"Let's heat up some water for Tim-Tams"

Wow. Australia!
Flying into Brisbane was so nice, being able to see the beach and the city, with the blue water below. Getting through customs was such a hassle, as both New Zealand customs and Australian customs are tedious and difficult to navigate and clear. Adam and I found ourselves checked in for our plane, but not through security, both carrying our groceries, which incuded two bottles of our favorite beer, so we had to drink up. That's the first time I've ever had a beer at the airport!
We went straight off the plane, and got on a bus to Noosa, which we read about in Lonely Planet and is north of Brisbane by about two hours. Nooa is a small town, with lots of shops and businesses that close early and backpackers that are constantly full, so finding a place to sleep was difficult and we ended up sleeping on the beach. I couldn't think of any other way I would have wanted to start my trip to australia, except that by 2 am it was raining on us, I lost a contact, and a bush turkey was trying to steal out food. Fabulous! We survived though, finding shelter and waking up with the sun, spending the day on the beach until we found ourselves a caravan park close to town that had sites where we could put up the tent and sleep cheap. My favorite! We spent about four nights in Noosa all together, and in the middle we went on a three day two night canoeing trip up into the everglades, through Lake Cootharaba. I didn't think I'd like the canoeing trip very much, as I prefer to kayak, but we had a great time. The water in the river was a dark amber color, because of the pH balance, and the reflections in the water were sometimes better than what we could see in the sky. It was so quiet there, with the sounds of the bird calls (which are so incredible, by the way. I'll try and post a video) the paddles, and the clouds. The trees are called Paperbark, in the same family as the Birch tree, with the bark literally shredding off as a deterant (we think) from termites (a huge pest here). The first night we discovered our new fuel in our stove didn't work, so we had cereal for dinner, then breakfast in the morning, all of our granola bars for lunch, and were desperate by dinner time. We did a hike in the middle of the day up to a sandpatch which went for miles. I didn't think I'd be very impressed only because of my times spent at the dunes near Michigan, but it was wonderful despite the rain. We couldn't even see all of it's vastness, but the fact that every day the footprints left by the visitors there are completely wiped away by morning is so unreal. I think it would be such an experience to be the first person to walk on that sand in the morning! We headed back to camp though, after our lunch of granola bars, playing the game "If you could eat anything now, what would it be?" and trying to decide between matzo ball soup (what a bunch of jews!) with noodles and vegetables, nachos or a gigantic boat full of sushi. It all still sounds so good!
At camp by 3.30, we decided we might as well try and create a fire, but with the fire ban (a reasonable one, as the forest there is so dry and there isn't a big enough source of water to collect safely (there are sharks in the river) to be able to put out an unruly fire), so, we tryed cutting off the tops of our soda cans, poking a few air holes, and filling the bottom with fuel (it would lite when it was a liquid, but one it turned to gas, it stopped staying lit in our stove) and then using the lighter to create the flame. A few sticks kept the flame high enough, and after a few attempts, we were able to boil water! This realization was so exciting that we quickly threw together some soup, then making more cans so we had a three can tripod on which we tried to fry up some vegetables, alhtough we later realized they had gone bad and couldn't even stand the smell of them cooking. Oy, what an adventure! We met a few Argentinians and Venezualans later on, who offered their stove to us so we were able to have pancakes for Adam's birthday breakfast. Yeah!
We paddled back to town (well, I did mostly; Adam's family called to wish him Happy Birthday, so I kpet paddling!) and even though we had hoped for a tail wind to blow us back to town (remember this? does it sound like Deja Vu from our trip in Piton?) but instead had a head wind, although this wind was nothing compared to our kayaking trip, the waves on the lake were still quite big.
We made tacos for birthday dinner, had a few drinks and hung out on the beach. Adam is teaching me to spin Poi, which originates from New Zealand Maori warriors, but has caught on overseas and Adam learned when we lived in Israel. Hopefully before we leave I will be able to spin fire (don't worry, I'll get pictures) as confidently as Adam does now, but we'll see. We've spent a few days on the beaches here, bumming around, soaking up the sun and getting tossed by the ocean waves. The UV rays here are extremely dangerous, considering there isn't any ozone layer overhead and the burn time for our skin can sometimes be 6 minutes!

We've traveled slightly south now, on the Gold Coast in a place called Kirra Beach. We stayed in the popular Surfer's Paradise for a night, but it was very expensive and filled with "schoolies", who are recently graduated high school students spending 3 weeks and their parents money binge drinking and not wearing enough clothing. I would love to say that it's entertaining, but the level of whining and skin I've been seeing has increased ten fold and my retina's have started to cry. Litereally. I'm mostly kidding, my retina's aren't crying.

Well, once again my time is being cut short by an internet timer where I've already spent $5 just trying to write this and not become too distracted. Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!

Photos

I've updated photos!

Here:
www.picasaweb.google.com/marabe54

Also, Adam has updated his photo's as well, which are mainly of me, and mine of him.
The link is here:

http://ucalgary.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2060300&id=120600255

enjoy!

Happy Birthday Steamroller!

Hokitika was great, small, not too cold, and just what I was looking for. We went in search of a 'carve your own jade' workshop. We found one, and decided to stay or two days, so we headed off to Greymouth for a brewery tour of our favorite beer (Montieth's). We got a cool tour, learned all about the beer, and then got to sample every flavor at the end too! WOW! Afterwards we checked out the Hokitika Gorge, with it's perfectly blue water (my pictures don't do it justice at all) and not so perfect sand flys.

After leaving Hokitika, we drove south towards Queenstown, at the southern end of the South Island. We stopped off at the Fox Glacier and Franz Joseph Glaciers, doing a nice little walk in the area and got to touch the glacier! We then hiked out to Lake Matheson, bringing lots of food with us to make Vietnamese Rice rolls and cooked lunch sitting next to the lake and looking at Mt Cook and Mt. Tasman. So beautiful, peaceful, and a great picnic spot. We spent the night near the glacier in a deserted picnic spot, waking up to a van load of asian tourists and an ice cream truck being used for it's generator. The ice cream trucks owner came eover to talk to us, seeing that we slept in the car and wanted to know how we configure ourselves, as he sells the miniwagons privately and thought it was funny that we could fit our lives inside. We think it's pretty funny too!

Queenstown is a town mainly comprised of tourists, adrenaline activities, high prices and lots of souvenier shops. Sweet! (Can you sense the sarcasm?!)
Anyways, we got into town and decided to find a hostel so we could spend my birthday night in the tent rather than the car makeshift bed we have concocted. My birthday was great, including us going to something called the canyon swing, out to dinner at a real restaurant, donating beads to tzedakah organization and drinking our favorite NZ beer.
The canyon swing is similar to a bungy jump, except instead of being on a latex rubber band that bounces, it's like a gigantic schoolyard swing suspended 109 meters above a cayon river, next to rock cliffs, and in the open wind. First you jump, are thrown, scoot a chair off or flip from the platform, freefall for 50 meters and then are swung another 200 meters in an arc from a full body harness. Because it was my birthday, they blindfolded me, hooked me to the swing, suspended me upside down (so, head first into the canyon, with my feet wrapped around the rope attaching my harness to the swing, hands above my head towards the ground) and then, at the same times, the following happened:
I realized I might cry out of shear fear
The blindfold was taken off
The release cord was pulled
I began my fall
I scream, louder than I beleive any child who drops their ice cream, smacks their head against the ground, or falls face first into something. I scream so loud, for so long, it makes me 'screamer of the day' according to the guys who put the blindfold on
oh, and I remember that it's my birthday, I have a moustache drawn on my face, and the marker is permanent. Sweet!

To say the very least, the canyon swing was one of the most exhilaratingly horrifying things I beleive I have ever engaged in. The swing was so beautiful, with the river below me a crystal robin's egg blue color, and the rock cliff faces were also so interestingly carved by the water from years ago. Then again, because it was my birthday, I got a free jump, so I attempted a back flip (to no avail, but oh well) and it was still as scary and as fun as the first time. What an adrenaline rush!

Dinner was great, although being at a proper restaurant was a little weird. We ate, we drank, and we tried to score some cake for free (no dice) and walked back to our cold, Monteith's Radler (ou new favorite brew) chilling in the fridge. Since we haven't had a fridge in the car (obviously..?) we realize how much we've taken our previous usual access to a fridge and how wonderful an apparatus it really is. Oh traveling, how you make me understand the small tihngs in life that I forget when I am in the "real world".

We've left Queenstown (yes!) after eating lunch the next day and headed towards Timaru, on the east coast. It was really the next big town we could find before Christchurch, which is where we are staying until we fly to Australia on the 20th.
Timaru is a... gross town. It smells like rotting beer and a sponge that's far overdue all the time, nothing is open (although i did by a cool scarf), so after spending the night there (which was another nice spot, near the beach, with a barbeque pit outside!) we headed out the next day, driving up to christchurch.

I've updated the photos, so check out all the stuff we've been up to for the last month or so!

Hope all is well with everyone at home. Is there snow yet?

This post is going to be ultra quick considering I had 16 minutes left at the internet cafe and too much to write! (as usual)

So Adam and I have rented a car, whom we call "donkey" and have driven from Nelson, down the west coast (the more rugged, and beautiful part of the south island) to Punakaiki, then over to our wwoof-ing house. We stayed at Gunyah Country Estate for 5 days, doing mainly groundskeeping work and staying outside all day. After work was finished for the day, we drove up to Castle Hill to go bouldering, which is a low form of rock climbing without ropes. We bought rock climbing shoes for me in Christchurch the day before the new wwoof family house, and then headed there after work everyday, sometimes taking Valerie, who is an Autrain wwoofer staying at Gunyah for a number of months. Good luck to her! Our stay at Gunyah was fine, although the work was quite monotonous and the family a bit strange. Their dog was really cute, however, and we were able to stay and eat for free, saving us some money that we can put forth towards Australia. Wahoo!

We left our hosts two days ago, spending the portion of our day climbing again in Castle Hill, then heading through Arthurs Pass National Park, then over to Hokitika, where we are now. Donkey has been treating us very well, and soon I will put up pictures. We didn't think we'd be so comfortable sleeping inside Donkey, but there really isn't any bed that is more comfortable, compact, multipurpose, and as interchangeable. It's so fun having everything you own and need right around us, nothing compares to having it all on your back.

We are well, happy, eating fine and, as always, smiling. We are gearing up for our back to back birthdays (mine November 15th, Adam's November 25th) and trying to prepare for our departure from NZ!


More pictures, descriptions of our travels, and stories to come soon!

Hi! Let's be friends! Smell my armpit!

Let's see where we left off. We spent the night near Blenheim, then the next morning hitched a ride from there to Nelson. Nelson is a cool city, with lots of arts and music happening in the city and many people out at night. We spent the night here, then headed out for the Abel Tasman Coastal Track the next day. The track is 51km long, but much easier than the Waikaremoana track in terms of ground cover and grading. It's also quite a bit busier, however walking along the track was nice as it is right along the ocean for the most part. The views were beautiful, we had wonderful weather, and we took it much easier this time as far as how much walking we did, having much shorter days. It was quite relaxing, although the track was slightly boring due to lack of roots and rocks like the last track. There were also water crossings, which we had to time with the tides, so watching the tide tables, then figuring out when we could cross, although we still got wet. Sometimes the water came up to my waist! It was really neat walking with my pack on in the water, which was cold and something I hadn't done before! We had two tidal crossings in our first day, after taking a water taxi in the morning (which was great! We saw seals, birds, and also the side of the coast that we weren't able to see from the track. It was so amazing to see all the rock formations and it was nice to be able to imagine those formations on the other side of the coast track as I was walking)then having a nice break in the day sitting on the beach waiting for the tide to go out, I dried my underwear on a tree, and Adam watched the crabs in the water for a long time. We stayed the night in a place called Tonga Quarry, which was an old granite quarry from 1907 turned into a campsite, right on the beach. We had dinner and breakfast on the beach, watching the sun dance along the waves and the little island out in the distance. So peaceful!
Our second day was also relaxing, with us only walking for about 4 hours instead of the estimated time of about 5. We had another tidal crossing, which meant more beach sitting waiting for the tide (I am by no means complaining, we busted out the solar panel!) There we met a girl from Korea by the name of Hyejin (say Hay-jchin) who was also doing the crossing, but by herself, so we offered to cross with her and hike with her to her campsite. She ended up telling me that she didn't know how to set up the tent she borrowed, so we invited her along to have dinner and stay with us for the night. After being helped by those two outdoor educators on our kayaking trip, I feel very sympathetic to backpackers (especially solo) who are just looking for some company. Just like our other hiking friend Thomas, we met her, and less than a few hours later we were cuddled up right next to each other in the tent!
We got off the track yesterday, feeling good, although awfully stinky. We're back in Nelson though, staying at another backpackers and looking to go back to Picton today to rent a car. How exciting! Should be fun to have a bit of freedom and be able to go where we'd like.
Happy Halloween to everyone at home! I was hoping to be able to be Inspector Gadget, but I ended up finding purple ballons and made myself into a bunch of grapes. Adam was a gigantic hershey's kiss, and he won first place in the costume contest!

Speak into my good ear?

Yikes. Who can beleive that it has been nearing three weeks since my last update? Not me. I'd say that I'm going to try and keep things short, and I will, but let's be real here. No one wants it to be short!
After bungy jumping in Taupo, everything else just seemed like I was too close to things and really needed to find rubber bands. Just kidding. Taupo was a cool city, but really just another big city. We got to know some cool guys from our backpacker (hostel), who may be joining up with us a little later on in our travels. We left Taupo headed for the Lake Waikaremoana track, which is a 46km hike around the lake on the eastern side of the North Island, and we were told is excruciatingly beautiful. So why not?!
We hitched a ride out of Taupo, catching a 27 year old Austrian guy named Thomas who had a car, but no plans, and lots of time... so we invited him along! He drove us all the way there, on winding gravel roads (is your stomach turning upside-down, by chance, because I was GREEN!) we stayed at a motor camp, and the next morning hopped on the trail. Our first day was planned to be our longest, as we started from a point 9 hours from our campsite, and also our hardest. Little did we know! To make a long story short, it was a difficult day, with both adam and I carrying more weight than Thomas (it was his first time on an overnight hiking trip, how could I let him carry a lot of weight!?), even though his legs were a solid 20cm longer than mine, and I swear he's part mountain goat. The weather was absolutely gorgeous though, and we walked litterally up the ridge of Panekiri bluff, then back down and around the other side to our campsite. It was quite a day of feeling the burn, loving the burn, and convincing myself that by singing every song I could think of I would surely get through the day. And I did! Adam had huge painful bruises from the rubbing of his backpack, Thomas seemed not to notice the difficulty of our climb, but at the end of the day we were all enjoying our stink, smiling over soup, and squished in the tent together. There is nothing I love more than being smashed in between two stinky men who don't snore all night, but throw elbows nearing my face (and one making contact, thank you adam) and then waking up to pancakes!
Day two was not nearly as tough, although it rained almost all day. It isn't uncommmon for it to rain here, which doesn't usually stop Adam and I from adventuring, though on the trail is got all of my things wet. Wet = bad. Boo. About 7 hours later we made it to camp, and because our things were wet and the rain didn't seem to be slowing we opted to (illegally!) sleep inside the kitchen of the hut, near the fire, in hopes of drying things out and not to get sick! Day three was a short day, about 4 hours of hiking until our water taxi pickup spot, which was before the end of the trail. We made it there earlier than the water taxi, so we dropped our bags and finished the trail without packs (waahoo! much easier walking!) which was great, considering we wouldn't have been able to if we didn't have a long and hard first day. On our way out, the water taxi driver told us we were lucky to be off the trail, because the forecast said snow! (it's supposed to be the start of summer here REAL soon!) The trail was absolutely breathtaking, with views from Panekiri bluff going out to where the eye can't make out the difference between the land and the sky, and the progression from water, to trees, to rock, to sand, to fields was unreal. It's so hard for me to understand how gorgeous everything is here, and even though I stop on the trail and yell out "WOW! this is beautiful!!" (yes, this really happens) is still seems like I can't quite grasp the fact that these sights are made from the earth, and definitely worth the hours of painstaking uphill hikes.
After the trail, we needed some TLC. So we spent quite some time in the car, (yikes-palooza), parted ways with Thomas (sad...) then headed to Wellington, the capital city! We were able to stay with a friend, Carmel Levy, who we met in our travels to Israel and who was a wonderful host and friend to us. Without her, Wellington would just have been another city, in another backpacker, but she was nice enough to show us around and show us a great time! We went to a great show by a band called Rhombus, danced the night away and finally hit the sleeping bag nearing 4am. Woo! The city was cool, more specifically the Botanical Gardens where we had the chance to climb up a big tree, sit on top of the branches, sun ourselves and look out over the city. When we get a chance to load pictures, it will be much easier to understand. At any rate though, it was relaxing sitting high above everyone else with that rich-Vitamin D golden sun kissing our faces.
Next we ran (literally) to catch the ferry to the South Island, which was the biggest boat I've ever been on! It was way too cool! I'm sure that it's not much bigger than any cruise boats, but they had an arcade, a movie theater, and all kinds of stuff. Weird!
We got off in Picton, tried hitching out of there to Nelson, but were distracted by $15 beds, so we stayed. It ended up being two nights at the backpacker, enough time for us to gather and ration food, and head out on a kayaking/camping trip! I've never done any kayak camping, so the fact that we could bring anything we wanted and not have to worry about weight was wonderful. We even had beer! Our first two days of paddling were b-e-a-utiful, without a cloud in the sky and us having a great time paddling aorund the Marlborough Sounds, which are known for the great paddling, as well as are home to 600 of the world's rarest marine birds! We paddled past seals, lots of birds, plenty of rocks and lots of blue sky. We stayed at a campsite on an island on our last night, just around the corner from open ocean, sharing the site with two outdoor educators (wahoo! it was sweet talking to them and knowing there IS a career for me that I know I can do well in!). The next morning (our last day) the ocean was quite rough, but the two gentlemen offered to paddle with us until we got to calmer water, so Adam and I jumped at the chance. Without them I don't think we would have left the island, and had we ventured out into the water could have gotten ourselves into quite a connundrum. In our safety breifing from the kayaking company, they said at 15 knots white caps appear on the waves, at 20 knots you should get off the water, and our two outdoor educator guides said Adam and I were battling with 30 knot waves! It took us about an hour of hard out paddling, he and I in a double kayak having quite a fight with the waves, and we made it only about 1/4 of the way of our journey for the day, but we were past the hardest part. There were points when I thought my muscles would give out from exhaustion, or my fingers would break off from the cold, or I might puke from the amount of salt water I was drinking. If it weren't for the adrenaline running thick in my blood, I was sure all three of those might happen, so Adam ruddered hard left, both he and I paddled hard on the right side, the boat went airborne, into the waves, and at points the waves were so big the front of the boat hadn't even come out of the wave before Adam (who was sitting in back) entered the wave. Wow. Talk about an adventure! We made it out safe, sound, cold, wet, tired, and hungry, but feeling unstoppable!
After refueling with some dry clothes, we tried our chances at hitching to Nelson to no avail, and after a long ridiculous serious of rides to different places and meeting different people, closed or full backpackers, we ended up sleeping on someone's pull out beds. Mmmm... a bed!


Okay, this is where I'm going to stop for now. I've been typing away at this computer for long enough, considering I've been up using the free internet since 6.30am, after Adam who woke me up after he spent two hours with his fingers to the keyboard. I'll write again when we get more time, but now I must wake up Adam and pack up our bags before it is time to check out. I've been loving traveling around, living with everything I own on my back, carrying my things around and being a complete nomad.
Hope all is well with everyone at home.


"Not all those who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien

Current adventures:

Today, we went bungy jumping! It was insanity. I can't beleive that i jumped, let alone backwards. The initial jump was scary, and I screamed like a child, but then you're just bouncing, and looking at the beautiful canyon. Also, we went to the natural thermal pools, and you can just sit or climb around on the rocks and soak in the hot water. It's been nice!
I've put up new pictures at the website, to which the link is listed just a few posts below. Also, if you haven't checked out the pictures on adam's facebook, at the bottom of the last post, please do!

O, Canada!

Forgot to mention, Adam and I are trying to see how many cities we can sing O'Canada in. It's only begun, and so far we've hit two.

"I'm in a gigantic sphere of emotion!"

Hello!
So it's been a while since I've written (as usual)so you may want to grab some food (might I suggest a kiwi?! and get a comfy seat. Settle in for the long haul)

We've left the farm hosts, almost a week ago now. Staying there was like having a home for a little while, which was so great. It's nice to be able to unpack and spread my things all over and let everything air out. One of our last nights we slept out on the trampoline, watching the stars. The sky was incredibly clear! We could see the Milky Way, and a bunch of stars I don't know. Now I've got a copy of the southern sky map, so I'll be able to point out a lot more stars when we go tramping. We woke up with frost on our sleeping bags, but smiling faces and it was a great day. What an experience! One night we tried making an Israeli dinner for everyone (falafel, Israeli salad, hummus, and Honey Cake) which ended up being absolutely chaotic an hilarious. Neither Adam or I had ever tried making falafel before, and the recipe was strange, so it turned out to be mush that tasted nothing like falafel (actually, it didn't taste like anything...) But the honey cake (thanks karen!) and the Israeli salad were a success! We also tried to make Brad's caramel corn, but without corn syrup we had to make a substitute, then the thermometer was wrong and it didn't turn out as good as when Brad makes it, but Suzie and Alistair still loved it! The two of them ate almost an entire bowl (and that was before baking it) and my favorite part was watching suzie eating caramel corn while riding on her stationary bike. Cancelling them out...? We were quite sad to leave Suzie, Alistair, Sayshu and Bella, but we have to continue moving if we want to be able to see as much as possible.

Making our way to the Waitomo caves on saturday was a little interesting, and in 4 rides we arrived! We booked a "Black Water Rafting" trip, going through caves underground in intertubes and some really funny and ill-fitting wetsuits. There were even glowworms, which are larva of flies with glowing poop! The brighter they glow, the more they've eaten, or the more they are looking for a mate. Wouldn't it be nice if every single guy has a glowing butt?! The tubing adventure was really fun, including us jumping off waterfalls into the water and getting some time to relax in the cold water! The Glowworms look just like stars, and they usually live in big sections together, so in the darkness of the cave it looked just like stars, but closer and greener! It was beautiful to be underground and see a species of bugs I never even knew existed.
We'd arrived in Waitomo without a place to stay, and as our tour came to an end, our tour guide Ryan, from Louisville, Indiana, said we could pitch our tent in his backyard, so we caught a ride home with him. He and his friends are rock climbers, so we spent an unplanned 2 days in Waitomo climbing with his friends and meeting new people. Even though I don't climb (yet!?) it was still a wonderful time, and "Erica from America" and I went caving nearby. She and I met back up with everyone completely covered in mud, and even though now I have one less pair of pants until we can do laundry again, we had a blast crawling in the mud! Adam was quite happy to be able to do some bouldering (climbing on lower rocks, without ropes), the people we met were hospitable (but really, most of New Zealanders are) and we made quite a few new friends! I am hoping to start doing some rock climbing; it looks like the ultimate brain teaser ("how can I get my body up there") and it should be a really fun new experience.
Monday night we made it to Hamilton for some Israeli folk dancing, then ended up staying in the dance teachers living room (his name is Raymond) for the night, then getting a ride in the morning to a spot to hitch. It always amazes me how much the people here are willing to help out backpackers with helpful advice and places to stay. I love this country!
We went straight from Hamilton to Rotorua, NZ's capitol for tourism. Yikes! We stayed at Planet Nomad backpacker, and had two jam packed days! We arrived at noon on Tuesday, fitting in a hike around the thermal park (with bubbling mud, and natural bubbling pools!), and a Maori cultural show that evening. I had no idea the Maori songs were so beautiful; one of the love songs sounded like the ocean. They fed us a big dinner at the end, and Adam and I ate until our stomachs were cramping. The next day was action packed, with us trying to do as much as possible as well as spending as many coupons as possible. We went Zorbing, which is when you get inside a huge plastic ball with water, and then roll down a grass zigzag track, screaming. It was one of the strangest feelings, similar to what I can imagine being inside a womb must feel like, and at the end of the zigzag track you have to crawl out a little hole in the ball (like being birthed? weird..) It was really oddly fun, to say the least. Then we headed to Skyline, took the gondola up, then rode on the street luge track! That was really funny, and quite wet! It has been raining a lot, but it doesn't stop the adventure!
Next we walked to the "Kiwi Encounter" getting a tour of a kiwi conservation facility, as well as getting to see the kiwi bird up close! Kiwi's are a little bit bigger than a mallard, with huge feet (they're in the same family as the ostrich and the emu!) and tiny wings. The wings are so tiny, in fact, that they are flightless! They are a nocturnal bird, and the females lay an egg that is the size of an emu egg (think of those proportions: bird: size of duck. egg: size of emu egg (think flinstones) that egg is huge! those ladies are tough!)
After our encounter with the national bird, we spent our free tea coupons, then ran to spend our free beer coupon at a bar called "The Pig and Whistle", then running back to our backpacker and heading to the Polynesian Spa. This place had 7 natural hot pools, one of which was a lap pool, so of course, we swam laps. We only had a little bit over an hour there, but we made it into all of the pools. Some were way too hot! It was nearing 11pm by close, so the skys were dark, the seagulls were loud, but the water was warm and Adam and I sat in the pools laughing about firetrucks.

Direct quote: "I'm schvitzing like a firetruck." What a weirdo.

We made it back to the backpacker by half 11, noticing we hadn't eaten dinner and didn't have much left in terms of groceries, but ended up eating a delicious fried-rice style concoction of sorts. We headed out the next morning, bound for Taupo, although it took us quite some time to get there. However, our ride into Taupo was from a Jewish Australian couple in a campervan who saw the hebrew on my shirt once we stopped at Huka Falls, near Taupo.
Speaking of, Huka Falls is from a feed of the Waikato river, which is what we kayaked down in Cambridge! The falls go from 100 meters wide, and 4 meters deep, to being pushed through rocks 10 meters wide, and 6 meters deep. You can only imagine the loud sound of the falls, as well as how fast the water is going! I think the numbers are 220,000 litres per second. WOW! This place was intense, the water was so blue and crisp.
Taupo is apparently the adventure capitol of the southern hemisphere, with huge promotions for Bungy jumping, sky diving, and all sorts of other adrenaline pumping activities. We're staying in the party tent once again, and have already met a bunch of travelers staying in our backpacker as well. Yesterday we went to "Craters of the Moon" which has lots of steam holes, as well as bubbling mud craters that erupt pumice and mud! We went with some of our new friends, Francisco and Francisca from chile, and a german guy who gave us a ride there. It ends up that some of the Irish and scottish girls who we met in Rotorua at our Maori cultural show are in the same hostel, so it was really sweet to see them again and get to chat. They said "Adam is a really nice guy and everything, but how do you travel with a guy, let alone without a lot of stuff?!" (I had made a comment about one of them traveling with heels... that sounds dangerous!) But we're both so laid back and easygoing, I can't imagine traveling with girls!
Well, now that everyone is up to speed I better take a break and get back to having fun! (not that this isn't entertaining, but living in the present is way better!)
Below is a link to Adam's photos on facebook, so have a look if you please and feel free to give me a shout! Just copy and paste the link into your browser!

http://ucalgary.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055714&l=5d1c2&id=120600255

Hope all is well at home, and that October isn't too cold!

Mud fight!

I've put up pictures (not all, that could become redundant!) here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/marabe54

enjoy!

Osmond Farm, Cambridge NZ

Another longy! Hope you've brought enough food and water to sustain you.

Wow! How the time here has began to fly as we are meeting new people and having many more new experiences. It seems that this entire trip is full of new exposures for me, which has made this trip worth all of the time and energy we have spent preparing. Through hitching we're able to meet new people, and most of them say the same thing in response to our trip: "Do it now, while you have the time, the energy, the excitement and the wonder." We may not have the money, but we are void of a lot of the responsibility that holds travelers back. This is part of our education that can't be taught in school, and should be required!

Our newest host family is absolutely wonderful. They are some of the most inviting and warm people I have ever met! Suzie and Alistair live on 3 hectacres (about 7 acres) of land, with 10 chooks (chickens), 4 cows, a big greens garden, 1 dog named Bella, and are in the midst of making adobe bricks for the new building project. They have said that the older they get, the 'greener' they become, and I beleive it! They heat their house with a woodburning stove, and are building a wood free building for Alistair's parents to live in. Adam and I have been making bricks from mud, sand, straw, and water. The process is long and intensive, but important for the bricks to be able to last and insulate. The bricks have three layers of ingredients:
1. Mud gets laid out on wooden platform, and we search through it with spades for rocks.
2. Sand gets brought over, and we kick the sand with our gumboots to distrubute it.
3. Straw, after being cut out of the bale with a chainsaw by Alistair (it's so funny to watch how they do things here!) is scattered along the prior two layers, acting as the last layer.
Then, with the Rototiller, Alistair goes through mixing everything up, adding water to congeal the mess into a slop. We follow with shovels, helping to turn the thick goo.
Lastly, the mud concoction gets made up into bricks, using a series of repeated procedures. Using water to coat the frame for the brick shape, it is then laid on a pallet (with cardboard and newspaper), then mud is piled into the square frame, and squished into the edges. It must be packed well, or the bricks can fall apart. Then the frame is removed, and the bricks are left to dry, and then are stacked. We make about 100 a day, usualy exceeding that goal. The building needs 8,000 bricks, and so far they are a little over 3,000 bricks in since mid July. That's a lot of bricks!

Along with Adam and I, there are two other wwoof-ers here. They are both from Japan,although traveling independently around the country. Tomoko, (22) and Sayshu (he points to his mouth "say" then points at his boots "shoe!" who is 57). Tomoko just left this morning, which was sad. She has stayed here for a month, and although there was a little bit of a language barrier, we became very friendly while working and cooking together. On our first day here, Adam and I went kayaking, and she made us lunch! I learned so much from her generosity, politeness, and willingness to help. Sayshu is quite the character, having wwoof-ed in a few different countries, as well as being a marathon runner. He keeps us on our toes, making lots of silly jokes and coming up with funny catch phrases.

Last night Adam and I made dinner for everyone, attempting falafel with pita, israeli salad, and hummus, as wel as honey cake for desert. It wasn't quite falafel, it seemed more like a mush that didn't really taste like anything. However, they enjoyed it, the honey cake went over well, and there was enough left over for us to have some at morning tea.
This evening I went slug hunting with Suzie (it's important because the slugs eat the plants in the garden, right down to the stalks!), dropping them into boiling water after collecting them. The slime was killer. "Slug Hunting with Suzie" would be a good band name.

If you'd like a postcard, drop me an email. Updates after this week most likely won't be as frequent, as we'll be camping and tramping and fairly unavailable. Hope everyone is well and healthy!

I'll pay to sleep under fabric! Bay of Islands, NZ

So the last time I left off, I beleive we were planning to leave the farm and head north to Keri Keri. Our host was gracious enough to give us a ride into town after working a half day. We decided to try our hands and hitch a ride this time, and after less than 10 minutes, a woman named Lynda picked us up on her way to Keri Keri. During the car ride she began to tell us of a small beach town with beautiful hiking trails, close to waterfalls, sea kayaking, dolphin trips, (and the list goes on) called Paihia. Adam and I quickly decided to go to Paihia instead, and hitched a ride with another young woman right into town. We found a hostel called the "Pickled Parrot", and set up our tent! It's saving us some money, and both Adam and I don't mind, so the party tent it has become, and stinky it will remain.
Paihia was quiet the first night we were there, mainly because it was a Tuesday night. However, the following night we both went out to "Salty's" a local bar with a pool table. We ended up meeting some wonderful people there, who we continued to hang out with the rest of our stay in Paihia, and who made our time there much much more than we had ever expected. Naomi, from Scotland, Liz, Quinten, and Renier (Bob) from Holland, Lorna and Paul from England,Monkey, Ben, and 'Seadog' from New Zealand and Ellecor from Japan. We took a trip to Russel, a village a ferry ride across the harbour and went hiking for the day, which was beautiful. They had a gigantic sundail on the ground, with a mosaic map of the area. I do love mosaics! We played some frisbee in the park with Naomi and Lorna, played lots of pool at the pub and went on a dolphin cruise! The Dolphin cruise was incredible, with a 65% chance of swimming with the dolphins, because there are lots of restrictions as to when boats can and cannot swim with dolphins (such as feeding times, if there are babies in the pod). Adam and I were one of the lucky few able to swim with them, which was a real treat! Although the water was very cold and the weather wasn't too great, it was a great day. This time of year is the slow season for Paihia, so Adam and I were two of the four tourists on our boat made for 50, easily! They gave us wetsuits, and we jumped into a huge net that hangs off the boat in the water. With us hanging on the net, they drive the boat near the dolphins, and we swim out of the net, wich snorkels and fins and follow the dolphins. I never realized how massive the dolphins are, and I got a little scared hovering over them in the water. But being able to swim with dolphins in their natural habitat was incredible, and took the cake from our trip to Paihia. After our swimming time we took a cruise around to some of the other islands, spent time on a secluded sandy beach, eating lunch and collecting shells (I can't wait to start making jewelry from some of the stuff of found!)
Near Paihia, outside of a town called Waitangi, is a place called Haruru falls. Lorna, Adam and I set out to Haruru falls after a big rain, so the falls were dirty from all the washed out mud (and no rocks to filter it out) and the trail was also closed for maintenance. So we followed the closed trail for a little while (oops, did i say closed?), then hopped off to do some bushwhacking and found our own little waterfall. Needless to say we weren't the first people there, but it was secluded and really beautiful. Adam and I finished that day by riding our borrowed bikes from our hostel in the rain to get groceries, and cooking a stir fry I'm sure our mom's would be proud of!
We're back in Auckland, basing for now until our next host family, near Cambridge. Hopefully our friend Lorna that we met in Paihia will be joining us, and if not, she'll catch up with us later. If anyone is following on a map, we headed south from Auckland to Cambridge, and using our host family as a base to see Rotorua (east of Cambridge) and the Waitomo Caves (west of Cambridge. After that, maybe Lake Taupo for some hiking in the Toringa National Park, some kayaking, and definitely some adventure!
Hope all is well at home, and that the new year is sweet, like apples and honey!

Greetings friends!
So, since it’s been a while since I’ve written (or have I even written at all?) I guess I’ll have to start from the beginning. I hope you brought popcorn.
Auckland is a really cool city. With plenty to do, things to see, and lots of neat hikes in the area, we had quite a time trying to pack everything in. I got in really early in the morning on the 11th, had some breakfast, then Adam and I headed off to Kelly Tarlton’s underwater exploratory. It’s an awesome gigantic aquarium that was once an old sewage holding tank. Kelly Tarlton loved the ocean and its creatures, so he dug out this sewage, scrubbed the whole thing clean, and built an underground museum/aquarium. They have a tunnel that you walk through, while above your head sharks, fish, and other sea creatures are swimming, feeding, and hanging out with a treasure box (complete with a tiara).There was even a little train car that we rode past the penguins, which was hilarious! We walked all over the city, including attempting a coast to coast hike, going from one end of the harbour to another district harbour (about 16km) Within three blocks of the city portion in the beginning, we were lost and continued to walk in the direction of our own choice, which lead us to do some great bushwhacking as well as climbing up Mt. Hobison (it’s on the map, and still in the city), finding at the top grazing cows along with stunning views of the city. Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m in New Zealand! After walking nearing 6 hours, Adam and I were quite tired and hungry, but still smiling. The next day we hit up the sky tower (highest tower in the southern hemisphere), had an apple and peanut butter lunch in the sky deck (260 meters up!) and continued to discover the city, seeing art, some music, and doing a little shopping.
Friday, September 14th – Tuesday, September 18th : Our first host was gracious enough to let us catch a ride out of Auckland, north, outside a town called Wellsford. They have about 15 hectacres of land, with sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, two friendly dogs, and three home schooled kids. All of their kids play soccer, and the first night they had an awards night for the soccer teams in the area followed by a disco. Adam and I were completely relishing in anonymity! It was great fun. Our tasks earn us a bed and meals, so Adam and I both put in 5 hours of work each day, as well as make lunch. Jobs so far have included:
-Weeding garlic, some of which is covered in rotting wool to keep out the weeds, which smells like vomit
-helping move, vaccinate, and tag cows
-create and layer compost (they are an almost fully composting house)
-help with sheep shearing
-plant native bush
-crush egg shells for chickens to peck at
This evening (17th) Bryce (11 years old) took Adam and I up a hike on the nearest volcano. The usual route is along the left edge, but we decided to climb straight up from the base after hiking for ½ hour. It was quite steep, but definitely rewarding at the top. Bryce says it’s nearly 200 meters above sea level, at least. Adam and I leave tomorrow to head north to the Bay of Islands area. I am sad to be leaving this wonderful family, but we must understand that to cover the most area in our short time here we can’t be staying with families more than a week. I am glad to have stayed with such a warm family first!
All in all, Adam and I are both happy, especially at the end of the day with full stomachs and dirt under our fingernails. I’ve really been enjoying the feeling of having work to do during the days, coming in for tea and having to scrub off the layers of dirt and having the evening to ourselves. We had plans to ride bikes into Wellsford this evening after our hike but I had quite a bit of patching to do, as I ripped most of my favourite sweatshirt on a tree.
More to come as soon as our next adventure subsides and there is time to be had near a computer. We’ll be camping up north for the next few days, which should be great fun!
See you soon!

finally!

I've made it to New Zealand! The flight was long, and neverending. Did I mention it was long?
Today we went to an underground aquatic exploration science center. It was way too cool! It's called Kelly Tarlton's, and it was transformed from sewage holding tanks into an underground center where there are all kinds of crazy fish and things to learn about from the ocean, which you can see from the windows in front and you drive (or walk, in our case) right past as you enter the building. We've done quite a bit of walking and went grocery shopping a little as well. Tomorrow we're going on a coast to coast hike, which is about 16 km long (so, overshooting, say.. 4 hours-ish?) and that should be exciting! Hopefully it'll help me get over this slight jetlag. It's great to see Adam, obviously, and so great to see New Zealand!

Hi. I'm mara. This is where I will write about my travels.

Stop number 1: Auckland!