Pictures

More pictures! Some in the "Waitakere" album (formerly "Shine Family") and some in "Mangawhai." There would be more but you have to have a functional camera to take pictures.

lists are less overwhelming

Let's play Bad News / Good News! (You'll get the bad first because one should always end on a good note.)

Bad News: I've learned to be wary of electric fences the hard way.
Good News: I've only grabbed ONE electric fence in all of my time here.

Bad News: I dropped my fabulous camera lens-out, face-down, in the sand.
Good News: It still takes pictures sometimes.
Bad News: In this particular case, the bad news far outweighs the good.

Bad News: Malcolm and Lindsay's new farm turned out to be a little like prison and we had to bail them out.
Good News: Malcolm and Lindsay are back at Gilly and Greg's with us.

Bad News: I had possibly the MOST excited moment of my life when we drove past a sign that said "Eagle's Ridge," and I misread it as, "Eagle Rides."
Good News: HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE?!

Bad News: Maggie and I almost broke into someone's home that we mistook for the holiday house Gilly and Greg sent us to.
Good News: Gilly and Greg sent us to a holiday house that we DID manage to find...eventually.

Bad News: I'm probably getting fat from homemade bread and sinful but irresistible gluttony each night at dinner.
Good News: Gilly is a chef and we eat fantastic food every day!

Bad News: The water was positively ICE when we stumbled upon a swim with wild dolphins.
Good News: WE SWAM WITH DOLPHINS!

Bad News: Nothing, I got nothing.
Good News: Everything ever.

Ok, now I can explain some of the more interesting items listed above.

1. So when we rode horses on that nice beach, I grabbed hold of a fence on top of a cliff that turned out to be electric, which might have been dumb, but a warning sign of some sort would have been awesome.

2. Maggie and I just returned from a mini vacation from our vacation in which we delivered Malcolm and Lindsay to their next wwoofer hosts and then spent a night at Gilly and Greg's bach (NZ crazy word. Pronounced "batch" and basically means holiday home, but maybe smaller? People rent it out, you know the drill.) They supplied us with the key and insisted that we enjoy ourselves, explore the area, and take our time. Their generosity is absolutely boundless. Anyway, approximately 20 hours after saying our goodbyes to M & L at their new house of tennis courts, a swimming pool, a sauna, etc., our phone rang and it was a whispering Lindsay calling from inside the sauna, begging us to come back for them. Of course we did, though we couldn't really imagine the problem. Turns out, this couple had utterly failed to mention to M & L that they have 3 teenagers or that they were expected sleep in a tent outside for MONTHS or that they have a 3 page set of stringent rules. Some of the more memorable included: Breakfast ends promptly by 8:30 and there is a zero-tolerance policy toward eating between meals (even if you've purchased your own food). Girls must have their hair pulled back at all times. Boys must never have facial hair. Couples may never touch. The list goes on. These people run a portable rock climbing wall business and the guy happily told M & L about his method for keeping Maori kids off the wall. This clever little man (seriously, he was small) has a rule sheet (yes, another rule sheet) printed only in english and he makes each kid that wants a climb read the sheet to him. Well many Maori children aren't so hot at reading english yet and "if the kid can't read, the kid can't climb." Apparently teachers always offer to translate, but nope, the kids have to read it themselves. What a guy.

So we rescued our friends and brought them home to the warm, open arms of Gilly and Greg. It was quite a homecoming.

3. Gilly had drawn Maggie and I a map to assist in our quest for their bach. Well the map had some curves on it and the bach was a neat little square labeled, "19 Cambells Bay Rd." After turning on a street that was, in some way at least pointing to Cambells Bay Rd we found number 19 and happily leapt out of the car. We hugged, did a little dance. All very excited about our little home away from home away from home. I promptly took a picture of the house (this was pre-sand incident). I piled my arms high with sleeping bags, sneakers, and night bags, while Maggie's absolutely ranneth over with sushi and baked beans that we'd picked up from the grocery store on our way. Following Greg's careful instructions to go aroudn the side of the house and unlock the back door first, we ran to the back. It was a sliding door and inside we could see a lovely big bed. We commented on how nice the bed looked, how there was even a computer. We exchanged loud exclamations about how much nicer it was than G&G led us to believe. Except, no lock on the back door. So we moved to the side door. You can imagine my surprise when, as I fumbled with the lock, an elderly man approached the door from the inside. We stopped in our tracks. Unfortunatley, I was the first to speak. "Um...are you staying here?" The man does not honor my question with an answer. Fortunately, he laughed. Asked us what number we were looking for. "19." "Which street?" "Cambell's Bay." "Mmm. Well, this is Clinton St. You need to drive down to the end and take a left." Maggie managed to blurt out, "Oh my gosh, we're so sorry. Oh my gosh we're SO SO sorry." As we turned away in utter humiliation, the man said that we weren't the first to make the mistake. I suppose we should take some solace in that fact, but I couldn't get over the thought that he had watched us pull up to his house, jump around, take a picture, walk around the back, talk about his bedroom, and try to get it. THEN have the audacity to ask if he plans on staying in his own house. OOPS.

4. G&G also recommended that Maggie and I explore a peninsula reserve called Tawharanui (pronounced taf-ran-ooo-eee, to everyone's surprise.) We pulled up at a bay in the reserve and found a beach. As we started to walk down the beach a girl stopped us and told us that we should walk the other way beacuse there were dolphins down there. Clearly we expected to just see some fins in the distance, but we were excited nonetheless and headed in their direction. Well turns out, by "dolphins down there" she meant that the dolphins were RIGHT THERE. The was one man, waist deep in water, just playing around with 3 dolphins. The water was perfectly clear, so you could see them the whole time and they were just right there. So after a few moments of awestruck observation, Maggie and I stripped off our sweaters, scarves and jeans and began the cold climb in. The water was positively ICE, but that was completely beside the point. We only had to walk in waist deep and the 3 dolphins swam up to check us out and proceeded to swim around us for about half an hour. Eventually the one man there left, later other people wandered up and waded in, jeans and all. We met several people in frigid water, in our underwear, playing with dolphins. They seemed so big when they were so close! New Zealand rules.

The end.

We rode horses today on the world's most idyllic farm. It was the greenest of green hills leading up to a cliff over the beach. I couldn't imagine any single feature that would have made it more beautiful. (That is, until Maggie pointed out that Caribbean green water would have done it, so fine, that might be THE single feature. Still pretty good.) Maggie and I rode a horse with one eye, who leaves you feeling a bit like Ichabod Crane when viewed from the side of her empty socket. But we rode a horse! We both had a great time, even though neither of us understand how there can be people who are not afraid of horses. And these people exist all around us! YOU might even be one of these people. If you are, I can't understand you. I can appreciate them very much indeed, I just harbor a healthy fear of them right along with my admiration.

The reason I'm really writing is to say that we rode at a Shine family friend's farm and were next to their garage petting a calf that would suck on your fingers when you held out your hand. Then Gilly took us in the garage to show us a chariot. That's right, a chariot. A chariot from the set of Xena: Warrior Princess. TURNS OUT, the woman who lives at this place was often a double on the show and much of it was filmed in the area. One of the Shine's horses also often made appearances on the show. I for one don't care at all about Xena, but eat your heart out, Jodi.

Finally, if any of you are interested in prime NZ real estate, there is a beach front farm down the road that just went on the market. Only $12 million, so you'll all have to battle it out to see who gets to be the lucky buyer. Good luck.

Price List

I forgot to express my concern with the prices of things in NZ. I'll just offer you prices at a glance.

Busted NZ Price List:
1. A car...........................................................................$400 - normal car price
2. Car insurance for 22 year olds for one year.........$ 146 (really?!)
3. Mascara on sale........................................................$22.50 (what the..?!)
4. A moleskin journal....................................................$50 (!)
5. A cup of coffee...........................................................$4.50
6. A solid knife...............................................................$14.95
7. A 2 liter tub of icecream..........................................$ 10-15

Some weirdness there, for sure. Fortunately I don't want any mascara and I really needed car insurance.


Also, part of the trouble with traveling all the time is that one has to put one's lotion in a little travel bottle. Well I had to put mine in one of those tiny bottles with a little spray top because the others were taken with more important things like shampoo. But lotion is too thick for the spray to run smoothly, so whenever I use it I have to push the spray.......get a tiny squirt of lotion......wait for the tube to refill.....push the spray......pathetic squirt.......tube refill. Takes FOREVER to do a hand, much less a leg. Anyway, the Ever Supportive Maggie watched me do this today and after a moment she looked at me with disgust and said, "That makes you suck so bad." It'd be too hard to divorce her now though, so I guess I have to keep her around.

This morning was a morning of planting seedlings that will hopefully show themselves for spring, which is hopefully on the way. Since last I spoke I've learned how to construct a mighty chickenwire fence that not even chickens can get through!

It's amazing because somewhere between getting here and now, Maggie and I have really started to have an actual life here! It is really more of mini-life beacuse it sort-of exists in a small little globe of a few people, a routine, and a setting that are all way different from my regular-life, but still really neat. Take yesterday, for example. We woke up early so that we'd have time to buy car insurance before heading to the restaurant that Gilly works at to talk with the manager there. We are going to work a few nights here and there at the restaurant while we are still in the area, and then hopefully we can work there down the road if we settle somewhere in this area for a while. Then we drove into Auckland and picked up camping gear we'd left there, then to a shopping center to pick up essentials like a gas can since our gas gauge doesn't work, and now that we're "adults" we have to be prepared for anything. Then we stopped by Ron's bus for a hello that turned into a cup of coffee and a tour of the bus that didn't take long because it's a bus. Then cooking dinner with Gilly and the others because one of her daughters came over for dinner. It all just feels so normal, in a really nice way. I'm excited about moving around though because there is an endless amount to see and do.

The other day I worked on a fence with Ron for a long time and we got interrupted by Gilly running outside and yelling that we had to go for a drive because there'd been another island earthquake and the tsunami was expected to hit west auckland (where we are) at 3:33pm. By "go for a drive," she meant go watch it hit, not drive away. I told Ron where I had to go and that I was pretty sure the world is ending. We said our goodbyes (like goodbye forever goodbyes, just in case) and then we piled in the car to go to the beach. We ran up the cliffs to get a good view and then struggled with hoping one came for the cool factor and praying one didn't because we could see people on the beach. The people lived on, enough said. After a while we thanked god while wishing better luck next time. The only one of us who had to ride home in the trunk was Tansy because she was the only one who couldn't resist climbing through mud pits.

I've learned about worm tea (water you can get out of a tap from the bottom of worm composts) and cow jaws versus sheep jaws and why that sometimes means you've got to sell a cow. I've learned about herb gardens and lemon tart and eye fillet. I've learned that my nails will never be clean again, so I should stop wasting precious rain water trying. I've also learned that I can be wholly happy, miss home, miss college, miss andrew et al., all at the same time.

Hooray for life, eh?

REF

Pictures are up!

Wait till you see my....CAR

I BOUGHT MY FIRST CAR!! Maggie and I have never been more married as we are right now. Sharing a car, a family, a wwoof profile, a cell phone. It's hard for me to convince myself that we aren't. We found a lovely (ha) grey toyota corona that is nearly my age BUT only has 120,000 kms on it. It is automatic, which is a relief because we have more than enough to think about just keeping the blinkers and windshield wipers straight. It certainly has its share of problems, but it has a semi-working tape player AND reverse, which all cars aren't lucky enough to have. It is all very exciting. I've never had a car to call my own and I've definitely never bought such a serious toy for myself. Maggie and I can't quite believe it is actually OURS for a while. We've named it Shine, in honor of the Shine family that remain our kind hosts.

We are still with Gilly and Greg, Malcolm and Lindsay, and things are still great. The only problem is that is has poured rain every day for a week, leaving the farm a mud pit and leaving us with limited tasks. After completing the requisite inside chores, we've had two days of mostly pajamas and books, with a few errands in between. Unfortunately we started a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle a couple of days ago that consumed our minds until we finished it this evening. EXCEPT for ONE missing piece. Sucks. Maybe Tansy ate it. She would.

We did manage to go to a yoga class this morning, and in the afternoon the rain stopped long enough to let Maggie and I go to a hot mineral spring about half an hour a way. It wasn't quite what you'd imagine - more a swimming pool than rocky steaming mountain springs - but it felt great and was so hot at its vents that it could easily burn. The landscape is like a fairyland and the foggy rain has only made the hillsides more mystical.

We built a whole herb garden a couple of days ago and about an hour after filling it with herbs we noticed the chickens going to town on their convenient fresh greens. We had to chase them away and then scold Tansy for her utter failure as a watchdog. Thank you Katherine for noting my spelling of chicken "coup" in the last post. It would now seem a rather prophetic error.

I've learned a lot about baking bread and growing microgreens, which Gilly and Greg grow in old packing containers. You can plant tons of varieties (peas, radish greens, beet greens, flax greens, etc. ) and then you just trim them when they are long enough to eat, but small enough to be tender and add them to your nightly salad. Easy, fresh and delicious.

So we think we will be here another week or so, then head north for a couple of weeks, then down to the South Island after it has warmed up a little. We definitely need to stay here through the rain so that we can earn our keep in the nice weather. Right now a puzzle is all I have to show for the day's labor. How embarrassing.

Better work in better sun. Love and misses all around!

REF