Jealous?

This is going to lack a lot of words, because this week is hard to describe. It is better in pictures and in my mind, words will not do it justice.

I spent the week with the tides dictating my schedule, the stars dancing under and above me feet, and the ocean acting as my bathtub. My hair was like straw, and everytime I smiled I could taste the salt.

I felt completely alive and happy to the point of bursting.

We spent our time snorkeling, looking at sting rays and cray fish, and my halloween was spent studying maori fishing practices, and waking up early to watch the most beautiful sunrise.

I sat on the warm rocks playing cat in a tank top and shorts and thought about how it was November.

We had a guest speaker who played pirate and found lost treasure, and was one of the pioneers of scuba diving.

We had a sunny boat ride to Poor Knights, one of the top ten dive sites in the world. Where we got to snorkel in the largest sea cave in the world, swim and play with a seal, and follow a pod of bottlenose dolphins as our hands grazed their fins as they playfully jumped around us.

Then this weekend we drove through the country side, laughed as we turned around to see a 'kiwi', and got lost too many times. We ended up on 90 mile beach in the sun, swimming in a suprisingly warm ocean, and celebrating guy fox day with some 13 year olds.

perfect. amazing. too hard to get into detail.

love you, miss you... all that jazz.

The start of a life as an adrenaline junkie?

I have never been interested in birds. Holding my arms in the same position with binoculars glued to my eyes have never been my cup of tea. But this week, that was our focus. We had to sit for hours on a shell bank (not comfortable on the bum) and watch the different new zealand wading shorebirds and take note of their dietary habits. I drug my feet as we took the hour walk to the site, and decided to be a negative nelly about the whole thing.

What a surprise it was when I found myself frantically jotting down notes and discussing in detail the specific characteristics of bar-tailed godwits with my friend Lacey. This is when I made the decision that as long as I'm learning something, and something is new and exciting, it will catch my attention. And now I know more about three new zealand waders than I ever would have thought, and I take a small amount of pride in that. When I get home, test me on my bird watching skills. I know oh so much about the feeding habits of godwits, wrybills and oystercatchers.

And if you had an inkling that bird watching isn't my thing, you KNOW that kids aren't my thing. I leave that to Alexis, and when I'm with children I just don't know how to act. (except ryan and kyle...) But we went to the primary school in Kaiaua to spend a day running around and picking up trash with the kids. And although I had reminders of why I don't want kids (one little hoodlum told me that 'dogs don't hang out with chicks' and proceeded to bark at me... wtf.) I also found myself having fun being a horse to the 5 year olds and reading partners to those who could actually read. I was exhausted for the rest of the day, and I think that it was the best work out I have gotten since being here.

The weekend came, and we started it off with a bang at the local pub. Because we live in such a small place, when we go anywhere we take over. So we took over and started a dance party, got a little too tipsy and a walk that should have taken me 30 minutes took me two hours. gah. But the next morning a few of us (lacey, ashton, hanna, jenni and I) took a two hour drive to Waitomo caves for some black water rafting. It was AMAZING. The general idea of black water rafting is you hop into a wet suit, drive to a cave, slide into a cave and proceed to crawl/walk/maneuver your way through the cave until you reach the river. That is when you hop into your inner tube and float down the rapids. It is pitch black and you run into the side of the caves, and you jump off waterfalls and every once in awhile you turn off your head lamp and look up to what looks like the night sky. Then you remember you are in a cave, and what you are looking at is billions of glow worms. It is something I can't really explain. I just have to summarize it with the word amazing. Oh, and the guide looked like John Mayer, which was intriguing.

we then drove to Rotorua and splurged (because it was Labour weekend, we had to stay in a hotel)... so we took advantage and went in the pool, hot tub and sauna. We ate ice cream, took real hot showers and slept in comfortable beds. For all those people who aren't ecoquest students that may not sound like anything big, but for me it was extravagant and blissful. The next day Ashton and Lace went white water rafting (I needed to save some cash), so the rest of us went walking around the city. They had some beautiful parks, and Rotorua is known for it's thermal springs and bubbling mud pools, so I spent most of my time in the government gardens exploring.

All in all it was a good week/weekend. Now we have a week on shellfish observation and fenced islands, and then we head up north. The time is flying by, and it scares me. This place just feels right.

Back Home

I left you off in Christchurch, where the copious amounts of liqour and dancing left me with a sore throat that I tried to convince myself was from the gin and tonics. As it turned out, I contracted that beautiful illness that had caused one of my field leaders to sport a fabulous medical mask for the first few days of the trip. Our next stop was up in the alps in a place called Craigieburn. The mountains were straight out of lord of the rings, and our vans barely made it up the hill. We were staying in an educational center isolated in the middle of a mountain beech forest. It was perfectly serene and beautiful, and we were lucky enough to have a sunny welcoming and a clear night; perfect for star gazing. We were studying alpine ecology and vegetation, but my sickness cooped me up in the lodge crocheting a hat for Jensen's soon to be baby by the fire. There were about five of us that were too sick to participate in activites, so we spent the days lounging and watching the snow fall.
oh yes, thats right. It snowed. And was VERY cold. God damn, I thought it was supposed to be spring (the first official weekend of summer is coming up in a few days... doesn't really feel like it)

I started recovering right when we were leaving Craigieburn to go to Reefton, which was unfortunate because I missed all of our lectures, but was good because I was able to participate in learning about extractive industries in New Zealand. We visited this old gold mining museum and learned a little bit about the boom and bust industry of the Reefton/west coast area. The next day we went to visit a few coal mines, which was hard for me. But our guest speaker was very informative and tried to make sense of the reasons for the destroyed land. It was pretty cool because he took us to a mine that was a 'bad' example of mining, and then took us to one that is more environmental and although it was still a scar on the land, it was an interesting contrast. We also got to go to a beautiful national park called Nelson Lakes and studied mainland island pest control. It is crazy because New Zealand has no native or endemic land mammals, so all those that do exist (possums, deer, stoats, wasps... etc) are considered pests and are destroying the native plants and birds. So we learned about how the pests are controlled, and what methods are used. (some of the possums they kill are turned into nice hats/scarves/sweaters. It feels to weird to buy a possum fur hat though... too freaky)

After Nelson Lakes we were dropped off for our four day break!!! So exciting. It is our only big break in the entire four weeks that we have. Five of us (hanna, heidi, colby, elizabeth and I--for those who care) decided to stay at a hostel in Nelson for a few nights and go hiking in Abel Tasman National park for a night or two. The first day was shitty weather, so we decided to drive east and go to Renwick, home of Marlborough wine country. We took a nice wine tour and drank a bit too much wine. All the wineries were beautiful and it was nice seeing a different kind of tourism industry. And what can I say, I have aquired grandma's and mom's taste for good wine. It was a great time, and we ended up going home and napping and having a nice stay at home day. The next day wasn't great weather but we decided to take our chances, and drove out to Abel Tasman. Something in the sky loved us, and right when we got there the weather cleared and we ended up having tons o' sun. We did 13 miles the first day (let me tell you, my feet were NOT happy with that plan) along the coast, and camped on the beach at bark bay for the night. We woke up to another beautiful day, hiked 7 more miles up the coast, ate at an entirely too expensive lodge (food has never tasted so good) and then caught the water taxi back to the park entrance. The water taxi was awesome, we go to see a colony of seals and a blue penquin (smallest penquin in the world!) We went home and spent the last day of break eating popcorn and watching movies, going out to a fabulous restaurant for dinner and going out to see Superbad... every once in awhile you need to be reminded of crude american humor.

and now we are back home. It feels so nice to get back and have my bed and my room. My friend Jenni's birthday was last night, but there was a storm so we got a ride to the pub, picked up beer and played drinking games in the Wharekai. (I did not partake, but it was just as fun to watch all my friends make fools of themselves, scrambling around the room, chasing after a little ping pong ball)

We have two weeks at home and then we head up north for snorkeling (at one of the best diving sights in the world) and some more learning!

more to come...

The South Island!

This is going to be a short one, I am currently in the internet cafe in our hostel in Christchurch, I fell in love with this city and the south island in general. It took us a very long time to get down here, a good two days straight of travelling. The ferry in itself was three hours long. But it was HUGE and there was a polynesian high school group singing maori songs, which kept me entertained. The south island really is beautiful. The first place we stayed was Kaikoura, it is right on the ocean and bordered by mountains. It is one of the most visited places in New Zealand because there is a ton of marine mammal tourism, which is what we spent the weekend learning about. We were supposed to swim with the dolphins but the weather was too shitty. Hanna and I are planning to go back after the program is over because the man at the Marae that we were staying at said he could hook us up with a free whale watching tour.

Staying at the Marae was unexplainably amazing. Everything about it was a new cultural experinence. We learned a lot about the maori culture and all the things that they find the most important. We slept in the Wharanui, which is the ancestors house and it had the most beautiful intricate designs on it. We weren't allowed to take pictures of it, so I will just have to remember and try and tell you all about it when I get home. I think that by far it was the best place we have stayed. We had a talent show at the end, and I most definitely did some interpretive dancing (good ol' rick would have been so proud)

we had the weekend off and spent it in Christchurch. We went to a beautiful art market, where of course I spent too much money... and I drank and ate me life away. I really will return a fatty. We got to go to the Auckland/Canterbury rugby game which was awesome, and I actually got to learn how rugby works. And that night the All Blacks were playing, so a bunch of us went out to a bar got a little shwasted and proceeded to dance until 4 am at an irish pub... oh good times.

we are off today to cragieburn, and I don't know what we are doing there. All I know is we might be snowed in at a cabin in the middle of nowhere. LOVE IT. (the south island is still a bit nippy).

Well, that was longer than I thought.

so tight.

miss you
love you
write somewhat in the near future.

Off I Go!

Tomorrow I head out on my adventure to the south island. We will be driving for about 10 hours (gahhhhhh) and then hopping on a three hour ferry ride... but it will all be worth it because then I get to go and explore the beautiful and glorious south island. We were told that it is going to be QUITE cold down there, so I got an authentic new zealand wool sweater that is what my professors call a genuine 'kiwi' thing. It is ridiculous and heavy and horrible clashing colors, but everyone is jealous of it... haha, and that is why I absolutely love this place.

This week was inspiring for me. The topic was sustainability at home, and our instructor Bruce, who is getting his PhD in environmental education so we focused on that a lot. We took a beautiful thirty minute hike up in the local park that is a five minute drive away, and we talked about what sustainability meant to us and how it affected our lives... all of this was while we sat in the sun on a grassy hill overlooking the ocean and green pastures. I still can't get over how amazing it is to learn in an environment like this. I don't know what I will do when I'm stuck in a classroom again. We shall see how I deal with it. It was a good week because it made me realize that I really want to focus on the social issues that are tied with the environment rather than the science aspect. I suppose that isn't an important thing to mention, but it is awesome when my future plans are further cemented in my wee little brain.

We got to visit the marae this week which was an amazingly spiritual experience. The local marae is a 2 minute walk down the road, so we all got dressed up (and seeing these boys dressed up is a funny and beautiful thing because we are all usually disgusting and beyond underdressed) and went for the afternoon. There are tons of traditions that are followed when you visit the marae, and two of our leaders, Jono and Rhia are fluent in Maori and basically belong to the local marae, so we took time to practice how we entered and what we were supposed to do when we got in there. Before you enter the gate you are supposed to pause and think about those that matter and those who have died. Rhia said, 'think about home', and I instantly began getting teary eyed. I think it was then that I realized what I was doing and where I was and how lucky I was to be forming this family and this amazing bond with the country and with the people in it. And I started missing home. I don't really know what it was, but I think being in a special place like that just brings up all sorts of emotions. At least for me. Anyways, we sang songs and listened to them give a speech in maori and got to see their ancestoral home, which was a pretty cool experience. They fed us food (I eat SOOO much food here it is insane, I will come home a fatty... I just made peanut butter cookies with my friend andrew for my friend colby who is jewish and just got done fasting, and I think I ate about half the dough plus 3 cookies... just an example of how much I eat here ALL THE TIME) and we got to just hang out. It was pretty awesome.

wow I talked about nothing important for a long time. I just wrote a paper so perhaps I am in rambling mode. WHO knows.

I am going to post more pictures cause I have some time.

I will write when I get back from the south island!!

A little like Kerouac

This country is dressed in green, and has decided to wreak havoc on my legs. (more on that later).

Lets start with last weekend, with the trip to Auckland. Eight of us rented two cars, and took the hairpin turned back roads to the largest city in the entire country (which hosts only 4.5 million people... nothin' honey). Tim was our designated driver, and remained calm cool and collected as we tried to navigate a very foreign country while driving on the other side of the road. I was of no help, seeing as I have the directional sense of a gnat. A few of us spent the better part of the day shopping (you'd be proud, I didn't buy anything) and then we all met up for dinner at this random hole in the wall pizza place that had delicious pizza, cheap drinks and a really good atmosphere. The All Blacks were playing that night, so we went to the irish pub and got to hear some good live music. Everyone I am travelling with loves beer, so they all laughed at me as I sipped on my white wine. What can I say, beer isn't my thing. But we decided to wander around the city and ended up by the wharf in a club dancing to Sweet Home Alabama with 30 year olds.. It was slightly ridiculous. We ended up back at the irish pub where we were all squeezed in like sardines as everyone had their eyes glued to the tv screen watching their beloved rugby team. I have NO idea how rugby works, so some nice Australian coached me through it, but I still have no idea how it really works. Oh well. Their rugby team does a Haka before every game, which is a Maori ritual, and one of the most awesome and intimidating things I've seen. Check it out if you can. The next day we went to this beautiful black sand beach on the coast... it was pouring rain but we explored and it made me fall more and more in love with the coast, the ocean and the country.

SOOO the weekend was awesome, and then we left on our first 'field' trip to Opoture on Tuesday. It was an hour north of where we are staying, and is located on the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed in this AMAZING hostel overlooking the estuary that became our study focus for the week. We have to map the vegetation in the estuary and do specialized group projects on certain issues concerning the estuary. But we spent most of the week walking around exploring or kayaking. But of course, in order to kayak appropriately we had to do some training. I was part of the lucky group that got to get up at 5:30 in the morning to kayak. It was actually worth it because we got to see the sign rise over the ocean, which was absolutely stunning. The bad thing was that we then had to go swimming in the frigid water. We had to perform a rescue, so once you had to rescue and once you had to flip your kayak over and show that you could get back in. Lets just say I wore my wool long underware in the water and still managed to shout profane words at my professor.

oops.

as for the legs... it seems that sand fleas and other sorts of fun bugs have decided to attack my lower legs. I honestly look like I have the chicken pox. it is painful and I have to literally bite my lip to stop from itching constantly. ack.

it was still an awesome experience that I wouldn't change for the world. We got to kayak and hike and didn't have one lecture inside. The learning environment is unlike anything I have ever done, and I can't get enough of it. The work is very challenging, but we all work on it together and I am learning a TON. One of our assignments involved building a sandcastle off of a topography map. So we got to spend an hour on the beach in the sun building an 'island'.

it doesn't get any better than that.

For the weekend all of us got dropped off in a surfer town 10 minutes from opoture. The first night 11 of us stayed in the local hostel and went out to explore the 'night' life of the deserted-in-the-winter town. We went to the only dance club, only to find we were the only patrons, so we made a fool of ourselves on the dance floor. Finally people showed up, but there were only about 10 of them... it was silly and fun, but the BEST part was when we went to the maori karaokee bar... where we were the only ones there besides the owners and their children. We were all pretty shwasted (as my friend quincy calls it) by that point, so we sang horrible american songs as loud as we could and really made complete asses of ourselves, but it was all in good fun.

A few of the people had hitched up north the day before (hitching is safe and done often in NZ) so Hanna and I decided to give it a whirl. It was amazing how friendly and awesome everyone was. It took us about five minutes to get the first ride, and we were going about an hour up north and it only took us fifteen minutes past an hour to get to our destination. Hitching was an AMAZING way to see the country and meet some new zealanders, so parents of mine... please don't panic. It is safe and Hanna and I made up a plan of attacking anyone with bug spray if sketchy things went down. I am glad I got the chance and had such a wonderful time doing it. We met up with the other kids at the hot water beach (which is a beach that at low tide you can dig holes in the sand and create little hot tubs for yourself because of the volcanoes that are beneath the beach.. or something like that) where we camped for the night. It was beautiful this weekend, so the first time in awhile I wasn't cold. It was a glorious thing.

I have a ton of school work to do this week, and then we leave for the south island!!

I will update asap, as for pictures... it might be awhile, it takes about 10 hours to load one picture, so you will all just have to wait until I have the energy and the time to do that.

miss you and love you all.

The Pinnacles and much much more

I am going to try and update this as much as I can before we start getting really busy and began to galvant across the land. This week is our 'lecture' time, so we are spending a lot of time on campus. Mind you our campus is a commune style like community so we spend our times gardening and our lectures take place in the same place we eat all of our meals.

I am spending around 10 hours a day with the same 22 people, and suprisingly I am only growing to love them more. This past weekend we took a 'tramp' up to the pinnacles hut in the coromandel peninsula. It was the first 'assignment' of the semester. We had to observe the patterns in the vegetation and take intensive field notes... working on those science skills that are pretty rusty. It was so beautiful; and we ended up hiking for about seven hours the first day. Most of the trail was made up of stairs, and we were all amazed about how someone took the time to create a stairway the literally went up a face of a steep mountain side. The steps were really tall, so those ladies with the small legs had a rough time climbing. When it got dark the stars were so bright and the southern cross was right above our heads. I have never seen stars that clear, and we all sat outside and snuggled (it was about 40 degrees).

We got up at 5:15 the next morning to do a 'sunrise' hike... turns out it wasn't sunny in the slightest, and I survived an epic wind and rain storm. Of course, forgetting that rain=soaked clothing, I left my rain gear behind and all the warm clothing I had for the hike down was completely soaked. But even though the weather was miserable, the climb was worth it. When else can I say that I climbed a pinnacle in New Zealand at 5:15 in the morning during a storm?? My friend Hanna and I snuggled at the top while the other crazy kids climbed around and almost got knocked over by the wind. The climb up involved ladders and scrambling up rocks like mountain goats, so the wet and slippery terrain down was a bit sketchy, but I made it down alive. I didn't get warm until we got back to home base, but it was all so amazing I just didn't care.

When we got back we were informed we got the night off, which meant alcohol... a few of us hadn't picked up any booze in town, so we walked an hour or so to the nearest pub to purchase some beverages. I felt slightly pathetic, but it was well worth it. We all just chilled in the whareki (the kitchen) and listened to tunes and bonded. I am getting to know these people better and we are all getting along beautifully, and already I feel at home. These people will be another family when the fifteen weeks are over. The rugby world cup started last week so we are planning to attend a rugby game and watch the world cup at the pub. I also think that I am going to splurge and go skydiving into Hobbiton with some people, and we are spending a long weekend in Auckland to celebrate Laura's birthday. HURRAH!!

I guess I could keep writing and give more and more details, but that would take forever and there is just too much about this place that I love. The teaching style is fantastic and completely unconventional, and we spend a large majority of the time building our community, we play soccer and volleyball and we cook and eat all of our meals together. Now I know why living in a commune would be so fabulous. ALSO, Rhia, the educational director has a dog, Scamper, so I really do feel at home here. Well, I am off to bed! Gotta get up at 6 to watch the sunrise and go on my morning run!! More later!!

Kia Ora!

I am here! And I already know that I am not going to leave. At least I will always have a place here in New Zealand. The people I am here with are beautiful. They all care deeply about the environment, and all got giddy when the ultra green hills rolled into view. I live in a blue beach house with two other girls. I open my door and am 30 minutes from the beach. I took a walk this morning to watch the sunrise (pictures soon), and everything about the moment was bliss. The air here smells even better than in bellingham. We have been going non stop since we got here, mostly orientation stuff, but we did take a drive to check out the local surroundings. We are about a 10 minute bike ride from a huge national park, and 10 minutes the other way from a cute little town that is home to the pub which I am sure we will frequent on the weekends. Today we got to learn some maori and I have decided that I love the language. We also learned two songs, one of which we are going to sing to the local Maori people when we visit them on monday. We are going into Thames tomorrow to do some shopping and take our swimming test, which is actually just a 'float' test to see if we can survive for a certain distance. And then this weekend we are going to take an overnight hike up into the mountains for our first 'tramping' experience. It is pretty cold around here, seeing as it is the end of winter. But it is absolutely beautiful and refreshing. It is going to be spring soon, and then we will begin to camp outside and spend almost every second of our days running around the country side. Ashton and I were talking about how weird it is to feel at home here, but still miss everything so much back at home. This place will become a part of my soul, and I think I will have a very very hard time leaving it.