On the go

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks, but I'm going to try to get up to date now.

So, after Tauranga we spent three days camping at a backpackers in Rotorua, which is mainly known for the intense amount of thermal activity there. The whole city has a faint sulfur smell at times. In the park next door there were pools of boiling mud and water.

Our main reason for going to Rotorua was Zorbing (which for anyone who hasn't seen Jackie Chan go down a mountain using one in Operation Condor) is a very large ball with a smaller chamber inside that they push down a hill. You can go strapped in, or loose in the ball with up to two more people and a fair bit of water. Ashley and I opted for the water one. Once we started moving down the hill we realized it was better pushing each other around and flopping all over the place. While it only lasts about 30 seconds, it was a lot of fun and definitely worth it.

Another highlight of Rotorua was the luge. After taking a gondola up a huge hill, you sit in a little car(steering and brakes) and set off one of the three concrete tracks. Once you get the hang of it you can really get your speed up.

From there we hitched to a small town on the North coast called Opotiki. Opotiki has some significance in terms of Maori-Pakeha(white) relations. In 1865 a missionary at the church in Opotiki was killed by a group of local Maori. The government used this an excuse to call bring in military forces and confiscate huge areas of Maori land.

Anyway, Opotiki has a much more positive connotation for us as we WWOOFed with a great couple in their gorgeous house overlooking the beach. They also lived right next to numerous orchards so we went and picked avocados that had fallen to the ground and ended up with over thirty of them. We also picked cherimoyas(also called custard apples) which I hadn't heard of before. There's a picture of them with the avocados. The inside has a color and texture like a pear. The taste is very subtle, with a slight similarity to Mango.

From there we caught a bus to the east coast city of Gisborne, staying one night in a backpackers before hitching along the coast to Napier. In 1931 pretty much the entire town of Napier was leveled by an earthquake. So when the city was rebuilt it was done in what would later be called the Art Deco style. We spent two nights in Napier then took a bus South to Wellington, the capital. There we WWOOFed with a music teacher who also plays in an Indonesian Gamelan ensemble. The group was playing at a music festival/fund-raiser called surf aid and in exchange for being roadies we got to eat and drink and watch the acts, including the Wellington Ukulele orchestra.

We traded days working in the garden and exploring Wellington and saw the Botanical Gardens, numerous museums, the national archives. We took a tour of Parliament and stayed around to watch the daily questions where members are allowed to question the prime minister and others about various issues. It seemed like an excuse for each party to rave about how incompetent the other ones are and it's quite boisterous. Members are constantly making snide comments while other people are speaking and the speaker threatened numerous people with expulsion from the chamber, fun stuff. We also visited the city wildlife sanctuary which was very cool. In addition to many native birds the sanctuary also has kiwis and tuatara(neither of which we saw). Kiwis are in very few spots in the country. Tuatara is a reptile that basically dates back to the dinosaurs and also has an extremely limited habitat. We'll have to go back and get a look at one later.

After a week in Wellington we took the ferry across to the South and headed back to Blenheim where we stopped in for a quick visit, just enough time to change out some clothes and gear and orchestrate our own Thanksgiving dinner with Bob, Marj, Tadeu, and another friend of theirs Murray. It wasn't quite the usual thanksgiving but did have great stuffing made by Bob, along with a roast bird(chicken), mashed potatoes, and chocolate pudding pie and everyone definitely had more than their fill.

Last Monday we took a bus down to Christchurch where we've settled in. We're staying here for a month total to try and make some money, play in a frisbee tournament in a couple weeks and meet up with our friend Devin who arrives just before Christmas. We're cleaning and doing other jobs at our hostel in exchange for accommodation, which is good. Ashley found a job at a cafe doing dishwashing, prep stuff, waitressing. Despite handing out resumes all over town I haven't found a job quite yet. Apparently a college degree does not make me qualified to make coffee. Apparently that's something you're born with. Today I should get my permit for busking(street performing) so I should be able to make a bit of money doing that.

Happy Late Thanksgiving to everyone, wish I could have been with you,

Brian