Well, I think the best course of action since so much has happened since I last posted is to make separate posts for the different parts of our adventures. Therefore, this entry will only be for the weekend we spend in Karori, the suburb of Wellington, purportedly the biggest suburb in the world (I have my doubts, as does Deeps, the Indian American CSer we stayed with at Niv's... apparently NZ claims a lot of doubtful superlatives).
Friday night we were picked up at Niv's by Robbie, Emma's 'partner' (this seems to be a term that everyone uses... not sure if it has any sort of connotations). We first went to his friend's engagement party (she is lesbian... I think there is no distinction here [yay!] but I don't know how recent this is at all), where we talked to an interesting girl from Christchurch who offered us a place to stay once we get down there, or discounts on sporting goods and apparell at the shop she's working at in Wellington. We then went with Robbie to South Karori to a hippie commune, where we met Emma (the girl we'd been communicating with via CouchSurfing.org), but were quickly offered communal food (after a hand-held ohm and thanks-giving song). We then sat around for a while until I was introduced to the other mandolin player, Dune Kitten (I swear this was here name! Or atleast how people refered to her). As luck would have it, she only knew melodies and I only knew chords, but since I spent 8 years doing Irish dance, and more than that around Irish musicians, I knew a lot of the tunes she knew and could, for most of them, pretty quickly pick out which chords would work well. For so long I have wanted to be able to play at an Irish jam and now for the first time, in NZ of all places, I have been able to competently play! We stayed up until 3 in the morning playing tunes, when most everyone else had gone to bed, then Woody and I set our sleeping bags up on the floor underneath the table, one of the only floor spots left.
In the morning we were awakened at 7 or 8 am by kids running around (everyone else seemed able to sleep through it, but we got up), and after getting dressed, headed outside to the fire pit. We were offered beers and swigs of champagne (the earliest I've ever started drinking!), then after listening to two guys poke fun at each other for a while, I started jamming on jembe with a guy who was playing blues guitar... one of the more interesting jam sounds I've experienced! But he seemed pleased.
During the day there wasn't much to do. People kept making calls for food to be made, cleaning to be done, etc., but no one really seemed to pay any mind, so when we did a few dishes or cut up cucumbers, we were lauded for our help. There was also a call to make a giant dreamcatcher out of flax (a native weed), and Woody and I, along with the other American traveller, Laura, volunteered and then surprised them all by actually following through and making a big 3 foot diameter dreamcatcher with a lashed bambooo base and rope made out of tied split flax. It was actually very relaxing to sit out in the partial sun for a few hours (I was the one who actually wove the dreamcatcher once they'd helped me split the flax) weaving with no one around and no stress, surrounded by towering beautiful mountains with blooming yellow gorse, and yet also sort of relaxing to have this task to do instead of just sitting around.
That night there was a big party/festival for the Spring Equinox (yes, it's Spring here!). During the day they'd made a 'hangi', a big earth-covered long-cooking fire pit, with veggies all dumpster dived from the town (almost all the food we all ate that weekend was dumpster dived... it's horrific how much good food is thrown away!), but they got impatient and dug it up before it was ready. There were also two lambs that had been slow roasted in a makeshift smoke house made of aluminum siding and a turning cog aparatus that kept them moving for the hours before the hangi was dug up. Having been vegetarian for the past 6 or so years (except when abroad), it was a bit odd to eat meat, but I figured I ought to try the lamb, there being more sheep than people in NZ. However, because I'm not used to eating meat, I think I got a particularly fatty bit and it was really rather gross.
After the food was served, the fire spinners of the group (who I got to count myself among!) were enlisted to light their fire toys from the food fire to spin in the drive way and then light the giant bonfire made up specially for the Spring Equinox celebration. How cool! I actually was holding back at first with Dune Kitten, worried about too many people spinning in too small a space, so I didn't get to light the bonfire, but I did light off of the bonfire to go spin with a few of the stragglers with the little bit of kerosene that was left. How cool to be a part of it!
Unfortunately, since we'd stayed up late the night before, and gotten awakened so early, Woody and I were both pretty tired (and quite a bit more sober than most of the people there), so we opted to claim the couches early and call it a night. I hope we didn't offend our hosts!
The next day we hung out in the morning, but since we had a 2 o'clock bus to catch from Wellington to Palmerston North (for our first WWOOFing adventure), and after a small misunderstanding with our CS hosts being too out of it in a fire tub to drive, we caught a ride with someone else, along with one other person who ended up being the housemate of the girl whose engagement party we'd been to--small world! Apparently Wellington is often like that.
So that was our hippie Spring Equinox in South Karori... relaxing, funny, awkward, exciting, possibly a good time, but definitely a good story! Stay tuned for the next adventure: WWOOFing at Highden Manor, the Fawlty Towers of the Manawatu!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Happy Spring from Wellington!
So it may have just started Fall there, but that means it's newly Spring here!
We have safely arrived in EnZed! Our cross-country as well as our cross-Pacific flight got in early, but since we still had connecting flights it didn't elate us as much as it could have. But we sat in the SFO airport, got out our instruments and did some jamming at an empty gate, which was fun, and on both flights we slept through most of them. I'd been dreading the prospect of a 13 hour flight, but with two movies and a lot of sleep it was really a good deal! I haven't even felt the effect of jet lag!
When we got into Auckland we had to collect our bags and pass through customs. As fortune would have it, our checked backpacks came around the carousel just as we walked up. Someone standing nearby remarked what good luck we had and asked if it was a mandolin in the case I'd walked up with. Apparently her son plays mandolin. When I said that it was, and that I'd just started playing it, she invited us up to her place in Whangarei (pronouced Fahngahday) in Northland... I'd heard of people getting invited to the houses of people they'd met on the plane, but to be invited by a random stranger at the baggage claim? This bodes well. I also liked that after inviting us and giving us her address and number she remarked, "Well, I'll see you soon... oh right, what are your names?"
We then took a little plane (though not as small as I'd imagined... I've taken smaller out of Charlottesville) to Wellington. I'd hoped we would get to see all of the North Island as we flew over but it was a cloudy day so I went back to sleep. When we got in, we must have had good luck because it was a very easy touch down (I'd been warned it could be terrible!) and the sun started to come out. We caught the bus to downtown ($8 NZD with included wifi on the bus--crazy!) and walked around Cuba Street for a few hours.
Cuba Street is a pedestrian mall that has similarities to Burlington's Church Street Mall or Charlottesville's Downtown Mall, but with a NZ flavor. There are a lot of coffee shops, restaurants, bars, clothing shops, etc., and there are cross streets every block or so. The green 'walk' man has a funny buzzer sound that still gets me, three days later. I'll try to record it and post it along with the other videos I've been taking. We walked down to the harbor and sat and learned a few songs together--trying to work up our repertoire!
We then took the bus up to the Botanical Gardens and found Garden Rd. where our couchsurfing host lives. Niv is originally from Milan but is doing his PhD here. His flatmates are Deeps, an Indian American from NY, and Ursula, Carrizo and their 6-yr-old son Sebastian, from Chile. They are all wonderfully friendly, welcoming, fun and musical, and we're staying with them our whole short first Wellington visit! We have very much lucked out!
We spent Tuesday afternoon walking all around the vast Botanical Garden across the street, then went with Niv, Deeps and their friend Fido to Cuba Street so we could get some dinner. Per my friend Brianna's recommendation, we chose Cuba Kebab and had a filling cheap dinner. We then went back to The Big Kumara to meet back up with the guys, who were in the midst of a poker tournament. After trying to figure out the rules of Rugby watching the TV over a beer, our fatigue finally started to set in, so we headed back to the house.
Houses in Wellington generally have no heat, and although theirs usually does, it was broken, so Niv had warned us it might be chilly. Indeed, in the morning when we woke up we could see our breath--but I was warm in my sleeping bag all night! For the record, LaFuma sleeping bags are really cheap and effective! We had breakfast of eggs, toast, tomato (and bacon for the meat eaters) with Niv, then walked downtown. It was a beautiful day so we walked the length of the harbor before heading to HigherTaste, a veggie Indian restaurant where there is a weekly luncheon meeting of the Wellington Couchsurfers every Wednesday. We talked with a bunch of CSers and met Fiona, the woman with whom we'd been supposed to stay before miscommunication upset our plans. She said she would be going to Red Rocks (where there are a lot of seals) the next day if the weather was good and invited us along.
After lunch we went to Te Papa, the national museum. It is huge!! We spent three hours wandering around just the first floor, seeing cool exhibits on the flora and fauna of NZ, earthquakes and other natural disasters in the region, an interactive floor map of NZ, and many others... and that was just one of 6 floors! We went back this afternoon to see the rest of it, and in three hours we were able to at least briefly peruse everything, but not with as much detail as before. But Te Papa definitely gets an A+!
This morning it was raining when we woke up, and although it was only slightly spitting by the time we called Fiona, we decided it might not be the best day for Red Rocks, so we headed to Mt. Victoria right in Wellington instead. We had a nice hike up through the tree cover (where, apparently, many of the woods scenes of Lord of the Rings were filmed), and at the top could see all the way around the city--beautiful! I took a 360 video I'll post later. Fiona pointed out where in the city the two fault lines run. There are apparently a lot of earthquakes every year because New Zealand is split between three tectonic plates. Don't worry, they don't expect another big earthquake for a few hundred years.
I think that's all I'll post for now. Tomorrow night we go to Karori with another CS girl, then on Sunday head to Palmerston North for our first WWOOFing assignment at a newly renovated manor they're trying to get ready over the next two weeks--looks beautiful and it will be nice to have some structure. Hope you're all doing wonderfully and enjoying the Fall!
We have safely arrived in EnZed! Our cross-country as well as our cross-Pacific flight got in early, but since we still had connecting flights it didn't elate us as much as it could have. But we sat in the SFO airport, got out our instruments and did some jamming at an empty gate, which was fun, and on both flights we slept through most of them. I'd been dreading the prospect of a 13 hour flight, but with two movies and a lot of sleep it was really a good deal! I haven't even felt the effect of jet lag!
When we got into Auckland we had to collect our bags and pass through customs. As fortune would have it, our checked backpacks came around the carousel just as we walked up. Someone standing nearby remarked what good luck we had and asked if it was a mandolin in the case I'd walked up with. Apparently her son plays mandolin. When I said that it was, and that I'd just started playing it, she invited us up to her place in Whangarei (pronouced Fahngahday) in Northland... I'd heard of people getting invited to the houses of people they'd met on the plane, but to be invited by a random stranger at the baggage claim? This bodes well. I also liked that after inviting us and giving us her address and number she remarked, "Well, I'll see you soon... oh right, what are your names?"
We then took a little plane (though not as small as I'd imagined... I've taken smaller out of Charlottesville) to Wellington. I'd hoped we would get to see all of the North Island as we flew over but it was a cloudy day so I went back to sleep. When we got in, we must have had good luck because it was a very easy touch down (I'd been warned it could be terrible!) and the sun started to come out. We caught the bus to downtown ($8 NZD with included wifi on the bus--crazy!) and walked around Cuba Street for a few hours.
Cuba Street is a pedestrian mall that has similarities to Burlington's Church Street Mall or Charlottesville's Downtown Mall, but with a NZ flavor. There are a lot of coffee shops, restaurants, bars, clothing shops, etc., and there are cross streets every block or so. The green 'walk' man has a funny buzzer sound that still gets me, three days later. I'll try to record it and post it along with the other videos I've been taking. We walked down to the harbor and sat and learned a few songs together--trying to work up our repertoire!
We then took the bus up to the Botanical Gardens and found Garden Rd. where our couchsurfing host lives. Niv is originally from Milan but is doing his PhD here. His flatmates are Deeps, an Indian American from NY, and Ursula, Carrizo and their 6-yr-old son Sebastian, from Chile. They are all wonderfully friendly, welcoming, fun and musical, and we're staying with them our whole short first Wellington visit! We have very much lucked out!
We spent Tuesday afternoon walking all around the vast Botanical Garden across the street, then went with Niv, Deeps and their friend Fido to Cuba Street so we could get some dinner. Per my friend Brianna's recommendation, we chose Cuba Kebab and had a filling cheap dinner. We then went back to The Big Kumara to meet back up with the guys, who were in the midst of a poker tournament. After trying to figure out the rules of Rugby watching the TV over a beer, our fatigue finally started to set in, so we headed back to the house.
Houses in Wellington generally have no heat, and although theirs usually does, it was broken, so Niv had warned us it might be chilly. Indeed, in the morning when we woke up we could see our breath--but I was warm in my sleeping bag all night! For the record, LaFuma sleeping bags are really cheap and effective! We had breakfast of eggs, toast, tomato (and bacon for the meat eaters) with Niv, then walked downtown. It was a beautiful day so we walked the length of the harbor before heading to HigherTaste, a veggie Indian restaurant where there is a weekly luncheon meeting of the Wellington Couchsurfers every Wednesday. We talked with a bunch of CSers and met Fiona, the woman with whom we'd been supposed to stay before miscommunication upset our plans. She said she would be going to Red Rocks (where there are a lot of seals) the next day if the weather was good and invited us along.
After lunch we went to Te Papa, the national museum. It is huge!! We spent three hours wandering around just the first floor, seeing cool exhibits on the flora and fauna of NZ, earthquakes and other natural disasters in the region, an interactive floor map of NZ, and many others... and that was just one of 6 floors! We went back this afternoon to see the rest of it, and in three hours we were able to at least briefly peruse everything, but not with as much detail as before. But Te Papa definitely gets an A+!
This morning it was raining when we woke up, and although it was only slightly spitting by the time we called Fiona, we decided it might not be the best day for Red Rocks, so we headed to Mt. Victoria right in Wellington instead. We had a nice hike up through the tree cover (where, apparently, many of the woods scenes of Lord of the Rings were filmed), and at the top could see all the way around the city--beautiful! I took a 360 video I'll post later. Fiona pointed out where in the city the two fault lines run. There are apparently a lot of earthquakes every year because New Zealand is split between three tectonic plates. Don't worry, they don't expect another big earthquake for a few hundred years.
I think that's all I'll post for now. Tomorrow night we go to Karori with another CS girl, then on Sunday head to Palmerston North for our first WWOOFing assignment at a newly renovated manor they're trying to get ready over the next two weeks--looks beautiful and it will be nice to have some structure. Hope you're all doing wonderfully and enjoying the Fall!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
OFF TO KIWILAND!
Alright, this is it, folks! I've had a wonderful stay in NY and now Woody and I take the subway to JFK, go through security, and as of 2:35 PM, we will have commenced our first flight. 6 hours to San Francisco + 3 hour layover + 13 hours to Auckland + hour layover + 1.5 hours to Wellington= a long day of travel that, because of passing over the date line, means we never get to be a part of Monday the 21st. Celebrate the Autumnal Equinox for me!
Our first couchsurfing host fell through because of my poor keeping-in-contact skills, but I think we've lined up another last minute. If that too falls through, we're probably headed to Nomad's backpacker (hostel) on Cuba Street (thanks Bonna, for the suggestion!). I still can't really believe we're going so far away for so long so soon, but apparently we are--hopefully a day of travel will help me realize it's a reality!
I'll let you know more once we're on the other side of the world!
Our first couchsurfing host fell through because of my poor keeping-in-contact skills, but I think we've lined up another last minute. If that too falls through, we're probably headed to Nomad's backpacker (hostel) on Cuba Street (thanks Bonna, for the suggestion!). I still can't really believe we're going so far away for so long so soon, but apparently we are--hopefully a day of travel will help me realize it's a reality!
I'll let you know more once we're on the other side of the world!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
And so it begins...
"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go..."
Ok, so maybe not quite, but that's tomorrow's job. I'm counting Thursday morning as the official start marker of the trip, when I leave my red ladybug Tercel in Hardwick, VT and start travelling by other means, adventuring with Woody, and living out of a big backpack, a messenger bag and a mandolin case. Adventures shall ensure.
Ok, so maybe not quite, but that's tomorrow's job. I'm counting Thursday morning as the official start marker of the trip, when I leave my red ladybug Tercel in Hardwick, VT and start travelling by other means, adventuring with Woody, and living out of a big backpack, a messenger bag and a mandolin case. Adventures shall ensure.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
