NZ in a nutshell

It is hard to believe that my New Zealand chapter will soon be coming to an end! 11 months later and I feel somewhat changed and enlightened by my experiences in New Zealand. I have done all sorts of crazy things that I never even imagined I would do while here, like working as a dairy farmer, spending 10 days in the mountains on one long hike, having a go at making pottery, working as a maid and dishwasher, making bricks, plastering walls with cow pooh, hitch hiking (It’s really safe here J)climbing to the summit of seven mountains, and getting my scuba diving certificate…There are also some crazy things that I knew for sure I would do, like bungee jumping, skydiving, going rugby games, mountain biking, hiking and meeting all sorts of wonderful people! This will be my last entry while still in New Zealand before heading off to Asia! I am going to attempt to reflect on my whole trip so it might be pretty long!!! SORRY in advance J If you don’t want to read it all, you can read ahead and just read my tops 15s…..(was gonna make it 10 but I couldn’t stop)

I started out my trip with a week long trip around Northland, the area above Auckland. I lived in a campervan for a week with a guy I had just met, Romy! It was quite the experience. He was English and I was the first American he had ever met, so he thought that everything I said was funny in my accent. At first I thought it was funny but after a week of 24 hours a day getting most of what I said mimicked back to me, I was ‘over” it! Nonetheless, we got along really well and I made up for his mocking me with making fun of his love for sheep. It was hilarious how obsessed with sheep he was. NZ has endless fields of green hillsides covered with sheep, EVERYWHERE…and he would always want to stop and look at them and we joked about kidnapping one to come on our road trip with us. This road trip is when I first fell in love with New Zealand. I remember one day on the trip we went hiking through a rain forest, sat on a beach, spent hours driving though amazing green hilly countryside and saw some sand dunes across a harbor! There are not many places in the world that you can do all of that within a few hours of each other! Along with the scenery, I also fell in love with the lack of big overcrowded and over established towns! I remember we would be driving for hours just waiting to get to the next town so we could get some snacks of stop for a beer or something and when we would finally reach the town, it would consist of a general store (which was usually closed) and a pub…and that’s it! I have come to really love these small NZ towns! Romy and I had a really good trip together and I even talked him into going skydiving with me (I think he just about crapped his pants...hahaha). It was a cool skydive because we went on a cloudy day, so we got to fall through the clouds!

Next, it was time to start my WWOOFing! WWOOFing is a program where you stay with a family on a farm and work for your accommodation and food. It is a good way to travel cheaply and also meet a lot of people, but it is a lot of hard work for no pay!! WWOOFing was such a great opportunity to learn so much about myself and how hard of a worker (when it comes to manual labor) I can be! I also made some amazing friends and learned so much about the kiwi way of life through wwoofing. I also learned a lot about how to live sustainably and how easy it can be to be self-reliant when it comes to producing your own amenities. It was very cool! I WWOOFed for my first four months in NZ and got to do so many crazy and amazing things! I learned how to make bricks, spent hours collecting cow “pies” to make compost, did lots of gardening and planting, spent days and days weeding and sifting though dirt to find roots of weeds, learned why thistles and gorse are the worst two plants in the world! (they are very prickly and a pain in the butt to get rid of!), worked as a maid, collected honey from bee hives, worked at an organic brewery and helped build an earthship (house made of completely recycled materials) by making plaster out of a mixture of cow pooh and dirt and then putting it on the walls! (and the owner of the house wondered why there were so many flies inside the house!) These are just a FEW of the many duties I has while working on the farms! But it wasn’t all just hard work! I also got all the inside local scoop on the great places around the areas, like hot springs (there are so many in NZ), hiking, beaches, got to do a ballroom dance class, a surfing lesson when I WWOOFed at a place with a surf shop, took a kite surfing lesson, lived in a tipi (yes a tipi) for a week, and got lots of great conversations, new perspectives, music, ideals and cooking ideas! The cooking ideas are one of the coolest parts about WWOOFing and just travelling in general. It is always fun to learn new ways of doing things and different ideas for dishes. I have been baking my own bread from scratch since I have been here! It is so much better than anything store bought!! I also got to go on a 3 day hike down the west coast, a lot of it along the beach and also up some steep bluffs and through some forest. It was great camping on the beach both nights…luckily we were blessed with some beautiful weather! It was a great hike and a good way to get to know Adam, a son of one of the couples that I worked for while WWOOFing. I ended up travelling and dating Adam for a good portion of the time i have been here. He is a very good guy:)

For Thanksgiving, I took the opportunity to cook a big thanksgiving meal (with some help) for 4 Kiwis who had never celebrated thanksgiving before! It was a lot of fun and I had to get a little creative as well, since I couldn’t find all the same fixings over here...but you can never go wrong with good company, good food and lots and lots of wine J

Just before Christmas I flew to Fiji to meet up with my best friend, Jimmi, who has been in Sydney for around the same time I have been in New Zealand. We had an amazing time being in the sun in our bathing suits for Christmas! It was also really nice to spend the holidays with a familiar face! We got to go to parties and bonfires on the beach, snorkeling with the sharks, got to eat lots of traditional Fijian food and drinks and see some very interesting culture! It was cool to see how the kids there have to get on a boat and go to another island to go to school! I even got certified to scuba dive! The scuba diving there was so amazing, I fell in love with it my first time. After seeing my 7^th shark and realizing that they didn’t care about me at all, I feel like I have overcome my fear of sharks a little bit!

After spending those 2 weeks in Fiji, I found myself being a little more broke than I was comfortable with so I decided that it was time to get a paying job! I headed down the south island and got set up in the sunny town of Nelson... (It is known to have the most days of sunshine in the whole of New Zealand! There I worked at a bar that was just about on the beach, so every day after work my co workers and I would go down to the beach and have a few drinks. It was like paradise! I lived at a backpackers, where I also worked. I made so many friends there and spent most of my days going biking, hiking or to the beach and then worked nights. It was not a bad way of life! Nelson is great because it is on the beach but has lots of mountains nearby for some amazing hikes. I went on my first overnight hike alone there. It was a great sense of accomplishment when I was finished!

One of the best times in Nelson was when we celebrated the German holiday, Carnival (most of my friends in Nelson were German). All the girls and guys switched clothes!!! It was a very fun day of dressing crazy, listening to fun music and having a few German beers!!

Although I loved it there, I was really eager to get to the south of the south island, where the stunning Alps are! On my last day of work in nelson, I got covered with whipped cream by my co-workers (tradition of the restaurant)! It was kind of gross but really fun!! I also got a big goodbye party on the beach complete with a bonfire!!!

I found a new job in Te Anau, which I have talked a lot about in my blogs. Te Anau was AMAZING. It is the main gateway to the amazing hiking and wilderness of the Fiordland National Park, the biggest national park in New Zealand. The national parks here are so great because there are virtually no roads into them so if you want to see anything, you have to walk! I absolutely fell in love with the mountains and the hiking there! Te Anau is also located on a huge lake, which gave me a great place to swim and hang out in the summer…also the sunsets were AMAZING because the lake would often turn red, reflecting the bright colors in the sky. I worked at a fancy hotel there, which was right on the waterfront, so even when I was working I got to see the sunsets (and a lot of sunrises too). I lived in staff accommodation in the back of the hotel, so it took about 30 seconds to walk from my front door to the lake and I could also walk to many of the amazing hikes that I did there. The staff accommodation was a great way to make friends because there were always people around who were keen to do something! I made some really amazing friends there, some that I know last throughout my life! Most days, we would go for a run around the lake, hiking or swimming in the lake (it was reeeeaaaaallllyyyy cold, no matter how hot it was outside!) I made some very close bonds in Te Anau, and we all started calling one another our “Te Anau family” and “home away from home.” If felt so good to have that feeling of comfort and closeness when I have been away from all my loved ones for so long! The friendships I made here mean the world to me!

One day, I was on a split shift, so I had a 6 hour break from work and it was a gorgeous day outside, so a friend of mine and I decided to drive down this amazing road out of Te Anau towards the mountains (the only road that even gets close to the national park….you have to drive out the same way you drive in!). It is kind of a magical road…you get a sort of…feeling when you drive down it. We stopped along the way at a really beautiful spot with a grassy field surrounded by mountains and just laid in the grass for a few hours. He was quite into his yoga and I always had wanted to try it, so he taught me right there! It was one of the most memorable moments I have in New Zealand! It all felt so miraculous and relaxing and…just amazing. Since then, I have been trying to practice yoga as often as possible.

One of the cool things about more than one day hikes in New Zealand is that there are huts that you can sleep in along the way. At first, I hated the idea of huts because I like everything to be all natural with no man-made buildings…but it makes everything so much easier!! The huts are very basic but have everything you need. They have to fly in all the supplies for the building by helicopter! When I was on my 10 day hike, it rained almost every day so I was definitely nice to have somewhere dry to sleep! It also made it possible to do overnight hikes in the winter when the ground had snow on it! It would have been much too cold to sleep in a tent! Since I have been in New Zealand, I have gone on six overnight hikes, totaling 19 nights in the mountains or bush, some in tents and some in huts! It is also nice in NZ that you do not have to worry about wild animals!! They don’t have any wolves or cougars or bears or anything that is going to attack you so being in the wild is much more care-free!!

The 10 day hike I went on was really amazing! It was so great to challenge myself that much! I went with two friends from Te Anau, and needless to say, we all got to know each other VERY well!! As I mentioned, it was raining every day…and we not talking just rain…we are talking RAIN like I have never seen before…I swear it is coming at you from all directions!! We were soaking wet to the bone, despite all our rain gear!! At one point the track went along a lake and the lake was so high because if all the rain that the markers were under water!!!! A few days later when we walked back (after just two days without rain) there was about 15 feet of beach between the marker for the trail and the water!!! It was so incredible! Every day, after hiking all day, we would come back to the hut and do yoga together before making dinner and chatting for the rest of the night. It was such a great hike. I felt so cleansed, fit and healthy after it!! It was a great feeling J

I also got to go up the Mt. Cook National Park (Mt. Cook is the tallest mountain in NZ…it is pretty extreme and a lot of people climb it to help train for climbing Mt. Everest!) Although I didn’t climb Mt. cook, I spent a week doing some of the most amazing hiking of my life. The mountains are so incredible and it is so much fun getting high enough to be in the snow when it is not yet winter!! Mt. Cook is a really beautiful mountain and it was great getting to the summits of some mountains around it that gave a stunning view of it!! I was on top of the summit of Mt. Olivine, staring at Mt. Cook when a friend suggested and then coached me through trying meditation for the first time. It was a really incredible experience that I will never forget. It was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever had. I would really like to travel to India to study mediation further. Also in Mt. Cook NP, I had a friend who got me a good deal to go on a boat ride on a glacial lake! It was so amazing boating next to getting to touch all the icebergs and eat some glacier ice!! I got to see two different glaciers, both massive and amazing to see!!

The season (summer) was ending in Te Anau and most of the friends I made were leaving (Te Anau gets really slow in winter because the weather is terrible) so I knew it was time to move on. I had been offered a job dairy farming, so I decided to give it a go! I thought I was going to hate it because we started work at 3:30 AM and didn’t finish work until about 5 PM…and working hard all day!!! But I wanted to see what it was like to be a dairy farmer and milk cows and all that jazz. To my surprise, I absolutely LOVED it! There was just something special about working outside all day, exposed to all the elements. On a sunny day, it was amazing…on a rainy day, it made you appreciate the sunny days even more!! And although you are wet, at least you are actually experiencing the day, rather than being cooped up inside all day! I now think that the time from 4 AM- 8 AM is the most beautiful time of the day. There is just a sort of calm in the air, stillness…especially being out in the country with no lights and no noise. I really loved it. And the sunrises were always amazing and something to look forward to! I loved talking to the cows and learning how everything worked. I really think that farming is such a fantastic way of life. I got to milk cows, ride around on a 4 wheeler all day, put up and down loooots of electric fences (and get electrocuted a lot!), get pooped on every day, learn how to drive and operate a tractor, watch a calf being born, learn to feed the baby calves and so so so much more that is just too hard to explain. It was also really cool getting the experience of living in a town of less than 200 people! Everyone knows EVERYONE’S business!! As soon as I opened my mouth to introduce myself to someone, they would recognize my accent and already know my name, who I was working for and where I was living!!! It was quite the experience! I really liked the small town though! I met some really incredible people and had lots of fun times there! I was lucky that Sam, another girl who worked on the same farm as me, took me under her wing a little and introduced me to everyone in town! The two of us were practically inseparable the whole time I was on the farm! In most small towns (and some big) in NZ, it is perfectly acceptable to walk into anywhere in town in just socks (or barefoot in summer) because everyone leaves their muddy boots outside at the door! I reeeaaaallly loved the dairy farming and it was definitely my favorite job in NZ. I learned that I really love farm animals!! After this experience, I really think that I should work in an outdoor job as a career…any ideas???

I loved dairy farming but I wanted to spend my last few months in NZ closer to the mountains where I could do more hiking and skiing…I had been to a small town called Arrowtown a few months before that I really liked, so I decided to pack up and move again! Arrowtown is surrounded by mountains and has a small town feel that I really like. I got a job at a pub and found a flat to live where I thought I could stay warm for the winter. The houses here are heated mostly by a wood burner, which is a nice source of heat but my house was still usually cold enough to see my breath inside late at night and for there to be a layer of ice on the inside of my window in the morning! (It really wasn’t as bad as it sounds…I got used to it after a while!) Every day I would go outside and chop some wood and then light the fire to get the house heated up! I am now an expert fire lighter and a lot tougher!!! It was hard to get used to the cold as a wimpy Californian who is used to the heat!!! The time in Arrowtown was another great opportunity to make some more great friends, do lots of winter hiking (got to do lots of hiking in the snow….so fun!!) and skiing. I made regular trips up the big hill behind my house, which gave great views of the town and surrounding areas. This was the coldest winter of my life for sure but I really enjoyed it and even got to walk and have a picnic on a frozen lake!!!

I turned 25 while living in Arrowtown! Man 25 sounds a lot older than I feel!!! For my birthday I went bungee jumping and then out for dinner and drinks with friends. It was a really great day! One of the most amazing hikes I have even been on was to the top of Mt. Luxmore on a trip back to Te Anau during the winter. It was a very cloudy day and we thought we wouldn’t be able to see anything but when we got up over the trees, we saw that we were above the clouds!! Above us were blue skies and below us you could just see a blanket of clouds with all the mountains around us sticking out!! It was amazing. We continued to climb to the top of the mountain, which was completely covered in snow and surrounded by some stunning scenery!!! It was a great (but very long) day J

As my time in NZ comes to a close, it has been very nice to reflect on all the different stages of my trip in writing this blog. I feel that I have learned so much about myself and the world though my experiences. I will really miss it here (Maybe not because I might come back for a few months next summer!), along with the friends I have made and people who have touched my life. I have opened my world to so many new things since my arrival here, too many to list! I feel like an unofficial kiwi, because I now have picked up on a lot of the kiwi lingo, can drive comfortably on the opposite side of the road, own a pair of gumboots (like Paddington bear boots…every kiwi has them and wears them!!J), gone to a few kiwi artist’s concerts, chopped lots of wood, been to the national team rugby game and have milked a cow! NZ will always hold a special place in my heart <3

Now I look forward to the next two weeks travelling back up north through both islands, stopping at a few places along the way to visit friends I have made along my journey…then I am off for a few months travelling in South East Asia. I will start out with a month in Thailand and then see what happens after that!! I do not have exact plans but I know I will be home before Christmas of this year. I will do my best to continue updating my blog from Asia. I seriously can NOT WAIT to see you all and hear about what you have been doing for the last year!!! LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL J

TOP 15 THINGS I WILL MISS ABOUT NZ (other than people):

1) The hiking! Complete with the huts, lack of having to worry about wild animals attacking you, and the DOC office (where you can go to ask any questions or advice)

2) It being socially acceptable to walk into any establishment barefoot or with only socks on because either you decided not to wear shoes or you have left your muddy boots outside

3) The amazing scenery and the variation of scenery in such close proximity to one another…also that the amazing views are just a part of daily life, no matter where you are (do don’t have to go out of your way AT ALL to see something stunning)

4) The laid back, easygoing kiwi lifestyle

5) The music

6) Morning and afternoon tea—little breaks that are normal before and after lunch… everyone takes the break together and just sits and has a cup of tea!

7) Whittaker’s chocolate… it is NZ made and so delicious!

8) How common it is for a complete stranger to go out of their way to help you

9) Golden Kiwi fruit, the manuka honey and the use of pumpkin in cooking

10) The lingo and kiwi accent

11) How safe it is here…there is very, very little crime!! And when there is, kiwis all get very upset about it!

12) The sunrises and sunsets—some of the most amazing I have ever seen

13) The clouds—they are different here and just so incredible

14) The small population---you can go to a beautiful beach on the hottest day of summer and be the only person there!!

15) Of course, all the cows and sheep!

TOP 15 NZ experiences (this will be a tough one)

1) WWOOFing in general

2) Dairy farming

3) Learning and trying yoga for the first time in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been

4) Hiking through the clouds to the top of Mt. Luxmore when it was covered in snow

5) Trip to Fiji with Jimmi and learning to scuba!

6) Meditating for the first time on the top of Mt. Olivine

7) Trips down to the beach after work in Nelson

8) Carnival party (dressing up crazy and drinking a few beers with my crazy German friends

9) Everyday life in Te Anau with my “home away from home” (friends who I met and got very close with)

10) Hiking in Mt. Cook and the Boat ride on the Tasman glacial lake…I got to touch all the icebergs and eat some glacial ice!!

11) 10 day hike in the rain!! I met and got to know better some amazing people, saw some beautiful scenery, and challenged myself! I felt so wonderful afterwards!

12) Saturday nights at the Moose (my favorite bar in Te Anau)

13) Trip to Glenarchy (tiny mountain town) and Queenstown with Ollie, Daniel and Macarena. The weather was perfect and it was so much fun!

14) Hitch Hiking!

15) Road trip around Coromandel (beautiful peninsula on the north island)with Adam ---it was so beautiful, great company and lovely weather!!

I am working on a slide show at the moment of all my favorite photos from NZ so I will put up the link when I am on my way out!!!!!!