(no subject)
Wow....it's been awhile since I updated...I am inclined to blame that on not having access to a fast computer at my WWOOF place, but really it was sheer laziness...and it's the HOLIDAYS people - I've got better things to do!
Anyway - I spent the past couple weeks up in Golden Bay with Alex and Annie and their kids - which was super fun, especially at Christmas because we got to have a little ghetto Christmas tree,
and it was fun to watch the little kids open their presents.
Annie was great and even gave us three WWOOFers presents to open - big boxes of Belgian chocolates (which were as you can imagine with me gone in a matter of days :X). After a random breakfast of chocolate, toast, avocado, etc. we headed over to the house of two girls who had previously WWOOFed for Alex and Annie but were now living in Golden Bay. We had a great lunch of sushi (I know...Christmas Day what?) and tried to control the three dogs and stop Ludo and Francie from breaking everything (no success, see broken glass bowl) Anyway, we then packed up and headed off to a huge potluck party in Golden Bay, which was to my amusement, the total embodiment of the phrase "hippie Christmas". All the kids were running around half-clothes up to the age of about 6, and the adults were all wearing overpriced clothes imported from India and Thailand. There was a huge spread of food though which I happily enjoyed (I baked a plum cake for the event - we had plums coming out of our ears at Alex and Annie's). We were all just hanging out and talking, playing with the kids, and then the dj, who was set up in front of a massive neon poster of some Hindu god, pumped the trance music into high gear, and then we were all dancing (me with Francie which lead me to realize baby=interesting dance accessory).
I'm definitely not trying to hate on hippie Christmas - I had a blast meeting all those people and dancing a ton because it was totally different from any Christmas I'd ever had. It's good to stay busy not to miss home and I absolutely did that. I think something I've learned so far in New Zealand and was reinforced to me in Golden Bay was that it's totally ok to like some of the things you see and experience and take those and file them away for future use. Like I love the WWOOF lifestyle - growing my own food and keeping animals would be so rad - but it's not like something I could do tomorrow...it would be a process. I also like the laid back atmosphere of New Zealand - but there are things I still like about living a more structured life. I don't know, I sort of go back and forth every day. To be completely honest, the idea of returning to the US gives me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and I can't see myself doing it any time soon. Of course I miss my friends and family - but I have no desire to go back to some crazy monotonous lifestyle in some big dirty city. The west coast is seeming more and more appealing to me and I've never even been there...but I'd love to find a balance between what I had before and what I have now.
So yeah, I had a great time with Alex and Annie - I did a lot of baking and work with the cows, goats, and chickens. My days were pretty much the same - work all morning, lunch, then relaxing - maybe going to the beach to swim
or for a run. I started to get a little hippied out by the end, when Annie asked me.."do you think I should take ecstasy for New Year's?" haha I'm out. So I got in touch with Steve and Fiona, the British couple I met in Taupo, to see if we could hang out for New Year's. They said sure - so I called like ten hostels trying to find a bed for New Year's (which I eventually did) and then I had to hitch hike my way into Takaka from Tukurua because it was a ways and I couldn't really ask Annie to drive me. Man, it is a weird feeling to stand at the side of the road with your thumb out and people going past you and you feel really strange like "aaahhh no one is going to pick me up..." but no worries, two surfer guys picked me up in their BMW and gave me a ride into town. I ran some errands in town and then thought, I could get a bus to Nelson or I could save $25 dollars and hitch a ride. There is only one road in and out of Golden Bay and it was New Year's Eve, so tons of people were driving either to Takaka Hill for "Phat '06" or into Nelson. So I was lucky that two other nice guys picked me up and gave me a ride into Nelson. They were my age and not sketchy thank goodness, and their names were Sven and James. Ha. We actually had quite a good time chatting which was good because it takes about 90 min to get to Nelson from there. It's funny because they asked me - "how does this compare to hitch hiking in the US?" to which I laughed and said "well....I would never ever hitch hike in the US". It's quite nice really to be in a country where people are still pretty nice and willing to help each other out. However, I have no intention to make a habit of hitch hiking, because I'm a young woman traveling alone....maybe if I was with someone else...but all the same it's still a good feeling to get a good ride that doesn't weird you out.
Woo...so I got to Nelson, and went about trying to meet up with Steve and Fiona,
which wasn't too difficult and we headed over to Nelson's New Year's party which was called "The Cusp '06". However, when we got there about 8pm, it was full of 16 year olds etc. and we were like...hmmm maybe not. The music also was not very good - so we decided to walk to the beach outside of Nelson, which we hoped would have a bonfire or two. I bought some strawberry champagne and we headed to the beach to look at the stars! and ring in the New Year. I did feel a bit like a third wheel but I am still having a good time with them. We also went to the beach on New Year's Day to see a sand sculpture contest on the beach (cool!) and yesterday we went to the World of Wearable Arts museum which I know my mom would have loved because it reminded me of Cirque de Soleil - see it here: http://www.wowcars.co.nz/index.html. Steve and Fiona are talking about moving to NZ in a couple years so I'll be back to visit them and go to the WOW show! Then yesterday afternoon we had a seriously delightful time in the park watching a free jazz concert and there were tons of people there and it was sunny! Oh lovely! And we ate Thai food and ice cream and yellow plums off of someone's tree and it was a great summer day...
Well, I hope that was a sufficient update - it was worth about $5 - I'm headed to Blenheim tomorrow - if I like it there, I think I'll try and settle down and get a job for a few weeks. Mmmmmm money would be great. Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and New Year's....I will be in the US for next holidays that's for sure because it just wasn't the same...
Anyway - I spent the past couple weeks up in Golden Bay with Alex and Annie and their kids - which was super fun, especially at Christmas because we got to have a little ghetto Christmas tree,
and it was fun to watch the little kids open their presents.
Annie was great and even gave us three WWOOFers presents to open - big boxes of Belgian chocolates (which were as you can imagine with me gone in a matter of days :X). After a random breakfast of chocolate, toast, avocado, etc. we headed over to the house of two girls who had previously WWOOFed for Alex and Annie but were now living in Golden Bay. We had a great lunch of sushi (I know...Christmas Day what?) and tried to control the three dogs and stop Ludo and Francie from breaking everything (no success, see broken glass bowl) Anyway, we then packed up and headed off to a huge potluck party in Golden Bay, which was to my amusement, the total embodiment of the phrase "hippie Christmas". All the kids were running around half-clothes up to the age of about 6, and the adults were all wearing overpriced clothes imported from India and Thailand. There was a huge spread of food though which I happily enjoyed (I baked a plum cake for the event - we had plums coming out of our ears at Alex and Annie's). We were all just hanging out and talking, playing with the kids, and then the dj, who was set up in front of a massive neon poster of some Hindu god, pumped the trance music into high gear, and then we were all dancing (me with Francie which lead me to realize baby=interesting dance accessory).
I'm definitely not trying to hate on hippie Christmas - I had a blast meeting all those people and dancing a ton because it was totally different from any Christmas I'd ever had. It's good to stay busy not to miss home and I absolutely did that. I think something I've learned so far in New Zealand and was reinforced to me in Golden Bay was that it's totally ok to like some of the things you see and experience and take those and file them away for future use. Like I love the WWOOF lifestyle - growing my own food and keeping animals would be so rad - but it's not like something I could do tomorrow...it would be a process. I also like the laid back atmosphere of New Zealand - but there are things I still like about living a more structured life. I don't know, I sort of go back and forth every day. To be completely honest, the idea of returning to the US gives me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach and I can't see myself doing it any time soon. Of course I miss my friends and family - but I have no desire to go back to some crazy monotonous lifestyle in some big dirty city. The west coast is seeming more and more appealing to me and I've never even been there...but I'd love to find a balance between what I had before and what I have now.
So yeah, I had a great time with Alex and Annie - I did a lot of baking and work with the cows, goats, and chickens. My days were pretty much the same - work all morning, lunch, then relaxing - maybe going to the beach to swim
or for a run. I started to get a little hippied out by the end, when Annie asked me.."do you think I should take ecstasy for New Year's?" haha I'm out. So I got in touch with Steve and Fiona, the British couple I met in Taupo, to see if we could hang out for New Year's. They said sure - so I called like ten hostels trying to find a bed for New Year's (which I eventually did) and then I had to hitch hike my way into Takaka from Tukurua because it was a ways and I couldn't really ask Annie to drive me. Man, it is a weird feeling to stand at the side of the road with your thumb out and people going past you and you feel really strange like "aaahhh no one is going to pick me up..." but no worries, two surfer guys picked me up in their BMW and gave me a ride into town. I ran some errands in town and then thought, I could get a bus to Nelson or I could save $25 dollars and hitch a ride. There is only one road in and out of Golden Bay and it was New Year's Eve, so tons of people were driving either to Takaka Hill for "Phat '06" or into Nelson. So I was lucky that two other nice guys picked me up and gave me a ride into Nelson. They were my age and not sketchy thank goodness, and their names were Sven and James. Ha. We actually had quite a good time chatting which was good because it takes about 90 min to get to Nelson from there. It's funny because they asked me - "how does this compare to hitch hiking in the US?" to which I laughed and said "well....I would never ever hitch hike in the US". It's quite nice really to be in a country where people are still pretty nice and willing to help each other out. However, I have no intention to make a habit of hitch hiking, because I'm a young woman traveling alone....maybe if I was with someone else...but all the same it's still a good feeling to get a good ride that doesn't weird you out.
Woo...so I got to Nelson, and went about trying to meet up with Steve and Fiona,
which wasn't too difficult and we headed over to Nelson's New Year's party which was called "The Cusp '06". However, when we got there about 8pm, it was full of 16 year olds etc. and we were like...hmmm maybe not. The music also was not very good - so we decided to walk to the beach outside of Nelson, which we hoped would have a bonfire or two. I bought some strawberry champagne and we headed to the beach to look at the stars! and ring in the New Year. I did feel a bit like a third wheel but I am still having a good time with them. We also went to the beach on New Year's Day to see a sand sculpture contest on the beach (cool!) and yesterday we went to the World of Wearable Arts museum which I know my mom would have loved because it reminded me of Cirque de Soleil - see it here: http://www.wowcars.co.nz/index.html. Steve and Fiona are talking about moving to NZ in a couple years so I'll be back to visit them and go to the WOW show! Then yesterday afternoon we had a seriously delightful time in the park watching a free jazz concert and there were tons of people there and it was sunny! Oh lovely! And we ate Thai food and ice cream and yellow plums off of someone's tree and it was a great summer day...
Well, I hope that was a sufficient update - it was worth about $5 - I'm headed to Blenheim tomorrow - if I like it there, I think I'll try and settle down and get a job for a few weeks. Mmmmmm money would be great. Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and New Year's....I will be in the US for next holidays that's for sure because it just wasn't the same...