Trip to Palmerston North

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I'll start by saying that I am lucky enough to be staying with a Maori family. Its a pretty neat thing. My host mom is actually the “treasure keeper” of Maori culture at the local museum, so she's pretty in touch with her culture. In fact she often only speaks the native language to her children. Which is both a really cool experience, and slightly frustrating. But really its all good, I just keep telling myself they don't ever talk about me (probably a pipe dream). Another thing I should mention is that they're all about family. Like all family: siblings, cousins, parents, uncles, third cousins, step uncle twice removed on your estranged nephews side, doesn't matter. They're either your cuzzy, aunty or uncle, cause they're all family and they're all extremely close and important to eachother. Its really an amazing thing.

That being said, I can tell you all about my first weekend with my host family. I was invited along to my host moms cuzzy's house for her birthday celebration. It was a relatively small get together, good food, good drink and great people. It was a lot of fun. About 11 o'clock the ladies are all going out to the bar and they invite me along. So of course I decide to tag along. Little did I know the sort of night I was in for.

We started the night at a karaoke bar, meeting up with some of their family, only about ten of them. Now my mind had been lubricated enough that I was considering going up on stage to sing, and generally make a fool of myself. But after listening to these ladies absolutely rip apart everyone who went up there, I silently changed my mind. They seriously know good music when they hear it, or in this case bad music and are not afraid to express their true feelings. Really funny stuff.

After this we continued on to a couple more bars before we found one that was really poppin. Like full blown young persons dance floor seen. Not the typical place you'd find middle aged women. But low and behold there I was at this bar, dancing with three ladies in their 40's. Not a situation that I imagined in my wildest dreams. And not only that, but we stayed there till bar close, at 3am! So when the time finally came and we all got shuffled out of the bar, I expected that we would hop in a cab and head back for some sleep. Of course, this was not what happened. Instead we poured out into the street, and met up with about 40 of their nearest and dearest family and friends. It was absolutely crazy. This was not some sort of coordinated effort to see each other. There just happened to be that many people that they were mostly relatated to out that night on that street. And they were all so excited to see each other. Me on the other hand not so much. I got several glares from woman who thought I was some lost little white boy hittin on their aunty, until I was introduced at which point the air was cleared. And it really wasn't till then that I really began to understand exactly how big of a deal the genealogy (whakapapa) of their entire family really is to them.

Of course the night was not yet over. The fact that it was now 4 am and we were heading home did not mean that we were going to bed. What it meant was that it was time for a quick snack before pulling out the guitar, ukelele and song book. So we sang and played loud, proud, drunk and more than a little out of tune till the morning was young. In fact, the only reason we stopped at about 645 was because one of the daughters had been bitten by a spider and needed a little comforting. So not the greatest of ends, but still an almost surprisingly great night all in all.

The plan the next day was to get on the road my early afternoon. Buuuut this didnt quite happen. Instead we were invited over to the local lagoon for a paddle. And we ended up paddling around over there for about 4 hours. Just going around this little pond. It was a lot of fun, but I, thinking that there was no way we'd be there for more than an hour or a little more, didn't put sunscreen on. So of course, I absolutely fried. And since we'd been invited over to yet another family members house for dinner, we decided to stay an extra night. Fortunately I was able to make it back the next day in time to watch Madonna rock the Superbowl halftime show. Such a fun filled weekend.

As a note, Its quite the experience to watch the Superbowl in New Zealand. So strange to be watching it at noon, in an empty bar, without the good commercials and on a Monday. Not the setting at all that I am used to.

Intership

Going into my internship I must say that I did not know fully what to expect and was quite nervous about what we were going to be doing, especially considering I have about an 8km(5 mile) bike ride out there twice a week See I had been assigned to an internship called coast care. This organization is in charge of restoring one of the local beaches dune systems to its native ecosystem. Last year, the interns assigned to this program worked on things like weeding and planting. And that was not how I wanted my internship to go. I was looking for something a little more applicable to a potential future job. Or at the very least learn some sort of skill that may carry over to another part of my life. So when I arrived, I was greeted with the pleasant surprise of a different sort of project that had been drawn up for us by DOC (Dept of conservation). It entailed us doing a rough land/ plant survey of about 200m down the coastline, and extending about a quarter of a mile inland from there. And then doing a more detailed plant survey of the area Coast Care has already been planting in. The main purpose of this is to figure out exactly how much they’ve done, and then down the line be able to see how much progress has been made  since now. I was and still am pretty excited about this project.

            Our first day was spent walking around where they’d already been planting so that we could map out the area on a gps. In all pretty easy, but cool to be walking around these dunes, and even better to have an ocean view all day! Days two and three proved to be a bit tougher work. The task entailed first measuring out 50m away along a relatively central line from this pavilion that we used as our home base. Next the goal was to make it to the high tide mark, following a line that would end up perpendicular to the coast. Then from the high tide mark we followed the line back the way we came, this time recording distances, dune angles for elevation and the prominent plant life. We repeated this process 3 more times so that we ended up with 4 strait lines, dissecting the area. This process was not easy. We found ourselves struggling up steep sand dunes, fighting through the invasive wattle (a small tree) and of course smothering ourselves in sunscreen so that the intense sun didn’t burn us (it did). In all its been a really cool experience for me so far, and I look forward to  continuing to work on the project. Oh and I should mention that I am lucky enough to get to work with someone else from my program and that her name is Paige. Until next time, you stay classy planet earth.

River Life

            Life on the river is a pretty incredible thing. You’re cut off from the outside world, leaving you with just the river and your companions as entertainment. And between the two they did more than just that. The connection you seem to develop with the river and nature itself, as well as the rest of your group, was to me a very rare and special thing.

            You wake up, pack up your tent, eat breakfast and load the boasts early enough to spend most of the morning on the river. Maybe you take a quick bathroom break before stopping for a late lunch. Then of course its back on the river in the afternoon before stopping for the night in time to get everything unpacked before dinner. We occupied our post dinner hours by sitting around, discussing the highlights and lowlights (as few as there were) of the day with each and of course singing and playing music late into the night. There’s a certain routine to it all, a routine that you sort of fall into without thinking about. A routine that makes you want to stay there forever…..

Probably the most inspiring part of our trip was watching our guides and how they operated. Our Maori guides really made this trip for us. They cooked all the meals, kept us safe on the river and best of all played beautiful acoustics for us late into every night(some life myself took advantage of these free performances more than others). The coolest part about them though was seeing the passion they had for the river, both in the passion they had for being on the river was well as the passion they had for the maintenance of river health.

            These are a people who care for the river as they would relatives, deeper even perhaps. They care for all of nature because they know that it is where we come from and what allows us to carry on our own short lives. As a culture they cherish these great outdoors more than anyone of anything I have ever encountered. It is extremely difficult to explain the connection that they felt with the river, and as such I won’t do them the dishonor of trying to. I’ll just say that through their passion for it, I felt a passion for it. And honestly still do. I believe that the trip has changed my perception of the world in a very positive and uplifting way. While I was on it I felt free of other troubles and concerns, only a peacefulness that only the river could have provided. And now that I’m off of it, I can still feel its pull. The desire to not only go back to it, but to protect it and other places like it in order to preserve it for all.

            Running the risk of overkill, I’ll continue on. During our first night with them, the idea that all water is connected was brought up. We were told to whisper to the river at some point, whisper to our home bodies of water. And someday, while we were there, it would whisper back. At the time, I sort of thought to myself, well yes that’s true in a sense and it may be an nice thought but it’s at the same time kind of silly. Little did I know that I would come to eat those thoughts? Because during the last 100 meters or so of our trip our guides let us get out and swim to the boat ramp. Now nearby I could hear a chainsaw, and the mechanical sounds rattled me. I just wasn’t ready to get back to the mechanized world that I had been away from. So I laid on my back, put my ears underwater to block out the noise and suddenly I was one with the river. And I just started whispering “I am the River and the river is me (Ko au te awa, Ko te awa ko au)” which is sort of the motto of some of the local Maori. I just whispered this to myself over and over before I started speaking to the lakes and streams near and dear to me: Star Lake….Indian Lake….Pheasant Branch Creek….Lake Mendota….Lake Monona. And next sometime in the future, I fully expect them to whisper back, I am the Whanganui, a part of it forever and always, just as you are.

And I think I’ll leave you with those seemingly crazed words by a touched pakeha boy…..

Wanganui River Trip!

Whanganui River trip

Ill start by saying that the river trip was amazing, from the simpleness of being on the river and being surrounded by one of the most peacefull and well persevered nature areas in the world and the relaxed nature of river life, to the incredible amount of the amazing maori culture we experienced. I truly loved every minute of it and I can honestly say that the trip has opened my mind and has made a profound difference on my outlook on life. For this reason this trip will be divided among a couple of posts so that I will be able to explore each aspect to its fullest(despite the fact that all aspects of the trip are all inexplicably linked).

            Ill start with the nature and logistics part of things. Now I warn you that I don’t remember the names of the places we traveled and will thus be lacking in specifics. That being said, the names probably wont mean that much to most of my readership anyway, so it will probably be alright. As a whole we spent 3 days paddling on the river, but due to a rest day and a day of travel at the beginning and an extra night on the river at the end, it was a 5 day trip.

            Our first night was spent in a cow pasture near the river, and it was really good to start getting to know the guides and such. Most of us slept in tents, and for me it was the first of 4 nights I would spend in a tent on the trip. We awoke early the next day for a long day on the river. It wasn’t the warmest or sunniest of days, but to me it did not take away from the beauty of the place. Due to the soft soil of New Zealand, the river has cut a deep, wooded gorge through the hilly countryside. The gorge shields you from the outside world and seems to lock in the beauty around you. Everything was simply stunning. There seemed to be tiny waterfalls everywhere feeding into the river. These create the impression of the river being the center of everything, with everything insight either feeding into, or feeding off of the river. This impression only adds to the isolation and peacefulness felt on the river. Another feeling this creates is being at the center of everything, thus connecting you to all of the wildlife that was to be seen around you. Simply incredible.

            In the end we spent about 7 hours on the river before stopping at our first marae and experiencing our second powhiri, but ill talk about those great cultural experiences later. Anyway before dinner I was able to get in my second swim of the day. My first was that day at lunch when I was able to jump off a rock and float down to where are boats were tied up during our lunch stop(I was surprisingly the only one to do it, though I suppose people thought it was too cold?). But this second swim was really cool. Due to the tightness of the gorge at the spot, there was a very strong eddy. This combined with the normal current created a really neat whirlpool effect. Once I found the right spot, I was able to float down stream, before being caught in the eddy and floating back up the stream. Extremely cool.

            The next day was another early morning, unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse. In addition to the cool temperature, we had a bit of rain too. This affected some more than others as some got their bottom layers wet causing their core temperature to drop a bit making them extremely miserable. As for myself I found the whole experience quite amazing. Some of you may know that I naturally have a very high body temperature, as such I found the rain on the river an incredible experience. I was even one of those crazy ones you see not wearing any rain jacket and letting themselves get completely soaked. To me there was just something about being on the river in this incredible canyon type setting and watching the rain fall from above that was incredibly peaceful. The feeling this gave me is just so hard to express, especially to those of you who aren’t exactly the most nature oriented(Im looking at you Knudsons : )), but just know that it really was magical.

            We ended up having a long lunch stop that included a descent little hike to the bridge to nowhere (somewhere as our maori guides would say, it was just up to you to figure out where). The hike seemed to warm and cheer everyone, which was really good. Even better was when the sun finally poked its head out about a half hour into our short 2 hour afternoon paddle. By the time we reached our second actual marae, good spirits had returned to our group.  And for the next day and a half we were able to relax, hang out and just enjoy the great company we were all in.

            Our final day of paddling was kind of an eventful one. They keep the last day fairly short for a reason: rapids. Now we had experienced some rapids along the whole of the trip, but the ones to be had on this last section of our river trip were by far the best. Our guides had us paddling hard in order to pull through them, and remain afloat. It is very common for people to either tip, or get swamped during this section. In fact, one of our wakas(canoes) turned into a submarine during one point. Since my waka was the first to go through, we had turned around to watch the rest of the group. We watched as one waka got lower and lower in the water, before finally going completely under! It was a bit of a scary moment for us, but our guide quickly turned our boat upriver, and gave us the command to paddle. And paddle we did, strait up the fast flowing current towards the submerged boat. Fortunately by the time we got there, everyone had made it to shore, along with most of the gear, so all we had to do was help flip the waka back over, but still very exciting.

            In all, the trip went very smoothly and was probably the most scenic experience of my life. I wish all of you out there could experience this trip because I genuinely think you all would have a great time. Woah long post. Anyway, thanks for reading. Next post will probably be a short one about life on the river.

            

Tongariro Crossing! (MT DOOM)

     Sorry everyone for the delay on the blog, i've been busy and honestly a bit lazy with writing. Anyway we went on the Tongariro Crossing about a week and a half ago(2.5 now, i meant to post this before my river trip, but forgot to click "publish post"). The crossing is widely considered to be the best single day hike in all of New Zealand, if not the world. Anyway in order to give our group more experience with backpacking we turned it into an overnight. For those of you looking this up on a map, we started at the mangatepopo car park and ended at the Ketatahi car park. This whole trip covered only about 17Km(10.5 miles), but it does traverse some relatively rough and steep terrain(Our 90 liter packs carrying all of our sleeping gear, cold weather clothes, food and first aid supplies made it seem even steeper). Its was also one of the filming locations for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, specifically Mt Ngaurohoe which is the real life version of Mt Doom in the films as well as other parts of Sam and Frodo's journey into and through Mordor.
     the trek started out pretty flat before gradually getting steeper and steeper. walking across this land was an experience. the ground was mostly barren due to the volcanic rock that dominated the landscape. We really did feel like Frodo and Sam making there journey across middle earth. With rockscape surrounding us, and the mountains looming above, it was easy to feel small, lost and a bit powerless in front of the approaching mountains. they were dominating the skyline in front of us, looming over us like a giant impenetrable fortress and they presented a challenge to us. It was as if mother earth was telling us "come climb me my child, and I will reveal to you the secrets and the magnificence about my makeup that only the sky father knows". And as we climbed higher and higher, these secrets and treasures really were revealed. the views were completely incredible. We were fortunate enough that it wasn't too cloudy, and the rest of NZ spread out before us, an extensive landscape, sparsely dotted with towns that stretched for miles.
     As we climbed and it got steeper, became extremely impressed with the upkeep of the trail. It is easy to tell why this country is world renown for the parks, and it is not all about the natural elements involved. It is a country that is truly invested in the up keep and preservation of their natural surroundings. The trails are well kept and lightly graveled which is very nice. in some parts they even have an extensive stair system which was NOT appreciated by everyeone("NO MORE STAIRS!!"). We walked through two craters which were amazing due to the mountains towering above us on either side. At one point a cloud slowly crept towards us across the crater, engulfing the rugged landscape it crossed before finally consuming us. It was a very eerie experience.
     As a whole the trip was amazing, and it was a great way to continue bonding with many of my trip-mates.


Sorry for the delay, this was meant to be posted a week ago but I guess I didnt manage to. And then ive since been a week long river trip that kept me away from technology. But that story is for another time.

The Quaker Settlement

     For the first part of our trip we are staying at a quaker settlement in the city of Wanganui. The Quaker settlement is a very interesting place. They were quick to point out to us that they are not a commune and are what can be called an intentional living community. the main difference being that they still have a ton of contact with the outside world. By this I mean that many of them work out in the town, and contribute to the city in the same way that anybody might. It might be helpful to think of it more as a neighborhood that has some shared living spaces like a community type center, a pool, gardens, pasture for sheep, parks as well as what I can only describe as a sleeping building for guests.
     There are nearly 10 houses on the settlement with about 30 people who live there permanently. Their were extra houses for our program leaders and their family. For the most part they carryout their lives separately apart from some morning prayer/ discussion, the occasional group meal and planning for how life on the settlement is to be conducted. In all it's a very neat place. Oh and as quakers they have a fairly strict no alcohol policy on the settlement itself. but other than that nothing seems to be all that intrusive or controlling over the individuals life. Thanks for reading, and until next time.

Wellington

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I met up with the group in Wellington at around 730. Due to my poor travel planning, I was the last too arrive and had a full day ahead of me after 54 hours of travel and a night spent on the bus. I was a bit tired, but excited super excited to be there and ready to explore a completely new city. We had the afternoon free to wander the city a little bit, but mostly to complete a scavenger hunt at the Te Papa Museum(history of NZ).

Wellington is a really neat city. Its built on a harbor and into the surrounding hills with the downtown right on the waterfront. The surrounding neighborhoods are built into the hills. The severity of these hills so near the water leaves these houses terraced with most houses having incredible views over the harbor as well as the rest of the city. I also found the city itself to be incredibly interesting. The architecture of Wellington is unlike anything I've ever seen in the States. It seemed that every building was designed to be completely different from the one next to it, giving the city a very eclectic feel. This may sound distracting to some, but in the end it gave the city an extremely laid back climate as it didn't seem to take itself too seriously. The Te Papa Museum itself was really cool and extremely informative. It had everything from natural history (both geological and wildlife) to Maori culture to the history of New Zealand post European settler. If I had to pick a highlight it would've been learning about how much has changed here since the first introduction of man (essentially the first mammals in the country) in the 1200's.

Despite my lack of sleep, I felt like I needed to go out and enjoy my only night in Wellington. Since we were staying at the youth hostile, we met people from all over the country, as well as a couple other countries. I ended up spending most of my night with a few guys from Auckland. They were all pretty cool and friendly, perfectly willing to help show us yanks a good time in the city. It seemed like there were people from all over out that night as I met people from Europe, Australia, China, Canada and of course all over NZ. I wont get into the details too much, but suffice to say that I stayed up much later than I should've considering the amount of sleep I'd gotten the last two nights. The next morning we slept in a bit before leaving for the Quaker settlement in Whanganui. But ill save that for next time, thanks for reading!

The Trip

Hey All!
Well, after a mere 54 hours of travel, I made it to the hostile we stayed in Wellington!
      My trip started in Madison on wednesday morning and started off with a flight to Denver. After a 2 hour layover, I hopped a plane to LA. Once in LA, I only had a 9 hour layover to get through. but it was fine, there were plenty of bars at the airport : ). Getting on the plane, I was surprised to find one of the program members sitting across the aisle from me, what a fun coincidence! The 10.5 hour flight to Fiji went pretty smoothly, except for the jerk in front of me who used their chair like a sledgehammer against my knees. But I was able to make it to Fiji with a couple hours of sleep under my belt.
      The Fijian airport was small, just 1 terminal with only eight gates. but it was probably the cheapest airport ever. If I had been thinking/ known the exchange rate I would've bought some of the shell figurines for $1 US or a hand carved mask for $5 US. But after my 5 hour layover I took off for Auckland. It was a relatively short flight, just under 3 hours. It only took an 1.5 hours or so to go through customs which was nice. Since I only had about 2.5 hours of free time before my bus to wellington so I took a seat at what seemed to be the only authentic New Zealand restaurant at the airport, which was of course a bar. I was able to sample some local beers and chat up some of the kiwis which was really cool.
     To get to the bus station, I had to take a a shuttle 45 minutes into downtown, and still had a 5 block walk to get there. Unfortunately this is where my trip ran into a little bit of a hick-up. At the stop before mine, a car decided to cut in front of the shuttle as we began to pull out and we hit their rear bumper. At this point both drivers got out and started screaming at each other in the street. After about a minute, our driver got back on and calmly told us to get off and that there would be another shuttle in about 20 minutes if we wanted. Unfortunately I didn't have time to wait. So instead of a 5 block walk with about 100 pounds of luggage through a strange city. I now had 10 blocks, and only about 30 minutes before I was supposed to check in. Fortunately it all worked out perfectly, even with the giant 5 block hill I had to climb.
     The bus ride was shorter than expected, only 9 hours instead of 10 which was really nice. Unfortunately it was at night so I wasn't able to see too much, though I did get acquainted with their gas stations(boy do they love their meat and cheese pies!). Anyway I made it to Wellington in time for a jam packed day with the group and fun night downtown. but that'll have to wait until my next post.
    Thanks for reading