WWOOF wwwwoooooooffff

So much to record. It’s been quite the week. I left on Saturday evening from Belfast and flew through London. Got lost in Heathrow…I was supposed to go to Terminal 3, which I kept repeating to myself, Terminal 3 Terminal 3, you’re looking for Terminal 3. And there, the sign as big as can be, Terminal 3 to the right, Terminal 4 straight ahead. Well I promptly walked straight ahead, annoyed even, at some slower passengers and jumped on the bus connection to Terminal 4. After getting off the 15 minute bus ride and walking up several flights of stairs did I come to a monitor with gate information. All of them were British Airways, but I was flying Air New Zealand. What the hell? So as I walked to find an information desk, the thought hit me. You idiot! You are in Terminal 4, you marched straight to Terminal 4 while the whole time you were repeating to yourself Terminal 3, this isn’t the right terminal! Fuck it all. I ran back down all the flights of stairs, and asked someone at the bus door how to get to Terminal 3. “Go back up the flights of stairs, walk around, through the security checkpoint and down the stairs to bus pick for Terminal 3. Seriously? Damn it. Back up the stairs, through security, down the stairs and plop down in the seats to await the bus “arriving shortly sir” I was informed. Moral of the story. Thank god for long layovers. Ah but then. I finally reach Terminal 3, which is like a parking garage stairwell up to the check-in booths. Ah, check-in. Could’ve sworn I did that in Belfast, but had noticed it quite odd that no one so much as looked at my passport nor inquired about it. I showed no form of identification to get from Belfast to London. But here, I have to check in for real. With about 40 minutes until boarding. Well, at this point I am informed after waiting in a long queue for quite some time that Americans are not allowed into New Zealand without proof of departure. Oh really? I was completely unaware of this. After reading requirements for entry to the country, I thought I was golden. I also didn’t expect New Zealand to be stricter than Ireland which is the most xenophobic country ever next to the United States when it comes to immigration policy. Well apparently its third behind New Zealand. So then the process of buying a “for visa purposes” plane ticket out of the country with a totally inept airline personnel I ran to my gate just as boarding was ending. At least I had aisle seats the whole way through.

The first leg of the journey was from London to Hong Kong. I was thoroughly impressed with the on board in flight entertainment. They had a wide selection of movies new and old, they had a wide selection of music that you could even create your own playlist (Like having an iPod in your seat!) and much more. It was great. I watched Top Gun (yes!) then a special on the area of New Zealand I would arrive first. A couple episodes of Planet Earth. I didn’t have to use my iPod or computer the entire time. Which was great. It had also completely slipped my mind that it is common to have free booze on international flights. At least if you’re not flying RyanAir. So, needless to say that was sweet. Although, the one thing I was not very impressed with was the special vegetarian meal I had ordered. It was simply a large plain salad. Come on, you could do so much more. Anyway. Pleasant flight surprisingly. Could have been a lot worse. I also don’t take pills like a a lot of people do for long flights. I didn’t realize this was so common. But, uh, dangerous! I did though, drink a scary amount of coffee. Which, meant by the time I finally arrived in Auckland and then in Christchurch, you could say I had the jitters. I couldn’t keep my hand still. The layover in Hong Kong was fine. Uneventful. The airport is nice in Hong Kong. We had to go through security again though, which was annoying, but fairly smooth so not that bad. The flight from London to Hong Kong was 12 hours. We had a 2 hour wait in Hong Kong and then a 10 hour flight from Hong Kong to Auckland. On that leg, I watched the first two Lord of the Rings movies (to get stoked about awesome New Zealand scenery obviously). When I landed in Auckland, it was really sunny and hot. Humid and summer time/tropical feeling. I was SO happy. I had to transfer terminals again, from international to domestic. Which, instead of a bus was a walk outside. Uhm, awesome. I had a nice leisurely walk, listening to tropical birds sing and finally smelling that smell that will forever keep my mood happy and will to live strong: orange blossom. It’s quite possibly the best smell in the world. Anywho, the flight from Auckland to Christchurch was a short little hop and before I knew it I had collected my bags and was navigating the public transportation system of Christchurch in order to find my hostel. Which I did with apparent ease (how is that possible?) and checked-in, took a rinse shower and then began to run errands, trying to get my cell phone to work, buying a power converter, finding lotion (somehow I could not get anything to physically dry in the whole country of Ireland, yet somehow, my skin dried out. Fantastic) So basic toiletries and so other miscellaneous errands had to be run. I was miraculously not tired whatsoever (lie) and ran around all over my side of Christchurch. Fantastic park right next to the hostel made an awesome evening run right after a cheap but greasy dinner. I went to bed at 9 30 pm that day. Which was just as the sun was setting. Perfect. Woke up at 6 30 the next morning and packed my stuff up and went to the train station.

The train journey I took has been rated the sixth most beautiful train ride in the world. It was pretty amazing, I will admit. However, there were two older middle age people (husband and wife) who were quite possibly the most annoying people on the planet. They were from Cupertino California, I said I had come from Los Angeles, to which the woman replied to her two Kiwi seatmates, “they’re weird down there” And so I quickly turned to my window and didn’t look at them again. Mainly because they proceeded, together, in tandem and tag team fashion, spend the 4.5 hour train ride ranting about how the liberal media is ruining America, how it’s so sad that everyone is getting indoctrinated into liberal extremism in school, how Al Gore just tells plain flat out lies, how great Nascar is, and pretty much every stereotypical conservative viewpoint, interest, or bias. Oh yeah, they ranted about how great Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter are. (She’s so witty and no one can argue against her because she’s so smart.) Wow. It was awful, they were the loud boisterous American type that subjected our entire train car to their tirade. It made me cry. Finally I called upon Van Morrison and Steely Dan to shut them up. They also complained about how the younger generations are so lazy and expect free handouts all the time. I don’t think they could have attacked one more thing I could be offended by. It was absolutely awful. I was going to go off on them, seriously, but I thought to myself as I thought up how to express my objections that a) they wouldn’t listen to me one bit and b) I had the maturity and sensitivity to not use this opportunity (like my offenders had) to satisfy my personal desire to trounce these wackies at the expense of my entire train car’s enjoyment of this beautiful ride. No, I tried to concentrate on the kickass gorges, mountains, fields of wildflowers and old mines.

I was then picked up at the station by my first WWOOF host. To distinguish myself and make it easier on my host to find me in the train throng I wore my Nike running hat, and had told her I would be wearing a white ball cap. I obviously wasn’t thinking. Wearing a white Nike hat was the wrong first impression I wanted to make to a major hippie. With curt directions I was told where to put my stuff, where the car was and that (in an annoyed tone0 my host had errands to do in town. That’s ok I cheerfully responded I’d like to run some errands myself. I needed to send some mail, change more currency over and first and foremost get something to eat. Which I did.

After 4 days with this host, I have realized what one of the things I’ll “learn or take away” from this experience (being abroad that is) is dealing with being offended. I was explicitly warned about it in Ireland, that people will offend you but you can’t take it seriously, its part of the Irish humor. So that was ok, I could deal with that, then the moment I stepped into New Zealand, I was floored, almost literally floored with the friendliness and the ubiquity of the friendliness in this country. But I got stuck to shit-hole Californians on the train and offended offended offended. And now, this first host, is the first person I’ve met in New Zealand who is not in anyway, friendly. In fact, she’s downright offensive and derisive in her tone and behavior toward pretty much everyone. Although, I’ve learned more about her and I know where it’s coming from, but I am most assuredly being taught how to deal with constantly being offended…well, it just is a bit wearisome, but I’m holding up well. I am not letting it get to me I don’t think. Perhaps because being by myself I don’t really have any room or space to be actually indignant. And probably more specifically, anyone to be indignant to, except the transgressor, which when it’s the person feeding you, its not quite prudent to bite her hand. Indeed.

So anyway, my host’s home is in a National Park and the house is on a hill that spread down below it a large biodynamic garden. The hill opens out onto the ocean and so, let’s just say it’s probably one of the most beautiful views ever. Like really. New Zealand’s flora in this area reminds me of Jurassic Park. The palms and tree, green and stony bluffs makes me feel like I’m walking through prehistoric jungles. It’s pretty freaking sweet. Although, my accommodations, hah. Get this.

I flew halfway across the world and traded my cold rainy windy stone shack with no toilet, or electricity really, or heat, for, drum roll…..a hot sunny, tin and plywood 5 foot by 6 foot shack with no toilet (the forest is the pee spot (sound familiar)) and no electricity. In fact, I’m still sleeping in my sleeping bag. But guess what…Sean is happy because its WARM! The composting dry toilet is a little more sophisticated than our bucket but pretty much everything else is the same. Well, save for the fact that my meals are made for me and aren’t out of a can or Brian frying eggs. Although, those eggs were fantastic. So yeah. Not much has changed. Except for my daily activities and my surroundings. There is one other WWOOFER who has been here a week already and is a 19 year old student from Skidmore College. He’s cool and it’s been a lifesaver that he’s here and figured out our hosts already for me. He also is providing my way out for moving on to the next WWOOF host. We are ditching out on Monday. But, since he’s been here working so hard for a week, we got yesterday off as a vacation, completely off. Which was great. We hiked up a local river having missed the actual trailhead but had an amazing time nonetheless. We found a sweet ass boulder with a deep crystal clear pool swirling around it. Needless to say we decided we needed to climb it and dive off into this perfect swimming/diving spot. Beautiful sunshine and beautiful freezing cold river. But awesome. Also, a wild goat chased us. We think maybe we were in its territory, but it actually charged us whilst we were on the boulder. We had to dive in and swim to the other side to escape it. It was quite comical. We had a wonderful day off. Supposedly it rains 2 out of 3 days on the West Coast (where I currently am) which I did not know until I got out here. Seemed like a bad decision on my part since I was also trying to escape the rain. But, as if its an act of God, it has not rained since I arrived in the country. (bad for the garden, good for this gardener) So I think fortune is smiling upon me and I am really grateful. It’s been a wonderful experience so far and I’m only 4 days in. I think I’ll be heading south next, or perhaps north to wine country. Not sure, wherever, I end up, it will be awesome I’m sure. Also, I’m eager to hitchhike which apparently is like hitchhiking in America in the 50s or something, like, when it was really safe, easy and fun. That’s the word on the street from everyone I’ve talked to. I seriously can’t get over how friendly people are here. I haven’t been able to have one short interchange with a stranger since I arrived. Everyone engages me in at least a 5 minute (not exaggerating) conversation at checkouts, counters, the bank teller. Everywhere, its awesome. But I feel bad about holding up lines, but I’ve been told that its just part of Kiwi culture and not to worry. I like it. It fits me well, since I’m not normally that friendly on my own. Its great to have an entire people bring it out in you. It certainly has made me feel at home and like this was the best decision I’ve made in a long time. In a word, I guess you could say that I’m happy. And interestingly enough, not having a hard time “being on my own” which I’m sure is due to the nice weather and nice people. I think also because I was so ready to launch out on my own from the get go. So things are going well. Except that my poor Irish skin just burnt like forgotten toast. Where did my California skin go? Damn it. I’ll be trying to repair that in the coming days…

PS. Sorry this hugmongously large entry isn’t funny or anything. I guess so much has happened I just tried to get it all down without really embellishing. A lot of stuff happens that I just keep thinking, I’ll need to relay this experience in person. Because, well, I just do. So this is sort of like cataloging so I don’t forget anything, but will trigger my memories when I need to ramble on and on about my adventures in “Godland” New Zealand, really is amazing guys. Oh, and a system I think we should adopt in the States…it’s like kegs but on a smaller scale. For recycling type purposes and perhaps others you can take 2 liter plastic bottles to the pubs and fill them up with beer. Isn’t that wonderful? They are called “riggers”. We need this. It’s great. Which reminds me, this entry is not done.

This is mainly for my father, but last night I was taken to this crazy little shack where they broadcast a local independent radio show. Its these aging hipsters who drink wine and smoke pot and play all this crazy old American music and like Westerner themed music and pretty much are awesomely hilarious. Well last night, they had a “Thanksgiving night” (a week late right, well that’s the Kiwis) and they alternated between Monty Python songs like “Eric the Half a Bee” and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” and Jimmy Buffett. I was in heaven. Isn’t that just perfect? Well. Yes, yes it is.