Hey Team We Like To Read About Stuff You Do,
How's it going!? I'm going well as always. Just trundling along, doing my Julia-thing. It's good times.
The last two days I trundled in Abel Tasman National Park. To be more precise I kayaked for a day, camped and walked all the way back (it took a day). I was supposed to be picked up at 8:50am on Thursday morning, and like a good lil' Canadian and an even better Koop I was late. But it was ok, cause they were even later picking me up. I actually had to get reception to call so I didn't get left behind.
I guess I should premise this whole thing with saying that I booked my kayaking/camping/walking trip about 7pm the night before I left. I was a bit (ok a lot) nervous about camping and walking 8 hours back completely alone. Because it's the off season, there is basically no one in the park and I was going pretty far into the park. So there, I was the night before comforting myself with the knowledge that at least I couldn't get eaten by a bear. In my books, that's totally a drawing card.
Anyway. I slept well, was up on time, and ready almost on time. I was finally picked up by a very brisk and stern looking dude and driven 5 minutes down the road to the kayak place. I met up with my guide and kayak group. I was very pleased to discover that there was one other girl that was going to do the full kayak and camp at the same spot as me! Huzzah! I now had a camping/walking buddy. I would not be getting eaten by a bear, and even better I would get to share that experience with someone. Additionally, I would not have to walk 8 hours alone on the second day.
In no time at all we were on the water and kayaking our super happy selves out to Bark Bay. The weather was incredible. Probably about 22 degrees with full on sun! Glorious. Our first half of the day was relatively uneventful. A lot of paddling, sun, water, islands, poor steering (totally me, yup, that was all woman driving), beaches and cute seals. I think we saw roughly 25 seals. Mostly adult females, but there were a couple babies. They were extremely cute. Looking at them and not cooing with delight was an extreme sport. After, we stopped for lunch at Watering Cove. It is named for a rock formation that looks like a kiwi drinking from the ocean. I took a picture. I'm just that good. Lunch was yummy and then I, Samantha, and our guide Colm were off and kayaking again. We made extremely good time so we hit up one more island before calling it a day. I'm so glad we did. We went about 3/4 of the way around a small island that this crazy dude kept blowing up for fun, when we finally saw what we were looking for. A couple baby seals just chilling on a rock. They posed and then dived into the water while I yelled "Stay still! Don't leave that rock! I want a picture!". They paid me no heed, but one of the little guys chased down our boat and spent the next 15 minutes froliking next to our boat, under our boat, and even against our boat. Absolutely incredible and without a doubt the highlight of my entire trip. Unfortunately, a large shark came by during the 15th minute and ate the cute, little, happy, baby seal right in front of us.
KIDDING! We left, I have no idea if a shark came and ate it. I suspect not.
We landed at Bark Bay around 4:30pm, picked up our gear that our water taxi had dropped off for us, and prepared to make camp. I was so glad that I had another cluesless girl with me. We had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to get our tent up and secure. It really wasn't hard, but it did take a bit of brainpower and a lot of giggles. We got a fire going, met a German dude, and were settled in the the pitch black by 6pm. In total, there are about 25 camp sites at Bark Bay and there were only the three of us staying there. It was awesome. Again, I was extremely thankful that I wasn't alone. The moon was full, the stars were bright, and I was quite enjoying myself. We hit the sack about 9pm and got up about 7:30. It was a cold night, and for some reason my arms were freezing, but I managed to get a half decent nights sleep and had enough energy for the morning. When we had finally packed our gear and put most of it out for the water taxi to pick up the sun was just coming above the trees and we could tell it was going to be another absolutely gorgeous day.
It was. We walked for about 8 hours to get back to Marahau were I am currently chilling and typing to you. The walk was mostly inland, with a couple breaks to the beaches. The views were stunning and the company was good. The German dude walked with us most of the way and we all talked about everything under the sun. Tourists, countries, religion, supersticious, body types, stereotypes. You name it. We talked about it. By the time we got back, my brain was sore from thinking, my legs were sore from walking, my feet were sore from being flat footed, my shoulders were sore from my pack, and I was feeling great.
Now I'm sitting in the hostel typing to you folk back home. I'll eventually get up and cook something. Then I'll continue to look for jobs in a couple places I want to stop at in the next couple of days. Then I'll go to bed, and get up early for a day of sailing in Abel Tasman. This are bright in this here Julia Land. The next couple of days should be quite fun. I look forward to it all.
I'm no longer going to Europe for those of you who know I was thinking about it. I'm still waiting for Air Pacific to do something about my return flight. (My emails are getting a bit terse). I'm missing Wellington. And I'm starting to think about life when I return to Canada. Good gracious what should I do team? No more Master's and Ph.D. I need a new direction. All suggestions are welcome.
Love and sea breezes,
Julia
Friday, May 20, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Sometimes I cross an ocean in my spare time
They say a rolling stone gathers no moss. I disagree. I sat around in Wellington for 2 and a half months and I didn't gather any moss. So either that saying is wrong, or I'm not a stone. It's a no brainer.
This here blog is going to be a retrospective of my time in Wellington. "But Julia," you might be thinking, "aren't all blogs a retrospective of the event that are recorded in them?". To you, I say, "Touche. Now stop thinking so critically and enjoy my retrospective."
The last week I spent in Wellington was one of the best. I gave my notice to my boss 2 weeks in advance like a good little girl, and then quit early cause I just needed to be done. My bad. Matt was ever so understanding, and on the off chance that he reads my blog I would like to formally and for all the world to see say "Thank you for the super uber awesome time. You were a great boss, I learned a lot, and we even had some fun along the way." I also played a ton of volleyball in my last Wellingtonian days. I play about 10 games in 3 nights and played one last tourny too. Like always, I didn't play super awesome but I had a ton of fun. I will miss you volleyball peeps. Larry, treasure your socks and bring Sparta to Wellington. Hannah, you are the crowd favourite no matter what Larry says. Also, don't listen to Earl when he's... well... you know... lol. Gus, take care of your shoulder and hand and Hannah for me. She's your new Bestest Best Friend Forever (BBFF) now that I'm gone. Earl, thanks for letting me into your club and for taking such good care of me even though I'm Canadian and my serves weren't the greatest for the longest time. Yes, yes, I know, I'm "oot" of Wellington now. Haha. Karol, dude! since when do you sing like a angel? and since always you have mad volleyball skills. Dan, ya... you know. You're short, I'm tall. You're weak, I'm strong. I won't go on. Mark, we got along even though you are American. Who knew that was possible? Allan, you are one sweet as dude. Thank you for bestowing upon me the title of "only Canadian I like", haha. Marceu, you were never around but you're still cool in my books cause we lived near each other, and your laugh/giggle makes me smile. Rupert, you're my shnookums. Nuff said. Josh, we should have hung out more. Thanks for driving me around and chatting with me. Oh, and singing karaoke like a champ. Right, this is getting long. I really should be at the Oscars listening to the "get off the stage" music and not sitting in a hostel in Nelson listening to City & Colour.
Hmmmmmm, in the last week ish of Wellington I also went to dinner way too many times. (I loved each one of them.) I went to a couple movies that were pretty sweet. Played cards and ate junk food. Walked all over the place. Saw the rest of Te Papa. Threw out a ton of clothes. Bought some new clothes. Sent some presents home. Didn't blog. Took some pictures. Hung out and talked. Learned things about myself. Planned to plan for the south island. Didn't plan for the south island. And left.
Wellington, and people in Wellington. We had a great run. I love you all. I will come back.
South island stuff now. Well I'm in Nelson and I have to say "anticlimactic". It's pretty here, and my hostel is ridiculously sweet. I have, get this people, I have free breakfast, free dinner, hot tub (aka spa pool), swimming pool, sauna, beach volleyball court, and a 3 person dorm for the grand total of $24 a night. Chi-ching. Julia wins. Well Julia partially wins, cause I haven't really found anything sweet to do outside of the hostel. I wandered to the grocery store yesterday and today I wandered to the "center" of New Zealand. It's not the center at all people. It's the center of the logistical center of New Zealand. Logistical? Hmmmm, might not be the right word. It's the center of the Nelson survey region. The Nelson survey region is for some reason considered the central survey region of New Zealand (the plaque didn't make it too clear). Oh ya, and the survey regions have been replaced with GPS technology so they aren't even used anymore. Haha. So it's actually the center of a now trivial and outdated fake center of New Zealand. I still took pictures. I'm a good tourist.
I'm off to Abel Tasman tomorrow. I'm going to try and get on a 3 day kayaking tour of the national park. Unfortunately, they only rent out 2 person kayaks so I've got to find randoms to join me... Wish me the bestest. I'll still likely spend a couple days in Abel Tasman. There is a three (ish) day walk that you can do. I might do that as a last resort.
Okey dokey smokies (yummy, I could go for a real Canadian cheese smokie right now, and a sour cream glazed donut...). I'm out to plan some of my life. Be happy! Be fun! And get things done!
Sending you the grooviest of vibes,
Julia
This here blog is going to be a retrospective of my time in Wellington. "But Julia," you might be thinking, "aren't all blogs a retrospective of the event that are recorded in them?". To you, I say, "Touche. Now stop thinking so critically and enjoy my retrospective."
The last week I spent in Wellington was one of the best. I gave my notice to my boss 2 weeks in advance like a good little girl, and then quit early cause I just needed to be done. My bad. Matt was ever so understanding, and on the off chance that he reads my blog I would like to formally and for all the world to see say "Thank you for the super uber awesome time. You were a great boss, I learned a lot, and we even had some fun along the way." I also played a ton of volleyball in my last Wellingtonian days. I play about 10 games in 3 nights and played one last tourny too. Like always, I didn't play super awesome but I had a ton of fun. I will miss you volleyball peeps. Larry, treasure your socks and bring Sparta to Wellington. Hannah, you are the crowd favourite no matter what Larry says. Also, don't listen to Earl when he's... well... you know... lol. Gus, take care of your shoulder and hand and Hannah for me. She's your new Bestest Best Friend Forever (BBFF) now that I'm gone. Earl, thanks for letting me into your club and for taking such good care of me even though I'm Canadian and my serves weren't the greatest for the longest time. Yes, yes, I know, I'm "oot" of Wellington now. Haha. Karol, dude! since when do you sing like a angel? and since always you have mad volleyball skills. Dan, ya... you know. You're short, I'm tall. You're weak, I'm strong. I won't go on. Mark, we got along even though you are American. Who knew that was possible? Allan, you are one sweet as dude. Thank you for bestowing upon me the title of "only Canadian I like", haha. Marceu, you were never around but you're still cool in my books cause we lived near each other, and your laugh/giggle makes me smile. Rupert, you're my shnookums. Nuff said. Josh, we should have hung out more. Thanks for driving me around and chatting with me. Oh, and singing karaoke like a champ. Right, this is getting long. I really should be at the Oscars listening to the "get off the stage" music and not sitting in a hostel in Nelson listening to City & Colour.
Hmmmmmm, in the last week ish of Wellington I also went to dinner way too many times. (I loved each one of them.) I went to a couple movies that were pretty sweet. Played cards and ate junk food. Walked all over the place. Saw the rest of Te Papa. Threw out a ton of clothes. Bought some new clothes. Sent some presents home. Didn't blog. Took some pictures. Hung out and talked. Learned things about myself. Planned to plan for the south island. Didn't plan for the south island. And left.
Wellington, and people in Wellington. We had a great run. I love you all. I will come back.
South island stuff now. Well I'm in Nelson and I have to say "anticlimactic". It's pretty here, and my hostel is ridiculously sweet. I have, get this people, I have free breakfast, free dinner, hot tub (aka spa pool), swimming pool, sauna, beach volleyball court, and a 3 person dorm for the grand total of $24 a night. Chi-ching. Julia wins. Well Julia partially wins, cause I haven't really found anything sweet to do outside of the hostel. I wandered to the grocery store yesterday and today I wandered to the "center" of New Zealand. It's not the center at all people. It's the center of the logistical center of New Zealand. Logistical? Hmmmm, might not be the right word. It's the center of the Nelson survey region. The Nelson survey region is for some reason considered the central survey region of New Zealand (the plaque didn't make it too clear). Oh ya, and the survey regions have been replaced with GPS technology so they aren't even used anymore. Haha. So it's actually the center of a now trivial and outdated fake center of New Zealand. I still took pictures. I'm a good tourist.
I'm off to Abel Tasman tomorrow. I'm going to try and get on a 3 day kayaking tour of the national park. Unfortunately, they only rent out 2 person kayaks so I've got to find randoms to join me... Wish me the bestest. I'll still likely spend a couple days in Abel Tasman. There is a three (ish) day walk that you can do. I might do that as a last resort.
Okey dokey smokies (yummy, I could go for a real Canadian cheese smokie right now, and a sour cream glazed donut...). I'm out to plan some of my life. Be happy! Be fun! And get things done!
Sending you the grooviest of vibes,
Julia
Friday, April 29, 2011
SNEAK ATTACK!
Oh my lovely followers, tis good to see you all again.
It's Saturday morning, I slept in til 10:45, there is gorgeous sun, and I can't wear shorts because my legs are so incredibly bruised that people will think I'm being beaten if they see them.
Is your curiousity peeked? It should be. Commence story here.
It was the weekend of Easter. A time when people everywhere celebrate that Jesus died and rose again to save us from our sins and to bridge the gap between Earth and Heaven. It's an awesome weekend for taking time off from your busy life and really thinking about how blessed you are and what you are doing with the blessings you have been given. And that's exactly what I did.
I went with my friend Gus and his mates (now my mates) to River Valley Lodge near Tiahape. It was about a 6 hour drive from Wellington, mostly because we stopped every ten seconds to get more food, to stretch our legs, and goodness knows what else. It was a pretty sweet ride but I was really happy to have a couple hour break in the trip when we stopped to visit the boys at Rathmoy Fish and Pheasant Lodge near Hunterville. I worked for the Rathmoy guys around Christmas time and had been itching to visit there again. We took a tour around, chatted with Mark, Muz, and Pete, generally took a breather and then were on our way again. The group was so striken by the lodge that we are all considering renting it out some time in July for a weekend of hunting, fishing, sports, and relaxation. I really hope it works out. Back on the road, we rocked out to Muse, Coldplay, ACDC, and much much more. Twas the sing along of a life time and no one knew the words. Well maybe Kevin... but certainly not me.
Right, arrived at the lodge and grabbed a room with Gus, Kevin, Rob, Lucy, and Lisa. Gus is from volleyball and the others are all his friends. Pretty random group, Lucy is the only Kiwi. The rest of us are Brazilian (Gus), British (Rob and Lisa), Scottish (Kevin) and Canadian (I wonder who!). Bunking with those guys for three nights and four days was epic in all proportions except maybe the sleep department. We didn't get much sleep. Anyway, settled in at the lodge and hung out for the evening. The first morning I did Yoga for the first time in my life. It was incredible. I discovered that I am far more flexible than I thought, and that yoga really does provide you a great time to think about how blessed you are. Here's an overview of what I thought about. 1. Family (love you guys!) 2. Friends (love you just a little less haha) 3. God and my faith (What more do I really need to say) 4. Canada (it's a great country) 5. My body (I'm young and healthy, what more could I want) 6. Volleyball (it's a freaking awesome sport) 7. The gym (it keeps me healthy, and hopefully keeps me young) 8. Food (it's delicious) 9. Delta Bessborough (I love it and it loved me back by giving me the money for this trip). And there won't be a 10 here, just to keep you on your toes.
After yoga, I strolled the river valley (fake jogged haha) and had a mini workout session in the room with Gus and Lucy (possibly the reason why our room stunk to high heaven for the rest of the weekend. Though that could also be due to the fact that everyone left their wet clothes on the floor all weekend too.... meh). Then it was beach volleyball on more of a gravel court than a beach court. Still awesome though. And then who really cares! It was a great day.
Next day was yoga, fun, hanging out, more fun and then hot tubbing for 2.5 hours, waiting for our turn in the sauna for 2.5 hours and then the sauna for 3 hours. Can you say "Relaxed!"? At that point I sure couldn't. I was so chilled out I would only have been able to muster a "reeeeeeelaaaaaaaxeeed...". The ridiculously cold shower after the sauna did put a little more oomph in my step but it was just enough to get me to bed and then I was done. haha.
Cool, third day more yoga, more chilling, more fun and then the night of epic bruising! Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnn. So at said lodge there is a massive solid wood table who's width is about my armspan and depth is probably about an outspread palm. This table screams to drunks and sobers alike "I bet you cannot start on top of me, crawl underneath, cross over to the other side, and then get back on top of me without touching the floor!". The table screamed so loudly, in fact, that we could ignore it no longer and the fun began. I'll put a couple pics on Facebook so you can appreciate the magnitude of this task. Needless to say, I attempted to master the table game. Impressively, I got the furthest of all the girls, and even held my own against the gentlemen. While I didn't take away bragging rights from that night, I did take away 4 massive bruises. I have two large kiwi sized purple bruises on my right arm. One fist sized purple purple bruise on my left inner thigh. And one long outstretched palm sized purple and green bruise on my inner right thigh. They hurt, they are beautiful, and they are my trophies of the moment. Kevin actually completed the table -- he was the only one to do so -- and Gus and Rob and I just took away bruises.
Next morning, yoga, and leaving the lodge.
So ya. That was my Easter weekend boys and girls.
Now I'm back on the house. We have the floors down and sanded now. We have removed the back 2 walls and floor and put them back in and down. The bathroom is complete so I now have a shower in the house! Matt's bedroom is finished. The kitchen has been fully relocated and still exsists of only a sink and microwave and toaster. We got a bbq and have stashed that in the back. Steak, sausages and pancakes are our three dishes of choice to cook on the bbq. It's nice to not be buying precooked stuff anymore. My room is still a distaster. We replaced the back part of the roof that was leaking so now the house is nearly water tight. I was throwing chunks of corrogated iron from the roof around when one caught my jeans and ripped a 5 cm right triangle out of my knee area. Thankfully it only slightly punctured my knee. If it had been any closer to my body, I likely would be missing a large section of knee tissue and good stuff. Very thankful that didn't happen.
Still playing volley twice a week. I have two official teams and one non official team. I'm playing fairly well and having a lot of fun. Hannah and I try to get as many games a week as possible. On Sunday this can mean playing from 12:30 til 7:30 straight. There is nothing better my friends. The volley guys are still super good to me. I've made a lot of friends through that club and am going to miss them all super duper much when I leave. I've got a tourny with those guys on May 7th in Wanganui, which I'm looking for to. It's just a one day thing, but it will still be sweet.
Hannah and I have also joined the gym that's at the end of my street. It's the university gym for Massey university and its pretty awesome. Not nearly as cool as the PAC, but I'm loving going there. We got a free trial week and then a one month membership for... drum roll please... $10. Ya that's right. Elliot, the trainer at the gym, wasn't supposed to be giving out that promotion anymore, but he did it just for us. Thanks dude!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I've been chillin with friends. I've been truckin on the house. I've been sight seeing a little bit. I've been trying not to hurt myself. And I've been have oodles of fun.
I think that about sums me up for now. I'll try to keep thinking of stories to post for you super cool kids back home.
Oh. Right. For some of you this will be news, but for others it will just be an update. Remember my mix up on the way from L.A. to Fiji? Having to by a return ticket... yes... jogging your memories?... hope so. Anyway. I'm thinking about going to Europe in August ish to travel with Steven and Kim and as such need to get rid of my return ticket that I'm not supposed to have. I'm pushing for Air Pacific (the guys that messed stuff up) to compensate me for the non refundable return ticket that I now don't need. I emailed them on April 15th to issue my complaint and yesterday April 29th I finally heard back from them. Well they sent me an email saying that they "acknowledge me email received on April 15th" and would be getting back to me once they had processed my request. So ya, not too sure what's happening there. But! If I do get some compensation, I'll be in Europe around August and probably home by Semptember. If I don't get compensation, I'll be in NZ til the cows come home, or the sheep come home I guess, or until whenever I feel like it.
Cool.
That's everything.
Love and miss you all.
Julia
It's Saturday morning, I slept in til 10:45, there is gorgeous sun, and I can't wear shorts because my legs are so incredibly bruised that people will think I'm being beaten if they see them.
Is your curiousity peeked? It should be. Commence story here.
It was the weekend of Easter. A time when people everywhere celebrate that Jesus died and rose again to save us from our sins and to bridge the gap between Earth and Heaven. It's an awesome weekend for taking time off from your busy life and really thinking about how blessed you are and what you are doing with the blessings you have been given. And that's exactly what I did.
I went with my friend Gus and his mates (now my mates) to River Valley Lodge near Tiahape. It was about a 6 hour drive from Wellington, mostly because we stopped every ten seconds to get more food, to stretch our legs, and goodness knows what else. It was a pretty sweet ride but I was really happy to have a couple hour break in the trip when we stopped to visit the boys at Rathmoy Fish and Pheasant Lodge near Hunterville. I worked for the Rathmoy guys around Christmas time and had been itching to visit there again. We took a tour around, chatted with Mark, Muz, and Pete, generally took a breather and then were on our way again. The group was so striken by the lodge that we are all considering renting it out some time in July for a weekend of hunting, fishing, sports, and relaxation. I really hope it works out. Back on the road, we rocked out to Muse, Coldplay, ACDC, and much much more. Twas the sing along of a life time and no one knew the words. Well maybe Kevin... but certainly not me.
Right, arrived at the lodge and grabbed a room with Gus, Kevin, Rob, Lucy, and Lisa. Gus is from volleyball and the others are all his friends. Pretty random group, Lucy is the only Kiwi. The rest of us are Brazilian (Gus), British (Rob and Lisa), Scottish (Kevin) and Canadian (I wonder who!). Bunking with those guys for three nights and four days was epic in all proportions except maybe the sleep department. We didn't get much sleep. Anyway, settled in at the lodge and hung out for the evening. The first morning I did Yoga for the first time in my life. It was incredible. I discovered that I am far more flexible than I thought, and that yoga really does provide you a great time to think about how blessed you are. Here's an overview of what I thought about. 1. Family (love you guys!) 2. Friends (love you just a little less haha) 3. God and my faith (What more do I really need to say) 4. Canada (it's a great country) 5. My body (I'm young and healthy, what more could I want) 6. Volleyball (it's a freaking awesome sport) 7. The gym (it keeps me healthy, and hopefully keeps me young) 8. Food (it's delicious) 9. Delta Bessborough (I love it and it loved me back by giving me the money for this trip). And there won't be a 10 here, just to keep you on your toes.
After yoga, I strolled the river valley (fake jogged haha) and had a mini workout session in the room with Gus and Lucy (possibly the reason why our room stunk to high heaven for the rest of the weekend. Though that could also be due to the fact that everyone left their wet clothes on the floor all weekend too.... meh). Then it was beach volleyball on more of a gravel court than a beach court. Still awesome though. And then who really cares! It was a great day.
Next day was yoga, fun, hanging out, more fun and then hot tubbing for 2.5 hours, waiting for our turn in the sauna for 2.5 hours and then the sauna for 3 hours. Can you say "Relaxed!"? At that point I sure couldn't. I was so chilled out I would only have been able to muster a "reeeeeeelaaaaaaaxeeed...". The ridiculously cold shower after the sauna did put a little more oomph in my step but it was just enough to get me to bed and then I was done. haha.
Cool, third day more yoga, more chilling, more fun and then the night of epic bruising! Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnn. So at said lodge there is a massive solid wood table who's width is about my armspan and depth is probably about an outspread palm. This table screams to drunks and sobers alike "I bet you cannot start on top of me, crawl underneath, cross over to the other side, and then get back on top of me without touching the floor!". The table screamed so loudly, in fact, that we could ignore it no longer and the fun began. I'll put a couple pics on Facebook so you can appreciate the magnitude of this task. Needless to say, I attempted to master the table game. Impressively, I got the furthest of all the girls, and even held my own against the gentlemen. While I didn't take away bragging rights from that night, I did take away 4 massive bruises. I have two large kiwi sized purple bruises on my right arm. One fist sized purple purple bruise on my left inner thigh. And one long outstretched palm sized purple and green bruise on my inner right thigh. They hurt, they are beautiful, and they are my trophies of the moment. Kevin actually completed the table -- he was the only one to do so -- and Gus and Rob and I just took away bruises.
Next morning, yoga, and leaving the lodge.
So ya. That was my Easter weekend boys and girls.
Now I'm back on the house. We have the floors down and sanded now. We have removed the back 2 walls and floor and put them back in and down. The bathroom is complete so I now have a shower in the house! Matt's bedroom is finished. The kitchen has been fully relocated and still exsists of only a sink and microwave and toaster. We got a bbq and have stashed that in the back. Steak, sausages and pancakes are our three dishes of choice to cook on the bbq. It's nice to not be buying precooked stuff anymore. My room is still a distaster. We replaced the back part of the roof that was leaking so now the house is nearly water tight. I was throwing chunks of corrogated iron from the roof around when one caught my jeans and ripped a 5 cm right triangle out of my knee area. Thankfully it only slightly punctured my knee. If it had been any closer to my body, I likely would be missing a large section of knee tissue and good stuff. Very thankful that didn't happen.
Still playing volley twice a week. I have two official teams and one non official team. I'm playing fairly well and having a lot of fun. Hannah and I try to get as many games a week as possible. On Sunday this can mean playing from 12:30 til 7:30 straight. There is nothing better my friends. The volley guys are still super good to me. I've made a lot of friends through that club and am going to miss them all super duper much when I leave. I've got a tourny with those guys on May 7th in Wanganui, which I'm looking for to. It's just a one day thing, but it will still be sweet.
Hannah and I have also joined the gym that's at the end of my street. It's the university gym for Massey university and its pretty awesome. Not nearly as cool as the PAC, but I'm loving going there. We got a free trial week and then a one month membership for... drum roll please... $10. Ya that's right. Elliot, the trainer at the gym, wasn't supposed to be giving out that promotion anymore, but he did it just for us. Thanks dude!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I've been chillin with friends. I've been truckin on the house. I've been sight seeing a little bit. I've been trying not to hurt myself. And I've been have oodles of fun.
I think that about sums me up for now. I'll try to keep thinking of stories to post for you super cool kids back home.
Oh. Right. For some of you this will be news, but for others it will just be an update. Remember my mix up on the way from L.A. to Fiji? Having to by a return ticket... yes... jogging your memories?... hope so. Anyway. I'm thinking about going to Europe in August ish to travel with Steven and Kim and as such need to get rid of my return ticket that I'm not supposed to have. I'm pushing for Air Pacific (the guys that messed stuff up) to compensate me for the non refundable return ticket that I now don't need. I emailed them on April 15th to issue my complaint and yesterday April 29th I finally heard back from them. Well they sent me an email saying that they "acknowledge me email received on April 15th" and would be getting back to me once they had processed my request. So ya, not too sure what's happening there. But! If I do get some compensation, I'll be in Europe around August and probably home by Semptember. If I don't get compensation, I'll be in NZ til the cows come home, or the sheep come home I guess, or until whenever I feel like it.
Cool.
That's everything.
Love and miss you all.
Julia
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Insert witty title here
I have been reminded (yet again) that I'm a terrible blogger. Sorry teamo supreme. I'm here now. And I'm about to bust out a blog.
And a 1 and a 2 and a 1 2 3 4!
So I've been chilling in Wellington for a while now. I was in the hostel for a while and then I moved into the house I'm currently renovating. It's not much of a house though. Haha. Until yesterday the floor was about 1/3 gone, about 50% of the walls are still half gone (aka only the weatherboards remain), there is basically no drywall anywhere, the kitchen is completely missing, the bathroom is mostly gone, there is no living room. It's a supremely gutted house. And it loves me. Why? you ask. Because I have spent roughly two weeks tearing out the ugly ugly ugly cupboards, walls, and floors. Because I have spent roughly a week crawling around underneath the house jacking it up to level (it has come up about a 1 and a half in some places), removing old rotten piles, cutting new ones and cementing them in. The whole house has undergone a massive transformation in these two weeks and I can tell it's loving it. I'm loving it too by the way. My legs are the bruisiest they have ever been and everyone at volleyball thinks that my boss is beating me. Bahahahaha. Abuse is not funny. But bruises sure are.
I've gotten really involved in the volleyball team here in Wellington and am actually going to play a tournament with them this weekend. I'm ridiculously superly awesomely pumped for it. Its' about a 3 hour road trip and a two day tournament. Apparently we are staying in a hostel called "The Haunted House". I'm so frightened that I've prematurely wet my pants two times already... EEKS!
Right.
Last weekend I went to Kiwi Pro Wrestling. Now my friends, I love trashy things. It's one of the reasons that I went to Kiwi Pro Wrestling on Friday the 11th of March. And KPW almost lived up to my trashiest dreams. We arrived, paid our $10 to get in and received a child's ticket cause they had run out of adult ones. Upon inspection, we noticed that the ticket was dated Friday May 9th. Which means that not only was I given a child's ticket, I was given a child's ticket from 2 years ago. Trash! Horray! The crowd there was classy trash which was a bit disappointing and about half the wrestlers were premo trash so that was sweet. A couple were really cute. And yes all you ladies out there, I did wait in line for the autographs of the 3 hottest wrestlers there. I was purple from embarrassment. It was epic.
The following day last weekend (aka Saturday) I went to my first rugby game with some people from volleyball. It was fun. They had these really yummy mini donuts. And the game was good. And the crowd I was sitting with was crazy. I quite enjoyed myself.
I also shot a 22. At a tree. And totally got closer to the target than Matt (my boss who was teaching me to shoot). I'm quite proud of myself. The first time I ever held/fired a gun.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Been on some scenic walks. Went fishing! I caught a 5 foot long eel. It was huge. Like ridiculously big.
Skyping with the parents.
Love you all.
I'll talk about the rest later.
Julia
And a 1 and a 2 and a 1 2 3 4!
So I've been chilling in Wellington for a while now. I was in the hostel for a while and then I moved into the house I'm currently renovating. It's not much of a house though. Haha. Until yesterday the floor was about 1/3 gone, about 50% of the walls are still half gone (aka only the weatherboards remain), there is basically no drywall anywhere, the kitchen is completely missing, the bathroom is mostly gone, there is no living room. It's a supremely gutted house. And it loves me. Why? you ask. Because I have spent roughly two weeks tearing out the ugly ugly ugly cupboards, walls, and floors. Because I have spent roughly a week crawling around underneath the house jacking it up to level (it has come up about a 1 and a half in some places), removing old rotten piles, cutting new ones and cementing them in. The whole house has undergone a massive transformation in these two weeks and I can tell it's loving it. I'm loving it too by the way. My legs are the bruisiest they have ever been and everyone at volleyball thinks that my boss is beating me. Bahahahaha. Abuse is not funny. But bruises sure are.
I've gotten really involved in the volleyball team here in Wellington and am actually going to play a tournament with them this weekend. I'm ridiculously superly awesomely pumped for it. Its' about a 3 hour road trip and a two day tournament. Apparently we are staying in a hostel called "The Haunted House". I'm so frightened that I've prematurely wet my pants two times already... EEKS!
Right.
Last weekend I went to Kiwi Pro Wrestling. Now my friends, I love trashy things. It's one of the reasons that I went to Kiwi Pro Wrestling on Friday the 11th of March. And KPW almost lived up to my trashiest dreams. We arrived, paid our $10 to get in and received a child's ticket cause they had run out of adult ones. Upon inspection, we noticed that the ticket was dated Friday May 9th. Which means that not only was I given a child's ticket, I was given a child's ticket from 2 years ago. Trash! Horray! The crowd there was classy trash which was a bit disappointing and about half the wrestlers were premo trash so that was sweet. A couple were really cute. And yes all you ladies out there, I did wait in line for the autographs of the 3 hottest wrestlers there. I was purple from embarrassment. It was epic.
The following day last weekend (aka Saturday) I went to my first rugby game with some people from volleyball. It was fun. They had these really yummy mini donuts. And the game was good. And the crowd I was sitting with was crazy. I quite enjoyed myself.
I also shot a 22. At a tree. And totally got closer to the target than Matt (my boss who was teaching me to shoot). I'm quite proud of myself. The first time I ever held/fired a gun.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Been on some scenic walks. Went fishing! I caught a 5 foot long eel. It was huge. Like ridiculously big.
Skyping with the parents.
Love you all.
I'll talk about the rest later.
Julia
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Monet, Picasso, Koop
I have seen my first Monet.
I have seen my first Picasso.
I have made yet another Koop.
The last few days have been filled with art, walking, volleyball, and painting/drawing. Two days ago (ish...?) I went to Te Papa for the 3rd time and saw its European Masters exhibit. They had 70 different works by quite a few famous artists. I was most excited to see Picasso, Monet, Renior, Cezanne, and van Gogh. It was really impressive getting to see in person art works that you have studied in school by artists whose names are known world wide and across time. I won't bore you will all the details of my emotional ups and downs, my whirlwind of thoughts, or my stunningly profound realizations (they weren't stunning or profound... le sigh). I'll just give you a list of my most favouritest peices and let you google them and have your own ups and down, thoughts, and realizations. So! In no particular order...
A Painter at Work on a House Wall -- Adolphe Monticelli
La Liseuse (Girl Reading) -- Peirre Auguste Renior
*Houses on the Bank of the River Zaan -- Claude Monet
*Le Verger (The Orchard) -- Claude Francois Daubigny
Walchensee Im Winter -- Lovis Corinth
Portrait of Roman Woman on a Roof Top in Rome -- Max Klinger
View of Ulten valley -- Louis Eysen
*The Avenue in the Park of Saint-cloud -- Henri Rousseau
Last -- Max Sievogt
*Pieta -- Franz von Stuck
*The Jealous Lioness -- Paul Meyerheim
In the Bar -- Edvard Munch
*Portrait of Fernande Olivier -- Pablo Picasso
The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main -- Max Beckmann
*Self Portrait (1905) -- Max Beckmann
Water Tower in Hermsdorf -- Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann had his own little section which is why he appears a couple times. Hope you had a good time googling. If you didn't both to google, your loss. Haha.
After revelling in the European Masters I wandered around and enjoyed the harbour. It's one of my favourite places in Wellington. Always super windy, and always bustling. There was an art installment along one walkway with 5 or 6 interactive or performance peices on display. That was pretty cool. There was a local market set up one day, the circus was in that area as well. It's got a lot going on.
Hmmmm. I've also been to a play since arriving here. I went to see A Winter's Tale in the Botanical Gardens. It was put on by the university drama department. My my they have some talented little ones running around this university. The cast was about 15 people, and the stage was a tiny little amplitheatre. There was a two person "band" as well that did some sound effect type stuff and general pre/mid/post show entertainment. The show itself was great. The actors playing Leontes, Polixenes, Perdita, Hermione, Florizel and Autolycus were all fantastic. I was very much sucked into their performances. Mind you, I'm generally just a sucker for Shakespeare... It rained a little during the performance, but it was more of a mist than a rain and I didn't even really get damp. I also didn't get mugged on the walk home at 10:30 at night through the dark and deserted Botanical Gardens. I was pretty stoked about that. I didn't expect to get mugged as Wellington is a superbly safe city, but you know, just thought I'd throw that out there to make everyone nervous. Bahahahahaha. Mom, you might not want to read that part to Grandma and Grandpa. Oh! That reminds me. Everyone. My Grandma and Grandpa Augustine have just celebrated their 60 wedding anniversary. I give them props. You should too.
Right. I went to church and volleyball yesterday. Both activities that I haven't done in too long. They were both pretty sweet. Church left me feeling happy and volleyball left me feeling sore. Both feelings that I am very ok with. The volleyball club has graciously allowed me to play with them for free and there is even talk of me participating in a couple tournaments around New Zealand if I stick around in Wellington long enough. I'd say the church was letting me attend for free and was planning on taking me around New Zealand but that's only half true. Their going to take me around but they are charging an arm and a leg for a Sunday service. Just Kidding! Hahaha. I'm hilarious... ... ...
I also bought some art supplies in the last couple days. I've now got a sketch book, an eraser, a sharpener, a pencil, 12 watercolour pencils, and a paintbrush. It's been a long time since I did any art (besides the painting I made in Urenui) and I'm definitely rusty. But it's been really fun to try to get back into it, and I'm planning on keeping the train rolling. Ps. Watercolour pencils are super cool. And old ladies who wander in rose gardens are full of praise for less than talented artists.
Signing off.
Julia
I have seen my first Picasso.
I have made yet another Koop.
The last few days have been filled with art, walking, volleyball, and painting/drawing. Two days ago (ish...?) I went to Te Papa for the 3rd time and saw its European Masters exhibit. They had 70 different works by quite a few famous artists. I was most excited to see Picasso, Monet, Renior, Cezanne, and van Gogh. It was really impressive getting to see in person art works that you have studied in school by artists whose names are known world wide and across time. I won't bore you will all the details of my emotional ups and downs, my whirlwind of thoughts, or my stunningly profound realizations (they weren't stunning or profound... le sigh). I'll just give you a list of my most favouritest peices and let you google them and have your own ups and down, thoughts, and realizations. So! In no particular order...
A Painter at Work on a House Wall -- Adolphe Monticelli
La Liseuse (Girl Reading) -- Peirre Auguste Renior
*Houses on the Bank of the River Zaan -- Claude Monet
*Le Verger (The Orchard) -- Claude Francois Daubigny
Walchensee Im Winter -- Lovis Corinth
Portrait of Roman Woman on a Roof Top in Rome -- Max Klinger
View of Ulten valley -- Louis Eysen
*The Avenue in the Park of Saint-cloud -- Henri Rousseau
Last -- Max Sievogt
*Pieta -- Franz von Stuck
*The Jealous Lioness -- Paul Meyerheim
In the Bar -- Edvard Munch
*Portrait of Fernande Olivier -- Pablo Picasso
The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main -- Max Beckmann
*Self Portrait (1905) -- Max Beckmann
Water Tower in Hermsdorf -- Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann had his own little section which is why he appears a couple times. Hope you had a good time googling. If you didn't both to google, your loss. Haha.
After revelling in the European Masters I wandered around and enjoyed the harbour. It's one of my favourite places in Wellington. Always super windy, and always bustling. There was an art installment along one walkway with 5 or 6 interactive or performance peices on display. That was pretty cool. There was a local market set up one day, the circus was in that area as well. It's got a lot going on.
Hmmmm. I've also been to a play since arriving here. I went to see A Winter's Tale in the Botanical Gardens. It was put on by the university drama department. My my they have some talented little ones running around this university. The cast was about 15 people, and the stage was a tiny little amplitheatre. There was a two person "band" as well that did some sound effect type stuff and general pre/mid/post show entertainment. The show itself was great. The actors playing Leontes, Polixenes, Perdita, Hermione, Florizel and Autolycus were all fantastic. I was very much sucked into their performances. Mind you, I'm generally just a sucker for Shakespeare... It rained a little during the performance, but it was more of a mist than a rain and I didn't even really get damp. I also didn't get mugged on the walk home at 10:30 at night through the dark and deserted Botanical Gardens. I was pretty stoked about that. I didn't expect to get mugged as Wellington is a superbly safe city, but you know, just thought I'd throw that out there to make everyone nervous. Bahahahahaha. Mom, you might not want to read that part to Grandma and Grandpa. Oh! That reminds me. Everyone. My Grandma and Grandpa Augustine have just celebrated their 60 wedding anniversary. I give them props. You should too.
Right. I went to church and volleyball yesterday. Both activities that I haven't done in too long. They were both pretty sweet. Church left me feeling happy and volleyball left me feeling sore. Both feelings that I am very ok with. The volleyball club has graciously allowed me to play with them for free and there is even talk of me participating in a couple tournaments around New Zealand if I stick around in Wellington long enough. I'd say the church was letting me attend for free and was planning on taking me around New Zealand but that's only half true. Their going to take me around but they are charging an arm and a leg for a Sunday service. Just Kidding! Hahaha. I'm hilarious... ... ...
I also bought some art supplies in the last couple days. I've now got a sketch book, an eraser, a sharpener, a pencil, 12 watercolour pencils, and a paintbrush. It's been a long time since I did any art (besides the painting I made in Urenui) and I'm definitely rusty. But it's been really fun to try to get back into it, and I'm planning on keeping the train rolling. Ps. Watercolour pencils are super cool. And old ladies who wander in rose gardens are full of praise for less than talented artists.
Signing off.
Julia
Friday, February 25, 2011
It's Shocking!
a;dlkfagnrkba;ndf bajebrjg;adlfkj a;lkdjga
That is what I suspect I would have typed had I been in Christchurch during the earthquake the other day. Thankfully, I wasn't. As most of you know, I was in National Park when the quake hit and I didn't feel a thing.
Now I know that I should really be thankful that I wasn't there and that I wasn't really affected by the quake in anyway, but I really would have liked to be there. When I came to New Zealand it was definitely with the partial hope that I would be able to experience (first hand, in the flesh, up close and personally) some kind of natural phenomenon. Be it an earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami... basically any kind of natural distaster-esque thing that Saskatchewan doesn't experience. Long story short, if all I experience here is a freak snow storm, I'm going to be very disappointed.
One thing I know I'm not disappointed about is Wellington. I had a great day yesterday, and I can only anticipate today being better. Yesterday, I wandered about the wharf area, in true aimless wonder. It wasn't quite so sunny but it was still deliciously warm. Eventually I decided that I should do something with my day and made the 10ish minute trek back uphill to my hostel "Worldwide Backpackers" on The Terrace (you are now supplied for google mapping). Once home, I gathered all my pamphlets, tourism guides, and random papers and began the tough decision of what to do. This decision is particularly tough because of 3 things. 1) There are tons of cool things to do in Wellington. 2) They are basically all free. 3) They are all within walking distance. Yes folks, there are roughly 10 free art galleries, and 6 free museums that I know about off hand. None of them is more than a 20 minute walk away. There are also parks, botanical gardens, free tours, and of course just a ton of random shops to pop into. It makes deciding what to do each day both exciting and difficult. Anyway! I decided that I would visit the Wellington City and Sea Museum and then go from there.
The museum was free naturally. It consisted of 3 levels; one dedicated to the history of the city, one about the harbour and trade history, and one about the social and Maori history. It was exceptionally well put together and extremely informative. The curator obviously has a wicked sense of humour too as many of the exhibits write-ups had... hmmmm... well witty and sarcastic elements to them. There were a couple funny cracks against Australia (commonly refered to as Aussie) that made me giggle. I could really feel the rivalry between the countries. It is a lot like the Canadian/American relationship. The best part of the whole museum was a small art section. It was for kids, but art is art and while I would have been able to handle more sophisticated write ups beside each work I did enjoy the kiddy version. This section also had these great little books that you could purchase for $2 that take you through the gallery and make you interact with each work. This is a freaking brilliant idea for kids. There were tasks like write a narrative about the figure in this painting, describe what kind of feeling this painting evokes, design your own Greek style vase, and so on. I was really impressed and had I brought along some money I would have bought one and done it myself. (I actually still may. It was seriously that cool). So ya, I viewed that whole museum and then wandered around outside again for a bit. I'm finding more and more that I can't stay inside for too long. I need sun and wind and nature or I get restless.
During my wanderings, I happened upon an art gallery which I had heard about but had no idea where it was. Turns out it's in a super central location and I've possibly wandered by the side of it a couple times without realizing what was inside. Anyway, that cool little section in the Wellington Museum had put me in the art mood so I left the sun and basked in art instead. See http://citygallery.org.nz/current-exhibitions/ for exhibit images and information.
In true Wellington form, this gallery was predominantly free. There was one exhibit which you had to pay $6 for, but I didn't have cash so free I went. The ground floor was an exhibit of local (generally student) artists and was called Un-Sited. The main concept centered on unidentifiable space. Each work portrayed a specific space but in some way intentionally removed itself from that space. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but it's the best I can do. My favourite peice was a long stretch of white paper, roughly 25 feet in length and about 5 feet high. It had a touch of grey shading that reached about 3 feet up the paper in the furthest left and faded down to basically nothing as it ran along the bottom length of the paper. I can't remember what it was titled and there was no write-up next to the work. I always read the show write up after I have looked at all the peices so that my interpretations are purely my own on first viewing. So after I had seen all the peices I read the Un-Sited write up and was informed that that peice was the recreation of one of the walls in the artist studio. It was kind of cool to think about the layers of space and creation that that work played with. Essentially it was a representation of a creative space (the studio) that had been placed in a new creative space (the gallery) and given an entirely different value. I'm not making myself very clear. Haha. Becky, help me out here...
The next exhibit was called "The Vault" by Neil Pardington. It consisted of large scale, high definition photographs of behind the scenes areas of NZ museums and art galleries. There were images of stock rooms filled with mannequin parts, images of preserved critters in jars, images of shelves of film reels, etc. They were quite beautiful and definitely intriguing. In some cases, I almost felt like I was looking into one of those I-Spy books from when you were little. Remember those? You'd have to find 2 buttons, 3 red truck, and 4 dices before you could move onto the next page. The images in those books were busy and maybe a little overwhelming, but when you broke them down it was really just a odd collection of stuff in one space. Well this exhibit's images and entire collection felt a bit like that. The one thing I wasn't too impressed with was that the images were staged. The artist had gone in and shifted things in those museum storage spaces to create the image and feeling he wanted. I felt like this manipulation of space and objects was unnecessary and cheapened the whole thing a bit, but it was still really quite potent. My favourite image from that exhibit was of about 6 stainless steel shelves with one stuffed seagull lying belly up on each. It was comical. I felt like I was looking into a bird morticians freezer compartments. Again, you probably have to be there to understand what I mean, just take my word for it. I literally guffawed when I saw it.
The next exhibit ("Mana Takatapui" by Taera Tane) didn't do anything for me so I shan't discuss it. The one following was interesting but very difficult to explain so I'll leave it alone as well. It was called "Two Walking" by Mari Mahr. And the last was potentially my favourite. It was titled "The Imaginary Life and Times Of" by Graham Percy. It was basically all ink or pencil drawings of kiwi birds (instead of kiwi people) in random cities and historical moments. Some of them were really funny, and all of them displayed a real pride for New Zealand. This one was simply the most fun to view and left me in a great mood.
Right. After that I wandered around some more, went back to the hostel for late lunch, went grocery shopping, and then met up with the organizer of the volleyball league I just joined and a bunch of the players. I'll be playing Sundays and possibly Wednesdays for as long as I'm in Wellington. I'm pretty super stoked about it. I've been itching to play volleyball since I arrived here and have only been able to once. This league seems awesome too cause it's free (sensing a serious theme here) and the group is really tight knit, almost like a family. They welcomed me with open arms and are already helping me out with things outside of volleyball. I'm really excited to be a part of a team, a sport, and a friend group.
Okey dokey. That's about enough for now. Haha. Oh, I'm thinking I'll join a Zumba class at a local church too. Horray for dancing/working out.
Kisses!
Julia
That is what I suspect I would have typed had I been in Christchurch during the earthquake the other day. Thankfully, I wasn't. As most of you know, I was in National Park when the quake hit and I didn't feel a thing.
Now I know that I should really be thankful that I wasn't there and that I wasn't really affected by the quake in anyway, but I really would have liked to be there. When I came to New Zealand it was definitely with the partial hope that I would be able to experience (first hand, in the flesh, up close and personally) some kind of natural phenomenon. Be it an earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami... basically any kind of natural distaster-esque thing that Saskatchewan doesn't experience. Long story short, if all I experience here is a freak snow storm, I'm going to be very disappointed.
One thing I know I'm not disappointed about is Wellington. I had a great day yesterday, and I can only anticipate today being better. Yesterday, I wandered about the wharf area, in true aimless wonder. It wasn't quite so sunny but it was still deliciously warm. Eventually I decided that I should do something with my day and made the 10ish minute trek back uphill to my hostel "Worldwide Backpackers" on The Terrace (you are now supplied for google mapping). Once home, I gathered all my pamphlets, tourism guides, and random papers and began the tough decision of what to do. This decision is particularly tough because of 3 things. 1) There are tons of cool things to do in Wellington. 2) They are basically all free. 3) They are all within walking distance. Yes folks, there are roughly 10 free art galleries, and 6 free museums that I know about off hand. None of them is more than a 20 minute walk away. There are also parks, botanical gardens, free tours, and of course just a ton of random shops to pop into. It makes deciding what to do each day both exciting and difficult. Anyway! I decided that I would visit the Wellington City and Sea Museum and then go from there.
The museum was free naturally. It consisted of 3 levels; one dedicated to the history of the city, one about the harbour and trade history, and one about the social and Maori history. It was exceptionally well put together and extremely informative. The curator obviously has a wicked sense of humour too as many of the exhibits write-ups had... hmmmm... well witty and sarcastic elements to them. There were a couple funny cracks against Australia (commonly refered to as Aussie) that made me giggle. I could really feel the rivalry between the countries. It is a lot like the Canadian/American relationship. The best part of the whole museum was a small art section. It was for kids, but art is art and while I would have been able to handle more sophisticated write ups beside each work I did enjoy the kiddy version. This section also had these great little books that you could purchase for $2 that take you through the gallery and make you interact with each work. This is a freaking brilliant idea for kids. There were tasks like write a narrative about the figure in this painting, describe what kind of feeling this painting evokes, design your own Greek style vase, and so on. I was really impressed and had I brought along some money I would have bought one and done it myself. (I actually still may. It was seriously that cool). So ya, I viewed that whole museum and then wandered around outside again for a bit. I'm finding more and more that I can't stay inside for too long. I need sun and wind and nature or I get restless.
During my wanderings, I happened upon an art gallery which I had heard about but had no idea where it was. Turns out it's in a super central location and I've possibly wandered by the side of it a couple times without realizing what was inside. Anyway, that cool little section in the Wellington Museum had put me in the art mood so I left the sun and basked in art instead. See http://citygallery.org.nz/current-exhibitions/ for exhibit images and information.
In true Wellington form, this gallery was predominantly free. There was one exhibit which you had to pay $6 for, but I didn't have cash so free I went. The ground floor was an exhibit of local (generally student) artists and was called Un-Sited. The main concept centered on unidentifiable space. Each work portrayed a specific space but in some way intentionally removed itself from that space. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but it's the best I can do. My favourite peice was a long stretch of white paper, roughly 25 feet in length and about 5 feet high. It had a touch of grey shading that reached about 3 feet up the paper in the furthest left and faded down to basically nothing as it ran along the bottom length of the paper. I can't remember what it was titled and there was no write-up next to the work. I always read the show write up after I have looked at all the peices so that my interpretations are purely my own on first viewing. So after I had seen all the peices I read the Un-Sited write up and was informed that that peice was the recreation of one of the walls in the artist studio. It was kind of cool to think about the layers of space and creation that that work played with. Essentially it was a representation of a creative space (the studio) that had been placed in a new creative space (the gallery) and given an entirely different value. I'm not making myself very clear. Haha. Becky, help me out here...
The next exhibit was called "The Vault" by Neil Pardington. It consisted of large scale, high definition photographs of behind the scenes areas of NZ museums and art galleries. There were images of stock rooms filled with mannequin parts, images of preserved critters in jars, images of shelves of film reels, etc. They were quite beautiful and definitely intriguing. In some cases, I almost felt like I was looking into one of those I-Spy books from when you were little. Remember those? You'd have to find 2 buttons, 3 red truck, and 4 dices before you could move onto the next page. The images in those books were busy and maybe a little overwhelming, but when you broke them down it was really just a odd collection of stuff in one space. Well this exhibit's images and entire collection felt a bit like that. The one thing I wasn't too impressed with was that the images were staged. The artist had gone in and shifted things in those museum storage spaces to create the image and feeling he wanted. I felt like this manipulation of space and objects was unnecessary and cheapened the whole thing a bit, but it was still really quite potent. My favourite image from that exhibit was of about 6 stainless steel shelves with one stuffed seagull lying belly up on each. It was comical. I felt like I was looking into a bird morticians freezer compartments. Again, you probably have to be there to understand what I mean, just take my word for it. I literally guffawed when I saw it.
The next exhibit ("Mana Takatapui" by Taera Tane) didn't do anything for me so I shan't discuss it. The one following was interesting but very difficult to explain so I'll leave it alone as well. It was called "Two Walking" by Mari Mahr. And the last was potentially my favourite. It was titled "The Imaginary Life and Times Of" by Graham Percy. It was basically all ink or pencil drawings of kiwi birds (instead of kiwi people) in random cities and historical moments. Some of them were really funny, and all of them displayed a real pride for New Zealand. This one was simply the most fun to view and left me in a great mood.
Right. After that I wandered around some more, went back to the hostel for late lunch, went grocery shopping, and then met up with the organizer of the volleyball league I just joined and a bunch of the players. I'll be playing Sundays and possibly Wednesdays for as long as I'm in Wellington. I'm pretty super stoked about it. I've been itching to play volleyball since I arrived here and have only been able to once. This league seems awesome too cause it's free (sensing a serious theme here) and the group is really tight knit, almost like a family. They welcomed me with open arms and are already helping me out with things outside of volleyball. I'm really excited to be a part of a team, a sport, and a friend group.
Okey dokey. That's about enough for now. Haha. Oh, I'm thinking I'll join a Zumba class at a local church too. Horray for dancing/working out.
Kisses!
Julia
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Wel(come/lingtons/lington)
Ta da! Another blog! I'm on fire.
...
Ok, I'm back from stop, dropping, and rolling. Here we go.
We left National Park the morning of the 23rd. We were delayed by a broken bus and a supremely slow delivery bus driver. Never the less, by roughly 10:30 we were outta there and on our way to the great unknown known as Wellington. We travelled south through stunning scenery and as we sang along to The Proclaimers, Afroman, and Nickelback (eek) I got a bizarre case of deja vu. "I have been here before" I thought to myself. "We will be stopping at Flat Hills for lunch" said my bus driver. "Eureka!", I thought, "I have been here before. This is ridiculously close to Rathmoy, in fact, I was picked up at Flat Hills to go and work at Rathmoy." Wow. I quickly shot a couple of texts off to the guys I worked with there saying "Hi" and that I hoped they were doing well, that I was passing by, and all that lovely stuff. We stopped for lunch. I had a lamb burger with chips (aka fries) and this delicious sauce that I have never experienced anywhere other than New Zealand and still don't know what it is. (When I know, You'll know.) Then it was back on the road. Just as we were passing the turn off for Feilding, which happens to be the turn of to Rathmoy, I recieved a text from Muzzy (one of the guys I worked with). It made my heart light. I will now type it verbatim so that you may share in my light hearted cheer.
"Hey julia. Good to hear from ya! As if i would have forgotten who you were. We were wondering just a couple of days ago how you were going. I tried ringing just now but you must have no service. I hope the world is treating you as you deserve. You're always welcome"
*insert collective "awwwwwwwww" here*
I'm definitely visiting those guys on the way back. I briefly/desperately contemplated hopping off the bus at the next town and getting the boys to come and pick me up so that I could hang out with them before going on to Wellington but alas and alack it was not to be. And while all my "alas and alack"ing might lead you to believe that I am sad I didn't get to stop, I'm not. Sad. I'm really quite happy.
Anyway. We carried on our merry way to a town called Taihape which claims to be the Gumboot Throwing Capital of the World. This claim is based soley on the fact that they like throwing gumboots (aka rubber boots, aka Wellingtons) and that they have a designated gumboot throwing arena. This arena truly is one of a kind, as it is the only known gumboot throwing arena in the universe. Taihape I tip my hat to you. That's fanaticism at it's best. Naturally, we got to throw gumboots. I stunk. However, this is 100% due to the fact that the prize for doing well was a free beer and I (obviously) had no desire to win. I was concerned though that if I put in a half hearted attempt I would still win, so I just stunk it up (on purpose!) to ensure that I wouldn't be the poor sucker would have to drink that beer. I succeeded marvelously.
Right... so then it was back in the bus and on to Wellington. We stopped quickly for a toilet break.
Ok. Pause the narration here. We are going to have a little think. In Canada we say "I'm going to the bathroom/washroom". We hardly ever say "I'm going to the toilet". Now in Kiwi land they Always say they are going to the "toilet". This makes me feel uncomfortable and as if they are being a touch vulgar. Does anyone have any suggestion as to why this may be?
After our washroom break, it was straight to Wellington. We arrived at Base hostel around 4:30, settled in and went for a walk throughout the harbour area. Wellington is artsy, vibrant, beautiful, and windy.
Becky. Come live in Wellington with me. We were made for this city.
During our walk we saw rowers rowing, swimmers swimming, bagpipests piping (actually there was only one but for continuity's sake...), runners running, and artists arting. This city is centered on art, culture, and water. Yes, yes. I am very much at home here. Oh! we also came across a sign for a live circus performance down by the waterfront that evening. I was totally stoked. The girls I was with not so much (girls are just no fun). We walked around a bit more, nothing eventful happened. Then supper, and then off to the circus! for me and Corina (cause she's cool and does stuff. More about her later).
The circus was awesome. It wasn't really a circus persay, it was more of a live busking show that incorporated trapese tricks, contortionism, juggling, clowning, slapstick comedy, and a weak story line. There were 4 performers and a live dj. I'm not really going to be able to explain what the whole thing was about but the general story line is that... Actually. It's not worth it. The boys were strong and sported 6 packs, the girls were graceful and sported extremely flexibity. The humour made me laugh, and stunts were definitely impressive. I may actually go again tonight, and if I do I will get some pictures and then you can share in my experience too.
Upon the conclusion of the circus, Corina and I went back to the hostel bar to met up with everyone else. Everyone else was lame though (they were drinking) so we ditched them and hit the dance floor. Yes folks. I found a sober dance buddy. We were the only people on the dance floor for a solid 45 minutes. And we tore it up. I haven't had fun like that in a long time. By the end of the night, there were 200 people dancing. Ok. No. There were about 50. But! There were only about 80 in the bar. So we won the hearts and bodies of nearly everyone there. There were actually a couple people that came up to us and told us that we started the dance party. It was pretty cool. Then my shoe broke. Which wasn't cool. Cause it's the only pair of non runners I have. And it meant that dancing got harder. But! Those of you who know me and my dancing know that I can't be stopped. And I wasn't. The night continued. We stayed sober, and stayed the center of the party all night. Corina! I salute you in the danciest way possible. You made that night awesome.
Next morning was this morning. I spent today switching over to a new hostel (which reminds me immensly of Clare's house in Rosthern. I feel in love the second I saw it. Nostalgia is a powerful force), wandering down by the harbour again, and chilling at the hostel writing to you. And, literally this second recieving a text from... Tyler. We shall possibly be doing something tonight. Huzza. Friends are fun.
I guess that's about it for now. I'm staying in Wellington for about 2 weeks. I'm at a hostel for one and then am renovating indefinitely after that. Fun times ahead.
You are all wonderful.
Julia
...
Ok, I'm back from stop, dropping, and rolling. Here we go.
We left National Park the morning of the 23rd. We were delayed by a broken bus and a supremely slow delivery bus driver. Never the less, by roughly 10:30 we were outta there and on our way to the great unknown known as Wellington. We travelled south through stunning scenery and as we sang along to The Proclaimers, Afroman, and Nickelback (eek) I got a bizarre case of deja vu. "I have been here before" I thought to myself. "We will be stopping at Flat Hills for lunch" said my bus driver. "Eureka!", I thought, "I have been here before. This is ridiculously close to Rathmoy, in fact, I was picked up at Flat Hills to go and work at Rathmoy." Wow. I quickly shot a couple of texts off to the guys I worked with there saying "Hi" and that I hoped they were doing well, that I was passing by, and all that lovely stuff. We stopped for lunch. I had a lamb burger with chips (aka fries) and this delicious sauce that I have never experienced anywhere other than New Zealand and still don't know what it is. (When I know, You'll know.) Then it was back on the road. Just as we were passing the turn off for Feilding, which happens to be the turn of to Rathmoy, I recieved a text from Muzzy (one of the guys I worked with). It made my heart light. I will now type it verbatim so that you may share in my light hearted cheer.
"Hey julia. Good to hear from ya! As if i would have forgotten who you were. We were wondering just a couple of days ago how you were going. I tried ringing just now but you must have no service. I hope the world is treating you as you deserve. You're always welcome"
*insert collective "awwwwwwwww" here*
I'm definitely visiting those guys on the way back. I briefly/desperately contemplated hopping off the bus at the next town and getting the boys to come and pick me up so that I could hang out with them before going on to Wellington but alas and alack it was not to be. And while all my "alas and alack"ing might lead you to believe that I am sad I didn't get to stop, I'm not. Sad. I'm really quite happy.
Anyway. We carried on our merry way to a town called Taihape which claims to be the Gumboot Throwing Capital of the World. This claim is based soley on the fact that they like throwing gumboots (aka rubber boots, aka Wellingtons) and that they have a designated gumboot throwing arena. This arena truly is one of a kind, as it is the only known gumboot throwing arena in the universe. Taihape I tip my hat to you. That's fanaticism at it's best. Naturally, we got to throw gumboots. I stunk. However, this is 100% due to the fact that the prize for doing well was a free beer and I (obviously) had no desire to win. I was concerned though that if I put in a half hearted attempt I would still win, so I just stunk it up (on purpose!) to ensure that I wouldn't be the poor sucker would have to drink that beer. I succeeded marvelously.
Right... so then it was back in the bus and on to Wellington. We stopped quickly for a toilet break.
Ok. Pause the narration here. We are going to have a little think. In Canada we say "I'm going to the bathroom/washroom". We hardly ever say "I'm going to the toilet". Now in Kiwi land they Always say they are going to the "toilet". This makes me feel uncomfortable and as if they are being a touch vulgar. Does anyone have any suggestion as to why this may be?
After our washroom break, it was straight to Wellington. We arrived at Base hostel around 4:30, settled in and went for a walk throughout the harbour area. Wellington is artsy, vibrant, beautiful, and windy.
Becky. Come live in Wellington with me. We were made for this city.
During our walk we saw rowers rowing, swimmers swimming, bagpipests piping (actually there was only one but for continuity's sake...), runners running, and artists arting. This city is centered on art, culture, and water. Yes, yes. I am very much at home here. Oh! we also came across a sign for a live circus performance down by the waterfront that evening. I was totally stoked. The girls I was with not so much (girls are just no fun). We walked around a bit more, nothing eventful happened. Then supper, and then off to the circus! for me and Corina (cause she's cool and does stuff. More about her later).
The circus was awesome. It wasn't really a circus persay, it was more of a live busking show that incorporated trapese tricks, contortionism, juggling, clowning, slapstick comedy, and a weak story line. There were 4 performers and a live dj. I'm not really going to be able to explain what the whole thing was about but the general story line is that... Actually. It's not worth it. The boys were strong and sported 6 packs, the girls were graceful and sported extremely flexibity. The humour made me laugh, and stunts were definitely impressive. I may actually go again tonight, and if I do I will get some pictures and then you can share in my experience too.
Upon the conclusion of the circus, Corina and I went back to the hostel bar to met up with everyone else. Everyone else was lame though (they were drinking) so we ditched them and hit the dance floor. Yes folks. I found a sober dance buddy. We were the only people on the dance floor for a solid 45 minutes. And we tore it up. I haven't had fun like that in a long time. By the end of the night, there were 200 people dancing. Ok. No. There were about 50. But! There were only about 80 in the bar. So we won the hearts and bodies of nearly everyone there. There were actually a couple people that came up to us and told us that we started the dance party. It was pretty cool. Then my shoe broke. Which wasn't cool. Cause it's the only pair of non runners I have. And it meant that dancing got harder. But! Those of you who know me and my dancing know that I can't be stopped. And I wasn't. The night continued. We stayed sober, and stayed the center of the party all night. Corina! I salute you in the danciest way possible. You made that night awesome.
Next morning was this morning. I spent today switching over to a new hostel (which reminds me immensly of Clare's house in Rosthern. I feel in love the second I saw it. Nostalgia is a powerful force), wandering down by the harbour again, and chilling at the hostel writing to you. And, literally this second recieving a text from... Tyler. We shall possibly be doing something tonight. Huzza. Friends are fun.
I guess that's about it for now. I'm staying in Wellington for about 2 weeks. I'm at a hostel for one and then am renovating indefinitely after that. Fun times ahead.
You are all wonderful.
Julia
Sunday, February 20, 2011
ROAR!
Hey guys
So my time with Precision Helicopters has come to a bitter sweet close. I'm excited to be moving on, but missing the family and the pilots. I had a great time there and am planning on visiting them on the way back up to Auckland in about 6 months. Hopefully, they will still remember me fondly and will once again welcome me into their lovely home and business.
They dropped me off back at Blue Duck on Feb 19, exactly one month after I left. We went for a couple spins in the helicopter, had breakfast, and then exchanged morose hugs whilst promising to stay in touch. Great people, great fun, great views (see pics), great experiences.
So now I'm in National Park again (I spent one night at Blue Duck and then caught the shuttle back) and I'll be heading to Wellington in two days (Feb 23). I'm hoping to hit up HomeGrown, a completely Kiwi music festival, but it's sold out. Do not fear though. I shall find a way in. It will happen.
I met some people from Wellington while working for Precision and they have graciously offered me a house renovating job (are we seeing a theme here?...) in exchange for room and board. So I'll be hitting that up for a bit and then GOING SOUTH! Ba-zinga.
On an unrelated note. No one. I repeat No One has given me a worm. I am one destressed fish right now. Believe me, if you are lion and you decide to go swimming in the ocean, me and my tuna posse are coming for you. Please see The Other Guys for an outline of your fate.
The End.
Julia
ps. I still love you.
So my time with Precision Helicopters has come to a bitter sweet close. I'm excited to be moving on, but missing the family and the pilots. I had a great time there and am planning on visiting them on the way back up to Auckland in about 6 months. Hopefully, they will still remember me fondly and will once again welcome me into their lovely home and business.
They dropped me off back at Blue Duck on Feb 19, exactly one month after I left. We went for a couple spins in the helicopter, had breakfast, and then exchanged morose hugs whilst promising to stay in touch. Great people, great fun, great views (see pics), great experiences.
So now I'm in National Park again (I spent one night at Blue Duck and then caught the shuttle back) and I'll be heading to Wellington in two days (Feb 23). I'm hoping to hit up HomeGrown, a completely Kiwi music festival, but it's sold out. Do not fear though. I shall find a way in. It will happen.
I met some people from Wellington while working for Precision and they have graciously offered me a house renovating job (are we seeing a theme here?...) in exchange for room and board. So I'll be hitting that up for a bit and then GOING SOUTH! Ba-zinga.
On an unrelated note. No one. I repeat No One has given me a worm. I am one destressed fish right now. Believe me, if you are lion and you decide to go swimming in the ocean, me and my tuna posse are coming for you. Please see The Other Guys for an outline of your fate.
The End.
Julia
ps. I still love you.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Early Bird Gets the Worm
I would like to take this opening sentence to point out to you that this blog is following on the tails of the last blog much quicker than has previously happened. This makes me an early bird. I want my worm.
I'm boring right now. I'm sitting around my house. All alone. Not working. And eating cheese (yum). I went to a party last night. But it wasn't overly fun. And other than that, all I've done is reclaimed two small gardens down the side of our house. Oh, and managed to get a wicked sunburn while trying to get rid of some tan lines. So there really isn't much to say. In fact, I think it's all been said.
Therefore, instead of rambling about nothing like I usually do, I'm going to ask all of you faithful (and not so faithful) readers to ramble about nothing my way. I'd love to hear what you are up to. Or even to hear how jealous you are of my trip and why. Haha.
Everyone -- please be my worm. Give me an update about your life, via Facebook, Blog post, Email, Pretty picture which you draw, colour, scan and post on Facebook (don't forget to tag me in it). Whatever your beautiful selves desire.
Fluttering in Anticipation
Julia
I'm boring right now. I'm sitting around my house. All alone. Not working. And eating cheese (yum). I went to a party last night. But it wasn't overly fun. And other than that, all I've done is reclaimed two small gardens down the side of our house. Oh, and managed to get a wicked sunburn while trying to get rid of some tan lines. So there really isn't much to say. In fact, I think it's all been said.
Therefore, instead of rambling about nothing like I usually do, I'm going to ask all of you faithful (and not so faithful) readers to ramble about nothing my way. I'd love to hear what you are up to. Or even to hear how jealous you are of my trip and why. Haha.
Everyone -- please be my worm. Give me an update about your life, via Facebook, Blog post, Email, Pretty picture which you draw, colour, scan and post on Facebook (don't forget to tag me in it). Whatever your beautiful selves desire.
Fluttering in Anticipation
Julia
Monday, February 7, 2011
To David Guenther
Dearest of my dearest,
I would say that I have missed talking to you via this poorly kept blog that would only be half true. I have missed the opportunity to have you share in my experiences but I have not missed writing this epic accounts of epicness. Ok. I have. And as I sit here writing this blog, listening to Mumford and Sons (in honor of David Guenther to whom I dedicate this blog), I am happy to be here. I'm reveling in the opportunity to regale you with stories of my shenanigans and am tickled pink to think that you care enough to read about them. Much love to all of you. XOXO.
So we left off with a rather hurried account of my Stray adventures which were quite adventurous. Climbing volcanoes at the Tongarario Crossing and surfing in Raglan were definitely the highlights of that Stray period. So, since I'm to lazy to read my own blogs and find out where I left off I'm going to start with the Tongarario and my trip to Blue Duck Lodge (possibly the best place in NZ thus far). Then I will run through the goings ons at the Helicopter Hut and that should be about it. Ready.... Set.... Go!
The Tongarario Crossing took us about 7 hours in totally. We walked about 30 minutes to get to the base of the volcano stopping briefly to drink from a waterfall which poured forth the most delicious and cold water I have ever tasted in my life. Now some may say that the occurance of this tastebud festival was due to the fact that it was a blistering hot day and I was definitely not well hydrated. However, I can assure that the consensus amoungst my group of about 25 people was unanimous for "delicious and cold". So you can sleep easy tonight knowing that you are missing out on the best tasting water in the world. Sweet dreams. Haha. We then continued up Devils Stair Case. This portion of the track is not aptly named. While there were about 300 stairs, there were never more than 20 in a row and there were a ton of flatish bits where you could just cruise and catch you breath. Also, I didn't see The Devil, A Devil, or even a rouge New Jersey Devil. The rest of the trail was unnamed and of about equal difficulty. At one point I even went for a jog with a lovely little lady from the UK. Yes, I have too much energy. Yes, I'm ok with that. The only part I struggled was on a scrambly bit that was more up than forward when my guide who I was chatting with decided to go all mountain goat style and blitzed ahead. When we got to the top we stopped and chilled on the ridge looking into Red Canyon (aptly named, pics soon hopefully) and down onto the sulfer lakes and Blue Lake (also aptly named). After lunch, which for me consisted of a One Square Meal granola bar, we headed up to the summit. Now NZ doesn't have many bugs, but on the summit of that volcano I encounter the most freakiest bug I've even seen/heard in my entire life. This is no joking matter ladies and gents. This bug freaked me out. It landed ever so delicately on my arm. Truly I barely noticed it. When I did, I managed not to flip out and gave it a nice little wacked off my arm. Now this bug crashed into a rock about 3 feet away from me where I could clearly see that it was about a thumb length long and about two thumbs in width. It was an shiny green black. And it was screaming. Literally. It sounded like it was screaming to the devil to come a smite me. It was also puking up red paste. Not blood. Paste. And screaming. Screaming. I cannot truly tell you how freaky as this thing was. Just let your imagination run wild and times it by 3.57. Ok. Enough about icky bug. We then slid down the volcano on these whatever they are called slides. I think I knew what they were called when I wrote the last blog. You'll have to check there. Basically they there gravel slopes. The gravel is extremely loose and about half a foot deep so you sink and slide with every step. The best way to go down these things is at a light run/jog on the heels of your feet. Stopping, slowing down, and digging in your toes are not recommended. It took us about 2 hours to get down. Talk about a work out. I only fell a couple of times and was only bleeding from my hands by the time we got down. I considered it a win.
So I hung out back at National Park for a couple more days and then snagged a ride up to Blue Duck Lodge on the Whakahora reserve (Yes David, another classic Maori name). The lodge area was stunnng (pics to follow). It's situated on a hill above the Wanganui River and is surrounded by pasture, sheep, and trees. It's in the middle of no where and I never felt more at home. I wanted to do some woofing for them there, but there were full when I showed up so I just hung out for a week. I went horse back riding, jet boating, kayaking, hiking, tanning, mustering, running, quading, hunting, swimming, and relaxing. It may have been the best week of my trip so far. The people that work there are incredible. Superbly friendly, caring, and outgoing. If you are ever in NZ, you absolutely MUST go to this place. If you don't, you haven't seen NZ.
It was also there that I met the crew from Precision Helicopters who I am currently wwoofing for. Mat, Tammy, some of the kids, and Hayden all showed up one night in the chopper. They joined us at the fire. Hayden (the pilot) and I chatted, and by the end of the night I was promised a ride in the chopper the next day. The next day rolled around and after roughly 45 minutes of free flight time (estimated retail price +$1,000) I was offered a job with them. I stayed 4ish more days at Blue Duck while Hayden and Mat (the owner of the company) found a house for all of us (Me, Hayden and another pilot Rob) to live in and then I was off. But a bit of a rewind before I type about that. Flying in a helicopter is incredible. My first ride was about a minute long and consisted of take off, going straight, a 180 turn, and landing. I have never felt such a rush in my life. That turn literally took my breath away. The second flight which was considerably longer stunned me again through the agiility and power of the machine. It's manouverability was phenomenonal. And the scenery was something I had never experienced before. Flying that low, but still that high, gives you a completely different take on the world. I could see for miles and I could also see the goats running through the brush below me. It was truly striking. Right, enough gushing. It was sweet. I signed up for a job and 4ish days later met up with Hayden to come to the region of Taranaki and the town of Urenui. Delta peeps asked David for the translation of the town name.
I've been here about 3 weeks now and am loving it. I get to go for trips in the chopper at least 4 times a week. I've been camping, swimming in the ocean (the ocean is about a 30 minute jog from my house on the top of the hill), to a couple of parties, and renovating the house I'm surrnently living in. It's a beautiful house even though it's definitely seen better days. The view is spectacular. And the guys treat me like a working princess. Definitely a killer set up. So far I've cleaned the entire inside of the house, washed all the windows, and also washed the entire outside of the house. Cleaned all the eavestroughs and raked up about 2 bales work of lawn grass. I've set up a kitchen and am constantly maintaining the cleanliness of the bathroom. I have stripped wall paper out of a peptobismal pink room. I have sanded another wall and painted it. I have done the boys laundry. And currently I am sanding all the window sills and frames so that they can be revarnished (likely by me). I couldn't be happier.
So what's you plan for the future I hear you ask as you mentally pray that this blog will wrap up soon. Well Mr and Mrs Curious, I am not too sure. I'll be here for a while longer and then I'll be off to Wellington and the South. I'm flying by the seat of my pants. It's how I roll.
Much love!
Julia
I would say that I have missed talking to you via this poorly kept blog that would only be half true. I have missed the opportunity to have you share in my experiences but I have not missed writing this epic accounts of epicness. Ok. I have. And as I sit here writing this blog, listening to Mumford and Sons (in honor of David Guenther to whom I dedicate this blog), I am happy to be here. I'm reveling in the opportunity to regale you with stories of my shenanigans and am tickled pink to think that you care enough to read about them. Much love to all of you. XOXO.
So we left off with a rather hurried account of my Stray adventures which were quite adventurous. Climbing volcanoes at the Tongarario Crossing and surfing in Raglan were definitely the highlights of that Stray period. So, since I'm to lazy to read my own blogs and find out where I left off I'm going to start with the Tongarario and my trip to Blue Duck Lodge (possibly the best place in NZ thus far). Then I will run through the goings ons at the Helicopter Hut and that should be about it. Ready.... Set.... Go!
The Tongarario Crossing took us about 7 hours in totally. We walked about 30 minutes to get to the base of the volcano stopping briefly to drink from a waterfall which poured forth the most delicious and cold water I have ever tasted in my life. Now some may say that the occurance of this tastebud festival was due to the fact that it was a blistering hot day and I was definitely not well hydrated. However, I can assure that the consensus amoungst my group of about 25 people was unanimous for "delicious and cold". So you can sleep easy tonight knowing that you are missing out on the best tasting water in the world. Sweet dreams. Haha. We then continued up Devils Stair Case. This portion of the track is not aptly named. While there were about 300 stairs, there were never more than 20 in a row and there were a ton of flatish bits where you could just cruise and catch you breath. Also, I didn't see The Devil, A Devil, or even a rouge New Jersey Devil. The rest of the trail was unnamed and of about equal difficulty. At one point I even went for a jog with a lovely little lady from the UK. Yes, I have too much energy. Yes, I'm ok with that. The only part I struggled was on a scrambly bit that was more up than forward when my guide who I was chatting with decided to go all mountain goat style and blitzed ahead. When we got to the top we stopped and chilled on the ridge looking into Red Canyon (aptly named, pics soon hopefully) and down onto the sulfer lakes and Blue Lake (also aptly named). After lunch, which for me consisted of a One Square Meal granola bar, we headed up to the summit. Now NZ doesn't have many bugs, but on the summit of that volcano I encounter the most freakiest bug I've even seen/heard in my entire life. This is no joking matter ladies and gents. This bug freaked me out. It landed ever so delicately on my arm. Truly I barely noticed it. When I did, I managed not to flip out and gave it a nice little wacked off my arm. Now this bug crashed into a rock about 3 feet away from me where I could clearly see that it was about a thumb length long and about two thumbs in width. It was an shiny green black. And it was screaming. Literally. It sounded like it was screaming to the devil to come a smite me. It was also puking up red paste. Not blood. Paste. And screaming. Screaming. I cannot truly tell you how freaky as this thing was. Just let your imagination run wild and times it by 3.57. Ok. Enough about icky bug. We then slid down the volcano on these whatever they are called slides. I think I knew what they were called when I wrote the last blog. You'll have to check there. Basically they there gravel slopes. The gravel is extremely loose and about half a foot deep so you sink and slide with every step. The best way to go down these things is at a light run/jog on the heels of your feet. Stopping, slowing down, and digging in your toes are not recommended. It took us about 2 hours to get down. Talk about a work out. I only fell a couple of times and was only bleeding from my hands by the time we got down. I considered it a win.
So I hung out back at National Park for a couple more days and then snagged a ride up to Blue Duck Lodge on the Whakahora reserve (Yes David, another classic Maori name). The lodge area was stunnng (pics to follow). It's situated on a hill above the Wanganui River and is surrounded by pasture, sheep, and trees. It's in the middle of no where and I never felt more at home. I wanted to do some woofing for them there, but there were full when I showed up so I just hung out for a week. I went horse back riding, jet boating, kayaking, hiking, tanning, mustering, running, quading, hunting, swimming, and relaxing. It may have been the best week of my trip so far. The people that work there are incredible. Superbly friendly, caring, and outgoing. If you are ever in NZ, you absolutely MUST go to this place. If you don't, you haven't seen NZ.
It was also there that I met the crew from Precision Helicopters who I am currently wwoofing for. Mat, Tammy, some of the kids, and Hayden all showed up one night in the chopper. They joined us at the fire. Hayden (the pilot) and I chatted, and by the end of the night I was promised a ride in the chopper the next day. The next day rolled around and after roughly 45 minutes of free flight time (estimated retail price +$1,000) I was offered a job with them. I stayed 4ish more days at Blue Duck while Hayden and Mat (the owner of the company) found a house for all of us (Me, Hayden and another pilot Rob) to live in and then I was off. But a bit of a rewind before I type about that. Flying in a helicopter is incredible. My first ride was about a minute long and consisted of take off, going straight, a 180 turn, and landing. I have never felt such a rush in my life. That turn literally took my breath away. The second flight which was considerably longer stunned me again through the agiility and power of the machine. It's manouverability was phenomenonal. And the scenery was something I had never experienced before. Flying that low, but still that high, gives you a completely different take on the world. I could see for miles and I could also see the goats running through the brush below me. It was truly striking. Right, enough gushing. It was sweet. I signed up for a job and 4ish days later met up with Hayden to come to the region of Taranaki and the town of Urenui. Delta peeps asked David for the translation of the town name.
I've been here about 3 weeks now and am loving it. I get to go for trips in the chopper at least 4 times a week. I've been camping, swimming in the ocean (the ocean is about a 30 minute jog from my house on the top of the hill), to a couple of parties, and renovating the house I'm surrnently living in. It's a beautiful house even though it's definitely seen better days. The view is spectacular. And the guys treat me like a working princess. Definitely a killer set up. So far I've cleaned the entire inside of the house, washed all the windows, and also washed the entire outside of the house. Cleaned all the eavestroughs and raked up about 2 bales work of lawn grass. I've set up a kitchen and am constantly maintaining the cleanliness of the bathroom. I have stripped wall paper out of a peptobismal pink room. I have sanded another wall and painted it. I have done the boys laundry. And currently I am sanding all the window sills and frames so that they can be revarnished (likely by me). I couldn't be happier.
So what's you plan for the future I hear you ask as you mentally pray that this blog will wrap up soon. Well Mr and Mrs Curious, I am not too sure. I'll be here for a while longer and then I'll be off to Wellington and the South. I'm flying by the seat of my pants. It's how I roll.
Much love!
Julia
Monday, January 10, 2011
We are all Strays
Hey Teamo Supremeo
I have been up to shenagingans lately. I've joined up with Stray Bus and have actually started to see things around NZ! Booya! I'm on a roll! So far I've seen... Mount Eden, Hot Water Springs, Haihei, Catherdral Cove, Raglan, A sweet surfing beach that I can't remember the name of, Waitomo, Uncle Boy's, Rotorua and Some white water rapids and a couple waterfalls, National Park, Mount Doom, and Mount Tongarario. Yes, I have been busy.
Mount Eden = Overrated, but good to see
Hot Water Springs = 81 degree water = Too Freaking Hot! But lots of fun
Haihei = Tiny town with a cute campsite
Catherdral Cove = Kayaking and Cliff jumping and Beautiful Scenery and Body Surfing
Raglan = Awesome hostel, Beautiful star gazing, Hippies everywhere, Surfers everywhere
Some Sweet Beach = 2 Days of surfing, Bruises, Sore arms and legs, Stellar tan, Painful water rash, Extreme fitness, Starfish, Cute boys
Waitomo = Caves (That I didn't go in), Cute Cafe, Tiny playground, Tons of sun, Bus Crash, New driver
Uncle Boy's = Authentic Maori culture, Learning the Poi (a dance is a ball on a string), Seeing the boys learn the Haka (Maori War Dance), Sleeping in a room with 36 other people, Eating a lot
Rotorua = Sulpher smell EVERYWHERE, White water rafting down rapids (natually) and 3 waterfalls 1m, 3m, and 7m, Beach volleyball,Leaving the sulpher smell behind to go to...
National Park = Beautiful everything, Sacred everything, Hot tubbing, Super chill station
Tongarario Crossing = Not chill, 8 hours of walking, 18km walked (mostly up a volcano), Seeing Blue Lake and the sulpher lakes, Sliding down the side of Mount Tongarario (totally sweet!), Taking way too many pictures, Super sore legs, Extreme Extreme Fitness!!!!!!!!!!!! (love it!)
So that's the run down. I've made a bunch of friends on my different busses and had some really fun times just on the bus. I played The Last Saskatchewan Pirate song and made everyone sing and dance along. Every bus instantly nicknames me Canada... not sure why yet... I think it's because people hear about me from others before they meet me (it appears my reputation precedes me quite extensively...) and because everyone sucks at remembering names so all they can call me is my country. Suits me just fine. I love Canada. Anyway.
Plans for the nearer future. I'm going to Blue Duck Lodge for 4 days. Mark (my old boss) highly recommended it. I'll be accomanied by an old German doctor who has been travelling on my bus. He's sweet. I'm hoping to go hunting, kayaking, hiking, and horseback riding up there. Then it's on to Wellington and THE SOUTH ISLAND!!!!!!!!!!! (to get a job... cause I'm getting broke...).
Right. There you go my lovelies.
Julia
I have been up to shenagingans lately. I've joined up with Stray Bus and have actually started to see things around NZ! Booya! I'm on a roll! So far I've seen... Mount Eden, Hot Water Springs, Haihei, Catherdral Cove, Raglan, A sweet surfing beach that I can't remember the name of, Waitomo, Uncle Boy's, Rotorua and Some white water rapids and a couple waterfalls, National Park, Mount Doom, and Mount Tongarario. Yes, I have been busy.
Mount Eden = Overrated, but good to see
Hot Water Springs = 81 degree water = Too Freaking Hot! But lots of fun
Haihei = Tiny town with a cute campsite
Catherdral Cove = Kayaking and Cliff jumping and Beautiful Scenery and Body Surfing
Raglan = Awesome hostel, Beautiful star gazing, Hippies everywhere, Surfers everywhere
Some Sweet Beach = 2 Days of surfing, Bruises, Sore arms and legs, Stellar tan, Painful water rash, Extreme fitness, Starfish, Cute boys
Waitomo = Caves (That I didn't go in), Cute Cafe, Tiny playground, Tons of sun, Bus Crash, New driver
Uncle Boy's = Authentic Maori culture, Learning the Poi (a dance is a ball on a string), Seeing the boys learn the Haka (Maori War Dance), Sleeping in a room with 36 other people, Eating a lot
Rotorua = Sulpher smell EVERYWHERE, White water rafting down rapids (natually) and 3 waterfalls 1m, 3m, and 7m, Beach volleyball,Leaving the sulpher smell behind to go to...
National Park = Beautiful everything, Sacred everything, Hot tubbing, Super chill station
Tongarario Crossing = Not chill, 8 hours of walking, 18km walked (mostly up a volcano), Seeing Blue Lake and the sulpher lakes, Sliding down the side of Mount Tongarario (totally sweet!), Taking way too many pictures, Super sore legs, Extreme Extreme Fitness!!!!!!!!!!!! (love it!)
So that's the run down. I've made a bunch of friends on my different busses and had some really fun times just on the bus. I played The Last Saskatchewan Pirate song and made everyone sing and dance along. Every bus instantly nicknames me Canada... not sure why yet... I think it's because people hear about me from others before they meet me (it appears my reputation precedes me quite extensively...) and because everyone sucks at remembering names so all they can call me is my country. Suits me just fine. I love Canada. Anyway.
Plans for the nearer future. I'm going to Blue Duck Lodge for 4 days. Mark (my old boss) highly recommended it. I'll be accomanied by an old German doctor who has been travelling on my bus. He's sweet. I'm hoping to go hunting, kayaking, hiking, and horseback riding up there. Then it's on to Wellington and THE SOUTH ISLAND!!!!!!!!!!! (to get a job... cause I'm getting broke...).
Right. There you go my lovelies.
Julia
Monday, January 3, 2011
Stop. Tour Time.
So this could be my last blog for a while. I'm joining Stray Bus as aforementioned in my Moby Dick blog. I'm not sure how available internet shall be and how willing I will be to pay crazy money for it. We shall see.
But! Right now I'm have free internet so I'll tell you about my Cape Reinga trip. I took a day trip through AwesomeNZ.com to Cape Reinga on New Year's day after spending New Years Eve on the beach (as expected) with a bunch of Romanians and a Russian (not so expected). It was a fun and chill night. Watch fireworks and chatted. Anywayz. Got up bright and early for the tour and in true NZ style was picked up late. Haha. We had a full itinerary and the entire day took us 12 hours. First, we went to a Kauri forest. Kauri trees, as my super talkative and informative guide told us, used to cover 90% of New Zealand. Now, only 16% of those trees are left. "Why?" I hear you ask quisically, "Because Kauri trees provide the finest timber in the world and are therefore in high demand" I answer. There was a little boardwalk that took us in and around the base of the largest tree found in that area of the forest. Obviously, we treked like good little tourists around the boardwalk and then were off. Our next stop was a little cafe for brunch. Uneventful. We then carried on to Cape Reinga itself. It was absolutely stunning. Both visually and intellectually I might add. Cape Reinga is the northern most point of NZ which was created by the ocean pushing around volcanic rocks, turning those rocks into sand, and dumping it continually on the tip of NZ. It is also the place where the Pacific Ocean and the Abel Tasman Sea meet. It's visually stunning and luckily we had superb sunny weather in which to enjoy its beauty. We did a brief trek around the point and then we were on to my favourite part of the trip.
The next leg was all about the ocean. Good gracious I love the ocean. We went swimming in both the Abel Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean within the span of a couple hours. The waves on the Pacific side were decent size, about 2 or 3 feet I would guess-timate. I got tossed around a bit and it was awesome. I totally did not know how to navigate or anticipate the waves. I saw a big one coming and was like "yay! I'll ride this one!". Um. No. I'll get picked up and dunked and spun around and spat out by this one. It's a heck of a fun ride. So I did it again.
Then we went sand dune sliding. I must take an Oscar moment here and thank my Canadian heritage, genetics, and zeal for adventure for making it possible for me to enjoy sand dune sliding as much as I did. I would also like to thank the years Canadian winters and more specifically the years of freezing cold snow being whipped into my face by the wind as I plummeted down snow covered slopes on a crazy carpet, a tobogan, or even a peice of cardboard. You truly made me capable of pulling up the front of my boogyboard, tucking my elbows in, and lifting my feet so that I could hurtle down the side of a massive sand dune at speeds around 50km/h. Without all of you I would not have been able to shame everyone in my tour group by sliding a solid 100m further than any of them. *cue music* Oh oh oh. I would also like to thank... *speech slides into silence as I'm dragged from the mike and shoved off stage*.
I tackled the Abel Tasman Sea next. It was much more vicious than the Pacific Ocean so I did more of a wading thing. Still, it was cool. Not many people can say they swam in two oceans in one day. Well, actually I bet a lot can, but still. Super cool. After our very short dip we scooted down 90 Mile Beach, and by scooted I mean we drove for about an hour on State Highway 1A aka 90 Mile Beach. Yes folks. The beach is legally the highway. This country is awesome. We saw beached penguins and sharks and pushed two lovely little lady's car out of the sand.
Then we drove off the beach, down a paved highway to a Kauri wood store. There were a ton of carved things and furniture, all at ridiculous prices. I didn't buy anything. Cause I'm cheap. But I did walk up the free staircase. Which was pretty cool because the staircase was carved into the inside of a huge tree trunk. Peter Pan style yo. Please see Facebook for pics.
Our last stop was a fish and chips shop that has its own fishing boat that goes out each morning to catch the fish used for the supper hour. Can you say Yummy? Not very well when you've stuffed your face with delicious fish and chips.
Then I was home. 12 hours later. Totally pooped. Had a nap. Hung out with the Romanians and Russian.
The next day was all beach and cricket and swimming. Well it was all those things til I snagged a bus back to Auckland in preparation for catching Stray Bus tomorrow (4th).
That's All Folks.
Julia
ps. I am now back to blonde hair (thank you New Zealand sun) and my tan has never been darker (thank you New Zealand sun).
pps. I'm currently watching Washington vs Pittsburgh. I love hockey.
But! Right now I'm have free internet so I'll tell you about my Cape Reinga trip. I took a day trip through AwesomeNZ.com to Cape Reinga on New Year's day after spending New Years Eve on the beach (as expected) with a bunch of Romanians and a Russian (not so expected). It was a fun and chill night. Watch fireworks and chatted. Anywayz. Got up bright and early for the tour and in true NZ style was picked up late. Haha. We had a full itinerary and the entire day took us 12 hours. First, we went to a Kauri forest. Kauri trees, as my super talkative and informative guide told us, used to cover 90% of New Zealand. Now, only 16% of those trees are left. "Why?" I hear you ask quisically, "Because Kauri trees provide the finest timber in the world and are therefore in high demand" I answer. There was a little boardwalk that took us in and around the base of the largest tree found in that area of the forest. Obviously, we treked like good little tourists around the boardwalk and then were off. Our next stop was a little cafe for brunch. Uneventful. We then carried on to Cape Reinga itself. It was absolutely stunning. Both visually and intellectually I might add. Cape Reinga is the northern most point of NZ which was created by the ocean pushing around volcanic rocks, turning those rocks into sand, and dumping it continually on the tip of NZ. It is also the place where the Pacific Ocean and the Abel Tasman Sea meet. It's visually stunning and luckily we had superb sunny weather in which to enjoy its beauty. We did a brief trek around the point and then we were on to my favourite part of the trip.
The next leg was all about the ocean. Good gracious I love the ocean. We went swimming in both the Abel Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean within the span of a couple hours. The waves on the Pacific side were decent size, about 2 or 3 feet I would guess-timate. I got tossed around a bit and it was awesome. I totally did not know how to navigate or anticipate the waves. I saw a big one coming and was like "yay! I'll ride this one!". Um. No. I'll get picked up and dunked and spun around and spat out by this one. It's a heck of a fun ride. So I did it again.
Then we went sand dune sliding. I must take an Oscar moment here and thank my Canadian heritage, genetics, and zeal for adventure for making it possible for me to enjoy sand dune sliding as much as I did. I would also like to thank the years Canadian winters and more specifically the years of freezing cold snow being whipped into my face by the wind as I plummeted down snow covered slopes on a crazy carpet, a tobogan, or even a peice of cardboard. You truly made me capable of pulling up the front of my boogyboard, tucking my elbows in, and lifting my feet so that I could hurtle down the side of a massive sand dune at speeds around 50km/h. Without all of you I would not have been able to shame everyone in my tour group by sliding a solid 100m further than any of them. *cue music* Oh oh oh. I would also like to thank... *speech slides into silence as I'm dragged from the mike and shoved off stage*.
I tackled the Abel Tasman Sea next. It was much more vicious than the Pacific Ocean so I did more of a wading thing. Still, it was cool. Not many people can say they swam in two oceans in one day. Well, actually I bet a lot can, but still. Super cool. After our very short dip we scooted down 90 Mile Beach, and by scooted I mean we drove for about an hour on State Highway 1A aka 90 Mile Beach. Yes folks. The beach is legally the highway. This country is awesome. We saw beached penguins and sharks and pushed two lovely little lady's car out of the sand.
Then we drove off the beach, down a paved highway to a Kauri wood store. There were a ton of carved things and furniture, all at ridiculous prices. I didn't buy anything. Cause I'm cheap. But I did walk up the free staircase. Which was pretty cool because the staircase was carved into the inside of a huge tree trunk. Peter Pan style yo. Please see Facebook for pics.
Our last stop was a fish and chips shop that has its own fishing boat that goes out each morning to catch the fish used for the supper hour. Can you say Yummy? Not very well when you've stuffed your face with delicious fish and chips.
Then I was home. 12 hours later. Totally pooped. Had a nap. Hung out with the Romanians and Russian.
The next day was all beach and cricket and swimming. Well it was all those things til I snagged a bus back to Auckland in preparation for catching Stray Bus tomorrow (4th).
That's All Folks.
Julia
ps. I am now back to blonde hair (thank you New Zealand sun) and my tan has never been darker (thank you New Zealand sun).
pps. I'm currently watching Washington vs Pittsburgh. I love hockey.
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