to let people experiment and be creative with what is usually a new art form to them. It was totally great.

The next day I decided I’d rent a bike and check out Nelson’s (very) unique WoW Wearable Art and Classic Car Museum. The museum was mind blowing. If you know me even a little (which, you probably do if you’re reading my blog…or at least I hope you do if you’re reading my blog), then you know that I wasn’t there to see the cars. I cannot express how inspiring or inventive or creative or ingenious the art was. It was by far the most exciting art museum I’ve ever visited. I should probably back up and explain what the art actually comes from. Back in 1986 (I believe it was ’86) a small group of designers had a show and design contest called The Wonderful World of Wearable Art. It attracted an audience of 200, and was held at a farmhouse in rural Nelson. Fast forward 25 years and the event has moved to the political and cultural capitol, Wellington, attracts designers from all over the world and entertains 35,000 people a year. It is the most highly anticipated arts event of the year in New Zealand, and now it’s the most highly anticipated event in my datebook as well. I am going to do my best to go see the show in September and I can’t wait! The museum is a vivacious archive of winning and contributing designs over the years. ‘Stunning’ is a major understatement.

After my amazing experience at WoW, I biked over to the beach and enjoyed a nice laze about in the sun before returning to town for a small summer arts fest going on down Trafalgar St., the main drag in downtown Nelson. I was surprised at how small it was and how far fewer people were checking out the stands than were milling about and otherwise observing from the bars surrounding the stands. There was live music, and it was a nice atmosphere. But it took about 5 minutes to get through, so I decided to stop into a knitting co-op that I had strolled into the day before. Out of curiosity, I had popped in, I tried on a sweater, and then made a beeline for the wall of scrumptious looking yarn opposite the sweaters (I have a thing for fabrics, a tactile fixation when you get right down to it). I had told the woman working there that I’d love to knit a scarf and she encouraged me to get it started. We picked out yarn together and she told me where I could go to get some knitting needles. By the time I had gone up the street for the needles and come back she had gathered up a few left over threads that she offered to me for my scarf. When I went back during the art fest the next day she had a whole bag full of beautiful yarns to offer me in addition. I ended up sitting and knitting and chatting with her for over an hour. This young-grandma aged lady named Betty had the spirit of a twenty year old, the heart of a saint and the soul of a sage. She was really so nice, and talking to her and knitting with her was the major highlight of my trip. She was so generous, kind, and loving toward me and I only spent a little over an hour with her but she made a big impression on me. People like her are the reason why I travel. I am now almost finished with my beautiful scarf that wouldn’t have been possible without Betty.

The last day of my trip started off fantastically—I swear, every time I thought that it couldn’t get any better it did. Betty had told be to make sure that I made it to the Nelson farmer’s and artisan’s market, which is held Saturday mornings in a square off Trafalgar St. It was by the far the best weekend morning market I have ever been to. Everything was delicious, there was music, there were beautiful handcrafted foods, gifs, clothing, soaps, you name it. I was in absolute heaven. I spent brunch milling around there and then headed back to my hostel where I was to be picked up for an afternoon tour of five vineyards around Nelson. I tasted a staggering 30 different crus. I love wine…but this was, dare I say it, too much wine! In all honesty, I enjoyed the last glass just as much as the first. Perhaps it would have been better had it not been about 80 degrees or so that day. I did do an excellent job hydrating and only threw in the towel and let myself go a bit (not drinking water in between tastes) at the last vineyard, where there was no spittoon. Apparently people don’t spit out wine on Kiwi tastings anyway, so that’s ok. You either discretely pour out what you don’t want, or you just drink it. And that’s that. It was absolutely breathtaking scenery, even considering the heat, and I really enjoyed myself. At the end I felt that I had fully indulged myself.

Indulgence was the theme of the vacation, really. I told myself that I was just going to do all of the things that I wanted to do and not look back or think twice about it and I’m so happy I did. I was completely refreshed and replenished by the trip and I was able to put a lot of things into perspective—like how I can’t wait to come back to the south island once my post in Auckland comes to an end. I had gotten to the point where I was past the initial excitement of being in New Zealand to the point where I was just dealing with the frustrations of being in a different country, away from home. Nelson got me excited again. I can’t wait to go back.

For pictures from my foray into the South Island, click here.

Volcanoes, Astronomers, and Bedbugs, Oh My!

Warning: This is a long one, so I included subtitles. Feel free to skim!

I left Auckland eager to discover the iconic green, bleating countryside of New Zealand, and find it I did. In the bus all the way to Taupo I feasted my eyes on green pastures, sheep and golfers. Then I arrived at my hostel and the romance was lost; I immediately missed my friends that I’d made at Oaklands Lodge in Mt Eden. However, it turned out to be a fantastic Christmas with some fun new friends, and I went skydiving for the first time. But in truth, I stayed in Taupo too long.

TongarirNo Crossing
I had wanted to stay in Taupo long enough to get one nice day for skydiving and one nice day for the Tongariro Crossing, the highly lauded “best day-hike in New Zealand” featuring blue crater lakes and Mount Ngauruhoe (the “Mt. Doom” volcano of Lord of the Rings fame), among other natural wonders. On the 10th day in Taupo I eagerly boarded the bus to the Crossing's trail head, happy to leave, and excited for the hike, but more than a little nervous about the looming clouds. The bus pulled into the car park (Kiwi for “parking lot”—still elicits visions of an amusement park for or with cars) from whence I was to start the tramp, and our driver promptly announced over the loud speaker, “Folks, you’re not going to like what I have to tell you now. We’ve just now received word that all walks for the day must be cancelled due to heavy rain and strong winds on the mountain.” BUMMER! I had had it with Taupo and was very much ready to move on from there, so I decided without reservation that Tongariro Crossing was just not meant to happen for me this time and I’ll just have to wait until next time. I did have a fantastic time skydiving at least!

Whakatane
Next on my agenda: Whakatane. Pronounced FAH-kuh-taun-ee, the small town at the mouth of the Whakatane River appealed to me from the moment I first heard of it. The word “Whakatane” means “to act like a man” in Maori. As legend has it, the first Maori men to arrive in what’s now Whakatane eagerly hopped out of the waka (canoe) soon after it was pulled up on the beach, leaving the first Maori women and children to arrive there sitting in the waka. The tide came in quickly, and began pulling the waka back out into the ocean. It is strictly forbidden for women to paddle the canoes, which are sacred (go figure), thus causing quite the conundrum. Wairaka, the daughter of the chief who captained the waka (canoe) declared “Kia whakatane ake au i ahau” (“Let me act as a man”), and paddled everyone and everything safely back to shore. There is a very beautiful statue of Wairake perched on a boulder at the mouth of the river. Though, I must say that there is nothing ‘whakatane’ about it, and I don’t quite see how it’s meant to represent “girl power” as it were. I reckon it might even offend the odd feminist, or seem a bit ironic at best. Perhaps I'm just missing the point.

Statue of Lady Wairaka

Anyway, I had actually never read anything about the town of Whakatane in my travel books and am happy to report that, for now, it is a well-kept secret! Christina (from Christmas in Taupo) showed me her pictures of Whakatane’s key feature, White Island, which is New Zealand’s only active marine volcano and lies about 50 km off the east coast from Whakatane. The brilliant sulfur color overwhelming present in Christina’s photos was more than enough to attract this chromophile to the charms of the island. I booked the tour for noon the day after I arrived and woke up that morning to the first cloudless day of my whole vacation. Yay!
White Island was extraordinary. It’s an extremely active rock, but is not the kind of volcano that spews molten lava. Instead it steams and bubbles, glowing yellow with hot sulfur. At its center is the crater lake which scientists estimate to be 90 meters deep. They can’t verify the guess very easily, as they are certain that the lake’s pH is a staggeringly acidic -1. It was like being on Mars walking across White Island, and apparently recent studies have shown that Mars and White Island are composed a lot of the same chemical or rock, the name of which I of course cannot remember! But it was just stunningly surreal, impressively interesting, and hauntingly memorable. I thoroughly loved it. We also saw some dolphins on the way there and they played in the wake of the boat.

Me, standing on White Island. For more pictures of White Island, click here.

When I arrived back at my hostel it was around 7pm and I wasn’t ready for the beautiful day to be over. I made dinner and consulted my Lonely Planet and Let’s Go books. I had read about an Astronomical Society in Whakatane with an observatory open to the public several nights a week. A German girl named Raissa who was also staying in my hostel decided that she wanted to come too, so I called and found out that it wasn’t open. But it was such a clear, lovely night that Norman, the “president” (?) of the astronomical society said he would be happy to show us some stars. Norman was probably hovering right around 70, and his astronomical knowledge of stars was proportionate. His enthusiasm for astronomy, though, was gleefully adolescent. Pretty much the most adorable man ever. In the end, we came home from the observatory around 12:30am a lot more knowledgeable about the universe. Norm showed us the moon and its craters, the Tarantula and Orion nebulae, and Venus in the telescope. It was the first time I ever looked through a telescope. It was very, very cool.
Norm, Raissa, and I were joined about two hours in by two more Germans staying at a different hostel. Norm was very happy to tell us everything he knew about the universe and would have kept us there until the sun came up if it hadn’t clouded over. He even showed us his “wishlist” which all donations from tours go toward fulfilling. It was very, very kind of him and he was just delightful. I forgot to mention that he picked us up from the hostel so we didn’t have to walk all the way up the bluff to the observatory and back to the hostel in the dark. He was one of those people that I’d like to shrink, put and my pocket and take out when I need to smile. The man was as sweet as a Kiwifruit.

A gorgeous sunset as seen from the front porch of my hostel in Whakatane.

"Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite" - seriously, you'll most certainly regret it if you do.

There's a reason why this saying exists. And it manifested itself all over approximately 50% of my upper body in the form of itchy, blisterlike welts. The first night I was in my hostel in Whakatane I was the last of the entire house (of maybe 10?) to go to sleep. As I crept into bed, the beam of my flashlight managed to spot 3-4 reddish brown mini-roachlike creatures apparently doing the same. Disgusted, I brushed them off my sheet, telling myself that there was nothing I could do about it right that second as everyone else was asleep, and that it was probably some weird New Zealand cockroach anyway. Bed bugs had crossed my mind, but, as I have the tendency to catastrophize, I told myself that they were far too big to be bed bugs, which must be as invisible as lice or fleas (cringe), right? Wrong. Two mornings later, this is what my arm looked like:

(And what my other arm, chest, and neck looked like too). Figuring that I'd been feasted upon by mosquitoes at the observatory (I have caramel blood, so hefty numbers of bug bites are not unusual to me), I went to town in search of some anti-itch cream. I was greeted by pharmacists and information center volunteers with cautious stares and the suggestion that I had fleas "or worse, bed bugs," respectively. Frantic, I returned home and logged onto the internet (blessedly pirated and therefore free, and therefore not leaching the bank account, as internet does in NZ) in order to Google Image 'bed bugs'. As I was very stressed about this, I had gotten myself a snack while I waited for the photo to load. As I saw the image of exactly what I'd brushed out of my sheets two nights prior appear in front of me, I nearly vomited up my snack.

After telling the hostel staff about what I'd seen, I set to washing all my clothes in the hottest water I could come by. The hostel manager set off a "bug bomb" in the bedroom, much to my relief which crumbled the minute she told me "It's for fleas". The closer bedtime came, the more panicked I became. I decided to scour the bed for any evidence of live bedbugs so that I could show the hostel staff and ask for a new bed. That evidence came in the form of a smaller bug about the size of a poppy seed whose coloring seemed suspiciously close to that of my own blood. I ziplocked the little guy and ran once again to my computer to find yet another image of bed bugs, this one showing the bed bug in all 6 of its wretched life cycles (the second of which resembled my ziplocked specimen, and the sixth of which looked like those who had escaped me two nights prior). I was given a new room.

Nearly a week later, the bites have almost healed completely. They still itch occasionally, but the swelling and redness have gone down to the point where people can look me in the eye again while conversing with me, which is good.

All in all, it was a wild trip stocked to the brim with high highs and low lows. I'm glad I did it, and I'm glad it's over!

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!