Hot Water Beach, this is the hot tub we dug :)
Cathedral Cove. This is the most beautiful place in the world. No joke.
Sheep
Sunrise at the East Cape Lighthouse
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Ridiculous Life
hello everyone!
We have been on the north island for the past couple weeks now. We spent about a week and a half in Wellington; it was very weird to be in the city after being in the middle of the boondocks for so long. At first we were wildly indignant just at the fact buildings were so close together and there were so many people and cars getting in our way. It took us a few days to reconcile ourselves to civilization again and we had a great time doing city activities.
(we still really miss our sheep and wide spaces of the south island though)
We went to the Te Papa museum, rode our bikes around the Wellington bay, spent hours in bookstores, watched classic Kiwi movies at a film archive, rode out to the Weta workshop, watched skaters and longboarders at the skatepark, raided thrift stores for giant New Zealand woolly sweaters, spent an afternoon learning to kickbox with our Irish friend Jerrod from our hostel, went to a comedy show and a small "country" concert (turned out to be emo/indie/grunge rock but we enjoyed it nonetheless), and walked all over and around the city wide-eyed at how many people there were.
We sold the bikes in Wellington.
It was a dark and gut-wrentching day.
We wore mourning colors and said a few tearful words and rented a car again for the road trip to Auckland.
It took about three days (at a very leisurly pace) to drive up the east coast. We tasted wine in Hawke's Bay, tasted cider in Gisbourne and got to tour a microbrewery there too, it was very interesting. The highlight of the east coast was watching the sunrise from the East cape lighthouse. We woke up at five and drove there to hike up 700 steps to the top of the cliff. It was a gorgeous golden sunrise. The lighthouse is the farthest eastern piece of land below the dayline. So that means we were the first people on earth to see the sun come up that day. That's a cool thought. There was a group of five ladies up there celebrating the sunrise with champange. Five times a year they go up there to celebrate each lady's birthday! We heartily approved this tradition and they invited us to one of the lady's beachouse where they stay every time they drive up from Gisbourne to the lighthouse. On the way there they stopped to show us the biggest Pohutakawa tree in NZ. It was a sight to behold. They made us a delicous morning tea and entertained us with their funny stories and good humored teasing. We were very sad to leave them.
From the lighthouse we drove to Wahi Beach where we got to stay a few days in a friend's beachouse! We had a beautiful house all to ourselves not even 30 meters from the ocean. It was awesome. We cooked in a real kitchen, slept in beautiful comfy beds, took hot showers, and did laundry in an actual washing machine for the first time in more than a month!!!! For the next few days we would drive up the Coromandel Penninsela exploring during the daytime and come back to the beachouse at night. I ate the most delicious pancake breakfast of my life at a little organic cafe in Coromandel Town, we examined beautiful pottery at a small place just down the road, lay on our backs in a Kauri tree grove looking up at the 600 year old trees towering 60 meters above us, dug a hot tub in the sand at Hot Water Beach and lay in the steaming water all afternoon sipping cider and watching the waves and reading, and hiked to Cathedral Cove to watch a magnificent sunset color the sky. That is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. We feasted on alvacados and kiwis we bought by the bag from people selling them by the road and kept exclaiming to each other how wildly happy we were.
We fly to Oz land on Monday. I know it will kill me to leave but I'm thrilled to be moving on to a new place and I can't wait to explore Australia. As the time in NZ comes to an end we keep trying to make a list of all the good moments and it seems like we end up covering about every moment on the trip (however Goat Hills dominates the conversation by far). We've had a tremendous time in New Zealand. Most of the time making the list we're laughing so hard it hurts my chest and I think my heart can't pump enough blood to keep up with the happiness. Life is pretty dang good.
We have been on the north island for the past couple weeks now. We spent about a week and a half in Wellington; it was very weird to be in the city after being in the middle of the boondocks for so long. At first we were wildly indignant just at the fact buildings were so close together and there were so many people and cars getting in our way. It took us a few days to reconcile ourselves to civilization again and we had a great time doing city activities.
(we still really miss our sheep and wide spaces of the south island though)
We went to the Te Papa museum, rode our bikes around the Wellington bay, spent hours in bookstores, watched classic Kiwi movies at a film archive, rode out to the Weta workshop, watched skaters and longboarders at the skatepark, raided thrift stores for giant New Zealand woolly sweaters, spent an afternoon learning to kickbox with our Irish friend Jerrod from our hostel, went to a comedy show and a small "country" concert (turned out to be emo/indie/grunge rock but we enjoyed it nonetheless), and walked all over and around the city wide-eyed at how many people there were.
We sold the bikes in Wellington.
It was a dark and gut-wrentching day.
We wore mourning colors and said a few tearful words and rented a car again for the road trip to Auckland.
It took about three days (at a very leisurly pace) to drive up the east coast. We tasted wine in Hawke's Bay, tasted cider in Gisbourne and got to tour a microbrewery there too, it was very interesting. The highlight of the east coast was watching the sunrise from the East cape lighthouse. We woke up at five and drove there to hike up 700 steps to the top of the cliff. It was a gorgeous golden sunrise. The lighthouse is the farthest eastern piece of land below the dayline. So that means we were the first people on earth to see the sun come up that day. That's a cool thought. There was a group of five ladies up there celebrating the sunrise with champange. Five times a year they go up there to celebrate each lady's birthday! We heartily approved this tradition and they invited us to one of the lady's beachouse where they stay every time they drive up from Gisbourne to the lighthouse. On the way there they stopped to show us the biggest Pohutakawa tree in NZ. It was a sight to behold. They made us a delicous morning tea and entertained us with their funny stories and good humored teasing. We were very sad to leave them.
From the lighthouse we drove to Wahi Beach where we got to stay a few days in a friend's beachouse! We had a beautiful house all to ourselves not even 30 meters from the ocean. It was awesome. We cooked in a real kitchen, slept in beautiful comfy beds, took hot showers, and did laundry in an actual washing machine for the first time in more than a month!!!! For the next few days we would drive up the Coromandel Penninsela exploring during the daytime and come back to the beachouse at night. I ate the most delicious pancake breakfast of my life at a little organic cafe in Coromandel Town, we examined beautiful pottery at a small place just down the road, lay on our backs in a Kauri tree grove looking up at the 600 year old trees towering 60 meters above us, dug a hot tub in the sand at Hot Water Beach and lay in the steaming water all afternoon sipping cider and watching the waves and reading, and hiked to Cathedral Cove to watch a magnificent sunset color the sky. That is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life. We feasted on alvacados and kiwis we bought by the bag from people selling them by the road and kept exclaiming to each other how wildly happy we were.
We fly to Oz land on Monday. I know it will kill me to leave but I'm thrilled to be moving on to a new place and I can't wait to explore Australia. As the time in NZ comes to an end we keep trying to make a list of all the good moments and it seems like we end up covering about every moment on the trip (however Goat Hills dominates the conversation by far). We've had a tremendous time in New Zealand. Most of the time making the list we're laughing so hard it hurts my chest and I think my heart can't pump enough blood to keep up with the happiness. Life is pretty dang good.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
FOOD CHRONICLE
Sequence of Events:
- major biking (blenheim to picton)
- fight about buying food
- buy enormous amounts of food (but not as much as we wanted)
- start eating spoonfuls of peanut butter while cooking enormous amounts of food
- eat enormous amounts of food
- sit around complaining about how full we are
- put cake mix into dog food bowl into oven
- sit around complaining about how full we are
- heckle cake to finish baking
- take cake out over and over poking it with fork
- spread peanut butter all over steaming cake
- sprinkle cake with sugar packets we stole from a cafe
- start attacking cake with our spoons
- complain about how tonking hot the cake is
- decide to mush up cake with peanut butter
- decide cake is too dry
- pour free opened milk we found in fridge over whole cake
- mush up cake more
- dump plethora of stolen sugar packets into mush
- pause to consider if we'll eat the whole cake
- finish the whole cake in a ravenous display of enthusiasm
- spend next few days talking about cake and brainstorming about new cake recipes
Thursday, April 29, 2010
giant road trip and exploration of the south island
Hello All! After an amazing week at Goat Hills, Kristen, Erika and I headed south to Christchurch to begin a major road trip through the southern half of the south island. We were very sad to leave Lyn, Neville and Andrew and are all convinced we could spend the rest of our lives mustering sheep and stacking firewood in the beautiful hills there.
So for the road trip we rented a car in Christchurch and drove across the island and down the west coast to Queenstown where we met up with Andy, a friend we met at Goat Hills. The drive was BEAUTIFUL. Andy was great telling us all kinds of interesting things about NZ and the Kiwi culture. He is like a living encyclopedia! (who gave us a lot of sass but bought us all kinds of authentic Kiwi bakery treats-needless to say, it worked out) He took us to another sheep station near Wanaka for a few days and then down into Milford Sound and after that north through the middle of the island to see all the lakes and to Timaru to meet his family and see the ocean and finally to Christchurch where we caught the train up to Blenheim where we are now. (we left our bikes here at the vinyard with the Speedys so in a day or two we'll ride to the ferry and hop up to the north island) All this took about two weeks-quite the adventure I assure you! I'll just make a quick list of fun things on the trip...
1. met 6'8" dutch guy named Sven, he is the tallest person I've ever met, very sweet too
2. walked along beach and picked up jade in Hokitika
3. saw two glaciers!
4. slept 3 people and 3 backpacks in a toyota corolla, that only happened one time-it was snug
5. drove in Andy's truck for hours
6. met a really cool diver friend of Andy's, whose trampoline we slept on!
7. met really nice friends of Andy's at Mt. Burke who wowed us with their incredible near-death adventure stories and helped us make fun of Andy when his much bragged on truck broke down
8. rode for hours in Andy's new borrowed truck
9. went for extremely hardcore four-wheeling trips
10. gawked at the stunning mountains in Milford Sound and the massive waterfalls from the METER of rain we got in FOUR DAYS! (that's three frickin feet in 4 days guys, wow)
11. got really soaked from all the rain
12. rode for hours in the truck and gazed bug-eyed at how beautiful the scenery is here
13. met and had a lovely visit with Andy's parents
14. watched gorgeous sunrises, sunsets, rainbows, cloud formations, waves and waterfalls
15. saw tons of seals from the train!
16. and dolphins! we saw them too. it was awesome.
Can you tell that I love this country? Every day is an eventful one, which is fine by me :)
we are headed off to our third rugby match! Pictures soon, love to you all!
jewel
So for the road trip we rented a car in Christchurch and drove across the island and down the west coast to Queenstown where we met up with Andy, a friend we met at Goat Hills. The drive was BEAUTIFUL. Andy was great telling us all kinds of interesting things about NZ and the Kiwi culture. He is like a living encyclopedia! (who gave us a lot of sass but bought us all kinds of authentic Kiwi bakery treats-needless to say, it worked out) He took us to another sheep station near Wanaka for a few days and then down into Milford Sound and after that north through the middle of the island to see all the lakes and to Timaru to meet his family and see the ocean and finally to Christchurch where we caught the train up to Blenheim where we are now. (we left our bikes here at the vinyard with the Speedys so in a day or two we'll ride to the ferry and hop up to the north island) All this took about two weeks-quite the adventure I assure you! I'll just make a quick list of fun things on the trip...
1. met 6'8" dutch guy named Sven, he is the tallest person I've ever met, very sweet too
2. walked along beach and picked up jade in Hokitika
3. saw two glaciers!
4. slept 3 people and 3 backpacks in a toyota corolla, that only happened one time-it was snug
5. drove in Andy's truck for hours
6. met a really cool diver friend of Andy's, whose trampoline we slept on!
7. met really nice friends of Andy's at Mt. Burke who wowed us with their incredible near-death adventure stories and helped us make fun of Andy when his much bragged on truck broke down
8. rode for hours in Andy's new borrowed truck
9. went for extremely hardcore four-wheeling trips
10. gawked at the stunning mountains in Milford Sound and the massive waterfalls from the METER of rain we got in FOUR DAYS! (that's three frickin feet in 4 days guys, wow)
11. got really soaked from all the rain
12. rode for hours in the truck and gazed bug-eyed at how beautiful the scenery is here
13. met and had a lovely visit with Andy's parents
14. watched gorgeous sunrises, sunsets, rainbows, cloud formations, waves and waterfalls
15. saw tons of seals from the train!
16. and dolphins! we saw them too. it was awesome.
Can you tell that I love this country? Every day is an eventful one, which is fine by me :)
we are headed off to our third rugby match! Pictures soon, love to you all!
jewel
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Cosi (our new friend from Germany), Kristen, Erika and I hiked the Queen Charlotte Track. it was grueling but awesome :)
at the bottom of one of those blasted hills on the track. the stuff in front of us would be the ocean. oh yeah :)
this is the vineyard we were working at for a few days in Blenheim. this is me cuttintg the rot out of the grapes before harvest
sunrise at the sheep station, every morning so far has had a gorgeous sunrise like this. it's a good thing to see at six in the freaking morning when you really just want to throttle someone. beauty instead of violence!
yes. those are my chaps :)Sunday, April 11, 2010
the adventure begins...
Hello everyone! I've made it to New Zealand and I'm having the time of my life!
Last Thursday I flew out of DFW through San Francisco to Sydney and from there on to Wellington which I got into at about 11:45pm on Saturday. I spend Easter putting my bike together and riding the ferry from the North Island to Picton on the South. The ferry ride was spectacular, the Wellington bay is really beautiful and this was the first time I had been on a boat at sea so that was really neat. I had to aquire a helmet in Picton, apparently it's illegal to ride without them, as my nice cop friends in Wellington tell me. After that it was off to Blenheim, veeeer hilly area which you don't really notice in a car but I am happy to report I am developing killer muscles.
I joined up with Erika and Kristen who were already at the vinyard I was heading to just outside of Blenheim. There were seven wwoofers (willing workers on organic farms) total when I got there so it was quite a party from the very start! (Two Swedish kids, one German girl, and four American girls -including me). Not to mention the three sons of the family and the couple themselves. It was a very full house and the water went off the first day which made it even more interesting. I still haven't really gotten the chance to catch up on some sleep, things are happening fast.
After a day and a half there my cousins, Cosi, the German girl, and I left to hike the Queen Charlotte Track. It was so intensely strenuous. I did not realize how many mountains we would be climbing with the packs and all but it was worth it no doubt. The views from the top of the track into the bay were absolutely beautiful.
It is so beautiful here, I keep stopping in my tracks and telling myself out loud that I am in New Zealand. It doesn't seem real. The mountains are very beautiful and it smells earthy and green and delicious everywhere I go.
Right now we are on a sheep station north west of Kaikoura. Yesterday we went to our first rugby match and then rode on the bus with the team down to the sheep station where we'll be for the next few days. 'When KR and Erika were riding through this area a few weeks ago they met the couple who runs this place and they invited them back. Their son plays on the rugyby team so it worked out really well since his match yesterday was in Blenheim.
So far every day has been a new adventure, and I can''t wait to see what happens next.
Last Thursday I flew out of DFW through San Francisco to Sydney and from there on to Wellington which I got into at about 11:45pm on Saturday. I spend Easter putting my bike together and riding the ferry from the North Island to Picton on the South. The ferry ride was spectacular, the Wellington bay is really beautiful and this was the first time I had been on a boat at sea so that was really neat. I had to aquire a helmet in Picton, apparently it's illegal to ride without them, as my nice cop friends in Wellington tell me. After that it was off to Blenheim, veeeer hilly area which you don't really notice in a car but I am happy to report I am developing killer muscles.
I joined up with Erika and Kristen who were already at the vinyard I was heading to just outside of Blenheim. There were seven wwoofers (willing workers on organic farms) total when I got there so it was quite a party from the very start! (Two Swedish kids, one German girl, and four American girls -including me). Not to mention the three sons of the family and the couple themselves. It was a very full house and the water went off the first day which made it even more interesting. I still haven't really gotten the chance to catch up on some sleep, things are happening fast.
After a day and a half there my cousins, Cosi, the German girl, and I left to hike the Queen Charlotte Track. It was so intensely strenuous. I did not realize how many mountains we would be climbing with the packs and all but it was worth it no doubt. The views from the top of the track into the bay were absolutely beautiful.
It is so beautiful here, I keep stopping in my tracks and telling myself out loud that I am in New Zealand. It doesn't seem real. The mountains are very beautiful and it smells earthy and green and delicious everywhere I go.
Right now we are on a sheep station north west of Kaikoura. Yesterday we went to our first rugby match and then rode on the bus with the team down to the sheep station where we'll be for the next few days. 'When KR and Erika were riding through this area a few weeks ago they met the couple who runs this place and they invited them back. Their son plays on the rugyby team so it worked out really well since his match yesterday was in Blenheim.
So far every day has been a new adventure, and I can''t wait to see what happens next.
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