n'awlins!

We have officially landed in New Orleans!


Welcome Home.

Onwards & Upwards

We'll be on a plane headed for home in less than 12 hours.

Good-bye, New Zealand. It was good while it lasted.





Stay tuned for our next big adventure: New Orleans.
(But first, meeting Westin! And playing with Brodie and Janet's dogs.) :)

Wellington

We're back in Wellington (yes, for like the third time).

Taupo was really gorgeous, but there was nothing to do (though I did go skydiving!). And thanks to reduced bus availability (we've officially left the high season) we had to stick around a bit longer than we would've liked. I was going to do the Tongariro Crossing but got rained/snowed out. I was pretty bummed about that as it's supposed to be one of the absolute best things to do in NZ, and is rated as one of the most beautiful one-day treks in the world. Too bad the weather didn't cooperate! We've found that when the weather inhibits outdoor activities, there's really nothing else to do. As a recent hostel roommate of ours said, you could probably do everything the country has to offer in just a month or two - if only you had good weather all the way.

Skydiving was absolutely AMAZING. Maybe the best thing I've ever done. I didn't really have any interest in it when we first got here, thinking it was just a kind of slightly ridiculous adrenaline-junkie activity. But then I spoke to a couple of people who had done it (most tourists who come here seem to make it a priority) and what they described to me was totally different from what I had pictured. Taupo's supposed to be a really great place to do it, so I just kind of signed up and tried not to think too hard about what I was committing myself to.

My tandem diver was a guy named Mike, who was probably a good 6 inches shorter than me. He called me an Amazon and wondered if there was a jumpsuit that would fit me. Luckily I was too busy being nervous to be self-conscious. :) We were the last people into the plane, a tiny little outfit with a garage-type door in the side. The other 14 people already crammed in there had taken up all the available bench space, so we squeezed into the floorspace between their feet and the door. To close the door next to us without severing any of our limbs we had to practically climb into their laps.

As the plane took off and ascended to 12000ft Mike took care of adjusting our harnesses and clipping us together in every way possible, as well as giving me instructions for when it came time to jump. The photographer who was to jump with us, Pascal, was crammed in next to us. He and Mike were very jokey together and completely casual, which helped to distract me from thoughts of exactly what I was about to do. I watched our height increasing steadily on Mike's altimeter, trying to keep calm and relaxed. Then Mike rolled open the door next to us, and we swung around so that I was hanging out over open space while he was sitting behind, getting ready to push off.

I can't really describe what it's like to be suspended outside a plane knowing that in a moment you will intentionally be jumping out, not scrambling to hold onto anything within reach. They took a quick picture of us, then Mike heaved off and suddenly we were falling into nothingness. I imagine a lot of people scream when they jump out, but I don't think I was breathing.

The first few seconds you really feel like you're falling. The air goes by you so fast it's almost impossible to draw breath. In those moments I thought to myself "If this is what it feels like the whole way down I don't think I'm going to like this..". But then Mike steadied us and as we stopped flipping around and turning over the falling feeling left my stomach and it was like we were suspended motionless, with only the wind actually moving. At some point I learned how to breathe again, and when Mike motioned to me I released my hands from where they had been clenched on my harness straps since before we left the plane.

From there on out it was fun. Amazing. I couldn't stop smiling the whole time. Partially because I was hysterically excited inside my head, and partially because the wind had caught my cheeks and held them pulled back in a wide grin. I tried to refresh my dry mouth at one point, but literally couldn't move against the force of the wind. Pascal floated around us, getting pictures from all angles. I was just looking around, trying to take it all in. It's amazing how huge the world is when you really move through it three-dimensionally. I could barely sense the ground drawing nearer, despite the fact that we were plummeting at around 200 kmph.

Mike was keeping track of us on his altimeter and at around 2000ft he pulled the chute. This seemed to jerk us upwards, and we watched Pascal shoot past us as he continued his descent. He had all but disappeared below when we finally saw his chute open. The parachute ride is very serene, and the winds have slowed enough that you can have conversation. We glided around for about 5 minutes before reaching the landing field, where we skidded in for a pretty gentle landing on our butts.


It was amazing. Thinking about it makes me breathless and heart fluttery. I'd do it again in a second.
Amazing.


Pictures on Flickr. Also some pictures of the huge cave we took a tour through at Waitomo. That was pretty awesome too, but the pictures mostly came out blurry or dark. Guess we'll have to tell you about it some other time. :)

The Home Stretch

I'm really glad we tried WWOOF-ing. Really glad. I think it gave us a lot of insight into life in NZ for the true residents, not just the tourist perspective. Also, a couple of days later we went and saw a NZ movie, "Boy". It was awesome. Again, kinda like peeking behind the curtain to see what life in NZ really consists of.

Here's a trailer:



Look for it on DVD, or NetFlicks or something. Hilarious and touching.


That being said, we're burning out! Not just financially (travel is an expensive habit), but physically, mentally, emotionally. We've been on the road for exactly three months now. It's been amazing, for sure, but we're both very much looking forward to getting back to good food, privacy, and some sort of home-base. I think I've gotten my fill of hostels for a bit, and I know Kelly's felt that way since about our second week here. :)

So we've got plane tickets home! Our last bit of travel is all mapped out and we'll be heading home on April 13th. I know, it's kind of crazy that after all of this time and aimless rambling, we'll be back in the States so soon.. But we're both super excited for some things we have waiting for us there (including you all) and looking forward to moving on to a new adventure. For those of you who might not know, we'll be stopping in Charleston for a brief introduction to Westin, the newest member of Kelly's family, and then we're heading down to New Orleans to set up camp for a couple of years.

We're in Taupo at the moment, a small town on the edge of a lake larger than the country of Singapore. In a couple of days we'll head down to Wellington for a bit, then hop on a train back up to Auckland for another few days before we fly out.


Now we've just got to figure out how to make the most of our remaining time here. This was one good way I spent a bit of it:



















:)

Olives, Pirate Dinosaurs, and Kitties

Turns out olive harvesting is painful. At least, if you're the one up the tree it is. Maybe I should post pictures of my myriad scratches and scrapes. :)

However, we had a great week in the far North of NZ with Charlotte, Mark, and Joe! They're a charming family of mixed British and Kiwi descent who just moved onto this farm about a year ago. Mark is a general practitioner in the nearby town, Charlotte is a farmer-mom and baker extraordinaire, and Joe is an energetic, bright 4-year old. They had no previous experience with olive farming, sheep, veggie growing, or anything of the sort, but over the last year they've been learning as they go and fixing up this farm into a really great place. There are some 600 olive trees scattered all over the property, often in the most inaccessible spots. We didn't harvest all of them, as some were chock full of olives and others only had sparse smatterings. It took some ingenuity to figure out how to get at them. The method we mostly relied on was spreading large nets on the ground under several trees at a time, propping up the parts where the olives might roll down the hill and get lost in the pasture. Then we used hands and small rakes to strip olives from the twigs.


Of course, the best and blackest olives always seemed to be on the very top of the trees, which necessitated some serious monkey-climbing into the precarious upper-branches. None of these trees were really large, and in many of them the breeze coming in off the harbor would send branches (and the harvester perched among them) swaying to and fro. Mark compared it to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". I've always been an avid tree climber, and it was a lot of fun to squirm up through the branches and pull down handfuls of olives, with just my legs braced against anything steady. The only drawback was the abundance of tiny twigs smacking you in the face, scratching at arms and legs, and snagging clothing. But still fun.

This summer there's been a pretty terrible drought up in that region, with absolutely no rainfall for about 4 1/2 months straight. After last year's bumper crop, the trees this year could hardly compete. However, by the end of our 3 straight days of picking we had filled up every available container, from olive baskets to Joe's toy containers, to shopping bags and coolers. Charlotte and Mark told us they expect the olives to yield a great amount of oil for their weight, as they're not filled up with any excess water. It should be particularly good oil as well. Mark drove our load to the nearest olive press on Sunday night, so hopefully in the next couple of days well know the final weight of our harvest, and what kind of rating their oil receives.

When we weren't harvesting we helped Charlotte mulch her veggie garden, harvest apples from their couple of trees, feed the sheep, read to and entertain Joe, etc. He's a really funny kid, always eager to be in the thick of the action. He would don his Batman and Spiderman costumes and bring us cold beers or lunches while we were harvesting. And do break dancing and The Robot performances for us. They had an amazing cat named Lola, who followed us as we went around the property, pounced and jumped after the rugby ball when we played with Joe, and alternately attacked us and snuggled with us. I think Kelly fell in love with her.

We spent one morning wandering the beach where their property meets the Hokianga Harbor. There are great big boulders scattered around the shore, with oysters crusted all over them and little black crabs with blue claws scuttling away into the crevices when we approached. On Monday Charlotte lent us her car so we could take a drive to scenic Waimamaku Beach and the South Head at the entrance to the Harbor.


Overall a fun, busy, exhausting week up North. This kind of personal experience has really been more meaningful to us than a lot of the sights we've seen around the country. Now we're back in Auckland figuring out our next move. I think we'll be heading back to the States sometime soon.

Aaaaand We're Back!

Sorry for the lapse in updates! We've been doing some figuring. The conclusion we've come to is that New Zealand is an awesome place to visit, but may not have much to offer in the long-term.

:\

I know, kind of a let-down.
In coming out here I think one of our real concerns was falling in love with the country and never wanting to leave. But while we've seen and done some really wonderful things, there doesn't seem to be much going on outside of tourist-type activities. The country is kind of lacking in any unique culture or character. I guess there's the Maori heritage, which is quite fascinating, but it seems to be pretty much confined to museums. Otherwise it's just like a watered down version of the UK; it's got the scenery but it's missing the charm and the quirkiness.

So, we're going to roll with the punches and get all we can out of this, but not make any long-term plans here. We're practicing resiliency. It's a hard outlook to maintain at all times, but it's either that or buy plane tickets home tomorrow and come back crying that it wasn't what we thought it would be.
Not only is that not really our style, but it wouldn't really be fair. We've had a great couple of months traveling down here. :)

We finished our circuit of the South Island with Kaikoura, on the east coast. There's some feature of the ocean floor right off the coast there that brings cold arctic waters rich with nutrients right up to the surface, creating a feeding frenzy for everything from krill and plankton on up to the sperm whales, orcas, blue whales, seals, dolphins, etc that feed on them. We were pretty psyched to go whale watching, but two days of consistent rain and high winds canceled all the trips. We'll have to get back there some day..

After that it was back across the Cook Strait to Wellington, and then on up north with only brief overnight stops in Napier and Mt. Manganui. We had to get up here by the 25th, because we made arrangements to work on a farm! Tomorrow we're heading to 4 Winds Olive Grove, which is owned by a young British couple. We'll stay with them for about a week, working on the harvest in exchange for room and board. Should be an interesting experience as neither of us really knows anything about growing or pressing olives. After that we'll either look into working for a bit on another farm (we're both interested in dairy farming and also beef/mutton farming) or we'll continue on our tour of the North Island.


Right now we're in Paihia, on the Bay of Islands. After the last couple of looong days on the bus we were looking forward to relaxing on a beautiful beach before getting into some hard work. This area is celebrated for it's coastline, and is a major holiday destination for Kiwis and tourists alike. Paihia itself is also a major center for scuba diving, as the many bays and islands offer beautiful and varied reefs. Unfortunately, shortly after we got down to the beach the clouds started rolling in. We walked around town for a bit, and then headed back to the hostel just in time for a serious downpour. This country gets a lot of rain.

After the dramatic and varied landscapes of the South Island, driving back through the North Island seems kind of tame. It's quite beautiful in a serene and pastoral kind of way, but can't really compete with, say, Fiordlands National Park. Or Lake Wanaka. Or the glaciers. Or a billion other things down south! Note to anyone about to undertake a similar tour of NZ: do the North Island first. Otherwise it'll just be anticlimactic.


Cross your fingers that olive harvesting is fun. Or at least not painful.

More Video

Becky early on in her advanced studies of the Kiwi accent. Auckland, January 2010.



My apologies for not being able to edit the video orientation!