It's hard to believe it's been almost four months since our trip. It seems like so recent... Yet, at the same time, so long ago.
All my memories of our trip are in vibrant colors. I can see the dark turquoise ocean, bright green hills, brown mountains, and crystal sky from Kaikoura, or the creamy clouds over the cool blue ocean of Cape Foulwind. Once I start thinking about it my mind flips through color pallets of all our different spots-- my memories are like the picture album we finally finished putting together. They are both brighter and more alive than the pictures (because of movement and other senses), but also almost dreamlike. I'm dreading the day they become covered with a veil of fog in my mind. Hopefully that will never happen.
Don't get me wrong, I love being home. I really enjoy living in Eugene; I love the weather, the culture, the activities, the people. But still, I am incredibly nostalgic. The feeling is not even completely nostalgia-- it has more mourning in it. I feel like I have lost something so dear, so amazing. I miss spending the time with just my parents, having that tiny world-- despite the small size of my acquaintance list, I felt so free. Like I had enough space to (excuse the cliche) spread my wings and be myself, to run wild and hug tightly. I felt so pure. So completely content in living in that particular moment, yet willing to move on.
Right this instant the feeling of the salty, humid air of Cylinder beach blowing over the ocean into my face is fresh in my mind.
I want to go back and live that over and over again. I just miss it so, so, so much. I never knew the cliche "heart-wrenching" could feel so strong and real.
Well, this is officially my final post (I really shouldn't say that. Maybe when I'm 102 years old I'll decide to write another post about how I still remember everything as clearly as if I were there. I really hope that happens).
Thanks for reading.
Goodnight, and goodbye.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Home
I'm home.
Wow. It feels weird, almost like I never left.
The flights were okay, of course long. On the 11 hour one I watched movies I have been meaning to get around to seeing, in particular Twilight and Slumdog Millionaire, which were both on the good side of okay. I even slept a few hours, which was unexpected but nice.
It was weird when we finally got to the US-- I almost had a little culture shock, although less big cultural differences and more little customary differences: everything was in Fahrenheit, the date was written as month/day/year (I was staring at a form for the longest time through my sleep deprived eyes and brain, trying to figure out what the 22nd month of the year was), people walked and drove on the right, and all announcements were said in very funny sounding accents.
We met my dad at SFO, and it was amazing to see him. I missed him a lot. We were all booked together on the flight from SFO to EUG.
P and her husband B picked us up at the Eugene airport, and it was very nice to see them too-- I missed them so much.
It was cold and rainy out, but felt amazing. The air smelled like home, like clean, cold, rainy home. everything is perfect. When we actually got to our house it was more home-y feelings-- the most so when I saw the cats. I think Jason (one of the cats) actually remembered me and has forgiven me for the time being, although knowing him he'll probably be mad and avoid us for the next few weeks. Oh well, at least we get to see him.
Many things here are actually weird and confusing-- things I was so used to before. For example, when I tried to turn on the shower I pulled the handle, like the shower was in Christchurch-- not like the one you turn here at home. My computer screen seemed so humongous, and the mouse so strange and foreign (we have been using just a track pad for 3 months). I, an adamant Mac lover, even keep trying to use the control key, like one does on a PC, rather than the apple key.
Other little things seem almost unfamiliar, which is a little unsettling. Something about the previously extremely familiar drive home seemed a little less familiar, and the stack of boxes that have sat in the same spot in the garage all my life caught my eye as different or new.
This may sound extremely materialistic, but I'm also very happy to have all my stuff that I left behind-- my painting supplies, my books, my pens, even my clothes.
It almost feels like we never left-- like we're just starting where we left off. I have the strangest feeling that it's the end of December, maybe January, which is when we left. Certainly Valentine's Day is far off in the future, and Easter might as well be years away. It's a little odd to think it's March. It's like the whole trip was a dream, or like it took place on an alternate time line or reality. In some ways, imagining walking on the beach in Straddie feels so far away; but it also feels so real and close, like I can still feel the strong warm waves swaying around my ankles.
One thing which is good, I'm amazingly not on the wrong time schedule. When we arrived I had no idea what time it was-- neither in the real world or my internal clock. It was like everything reset, and it really didn't matter to me if it was 12:00 or 6:00, except that those times would constitute the need for different meals. I felt like I could fall asleep right then, or in six hours-- whichever the clock told me to do.
I know I said this before, but it really feels like a dream. We were gone for awhile, and did so much on our trip. Maybe it's because Eugene and our house has hardly changed-- the house sitter didn't move anything around, etc. The candy canes from Christmas are still sitting on top of a box on the coffee table.
One amazingly nice thing knocked on our door about 7:00, just as we had finished dinner and were starting to organize our endless amounts of stuff-- it was our next door neighbors, a wonderful couple whom you, reader, probably have a connection to if you live in Eugene-- they have a large family, all very nice, smart, successful, and most of whom still live near by. G and S, who are the parents of the whole clan, came to our door with fresh baked chocolate chip and nut cookies, so fresh that the butter was still warm and the chocolate still gushy. They were amazingly delicious. That was one of the nicest things anybody has every done-- it made me feel so welcomed and at home.
There is so much unpacking to do. I'm going to try to finish all of my personal unpacking tomorrow, and hopefully dodge the shared unpacking. I should really get to work on schoolwork.
I'm so excited it's Spring Break! I have time to relax, catch up in school, paint, sew, and spend time with my brothers. I am very happy right now, partially because the image of the feeling of the melted chocolate in the buttery, sweet cookies is still fresh in my mind from remembering it to write about above. But really, I have a huge amount to look forward to-- I'm going to be very busy over spring break, but all of the things I have to do have very high potential of being fun.
Good-night, everybody. I had a simply amazing trip (more like utterly amazing-- simple doesn't really capture it).
I had a sudden wave of exhaustion, and just remembered I haven't slept much in awhile. So much for that "i could sleep in one hour or six hours" shpeal I was giving above. I'm going to bed. To my soft, memory-foam mattress, Star Trek sheeted bed, tucked under the quilt I made last summer. Mmmm, that sounds so amazingly nice.
Good night.
Wow. It feels weird, almost like I never left.
The flights were okay, of course long. On the 11 hour one I watched movies I have been meaning to get around to seeing, in particular Twilight and Slumdog Millionaire, which were both on the good side of okay. I even slept a few hours, which was unexpected but nice.
It was weird when we finally got to the US-- I almost had a little culture shock, although less big cultural differences and more little customary differences: everything was in Fahrenheit, the date was written as month/day/year (I was staring at a form for the longest time through my sleep deprived eyes and brain, trying to figure out what the 22nd month of the year was), people walked and drove on the right, and all announcements were said in very funny sounding accents.
We met my dad at SFO, and it was amazing to see him. I missed him a lot. We were all booked together on the flight from SFO to EUG.
P and her husband B picked us up at the Eugene airport, and it was very nice to see them too-- I missed them so much.
It was cold and rainy out, but felt amazing. The air smelled like home, like clean, cold, rainy home. everything is perfect. When we actually got to our house it was more home-y feelings-- the most so when I saw the cats. I think Jason (one of the cats) actually remembered me and has forgiven me for the time being, although knowing him he'll probably be mad and avoid us for the next few weeks. Oh well, at least we get to see him.
Many things here are actually weird and confusing-- things I was so used to before. For example, when I tried to turn on the shower I pulled the handle, like the shower was in Christchurch-- not like the one you turn here at home. My computer screen seemed so humongous, and the mouse so strange and foreign (we have been using just a track pad for 3 months). I, an adamant Mac lover, even keep trying to use the control key, like one does on a PC, rather than the apple key.
Other little things seem almost unfamiliar, which is a little unsettling. Something about the previously extremely familiar drive home seemed a little less familiar, and the stack of boxes that have sat in the same spot in the garage all my life caught my eye as different or new.
This may sound extremely materialistic, but I'm also very happy to have all my stuff that I left behind-- my painting supplies, my books, my pens, even my clothes.
It almost feels like we never left-- like we're just starting where we left off. I have the strangest feeling that it's the end of December, maybe January, which is when we left. Certainly Valentine's Day is far off in the future, and Easter might as well be years away. It's a little odd to think it's March. It's like the whole trip was a dream, or like it took place on an alternate time line or reality. In some ways, imagining walking on the beach in Straddie feels so far away; but it also feels so real and close, like I can still feel the strong warm waves swaying around my ankles.
One thing which is good, I'm amazingly not on the wrong time schedule. When we arrived I had no idea what time it was-- neither in the real world or my internal clock. It was like everything reset, and it really didn't matter to me if it was 12:00 or 6:00, except that those times would constitute the need for different meals. I felt like I could fall asleep right then, or in six hours-- whichever the clock told me to do.
I know I said this before, but it really feels like a dream. We were gone for awhile, and did so much on our trip. Maybe it's because Eugene and our house has hardly changed-- the house sitter didn't move anything around, etc. The candy canes from Christmas are still sitting on top of a box on the coffee table.
One amazingly nice thing knocked on our door about 7:00, just as we had finished dinner and were starting to organize our endless amounts of stuff-- it was our next door neighbors, a wonderful couple whom you, reader, probably have a connection to if you live in Eugene-- they have a large family, all very nice, smart, successful, and most of whom still live near by. G and S, who are the parents of the whole clan, came to our door with fresh baked chocolate chip and nut cookies, so fresh that the butter was still warm and the chocolate still gushy. They were amazingly delicious. That was one of the nicest things anybody has every done-- it made me feel so welcomed and at home.
There is so much unpacking to do. I'm going to try to finish all of my personal unpacking tomorrow, and hopefully dodge the shared unpacking. I should really get to work on schoolwork.
I'm so excited it's Spring Break! I have time to relax, catch up in school, paint, sew, and spend time with my brothers. I am very happy right now, partially because the image of the feeling of the melted chocolate in the buttery, sweet cookies is still fresh in my mind from remembering it to write about above. But really, I have a huge amount to look forward to-- I'm going to be very busy over spring break, but all of the things I have to do have very high potential of being fun.
Good-night, everybody. I had a simply amazing trip (more like utterly amazing-- simple doesn't really capture it).
I had a sudden wave of exhaustion, and just remembered I haven't slept much in awhile. So much for that "i could sleep in one hour or six hours" shpeal I was giving above. I'm going to bed. To my soft, memory-foam mattress, Star Trek sheeted bed, tucked under the quilt I made last summer. Mmmm, that sounds so amazingly nice.
Good night.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
"Malasis." Hm. no, it must be "malasys." Hm, still no good spelling suggestions. Well, let's try "mole asses." Theerreee. THat worked.h
Sunday, 22 March 8:33 pm
We have to leave tomorrow.
Tomorrow. As in the day after today, as in the morning will be the last time I am going to wake up in this bed. It’s hard to imagine, it felt as if we just got here.
We have had fun the last week. On Wednesday we took a trip to the International Antarctic Center, which is a tourist science museum/zoo about Antarctica attached to a number of buildings that are various countries’ bases for Antarctica trips. We saw little blue penguins being fed (the same type we say wild), and many exhibits. The best part of it though was at the end, when we got to take a ride in a “haglann,” a type of vehicle scientists use to get around in Antarctica. They had set up a course behind the building, with giant hills to drive over with slopes of 45 degrees, over a meter of water to drive through. The hills were terrifying but exhilarating—we only had small seat belts (and mine didn’t want to stay taught), and hooks from the ceiling to hold on to like a subway car. The water was scary because it came over the window of the car. M and I commented on how useful the vehicle would have been in Fiji.
This weekend we had fun also. Yesterday morning we drove out to Sumner, a neighborhood with a large beach about 30 minutes from our house. It was raining, but I was actually glad of it because it meant the beach wasn’t crowded (besides, a beach isn’t a beach without cold rain). We then took a long drive along the summit of a hill range by the city, with offered amazing views of the whole town (that is, when we weren’t inside a very thick cloud—as I said, it was a little stormy that day). We got lunch at a vaguely strange little restaurant/tea room, but it was nice anyways. When we got home we started packing.
I don’t like packing. Well, that isn’t quite true. Packing can be fun and satisfying, but not when I don’t want to leave and the objects we have to put in the suitcases don’t fit. The main problem is I have piles and piles of books, most of which are textbooks. We have a weight limit of 23 kilos per bag, which means we have to distribute the books among our four suitcases (two giant black ones and two duffels). Living here we have spread objects around every single room of the house, which makes the job of finding everything a little difficult.
Today we went back into the city to do some gift shopping. That was nice, although again it was very cold and rainy. I got a jade necklace from one of the booths at the art center, which I love. For lunch we met M’s host at the University and his family at a vaguely famous restaurant at a corner of the arts center. Last time we were in Christchurch, seven years ago, we asked for soy sauce (I think T had rice or something). A while later they brought us a little bottle of molasses. I think by now there are enough Asian and American immigrants to know what soy sauce is, but apparently not back then.
This afternoon we again were packing. It’s a little depressing—I can’t believe we have to get on a plane tomorrow. Tomorrow (well, that depends on how the word is defined. I actually think ‘tomorrow’ is a relative term, which would mean my using it here would not be correct as we will all experience 45 hours before then—but perhaps the word means a comparison in the date. Anyways, Monday) night we will be in Eugene. All the clothes are gone from my drawers, and all that is left to pack is the toothpaste, computer, and other various things we will need tomorrow.
Well, I’m going to stop writing now. I just don’t understand what happened to the time—it really does feel like we just left Eugene. There will be so much work when we get home—a huge amount of unpacking, then organizing pictures and whatnot.
I am excited to get home for many reasons. I’m really excited to see my dad again, and the cats. Hopefully they haven’t forgotten us! We’ve never been gone from them for more than two weeks—we got them right after our last trip to the South Pacific. I’m excited for my room, my computer, my memory foam mattress. And to see all my brothers, whom I will over spring break. I’m excited for my painting supplies, the sewing machine, all my little knickknacks, and to play tennis again. I am also excited for school, even a little bit for the social-ness—I’m not a big fan of high school, especially the social wrestling arena, but I am excited to see my friends again.
I feel a little better now.
Just a little, though.
p.s. The BBC Pride and Prejudice mini-series is AMAZING. We only had time to watch four out of six, and although I know the story very well I am very anxious that Elizabeth will never forgive or understand Mr. Darcy…
We have to leave tomorrow.
Tomorrow. As in the day after today, as in the morning will be the last time I am going to wake up in this bed. It’s hard to imagine, it felt as if we just got here.
We have had fun the last week. On Wednesday we took a trip to the International Antarctic Center, which is a tourist science museum/zoo about Antarctica attached to a number of buildings that are various countries’ bases for Antarctica trips. We saw little blue penguins being fed (the same type we say wild), and many exhibits. The best part of it though was at the end, when we got to take a ride in a “haglann,” a type of vehicle scientists use to get around in Antarctica. They had set up a course behind the building, with giant hills to drive over with slopes of 45 degrees, over a meter of water to drive through. The hills were terrifying but exhilarating—we only had small seat belts (and mine didn’t want to stay taught), and hooks from the ceiling to hold on to like a subway car. The water was scary because it came over the window of the car. M and I commented on how useful the vehicle would have been in Fiji.
This weekend we had fun also. Yesterday morning we drove out to Sumner, a neighborhood with a large beach about 30 minutes from our house. It was raining, but I was actually glad of it because it meant the beach wasn’t crowded (besides, a beach isn’t a beach without cold rain). We then took a long drive along the summit of a hill range by the city, with offered amazing views of the whole town (that is, when we weren’t inside a very thick cloud—as I said, it was a little stormy that day). We got lunch at a vaguely strange little restaurant/tea room, but it was nice anyways. When we got home we started packing.
I don’t like packing. Well, that isn’t quite true. Packing can be fun and satisfying, but not when I don’t want to leave and the objects we have to put in the suitcases don’t fit. The main problem is I have piles and piles of books, most of which are textbooks. We have a weight limit of 23 kilos per bag, which means we have to distribute the books among our four suitcases (two giant black ones and two duffels). Living here we have spread objects around every single room of the house, which makes the job of finding everything a little difficult.
Today we went back into the city to do some gift shopping. That was nice, although again it was very cold and rainy. I got a jade necklace from one of the booths at the art center, which I love. For lunch we met M’s host at the University and his family at a vaguely famous restaurant at a corner of the arts center. Last time we were in Christchurch, seven years ago, we asked for soy sauce (I think T had rice or something). A while later they brought us a little bottle of molasses. I think by now there are enough Asian and American immigrants to know what soy sauce is, but apparently not back then.
This afternoon we again were packing. It’s a little depressing—I can’t believe we have to get on a plane tomorrow. Tomorrow (well, that depends on how the word is defined. I actually think ‘tomorrow’ is a relative term, which would mean my using it here would not be correct as we will all experience 45 hours before then—but perhaps the word means a comparison in the date. Anyways, Monday) night we will be in Eugene. All the clothes are gone from my drawers, and all that is left to pack is the toothpaste, computer, and other various things we will need tomorrow.
Well, I’m going to stop writing now. I just don’t understand what happened to the time—it really does feel like we just left Eugene. There will be so much work when we get home—a huge amount of unpacking, then organizing pictures and whatnot.
I am excited to get home for many reasons. I’m really excited to see my dad again, and the cats. Hopefully they haven’t forgotten us! We’ve never been gone from them for more than two weeks—we got them right after our last trip to the South Pacific. I’m excited for my room, my computer, my memory foam mattress. And to see all my brothers, whom I will over spring break. I’m excited for my painting supplies, the sewing machine, all my little knickknacks, and to play tennis again. I am also excited for school, even a little bit for the social-ness—I’m not a big fan of high school, especially the social wrestling arena, but I am excited to see my friends again.
I feel a little better now.
Just a little, though.
p.s. The BBC Pride and Prejudice mini-series is AMAZING. We only had time to watch four out of six, and although I know the story very well I am very anxious that Elizabeth will never forgive or understand Mr. Darcy…
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
West Coast
Tuesday, 17 March 8:38 pm
I had the most amazing weekend. M and I took a trip to the west coast, staying there for two nights and driving a big loop to and from.
The beginning of the drive Saturday morning was a little boring, both because it is through plains and because we had done some of it before when we were driving to Kaikoura. Eventually, though, we started coming into mountains, when it started getting pretty. We searched for awhile for a picnic spot, finally finding one good enough; it was by a bridge, over a large, deep, blue river. The bridge was on a side road that we had to hop a fence to get to, but figured it was okay because nothing on it said “no admittance” or “private property.” A few minutes down the road there were many more stops by the river, some even with picnic tables.
As we crossed the pass, which wasn’t very dramatic on this road, the plants started changing—soon instead of mostly bushes and a few deciduous trees we were driving through deep green forests, much more similar to what I’m used to in Oregon. It was very beautiful. The weather was very good, which helped.
After a four or five hour drive we got to where we were staying on the west coast, a little town named Cape Foulwind (good name, eh?). The motel at first was a little disappointing, as we hoped for an ocean view and could only see a little sliver of blue horizon through the plants. It had a hottub, which was very nice, and the owners were quite sweet.
That afternoon we took a walk, down to a little gorgeous driftwood, cliff-enclosed beach, then along the bluff of the cape. For some reason I was very tired, and the whole time just felt like lying down and sleeping, but it was still fun. That evening we had dinner at “the Tavern,” a bar/bistro next door to the motel, a place where when we came in the bartender asked our names and shook our hands, then introduced us to a few other people there. We ordered steak (mmmmm), then went outside to their lawn to wait for food.
While we were waiting, and later eating, three little girls played on the small playground that was in the corner of the lawn. They were adorable; two were 5 or 6, and one was three. They kept having problems getting on the sea saw, as it was very high up, so eventually M and I had the job of holding it down for them. At first we tried to explain and help them balance the small three-year-old with the larger of the six-year-olds, before giving up and deciding they would figure it out eventually. Soon they were calling over to us to help them get down from it. The three year old was amazingly adorable. The steak was yummy as well.
That night we went to the hot tub, which they had a little whiteboard so people could sign up for times. This meant we had the tub on a steep slope among fern trees and other green plants to ourselves, which was nice. Hot tubs are almost as good as pools, which are up there with trampolines.
The next day we drove 45 minutes south to Punakaiki. The drive was beautiful, and near Punakaiki reminded me very much of the Oregon coast; there were steep hills falling into crashing ocean, with the road hovering over the waves, the hills covered in a thick layer of green—the only difference was what the green was. Amazing as it sounds, there were palm trees mixed in with the normal forest greens of New Zealand; the weather there is pretty temperate year-round, so they have little microclimates, where some sub-tropical plants grow.
We took a short walk, then a longer one up a river. That walk was stunning—the trail hugged the side of a river bank, which lay in a steep river valley. We found a perfect picnic spot down a scramble to a rocky beach by the river, where we had a wonderful picnic. Later on the walk my mom told me about people she knew in high school; teachers, friends, old boyfriends. It was fun to hear all about that.
After the walk we went to see the Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki’s main tourist attraction. The paved path through tall, thick, coastal grass with lookouts to see the spiky layered rocks was strangely familiar, I assume because we saw them last time we came to New Zealand. They were neat, although there were a lot of tourists there. We went at high tide to see the blowhole, a place where at high tide water sprays into the air out of nowhere, but after 20 minutes of waiting in the sun leaned over a railing next to couples and teenagers speaking Japanese and Swedish, we got bored and left.
When we got back to Cape Foulwind, we drove around a little, and took a walk to see a seal colony (New Zealand really loves their fur seals. I must say, the babies are quite adorable). That night we went to the one nice restaurant around there, which wasn’t more expensive than even the Tavern, and sat nestled in a hill looking into a beautiful bay and the ocean beyond. When we went there earlier in the day to make a reservation, at first we almost left because the waitress said they were booked. It turned out nobody wanted to sit out on their large porch, which is exactly where we wanted to sit, so we ended up getting a very good seat. It was a little cold after the sun escaped behind the bluff, but was still fun. The food was amazing—my favorite was New Zealand mussles (the best there are), cooked in coconut milk, lime, and some Thai flavors—it sounds bizarre, but it was delicious. (B, if you read this, please don’t give this idea to T—we’re going to surprise him by serving it to him over spring break).
That evening we also went to the hot tub, then went to sleep.
The next day we had to drive home, sadly. The drive started off along the same road we drove on the day before, which was still beautiful. Eventually the road turned away from the coast and strait into towering mountains, some with sparking glaciers perched on the tops of them. The drive got prettier and prettier—it was spectacular. Although the distance going this direction was shorter, the drive took much longer—more like six hours (although it was supposed to take seven—our car accelerates very well). The road was much thinner and curvier, going over and through much more dramatic mountains. The trucks on the road went painfully slowly, but M is getting very good at driving like a Kiwi and passing whenever the vehicle in front isn’t going 110 km/h. The drive was just stunning—around the pass especially. The mountains were tall and steep, and there were huge valleys and gushing rivers. We stopped in a town called Arthur’s Pass, near the actual Arthur’s Pass on the road, where we were going to just stop and take a picture, maybe buy some fruit (which proved to be hard—we ended up with California oranges). That turned into a little walk, which in turn turned into a longer hike. That walk was the most beautiful I’ve gone on this trip. It at first crossed bridges over blue rivers in a large rocky flood plain, but soon shot up into the hills. The trail was so steep at least half of it was on well-made large wooden stairs, which was tiring was fun. We went up a couple hundred feet, then down a hundred, until we got to the base of a spectacular 100+-foot waterfall we could see from the beginning of the hike. It was supposed to take half an hour each way, which I think it did, but it felt like about five minutes. At the platform we posed for a picture we asked a pair up there to take, then took a picture for them, then they took a picture for the final pair on the platform. M sat down to peel our oranges, which were delicious—they were sweet and juicy, a perfect reward for the hike. The view was amazing—the waterfall itself was tall and white, gushing down the cliff side to a pool below, with fed a stream and a shorter waterfall right below the wooden lookout we stood on. The other direction we could see white-peaked mountains and green hills. Walking down was almost harder than walking up because it was so steep, but soon we were back in the car park.
The next couple hours of the drive were just as spectacular, at first going through brown fields encased with shattering brown peaks. The area was scattered with lakes that were so blue they looked fake—I imagined a painting with lakes that color, seeing how silly and weird they would look on a canvas in front of the tall brown mountains. Soon it suddenly turned New Zealand green again, with grassy hills. Eventually, though, we got into the Canturbury plains, which really aren’t that pretty. They’re nice for a little bit, because of the massive hedgerows and fat sheep, but get boring quickly. They’re only right around Christchurch, though, so we didn’t get too much of them.
And now, I am home. M’s computer broke, something with the battery—it only works plugged in. She found a place on it where it said battery, then had a switch that was switched to “unlock.” She locked it, so hopefully the comp will be all better now.
I should go to bed. Goodnight.
I had the most amazing weekend. M and I took a trip to the west coast, staying there for two nights and driving a big loop to and from.
The beginning of the drive Saturday morning was a little boring, both because it is through plains and because we had done some of it before when we were driving to Kaikoura. Eventually, though, we started coming into mountains, when it started getting pretty. We searched for awhile for a picnic spot, finally finding one good enough; it was by a bridge, over a large, deep, blue river. The bridge was on a side road that we had to hop a fence to get to, but figured it was okay because nothing on it said “no admittance” or “private property.” A few minutes down the road there were many more stops by the river, some even with picnic tables.
As we crossed the pass, which wasn’t very dramatic on this road, the plants started changing—soon instead of mostly bushes and a few deciduous trees we were driving through deep green forests, much more similar to what I’m used to in Oregon. It was very beautiful. The weather was very good, which helped.
After a four or five hour drive we got to where we were staying on the west coast, a little town named Cape Foulwind (good name, eh?). The motel at first was a little disappointing, as we hoped for an ocean view and could only see a little sliver of blue horizon through the plants. It had a hottub, which was very nice, and the owners were quite sweet.
That afternoon we took a walk, down to a little gorgeous driftwood, cliff-enclosed beach, then along the bluff of the cape. For some reason I was very tired, and the whole time just felt like lying down and sleeping, but it was still fun. That evening we had dinner at “the Tavern,” a bar/bistro next door to the motel, a place where when we came in the bartender asked our names and shook our hands, then introduced us to a few other people there. We ordered steak (mmmmm), then went outside to their lawn to wait for food.
While we were waiting, and later eating, three little girls played on the small playground that was in the corner of the lawn. They were adorable; two were 5 or 6, and one was three. They kept having problems getting on the sea saw, as it was very high up, so eventually M and I had the job of holding it down for them. At first we tried to explain and help them balance the small three-year-old with the larger of the six-year-olds, before giving up and deciding they would figure it out eventually. Soon they were calling over to us to help them get down from it. The three year old was amazingly adorable. The steak was yummy as well.
That night we went to the hot tub, which they had a little whiteboard so people could sign up for times. This meant we had the tub on a steep slope among fern trees and other green plants to ourselves, which was nice. Hot tubs are almost as good as pools, which are up there with trampolines.
The next day we drove 45 minutes south to Punakaiki. The drive was beautiful, and near Punakaiki reminded me very much of the Oregon coast; there were steep hills falling into crashing ocean, with the road hovering over the waves, the hills covered in a thick layer of green—the only difference was what the green was. Amazing as it sounds, there were palm trees mixed in with the normal forest greens of New Zealand; the weather there is pretty temperate year-round, so they have little microclimates, where some sub-tropical plants grow.
We took a short walk, then a longer one up a river. That walk was stunning—the trail hugged the side of a river bank, which lay in a steep river valley. We found a perfect picnic spot down a scramble to a rocky beach by the river, where we had a wonderful picnic. Later on the walk my mom told me about people she knew in high school; teachers, friends, old boyfriends. It was fun to hear all about that.
After the walk we went to see the Pancake Rocks, Punakaiki’s main tourist attraction. The paved path through tall, thick, coastal grass with lookouts to see the spiky layered rocks was strangely familiar, I assume because we saw them last time we came to New Zealand. They were neat, although there were a lot of tourists there. We went at high tide to see the blowhole, a place where at high tide water sprays into the air out of nowhere, but after 20 minutes of waiting in the sun leaned over a railing next to couples and teenagers speaking Japanese and Swedish, we got bored and left.
When we got back to Cape Foulwind, we drove around a little, and took a walk to see a seal colony (New Zealand really loves their fur seals. I must say, the babies are quite adorable). That night we went to the one nice restaurant around there, which wasn’t more expensive than even the Tavern, and sat nestled in a hill looking into a beautiful bay and the ocean beyond. When we went there earlier in the day to make a reservation, at first we almost left because the waitress said they were booked. It turned out nobody wanted to sit out on their large porch, which is exactly where we wanted to sit, so we ended up getting a very good seat. It was a little cold after the sun escaped behind the bluff, but was still fun. The food was amazing—my favorite was New Zealand mussles (the best there are), cooked in coconut milk, lime, and some Thai flavors—it sounds bizarre, but it was delicious. (B, if you read this, please don’t give this idea to T—we’re going to surprise him by serving it to him over spring break).
That evening we also went to the hot tub, then went to sleep.
The next day we had to drive home, sadly. The drive started off along the same road we drove on the day before, which was still beautiful. Eventually the road turned away from the coast and strait into towering mountains, some with sparking glaciers perched on the tops of them. The drive got prettier and prettier—it was spectacular. Although the distance going this direction was shorter, the drive took much longer—more like six hours (although it was supposed to take seven—our car accelerates very well). The road was much thinner and curvier, going over and through much more dramatic mountains. The trucks on the road went painfully slowly, but M is getting very good at driving like a Kiwi and passing whenever the vehicle in front isn’t going 110 km/h. The drive was just stunning—around the pass especially. The mountains were tall and steep, and there were huge valleys and gushing rivers. We stopped in a town called Arthur’s Pass, near the actual Arthur’s Pass on the road, where we were going to just stop and take a picture, maybe buy some fruit (which proved to be hard—we ended up with California oranges). That turned into a little walk, which in turn turned into a longer hike. That walk was the most beautiful I’ve gone on this trip. It at first crossed bridges over blue rivers in a large rocky flood plain, but soon shot up into the hills. The trail was so steep at least half of it was on well-made large wooden stairs, which was tiring was fun. We went up a couple hundred feet, then down a hundred, until we got to the base of a spectacular 100+-foot waterfall we could see from the beginning of the hike. It was supposed to take half an hour each way, which I think it did, but it felt like about five minutes. At the platform we posed for a picture we asked a pair up there to take, then took a picture for them, then they took a picture for the final pair on the platform. M sat down to peel our oranges, which were delicious—they were sweet and juicy, a perfect reward for the hike. The view was amazing—the waterfall itself was tall and white, gushing down the cliff side to a pool below, with fed a stream and a shorter waterfall right below the wooden lookout we stood on. The other direction we could see white-peaked mountains and green hills. Walking down was almost harder than walking up because it was so steep, but soon we were back in the car park.
The next couple hours of the drive were just as spectacular, at first going through brown fields encased with shattering brown peaks. The area was scattered with lakes that were so blue they looked fake—I imagined a painting with lakes that color, seeing how silly and weird they would look on a canvas in front of the tall brown mountains. Soon it suddenly turned New Zealand green again, with grassy hills. Eventually, though, we got into the Canturbury plains, which really aren’t that pretty. They’re nice for a little bit, because of the massive hedgerows and fat sheep, but get boring quickly. They’re only right around Christchurch, though, so we didn’t get too much of them.
And now, I am home. M’s computer broke, something with the battery—it only works plugged in. She found a place on it where it said battery, then had a switch that was switched to “unlock.” She locked it, so hopefully the comp will be all better now.
I should go to bed. Goodnight.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Kaikoura
Tuesday, 10 March 8:41 pm
I had the most amazing weekend. M and I drove up to Kaikoura, a town about 2.5 hours north of Christchurch on the coast. The drive there was fantastically beautiful—full of tall grassy green mountain hills lined with hedgerows and dots of sheep, with a backdrop of stunning brown peaks. Until about two hours in, we were about 10 kilometers inland from the ocean. About 20 kilometers from Kaikoura, though, the road joined with the shore and snaked along the cliff side above turquoise water that looked like the Aegean. Kaikoura was on just a setting: the town itself was on a small flat area right on the ocean nestled between an elevated peninsula and steep mountains behind it.
We checked into our hotel, which turned out to be very nice—they gave us a free upgrade to a room downstairs staring right out into the ocean, with a jacoozy bath and velvety white robes hanging in the closet. We got takeout fish and chips in town for lunch, and ate on a rocky beach. That afternoon we decided to take a walk on the peninsula that the concierge recommended to us. The walk was amazing—it went along a cliff side right over the bright blue waters, where a seal colony attracted tourists by the parking lot. We walked along the edge of cow/sheep pastures, which were very beautiful and green, although provided very little shade. Still, it was very pleasant. From the peninsula we looked inland to the towering mountains that looked like the edges of them fell into the water, and out to the less exciting but still beautiful blue horizon. After an hour each way we were tired enough to go back to our hotel.
After going back to our hotel and using their internet for about half an hour, we put on our bathing suits and went across the street to the long beach of gray pebbles that fell quickly into the rolling waves. We sunbathed for about 30 minutes, after trying to get part-way in the water and deciding it was way too cold. The pebbles were very warm, so it was very comfortable.
That evening we got dinner at a restaurant a little ways from our hotel, which was very nice. It seemed to be the only restaurant in town that had outdoor seating and an ocean view, and as a plus had very good food.On the way home we stopped at an amazing playground of the town's elementary school. That playground was the best I think I've ever been on-- It was huge, a lot of the areas made for bigger people than 1st graders (although most places were still hard to fit into). The main structure was huge, and went very high off the ground. Off one side of the second level, maybe about 15 feet off the ground, there was a log, about 10-15 feet long, set up like a tight rope. All that was below it was rocks, and it only had small, low, far-away chains on either side for handrails. The log was set up so it wasn't completely set, so when you walked on it it swayed. It was utterly terrifying. I have no idea how the school got the insurance company to okay that....
The next morning we had a booking to go on a whale watching boat. It was amazing—the people who ran it were very nice, the boat was fast, and it was pretty stable—it was a catamaran, and a very nice day, which meant there was little rocking. After we drove out about five miles while the three-person Maori crew (the company prizes itself that it is a Maori owned and operated company, which means all the boat operators they employ are Maori) gave us safety instructions and told us a little bit about sperm whales. Soon they found a whale that was on the surface, and after catching up with it they let us go outside to watch. It was so fantastic—I had never seen a sperm whale before, and although they aren’t exactly the most elegant shape, it was still quite majestic in the water. My mom absolutely adored it. We watched it breathing on the surface for about ten minutes, then the crew told us it was about to dive—I got the perfect picture just when it’s tail was at its highest point, with the humongous mountains back on land as a background.
We saw three more whales, which was more than twice the average number of whales per tour according to the crew, and I even got a video of one diving. I put in on google vids, so you can all watch it. It is very shaky, because the boat was rocking a fair amount, and the web-version is pretty low-res, but still worth the watch.
On the way back, they took us into a pod of 500+ dusky dolphins playing on the surface. That was quite fantastic—they were everywhere, jumping and playing. The sound of them all breathing was nothing like I had ever heard before—Ican’t even describe it. A few times a dolphin would jump repeatedly high into the air and flip completely over twice, landing with a flop and a slash into the water. They would do this dozens of times repeatedly, looking quite silly but very neat. I took a video of the dolphins too, which is also definitely worth watching. It may take forever to load, but worth the wait (if I do say so myself). The links to both those videos are below:
Whale: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3461753510284014755
Dolphins: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3350548330804183061
That afternoon, after getting fish and chips again from a takeout place across the street from the one we went to the day before, we went back to the hotel and again put on bathing suits. It was much earlier, more like two than five, so the sun was brighter and the pebbles hotter. The sun felt so good, and although I could tell I was getting a little burnt I didn’t want to leave it. There’s a certain wonderful feeling of soaking up buckets of sun on an exposed back—very energizing. M got a little sun stricken, so we moved into the shade for awhile. After about an hour we took a very hot, sunny, and sticky walk that wasn’t meant to be very long (we had already walked a fair amount that day), but it ended up feeling very very far on the way back. When we got back to the hotel I took I cool bath, which felt wonderful (kind of like swimming but in a very small, un-chlorinated pool). That evening we went back to the same restaurant we ate at the night before, after spending about half an hour trying to figure out where to eat and finding no better ideas. It was very comfortable and yummy yet again. We went back to the playground as well.
The next morning, sadly, we had to leave. The drive back was as beautiful as the drive there, and along the way we took a few side trips to towns on the coast. Those little trips were amazing—the roads were beautiful and fun to drive on (thin and through mountainous farmland), and the ocean still spectacular when we got back to it. We got some lunch at a super market on the main highway (crackers and dip, mostly), then drove into a side road to a town I saw market on the map. It turned out that there wasn’t actually a town there, just a few empty houses who’s inhabitants were standing a hundred feet below us by the ocean where a giant river flower into it fishing. We found a bench overlooking the whole area, and ate our water crackers, bell pepper dip, and salami in the freezing wind. It was wonderful. Eventually, though, we had to drive back home.
That weekend was so much fun. We got a fair amount of sun, too—my back did end up getting a little red, but not so much it hurt. My feet have a very distinct Chaco tan now (my shoes—they are sandals with diagonal straps, so the tan left by them is a zig-zag triangle pattern), which I always love. It was pretty warm today in Christchurch, but now is very windy and rainy—although I miss the sun and bech, I do enjoy storms.
Well, I’m going to go to bed. Or at least decide I’ve done enough for one night and don’t have to work anymore. I know I really shouldn’t be putting off this paper I have to write, that it would be easier just to get it over with it, but it’s so easy to procrastinate. Oh well, I’ll work more on it tomorrow. Tonight I have a good excuse for not working on it (the blog). Besides, I’m feeling very music-deprived, and my iPod has been charging while I’ve been writing this. It’s so hard not having my computer (it’s a hard knock life, for me, da la la la hum hmm da) with all my iTunes and constant internet.
OH did I tell you that I looked into buying the soundtrack to Hey, Hey, it’s Esther Blueburger? Well, it turns out that they only have the soundtrack in the NZ and AUS iTunes stores, not the US one, and I can’t buy music on a different account until I use up all the gift certificate money I have in my US one. Bother. I could just open a new account, but I’m worried that for some reason I wouldn’t be able to transfer the music, or burn it on to a US CD because of country codes. Bother bother.
Okay, I’m going to go listen to Missy Higgins and draw, another thing I feel very deprived of.
Hmm, maybe the Across the Universe soundtrack.
Hmm. Decisions decisions.
I had the most amazing weekend. M and I drove up to Kaikoura, a town about 2.5 hours north of Christchurch on the coast. The drive there was fantastically beautiful—full of tall grassy green mountain hills lined with hedgerows and dots of sheep, with a backdrop of stunning brown peaks. Until about two hours in, we were about 10 kilometers inland from the ocean. About 20 kilometers from Kaikoura, though, the road joined with the shore and snaked along the cliff side above turquoise water that looked like the Aegean. Kaikoura was on just a setting: the town itself was on a small flat area right on the ocean nestled between an elevated peninsula and steep mountains behind it.
We checked into our hotel, which turned out to be very nice—they gave us a free upgrade to a room downstairs staring right out into the ocean, with a jacoozy bath and velvety white robes hanging in the closet. We got takeout fish and chips in town for lunch, and ate on a rocky beach. That afternoon we decided to take a walk on the peninsula that the concierge recommended to us. The walk was amazing—it went along a cliff side right over the bright blue waters, where a seal colony attracted tourists by the parking lot. We walked along the edge of cow/sheep pastures, which were very beautiful and green, although provided very little shade. Still, it was very pleasant. From the peninsula we looked inland to the towering mountains that looked like the edges of them fell into the water, and out to the less exciting but still beautiful blue horizon. After an hour each way we were tired enough to go back to our hotel.
After going back to our hotel and using their internet for about half an hour, we put on our bathing suits and went across the street to the long beach of gray pebbles that fell quickly into the rolling waves. We sunbathed for about 30 minutes, after trying to get part-way in the water and deciding it was way too cold. The pebbles were very warm, so it was very comfortable.
That evening we got dinner at a restaurant a little ways from our hotel, which was very nice. It seemed to be the only restaurant in town that had outdoor seating and an ocean view, and as a plus had very good food.On the way home we stopped at an amazing playground of the town's elementary school. That playground was the best I think I've ever been on-- It was huge, a lot of the areas made for bigger people than 1st graders (although most places were still hard to fit into). The main structure was huge, and went very high off the ground. Off one side of the second level, maybe about 15 feet off the ground, there was a log, about 10-15 feet long, set up like a tight rope. All that was below it was rocks, and it only had small, low, far-away chains on either side for handrails. The log was set up so it wasn't completely set, so when you walked on it it swayed. It was utterly terrifying. I have no idea how the school got the insurance company to okay that....
The next morning we had a booking to go on a whale watching boat. It was amazing—the people who ran it were very nice, the boat was fast, and it was pretty stable—it was a catamaran, and a very nice day, which meant there was little rocking. After we drove out about five miles while the three-person Maori crew (the company prizes itself that it is a Maori owned and operated company, which means all the boat operators they employ are Maori) gave us safety instructions and told us a little bit about sperm whales. Soon they found a whale that was on the surface, and after catching up with it they let us go outside to watch. It was so fantastic—I had never seen a sperm whale before, and although they aren’t exactly the most elegant shape, it was still quite majestic in the water. My mom absolutely adored it. We watched it breathing on the surface for about ten minutes, then the crew told us it was about to dive—I got the perfect picture just when it’s tail was at its highest point, with the humongous mountains back on land as a background.
We saw three more whales, which was more than twice the average number of whales per tour according to the crew, and I even got a video of one diving. I put in on google vids, so you can all watch it. It is very shaky, because the boat was rocking a fair amount, and the web-version is pretty low-res, but still worth the watch.
On the way back, they took us into a pod of 500+ dusky dolphins playing on the surface. That was quite fantastic—they were everywhere, jumping and playing. The sound of them all breathing was nothing like I had ever heard before—Ican’t even describe it. A few times a dolphin would jump repeatedly high into the air and flip completely over twice, landing with a flop and a slash into the water. They would do this dozens of times repeatedly, looking quite silly but very neat. I took a video of the dolphins too, which is also definitely worth watching. It may take forever to load, but worth the wait (if I do say so myself). The links to both those videos are below:
Whale: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3461753510284014755
Dolphins: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3350548330804183061
That afternoon, after getting fish and chips again from a takeout place across the street from the one we went to the day before, we went back to the hotel and again put on bathing suits. It was much earlier, more like two than five, so the sun was brighter and the pebbles hotter. The sun felt so good, and although I could tell I was getting a little burnt I didn’t want to leave it. There’s a certain wonderful feeling of soaking up buckets of sun on an exposed back—very energizing. M got a little sun stricken, so we moved into the shade for awhile. After about an hour we took a very hot, sunny, and sticky walk that wasn’t meant to be very long (we had already walked a fair amount that day), but it ended up feeling very very far on the way back. When we got back to the hotel I took I cool bath, which felt wonderful (kind of like swimming but in a very small, un-chlorinated pool). That evening we went back to the same restaurant we ate at the night before, after spending about half an hour trying to figure out where to eat and finding no better ideas. It was very comfortable and yummy yet again. We went back to the playground as well.
The next morning, sadly, we had to leave. The drive back was as beautiful as the drive there, and along the way we took a few side trips to towns on the coast. Those little trips were amazing—the roads were beautiful and fun to drive on (thin and through mountainous farmland), and the ocean still spectacular when we got back to it. We got some lunch at a super market on the main highway (crackers and dip, mostly), then drove into a side road to a town I saw market on the map. It turned out that there wasn’t actually a town there, just a few empty houses who’s inhabitants were standing a hundred feet below us by the ocean where a giant river flower into it fishing. We found a bench overlooking the whole area, and ate our water crackers, bell pepper dip, and salami in the freezing wind. It was wonderful. Eventually, though, we had to drive back home.
That weekend was so much fun. We got a fair amount of sun, too—my back did end up getting a little red, but not so much it hurt. My feet have a very distinct Chaco tan now (my shoes—they are sandals with diagonal straps, so the tan left by them is a zig-zag triangle pattern), which I always love. It was pretty warm today in Christchurch, but now is very windy and rainy—although I miss the sun and bech, I do enjoy storms.
Well, I’m going to go to bed. Or at least decide I’ve done enough for one night and don’t have to work anymore. I know I really shouldn’t be putting off this paper I have to write, that it would be easier just to get it over with it, but it’s so easy to procrastinate. Oh well, I’ll work more on it tomorrow. Tonight I have a good excuse for not working on it (the blog). Besides, I’m feeling very music-deprived, and my iPod has been charging while I’ve been writing this. It’s so hard not having my computer (it’s a hard knock life, for me, da la la la hum hmm da) with all my iTunes and constant internet.
OH did I tell you that I looked into buying the soundtrack to Hey, Hey, it’s Esther Blueburger? Well, it turns out that they only have the soundtrack in the NZ and AUS iTunes stores, not the US one, and I can’t buy music on a different account until I use up all the gift certificate money I have in my US one. Bother. I could just open a new account, but I’m worried that for some reason I wouldn’t be able to transfer the music, or burn it on to a US CD because of country codes. Bother bother.
Okay, I’m going to go listen to Missy Higgins and draw, another thing I feel very deprived of.
Hmm, maybe the Across the Universe soundtrack.
Hmm. Decisions decisions.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
In Class
I'm sitting in the back of a classroom in the University of Canturbury, waiting for a class my mom is teaching to start. I won't be able to type much during the class because this computer's keyboard is super loud-- and I should probably do math/spanish work. This class is three hours long, and I think meets once or twice a week.
Grandma died yesterday. My dad called while we were walking home. I feel so bad for him-- he is so sad. We were all expecting this for awhile, so it's actually not as bad as I think it could be. He's been grieving for months, which takes a little bit out how bad it is now. This may sound horrible but it's actually a relief of a burden. She was ready to die, and lived a very long time-- she also died in her home, which she was really adamant about. I miss her, I miss how much she loved anything about me: a bad school picture or a doodle on a napkin. She was my only grandparent, so I don't have any now.
But I'm really not too upset, or at least my brain is really good at suppressing it. I'm more sad for my dad and other relatives than I am for myself.
I should go now, because the class has started.
M and I are going on a trip this weekend, which I am excited for. We're going on a whale watching boat. :)
We only have two more episodes of ALIAS, which we're going to finish tonight. It's sooooo good.
Okay. Bye-bye
Grandma died yesterday. My dad called while we were walking home. I feel so bad for him-- he is so sad. We were all expecting this for awhile, so it's actually not as bad as I think it could be. He's been grieving for months, which takes a little bit out how bad it is now. This may sound horrible but it's actually a relief of a burden. She was ready to die, and lived a very long time-- she also died in her home, which she was really adamant about. I miss her, I miss how much she loved anything about me: a bad school picture or a doodle on a napkin. She was my only grandparent, so I don't have any now.
But I'm really not too upset, or at least my brain is really good at suppressing it. I'm more sad for my dad and other relatives than I am for myself.
I should go now, because the class has started.
M and I are going on a trip this weekend, which I am excited for. We're going on a whale watching boat. :)
We only have two more episodes of ALIAS, which we're going to finish tonight. It's sooooo good.
Okay. Bye-bye
Monday, March 2, 2009
Kiwis
Monday, 2 March 4:39 pm
It’s actually warm today. Windows open, jacket-off warm. I think when we first got here Christchurch was just having a cold spell. Although it’s still been cool (until today, that is), it hasn’t been bitterly freezing (that said I don’t think it ever got below 7 degrees Celsius, which is about 45 F).
D left Thursday for Florida, so now it’s just my mom and me in this big house. I miss him, but M and I are having fun. We have a routine now, which is nice. We wake up, at about 9:30 go into her office, get lunch around noon, leave around 3, go to the grocery store and get dinner (which includes standing in front of walls of vegetables being completely indecisive, getting a little snippy at each other, then buying way more than we actually need. We’re getting better on that), take a walk (sometimes we walk to the grocery store, which is only about a 20 minute walk), have dinner (now that it’s my mom and me we watch ALIAS while eating. It’s so much fun. TV and dinner are only in the same sentence at home when we’re talking about silly Americans, being that the table and the television are on opposite sides of the house, and my dad would veto it anyways. It was so amazing we found ALIAS at the video rental store (which took us about a week to find). Amazing), go to bed.
This last weekend we took day trips: Saturday we went into the city, and Sunday we went to the Banks Peninsula. They were both very fun.
We drove the three kilometers to a parking garage on the edge of downtown. We walked around, in the overcast/drizzly air, stopping at street fairs and a few more permanent attractions, such as a science museum and aquarium. At the aquarium, there were two Kiwis (don’t ask me why, I have no answer why Kiwis are suddenly classified as aquatic) that we got to see in a dark room with spider webs and tree stumps behind a glass wall (Kiwis are nocturnal, so I think the aquarium just switched their nights and days). They were neat to see—big and fat, with long sleek white beaks that picked up the light from the few dark spotlights attached to the ceiling. One of them spend a lot of time running around near us, and for awhile was sitting right in front of M’s nose. She loved the Kiwis.
We also went to the science museum, which was relatively fun besides the fact that there were swarms of loud 8-year-olds playing with every toy in the museum. There was also a sign at one of the brain teasers that said “Scientific research has found that men are better at spatial reasoning than women.” I asked my mom for a black sharpie, but unfortunately she didn’t have one with her.
The best part of the day was the art fair that happens every week in a courtyard in the old University of Canterbury buildings. It was a similar idea to Saturday Market in Eugene, but slightly more art-based, smaller, and there wasn’t a requirement that the person making the objects is the person selling. I love markets like that, though, so we spend awhile walking through the rows of booths, admiring jade jewelry and longing for the tailored sweatshirt/jackets with a price tag of $175. I was carrying a shoulder bag I made before we left Eugene that I had sewn and then painted intricately with designs. One woman with long red dread locks and a pierced nose who was sitting at a stand with burlap hats complemented me on my bag. At the same time I had been looking at her hats, noticing that she made them out of similar coffee bags that I’ve made bags for T and B out of.
The next day M and I drove on a 1.5-hour journey out to the Banks Peninsula. The last part of the main road to Akaroa, the touristy old French settlement at the end of the peninsula, is thin and snakes through the mountains. We were stuck for awhile of it behind a car going 40 kph, consistently driving in the very center of the road. It was terrifying every time a car or truck would come barreling around a bend and the car in front of us would swerve back into it’s lane.
When we finally got to Akaroa, we were surprised by how warm it was—we had thought it would be cold and rainy, as it always is out there and because of the storm we had at home the night before, but we were actually hot in our jeans. We wanted to take some hikes, and decided it would be too unbearable in jeans, so went on a search for shorts. The only ones we could find that were under $60 were beige men’s shorts that smelled like the couch at an under-staffed nursing home. They worked, though, and M and I took a lovely walk around a point by the main almost fjord-like harbor. We then drove up a road to the tops of the central mountains, to a less frequently used “tourist drive”. The drive itself was gorgeous, through majestic grass peaks speckled with sheep. The walk we wanted to take turned out to me incredibly muddy, and by the time we got to the lookout half way up we were so mudded out we decided to turn around. We did stop for about 20 minutes though to sit on the rocks on with 100-foot cliff on three sides, in wind so strong that every time we couldn’t stand up without losing our balance and almost falling off the cliffs. We sat in the wind, eating canned peanuts we had left from Fiji that we sheltered in a space between us and the backpack. The wind was cold, but not too freezing. From the lookout we could see the whole peninsula—both the harbor and the ocean on the other side that we hadn’t seen yet. It was beautiful.
The drive back was even more beautiful than the drive there, because we took the longer, windier, thinner road along the ridge of the mountain range. Eventually we got back home and had a relaxing evening.
Wow, was that just yesterday? It doesn’t feel like it was that soon.
I can’t believe there are only three weeks left of our trip—it feels like we just left. It feels like we spent just five minutes in each of the places we went to in Fiordland, and maybe an hour or two in Australia. I want to rewind and go back to the beginning. I was a little homesick a few weeks ago, and although I still miss Eugene and it’s people, part of me wants to stay here longer. I especially want to go back to Fiordland, and take a trip to Straddie and go on a hot, sweaty, buggy walk then a refreshing dip in the crashing Pacific waves.
The leaves are starting to fall here. I do love the feeling of autumn, especially being that I don’t have to go from summer break back to school again. This trip has been such the perfect arrangement of weather—I love every month weather-wise in Eugene so much except February through April, when spring starts to tempt us with flowers and hints of warmth but takes three months to actually develop into petals. I got my favorite month of December, and even got the feeling of winter with the week-long snow. Then I left, missing January (which was okay because of the snow in December), missing February, missing March, and having another summer and fall in return. Then I come back for the heart of spring which will turn into the rustling warm breezes of the beginning of summer. And then I get another summer, full of warm weather, no school, and weeks of working at imagine That.
I never want this trip to end!
It’s actually warm today. Windows open, jacket-off warm. I think when we first got here Christchurch was just having a cold spell. Although it’s still been cool (until today, that is), it hasn’t been bitterly freezing (that said I don’t think it ever got below 7 degrees Celsius, which is about 45 F).
D left Thursday for Florida, so now it’s just my mom and me in this big house. I miss him, but M and I are having fun. We have a routine now, which is nice. We wake up, at about 9:30 go into her office, get lunch around noon, leave around 3, go to the grocery store and get dinner (which includes standing in front of walls of vegetables being completely indecisive, getting a little snippy at each other, then buying way more than we actually need. We’re getting better on that), take a walk (sometimes we walk to the grocery store, which is only about a 20 minute walk), have dinner (now that it’s my mom and me we watch ALIAS while eating. It’s so much fun. TV and dinner are only in the same sentence at home when we’re talking about silly Americans, being that the table and the television are on opposite sides of the house, and my dad would veto it anyways. It was so amazing we found ALIAS at the video rental store (which took us about a week to find). Amazing), go to bed.
This last weekend we took day trips: Saturday we went into the city, and Sunday we went to the Banks Peninsula. They were both very fun.
We drove the three kilometers to a parking garage on the edge of downtown. We walked around, in the overcast/drizzly air, stopping at street fairs and a few more permanent attractions, such as a science museum and aquarium. At the aquarium, there were two Kiwis (don’t ask me why, I have no answer why Kiwis are suddenly classified as aquatic) that we got to see in a dark room with spider webs and tree stumps behind a glass wall (Kiwis are nocturnal, so I think the aquarium just switched their nights and days). They were neat to see—big and fat, with long sleek white beaks that picked up the light from the few dark spotlights attached to the ceiling. One of them spend a lot of time running around near us, and for awhile was sitting right in front of M’s nose. She loved the Kiwis.
We also went to the science museum, which was relatively fun besides the fact that there were swarms of loud 8-year-olds playing with every toy in the museum. There was also a sign at one of the brain teasers that said “Scientific research has found that men are better at spatial reasoning than women.” I asked my mom for a black sharpie, but unfortunately she didn’t have one with her.
The best part of the day was the art fair that happens every week in a courtyard in the old University of Canterbury buildings. It was a similar idea to Saturday Market in Eugene, but slightly more art-based, smaller, and there wasn’t a requirement that the person making the objects is the person selling. I love markets like that, though, so we spend awhile walking through the rows of booths, admiring jade jewelry and longing for the tailored sweatshirt/jackets with a price tag of $175. I was carrying a shoulder bag I made before we left Eugene that I had sewn and then painted intricately with designs. One woman with long red dread locks and a pierced nose who was sitting at a stand with burlap hats complemented me on my bag. At the same time I had been looking at her hats, noticing that she made them out of similar coffee bags that I’ve made bags for T and B out of.
The next day M and I drove on a 1.5-hour journey out to the Banks Peninsula. The last part of the main road to Akaroa, the touristy old French settlement at the end of the peninsula, is thin and snakes through the mountains. We were stuck for awhile of it behind a car going 40 kph, consistently driving in the very center of the road. It was terrifying every time a car or truck would come barreling around a bend and the car in front of us would swerve back into it’s lane.
When we finally got to Akaroa, we were surprised by how warm it was—we had thought it would be cold and rainy, as it always is out there and because of the storm we had at home the night before, but we were actually hot in our jeans. We wanted to take some hikes, and decided it would be too unbearable in jeans, so went on a search for shorts. The only ones we could find that were under $60 were beige men’s shorts that smelled like the couch at an under-staffed nursing home. They worked, though, and M and I took a lovely walk around a point by the main almost fjord-like harbor. We then drove up a road to the tops of the central mountains, to a less frequently used “tourist drive”. The drive itself was gorgeous, through majestic grass peaks speckled with sheep. The walk we wanted to take turned out to me incredibly muddy, and by the time we got to the lookout half way up we were so mudded out we decided to turn around. We did stop for about 20 minutes though to sit on the rocks on with 100-foot cliff on three sides, in wind so strong that every time we couldn’t stand up without losing our balance and almost falling off the cliffs. We sat in the wind, eating canned peanuts we had left from Fiji that we sheltered in a space between us and the backpack. The wind was cold, but not too freezing. From the lookout we could see the whole peninsula—both the harbor and the ocean on the other side that we hadn’t seen yet. It was beautiful.
The drive back was even more beautiful than the drive there, because we took the longer, windier, thinner road along the ridge of the mountain range. Eventually we got back home and had a relaxing evening.
Wow, was that just yesterday? It doesn’t feel like it was that soon.
I can’t believe there are only three weeks left of our trip—it feels like we just left. It feels like we spent just five minutes in each of the places we went to in Fiordland, and maybe an hour or two in Australia. I want to rewind and go back to the beginning. I was a little homesick a few weeks ago, and although I still miss Eugene and it’s people, part of me wants to stay here longer. I especially want to go back to Fiordland, and take a trip to Straddie and go on a hot, sweaty, buggy walk then a refreshing dip in the crashing Pacific waves.
The leaves are starting to fall here. I do love the feeling of autumn, especially being that I don’t have to go from summer break back to school again. This trip has been such the perfect arrangement of weather—I love every month weather-wise in Eugene so much except February through April, when spring starts to tempt us with flowers and hints of warmth but takes three months to actually develop into petals. I got my favorite month of December, and even got the feeling of winter with the week-long snow. Then I left, missing January (which was okay because of the snow in December), missing February, missing March, and having another summer and fall in return. Then I come back for the heart of spring which will turn into the rustling warm breezes of the beginning of summer. And then I get another summer, full of warm weather, no school, and weeks of working at imagine That.
I never want this trip to end!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Chch
Tuesday, 24 February 9:16 pm
We’re in New Zealand. And it’s cold.
I mean really cold. Like, pants-fleece-hat cold. Like, 14 degrees (what is that, like 50 degrees Fahrenheit?) cold.
It’s nice though. We left Straddie Sunday morning, and as we drove to Dunwich and the ferry I was saying, “bye-bye ocean, bye-bye beach, bye-bye koala crossing sign,” etc. When we got to the mainland we drove to W and C’s house, where W was cooking a delicious seafood feast for lunch (fish and chips [mmm mmm mmm!], seafood salads, fancy oyster things, yum yum yummy). We then headed for the airport, hung out in the sophisticated, comfortable terminal until our flight boarded, then got on the plane. Once we were all on and ready to go, the inevitable hour of technical problems started. This time, however, being that we were flying on Air New Zealand, we had an ongoing commentary and explanation of what was happening in the captain (“Captain Pringle” was his name) in a sweet New Zealand accent. Luckily, the airplane had those amazing personal touch-screen “in flight entertainment” screens, so we could watch movies while we were waiting.
The flight was about three hours once we took off, which meant we got into Christchurch at one in the morning local time. The customs agent was amazingly cheerful, which sadly we could not match. We picked up a rental car, then drove to the house we’re staying in.
Where we are staying is connected to a hotel next door, which has played Monopoly with the surrounding property and rents them mostly to visiting professors. It’s right across the street from the University, and the house that was free is at the end of the long driveway where all the houses are. The house is humongous, a four-bedroom (at least), 3-bath, two story house with a big, private yard. It’s amazingly well packed in here, and nice that we got the house on the end hence the privacy and space. There are houses around us, but there are so many tall, thick trees between that we can’t even see the ones behind us. It’s very comfortable, a little weirdly arranged, but nice.
I miss Straddie already. I miss the heat (what I was looking forward to getting away from), the beach, the sun, and the simplicity of routine. I miss the small-town, but I’m also excited to be somewhere crisp and cool, with 100 times as many people as Straddie and large grocery stores. Everybody here seems to drive very fast, and there’s a lot of traffic around the university (the term started yesterday, so I think many people are still moving in), which makes driving (and crossing the street to get to the university) scary and stressful. The night we arrived there was no other car on the road—a stark contrast to what it’s like during the day.
My mom has a very nice, large office on the top floor of the building with a wonderful view of the university and surrounding burbs. I think I’m going to work there most of the time rather than at home. Campus is nice also, and I’m almost starting to get a sense of where things are—every time we try to walk somewhere my parents follow me, and despite not sure if we’re going in the right direction we always end up in the right place. There are a few places to eat on campus (we went to an Indian place today next to the bookstore with a 40-foot long line of students trying to buy textbooks. The food was okay, but like a lot of Indian food here it was bland because of the lack of spicy-ness. Do the Kiwis have no spice tolerance at all?), and many about a 20-minute walk away.
Every time I look outside into our backyard, I long for the trampoline in my imagination. Our back yard is perfect for one, with the perfect spot over mossy grass under tall trees. It’s unreal how much I want one. I’ve been looking online for used trampolines, but can’t find anything (Christchurch has a Craigslist!), and new tramps cost upward of $1000 NZ, which is way more than my mom is willing to spend for something we’d only have for a month (I don’t blame her). My mom’s main contact in the department is looking into finding somebody with a tramp they don’t use, which is amazingly nice of him, and shows how desperate I am. It seems silly to so long for something material, but oooohhhh I want one so much!
I do think we’re going to be very comfortable here. It’s cold, but I’ll get used to that in a few days. Today I was wearing three shirts (one of them flannel), thick jeans, and a raincoat for most of the day (Christchurch’s weather is similar to that of Eugene, especially in the precipitation-area), and was still freezing. Tomorrow I may break out the hat and gloves. The problem is we didn’t really pack for fall weather, so although we have a few warm clothes I think I’m going to be re-wearing the same outfit every other day. Like a good Eugenian I was wearing my chacos without socks (I miss my Berkies so much! Chacos are amazingly nice for most things, but the just don’t compare to Berks for walking around town. Especially around campus). I really like university campuses, and university towns, so it’s nice having campus at the end of our driveway. I think it would be fun to rent bikes for a few weeks while we’re here to get around, but because of the rain and that everything is reasonably walkable that may be irrational. It’d still be really fun, though.
I should go to bed, it’s almost 10. I feel much less stressed here, for I’m not sure what reason. I guess because it seems like I have a huge amount of time to work. My dad leaves for Florida on Thursday, which means after that my mom and I will be alone in this big house for awhile. It’s going to be fun, although I’m going to miss my dad.
I’m really going to bed now. Good night.
We’re in New Zealand. And it’s cold.
I mean really cold. Like, pants-fleece-hat cold. Like, 14 degrees (what is that, like 50 degrees Fahrenheit?) cold.
It’s nice though. We left Straddie Sunday morning, and as we drove to Dunwich and the ferry I was saying, “bye-bye ocean, bye-bye beach, bye-bye koala crossing sign,” etc. When we got to the mainland we drove to W and C’s house, where W was cooking a delicious seafood feast for lunch (fish and chips [mmm mmm mmm!], seafood salads, fancy oyster things, yum yum yummy). We then headed for the airport, hung out in the sophisticated, comfortable terminal until our flight boarded, then got on the plane. Once we were all on and ready to go, the inevitable hour of technical problems started. This time, however, being that we were flying on Air New Zealand, we had an ongoing commentary and explanation of what was happening in the captain (“Captain Pringle” was his name) in a sweet New Zealand accent. Luckily, the airplane had those amazing personal touch-screen “in flight entertainment” screens, so we could watch movies while we were waiting.
The flight was about three hours once we took off, which meant we got into Christchurch at one in the morning local time. The customs agent was amazingly cheerful, which sadly we could not match. We picked up a rental car, then drove to the house we’re staying in.
Where we are staying is connected to a hotel next door, which has played Monopoly with the surrounding property and rents them mostly to visiting professors. It’s right across the street from the University, and the house that was free is at the end of the long driveway where all the houses are. The house is humongous, a four-bedroom (at least), 3-bath, two story house with a big, private yard. It’s amazingly well packed in here, and nice that we got the house on the end hence the privacy and space. There are houses around us, but there are so many tall, thick trees between that we can’t even see the ones behind us. It’s very comfortable, a little weirdly arranged, but nice.
I miss Straddie already. I miss the heat (what I was looking forward to getting away from), the beach, the sun, and the simplicity of routine. I miss the small-town, but I’m also excited to be somewhere crisp and cool, with 100 times as many people as Straddie and large grocery stores. Everybody here seems to drive very fast, and there’s a lot of traffic around the university (the term started yesterday, so I think many people are still moving in), which makes driving (and crossing the street to get to the university) scary and stressful. The night we arrived there was no other car on the road—a stark contrast to what it’s like during the day.
My mom has a very nice, large office on the top floor of the building with a wonderful view of the university and surrounding burbs. I think I’m going to work there most of the time rather than at home. Campus is nice also, and I’m almost starting to get a sense of where things are—every time we try to walk somewhere my parents follow me, and despite not sure if we’re going in the right direction we always end up in the right place. There are a few places to eat on campus (we went to an Indian place today next to the bookstore with a 40-foot long line of students trying to buy textbooks. The food was okay, but like a lot of Indian food here it was bland because of the lack of spicy-ness. Do the Kiwis have no spice tolerance at all?), and many about a 20-minute walk away.
Every time I look outside into our backyard, I long for the trampoline in my imagination. Our back yard is perfect for one, with the perfect spot over mossy grass under tall trees. It’s unreal how much I want one. I’ve been looking online for used trampolines, but can’t find anything (Christchurch has a Craigslist!), and new tramps cost upward of $1000 NZ, which is way more than my mom is willing to spend for something we’d only have for a month (I don’t blame her). My mom’s main contact in the department is looking into finding somebody with a tramp they don’t use, which is amazingly nice of him, and shows how desperate I am. It seems silly to so long for something material, but oooohhhh I want one so much!
I do think we’re going to be very comfortable here. It’s cold, but I’ll get used to that in a few days. Today I was wearing three shirts (one of them flannel), thick jeans, and a raincoat for most of the day (Christchurch’s weather is similar to that of Eugene, especially in the precipitation-area), and was still freezing. Tomorrow I may break out the hat and gloves. The problem is we didn’t really pack for fall weather, so although we have a few warm clothes I think I’m going to be re-wearing the same outfit every other day. Like a good Eugenian I was wearing my chacos without socks (I miss my Berkies so much! Chacos are amazingly nice for most things, but the just don’t compare to Berks for walking around town. Especially around campus). I really like university campuses, and university towns, so it’s nice having campus at the end of our driveway. I think it would be fun to rent bikes for a few weeks while we’re here to get around, but because of the rain and that everything is reasonably walkable that may be irrational. It’d still be really fun, though.
I should go to bed, it’s almost 10. I feel much less stressed here, for I’m not sure what reason. I guess because it seems like I have a huge amount of time to work. My dad leaves for Florida on Thursday, which means after that my mom and I will be alone in this big house for awhile. It’s going to be fun, although I’m going to miss my dad.
I’m really going to bed now. Good night.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Goodbye, Koalas.
Tomorrow we leave for New Zealand.
Although I'm very excited to go somewhere cool and crisp, I am going to seriously miss this place. I have a fondness for Straddie, for it's warm beaches, kind locals, and even the sticky heat. See, I even use the nickname tourists in love with the island who spend their summers in the houses they own here use.
Today we saw not only sea turtles, but what looked incredibly suspiciously like Manta rays. There were five of them, all together (peculiar, they're not social animals) just under the surface of the water in the gorge. After staring at the brown blobs we thought were more turtles for awhile, we became sure of their flat triangular shape and that they didn't ever come up for air. We also saw dozens of dolphins playing in the water, and at one point about 5 or 10 of them rode with giant waves, body surfing. They jumped through the side of the waves, and ended up very near a group of human surfers, who looked delighted to have dolphins riding the same waves they were. It was quite a sight.
We have to pack tonight, which I should be doing right now. I finished Jane Eyre a few days ago, so started reading Three Cups of Tea yesterday. I love it. The school books this year have been so much better than previous years-- I actually look forward to reading them. Last year we had two good books, Night by Ellie Weisel and the Samurai's Garden by I forget who, but this year almost every book I have thoroughly enjoyed. It helps the whole stress-case phenomenon when I actually enjoy doing the homework.
Love Actually finally was in the day after I posted the last post. It was pretty good, mostly just because it had the most amazing cast of all time who seemed like they were having an amazing time filming. We also saw a movie called Dear Frankie, which was sweet, and a movie called the World's Fastest Indian. Sounds like a strange, low-budget, old racist movie, yes? Well, wrong. It was very good. It belongs to W, who loves motorcycles, and who told us to watch it. The New Zealand movie was about an old Kiwi from Invercargil (we didn't drive through it in our camper, but were near it)who was a bike fanatic. The true story was wonderful, as it followed an incredibly sweet NZ man through his journey to the US and to Speed Week in the Utah Salt Flats, and the people he met along the way (everybody he met was charmed by him, including a LA drag queen, who the Kiwi had no reservations about). He was going to SPeed Week because he was sure he was going to break a world record for speed on his 40-year old bike made to go 55 mph that he had outfitted for 25 years, now capable of going well over 150 mph. Again, I'm not sure if you can get this in the US, but if you can it's a quite wonderful movie.
Oh, and you know that Australian movie we saw and loved, Hey, Hey, it's Esther Blueburger? Well, while we were starting it, I commented at how much one of the main characters looked like the girl from Whale Rider. Today, I was looking up the movie again, and saw that she actually was the main character in Whale Rider, which was her big debut. She was much older-looking in Hey, Hey, it's Esther Blueburger, which was weird because it came out only about four years after Whale Rider. She was quite good in both, if I do say so myself.
Well, I should get back to packing, or at least reading while my parents tolerantly walk around me doing most of the work. It's late. Well, not really, but we have to leave at 9:00 am tomorrow... Not so happy about that, but it's not that different from when we've been getting out of the house most mornings.
Good night, good bye, good.... hm. I can't think of another other than "riddance."
Although I'm very excited to go somewhere cool and crisp, I am going to seriously miss this place. I have a fondness for Straddie, for it's warm beaches, kind locals, and even the sticky heat. See, I even use the nickname tourists in love with the island who spend their summers in the houses they own here use.
Today we saw not only sea turtles, but what looked incredibly suspiciously like Manta rays. There were five of them, all together (peculiar, they're not social animals) just under the surface of the water in the gorge. After staring at the brown blobs we thought were more turtles for awhile, we became sure of their flat triangular shape and that they didn't ever come up for air. We also saw dozens of dolphins playing in the water, and at one point about 5 or 10 of them rode with giant waves, body surfing. They jumped through the side of the waves, and ended up very near a group of human surfers, who looked delighted to have dolphins riding the same waves they were. It was quite a sight.
We have to pack tonight, which I should be doing right now. I finished Jane Eyre a few days ago, so started reading Three Cups of Tea yesterday. I love it. The school books this year have been so much better than previous years-- I actually look forward to reading them. Last year we had two good books, Night by Ellie Weisel and the Samurai's Garden by I forget who, but this year almost every book I have thoroughly enjoyed. It helps the whole stress-case phenomenon when I actually enjoy doing the homework.
Love Actually finally was in the day after I posted the last post. It was pretty good, mostly just because it had the most amazing cast of all time who seemed like they were having an amazing time filming. We also saw a movie called Dear Frankie, which was sweet, and a movie called the World's Fastest Indian. Sounds like a strange, low-budget, old racist movie, yes? Well, wrong. It was very good. It belongs to W, who loves motorcycles, and who told us to watch it. The New Zealand movie was about an old Kiwi from Invercargil (we didn't drive through it in our camper, but were near it)who was a bike fanatic. The true story was wonderful, as it followed an incredibly sweet NZ man through his journey to the US and to Speed Week in the Utah Salt Flats, and the people he met along the way (everybody he met was charmed by him, including a LA drag queen, who the Kiwi had no reservations about). He was going to SPeed Week because he was sure he was going to break a world record for speed on his 40-year old bike made to go 55 mph that he had outfitted for 25 years, now capable of going well over 150 mph. Again, I'm not sure if you can get this in the US, but if you can it's a quite wonderful movie.
Oh, and you know that Australian movie we saw and loved, Hey, Hey, it's Esther Blueburger? Well, while we were starting it, I commented at how much one of the main characters looked like the girl from Whale Rider. Today, I was looking up the movie again, and saw that she actually was the main character in Whale Rider, which was her big debut. She was much older-looking in Hey, Hey, it's Esther Blueburger, which was weird because it came out only about four years after Whale Rider. She was quite good in both, if I do say so myself.
Well, I should get back to packing, or at least reading while my parents tolerantly walk around me doing most of the work. It's late. Well, not really, but we have to leave at 9:00 am tomorrow... Not so happy about that, but it's not that different from when we've been getting out of the house most mornings.
Good night, good bye, good.... hm. I can't think of another other than "riddance."
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
More sand. And sun, And surf.
Monday, 16 February 8:32 pm
I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long. Although I don’t have a good excuse, I do have one: I was too lazy to post at first, and then I started reading a long book that engrossed my every extra minute. We’ve also been watching movies most nights, which takes my time up after dinner.
The book I have been reading is Jane Eyre—I had never read it before, and got it in Brisbane with an idea to take up time on the island. It’s worked wonders, because it takes so long to read and because it’s so addicting. There’s something I absolutely adore about the language in books like Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice—I love the long, colorful sentences and bluntness of writing. There’s also something marvelous about the goofy sappy romances taking hundreds of pages to develop. Jane Eyre is much more exciting than Pride and Prejudice was—I’m not sure if I like that better, although the slow, descriptive scenes and plot that I love is still true of Bronte’s book.
On that note, I saw Kiera Knightly’s Pride and Prejudice about a week ago. I loved it as I did the book, which a lot of was because of the story, but the movie itself was pretty good as well. As I said earlier, my mom and I have been watching a lot of movies. There’s a local DVD rental store, which he have been frequenting, and the people there by now must know us well. Since early on we have been asking for one particular movie (Love Actually) which has been checked out the whole time—ever since the first day it’s been over-due, and whoever is working there at the time texts or calls the person who still has it. A lot of people have told me to see it, and since I’m trying to watch all the movies on my list, I really hope it comes in. We’ve seen August Rush (sickly sweet and completely wonderful), Atonement (a little sad, but overall good), Wag the Dog (hilariously funny and incredibly upsetting at the end. If you haven’t seen it, you must), Big Fish (Tim Burton, so should be good, right? Well, it wasn’t that good—very cliché and the acting was horrible), What About Bob (very funny. It belongs to W, and is about a psychiatrist who’s patient makes him go crazy. Very very funny), Minority Report (I didn’t know Tom Cruise could pretend to act, but he does a pretty good job of it in this. My favorite part was one of the computer screens of the future, which was the size of a wall, and had gloves that one could put on that would let the wearer move windows around the screen at the twitch of a finger. The movement needed was almost exactly that of an iPhone [except minus the touch part], even though the movie came out years before Apple’s multi-touch interfaces did), and probably others I’m forgetting.
Tonight we watched an amazing Australian movie called “Hey Hey it’s Esther Blueburger.” It was wonderful—it was a movie about middle/high school, specifically cliques, which in the US is something to steer clear from (Hollywood High Schools—I shiver with the thought). Instead of being plastic-y and mean, however, it was sweet and genuine; a little meanness at times, but most of it wasn’t (and would it be high school without it?). The acting was pretty good, as was the direction. We didn’t understand some of it at the cultural level, although it was fascinating to watch—it at times was almost a comedy of manners (though not quite as painful), which made it fun to see the little Australian habits. There were some hilariously funny scenes, such as one in a family psychiatrist’s office (everybody was sitting awkwardly on bean bag chairs which the psychiatrist peeled an apple with a knife into a perfect spiral, no talking whatsoever). I’m not sure if it’s possible to get in the US, but if so I definitely recommend watching it. It helped it had a very good soundtrack (it even had a Missy Higgins song, which always is a good sign). Once I have high speed internet again I’m definitely going to look it up.
As of the island, it’s wonderful. Every day we take wonderfully beautiful walks/hikes, either on the beach, or farther inland (most of the walks are on 4-wheel drive roads, which means the ground is very hard to walk on. The dry sand is about the consistency of tapioca pudding). Those walks get very hot, because of the humidity and heat. After we get home from each walk we sit in front of the three fans we have trying to cool down. A few days ago that changed—it was the weirdest experience, because I was actually cold. It rained a lot those two days, and in the day got up to only 79 degrees (Fahrenheit, that is). It was freezing. That only happened twice, though—it is now hot again. I guess I shouldn’t complain.
The beach has been fantastic also—every afternoon we go swimming. It’s amazingly fun to play in the waves, mainly to try to ride them into shore. Most days it’s a little rough and current-y to actually swim in the waves, but a few days it hasn’t been (today, for example—the waves were huge where we were, but very little current—very fun). I’ve gotten very good at body surfing, if I do say so myself (there’s natural modesty for you, Socrates). There’s an ocean lagoon on the beach near our house that we swim at, which is better on rough days—some waves still break into it, but mostly it’s calm. I like the waves better, but the lagoon is better for actually swimming.
In the lagoon, my parents and I will spend hours playing Monkey in the Middle with a tennis ball. It’s weirdly addicting and fun, and except for a few bops in the nose or eye by the ball, it’s been pretty injury-less. It’s so much fun to throw it where both my parents could get it, and watch them fight for it. Maybe a weird sense of humor, but VERY amusing.
I got a haircut a few days ago. I was terrified before it—so scared there would be some weird Aussie tradition with haircuts, and I would do something completely wrong. As it turned out, it was very easy—the woman who cut it was very sweet, and it was fast and inexpensive. It’s a really nice cut too (again with the modesty), maybe even better than the ones I get in the States (I’m not sure I’d give it that, but it’s still pretty good). It’s so nice to finally have the hair out of my eyes.
Well, I should go to bed. I can’t believe I left my book for so long—the longest I’ve gone without reading it yet. I keep telling myself that after this book I’ll read the school books I have (which look good also), and I have to keep to that—if not I’ll never finish the work.
Goodnight.
I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long. Although I don’t have a good excuse, I do have one: I was too lazy to post at first, and then I started reading a long book that engrossed my every extra minute. We’ve also been watching movies most nights, which takes my time up after dinner.
The book I have been reading is Jane Eyre—I had never read it before, and got it in Brisbane with an idea to take up time on the island. It’s worked wonders, because it takes so long to read and because it’s so addicting. There’s something I absolutely adore about the language in books like Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice—I love the long, colorful sentences and bluntness of writing. There’s also something marvelous about the goofy sappy romances taking hundreds of pages to develop. Jane Eyre is much more exciting than Pride and Prejudice was—I’m not sure if I like that better, although the slow, descriptive scenes and plot that I love is still true of Bronte’s book.
On that note, I saw Kiera Knightly’s Pride and Prejudice about a week ago. I loved it as I did the book, which a lot of was because of the story, but the movie itself was pretty good as well. As I said earlier, my mom and I have been watching a lot of movies. There’s a local DVD rental store, which he have been frequenting, and the people there by now must know us well. Since early on we have been asking for one particular movie (Love Actually) which has been checked out the whole time—ever since the first day it’s been over-due, and whoever is working there at the time texts or calls the person who still has it. A lot of people have told me to see it, and since I’m trying to watch all the movies on my list, I really hope it comes in. We’ve seen August Rush (sickly sweet and completely wonderful), Atonement (a little sad, but overall good), Wag the Dog (hilariously funny and incredibly upsetting at the end. If you haven’t seen it, you must), Big Fish (Tim Burton, so should be good, right? Well, it wasn’t that good—very cliché and the acting was horrible), What About Bob (very funny. It belongs to W, and is about a psychiatrist who’s patient makes him go crazy. Very very funny), Minority Report (I didn’t know Tom Cruise could pretend to act, but he does a pretty good job of it in this. My favorite part was one of the computer screens of the future, which was the size of a wall, and had gloves that one could put on that would let the wearer move windows around the screen at the twitch of a finger. The movement needed was almost exactly that of an iPhone [except minus the touch part], even though the movie came out years before Apple’s multi-touch interfaces did), and probably others I’m forgetting.
Tonight we watched an amazing Australian movie called “Hey Hey it’s Esther Blueburger.” It was wonderful—it was a movie about middle/high school, specifically cliques, which in the US is something to steer clear from (Hollywood High Schools—I shiver with the thought). Instead of being plastic-y and mean, however, it was sweet and genuine; a little meanness at times, but most of it wasn’t (and would it be high school without it?). The acting was pretty good, as was the direction. We didn’t understand some of it at the cultural level, although it was fascinating to watch—it at times was almost a comedy of manners (though not quite as painful), which made it fun to see the little Australian habits. There were some hilariously funny scenes, such as one in a family psychiatrist’s office (everybody was sitting awkwardly on bean bag chairs which the psychiatrist peeled an apple with a knife into a perfect spiral, no talking whatsoever). I’m not sure if it’s possible to get in the US, but if so I definitely recommend watching it. It helped it had a very good soundtrack (it even had a Missy Higgins song, which always is a good sign). Once I have high speed internet again I’m definitely going to look it up.
As of the island, it’s wonderful. Every day we take wonderfully beautiful walks/hikes, either on the beach, or farther inland (most of the walks are on 4-wheel drive roads, which means the ground is very hard to walk on. The dry sand is about the consistency of tapioca pudding). Those walks get very hot, because of the humidity and heat. After we get home from each walk we sit in front of the three fans we have trying to cool down. A few days ago that changed—it was the weirdest experience, because I was actually cold. It rained a lot those two days, and in the day got up to only 79 degrees (Fahrenheit, that is). It was freezing. That only happened twice, though—it is now hot again. I guess I shouldn’t complain.
The beach has been fantastic also—every afternoon we go swimming. It’s amazingly fun to play in the waves, mainly to try to ride them into shore. Most days it’s a little rough and current-y to actually swim in the waves, but a few days it hasn’t been (today, for example—the waves were huge where we were, but very little current—very fun). I’ve gotten very good at body surfing, if I do say so myself (there’s natural modesty for you, Socrates). There’s an ocean lagoon on the beach near our house that we swim at, which is better on rough days—some waves still break into it, but mostly it’s calm. I like the waves better, but the lagoon is better for actually swimming.
In the lagoon, my parents and I will spend hours playing Monkey in the Middle with a tennis ball. It’s weirdly addicting and fun, and except for a few bops in the nose or eye by the ball, it’s been pretty injury-less. It’s so much fun to throw it where both my parents could get it, and watch them fight for it. Maybe a weird sense of humor, but VERY amusing.
I got a haircut a few days ago. I was terrified before it—so scared there would be some weird Aussie tradition with haircuts, and I would do something completely wrong. As it turned out, it was very easy—the woman who cut it was very sweet, and it was fast and inexpensive. It’s a really nice cut too (again with the modesty), maybe even better than the ones I get in the States (I’m not sure I’d give it that, but it’s still pretty good). It’s so nice to finally have the hair out of my eyes.
Well, I should go to bed. I can’t believe I left my book for so long—the longest I’ve gone without reading it yet. I keep telling myself that after this book I’ll read the school books I have (which look good also), and I have to keep to that—if not I’ll never finish the work.
Goodnight.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Sand, Sand, Sand. And more sand.
February 3 1:20 pm
Our second full day on the island. I love it here. Right now I am in "school," but taking a break because every single integration problem I try doesn't work. Even my dad is having problems with the ones he's helping me with (which, at this point, is all of them.)
So, I decided to post. Nothing else to do with my time, except maybe other homework, but that would be silly. Why work when I have a perfectly good excuse not to?
Yesterday was very fun. We took a walk behind our house on an old sandy dune-buggy road through the bush, which was hot but interesting. We then came back home, and I got started on homework, which was not that bad. I like a lot of the work I've been doing if I'm productive and I can actually _do_ all the problems, unlike math right now. The books in Lit are fun, the Spanish is fun and relatively easy, and the math is normally satisfying.
Ooh, I think D just figured out one of the problems. Be right back.
February 5 8:15 am
Sorry, much bigger break than I though I would have. D figured out a problem and after he showed me how to do it I got on a roll. After I finished the section I rushed to get ready for the beach. Sorry to choose body surfing in warm Pacific waves over blogging, but I have to have priorities.
Our days have gotten into a schedule-- the one we planned, in fact--: morning, we have coffee/hot chocolate/breakfast. Mid-morning, we take a walk somewhere. Mid-day, I work, D helps, and M does various things (such as grocery shopping, talking to P and T, and working). Afternoon, we jump into swimsuits and run to the beach (well, not quite that dramatic, but that's what I want to do). We swim for a few hours, then come home, make dinner, and go to sleep.
So not too many notable things. We saw dolphins and a sea turtle on one of our walks around town. That walk was actually very interesting-- we saw a surfing competition on the Main Beach. M and I love to watch people surf, so that was fun to do, but something about the hundreds of surf bums standing around in swim trunks waxing their board waiting for their heat, while giant speakers on the beach announced everything that was happening seemed just a bit peculiar. The waves were huge-- they looked at least four meters high. The surfers were quite impressive.
That night we had bugs for dinner. Okay, I'll pause while you read that sentence again. They were delicious-- their full name is Morton Bay Bugs, and are a local delicacy tasting and looking like small, round, bug-like lobsters. Oooh they were so good. We got them at a local fish shop, and ate them with melted butter like lobster. Mm mmm mmm mmm mmm!
Yesterday we drove to Dunwich. We always felt like it was so far away-- the big town on the other side of the island. Really, it is only about a 15 minute drive, but it still felt like a long way away. We planned to take a walk around a lake-- which we did, mostly-- but D forgot the map on the front seat of the car. The whole time we were there, there was a big group of kids-- maybe 60 of them, high school or early college-- with painted bodies on the beach of the lake. They were chanting bizarre things in formation, which seemed like somewhere between a team-bonding exercise and some unique tribal dance. We could hear them most of the walk. About 3/4 of the way around, we figured we were almost back-- but then the trail (which was actually a sand road) seemed to end. There was another little road with a short fence in front of it clearly to keep out cars, and we figured this was how to get the rest of the way around the lake. There didn't seem to be a path any closer to the lake, as it was marshy on that side, so we decided to take it. For about 20 minutes we walked on this road, the whole time M insisting it was going the wrong direction, and dodging (well, trying to anyways) the biggest spiders/webs we have ever seen. These things were huge-- the spiders themselves were about the size of my hand, and the thick webs were taller than me attached to either side of the road. Walking through them didn't feel like a normal spiders web-- the strings were so thick it felt like walking though fishing net. Anyways, eventually, right when we were going to turn around and walk all the way back around the lake, M saw a metal gate-like thing. By this time we were far away from the lake, and as we got closer we realized it wasn't a gate but an old wind mill, not moving at all but with big cords leading away from it (I think it was for pumping water out of a well, but obviously not working right then). A couple meters down the road, we saw a tiny stop sign, and then a field. We went to check it out, and we found ourselves in what looked like a golf course, with big old signs that advertised various companies. They looked like they were from about 1961-- and the rusted metal barrels hidden in the trees didn't help. The grass, however, was mowed, with that short fuzz-like greenery around the holes seemingly perfectly manicured. It felt like we walked into something from Spirited Away-- there were no people in sight, and everything seemed old, yet the grass was green and mowed-- very bizarre. After that we turned around and walked all the way back the way we came.
We have seen many animals while we have been here. Kookaburras are often laughing around out house, although I got semi- used to that back in Brisbane. For a few days we had kangaroo (who we named Billy) jumping around our lawn, eating the grass, and staring at us with green strands hanging out of his mouth every time we walked by. There’s also a vaguely resident lace monitor, who, appropriately, we named Lacey. On our lake walk I pointed out a baby snake (it was about six inches long, hissing it’s tongue trying to seem scary) and two giant walking sticks (either fighting or mating, we couldn’t tell). Today there are two Wallabies (either that, or they’re Padamelons—or just small kangaroos. It’s hard to tell) in our yard munching on the grass. As I said before, we saw dolphins, sea turtles, and giant spiders. There are many little frogs or toads hoping around, but none of them seem big enough to be a cane toad except a couple dead on the ground. There were also some tiny jelly fish in the water yesterday, but we didn’t notice them until we were about to get out. The whole time I (and my parents) kept getting little stingy spots on our bodies, and though at first I thought they were just my imagination or maybe a marsh fly somehow biting me (have I talked about those yet? They are these humungous flies that land on people, wait a few seconds, then take a giant chomp of flesh from your skin. The good thing is, if you catch them before they chomp and swat them, they either die or are stunned enough to squash. A few times they landed on my right thigh, and I slapped so hard I had a red hand-shaped mark on my skin for days.), later my mother realized we were swimming with tiny jelly fish. A little unnerving.
Well, I should go because we are about to go on a walk. I'll try to post these this afternoon.
Our second full day on the island. I love it here. Right now I am in "school," but taking a break because every single integration problem I try doesn't work. Even my dad is having problems with the ones he's helping me with (which, at this point, is all of them.)
So, I decided to post. Nothing else to do with my time, except maybe other homework, but that would be silly. Why work when I have a perfectly good excuse not to?
Yesterday was very fun. We took a walk behind our house on an old sandy dune-buggy road through the bush, which was hot but interesting. We then came back home, and I got started on homework, which was not that bad. I like a lot of the work I've been doing if I'm productive and I can actually _do_ all the problems, unlike math right now. The books in Lit are fun, the Spanish is fun and relatively easy, and the math is normally satisfying.
Ooh, I think D just figured out one of the problems. Be right back.
February 5 8:15 am
Sorry, much bigger break than I though I would have. D figured out a problem and after he showed me how to do it I got on a roll. After I finished the section I rushed to get ready for the beach. Sorry to choose body surfing in warm Pacific waves over blogging, but I have to have priorities.
Our days have gotten into a schedule-- the one we planned, in fact--: morning, we have coffee/hot chocolate/breakfast. Mid-morning, we take a walk somewhere. Mid-day, I work, D helps, and M does various things (such as grocery shopping, talking to P and T, and working). Afternoon, we jump into swimsuits and run to the beach (well, not quite that dramatic, but that's what I want to do). We swim for a few hours, then come home, make dinner, and go to sleep.
So not too many notable things. We saw dolphins and a sea turtle on one of our walks around town. That walk was actually very interesting-- we saw a surfing competition on the Main Beach. M and I love to watch people surf, so that was fun to do, but something about the hundreds of surf bums standing around in swim trunks waxing their board waiting for their heat, while giant speakers on the beach announced everything that was happening seemed just a bit peculiar. The waves were huge-- they looked at least four meters high. The surfers were quite impressive.
That night we had bugs for dinner. Okay, I'll pause while you read that sentence again. They were delicious-- their full name is Morton Bay Bugs, and are a local delicacy tasting and looking like small, round, bug-like lobsters. Oooh they were so good. We got them at a local fish shop, and ate them with melted butter like lobster. Mm mmm mmm mmm mmm!
Yesterday we drove to Dunwich. We always felt like it was so far away-- the big town on the other side of the island. Really, it is only about a 15 minute drive, but it still felt like a long way away. We planned to take a walk around a lake-- which we did, mostly-- but D forgot the map on the front seat of the car. The whole time we were there, there was a big group of kids-- maybe 60 of them, high school or early college-- with painted bodies on the beach of the lake. They were chanting bizarre things in formation, which seemed like somewhere between a team-bonding exercise and some unique tribal dance. We could hear them most of the walk. About 3/4 of the way around, we figured we were almost back-- but then the trail (which was actually a sand road) seemed to end. There was another little road with a short fence in front of it clearly to keep out cars, and we figured this was how to get the rest of the way around the lake. There didn't seem to be a path any closer to the lake, as it was marshy on that side, so we decided to take it. For about 20 minutes we walked on this road, the whole time M insisting it was going the wrong direction, and dodging (well, trying to anyways) the biggest spiders/webs we have ever seen. These things were huge-- the spiders themselves were about the size of my hand, and the thick webs were taller than me attached to either side of the road. Walking through them didn't feel like a normal spiders web-- the strings were so thick it felt like walking though fishing net. Anyways, eventually, right when we were going to turn around and walk all the way back around the lake, M saw a metal gate-like thing. By this time we were far away from the lake, and as we got closer we realized it wasn't a gate but an old wind mill, not moving at all but with big cords leading away from it (I think it was for pumping water out of a well, but obviously not working right then). A couple meters down the road, we saw a tiny stop sign, and then a field. We went to check it out, and we found ourselves in what looked like a golf course, with big old signs that advertised various companies. They looked like they were from about 1961-- and the rusted metal barrels hidden in the trees didn't help. The grass, however, was mowed, with that short fuzz-like greenery around the holes seemingly perfectly manicured. It felt like we walked into something from Spirited Away-- there were no people in sight, and everything seemed old, yet the grass was green and mowed-- very bizarre. After that we turned around and walked all the way back the way we came.
We have seen many animals while we have been here. Kookaburras are often laughing around out house, although I got semi- used to that back in Brisbane. For a few days we had kangaroo (who we named Billy) jumping around our lawn, eating the grass, and staring at us with green strands hanging out of his mouth every time we walked by. There’s also a vaguely resident lace monitor, who, appropriately, we named Lacey. On our lake walk I pointed out a baby snake (it was about six inches long, hissing it’s tongue trying to seem scary) and two giant walking sticks (either fighting or mating, we couldn’t tell). Today there are two Wallabies (either that, or they’re Padamelons—or just small kangaroos. It’s hard to tell) in our yard munching on the grass. As I said before, we saw dolphins, sea turtles, and giant spiders. There are many little frogs or toads hoping around, but none of them seem big enough to be a cane toad except a couple dead on the ground. There were also some tiny jelly fish in the water yesterday, but we didn’t notice them until we were about to get out. The whole time I (and my parents) kept getting little stingy spots on our bodies, and though at first I thought they were just my imagination or maybe a marsh fly somehow biting me (have I talked about those yet? They are these humungous flies that land on people, wait a few seconds, then take a giant chomp of flesh from your skin. The good thing is, if you catch them before they chomp and swat them, they either die or are stunned enough to squash. A few times they landed on my right thigh, and I slapped so hard I had a red hand-shaped mark on my skin for days.), later my mother realized we were swimming with tiny jelly fish. A little unnerving.
Well, I should go because we are about to go on a walk. I'll try to post these this afternoon.
Straddie :)
Monday, February 2 8:09 am
I don't have internet again, so I have no idea when I will be able to post this.
The last day I haven't talked about was Saturday (I think). That day was fun, and like every other day very unproductive work-wise. We started by the three of us driving into the jungle during the morning, which was beautiful. Right behind C and W's house is jungle, and just five minutes driving felt like it was out of suburbia and into the bush. First we drove through eucalyptus forests, where that was basically the only vegetation growing. We took a very hot and sticky but pleasant walk, and although didn't see any koalas as my mother was hoping it was still fun. We then drove a little further and took another walk that started in eucalyptus forest but partway through morphed to rainforest-- the whole way there were little green signs with cartoons or "Billy and Ranger Ruth," telling us everything we needed to know about what we were walking through. I had the feeling that this walk was one thousands of school children go on every year in class trips. The next walk we took was completely in the rainforest. As we got back to the car, I sat down in my seat and started to take off my shoe to dislodge the rock that had found a home under my foot. As I looked down at my Chaco-ed feet however, I saw many little black wiggly things on and around my feet/sandals. I shrieked a little, exclaiming "there are leeches on my feet!" I quickly tried to pull one giant on off the top of my foot, but it was so deep inside my foot I couldn't. My mom came over, gave some muttery shriek of acknowledgment that there were leeches on my feet and tried to pull the big fat one out. She managed, and to pull out the many others on my feet, then went on to get the leeches out of her feet (which weren't as many). Two places my feet were bleeding from fat leech's anti-coagulate, which proved very hard to stop. After a few band-aids, I continued to try to remove the remaining leeches from the car, mostly unsuccessfully. EVentually we drove on our way back to the house, admiring a few leeches still on the car (the really fat one from my foot was there most of the ride-- it was kind of unnerving knowing that it was so fat because it was filled with my blood .hat whole incident was amusing, because earlier that day I was thinking about leeches, and remembering one time walking in the woods that my feet got covered with them. I thought at the time that was in Oregon, but later realized it was probably the last time we were in Australia, probably even in the same area.
We got back to the house, was cooked delicious ravioli for lunch, then got to work. M and W talked work, and my dad helped me with some math homework looming over my head. We worked basically all afternoon, and although I felt vaguely productive I only got two math sections done. Bother.
That night we took out hosts out to Indian food, which was delicious. Two of W's kids were there also, who I talked to over most of dinner. They are making a movie together, and plan to go to the US once it is done as their treat for finishing. They asked many questions about the States, some very amusing. They asked about accents and cities, as well as many questions about LA, California in general, and politics. One question they asked was, "so, do you see famous people all the time? Like just walking on the street?" I said no, maybe in LA, but even then probably not. Dinner was yummy and fun, and after that we organized some to leave the next day and went to sleep.
One thing I've neglected to talk about to far is how interested everybody is in Obama (and US politics in general). Every person we meet we end up talking about Obama and the election, some people starting with a little reservation to make sure we really are Obama supporters. The people I was talking about over the Indian dinner even pointed out that whoever is elected to US president is really being elected to run the world.
The next day we had to leave Brisbane and head towards Stradbroke Island, which is the worlds largest sand island just east of the city. W and C were kind enough to let us borrow their vacation home here for three weeks, and they even took the barge over with us to show us around. It's beautiful here-- lots of beaches, eucalyptus trees, and jungly palms. The house is a little weird but charming, very close to the beach and with a big back yard. We're the last house on the street, so All around us is unbuilt-up bush. It reminds me a lot of the houses in the Cane Toad movie we see in Geography freshman year. It has the stone and tile one-story house close to the ground, the big yard full of slightly crabby grass, and behind it the trees, grass, and bushes. I haven't actually seen a Cane Toad yet, although I know they're here because they were purposefully introduced to Dunwich (the main town on the island). Anyways, yesterday (the day we got here), we got a little settled, got lunch with W and C, went grocery shopping, and best of all went swimming. The ocean right by our house is rough, but the perfect temperature-- cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough that there is no pain getting in. There was a little lagoon-y pool on the beach (which I assume is only there in between high and low tides), which we swam in because the ocean itself is too dangerous to really go swimming in. We saw many skilled surfers getting inside giant rolly waves and stay riding them for awhile. We went wading in the more shallow surf, body surfing some of the bigger waves in (which was SO much fun. The sand on the beach is pretty soft, so it didn't even hurt too much getting thrown against is by the waves.
Today we plan to take a walk (explore the bush behind our house, probably get lost), work for a couple hours, then go swimming today. I think that will be our plan every day-- walk, work, swim (with many meals between those). I should go now so I have time to work later.
Bye.
I don't have internet again, so I have no idea when I will be able to post this.
The last day I haven't talked about was Saturday (I think). That day was fun, and like every other day very unproductive work-wise. We started by the three of us driving into the jungle during the morning, which was beautiful. Right behind C and W's house is jungle, and just five minutes driving felt like it was out of suburbia and into the bush. First we drove through eucalyptus forests, where that was basically the only vegetation growing. We took a very hot and sticky but pleasant walk, and although didn't see any koalas as my mother was hoping it was still fun. We then drove a little further and took another walk that started in eucalyptus forest but partway through morphed to rainforest-- the whole way there were little green signs with cartoons or "Billy and Ranger Ruth," telling us everything we needed to know about what we were walking through. I had the feeling that this walk was one thousands of school children go on every year in class trips. The next walk we took was completely in the rainforest. As we got back to the car, I sat down in my seat and started to take off my shoe to dislodge the rock that had found a home under my foot. As I looked down at my Chaco-ed feet however, I saw many little black wiggly things on and around my feet/sandals. I shrieked a little, exclaiming "there are leeches on my feet!" I quickly tried to pull one giant on off the top of my foot, but it was so deep inside my foot I couldn't. My mom came over, gave some muttery shriek of acknowledgment that there were leeches on my feet and tried to pull the big fat one out. She managed, and to pull out the many others on my feet, then went on to get the leeches out of her feet (which weren't as many). Two places my feet were bleeding from fat leech's anti-coagulate, which proved very hard to stop. After a few band-aids, I continued to try to remove the remaining leeches from the car, mostly unsuccessfully. EVentually we drove on our way back to the house, admiring a few leeches still on the car (the really fat one from my foot was there most of the ride-- it was kind of unnerving knowing that it was so fat because it was filled with my blood .hat whole incident was amusing, because earlier that day I was thinking about leeches, and remembering one time walking in the woods that my feet got covered with them. I thought at the time that was in Oregon, but later realized it was probably the last time we were in Australia, probably even in the same area.
We got back to the house, was cooked delicious ravioli for lunch, then got to work. M and W talked work, and my dad helped me with some math homework looming over my head. We worked basically all afternoon, and although I felt vaguely productive I only got two math sections done. Bother.
That night we took out hosts out to Indian food, which was delicious. Two of W's kids were there also, who I talked to over most of dinner. They are making a movie together, and plan to go to the US once it is done as their treat for finishing. They asked many questions about the States, some very amusing. They asked about accents and cities, as well as many questions about LA, California in general, and politics. One question they asked was, "so, do you see famous people all the time? Like just walking on the street?" I said no, maybe in LA, but even then probably not. Dinner was yummy and fun, and after that we organized some to leave the next day and went to sleep.
One thing I've neglected to talk about to far is how interested everybody is in Obama (and US politics in general). Every person we meet we end up talking about Obama and the election, some people starting with a little reservation to make sure we really are Obama supporters. The people I was talking about over the Indian dinner even pointed out that whoever is elected to US president is really being elected to run the world.
The next day we had to leave Brisbane and head towards Stradbroke Island, which is the worlds largest sand island just east of the city. W and C were kind enough to let us borrow their vacation home here for three weeks, and they even took the barge over with us to show us around. It's beautiful here-- lots of beaches, eucalyptus trees, and jungly palms. The house is a little weird but charming, very close to the beach and with a big back yard. We're the last house on the street, so All around us is unbuilt-up bush. It reminds me a lot of the houses in the Cane Toad movie we see in Geography freshman year. It has the stone and tile one-story house close to the ground, the big yard full of slightly crabby grass, and behind it the trees, grass, and bushes. I haven't actually seen a Cane Toad yet, although I know they're here because they were purposefully introduced to Dunwich (the main town on the island). Anyways, yesterday (the day we got here), we got a little settled, got lunch with W and C, went grocery shopping, and best of all went swimming. The ocean right by our house is rough, but the perfect temperature-- cool enough to be refreshing but warm enough that there is no pain getting in. There was a little lagoon-y pool on the beach (which I assume is only there in between high and low tides), which we swam in because the ocean itself is too dangerous to really go swimming in. We saw many skilled surfers getting inside giant rolly waves and stay riding them for awhile. We went wading in the more shallow surf, body surfing some of the bigger waves in (which was SO much fun. The sand on the beach is pretty soft, so it didn't even hurt too much getting thrown against is by the waves.
Today we plan to take a walk (explore the bush behind our house, probably get lost), work for a couple hours, then go swimming today. I think that will be our plan every day-- walk, work, swim (with many meals between those). I should go now so I have time to work later.
Bye.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Brisbane
Cities are fun.
Quite fun, although tiring. I've had very full days here in Brisbane, all of which I go to sleep too tired to be stressed about all the homework I'm not doing.
Oh, and I finally posted all the pictures up to now on Picassa web. The link is in the "about me" section directly to your right of what you are reading right now.
The first day, Monday, (well, first full day) was just work. Work work work, some eating, some ALIAS watching, and more work. Despite that, I didn't get much done, which I've decided to contribute to the fact that I hadn't done any schoolwork whatsoever in three weeks. My mom downloaded her main email account, which meant 987 new, unread messaged to deal with, but eventually got through most of them. By then, however, people started realizing she was emailing so sent her a million more messages. Our hosts didn't have work that day (well, one of them had a very early appointment but was home after that), so took us on a walk by a stream where we saw numerous water dragons and ducks right by their house. That day was uneventful, but relaxing.
The next day was much more exciting. My dad had a meeting in the city and our hosts (C and W) had work, so the three of us decided to take the bus down there, my mom and I walk around while me dad went to his meeting. The bus was very easy, although a little intimidating at first. I think it was also the first day of school for students, so there were people on the bus and walking around in wonderful little polos, knee socks, and dresses (no, not all together, although that would be quite a uniform). Once we got into the city, we walked around through streets crowded with hoards of tourists, students, and business people dressed in collared blouses, blazers, and heels. My parents thought we were lost a couple times (I, being so superior to them, of course knew exactly where we were the whole time), but we eventually got the the university where my dad's meeting was. It was painful walking there, because every couple steps we walked though either the draft of a heavily air conditioned store taunting us to escape the sticky heat to go buy expensive jewelry, or a small hole-in-the-wall kebab or Vietnamese place with odors of hot meat and vegetables wafting out into the street. Eventually, though, we got there, and after dropping him off my mom and I headed back towards the main square where we got off the bus. It was still pretty early in the morning, so although the amazing smells weren't torture it was still pretty hard not to lead myself into a restaurant. Once we got back to the main square, we searched a little and saw multiple food courts below every mall. We, of course, had to look at them all, to pick the best place to eat, and eventually got so hungry we settles for very yummy foccatia pizza (a little silly to get Italian food in Australia, but still delicious). It was difficult to find a seat in the buzzing enclosure, but eventually we found one. Lunch was very yummy, and after roaming around fascinated by the size of everything and buying books and more adapters, we went to the predetermined meeting place to find my dad. It turned out the meeting place we picked was the same meeting place that everybody picked, so it took a little while to find him through the masses of people standing looking hopefully into the distance, but eventually we found him and caught the bus back home.
When we got home, we looked for the dogs (Buddy and Holly). We couldn't find Buddy, and were worried what C had said might happen came true. The day before she was saying how recently Buddy had been getting out during the day (he absolutely adores people, especially C. They actually got Holly to be a companion for him, but it hasn't helped much. Now they just fight over C's attention). Later, when C got home, she listened to the message on the machine and went across the highway-street to the house Buddy was often at, slightely annoyed at him for running away. The next day she didn't let them be in the yard during the day and set up a giant barricade into one of the rooms with chairs, rolled up rugs, and a bright yellow sheet (which was all on top of the wooden fence W had build for just this purpose, but wasn't working as Buddy had figured out how to get around it). Buddy hasn't gotten out since. Anyways, that afternoon we then worked some more, watched some more ALIAS, weren't very productive. Same old.
The next day my dad had a full day of meetings back in the city, so he left pretty early. After some discussion, my mom and I decided to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on the other side of the city. We caught the same bus into Brisbane, then walked to another giant underground bus terminal to catch a different bus to the Sanctuary. That bus was longer, but eventually we got there. We knew it would be a little touristy (although not as bad as the Steve Irwin zoo about 10 miles north that we went to last time we came here), but it was still very fun. It wasn't much of a sanctuary, as the animals (which were only partially koalas, also kangaroos, wombats, birds, etc) mostly had very small cages and were marketed to interact with the humans. This included being able to hold a koala (which I must admit was very fun. It was extremely soft and it felt like it was hugging me) and feed kangaroos (we got free food from people leaving who had bought too much, so we were able to go into the giant "kangaroo reserve" to go torture the poor animals by annoying them with temping food and pictures. That was again very fun, because they were very soft and seemed to appreciate the food most of the time). We had plenty of time until the bus was due, so we ate some grapes we bought earlier and battled with a wild turkey over territory. Once the bus came we got back on and went back home.
That night my mom went to a dinner meeting with W, so I cooked for my dad and C. It was pretty good-- a veggie stir fry with pine nuts and pasta, very different from what we have been eating (which has been very good-- they are very good cooks).
The next day, Thursday, yesterday, our hosts took us to a very fancy Thai restaurant out in the country. The food was very good, and very different from the Thai food in Eugene. It was quite expensive, and again they were so amazingly generous and paid the bill before we even had a chance to offer. C also bought me a cook book from the cooking school attached to the restaurant, which I am very excited to make something from (everything in it is spicy-- mm mm mm mm mm!). That basically took our whole day up, because of the long drive and being at the restuarand for awhile, so by the time we got back it was about 5. My mom and I took a walk down by the stream again, and after that watched and ALIAS. That night was Chinese New Year, and our hosts have a tradition for all of their respective kids, their partners, and a couple friends get together with them at a local small Chinese restuarant for a banquet. They brought us along, which turned out to be very fun. I was stull full from the large lunch, and Chinese food isn't my favorite food in the world, but the atmosphere was fun and it was nice to see all of them together. There were millions of courses-- they just kept bring out more and more food. A lot of it turned out to be very yummy. We were exhausted by the near end of the evening, as was C, so got a ride with her back home.
Today my dad had another full day of meetings, so my mom and I had a similar day to Wednesday. We caught the same bus into the city, the bus driver now recognizing us, but instead of leaving we stayed downtown all day. We bought some more books, got lunch in yet a differnent food court, and walked across the river to the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). They had an exhibit that populated most of the museum called Optimism, which was various peices of art that were made to make the viewer/experiencer happy. It was quite amazing-- some were funny (bizarre videos of a random guy dancing, but hilariously constructed), comforting (a whole room of white, fuzzy, pillow trees), or cute (wonderful sculptures of Vespas crated to look like snails-- one of the cutest things I have ever seen). We stayed there for awhile, but eventually got museumed out and headed back through the main square of the city to catch the bus back home. I was thinking of getting a haircut today, because my hair is getting very long (I can see it above my eyes sometimes-- deffinately time for it to be shorter), but that seemed too hard and we ran out of time. I may to that tomorrow or on Stradbroke (the island we're going to).
Anyways, we got home, and I started writing this post.
I should go now. Homework, food, ALIAS... the most important things in life (well, the latter two at least).
Bye.
Quite fun, although tiring. I've had very full days here in Brisbane, all of which I go to sleep too tired to be stressed about all the homework I'm not doing.
Oh, and I finally posted all the pictures up to now on Picassa web. The link is in the "about me" section directly to your right of what you are reading right now.
The first day, Monday, (well, first full day) was just work. Work work work, some eating, some ALIAS watching, and more work. Despite that, I didn't get much done, which I've decided to contribute to the fact that I hadn't done any schoolwork whatsoever in three weeks. My mom downloaded her main email account, which meant 987 new, unread messaged to deal with, but eventually got through most of them. By then, however, people started realizing she was emailing so sent her a million more messages. Our hosts didn't have work that day (well, one of them had a very early appointment but was home after that), so took us on a walk by a stream where we saw numerous water dragons and ducks right by their house. That day was uneventful, but relaxing.
The next day was much more exciting. My dad had a meeting in the city and our hosts (C and W) had work, so the three of us decided to take the bus down there, my mom and I walk around while me dad went to his meeting. The bus was very easy, although a little intimidating at first. I think it was also the first day of school for students, so there were people on the bus and walking around in wonderful little polos, knee socks, and dresses (no, not all together, although that would be quite a uniform). Once we got into the city, we walked around through streets crowded with hoards of tourists, students, and business people dressed in collared blouses, blazers, and heels. My parents thought we were lost a couple times (I, being so superior to them, of course knew exactly where we were the whole time), but we eventually got the the university where my dad's meeting was. It was painful walking there, because every couple steps we walked though either the draft of a heavily air conditioned store taunting us to escape the sticky heat to go buy expensive jewelry, or a small hole-in-the-wall kebab or Vietnamese place with odors of hot meat and vegetables wafting out into the street. Eventually, though, we got there, and after dropping him off my mom and I headed back towards the main square where we got off the bus. It was still pretty early in the morning, so although the amazing smells weren't torture it was still pretty hard not to lead myself into a restaurant. Once we got back to the main square, we searched a little and saw multiple food courts below every mall. We, of course, had to look at them all, to pick the best place to eat, and eventually got so hungry we settles for very yummy foccatia pizza (a little silly to get Italian food in Australia, but still delicious). It was difficult to find a seat in the buzzing enclosure, but eventually we found one. Lunch was very yummy, and after roaming around fascinated by the size of everything and buying books and more adapters, we went to the predetermined meeting place to find my dad. It turned out the meeting place we picked was the same meeting place that everybody picked, so it took a little while to find him through the masses of people standing looking hopefully into the distance, but eventually we found him and caught the bus back home.
When we got home, we looked for the dogs (Buddy and Holly). We couldn't find Buddy, and were worried what C had said might happen came true. The day before she was saying how recently Buddy had been getting out during the day (he absolutely adores people, especially C. They actually got Holly to be a companion for him, but it hasn't helped much. Now they just fight over C's attention). Later, when C got home, she listened to the message on the machine and went across the highway-street to the house Buddy was often at, slightely annoyed at him for running away. The next day she didn't let them be in the yard during the day and set up a giant barricade into one of the rooms with chairs, rolled up rugs, and a bright yellow sheet (which was all on top of the wooden fence W had build for just this purpose, but wasn't working as Buddy had figured out how to get around it). Buddy hasn't gotten out since. Anyways, that afternoon we then worked some more, watched some more ALIAS, weren't very productive. Same old.
The next day my dad had a full day of meetings back in the city, so he left pretty early. After some discussion, my mom and I decided to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on the other side of the city. We caught the same bus into Brisbane, then walked to another giant underground bus terminal to catch a different bus to the Sanctuary. That bus was longer, but eventually we got there. We knew it would be a little touristy (although not as bad as the Steve Irwin zoo about 10 miles north that we went to last time we came here), but it was still very fun. It wasn't much of a sanctuary, as the animals (which were only partially koalas, also kangaroos, wombats, birds, etc) mostly had very small cages and were marketed to interact with the humans. This included being able to hold a koala (which I must admit was very fun. It was extremely soft and it felt like it was hugging me) and feed kangaroos (we got free food from people leaving who had bought too much, so we were able to go into the giant "kangaroo reserve" to go torture the poor animals by annoying them with temping food and pictures. That was again very fun, because they were very soft and seemed to appreciate the food most of the time). We had plenty of time until the bus was due, so we ate some grapes we bought earlier and battled with a wild turkey over territory. Once the bus came we got back on and went back home.
That night my mom went to a dinner meeting with W, so I cooked for my dad and C. It was pretty good-- a veggie stir fry with pine nuts and pasta, very different from what we have been eating (which has been very good-- they are very good cooks).
The next day, Thursday, yesterday, our hosts took us to a very fancy Thai restaurant out in the country. The food was very good, and very different from the Thai food in Eugene. It was quite expensive, and again they were so amazingly generous and paid the bill before we even had a chance to offer. C also bought me a cook book from the cooking school attached to the restaurant, which I am very excited to make something from (everything in it is spicy-- mm mm mm mm mm!). That basically took our whole day up, because of the long drive and being at the restuarand for awhile, so by the time we got back it was about 5. My mom and I took a walk down by the stream again, and after that watched and ALIAS. That night was Chinese New Year, and our hosts have a tradition for all of their respective kids, their partners, and a couple friends get together with them at a local small Chinese restuarant for a banquet. They brought us along, which turned out to be very fun. I was stull full from the large lunch, and Chinese food isn't my favorite food in the world, but the atmosphere was fun and it was nice to see all of them together. There were millions of courses-- they just kept bring out more and more food. A lot of it turned out to be very yummy. We were exhausted by the near end of the evening, as was C, so got a ride with her back home.
Today my dad had another full day of meetings, so my mom and I had a similar day to Wednesday. We caught the same bus into the city, the bus driver now recognizing us, but instead of leaving we stayed downtown all day. We bought some more books, got lunch in yet a differnent food court, and walked across the river to the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). They had an exhibit that populated most of the museum called Optimism, which was various peices of art that were made to make the viewer/experiencer happy. It was quite amazing-- some were funny (bizarre videos of a random guy dancing, but hilariously constructed), comforting (a whole room of white, fuzzy, pillow trees), or cute (wonderful sculptures of Vespas crated to look like snails-- one of the cutest things I have ever seen). We stayed there for awhile, but eventually got museumed out and headed back through the main square of the city to catch the bus back home. I was thinking of getting a haircut today, because my hair is getting very long (I can see it above my eyes sometimes-- deffinately time for it to be shorter), but that seemed too hard and we ran out of time. I may to that tomorrow or on Stradbroke (the island we're going to).
Anyways, we got home, and I started writing this post.
I should go now. Homework, food, ALIAS... the most important things in life (well, the latter two at least).
Bye.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
AU Qs
Just a couple more things I didn't talk about in my last post. IHSers, this is for you. Remember freshman year? Australia unit?
The first event to note was on the Air New Zealand plane from Christchurch to Brisbane. The flight attendant asked us, "are you returning home now?" Hah. They thought we were Australians. Shows you that NZ and Aussie accents are very different. On that note, I forgot how much unlike Steve Irwin and Hollywood Aussies people here talk. Those extremely strong, particular accents are mostly for TV, but come from a place near Brisbane. The accents here are actually in some ways less strong than the Kiwi accents.
Second, is that today is Australia day. That means many things are closed, and most people don't have work. Australia day celebrates the first European settlement of Australia, which clearly is cause for some turmoil. Our hosts aren't too into it, although many cars have AUS flags on the wires. Apparently the overall view is that the Aborigines as a whole aren't so keen on the holiday, but that is of course generalizing extremely.
The other holiday I asked about was National Sorry Day (NSD). In IHS we talked about this a lot-- I'm not sure why this in particular, maybe we just liked the name. Anyways, I asked about it, and apparently it's similar to AUS day but not quite as widespread. I imagine that people who celebrate AUS day don't celebrate NSD as extensively, and vice versa. Apparenly the new Prime Minister just gave a very moving speech basically apologizing to the Aborigines, which was very appreciated.
If only other countries tried to apoligize. That's basically all AUS tries to do in terms of making up the sins, which may be just because there isn't much they can do, or because they only want to try the intangible stuff. The US, though, hasn't done anything like that, for Native Americans or black slaves (which is different, because they weren't the native people, but just as important). It seems like there should be some way to just make everything right and move on-- but nobody has come up with that yet. I think the country that's done the best job at keeping the native culture alive is NZ, who is extremely proud as a country for the Maori culture. Many of the road signs there are in English and Maori, and tourist shops love Maori symbols and emblems. Another reason why we should all move to NZ. That and that there's going to be a super volcanoe eruption in Yellowstone in the next thousand years that will imediately kill the whole US and slowly the rest of the planet, but the slowest NZ. (Sorry, that's a reference to a movie we saw in Geology with Chad Heidtke when I was in seventh grade.)
Enough procastinating. I'm off to write a paper. Or something. I'm not sure yet.
The first event to note was on the Air New Zealand plane from Christchurch to Brisbane. The flight attendant asked us, "are you returning home now?" Hah. They thought we were Australians. Shows you that NZ and Aussie accents are very different. On that note, I forgot how much unlike Steve Irwin and Hollywood Aussies people here talk. Those extremely strong, particular accents are mostly for TV, but come from a place near Brisbane. The accents here are actually in some ways less strong than the Kiwi accents.
Second, is that today is Australia day. That means many things are closed, and most people don't have work. Australia day celebrates the first European settlement of Australia, which clearly is cause for some turmoil. Our hosts aren't too into it, although many cars have AUS flags on the wires. Apparently the overall view is that the Aborigines as a whole aren't so keen on the holiday, but that is of course generalizing extremely.
The other holiday I asked about was National Sorry Day (NSD). In IHS we talked about this a lot-- I'm not sure why this in particular, maybe we just liked the name. Anyways, I asked about it, and apparently it's similar to AUS day but not quite as widespread. I imagine that people who celebrate AUS day don't celebrate NSD as extensively, and vice versa. Apparenly the new Prime Minister just gave a very moving speech basically apologizing to the Aborigines, which was very appreciated.
If only other countries tried to apoligize. That's basically all AUS tries to do in terms of making up the sins, which may be just because there isn't much they can do, or because they only want to try the intangible stuff. The US, though, hasn't done anything like that, for Native Americans or black slaves (which is different, because they weren't the native people, but just as important). It seems like there should be some way to just make everything right and move on-- but nobody has come up with that yet. I think the country that's done the best job at keeping the native culture alive is NZ, who is extremely proud as a country for the Maori culture. Many of the road signs there are in English and Maori, and tourist shops love Maori symbols and emblems. Another reason why we should all move to NZ. That and that there's going to be a super volcanoe eruption in Yellowstone in the next thousand years that will imediately kill the whole US and slowly the rest of the planet, but the slowest NZ. (Sorry, that's a reference to a movie we saw in Geology with Chad Heidtke when I was in seventh grade.)
Enough procastinating. I'm off to write a paper. Or something. I'm not sure yet.
Land of Oz
We're in Australia now, staying at a friend's house. They are the nicest people, letting us stay here for a week. After this we're going to stay at their beach house for three weeks which they said we should stay at, and they are lending us a car and maybe a computer. It's crazy-- I feel like we're getting too much. They also plan to cook us dinner every night (we're going to take them out once, although thtis is silly because we don't have a car other than theirs and we don't know about the restaurants here. Well, at least we'll pay), and have given us rooms with air conditioning (the main couple's room doesn't even have ac). I'm using one of their computers now, so the time that blogger says it is should be the actual time. If not, it's 7:20 am here.
The family is a couple and about a million kids, all now in their twenties or older. They each had prior marriages, so one has four kids and the other three, but most of them spend most of their time here. I think. The father is a psychiatrist and works with my mom, so that's our connection. Last time we came to AUS we stayed here also. This house is clearly the place to be, because of what I remember from last time and how it is this time friends of the kids are always over. Last time there were much smaller kids, even younger than me (I think they may have been younger siblings of the friends of the kids). I'm so confused who's who. At meals there seem to always be many many people there, sometimes that the parents down't even know that well. Last night there were I think three kids and three not-kids (one of them is living here because her partner is one of the kids, but they actually just bought a house together yesteday), and everyone was extremely sweet. The food was delicious also (homemade Thai curry--- mmmmmmmmm).
We woke up super early because of the time change, so most people are still asleep. I don't have much more to say right now, because we haven't really done anything yet. One thing is that I actually have to start doing schoolwork again, which is bizarre and vaguely stressful. Oh well, at least most of the work is pretty fun.
I'm going to leave now, because I should go answer questions about Persepolis. Or do Spanish. Or math. Hm.
The family is a couple and about a million kids, all now in their twenties or older. They each had prior marriages, so one has four kids and the other three, but most of them spend most of their time here. I think. The father is a psychiatrist and works with my mom, so that's our connection. Last time we came to AUS we stayed here also. This house is clearly the place to be, because of what I remember from last time and how it is this time friends of the kids are always over. Last time there were much smaller kids, even younger than me (I think they may have been younger siblings of the friends of the kids). I'm so confused who's who. At meals there seem to always be many many people there, sometimes that the parents down't even know that well. Last night there were I think three kids and three not-kids (one of them is living here because her partner is one of the kids, but they actually just bought a house together yesteday), and everyone was extremely sweet. The food was delicious also (homemade Thai curry--- mmmmmmmmm).
We woke up super early because of the time change, so most people are still asleep. I don't have much more to say right now, because we haven't really done anything yet. One thing is that I actually have to start doing schoolwork again, which is bizarre and vaguely stressful. Oh well, at least most of the work is pretty fun.
I'm going to leave now, because I should go answer questions about Persepolis. Or do Spanish. Or math. Hm.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Camper days 4-7
Saturday, Jan 24 5:53 pm, and again the next morning
Location: outside of Christchurch, in a bizarre motor park stealing internet from the house next door.
This is going to be another long post, so go get the popcorn now. We have such long days in the camper that I have so much to talk about! Hmm.. I left off in Kaka point, right? Well, that's where I'm going to start.
So the next morning (Thursday, I think?) we drove down the road to Nugget Point, which was very pretty. We walked some, saw some baby seals playing in the shallows (the cutest little black wormy tadpole-like squiggly things ever), a lighthouse, and M even spotted a penguin. That was very nice, and by about 10 or 11 we went on our way towards Dunedin.
We mostly bypassed Dunedin to go out to the Otago Peninsula (the harbor created by the peninsula is Dunedin's port). That was utterly terrifying. The main road along the peninsula was about 10 feet across, a two-way highway that was right next to (I really mean _right_ next to) the bay. This meant that the extremely curvy road with a speed limit of 70 km/h had a shoulder of about 3 inches, another inch of grass, and then dropped straight down four feet to the water below. Every curve we went around (which was the whole road) I clenched my teeth and strangled the window crank until my knuckles were far past white. By the time we finally got to our first destination, which happened to be the very end of the peninsula, the back of my shirt had streaks of wetness from so much nervous sweat. It didn't really help that it was about 90 degrees outside and our car doesn't have air conditioning, and that D has been very close to the edge of the road the whole trip (the steering wheel is on the other side, so he's not used to sticking out on the left). Eventually, after the most terrifying hour in my life, we got to the Great Royal Albatross colony at the end of the road. Albatross are giant sea birds that only live on the tiny spot where we were and, where most of them are, a tiny island somewhere in the South Pacific. We didn't see many, but they were pretty neat.
After we saw those, we drove back half way along the scary road (although not as scary this direction, because instead of being four inches from the ocean we were four inches from cliffs) to the holiday park we wanted to stay at in a town named Portobello. The park itself was okay, not great, with a grumpy woman working at the desk and very difficult internet access, and later had loud neighbors (the first ones of the trip-- two down from us were out-of-country-ers and were playing annoyingly loud music, and right next to us a big family with loud rough-housy kids), although we had a pretty nice spot right at the end among Eucalyptus-like trees. The most amazing part of that site we found that night after dinner, when we decided to walk to the end of the road. We thought that was going to just be hundred or so meters, and it was, but after the road ended there was a trail between fenced paddocks (one with sheep the other with horses) that went up a hill. We then decided to just go to the top of the first hill, because it looked pretty, but after four more "just at the top of that hill" spots we got to the highest point of the trail. From there we could see all the way to either side of the peninsula. It was gorgeous. On the way down I convinced my 'rents to stop at a swing we saw on the way up. It was on the other side of the sheep fence, hung 45 feet in the air from a giant knotty tree. Sheep baaed in annoyance at us waking them up as M and I climbed over the fence. It was very hard to get on the swing at first, but once I figured out which tree root to stand on the hop on it was amazingly fun. The scenery was gorgeous and the swing swung far into the air. After a minute or so, some dogs started barking from the house at the bottom of the hill that was connected to the paddock we were in, which was our queue to leave. I was considering what I'd say when the people who lived in the house came out to find us tresspassers ("I hope that's okay.. It was so much fun and beautiful, I didn't think it would be too much of a problem..."). We walked back down the hill, and saw the two dogs barking at us at the bottom of it. On our way in we had seen an adorable sign made by little kids that said "this is the home of two friendly dogs and a friendly family," which gave us hope that one, the people wouldn't prosecute us for trespassing and two, the dogs wouldn't eat us alive. It turned out that when we walked down there talking to the dogs in that weird high-pitched oogly voice people use to talk to pets and babies that the dogs were very nice. Right when M came up to them, one rolled on her back asking for a belly rub. We pet them for a little bit, then went back to our camper.
The next day, after going back to the swing once more, we drove into Dunedin. There, we spent 20 stressful minutes finding parking, then walked around the downtown area. There was a giant chess set in the main square (well, it's actually an octagon), which D and I played at for a little bit. We ran out of time before we could finish, but he was about to win. I haven't been good at chess since first grade, and he has been good at chess since high school. It was funny because tourists would walk by, stop to watch for a little bit or just long enough to take a picture. I felt like a tourist attraction.
Next we moved the car so we wouldn't get a ticket, then set out walking again. We were headed towards the University of Otago, and on the way stopped for lunch at a Turkish kebab place. It was so good-- I learned to love Turkish street food when we were in Australia seven years ago, because there was an amazing kebab place across the street from our apartment. After eating we got to the university, which had a gorgeous campus, walked around a little, then headed back to the car.
We drove out of Dunedin north towards Christchurch, stopping on a beach to see natural spherical boulders lined up in the surf. The joke theory of their existence is that they are prehistoric alien eggs, which pretty much describes how they look. It was very nice to walk along a soft, warm beach and take a break from driving. After a couple more hours we got to Oamaru, where we wanted to stay next.
The motor park was okay. It was big, but we got a pretty nice spot in the shade by the edge. One annoying and tragic thing is that they finally had a trampoline, but it had 8 padlocks lining up the mesh door because of a rip in the trampoline. Well, at least I got a little closer.
That night, we had a booking to see little blue penguins down by the beach. Before the actual penguin viewing, we were on a small (the three of us were half of it) tour showing how the colony worked. People had build small wooden boxes perfect for penguin-nesting, and we got to look into them and see little chicks waiting for their parents with food to come home. They were adorable, our group was very sweet, and our tour guide friendly. After that we joined 100 other people (mostly Asian tour bus tourists) to sit in stands made for viewing the penguins and waited for darkness. About an hour later, penguins started to climb out of the water and work their way up the ramp to their box-houses. They were so adorable-- less than a foot tall with blue feathers on their backs. We left after most of them had come onto land, drove back to the site and went to bed (by then it was WAY past when we had been going to sleep recently).
The next day we drove up to Christchurch. It was extremely stressful in the car, because there were no trees to provide shade, my arms were sunburned from the previous day, and we were all overheated. Finally we found a shady spot to pull over and have lunch, which turned out to be very pleasant. A couple hours later we got into Christchurch. We got lost on our way to the holiday park (which is actually in a suburb of Christchurch), and had to stop and ask in a giant liquor store for directions. Eventually, though, we got here. Getting plugged into our site was also a challenge, because the first couple plugs we tried kept tripping the circuit. All this time a woman who lives in her trailer here right next to our spot was trying to help us. This park is very bizarre-- most of the sites are occupied by trailers that serve as people's housing. The woman next to us is very interesting, first coming from the Czech Republic but moving here for personal freedom. She is very opinionated and wonderful, in a lonely-but-free kind of way. She has two pet chickens, a motor bike, a normal bike (which she rides hundreds of miles a day when she's not working, such as now), a car, and her trailer. It's interesting, because she seems to have such a different outlook on life than I do-- we agree to some extent on some things like money and pollution, but she has decided that she can't do anything for the world. She likes living here, just going about her life, working sometimes with menial jobs and sometimes not (she used to be a counselor back in the Czech Republic, but now has jobs like delivery). Maybe it's just my upper-middle-class upbringing, or IHS's you-can-change-the-world-vibe, but I've always been told and believe that I can do anything I want in life (which she definitely agrees with), and part of that is I could really change something and have an impact on the world. That's something that seems looked up upon in my family, school, and culture, but something she has decided is not important in her life, something she doesn't want. She seems perfectly happy going about her simple life. She's very sweet and talkative.
Later that afternoon we went on a goose chase looking for a grocery store, that the woman next door gave us walking directed to. It was a very weird walk, first going on street, then on a weird empty path by a little stream. To get to the grocery store we had to go through an opening in a fence and through the back of a giant Mitre 10 (kind of like Home Depot), and walk across parking lots to get to the grocery store. The store itself was bizarre-- it was giant, and felt like an IKEA of grocery stores because of the long industrial isles and people hired to smile while they were packing up your not-so-fresh white fish. Eventually we bought some supplies for dinner (venison burgers, which turned out to be very good) and walked back to our camper.
Once we got back M and I took a swim in the small, unheated pool here. It was cold but fun, especially when I tried to go down the small slide at the end build for 7-year-olds. I couldn't sit down all the way on the slide because it was so small, and I was so scared I would fall off and break my bones that I tried to slowly lower myself down it. Half way down the slide, though, I lost my grip, and went swooping into the water with a shriek. It turned out to be pretty fun.
I slept well with the windows open and a breeze coming through, and now am sitting at the wobbly table trying to avoid being dragged away to do dishes. We're leaving for Australia today, which I am excited for. I think I like NZ overall better than Australia, but I'm ready to go over there for a month. I think we're going to get so bored of Aussie though, after living on a beach house on a not-very-populated island for three weeks. Well, hopefully I won't get too burnt.
It's going to be hot in Brisbane, where we're staying with friends next. Oh well, I guess that is one of the reasons we came down here. Y'all get the annoying endless Eugene not-quite-spring-but-not-winter-anymore months when the world is taunting you with early bulbs but too cold and dreary for shorts, while I get summer and the beginning of fall when we come back to Christchurch.
I should pack. My clothes have all migrated out of my suitcase under the table bench, and without any room to pack it's going to be difficult to find every last sock.
I'll post next in Brisbane, where hopefully I will have fast enough internet to post some of my 1436 pictures. Bye.
Location: outside of Christchurch, in a bizarre motor park stealing internet from the house next door.
This is going to be another long post, so go get the popcorn now. We have such long days in the camper that I have so much to talk about! Hmm.. I left off in Kaka point, right? Well, that's where I'm going to start.
So the next morning (Thursday, I think?) we drove down the road to Nugget Point, which was very pretty. We walked some, saw some baby seals playing in the shallows (the cutest little black wormy tadpole-like squiggly things ever), a lighthouse, and M even spotted a penguin. That was very nice, and by about 10 or 11 we went on our way towards Dunedin.
We mostly bypassed Dunedin to go out to the Otago Peninsula (the harbor created by the peninsula is Dunedin's port). That was utterly terrifying. The main road along the peninsula was about 10 feet across, a two-way highway that was right next to (I really mean _right_ next to) the bay. This meant that the extremely curvy road with a speed limit of 70 km/h had a shoulder of about 3 inches, another inch of grass, and then dropped straight down four feet to the water below. Every curve we went around (which was the whole road) I clenched my teeth and strangled the window crank until my knuckles were far past white. By the time we finally got to our first destination, which happened to be the very end of the peninsula, the back of my shirt had streaks of wetness from so much nervous sweat. It didn't really help that it was about 90 degrees outside and our car doesn't have air conditioning, and that D has been very close to the edge of the road the whole trip (the steering wheel is on the other side, so he's not used to sticking out on the left). Eventually, after the most terrifying hour in my life, we got to the Great Royal Albatross colony at the end of the road. Albatross are giant sea birds that only live on the tiny spot where we were and, where most of them are, a tiny island somewhere in the South Pacific. We didn't see many, but they were pretty neat.
After we saw those, we drove back half way along the scary road (although not as scary this direction, because instead of being four inches from the ocean we were four inches from cliffs) to the holiday park we wanted to stay at in a town named Portobello. The park itself was okay, not great, with a grumpy woman working at the desk and very difficult internet access, and later had loud neighbors (the first ones of the trip-- two down from us were out-of-country-ers and were playing annoyingly loud music, and right next to us a big family with loud rough-housy kids), although we had a pretty nice spot right at the end among Eucalyptus-like trees. The most amazing part of that site we found that night after dinner, when we decided to walk to the end of the road. We thought that was going to just be hundred or so meters, and it was, but after the road ended there was a trail between fenced paddocks (one with sheep the other with horses) that went up a hill. We then decided to just go to the top of the first hill, because it looked pretty, but after four more "just at the top of that hill" spots we got to the highest point of the trail. From there we could see all the way to either side of the peninsula. It was gorgeous. On the way down I convinced my 'rents to stop at a swing we saw on the way up. It was on the other side of the sheep fence, hung 45 feet in the air from a giant knotty tree. Sheep baaed in annoyance at us waking them up as M and I climbed over the fence. It was very hard to get on the swing at first, but once I figured out which tree root to stand on the hop on it was amazingly fun. The scenery was gorgeous and the swing swung far into the air. After a minute or so, some dogs started barking from the house at the bottom of the hill that was connected to the paddock we were in, which was our queue to leave. I was considering what I'd say when the people who lived in the house came out to find us tresspassers ("I hope that's okay.. It was so much fun and beautiful, I didn't think it would be too much of a problem..."). We walked back down the hill, and saw the two dogs barking at us at the bottom of it. On our way in we had seen an adorable sign made by little kids that said "this is the home of two friendly dogs and a friendly family," which gave us hope that one, the people wouldn't prosecute us for trespassing and two, the dogs wouldn't eat us alive. It turned out that when we walked down there talking to the dogs in that weird high-pitched oogly voice people use to talk to pets and babies that the dogs were very nice. Right when M came up to them, one rolled on her back asking for a belly rub. We pet them for a little bit, then went back to our camper.
The next day, after going back to the swing once more, we drove into Dunedin. There, we spent 20 stressful minutes finding parking, then walked around the downtown area. There was a giant chess set in the main square (well, it's actually an octagon), which D and I played at for a little bit. We ran out of time before we could finish, but he was about to win. I haven't been good at chess since first grade, and he has been good at chess since high school. It was funny because tourists would walk by, stop to watch for a little bit or just long enough to take a picture. I felt like a tourist attraction.
Next we moved the car so we wouldn't get a ticket, then set out walking again. We were headed towards the University of Otago, and on the way stopped for lunch at a Turkish kebab place. It was so good-- I learned to love Turkish street food when we were in Australia seven years ago, because there was an amazing kebab place across the street from our apartment. After eating we got to the university, which had a gorgeous campus, walked around a little, then headed back to the car.
We drove out of Dunedin north towards Christchurch, stopping on a beach to see natural spherical boulders lined up in the surf. The joke theory of their existence is that they are prehistoric alien eggs, which pretty much describes how they look. It was very nice to walk along a soft, warm beach and take a break from driving. After a couple more hours we got to Oamaru, where we wanted to stay next.
The motor park was okay. It was big, but we got a pretty nice spot in the shade by the edge. One annoying and tragic thing is that they finally had a trampoline, but it had 8 padlocks lining up the mesh door because of a rip in the trampoline. Well, at least I got a little closer.
That night, we had a booking to see little blue penguins down by the beach. Before the actual penguin viewing, we were on a small (the three of us were half of it) tour showing how the colony worked. People had build small wooden boxes perfect for penguin-nesting, and we got to look into them and see little chicks waiting for their parents with food to come home. They were adorable, our group was very sweet, and our tour guide friendly. After that we joined 100 other people (mostly Asian tour bus tourists) to sit in stands made for viewing the penguins and waited for darkness. About an hour later, penguins started to climb out of the water and work their way up the ramp to their box-houses. They were so adorable-- less than a foot tall with blue feathers on their backs. We left after most of them had come onto land, drove back to the site and went to bed (by then it was WAY past when we had been going to sleep recently).
The next day we drove up to Christchurch. It was extremely stressful in the car, because there were no trees to provide shade, my arms were sunburned from the previous day, and we were all overheated. Finally we found a shady spot to pull over and have lunch, which turned out to be very pleasant. A couple hours later we got into Christchurch. We got lost on our way to the holiday park (which is actually in a suburb of Christchurch), and had to stop and ask in a giant liquor store for directions. Eventually, though, we got here. Getting plugged into our site was also a challenge, because the first couple plugs we tried kept tripping the circuit. All this time a woman who lives in her trailer here right next to our spot was trying to help us. This park is very bizarre-- most of the sites are occupied by trailers that serve as people's housing. The woman next to us is very interesting, first coming from the Czech Republic but moving here for personal freedom. She is very opinionated and wonderful, in a lonely-but-free kind of way. She has two pet chickens, a motor bike, a normal bike (which she rides hundreds of miles a day when she's not working, such as now), a car, and her trailer. It's interesting, because she seems to have such a different outlook on life than I do-- we agree to some extent on some things like money and pollution, but she has decided that she can't do anything for the world. She likes living here, just going about her life, working sometimes with menial jobs and sometimes not (she used to be a counselor back in the Czech Republic, but now has jobs like delivery). Maybe it's just my upper-middle-class upbringing, or IHS's you-can-change-the-world-vibe, but I've always been told and believe that I can do anything I want in life (which she definitely agrees with), and part of that is I could really change something and have an impact on the world. That's something that seems looked up upon in my family, school, and culture, but something she has decided is not important in her life, something she doesn't want. She seems perfectly happy going about her simple life. She's very sweet and talkative.
Later that afternoon we went on a goose chase looking for a grocery store, that the woman next door gave us walking directed to. It was a very weird walk, first going on street, then on a weird empty path by a little stream. To get to the grocery store we had to go through an opening in a fence and through the back of a giant Mitre 10 (kind of like Home Depot), and walk across parking lots to get to the grocery store. The store itself was bizarre-- it was giant, and felt like an IKEA of grocery stores because of the long industrial isles and people hired to smile while they were packing up your not-so-fresh white fish. Eventually we bought some supplies for dinner (venison burgers, which turned out to be very good) and walked back to our camper.
Once we got back M and I took a swim in the small, unheated pool here. It was cold but fun, especially when I tried to go down the small slide at the end build for 7-year-olds. I couldn't sit down all the way on the slide because it was so small, and I was so scared I would fall off and break my bones that I tried to slowly lower myself down it. Half way down the slide, though, I lost my grip, and went swooping into the water with a shriek. It turned out to be pretty fun.
I slept well with the windows open and a breeze coming through, and now am sitting at the wobbly table trying to avoid being dragged away to do dishes. We're leaving for Australia today, which I am excited for. I think I like NZ overall better than Australia, but I'm ready to go over there for a month. I think we're going to get so bored of Aussie though, after living on a beach house on a not-very-populated island for three weeks. Well, hopefully I won't get too burnt.
It's going to be hot in Brisbane, where we're staying with friends next. Oh well, I guess that is one of the reasons we came down here. Y'all get the annoying endless Eugene not-quite-spring-but-not-winter-anymore months when the world is taunting you with early bulbs but too cold and dreary for shorts, while I get summer and the beginning of fall when we come back to Christchurch.
I should pack. My clothes have all migrated out of my suitcase under the table bench, and without any room to pack it's going to be difficult to find every last sock.
I'll post next in Brisbane, where hopefully I will have fast enough internet to post some of my 1436 pictures. Bye.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Camper Van days 1-3
Wednesday, Jan 21 8:11 pm
Location: Kaka Point, NZ, inside our camper while the rain trickles down outside
I love camper vans. They are so amazing-- it's like being in a hotel, but in the woods by ourselves. After I last posted, T, B, and P left (sad... I won't see them until spring break) and M, D, and I picked up our camper.
Our van is pretty small: it's a Toyota Hiace (which is normally a car somewhere between a van and a mini van), but who's roof has been raised about a foot. It has a little stove, fridge (which we learned only works when the car is on, which is somewhat annoying being that we only use the refrigerator when the car is parked), sink (which, it turns out, drains straight to the ground right below the car), and table/bench area that turns into a bed at night. We also got a tent from the sweet people who own the small home-grown company we rented from, where my dad has been sleeping. We exiled him (it was a little nicer than that. Three people just don't fit inside the van unless one of them is a tiny kid), but he has an air mattress I spend 30 minutes pumping up every night. They also loaned us three very thin, very short sleeping bags, which also useful, are way to small. It doesn't help that my feet hang off the bed even when I'm not in a sleeping bag, but if my feet are at the bottom of the sleeping bag the top comes up to my stomach. There are three seats in the front, which means it's a little squished, by my mom has kindly taken to sitting in the uncomfortable middle seat so my dad can see better and because she feels slightly less terrified there. I love this so much, though. Last time we came to NZ we rented a much much bigger camper (there were five of us) and drove down the west coast. One thing I miss from that trip is that then every single site we went to had at least one giant trampoline. Although most of the places we've stayed so far have had playgrounds or ones nearby, nothing compares to trampolines.
Our first night we didn't have much time to drive anywhere, and wanted to figure out how to use the camper (one more complication is that it is a manual, which my mom doesn't know how to drive. That means my dad has been driving, which I'm not used to, and manuals are terrifying on hilly curvy roads), so we stayed in a town near Queenstown (where T, B, and P flew out of) called Arrowtown. It is an incredibly touristy town, so the holiday park was huge, had pretty small spaces, and very crowded. Part of that is when normally camping we veto any site where we can see another person, although I've been thinking of the camper much more as as a hotel room than camping equipment. The first place we stayed had many showers and a big shared kitchen and very mowed flat grass. We slept well anyways, and I had a very good time. That night for dinner we had the J-F infamous tomato, feta, and garlic on penne pasta. My mom actually invented that dish on the Banks Peninsula by Christchurch during our last camper van excursion 7 years ago, so it was a fitting meal to have.
The next day we drove for about seven hours to our next site, all the way on the southern coast. For the whole trip before the camper we had been staying in very mountainous areas with dramatic scenery, but soon into that long drive everything changed. We shifted from sharp sky-scraping mountains to rolling hills of farms, every other one filled with sheep. We drove though areas that have hardly any tourism industry, unlike where we have been where that is the only industry. I had so much fun on that drive, despite the many times we barreled down hills at 115 km/h, supposedly so we didn't have to downshift as we were going up the next hill (so, they invented automatics for a reason...). We stopped many times at various fruit stands getting boxes and boxes of juicy, flavorful, amazing plums, apricots, and cherries. One stand that we stopped at to buy cherries, the woman who came out staff the stand decided to show us her factory (we had looked back into the factor earlier looking for somebody to give money for fruit, and saw it, commented, so she decided to show us). She was very sweet, and seemed very proud of her factory. She commented that it was one of the most modern cherrie factories in the area. The one-room barn-like building had a giant machine in the middle, which cherries being carried up a white conveyor belt, then sorted into size. About a dozen teenagers with hair nets and gloves were lined up on the side sorting though the berries, who we learned were sorting for quality and shape so the nicest ones could be exported (that batch of cherries was headed towards Korea and Taiwan). Everybody who worked there seemed very happy and smiled at us when we were there. After five or ten minutes, though, we got back in the car and drove on (with our two-kilo box of giant amazing cherries).
After stopping in the town Alexandra (yes, it was named after me. And yes, I took many pictures in front of various signs, such as the Alexandra Fire Dept.), driving though almost empty paved back roads and stopping at a tiny gas station where a man in a blue mechanic suit explained that there wasn't cell phone coverage in that area, we came to the camping ground we were planning to. It was right on the ocean, with small sheltered sites and rusty pipes. It was much less touristy, although there were other people there. The woman who worked there was extremely friendly. For dinner that night we had the most amazing lamb chops I have had in my whole life. I am so glad I gave up the whole vegetarianism thing. Meat is good. Red meat is good. Mmmmmm. I think that shift happened in Fiji, when my body felt threatened by floods and lack of food and so told me to order the steak. Sorry all you veggie- readers, but that lamb was goo-ood. NZ lamb just does not compare.
Before that, though, we walked five minutes down the road to a national-parky area of petrified forests. That basically meant a big area of rock that the ocean was lapping over the edge of (the area is only accessible at low tide) with 160 million year old tree stump fossils sticking up in places. An amazing thing happened then though-- we saw penguins!! Two little black and white penguins with yellow designs above their heads. Those were our first wild penguins. My mom loved them.
The next morning, after a difficult sandy shower that felt like a prison cell but a much better sleep, we had bacon for breakfast. Bacon used to be one of my favorite foods before I became a veggie. It was soooo good. We should probably stop eating like that, though, because I don't really want die of heart failure. It was really really yummy though.
One amazing thing was that there was a pair of bike-packers camping in the site next to us. I can't imagine that. Later, the next day, we saw them many times on the road. They went very very fast. We stopped for longer and slightly more often, but we still kept passing them. That takes some major in-shape-ness.
Today we left that site and started driving NE, stopping a couple times to take beautiful walks and have a picnic. At a tiny store we bought small meat pies, which are popular here, to have for lunch. They were pretty gross. After last night's lamb, they just weren't very impressive. I can see why somebody would find them comforting if they grew up eating them, but not having that experience they weren't so yummy. At one point, near where we wanted to stop for the night, we stopped to get gas and ask a mechanic about something about the car-- on the dashboard a light had been flitting on and off since lunch. We weren't sure what it was, but after the engine cooled down (it was so cool-- the engine was below the front seats) a twenty-something mechanic in a blue suit with grease stains on his face and hands (who, while we were waiting for him, called to the teenager working the store counter inside to ask for some tea with two sugars) looked at the car. He said the problem was with our radiator, that it had oil in the water. He said that it was really bad, and that we should call the rental company and ask for a new camper before this one "explodes" ("could it really explode?" my mom asked with a worried expression on her face. The mechanic laughed a little, and explained, "no, this camper can't be a terrorist van. Yet, anyways."). He topped off the water and send us one his way. Everybody in that whole area was so laid back-- nobody rushed to everything. The mechanic was nice and seemed competent, however we decided to drive a little and see what happened. The light hasn't come on again since.
Now we're staying in a motor camp on a hill by the ocean. This is my favorite place yet. For one thing, hot showers are free (the first place was one dollar for 8 minutes, the second 2 dollars for 5), but we also have a spot basically all by ourselves. The woman who works here is very nice, and said she would send other people other places because we liked the secluded-ness. It has been raining basically nonstop, but that's not too bad. Even though the site is secluded and right next to "the bush," there are many warm, CLEAN showers, laundry, and a huge kitchen where we can wash dishes. This is why I love traveling in a camper so much-- ammenities, but still outdoorsy. It also helps that the camper van esthetic in NZ is not nearly as gas-guzzling republican as the RVs in the states are.
Aahhh...... I'm so comfy.
Well, this is way too long of a post. I'll be surprised if anyone gets this far.
Goodnight.
Location: Kaka Point, NZ, inside our camper while the rain trickles down outside
I love camper vans. They are so amazing-- it's like being in a hotel, but in the woods by ourselves. After I last posted, T, B, and P left (sad... I won't see them until spring break) and M, D, and I picked up our camper.
Our van is pretty small: it's a Toyota Hiace (which is normally a car somewhere between a van and a mini van), but who's roof has been raised about a foot. It has a little stove, fridge (which we learned only works when the car is on, which is somewhat annoying being that we only use the refrigerator when the car is parked), sink (which, it turns out, drains straight to the ground right below the car), and table/bench area that turns into a bed at night. We also got a tent from the sweet people who own the small home-grown company we rented from, where my dad has been sleeping. We exiled him (it was a little nicer than that. Three people just don't fit inside the van unless one of them is a tiny kid), but he has an air mattress I spend 30 minutes pumping up every night. They also loaned us three very thin, very short sleeping bags, which also useful, are way to small. It doesn't help that my feet hang off the bed even when I'm not in a sleeping bag, but if my feet are at the bottom of the sleeping bag the top comes up to my stomach. There are three seats in the front, which means it's a little squished, by my mom has kindly taken to sitting in the uncomfortable middle seat so my dad can see better and because she feels slightly less terrified there. I love this so much, though. Last time we came to NZ we rented a much much bigger camper (there were five of us) and drove down the west coast. One thing I miss from that trip is that then every single site we went to had at least one giant trampoline. Although most of the places we've stayed so far have had playgrounds or ones nearby, nothing compares to trampolines.
Our first night we didn't have much time to drive anywhere, and wanted to figure out how to use the camper (one more complication is that it is a manual, which my mom doesn't know how to drive. That means my dad has been driving, which I'm not used to, and manuals are terrifying on hilly curvy roads), so we stayed in a town near Queenstown (where T, B, and P flew out of) called Arrowtown. It is an incredibly touristy town, so the holiday park was huge, had pretty small spaces, and very crowded. Part of that is when normally camping we veto any site where we can see another person, although I've been thinking of the camper much more as as a hotel room than camping equipment. The first place we stayed had many showers and a big shared kitchen and very mowed flat grass. We slept well anyways, and I had a very good time. That night for dinner we had the J-F infamous tomato, feta, and garlic on penne pasta. My mom actually invented that dish on the Banks Peninsula by Christchurch during our last camper van excursion 7 years ago, so it was a fitting meal to have.
The next day we drove for about seven hours to our next site, all the way on the southern coast. For the whole trip before the camper we had been staying in very mountainous areas with dramatic scenery, but soon into that long drive everything changed. We shifted from sharp sky-scraping mountains to rolling hills of farms, every other one filled with sheep. We drove though areas that have hardly any tourism industry, unlike where we have been where that is the only industry. I had so much fun on that drive, despite the many times we barreled down hills at 115 km/h, supposedly so we didn't have to downshift as we were going up the next hill (so, they invented automatics for a reason...). We stopped many times at various fruit stands getting boxes and boxes of juicy, flavorful, amazing plums, apricots, and cherries. One stand that we stopped at to buy cherries, the woman who came out staff the stand decided to show us her factory (we had looked back into the factor earlier looking for somebody to give money for fruit, and saw it, commented, so she decided to show us). She was very sweet, and seemed very proud of her factory. She commented that it was one of the most modern cherrie factories in the area. The one-room barn-like building had a giant machine in the middle, which cherries being carried up a white conveyor belt, then sorted into size. About a dozen teenagers with hair nets and gloves were lined up on the side sorting though the berries, who we learned were sorting for quality and shape so the nicest ones could be exported (that batch of cherries was headed towards Korea and Taiwan). Everybody who worked there seemed very happy and smiled at us when we were there. After five or ten minutes, though, we got back in the car and drove on (with our two-kilo box of giant amazing cherries).
After stopping in the town Alexandra (yes, it was named after me. And yes, I took many pictures in front of various signs, such as the Alexandra Fire Dept.), driving though almost empty paved back roads and stopping at a tiny gas station where a man in a blue mechanic suit explained that there wasn't cell phone coverage in that area, we came to the camping ground we were planning to. It was right on the ocean, with small sheltered sites and rusty pipes. It was much less touristy, although there were other people there. The woman who worked there was extremely friendly. For dinner that night we had the most amazing lamb chops I have had in my whole life. I am so glad I gave up the whole vegetarianism thing. Meat is good. Red meat is good. Mmmmmm. I think that shift happened in Fiji, when my body felt threatened by floods and lack of food and so told me to order the steak. Sorry all you veggie- readers, but that lamb was goo-ood. NZ lamb just does not compare.
Before that, though, we walked five minutes down the road to a national-parky area of petrified forests. That basically meant a big area of rock that the ocean was lapping over the edge of (the area is only accessible at low tide) with 160 million year old tree stump fossils sticking up in places. An amazing thing happened then though-- we saw penguins!! Two little black and white penguins with yellow designs above their heads. Those were our first wild penguins. My mom loved them.
The next morning, after a difficult sandy shower that felt like a prison cell but a much better sleep, we had bacon for breakfast. Bacon used to be one of my favorite foods before I became a veggie. It was soooo good. We should probably stop eating like that, though, because I don't really want die of heart failure. It was really really yummy though.
One amazing thing was that there was a pair of bike-packers camping in the site next to us. I can't imagine that. Later, the next day, we saw them many times on the road. They went very very fast. We stopped for longer and slightly more often, but we still kept passing them. That takes some major in-shape-ness.
Today we left that site and started driving NE, stopping a couple times to take beautiful walks and have a picnic. At a tiny store we bought small meat pies, which are popular here, to have for lunch. They were pretty gross. After last night's lamb, they just weren't very impressive. I can see why somebody would find them comforting if they grew up eating them, but not having that experience they weren't so yummy. At one point, near where we wanted to stop for the night, we stopped to get gas and ask a mechanic about something about the car-- on the dashboard a light had been flitting on and off since lunch. We weren't sure what it was, but after the engine cooled down (it was so cool-- the engine was below the front seats) a twenty-something mechanic in a blue suit with grease stains on his face and hands (who, while we were waiting for him, called to the teenager working the store counter inside to ask for some tea with two sugars) looked at the car. He said the problem was with our radiator, that it had oil in the water. He said that it was really bad, and that we should call the rental company and ask for a new camper before this one "explodes" ("could it really explode?" my mom asked with a worried expression on her face. The mechanic laughed a little, and explained, "no, this camper can't be a terrorist van. Yet, anyways."). He topped off the water and send us one his way. Everybody in that whole area was so laid back-- nobody rushed to everything. The mechanic was nice and seemed competent, however we decided to drive a little and see what happened. The light hasn't come on again since.
Now we're staying in a motor camp on a hill by the ocean. This is my favorite place yet. For one thing, hot showers are free (the first place was one dollar for 8 minutes, the second 2 dollars for 5), but we also have a spot basically all by ourselves. The woman who works here is very nice, and said she would send other people other places because we liked the secluded-ness. It has been raining basically nonstop, but that's not too bad. Even though the site is secluded and right next to "the bush," there are many warm, CLEAN showers, laundry, and a huge kitchen where we can wash dishes. This is why I love traveling in a camper so much-- ammenities, but still outdoorsy. It also helps that the camper van esthetic in NZ is not nearly as gas-guzzling republican as the RVs in the states are.
Aahhh...... I'm so comfy.
Well, this is way too long of a post. I'll be surprised if anyone gets this far.
Goodnight.
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