Te Wahipounamu & Back Up North

Te Wahipounamu, Maori for "place of greenstone", is a World Heritage Site in southwest New Zealand covering 2.6 million hectares. I spent about three weeks there admiring my surroundings, but no greenstones were seen except at tourist shops. Click on the links to see photos!

Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ, stands at 12,316 feet. I didn't climb to the top, but I climbed a nearby hill into the snow for a view of some glaciers. The next day had perfect weather, and I took another scenic walk up closer to the mountain.

Next up were three Great Walks in Fiordland National Park.

The weather was perfect again for the Routeburn Track as the photos will attest.  

My weather luck ended on the Kepler Track, where fog obscured most of the views on the highest part of the track. I spotted this falcon checking out a baby possum living in a hole in the rocks.

The Milford Track, called "the finest walk in the world" by a poet 100 years ago, was indeed a highlight of my trip. It was all about the waterfalls. Here's a brief day-by-day account, as requested by a faithful blog reader!

The first day was sunny and started with a nice boat ride across Lake Te Anau. It was a short walk to the first hut along the Clinton River with large beech trees and views of the surrounding mountains along the way. The hut ranger was a friendly little old red bearded man who showed us some glowworms nearby and then gave us a tour of the stars and constellations of the southern hemisphere on a perfectly clear night.

 

The second day was quite rainy. My rain jacket, overtrousers and gore-tex boots all leaked. Despite my sogginess, I was blown away by the all the waterfalls that appeared on the mountains on either side of me. They looked like veins or lightning bolts, some of them falling off cliffs and disappearing into mist.

The third day was clear and sunny thankfully, as I hiked high over a pass with freezing winds. Near the end of the day's walk was Sutherland Falls, fifth highest in the world.

The final day of walking was drizzly. McKay Falls are not the tallest, but prettier than Sutherland's. One section of the track along a steep cliff had been created with dynamite in 1898. After the walk I went on a short cruise through Milford Sound. Fog obscured the peaks, but there were more impressive waterfalls streaming down, and a couple of fur seals lounging on rocks in the rain. Milford Sound gets an average of 6 to 9 meters of rain a year, once getting a meter in one day. And I complain about Olympia. Nobody really lives in Milford Sound though.

After all that walking, I drove up to Queenstown and tried flying. Hang gliding was expensive, surprisingly unthrilling, but definitely an interesting and unique experience. I enjoyed flying over sheep. That's me in the photo in blue on the left.

Wanaka, just north of Queenstown, has Puzzling World and the Toy & Transport Museum. I attempted this large maze in the photo, and failed. The Toy & Transport Museum is an absurdly large collection of toys, cars, airplanes and other vehicles that one guy has been collecting for about 60 years.

Skip the next paragraph if you don't want to read neurotic ramblings about my craptastic car.
  The end of my last entry ended with the sad story of a car without a Warrant of Fitness, potentially finable for $200, but with the exciting news that I was next visiting NZ's tallest mountain, Mt. Cook. Well, on my way out of Mt. Cook Park, there was a friendly police officer stopping cars and checking to see if they had Warrants of Fitness. So, I was given a $200 ticket, but even better, I endured the next two and half weeks paranoid that some other cop or someone was going to appear in some unlikely spot and give me further fines. I guess I was being over-anxious, but it didn't help that the cop said "they'll get ya in Queenstown." Or the mechanic who assured me I could get multiple fines. But really it's just a shame that I was spending all this time that I should be enjoying, instead constantly worrying and imagining what I was going to tell the next cop, or how I could keep my car off the road as much as possible, or how I could get the car fixed for a reasonable amount of money so that the fine would be waived. I was probably being petty about the amount of money concerned, but that's all part of my personality and upbringing I guess. ANYWAY, the car's been sold to wreckers for $160, and I wrote a letter to the police explaining my situation and asking them to waive the fine.

Yes, the saga of the Civic ended in Christchurch, where I got on a plane to Wellington. They were forecasting gusts of 140 km/h winds there, but the plane managed to land despite wobbling around a bit in the breeze.

I experienced more wind climbing up a volcano, Mt. Taranaki. The info site woman told me I'd need crampons and an ice axe because of the recent snow fall. The snow was starting to melt already however, and I knew from experience that info site people are full of bad info, so off I went. I climbed up a vertical mile in the gusty wind, partly over scoria, a crumbly volcanic rock that slides out from under your feet. Once on the crater, I wandered around in the snow, not knowing where the summit was until I saw a guy coming down from it. The way down was less windy, and most of the snow had melted at that point, but the scoria was still there. I more slid than climbed down, falling on my ass several times. It was definitely the toughest hike I've done. Apparantly 60 people have died on the volcano.

The touristy Waitomo Caves was my last stop on the way back to Auckland. I went on a tour and saw lots of glowworms, which are actually fly larvae whose tails light up to attract other insects into the sticky threads around their nests on the cave ceilings. The photos didn't turn out, but it's like looking up at stars in the night sky.

Tomorrow I fly back to Seattle and return to the farm in Olympia. I will have to relearn American English and the local social customs. Hopefully the culture shock won't be too great, and I'll get a job or something.

I just recently finished the book I brought with me on the trip, The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry. Despite, or maybe because of, him being a Christian praising the virtues of getting married and living like the Amish, I found it a brilliant critique of American culture and agriculture. You should all read it! (Yeah, that'll happen.)

Tramping and Permaculture

I am long overdue for a new blog entry, so here it is.

Last we heard from me, I was wwoofing with Fay north of Wellington. Fay has about 200 chickens and is planning to build a house out of tyres. Yes, that's how they spell tire. She and her past array of wwoofers have started a tyre wwoof house that I got a chance to pound a few tyres full of earth for.

The idea is that earth filled tires contain a lot of thermal mass and are therefore excellent at storing heat, as well as being a good way to reuse what would otherwise be in a landfill. If this whole tire/tyre house thing intrigues you (or if you want to be intrigued), I recommend the documentary Garbage Warrior about New Mexican Mike Reynolds who started the whole thing building "earthships" out of tires (and other stuff). Earthships are so called because they are meant to be self-sufficient, supplying their own utilties and food. Pretty neat and inspiring, dontcha think?

I left the tyres and chooks behind for the capital of New Zealand, Wellington. It was windy. And cloudy and rainy. I watched Avatar in 3D at the theater. Very good movie. There's a moral or something.

Hopped on (actually drove on) a very large ferry and was off for the South Island!

Time for my second Great Walk, the Heaphy Track. I thought it was more of a Nice Walk really. Or a Long Walk, 84 km. Met some nice people though. There was an 81 year old guy hiking along with us. This is what it looked like.

Next Great Walk, the Abel Tasman.

The cicadas were so loud that I put in ear plugs to keep from going deaf.

There were plenty of beautiful beachscapes and limestone rock formations to admire, as well as fur seals and lots of birds. It's considered the easiest of the Great Walks, and you don't need hiking boots. Unfortunately the shoes I did wear are too small, and I ended up with painful blisters and toenails that are still discolored weeks later. Hopefully they don't fall off.

After nine days of tramping, I headed over to the Tui Community, where a permaculture design course awaited me. The above links do a better job explaining these things than I can or am willing to. I will say that the Tui Community is full of pretty cool people and seems like a pretty sweet place to live, and that permaculture seems to me like a pretty damn good alternative and/or solution to industrial agriculture, suburbs, overuse of fossil fuels, degradation of the planet, etc. Anyways, the course was 19 days long, and was kind of like a cross between summer camp and Evergreen (State College). I got to learn with an interesting mix of nationalities and backgrounds, slept in a teepee, listened to lots of lectures, watched movies, learned practical skills, went on field trips, and produced a permaculture design plan for some locals' new piece of land in the bush. I will unleash my new knowledge and skills upon Olympia in a month's time. Right now I'm going to be a tourist.

I said goodbyes to my new friends, and drove off to see

Nelson Lakes

Pancake Rocks

Arthur's Pass

Christchurch - Biggest city in the South Island.

Saving the best part for last:

My car has been causing a bit of worry. On the way down Takaka Hill (a very big steep windy hill), I felt and heard a strange clunking coming from the car. I got out a couple of times to try to figure out what it was, until it actually felt like the wheel was coming off, which it was. I managed to jack it up and screw the lug nuts back on, but it was a slightly traumatic experience.

New Zealand requires every car to have a Warrant of Fitness, which you need to get every six months from a mechanic who checks various things that might be unsafe with your car. My car failed. (Leaky cylinder, door panel rust & worn tire tread.) The mechanic tells me the repairs would cost more than the car is worth. He says it's safe to drive though. So, I'm going to just keep driving it for the next four weeks and then probably sell it to a wrecker for nothing. If I get caught without a WoF, I get fined $200. I just have to avoid parking on the street where a meter maid might see it.

Tomorrow I visit Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ. Then I travel further south for some more tramping, including the Milford Track, "The Finest Walk in the World", which I mananged to get a booking for. Stay tuned...

All da pics here.

MORDOR

I have ventured here to Mt Doom, home of Sauron. With the ring in my pocket, I feel his eye watching me...

I've been trying to think of some witty Lord of the Rings thing to say in the blog ever since I hiked around Mt. Doom aka Mt. Ngauruhoe, and I'm not the first (to hike around it or say some silly LotR reference).
But first things first I finally got south of Auckland, driving over to the Coromandel Peninsula for several days. Many others did the same as the roads and camping sites were loaded with Kiwis on holiday. The whole country basically has vacation from Christmas through at least the first week of January. On my way driving up the coast, I noticed a large crowd on the beach in the distance. Getting out of my car, I walked closer and discovered 20+ beached whales and a huge rescue mission to get the survivors back out to sea. I stuck around for a couple hours watching the rescuers throw buckets of water on the whales and wait for the tide go up.

I continued along the dusty gravel road to the end of the peninsula, finding heaps of campers and the beginning of a nice hike looking out over into the ocean. This was the first of a number of hikes (known as "tramps" in NZ) that I'd do the next few weeks despite spraining my foot/ankle and my other leg and back ailments. Take that, adversity! Back at the base of the peninsula, I set off on probably the longest hike I've been on since summer camp over 15 years ago. The Pinnacles were definitely worth the trek.

Hopping back in the trusty hatchback, I made my way down to the touristy and stinky town of Rotorua. Thermal vents make for bubbling pools of mud, steaming water, geysers, pretty colors and sulphur scented air. When the British discovered the hot springs, they built an enormous bath house to treat patients with the healing waters.

The next big town down the road is Taupo, even more touristy, but better smelling. Lake Taupo is the start of a dammed river that supplies 15% of all of NZ's power. They open up a dam a few times a day for the tourists to check out. The Huka Falls show the power of the river.

Before continuing with my wwoofing, I decided to tackle the Tongariro Northern Circuit. The Circuit is a four day "Great Walk", one of nine walking tracks in New Zealand featuring photogenic scenery. The trail has "huts" with mattresses and gas stoves, so I didn't have to carry a tent, pad or stove. Even so, I wasn't used to the weight of four days of food, a sleeping bag and other equipment on my back while hiking up and down between volcanoes. A hiking pole I bought was a wise investment. It was all worth the views of Mt. Doom, the two other volcanoes, thermal pools, lava slides, etc. Most people only walk one day of the Circuit, the most scenic one, which while quite lovely, sometimes resembled a highway of hikers. I plan to hike at least two more Great Walks before I leave the country.

Napier and Hastings are two cities on the east coast I visited whose claim to fame is that an earthquake destroyed most of their buildings in 1931 when Art Deco was all the rage, and they subsequently rebuilt themselves all Art Deco style.

My first wwoofing hosts back from summer vacation were Winston and Louise in Central Hawke's Bay. Unlike some of my hosts who have worked me to death, Winston invited me on a two night hunting trip my second day there, and Louise gave me about an average of three hours of work the days I actually worked. Winston also invited Marty, maker of Marty's Muesli, on our trip into the hills. We hiked up a river, crossing about 30 times and filling my waterproof boots quite full of water. We stayed in a hut, and had fresh caught river trout (introduced to NZ by the Brits) for our first night's dinner. The next day we hiked up a steep slope to another hut with great views around. We hung around for a bit until it started raining and hailing, and rushed back down the hill. I was pretty wiped out at that point, but Winston grabbed his rifle, waded up the river, and returned with a big old stag. Marty and I were sorry to have missed out, but the next day on the way out, Winston spotted another deer. We climbed up the side of the hill, and Marty put a bullet in Bambi's mother's head. Bambi was pretty grown up though and she'll fend for herself. Watching a deer getting gutted, the tenderloins and what not sliced out, and the remaining carcass strapped across someone's back like a backpack is pretty damn cool I must say. I'm a peaceful sort and just blog about that kind of thing.

Now I'm at Fay's place, north of Wellington. She's building houses out of tires, and has a lot of chooks.

Christmas in what feels like July

It's a warm and sunny Christmas Day here in New Zealand, one of the longest days of the year.

   My last wwoof hosts were at the Mamaki Community, which is a small collectively owned piece of land with six houses/familys in Matapouri. Klaus and Vanessa (originally from Germany and the UK), my hosts, are the newest residents, moving from South America with their two children. Klaus shot a possum one night and fried it up for us for dinner.

   Matapouri is on a lovely beach, where I got to go on an ocean kayaking voyage, and did a little paddle surfing and snorkeling. Two of Mamaki's young female residents took us out to a rope swing in the woods, which we four wwoofers promptly proceeded dangerous undertakings on along with a vine looking likely to snap at any moment. I took one brave tarzan swing on the vine straight into a tree, injuring my foot in the process. Hopefully it will be healed before I start trying to hike up volcanoes. In the photo we are trying out our new homemade camping stoves made of aluminum cans.

   I spent a night in Whangarei between wwoofings and checked out a waterfall and a funky clock museum. I also went on a holiday shopping spree for myself and bought a camping pot, new boots (on clearance), imitation Crocs (half off), used sandals at the hospice shop, a sleeping bag, nylon shorts (half off), a wool sweatshirt (on clearance) and a spork. It's going to be interesting when I sell my car and try to cram all this stuff into my backpack.

   I'm now back in the Mangawhai area, on a 400+ acre farm. They've got cattle, sheep, chickens, fruit trees and veggie gardens. The parents are visiting their son in South Africa, so the other three brothers are running the place right now. Although they own a sustainable land development company with permaculture principles, the bros are beer swillin surfers not afraid to spray a little Roundup or eat at Burger King, where I got food poisoning. Even with my achey foot and sore gut, they had me out lawn mowing, weeding and pruning to earn my keep. I'm spending Christmas Eve and Day at the oldest brother's house, looking after his chickens while he's away at his girlfriend's place.

   I've got the next two weeks off (along with most everyone else in NZ apparently) before I do any more wwoofing. I'm finally going to start heading further south, and hopefully will check out some geothermal mud pools and volcanoes along the way.

My newest photos are a little over half way down this page, after the two gosling pics and starting with some horses in one and several of goats.

Northland

   I'm still in Northland, north of Auckland, the subtropical region of the country, and it's getting quite warm. It seems most of the wwoof hosts practicing permaculture are in this region. I probably won't be heading much further south until around Christmas.  

   On my way to my next wwoof hosts, I drove through an old kauri forest. The enormous kauri trees once dominated the New Zealand landscape, but were bled for kauri "gum", and chopped down for timber and to clear the land for pasture. The gum was very valuable and used mostly as varnish by the Europeans.

   My third wwoof hosts were Peter and Helen, a couple from England. They live in a lovely 20 acre valley along with another English couple who had formerly wwoofed with them, both with a couple of children.

  They have cows, chickens, two cats, a dog, four ducks, two geese, and some goslings. Unfortunately the geese didn't seem to want their children, and three were crushed by their mother, the other two rescued by Helen. One was later attacked by a hen and had its leg injured. It couldn't walk on it for days, but was making progress when it suddenly died, probably from the recent wet weather and lack of food. The remaining gosling lives on...


   Two other wwoofers from Bellingham, WA were already there when I arrived. Combining our powers, we cooked up a Thanksgiving Day feast for the Brits. We prepared a stuffed wild turkey, pumpkin pie, bread, salad, and some heady eggnog. Our hosts were impressed, and will now only accept wwoofers on Thanksgiving willing to cook dinner.

   My work consisted mostly of, once again, hauling logs around. This time kanuka instead of olive. The kanuka is like a larger version of the manuka, famous for the honey that bees produce from its pollen. They are both very common, grow easily, and the kanuka makes excellent building material. We used some logs, with the bottoms charred in a fire to resit rot, to build a chicken run. I also helped build a barbed wire fence for keeping in cattle, and dug some potato trenches among other things.
 
   I had agreed through email that I would wwoof there for two weeks, but apparantly they thought it was only one. They also explained that there wasn't enough work for all of us, and they couldn't afford to feed us all. Leaving early was a good thing however, as I got a chance to be a tourist in the Bay of Islands.

   I drove over to Kerikeri, the biggest town in the Bay of Islands region, and saw some historic buildings. The region was the site of the early British settlements and subsequent government. Photo is the first stone building built in New Zealand, where you can buy hand forged nails and other old fashioned knick knacks.

   I spent a couple days in super touristy Paihia where I kayaked, hiked, and visited nearby Waitangi where the famous treaty between the British and Maori was signed in 1840. The treaty gave the British rule over the country, the Maori probably signing largely because it was mistranslated.

   Across the harbor is Russell, another historic town with great views of the area.

   On my way to my current wwoof hosts, I stopped to take a hike over to an old whaling station.

   I'm now at the Mamaki Community staying with Klaus and Vanessa. There are three other wwoofers here, one from Scotland, and two from the U.S. There are a few other familys in the community who share the land. They have horses, goats and chickens as well as a large garden and many fruit trees. I've been mostly putting down bamboo and lime paths between the garden beds.

Click here for heaps of photos! (mostly trees)

You may see some spots and things on my photos. I thought it was something on the lens, but the guy at the camera store said it's something on the sensor inside the camera. I'll have to send it back to Panasonic to get it fixed...

WWOOFING!

   I'm a Willing Worker On Organic Farms and I'm heading to my third today.











My first wwoofing experience was in Silverdale, North Auckland with the Kettles at Vedic Academy Produce. It's a property with three houses and the meditation temple. They practice Transcendental Meditation, but I didn't get an opportunity to learn much about it. It's from India, and I think the Beatles were into it. I did get to do a lot of gardening, weeding, and helped making a path in the "bush". I planted kumara, a sort of sweet potato brought to NZ by the indigenous Maori, basil, corn, leeks and other veggies. We made a hot compost pile with grass clippings, manure, and garden waste. We probably should have added more carbon as it was getting too hot at 70 degrees Celsius, potentially destroying valuable nitrogen! I participated in Betsy's horticulture and permaculture classes, helping to make some raised garden beds with native ponga fern tree trunks.


   In my off time, I visited some parks and enjoyed the wonderful native flora and fauna. The bird life is incredible, as NZ has evolved seperately from the rest of the world and without land mammals until approximately 900 years ago. The Tui has a birdsong reminiscent of an Aphex Twin track. Fantails fearlessly follow you, darting about to scavenge insects you may have stirred up walking. Unfortunately the introduction of possums, stoats, cats, dogs and other animals have decimated the bird population, and most of the native bush has been cleared for pastureland for sheep and cattle.


   I'm finishing up my stay at my second WWOOF host today in Mangawhai. Jennifer and Marvin are an older couple, but they still have plenty of energy to run Olive Branch Farm. I've been hauling plenty of olive branches around, as the trees were overgrown and needed lots of pruning. I also planted some lettuce, weeded, trimmed, and fed goats. There are four adult goats and seven kids here, and they are damn adorable. 11 goats are a lot of work, and I think Marvin might regret getting them a bit... Marvin is from the U.S. and lived for quite a while in Washington State. Jennifer is a native kiwi, but has lived in San Francisco, Philadelphia and WA where she met Marvin. I had some great conversations with them discussing politics, philosophy and life.

On my day off yesterday I visited Goat Island, a marine reserve with no goats present. I snorkeled and saw some rays (mantas?), red mokis and other fish.

   One consequence of my skipping over to the southern hemisphere has been my having to experience my spring allergies for the second time this year. The snot has really been flowing at times, and it's not yet December, the equivalent of June in the north and the worst month for me... Sigh.










 

Today I'm headed to my next WWOOF host in Kohukohu, driving up through old Kauri forest and on the ferry across the Hokianga Harbor.

I'm in New Zealand!!!

Welcome to my new blog, where I will share my adventures in New Zealand and beyond...

I've been planning this trip for a while now, wanting to do some WWOOFing and defy nature by skipping winter. I was pretty nervous before I left, travelling to a strange land for five months and all. Stopping in the L.A. airport, whose terminals looked like the setting of an alien zombie shooter game I used to play, didn't help. As soon as the plane reached site of our destination though, I could see I was entering a beautiful green inviting place. Upon arriving at the Auckland airport, I encountered BioSecurity. After answering a survey asking if I had recently visited a farm or forest or was carrying certain items, they confiscated my cheese and washed the farm shit off my shoes.

As I was contemplating my trip months ago, I was pleased to see that the NZ dollar had dropped to half the value of the US$. It's up to about 75 NZ cents to the US dollar now. Oh well, stuff isn't cheap. I went shopping for some shoes but they're twice as much as back home, because they have to buy them from the U.S.

I considered bus travel and hitchhiking as a means of getting around, but that was before I saw her. A vintage 1988 Honda Civic hatchback! For only NZ$1000! Sure it doesn't have A/C or power steering, and I have to put on the choke and warm it up for a few minutes before I drive, but I enjoy roughing it! For some reason everyone in this country drives on the wrong side of the road, so I've been forced to do the same. It's a bit weird, but I'm geting used to it.

Auckland is a nice clean modern city. It's very multicultural - lots of Turkish kebab restaurants, British backpackers, Chinese students studying English, and a guy from Zimbabwe who sold me my car. They've got a great museum, a nice zoo, and lots of lovely parks. I took a ferry across the bay to Rangitoto Island, a 600 year old volcanic landmass for some scenic views from the top. Mt. Eden and One Tree Hill also provided nice panoramas of the area, the latter also sporting a healthy sheep population.

 I arrived here at my first WWOOF host today, a short drive north of Auckland. I was supposed to come three days ago, but the French girl who was here before me had nowhere to go next and remained in my room until yesterday. My first task was sharpening the slasher and felling some tree sized thistles. My host, Betsy, is originally from Iowa and teaches horticulture/permaculture classes here. There's a meditation center here as well.


edit:
As you can see, I figured out how to get photos to appear on the blog. They are all posted here: http://picasaweb.google.com/alxble