Barbeque Area

Is it possible to have too many barbies? We have found an answer to that question over these past two weeks, and the answer is no, not when in Australia. We have made it our mission to find and use every bbq set in Brisbane, and I think as of yesterday we've done it. And we did it jsut in time, since today is our last day with the host families and our last day of living in civilisation. I am sad to leave the Land family as they have been nothing but welcoming to me (and even my friends), but at the same time I'm ready to get out of the city. It seems like I just got settled down and now I'm already packing my bag again. The experience has been excellent though, as it has allowed me to see the true Australia and to get to know the people who make this country great. A perfect example of life in Queensland happed yesterday, so I'll share my adventure of a day with you. This is one of the many stories which I'll never forget. (Only because I am keeping this blog. Just kidding.)

The whole thing really started on Friday night at my brother's birthday party, but I'll rewind a bit and let you know what proceeded these events. We started our causual Friday evening with a barbie, of course, in the South Bank park. From there our small group met up with the rest of our crew in King George Square and headed to a Queensland vs. South Africa rugby union game. I think the group enjoyed the action, which was way more than what we saw at the AFL game in Melbourne, but I'm still not sure if they understand the sport after my hopeless attempts to explain it. From the game, seven of us headed back to my house for the birthday party and we were happy to see that there was still beer left in the fridge. A couple of beers later Todd, Ian and I decided with one of my brothers friend's, who happened to own a boat, that we were going to get up at seven in order to be on the road for a day of fishing by eight. I woke up in the morning at eight anf found that the trip was still on. Though we shifted the plans by a few hours we were on the water by ten and actually ocean fishing. We first cruised up and down the mangrove swamps of the Brisbane River estuary which flows into Moreton Bay, but didn't have much luck. Around one we beached the boat on a sand island and pumped the beach for shrimplike crustaceans that live in the sand called yabbies. Brad, my brothers friend, assured us that the yabbies would work better than our frozen prawns and whitebait, and he was right. After a few minutes of casting from shore Brad hooked onto something big. Ian grabbed the net and waded into the water only to realize that he hadn't hooked onto a fish, but a not so happy sting ray that was a couple of feet long. We kept fishing here for the next couple of hours and caught quite a few small whitings, but nothing worth mounting. A pelican realised that he could get an easy meal out of us and stayed within a few feet of us begging for the rest of the time. We decided to call it a day around three but made a quick stop before heading back to the city at a prawn farm a few km away from the boat landing. After leaving the farm, Brad noticed that something was wrong with one of the trailer tyres and pulled over on the side of the road to check it out. We soon realised that the bearings of the wheel were busted and after jacking up the trailer we were able to pull the whole wheel right off. Good thing we noticed this before we made it to the highway. So we spent the next three hours here on the side of the road in sugar cane country Queensland eating prawns and waiting for a mate of Brad to come and replace the bearings. By the time the wheel was fixed it was nearly dark and there was a pile of prawn shells on the ground outside each door of the truck. We were able to devour 1.5kg pretty easily in all that time. I got home, told the story to my family, and then headed two train stations down the tracks to Skiba's house for yet another barbie. And that basically sums up an average day in Queensland.

We are sad to leave our families, but we have a adventure packed month ahead of us. From here we're heading to Lamington Ntl. Park, which is a preciously preserved snapshot of what the world looked like 200 million years ago. Prehistoric plants (and possibly animals) still thrive in Lamington today that are found nowhere else on earth. From there we're heading farther into the bush to Canarvan George. We're spending a week here in the mountainous forests and then heading to cattle country. After our stay on a cattle ranch in Biloela we're taking a twelve hour bus ride back to the coast, and then a few hours on a catamaran to the Great Barrier Reef, where we'll spend eight days on Heron Island at a marine research station. If you want to see what paradise looks like, just google Heron Island. Apparently there are bioluminescent dinoflagellates that colonize the waters off the island, so if we happen to take a night swim our bodies will be surrounded by a blue glow. It's a shame we'll have to be studying for finals during this time.

This is probably going to be one of my last posts as television, let along the internet, has barely made it to the places that we're heading next. I might get a chance during the few days of finals in Brisbane after Heron to chime in and make a final post, but that wont be until the 15th or 16th of May. So it's goodbye for now. I have less than a month to go! Wish me luck!

Just your average barbie. Onions, sausages and beer at South Bank's BBQ area

Us and 31,000 other fans watching the Queensland Reds lose to the South African Stormers

Brad with his stingray. We had to cut the line to avoid it's giant barb.

Our pelican friend who willingly ate all that we caught

Replacing the bearings on the boat wheel.

Brisbane, QLD

Queensland is Australia’s Florida. I have been in and around Brisbane for the past two weeks now and have been told that if today’s weather is beautiful, then tomorrow’s will be perfect. We are sitting at 27 degrees south of the equator here, so four degrees away from the tropics. Upon arriving in Brisbane, Ian, Todd and I found our way to The Brisbane Backpackers hostel with the help of a local hobo. We arrived at the train station at six in the morning and while looking for a map this bloke approached and told us that he’d show us the way. He turned out to just be a nice guy, but as we walked into Brisbane’s suburbs we were a little skeptical of where we were actually going. Our next five days of break were spent at the hostel and the South Bank Lagoon, a man-made pool and beach. We walked there in the early afternoon with our hostel mates and spent the rest of our days relaxing, swimming and soaking up the sun.

We met back up with the group on Tuesday the 3rd and headed to North Stradbroke Island on the 4th. We boarded the ferry on our bus and crossed Moreton Bay in a little under an hour. The remainder of the week on the island consisted of us studying the geology of sand islands and the ecology of mangrove systems. Straddie is one of six or seven sand islands that boarder the east coast of QLD. It was formed over the past four ice ages when lower ocean levels allowed westward winds to cross the barren sand flats and build up dunes behind the rock outcroppings that are the remains from ancient volcanoes. The topography of the island therefore consists of a series of dunes that run north and south, some reaching near 75m at their peaks. Today the island is used as residential property and for mining. The majority of Straddie is leased to a sand mining company that sifts through the grains in search of rare metals and compounds. The mines also supply the world with its finest silica granules. This process is fairly controversial, as the island is a pristine wildlife habitat which is being overtaken by ever increasing spoils that can be seen from mainland.
     We spent Thursday and Friday developing and conducting research products off the coast of the research station, where we were lodged for our stay. My group of five decided to determine the differences in abundance and diversity of mollusks and crustaceans (so basically shellfish, snails and crabs) between the habitats that the mangrove and seagrass systems provide. A mangrove is a tree that can live in hyper saline water, so basically at the interfaces of salt and freshwater. These plants provide shade and retain leaf litter in their tangled roots and branches, and therefore they attract scavengers during low tide and act as a nursery for fish during high tide. Seagrass are flowering plants that have adapted to living in a marine environment. They are the sole diet of dugongs, the Australian cousin of the manatee, and also a nursery for many other animals. We spent all of Thursday in the mud of low-tide exposed sands flats taking samples and sifting through core plugs of these two systems. We determined after the two days work that the seagrass actually both provides more diversity and abundance of life than the mangrove. Though this research just allowed us to dip our toes into the water, it was fun to design and analyze and a good way to learn group presentation skills. It definitely beats spending the day in some random Uni lecture room, which is a better representation of our normal school days.
   
    On Easter Sunday we left the island, took the ferry back to mainland, and drove into Brisbane to meet up with our Aussie homestay families. My host parents are Gary and Bev Land. They live in a suburb named Sunnybank and have a 20 year old son who also lives at home, but studies forensic science at the uni some fifteen minutes away. On our ride home from the bus stop my dad asked me if I liked beer and then proceeded to tell me that he drinks beer for a living. I laughed, thinking this was a cheeky Aussie joke, but then he told me “No seriously, I own a micro brewery.” Since that first day I have been doing my best to sample his finely crafted brews. He has a mini-fridge on the verandah with two kinds of beer on tap, so running out is not a problem. He told me that I could have friends over whenever for a drink or a barbie, so I have already taken him up on that offer a few times. The barbie is a necessity for an Aussie family. So far all of our meals have been cooked on it, so you would be safe in saying that Aussies love their meat.
     As for school, I am taking the public transit into the city to meet up with my classmates for lectures on a daily basis. It takes me roughly thirty minutes to get into the city and our lectures are generally done a little after lunch, so I have had time to explore the city with the guys. We have this weekend free to spend with the family, but I think I am going to a local rugby union game with friends, as my family is going to be away playing lawn bowls. They told me that it’s too boring to watch, but they love playing their bocce-esk sport.

The S. Bank Lagoon, where Brisbane's hostel residents spend their weekdays.

Free climbing with Tim, the German from our hostel

Skiba, Julia, Ann-Marie and Paul riding the ferry to Straddie

Slushing our way through the mangrove muck. Todd lost the sole of his shoe a few min after this photo was taken.

 

A bull ring snail (found in the seagrass beds)

DiDi and Carly sifting through a core plug in the mangrove pneumataphores.

Gary, my host dad, in his brewery in the Gold Coast

Welcome to Country

We’re back near Sydney and midterms are over. If you thought St. Olaf students were serious when it comes to studying for exams, then you thought right. For the week before exams every free second was spent preparing. I, along with a few others, felt that the rest of the group was going a bit overboard, because if there’s one thing that we’ve learned about Australia it’s that Australia is no worries. We still spent most of our time studying though. We would just spend two hours instead of five every night, and that would be in the sauna, and we got up right before breakfast in the morning instead of waking up in the wee hours to get a head start. For me this technique paid off, as I was very pleased with my results.

            Now that we’re done with our exams we have started studying cultural anthropology in depth. An aboriginal lawyer taught us about the history of the aboriginal people since white colonisation of AUS, which began in the late 1700s. You may know this, but AUS is a very young country, being formed in 1901, and since then the aboriginal people have had their culture and country stripped from them. It wasn’t until the late 70s that AUS revoked “The White Australia Policy” from legislation, which only allowed white immigrants into their boarders, and it wasn’t until a few years later that aboriginal people were considered citizens of the country. It took as recent as 2008 for parliament to apologise for the atrocities committed by the government on the aboriginal people. They are still recovering from these, which include massacres and the stolen generation, where children were taken from their families and sent to missions in order to remove their “barbarian culture” and to learn the ways of the west. Most aboriginal people nowadays try to assimilate into modern society, but a few, mostly into the Northern Territory, still hold onto their own cultures and live completely traditional lives in the bush. We also received a lecture on “dreamtime,” which is a poor description but the easiest way to describe the aboriginal’s religious connection to the earth and their sense of space and time. We visited the AUS Museum of Sydney and toured through their aboriginal artifacts. The next day we toured The AUS Art Museum and observed aboriginal art, which is their way to record the stories of their ancestors, which have been passed down orally for thousands of generations. To us the paintings just looked like patterns painted in ochre, but to an aboriginal person the art will reveal both the clan who painted the piece and the spiritual significance that it depicts. I find this incredibly impressive, as there were more than 600 aboriginal languages, and therefore an equal number of unique stories, that existed in AUS prior to British colonisation. But then again it’s understandable that they’d be able to recognise the art since colonisation happened only a few generations ago, while their people have been in AUS and passing on the stories for somewhere around 50,000 years.

            We left the heart of Sydney on Wed. the 21^st, and headed to The Royal National Park, which is located just south of Sydney. Here we paddled canoes up the Kangaroo River while learning about native plants and animals. We cooked beef and roo bangers (sausages) for lunch and learned how to throw spears. While we were eating a few sulfur-crested cockatoos came up to us and begged for a bite. Even though there were signs that said feeding the birds would result in a $500 fine, we snuck them a few pieces of break. After lunch we headed to the beach spent the afternoon there.

            On Thurs. we met another aboriginal man and learned more about the native plants that were utilised by the native people. My favorite plant was the coastal acacia. Its use came from when you crush the leaves in your hands, add water, and then if you scrub hard enough you get a soapy substance that gives your hands a deep clean. We learned to make twine out of tree bark and all of us sat in silence making bracelets and necklaces for about thirty min. We also learned how to throw a boomerang, which was awesome until I threw a bad throw and hit an Asian guy’s ankle. He and his family were angry, and I felt really bad and apologised, but I don’t know if they could understand English. Then in the afternoon we went snorkeling in Chowder Bay. I saw a small stingray, a few crabs and fish, and many sea urchins. Some people found some sea horses, but I couldn’t find them since they were camouflaged in the kelp.

           

            On Friday we helped out the National Parks Service by excavating an old military tunnel near our accommodation. Where we are staying used to be a military base, so there are tunnels that connect lookouts on the bluffs all around the harbour. Once the tunnels were abandoned some thirty years ago, they were filled in to keep hoodlums out. Before we started our volunteer work an aboriginal man named Les welcomed us to his country. This was a spiritual ceremony where he placed three white ochre marks on our foreheads and hands, which sybmolised us listening, looking and learning about his land. He was a very lively man, and later let us eat some “bush tucker” that he collected and even taught us to play the didgeridoo. We moved about 20 wheelbarrow loads out before lunch, which once again consisted of bangers. After work we decided to go to a hidden beach, which turned out not only to be a nude beach, but also a gay nude beach. It was a little awkward for the group of 10 or so of us that went, but we were still able to catch the last of the rays before the sun set below the trees.

           

            We are heading back into the heart of Sydney on Sunday, which is a free day. A girl from our group surprised us by letting us know that her dad rented a 40’ catamaran for us to ride around and snorkel from on Sunday afternoon for four hours. Then in the evening we are going to “The Hunger Games” movie. I think just about all of us have read the book by this time. We are in Sydney until Wednesday, the 28^th, and then we have our second holiday. I just bought my ticket to Brisbane, which is a 14-hour ride away from Sydney Central. I am not sure what we’re going to do there, but I guess we still have five days to figure that out!

This is a picture of aboriginal art (the rainbow serpent)

Emily, Hilary and Todd on the ferry back from Manly Beach

Excavating the old military tunnel at Middle Head

Driving on the Left

Our holiday was a success. We spent Sunday through Wednesday at a hostel in Kings Cross, the backpacker central of Sydney. The hostel wasn’t the cleanest place that I’ve stayed, meaning there were roaches, flies in the fridge, the showers smelled like sewage, but the stay only cost me $22/night and breakfast was included, so I didn’t really care. At least we were able to meet a lot of nice people in our twelve share bedroom! But seriously, we met a lot of nice Europeans. In Kings Cross there were supposedly 1,500 other backpackers, so both the day and night life was lively. Monday night we were invited by a few other flatmates to a barbie at a bar across the street. We received free food after we purchased a beer, so we jumped right on that deal. Two Aussies from the bar joined us for dinner, one old retired navy vet and a guy in his thirties, so we had fun listening to them tell stories about Oz as we watched the rugby league game that was on tv. After dinner we entered in a pool competition of 20 people or so. Ian and Todd were eliminated right away, and I only made it to the last six people, so we didn’t win any of the prize bar vouchers.  During these three days we spent most of our days walking around the city and exploring the botanical gardens in the park adjacent to the opera house and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We really just bummed around and relaxed, which was exactly what our holiday was supposed to be.

We bussed to Botany, a nearby city, around noon on Wed to pick up our campervan, the Jucy Grande.  It came with its own fridge, stove, sink, dvd player, and water pump in the trunk, and was big enough to seat four. Up top there was a pop-up “penthouse” that could sleep two, but only one of us and some gear slept up there. We departed the rental shop and headed to the Blue Mountains, which are just west of Sydney. I made sure that I drove in the city, as I didn’t trust the other two’s capabilities to navigate traffic on the left, and found it pretty easy. It was a little nerve wracking at first, but as I got more comfortable with right turns and merging right into the fast lane on the highway it was fun. We spent the afternoon literally in the rain and clouds up in the mountains and found a nice lookout pull-off to spend the night. We cook a mean stir-fry in the back and watched a movie in the back of the van. During the whole night only two other vehicles drove by us, so I guess our spot was pristine. We got up Thurs morning and the rain had stopped. It was still a little cloudy, but we cooked breakfast and brought our tea out to the edge of the lookout. We visited a variety of waterfalls and lookouts during this day and found a campervan park nestled in a valley of the mountains. Here we met a few other travelers like us, and enjoyed talking to them at the dinner table. One guy was traveling across Oz in his van for a year, and was only three months into his trip. He normally would have been with his wife, but she had to go home for a wedding, so we kept him company this night. After talking to him it hit me how Australian he was and that Australia is not the US. We had to explain to him what college was, and he was amazed that kids leave their parents at 18 and decided what they’re going to do the rest of their lives. Here most people keep living at home and travel to “Uni” any time after their secondary school. We were going to go south of Sydney for Fri, but Dean convinced us to go north instead. We headed off to Terrigal Fri morning, and spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach. We found a coffee shop with free WiFi afterwards and booked our bus tickets to travel to Canberra the next day, which is where we were supposed to meet up with the group. We found a nice car park near a Little Beach in Boudi Ntl. Park south of Terrigal and spent the night there. We feasted this night, finishing off all the food that we had purchased for our car trip. Sat morning the cockatoos woke us up bright and early, and I drove us again back through Sydney and dropped Ian and Todd off by the train/bus station in the heart of the CBD. I then drove the car back to the Jucy Rental shop and bussed back to them. We rode a greyhound bus five hours down to Canberra and moved into our last hostel of the eight day vaca, which was much nicer than the one in Kings Cross.

We are spending this week in Canberra, which is comparable to D.C., visiting museums and lecturing a little on environmental policy. Then on Fri we are making our way back to Sydney to have our midterm exams… yay! Those will be on Fri and Sun, so this week is going to be a pretty laid back and studious week. On a different note, I received my first haircut of the trip today from Dr. Skiba. It took me a few nights to think it over, but I finally decided that different can be good. The mohawk will be gone in the next day or two so don’t worry, but for now the rest of my hair is at 3/10 of an inch.   

Resting on our way up to Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mtns 

Dinner in the Jucy Crib

One of many falls that we visited. 

We had our cuppa out on the rocks before taking off Thurs Morning

On top of the parliament building with my new hairdo. 

Eight Day Vaca!

Hello! I am writing to you from Sydney! I know Sydney wasn't in the plans, but after Ian, Todd and I were dropped off in rainy Melbourne yesterday morning and all the Jucy Cribs down in St. Kilda were taken, we did the next best thing we could think of: we jumped on a train and headed to Sydney. Our train left Melbourne at 8pm and arrived in Sydney at 8am this morning. We now have the next three days to relax at a backpackers, which costs us $22 a night, and then on Wed we are scheduled to pick up a campervan at 10am and begin our adventure. We are thinking about going to the Blue Mountains or even heading out towards the outback, but we aren't for sure yet. We will figure it out on the go.

So, Sydney is a lot like Melbourne only a lot bigger/urban and a lot more social. There are heaps of bars and clubs and everywhere we walk there are empty beer and wine bottles. Maybe this is just because yesterday was their mardi gras celebration, or maybe that's just the way the city is. This morning we went to the botanical gardens by the opera house and in it found some giant spiders and a flock of bats. An Asian marching band scared the "flying foxes" out the tree as they passed by. The bats didn't like the music too much, but we thought it was great!

We spent last week on Phillip Island, which is just east of Melbourne. The highlights of staying on the island were visiting the nesting sites of the penguins and shearwater birds. They estimate that there are over a million shearwaters nesting on the island, which the birds do by digging burrows a few metres deep for their single egg. When the chicks hatch they make easy targets for pacific gulls and copperhead snakes. This just reminded me that we saw a Kookaburra two days ago catch a copperhead, kill it,  swallow it whole and then brag to the other Kookaburras by laughing away. As for the penguins, they are the biggest tourist attraction for the island. Every night the birds come out of the ocean and parade back to their burrows in the hills. One night after sunset we were able to go down to the parade and watch them. We spent and hour watching group after groups of penguins make their way up the rocky beach and back to their burrows. A ranger counted 650 birds come onto the beach that we were at, but there are thousands that nest on the island. The afternoon before we watched the parade we actually made homes for the penguins. We constructed little boxes for them and placed them in a site that had formerly been someones house, but had been purchased by the park. Reclamation of the land is happening all over the island as they realize how important it is for the nesting migratory birds. The ranger told us that the boxes that we made would be occupied by penguins within two or three days. We made sure to let the penguins know that Oles from the US made their box by decorating the inside with an American Flag and "ole sayings".

Wish us luck as we travel. I'm looking forward to the freedom, and driving on the left side of the road of course. It has been nice being with the group, but at the same thing every hour of our day is planned out for us, so we haven't had much free time to explore on our own and relax. It was quite the change of pace from NZ life, but its good! I'll upload some pictures when I can!

Up in a light house of the Otways! David Richard Skiba, David Richard Wett (and Katie)

Hanging out at the Twelve Apostles

Ke Han, Mary, Dr. Ba, Karen, a weirdo and Todd. This was supposed to be our party face. 

A eucalyptus forest is not a bad place to live as a Koala

Australia: Week One and Two

Our first week in Melbourne was pretty laid back. The group spent the first day moving into our single dorm rooms at Mannix College, a dorm off of Monash University, and later spent the afternoon checking out Melbourne’s city centre. The city of Melbourne is big, having a population larger than all of NZ, so I felt a little out of place on the trams and trains. Regardless, the Queen Victoria Markets were fun to meander through and it was fun to spend time with the other Oles.

            While at Mannix we were fed breakfast, we received a $10 stipend for lunches, and we had to fend for ourselves for dinner. Skiba, Todd, Ian and I got creative from day one and starting up our own restaurant in the small kitchen of the dorm. For the next week we “borrowed” fruits from the caf to go along with our peanut butter/nutella toast for lunch. We ate homemade stir-fries every dinner, which looked and tasted so good that we had people asking us if they could buy some off of us. We ended up only spending $15 each for the whole week of food. This was good because we were therefore able to fund our past time of choice: Dooley’s. This was an Irish bar at a hotel-motel in the furniture district of Melbourne which catered to people over the age of fifty that like country and mid-nineties music.

            During the week we had various lectures on anthropology and ecology. At times they were pure review and boring, but a few were very interesting. One professor spoke to us about the 30 years he spent living with an aboriginal community in northern AUS, documenting their language and culture as he went. He is currently one of three people left to know the language fluently, but he is having success with the younger generations in reinstalling their culture into the community, which was formerly forbidden to practice their beliefs by the whites of the area. On Wed. we went to an animal sanctuary in Healesville. We were able to see many animals, which included; emus, koalas, roos, wallabies, various birds and even two baby Tasmanian devils.  On Friday we went to a small biodynamic vineyard and winery, which was fun to compare to Seresin Estate. Though they practiced some of the preparations characteristic to biodynamic practices, the owners were scientists and therefore a little skeptical.

            We left Melbourne on Sunday and bussed down to Queenscliff. We are spending this week studying marine biology at The Marine and Freshwater Discover Centre. Monday was spent listening to lectures, Tuesday we had our first field research, in which we investigated inter-tidal species and their distributions along the shore. In one tide pool we found a Maori Octopus, which was exciting since the people from the centre said they had only seen one before. We started Wednesday off by canoeing through Swan Bay. I was able to catch not one, but two bandjo sharks with my bare hands in the shallow water of the bay. They look a lot like sting-rays, but are a harmless member of the shark family. We saw bigger ones, but the ones I caught were probably around two feet long. On Thurs. we went on a boat tour of St. Phillip Bay. We collected a sample of floating debris in the bay and analyzed the contents. We found many feather stars, a few crabs, wandering anemones, sea squirts and even three or four sea horses. On Fri we are going snorkeling at what they call "Pope's eye", and we are planning on diving during our free time on Saturday. After this, we're heading back to Melbourne for the week. 

         Now that we are actually out in the field I am really enjoying the trip. The first week spent in a foreign school classroom wasn't that much fun, but as long as I am able to break up the lectures with field work, I think I'm going to have a good semester. 

Todd made a new friend. 

Classy blokes sampling wine

Oles at work. We are looking through the brown algae that we collected behind the boat. We found feather stars, anemones, brittle stars, sea horses, crabs, and even a few little fish. 

Team Footscray: Disection Champions. 

Australia!!!

I finally made it. I have been waiting over a year for this semester abroad to begin and it’s finally here. Let me tell you, it is a lot less stressful not having to plan my life on a daily basis. It is also really comforting being with Oles again. Though I now miss being totally immersed into the English culture, being with the Americans is a relief. Before I begin describing how my first few weeks in AUS have been, I really should fill you in on the last of my adventures of NZ. Oh boy, they were eventful.

So, we woke up Monday morning at 5:30 and Bob drove us the three hours to Westport. We finally made it to the west coast! We start hitching after grabbing some groceries and hitched a ride down to Punakaiki with a Scottish couple. The drive was really interesting since the man is an author on the book of Revelation, having a book which was an Amazon best seller for the past three years (I think his name was Peter Heron if you want to check him out). He and his wife had some radical things to say, as they expressed their concerns for the US and the EU and talked about the new world order.

We were in Punakaiki by noon and headed straight to the start of the Inland Pack Track of the Paparoa Ntl. Park. Before entering, we talked to a ranger at the I-Site and she informed us that we had an eight-hour hike ahead of us if we wanted to spend the night in the park. By this time it was already one, so we decided that it was time to start hiking. The rainforest changed back and forth between fern trees and beech trees, and the majority of the trails were swampy. As we got deep into the forest, the trail turned into a riverbed. We followed the creek, which got larger as we followed it into a gorge, for the last three hours of our hike. At one point we stirred up three feral goats, so I guess we weren’t hiking the never-ending trail alone. Our turnoff to our campsite was in an area where the river was wide, fast, deep and cold. We tried forging through but once we got to our chests in water we had to rethink our plan. We were stumped since we had cliffs on both sides of us. At one point we even contemplated building a raft, and then bridge to get to the other side of the river. The sun was setting fast and we were cold since we had had to make more than 50 river crossings over the past few hours. Luckily we found an area to cross upstream, so we crossed and climbed a rock face to get to the other side.

We camped in a spot called the Ballroom Overhang and were surprised that we weren’t the only ones spending the night there. Right before we went to bed, a possum showed up at camp, and we were informed that they were NZ’s biggest pest. I thought we scared it off, but after going to bed Ian and I realized that our night spent in our sleeping bas was going to be a long night. We were sleeping outside, and there wasn’t any good place to hang our food so we keep it in a stuff-sack between our two sleeping bags. This was a mistake. The minute we went to bed until 4am was spent trying to kill/deter the possum from crawling over us to get our food. Once I woke up with him inches from eyes, right between our two heads. We decided to declare war and armed ourselves with rocks, sticks, knives and flashlights, but it took us until 4am to finally injure him enough to keep him off us.

We started off our Tuesday morning by hiking out of the park, but before we left we decided to take a detour to explore a cave, which was situated in the bluffs. This was my first time spelunking in a non-tourist cave, and I loved the feeling of not having anything but a flashlight to navigate the 25 min crawl deep into the cave. We spent the rest of Tuesday around the little town and slept in a hostel that was situated in the rainforest.

On Wednesday we woke up early to rain. It was pouring cats and dogs, but we still needed hitch to hike the 45 min south to Greymouth by 1:20 to make it to our bus. The two hours that we had to spend hiking/waiting for a lift in the cold rain were long, and may have even been the low point of the trip, but lucky for us we were able to get a lift. Some dude was driving alone and said he was bored and we were the first hitchers that he saw. He ended up know Bob Dawber, so we had a great time describing to him our time WWOOFing in NZ. We didn’t think we’d even get a ride, let along a ride from someone who used to work for the man we spent the last week with, so at this point our moods changed instantly. We made it to Greymouth with an hour to spare and rode the bus through the Southern Alps via Arthur’s Pass back to Chch.
We were finally back and ready to relax. Our bus made it to Chch by 6:30 and took the bus 45 min south to Natalie’s flat. Unfortunately she wasn’t there, but her flat mates found us the luggage that we had left behind and even allowed us to spend the night. We spent Thursday walking and bumming around the Chch centre and ended up spending another night at their house. On Friday we went to the Chch Museum and spent the night on the airport floor. Our flight departed NZ at 6:20am on Saturday and we were in Melbourne, AUS by 8am. At this point we were running on adrenaline and ready for our next adventure to begin.

We did this for roughly two hours, following the river which was also the path

A neat area of the gorge!

This was about 20 min into the cave (notice the water). We turned off the lights and just listened for a few min. Too bad there weren't any glow-worms. 

The view as we rode the bus over Arthur's Pass through the Southern Alps

The Last of New Zealand

It has been another week so I thought it would be best if I updated you on what I've been up to. Since we finished bailing on Sunday, we were able to take a break from the farm on Monday. Bob brought us to Motueka early Monday morning to catch the bus that his son Locke daily drives up to the Tasman Ntl. Park. Having the connection to Locke got us a discount and sped us through the campsite reservation process in order for us to catch the water taxi that was waiting to depart upon our arrival. Connections are good. We rode the water taxi deep into the park, stopping to see the cormorant nests and seal pups on the way out. A water taxi is just like a land taxi only it transports people, usually those with money or small kids, to the best parts of the park via the ocean. After a day spent relaxing or hiking people usually take the taxi back to the entrance, but we took the alternative option and spent the night. Upon arriving at Tonga Beach, we realised that the campsite which we were registered to spend the night at was only a little over an hours hike away, and being that it was only 10am we decided to hike in the opposite direction. At the end of the beach our trail headed for the hills, but since it was high tide a salty river separated us from our destination. Nevertheless, we decided to forge on and crossed the river with our packs raised above our heads. Luckily the water only made it up to our chins. After hiking for a few hours amongst a constant buzz from the cicadas, we made it to our lunch destination, Awaroa Bay. After lunch, we headed back to the beach that we were dropped off at and to our astonishment the river which we had crossed just a few hours previously had almost completely disappeared. Our taxi driver was right when he said this park experienced the largest fluxuations in tides in all of NZ, with areas dropping and raising 4.5m twice a day (that's almost a 15' difference). We made it to the campsite at Bark Bay before five and set up our "tent" (check out the picture below). We then found our dinner, which consisted of NZ's famous green mussels (they covered the rocks which were exposed during low tide) and a paddle crab. The paddle crab wasn't that big but since it pinched Ian we had to punish it somehow. Later Bob told us that paddle crab is the best tucker that the ocean has to offer (that's coming from an ex-fisherman and mussel farmer). As the sun set, the sand flies came out in drones. They still were nothing compared to the mosquitoes back home though. Good thing we had our "tent", which the forest ranger described as original, to keep them out... not. The next morning we started early and made it to Torrent Bay by 11am. We relaxed on the beach here and made it back to the entrance of the park by 3:30. After our long hike we were happy to right away find a little burger shack called the Fat Tui. The burgers were unique but very delicious. Ian had their veggie burger option and said it was the best veggie anything that he's every had.

From Wed. - Fri. we helped out around the farm. We raked up stray hay mounds and collected bananaed bails from the paddocks. This all went into yet another compost pile. It has been fun driving a manual truck around and shifting with my left hand. Work has kept us busy in the mornings and relaxing and reading has made our afternoons go by fast. I forgot to mention, but Sunday night Bob realised that a neighbor's dog had gotten into the paddock where our sheep were grazing. It had attacked 5 of them, bitting their legs and rumps, and escaped before Bob was able to see it. He had to put two of the sheep down, which was very unfortunate since the hay was the last of his worries, but at least the other three were able to be saved. A picutre below shows me holding a lamb which was injured while Bob prepares to treat the wounds.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we plan on going to the local speedway at night for a demolition derby. Bob used to race cars here and still loves watching the races. Bob told us that he has a friend with pet eels, so we are planning on going to see and feed them on Sunday. Then on Monday we're going to say our goodbyes and head to the West Coast. Bob is giving us a lift to Westport, but after that its hitching for us again. Our tentative plan is to spend two days in Paparoa Ntl. Park and then either take a bus to Hamner Springs or straight to Christchurch to catch our flight on the fourth. We only have seven days left in New Zealand so we need to make the most of it. Though this doesn't seem like much time, we've only been here for three weeks, so there's still plenty of time to see more of NZ and try to stay out of trouble.

This was our first tidal pool crossing. Luckily it didn't get much deeper than this.

Ian was a little reluctant to eat the mussels. He was only able to find a few pieces which he deemed edible no matter how hard I tried to convince him to pop the whole thing in his mouth. We ended up boiling about ten mussels as our hors d'oeuvres and then used the shells as spoons for our pasta.

Our "original" tent (aka sand fly refugee camp). During the night we tightened our mummy bags as much as possible to limit the amount of skin that was explosed to the hungry beasts.

This lamb had what they call "Fly Strike". Since it had been injured by the dog, flies were able to lay their eggs in the open wound. We had to shave wool from the affected area and apply a poison to kill the maggots.

Farming

I am on a 20 min compulsory break now, so I thought I'd let you all know what I've been up to. Yesterday afternoon we started bailing hay, and we haven't really stopped since. We bailed for 3 hrs before dinner, 4 hours after dinner (until the starts were out), and then 3 hours this morning before our tea break, then 2 hours after tea break until lunch and now I'm on this "compulsory break". Moving hay bails is a lot of work, and not too much fun. I don't mind the physical part, but I am just not the fondest of the hay dust. It has been windy, so with every bail I get a blast in my eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears... actually it just about coats my body until I shake myself free. Ian has given in to wearing a t-shirt sleeve as a face mask, but I haven't caught on yet to that style.

It is hard for me to beileve, but I have already been on the farm for a week. Time has been flown by, and I now feel like I am part of the family. My host dad is Bob, who has to be around 60 years old, but he is still able to keep up with us young lads. My mother is Cecelia. She is a Filipino woman who only knows a bit of English but still makes sure that we are taken care of well. After every meal she asks us if we want tea or coffee with milk or sugar. She has also been awake every day before we stumble down the stairs around 6:45 for breakfast and has our cereal, and cooked fruits ready for us to eat (at this time she also asks us if we want coffee or tea). I also have two siblings here, Chloe who is 13 and pretty shy and Benje who is 17 and our work mate. They all moved to NZ about three months ago, and are adapting to the Kiwi farm life very fast. I find it interesting that the Filipinos are taught and speak English with an American accent.

We have been busy every day that we've been here, including today which is Saturday. We are expected to work 6 hours a day for our free room and board, so we work from 7-10:30, at this time we have a tea break, and then 11 to lunch which is at 1:30. Here's what we've done so far:
Monday: We pulled out drip irrigation that was installed improperly in the terraced gardens. It was burried under grass and dirt so the holes were plugged and itw was no longer was able to drip. We also moved cut timber, about fifty 2x6in boards, from an one area of the farm to a garden house. The wood was was wet so it was a tiring and demanding task.
yTuesday: We cleaned out a greenhouse and moulded potato patches.
Wednesday: We starting construction on the greenhouse roof and also started to build two large (3x3x10m) compost piles. We cleared a few swampy paddocks of hay and built the base and then just kept adding layer after layer of dirt, "chicken shit", and more hay. These piles stood taller than us by the time they were completed and now lay covered and are starting to decompose.
Thursday: We finished the rafters of the greenhouse. We then started a third compost pile. In the afternoon I made rhubarb dessert with Benje for our family dinner.
Friday: We moved more hay to our last compost pile. Around 3:30 in the afternoon we started bailing hay, and that brings me right about up to where I am now.

We had our afternoons free from Mon - Thurs, so we got a chance to explore the surrounding area a little bit. On Monday we biked roughly 15km to Motueka and relaxed on the beach by a sunken ship. We relaxed and read a variety of organic gardening/horticulture books on Tuesday. On Wednesday we tried to bike again, but Ian broke his bike chain while trying to ride up a hill right after the village boundaries. We read and then went for a run on Thurdsay (Ian has been running everyday, but I joined him for part of it on Thursday). And now we've been bailing since Friday and plan on doing so through the weekend. After this Bob is going to give us a break for a few days and we're going to spend it in the Able Tasman Ntl. Park, which is just 30 min north of here. This park is known as NZ's most beautiful park since it has pristine beaches, old-growth forests, and great tramping trails. I hear there are more seals up there, and possible some penguins too.  Bob's son drives a water taxi, so we might hitch a ride with him and explore the centre of the park for a few days.

More about NZ:
-Bob said he doesn't know of a pub in NZ that doesn't sell take-away beer. Now that we have been bailing hay we also have been drinking "take-away" beer during our breaks. It comes in a plastic 2-litre bottle, but used to come in a slightly larger glass bottle called a flagon.
-The guys who stopped in for an hour or so to help us bail hay had an argument on which was better: Vegemite vs. Marmite. To me they taste the same. Vegemite is the Australian version and Marmite is the NZ version. They both are byproducts of beer production, consisting of the used yeast and added salt. I have yet to acquire a taste for this (by)product, but Kiwis (and Aussies) eat it as Americans would eat peanut butter.
-Here on the farm we have a bird called a Plubber (they look like a cross between a heron and a gull) and they eat our potatoes. Therefore we need to cover all the plants with nets so they don't pull out the plants, eat the small potatoes, and leave the rest to die.

Our home. We live in the upper section and another family lives in the lower section. It is nice, but inside it isn't as fancy as it appears from the outside. It has a wonderful view though. We can see the ocean from our verandah.

Where we spent our Monday afternoon in Motueka.

There are many large trees in NZ, and they're not that old. Apparently everything just grows incredibly fast here.

Cecelia, Bob, and Tessa (the sheep dog). Tessa is eyeing down the sheep in the background, and right after this photo was taken she herded the flock to the next paddock with ease.

Ian, Benje and Bob bringing in the bails to the barn. I hopped off to open the gate.

Bob pulling the hay bailer out of the mud. Most of the paddocks are muddy, so we need to be careful to keep the trucks and tractors rolling.

It may be cheesy, but this is us brining in the hay. Too much fun. At this point we had been doing it for over 24 hrs.

From Seresin Estate to Te Mara

Thurs, Jan 12th
Today we had the opportunity to tag along with Scotty and his dog Blaze and drove down the windy roads of the Marlborough Sounds to Water Fall Bay. This is where Michael Seresin spends most of his time in New Zealand, when not bossing the workers around at the vineyard. It is a secluded 12 million dollar ocean front home that is usually accessed by boat from Picton. We took the truck because we had to transport four large natural gas tanks which will be used in the weeks to come to host classy dinners for NZ's richest. Michael built a little restaurant on his property to display the estate's wine, and since Blenheim, a town of 20,000, doesn't have much to offer rich blokes like Seresin. The restaurant is only used for five or six dinners a year, hosting up to 50 people, which get to sail into the bay. Scotty is the caretaker of the property and he spends most of his time out here by himself, so we were glad to accompany him and lend him a hand. He is a very kind, hard working man who has worked for Seresin for the past 12 years. Before he was offered this job he planted most of the pine timber forests in the area. He told us he would plant 1,000 trees per day on the "hills" of this region of NZ (keep in mind that these hills have to be pushing the limit before they become mountains). We spent the morning weedwacking and raking the grass driveway. Next we filled dips in the yard with top soil, moving wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of dirt around the yard. We finished up the hard day's work splitting wood and reorgainising wood piles. After work, Scotty took us out on the Nukutere, a 50 foot duo diesl engine yacht. Ian and I got to wear that captain's hat and drive the boat around the sounds, while sipping on a few beers which Scotty provided. We found a secluded bay and dove off the boat into the water. We didn't stay in too long since the water was cold, but it felt good after a long day of work. We didn't get back to our home until 8:00 at night and made sure to let everyone know that Scotty slaved us away all day. The truth is we did to a lot of work, but the boat ride made it all worthwhile.
Fri Jan 13th
Today we had of a change of pace and actually worked in the vineyard. We moved up wires which hold up the plants in an orderly fashion and plucked off stray vines with Aurelien, the 18 year old French intern who arrived yesterday. He doesn't speak much English, but he has moved into the Tatou House with us so we have been learning to communitcate via hand gestures. We spent the whole day moving the wires on the Pinot Noir grapes, and only got rained on a few times. Today was officially our last day working at Seresin Estate, so the crew was nice enough to give both of us bottles of wine. Ian chose the Momento Resling, while I went with the Chardonay. We said our goodbyes and left the vineyard, but we were still allowed to stay at the house through Sunday (there needed to be someone to entertain Frenchie). Rob and Meg left this afternoon to go to Chch, so Aurelien, Ian and I had the house to ourselves for the rest of the weekend. Frenchie and I cooked a mean spaghetti while Ian went for a run. We gave him 35 min before the food would be ready, and he made it back with five seconds to spare. After dinner I wanted to hit up the clubs of Blenheim since it was a Friday night, but we decided that biking the 15 km in the dark wouldn't be that fun, and it was stormy weather anyway. Word on the street is that there are a lot of "aggressive," "interesting," "fat," Blenheim girls who love American boys. I guess we'll have to save that experience for a later date.

Sat. Jan 14th
Today we got up early and headed with Scotty once again to the sounds. He had to make sure everything was tidied up before Michael arrived, but was willing to drop us off on the Queen Charlotte trail for a good ol' tramp on his way there. We tramped along for 3 hours and walked down to Waterfall Bay where we met Scotty and Blaze. Michael was asleep by the time we got there, so we were unable to meet him. Hiking through the forest reminded me of hiking through Jurassic Park. There were heaps of exotic trees to see and birds to listen too. This area had never been cleared for the pine industry, so it was interesting to see what the hills of NZ are supposed to look like. On our way back to Renwick we stopped at a small pub for a drink. Scotty likes to end his days with a beer, so we tagged along. Once back home we fired up the grill and cooked chicken legs. We also cooked up some potatoes and peppers in the oven, coated with Seresin olive oil and garlic cloves from the garlic that we picked earlier in the week. Since this was our last night at Tatou we decided to show Frenchie the river after dinner. We took him down there and watched the sunset over the mountains. We made sure that he knew it was his duty to show the next people our prime river spot, as he is going to be living at the Tatou house for another month.

Sun Jan 15th
Scotty is the man. He offered us a ride to Nelson, as he was making his way there anyway to pick up his daughter. Though hitch hiking is fun, it was really nice to have a friend give us a ride. We drove the 150 km with him and got dropped up by the beach in Nelson to spend our afternoon lounging around and watching people play volleyball. We arranged to get picked up here by our next host, and now we are moved into Te Mara. On the ride over Bob, our host, described the farm which he works for as a mess. I thought we were going to be working with a Maori community, but I guess it is just a group of people with a lot of money who fear the world ending. Their goal was to be completely sustainable, but as Bob described they just wasted a lot of money and didn't really accomplish anything. He has been here now for two months and has started repairing damage that had been done by the previous caretakers, and invisions his work taking another few years.  An example of some of the mess is that they planted apple trees, pine trees, willow trees, and fig trees all together. Sounds perfect, right? Another thing that he has been doing is pulling out thousands of dollars of drip irrigation that was installed improperly so it never worked. He said he has been working nonstop over the past two months, so the family might take a little break later this week. Maybe we'll be able to join them on their advernture, who knows? Until then we will be bailing hay for the next few days. Sounds like some hot work to me!

Thats enough about what I've been doing. Here's a little bit that I've learned over the past few weeks:
American words vs. Kiwi words
flip flops/jandles
pop/fizzy
hiking/tramping
gasoline/petrol
chips/crisps
college/uni
tons/heaps
cookie/biscuit
flashlight/torch
chickens/chooks
field/paddock
porch/verandah
exhuasted/buggard
very/bloody
grocery store/dairy
weird/bizzare
gas station/garage (pronounce gare-ege)
mountain/hill (not really, but they have some big hills)

More about NZ...
- Bird is pronounced as beard.
- There are almost 50 million sheep, but only 4 million people.
- Petrol is $2.19NZ per litre, so about $7US per gallon
- Tea breaks happen often, and they always ask if you want milk with your tea. Tea also follows most meals.
- People have asked if we are from Sweden, France, and Canada. I guess Americans aren't that easy to spot.
- We have seen a few trucks on the road with dead wild pigs straped to the beds. I saw one with 5 pigs. We have yet to see any wild pigs.
- Weet-Bix is NZ's and the All Black's (acccording to the box) cereal of chice. It is basically pressed cubes of wheat flakes that absorbs any amount of milk that you pour on it.
- KFC is unexpectedly the fastfood chain of choice for teenage kiwis to eat at. Scotty said when he was our age he'd travel 20km on his motor bike to go to a KFC. He also called it the Kid or Kiwi Fattening Company.
 

Taking the yacht for a cruise. We went across the sound to Picton, saw the ferry going to Wellington, went to a secluded bay to take a dip and then returned to Waterfall Bay.

The Queen Charlotte track. This was right about in the middle of the 3 hr hike.

Scotty showing Ian after our hike the rope that someone tied to the pier. Ian had to dive and untie it before the tide got too high and flipped the dinghy. (There's the Nukutere, the 50' yacht that we drove around the sounds the day before)

We bushwacked up to the waterfall at Waterfall Bay after tramping through Queen Charlotte. This was the lower of two falls.

Our last meal Sat night with Frenchie. We decided to grill chiken, half of the legs had bbq sauce and the other half with minced Seresin garlic in their olive oil.

We had to show Frenchie where the good chilling spots were at the river so he could show the next WWOOFers.

WWOOFing

We are finally here in sunny Renwick. We lucked out hitching a ride from Kaikoura to Blenheim, as it only took us 2 or 3 min to find a lift. We rode up with a lady from Auckland who was on holiday and touring the south island. She was a tv producer for NZs morning business show. We had a nice chat with her, and even got to stop on the side of the highway to see some lazy seals up close. We made it to Blenheim around noon on the 8th, checked into our hotel, and slept. It rained all day, so we slept all day. We were able to cook our own pasta meal in our tiny hotel room kitchen, which was good since we saved a lot of money. On the ninth we were picked up at 9:30 by Sean, a fellow employee at Seresin. We toured the vineyard, and met some other wokers at their 10am "Smoko" aka tea/snack break, not the traditional smoke break. We worked the rest of the day digging garlic. Sean, Erin, Ian and I dug up an estimated 5000 bulbs, which will be sold locally. They sell for a buck a piece, so I'd say we did our fair share of work for the company. On the 10th we worked with veggies once again. This time Ian and I hoed corn. We started at 10:30 and worked right up until our 1:00 lunch break. By this time our hands were blistered and we were hot. The temp is floating right around 85 degrees here and the sun is much more intense than that of MN. They mentioned something about holes in the ozone layer, or something bizarre like that. So Ian and I have been lathering ourselves in sun screen, but I guess our bodies will just have to get used to it. After lunch we pulled weeds. At least our hands got a break and we were able to sit down to do this job. The beets and beans look a lot better now that they have all been weeded. We get off work at 4pm and our new favorite spot in NZ is down by the river. Our home, which is a WWOOFer house, but has permanent employee residents, is located right next to a pretty big river. It reminds me a lot of something that you'd see in Montanna. Both days we ventured down to the river, basked in the sun, and took a dip. The water is crystal clear and surprisingly not that cold. Today, the 11th, we worked in the cow-pat-pits. We basically turned cow manure with a shovel for an hour, adding basalt and calcium as we went, and then placed it in pits. This will turn into compost over three months and will be used to fertilise the grapes. After lunch we we picked flowers for a few hours. They use camomile and yarro (idk if that's how they're spelled) in their biodynamic processes. We concluded our day by weeding the leeks and concluded our work day with a wine tasting of Seresin's wines after work. Tomorrow we are starting work at 8, going up to Michael Seresin's (the owner/british movie producer) restaurant to weed and work the gardens there. He's coming in on Friday, so all the workers are a little nervous as they prepare to get the vineyard in tip-top shape. He only makes an appearance once or twice a year. I don't know if we'll get to meet him, but if we do we have heard he usually wont even "tell you the time" if you are male. He is in his 60s, has and apparently really likes to flirt with the young ladies.

Internet is very hard to come by here in NZ. Even at our home here there is a limit of 4GB of internet/month, so they don't like us using it. Apparently they've had a few wwoofers who have used up the months limit in a matter of hours. Therefore, I don't know when I'll be able to update the post next. We plan on leaving Seresin on the 14th and we might start our work at the village early (maybe on the 16) so we will have a chance to see the west coast as we hitch our way back to Chch. That's about it! Bye!

The Tatou House, where Rob and Meg live for now and where WWOOFers live while at the vineyard. It was 5km from the main vineyard, so we had to bike there and back.

The 5,000 garlic bulbs that we dug up the first day at the estate. They dried over the next few days

The goats at the vineyard. Michael bought these for his son and now makes the vineyard workers take care of them.

Our view from our bedroom at the Tatou house.