lovely Lumsden

Its small, and thats being modest. There isn't much to do, the library is open three days a week. There's no nightlife, no movie theater, no traffic lights, no traffic, no fast-food, one gas station, one market,  one, pharmacy, one hardware store, and the restaurants can be counted on one hand. Population 450. Stress is a foreign word here. Where stress seemed to occur once an millisecond in DC it seems to occur once a week in Lumsden. You can walk from one end of town to the other in about 10 minutes and its fantastic! I know most people would go crazy here for lack of things to do, but for me right now its perfect. I love being able to walk to anywhere I need to go. If I want to go further, hitch hike, people actually stop. I have a comfy house and free food, tv, and internet. Well sort of free, I am working for it, but the work is good and so is the company.

I wake up, shower, brush my teeth and eat breakfast. I walk over to the cafe and get a complimentary americano. I sit and read the paper. Start working around 9:30 and put in a good 6 hours of elbow grease. After work I usually hang out around the cafe drinking coffee, chatting with the peeps, and surfing the interweb. Occasionally helping to eat leftover scones and sandwiches. Its rough, I know, but I make do. When I get antsy I can go for a hike down by the river or set up my slack line and try not to break an ankle. There is also some good local entertainment just to keep things spicy. My excellent host, Rob a member of the fire brigade invites me to come to their weekly trainings. This weeks training: a practice burn on an old shed, neat-o gang! So basically pace of life is ideal, I haven't been this relaxed since I can remember, and I haven't had such a centered sense of being since... ever.

In such a peaceful state its a challenge to get excited about leaving. I've just bought my plane ticket to Sydney and will already be leaving New Zealand on the 5th of April. I could have stayed until the 30th, but airfares were increasing and I want to keep the momentum going. Well, thats only half true, I am starting to run out of money and am eager to find a job in Australia. Not that I want to go back to a "regular" job but I have a lot of places I want to go and plane, train, and bus tickets don't appear out of thin air. So work I must, but Sydney seems like a cool place to do it. I'll be hitting the ground running when I arrive and hope to land something in an outdoor sports equipment store. Kathmandu is their version of REI, and I'm thinking its a good place to hear about local adventuring and meet cool folks.

Here, there and everywhere

The Heaphy Track was a success! Four days of peace and solitude in the backcountry of South Island. I'm not gonna lie though, I should have had better hiking boots. To say I had blisters would be an understatement. Here's a nice grodey story for you. I had to pop my blisters, or hiking the next day would have been miserable. So I sanitized my pocket knife and got ready to operate. As soon as I stepped out of my tent I was swarmed by sand flies. Not exaggerating, swarmed. So I had to act fast. I quickly and carefully pulled off my shoe and sock, so basically my only exposed flesh was my swollen blistery foot. The flies were quick to act and covered my foot instantly. A quick slice in the back of my heal and between my big toe and second toe and let the puss flow! This of course brought more flies. So as soon as it was drained I quickly bandaged up the funk foot and slid it back into my sweaty old sock. It felt better already and I swan dived back into my tent. All was good until the itching started. New Zealand sandfly bites are similar to mosquito bites but come on more suddenly and intensely. Its about 5 days later and footsie is all better now!

This is from a music video I shot with Sting

Despite the foot drama the experience was very therapeutic and cleansing. It was refreshing to be completely unplugged for about 6 days in total. I've decided that this needs to be a regular routine. At least for one weekend per month.

The beach I had all to myself for an entire day!

So after getting off the trail I began my journey down the west coast of South Island. I spent the first night in Westport at a nice hostel called the Trip Inn. We hung out and watched Lord of the Rings, it was cool to actually see some places that looked familiar. The next morning I boarded the bus once again for a 6 hour ride down to Fox Glacier. There are two big glacier towns on the west coast, Franz Josef and Fox Glacier. I chose Fox, the less touristy of the two, although it was still quite touristy. The "town" is basically a strip about 200 meters long of glacier guides, helicopter tours, and skydiving companies. I have been on a pretty tight budget lately, so as much as I would have loved to go ice climbing on the glacier, I chose to do a self guided hike up to a view point of the glacier instead. I know, I know, woe is me! So after a quick night in Fox Glacier, and a stay at not my favorite hostel, it was back to the bus. Next stop Queenstown.

Queenstown is the birthplace of bungy jumping, or so they claim. It is a posh little town that caters to the extreme sports enthusiast and the young partiers who choose to both "grip it" and "rip it". I really didn't get much of a chance to explore this extreme village, because my bus got in around 8pm. But to my surprise, the town was still awake at such a late hour. Most everywhere else I have been in NZ seems to close down around 5pm and Queenstown was still alive and bumpin' at the wee hours of 8pm! No partying for me though, it was back to another hostel to chill out after a long bus ride. I shared a room with some cool British kids who have been traveling all over the place for the past 7 months. I picked up some good travel tips, and have an ever growing interest in going to England. Not one of the primary places on my list, but I have met several people now that go on and on about it.

Pancake Rocks 

My next destination was Lumsden, a small rural town in the middle of Southland, about an hours drive to several cool areas in the South. There's a little cafe there called the Route 6 Cafe where I arranged to do a help-x stay. So the only way to get to Lumsden from Queenstown via public transportation is a $20 bus ticket that goes through Dunedin and has a layover, all in all taking about 10 hours. This makes absolutely no sense because Lumsden is only one hour due South of Queenstown. So I did like so many other backpackers do in NZ and stood by the side of the road with my thumb out. Within about 45 mins a camper van with two very lovely ladies from Belgium and Israel pulled over and picked me up! Not only were they nice enough to give me a ride but they also offered me some breakfast. Their only request: pay it forward. Indeed I shall.

So I arrived at the cafe and was greeted with a hot cup of coffee and slice of delicious foccacia. My host here owns the cafe and runs a canvas photo print shop, as well as being the "mayor" and member of the fire brigade! Its a very small town and the people seem to be very warm hearted and down to earth. I really can't complain about being payed in espresso and pastries, looks like it will be a great couple of weeks. My plan is to chill out here for a few weeks to slow things down a bit and save some money and its looking like the perfect place to do that. I'll have some free time too, and plan on hitching some more rides to take some weekend adventures. Life is good.

Hop on the bus, Gus

Avondale market!

Three weeks in Auckland. Tell anyone who has traveled through New Zealand that you spent three weeks in Auckland and they look at you like you're crazy. Ok, so it was a little longer than I really wanted to spend there but it did give me enough time to see several different sides of the expansive city. I saw the life style block aspects of the North Shore, a higher end region of Auckland. I saw the wild West coast, a bohemian haven with scenic beaches, exotic bungaloes and beautiful hiking trails. And I saw the mixed cultures of South Auckland, a concentrated area of Pacific Islanders. I don't regret spending that much time there, but it was definitely time to see other things. 

I bought a 5 trip pass with Naked Bus lines and scooted over to Napier in Hawke's Bay. Napier is a cute little town that was rebuilt in all art deco fashion after the city was destroyed in a huge earthquake in the 30s. It sits on the bay and has a very touristy feel to it. One thing I don't really get about New Zealand is that all the stores close at 5pm, maybe 6 if you're lucky. That includes coffee shops and cafes. Some restaurants of course stay open for dinner, but it gives the towns a ghosty feel after everything has shut down. 

I spent a couple of nights in Napier at fittingly named Andy's Backpackers. A nice quiet and comfortable hostel which is much better than the chaotic ones which are packed to the gills with just-left-the-nest 18 year olds getting geared up for frat parties next year (aka hell).

After getting a heavy dose of art deco I was ready for something else so I got back on the Naked Bus and went down to Wellington, the nation's capital. Wellington is the major art hub in New Zealand and I was lucky enough to catch it in the middle of both the International Arts Festival and the Fringe Festival. They have a great last minute chance to get tickets for all the sold out shows. On the day of the show if you line up at the box office in the middle of town they sell 10 tickets to each show playing that day for only $20. Its a pretty sweet deal. I was able to get a ticket to a play from the UK called the Wild Bride, a Grimms Fairy tale interpretation with blues, bluegrass and puppets; very cool. However the next day when I went back to try to get Bon Iver tickets for 20 bucks I had no such luck. Of course there were enough die hard fans who were camped out all night. Bummer.

Wellington has been a blast, good art, good coffee, beautiful scenery. I have one more night here and then I take the ferry down to South Island!  I'm pretty stoked about South Island, I start off my journey there on a 4 day back country trek called the Heaphy Track. It crosses 78km from Golden Bay on the North side over mountains and beaches to the West coast. Its the longest of New Zealand's "Great Walks". Not too strenuous and not too popular, so it should be a good time.

I've recently received my working holiday visa for Australia! I'm going to have to raise more "funds" to keep things going. New Zealand turned out to be a lot pricier than I had thought. When I left the US, the NZ dollar was worth about 75 cents USD, its already up to about 85! So yeah some work is in my future, I'm thinking a couple months of fruit picking should put me back on track. If anyone knows of good places to find work in Australia I'm all ears! I don't have a definite plan, most likely just going where the work is and taking it from there.   

New Zealand.....Hideous!

Bethell's Beach

Just as I suspected, New Zealand is gross! Lousy with deserted beaches, pristine forest and rare exotic birds. For those of you who can't tell, I'm being just a tad facetious. The place is spectacular! I've been in Auckland now for a little over 2 weeks, and expected this part of my trip to be a little more urban. Well it is and it isn't. The city limits cover a very large area and then the region of Auckland is even bigger. There are some parts of it that feel like a major city and others that feel like isolated wilderness. Auckland is the city with the world largest pacific islander population, and along with a good mix of Europeans and Asians it makes for a very diverse group. I'm looking forward to going to the Avondale market this weekend which has an extensive amount of everything pacific islander! Despite having over a million people you are always just a short drive away from gorgeous forests, rivers and beaches. Hiking trails or tracks spread throughout the region, making it very easy to get out and explore. The beaches are amazingly clean and anything but crowded. I spent a couple of days a Bethell's beach also known as Te Henga. If it looks familiar it may be that you've seen it in Xena, Warrior Princess or Hercules, the Legendary Journeys! Its also where they filmed The Piano.

Gannet Colony at Muriwai

I've had two amazing birding experiences so far, the first being Tiritiri Matangi, a wildlife sanctuary island that is completely pest free and home to some of NZ's rarer species of birds such as the kokako, little brown kiwi, and little blue penguins. Its also home to tuataras which are an extremely unique order of reptiles. The second amazing birding experience was a trip up to the Muriwai beach gannet colony. Gannets are shore birds that nest in humongous colonies. These dramatic colonies at Muriwai beach are tightly situated upon steep cliffs which drop off to the crashing waves below. Having spent many a day watching David Attenborough study and document New Zealand's birds, finally being here in person is a bit surreal. It is surprising how tame the birds seem here, since they have evolved with no natural predators they historically have had nothing to fear. However, just as people do, they have managed to unintentionally bring in some hungry rodents and weasels. A couple of the major pests here are rats, Australian possums, and stoats. I recently read an article about how to humanely deal with these pests if you catch them on your property. Drowning is not acceptable; bashing them on the head with a hammer seems to quickly do the job! mleh...

Gannets, making out.

I'm now staying with my third hosts here in NZ and everyone has been very welcoming. There is a strong DIY spirit here which I find very admirable. I have already met several people who have designed and built their own houses, all of which have been beautiful. Totally unique and intricate, most have been made from reused materials! Everyone just seems to know how to swing a hammer down here.

 In a cave on a beach in New Zealand

A few quirky differences about NZ:

-Light switches are upside down.
-Every outlet has an on/off switch.
-Just about all toilets are dual flush.
-Bathing suits are called "togs".
-Muesli is the breakfast of choice.

I have so many pictures and not enough time to load them, they'll be here eventually...

Cheers!

From Oakland to Auckland

Where to start... A week in Sausalito and a marathon journey to New Zealand. Sausalito is a very posh vacation town directly across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco. After spending 2 months in the funky, hippie, grungy NW this was a dramatic change of atmosphere. Fancy cars, boutiques, and designer dog collars. Different.

Alcatraz

My fellow help-xer Chris, who oddly enough is from Leesburg, VA and I spent our work hours around the house working in the garden, painting, fixing leaky sinks, etc. On our day off Elizabeth, our host, dropped us off at the foot of the Golden Gate bridge and we took off! The walk across the bridge was beautiful, with views of the city skyline, Alcatraz, and Angel Island. It was a bit crowded though, with aggressive cyclists whizzing past every minute or so and tourists snapping pics everywhere along the way. Once we got across the bridge we hopped on a bus to check out Haight-Ashbury. Jerry Garcia plastered everywhere, tie-dye shirts for sale in every window, head shops, and a few very trendy stores sprinkled in between. The air was indeed thick with pachouli. A kid who was obviously indulging in the spirit of the district (drugs) asked me for the coffee I was drinking, "No", I said. He then asked for my Nalgene bottle, he was again denied. Persistent little fellow. We crossed over into Golden Gate Park where the substances were plentiful. We couldn't walk 50 feet without being offered "cush diesel nugs, beasters, or shrooms". It was quite the scene, several people completely strung out, a woman speaking in tongues, dogs running wild, hula hoops! We didn't need to hang around and quickly made our way through the park over to the de Young museum for a view from the observation tower there. After the park we meandered by bus and on foot down town to Union Square. To end out the day we found a great little dive bar/ music venue called the Hotel Utah where we drank a couple local Speakeasy IPAs, delicious!

Hotel Utah

A couple more work days and a nice day trip to Muir Woods to see the redwoods and my time in California was coming to a close. 6am Sunday morning my epic journey began. Chris was kind enough to get up early and drop me off at the amtrak station. My train brought me to Bakersfield, CA where I transferred to a bus that brought me to Union Station in LA. *Travel tip* Amtrak refers to their Union Station in Los Angeles as "LAX". This is not LAX airport! It is in fact about a 45 min drive from the airport, which I found out the night before heading down there. Luckily there is a shuttle that leaves every 30 mins for $7. So the shuttle brings me to LAX airport where I find out when checking in that New Zealand requires proof of an exit ticket from the country before they allow you to enter (no squatters). So I run over to the airport lounge, buy my fully refundable ticket to Sydney, print out the confirmation and bring it back to the check-in desk. Phew! After an intense few moments scrambling to make sure I can get on my plane, I actually breeze through security and get to my gate with way too much time to kill. The flight ends up getting delayed 3 hrs, which unfortunately cut the layover in Fiji down to just a scrabble from gate to gate. So my experience in Fiji was just a muggy rainy schlep from one side of the airport to the other, with plenty of waiting in line. Delightful! Back on another plane and in 4 hrs, as we break through the clouds, I see the literally breath taking view (I actually gasped) of New Zealand's northern islands and shoreline!  
This was the hard part. After seeing such a beautiful sight, you just want to jump off the plane and run into the ocean, but no. Its time for customs! Two more hours of waiting in line! Yay! So finally I get out of the airport and jump on yet another bus to get to Albany, which is on the far Northeast side of Auckland. Oh wait, one more bus transfer at the Ferry building in downtown Auckland. Ahhh finally, I get to my stop. As soon as I walk off the bus I hear my name yelled from across the parking lot. Its my host Liesbeth and her two adorable daughters, Isabelle and Sophie. I threw my bags in the boot, and almost jumped in the drivers seat. I'm still getting used to the opposite side of the road thing.
The house here is on about 5 acres with a couple other cottages that are occupied by renters. The views are great. The birds are beautiful! I cannot wait to get a NZ bird guide book and completely geek out. I'm about 2 days in and still a bit jet-lagged. Cheers!

here one day gone the next

life on the train

On the move again! After two months of mild winter weather, mother nature dumps 9" of snow on The Woolley Mammoth the morning I am leaving, and its still coming down, hard. Jeff's car is at the bottom of the hill, and I've got a train to catch at 9:15. Frantically I grab all my bags and march out the door, unsure if I'll be able to get out. With a little push and some quick shovel work we get the car out and rolling! And just in time to miss one of the biggest storms the NW has seen in several winters.

Portlandia!

I board the train (Amtrak Cascades this time) and within 5 hrs I'm in Portland. Surprise surprise its pouring in Portland! I put my new jacket to the test as I stand at the bus stop and watch my bags get soaked. I hop on the bus (mmm ihop on the bus) and decide to go way too far in the wrong direction, why not? Eventually I get to the right stop and am kindly picked up by my very first SERVAS host, Carol! Carol and her husband Arnie take me in at their beautiful warm home and feed me a delicious dinner.  Portland is an amazing city, the next day I met an old friend for lunch and took off on foot to get to know Portland. Everywhere I went I met super friendly people who seemed to be more sincere and engaging than I think any other city I've been in thus far. It was very refreshing. After two days of exploring and chatting with the locals it was already time to leave. 

Graffiti Bunker! (look for more photos in flickr account)

On the way to the train station I get an automated call from Amtrak telling me that my train has been delayed indefinitely... After talking to a service agent I find out that the massive amounts of snow up North in Seattle had caused them to close the tracks and that they were turning the northbound train around to come back down to Portland and that would be taking me down to California. Fair enough, so I get another afternoon to explore Portland, no skin off my back! Eventually the train shows up, 7 hours late. I was probably the only person in the train station who wasn't really fazed by this, everybody else as you can imagine was pretty pissed. It actually made for a much more scenic ride, which I was stoked about. Just as the sun was coming up Friday morning we were crossing in to Northern California with stunning views of Mt Shasta and the beautiful countryside. After a long 17 hrs I arrive in Emeryville, CA, transfer to the bus, get to the Ferry building in San Fran and jump right on the ferry to Sausalito. Of course, its pouring again. My new help-x host Elizabeth comes and picks me up from the ferry and brings me back to her warm beautiful house and feeds me a delicious dinner (see a pattern here?). 

So here I am in beautiful Sausalito overlooking the bay, eating well, and sleeping like a fat drooling baby. Content, to say the least. One week until NZ!

Front Porch (insert rainbow joke)

Au Revoir Mammoth!

After an amazing 2 months its time to keep cruisin'. The Woolley Mammoth has been an incredible place to live, a graceful blend of people, personalities, ideas, music, and art! 

As I pack my bags for the next leg of my journey I weed out unnecessary items and place them in a cardboard box. By the time I'm done fitting everything I own into three bags (a small suitcase, a backpack, and a daypack) I have a full box of these "unnecessaries". This box and my old, much larger suitcase are going to live here at the Mammoth. Like so many previous residents of the Mammoth, I am following suit: leave something behind with the intention of coming back for it. Maybe its because its so hard to say goodbye to this place, or maybe its because everybody who comes through here is on some similar journey and needs to lighten their load, or maybe its because this place is so damn big that things just accumulate here. Who knows, but my intention is to come back for it, there is way too much to do here that I didn't have the ability to do without a vehicle. So maybe, after trekking around for a while, I can come back and re-open this chapter and my box full of "unnecessaries".  

Packed and ready to go!

"unnecessaries"