There and Back Again.

Lake Pukaki, November. The original whanau.

So here we are. Five months, many miles, dozens of hostels and dive bars and three thousand-odd photos later, and I am sitting at home, in Arthur, musing about things past. I definitely didn't update this blog nearly as often as i had intended, but you can take that as the evidence that I, had better things to do all of the time. It's a good thing.
Our journeys over the past month and a half since I last posted took us all over the North Island, from Hobbiton to Mt. Doom, from Wellington to the northernmost tip, Cape Reinga. The former fellowship is now scattered around the globe. Holeigh and Carly in Queenstown, Steph, Brian and myself at home, Stefan in Auckland, Matt in Whanganui, and Asta, Maja, Ben and Cole (not part of the original fellowship, but a welcome interloper. You're my Faramir buddy) somewhere between Wellington and Whanganui. Its a bittersweet moment being back in the Great White North. I would be perfectly fine with a little less "Great White" today, but thats neither here nor there. In a way, after the half a year we spent there, NZ started to really feel like home too. And our whanau definitely started to feel like a family.

In conclusion. Here are some lists of things that I think Canada and NZ could learn from each other.
1. No tipping- You don't have to tip in NZ. It's fantastic. Also, prices have taxes included.
2. Beer case design- This one goes to us. Kiwi beer cases are incredibly week, open from the end, and have no handles!
3. Pies- For about 1.50-3.00 NZ you can buy a pre-cooked meat pie at any store, in a variety of flavours. Great meal if your pressed for cash and delicious!
4. Screens on Windows- When we first arrived in NZ i just assumed there were no bugs, since there were no screens on windows, and no one ever closed the doors. Turns out it was just cause it was early spring. There are in fact TONNES of insects that will come in through your windows there, but it's too hot at night to leave your windows closed. Come on Kiwis, simple concept.
5. DOC- The NZ Department of Conservation is awesome. No two ways about it. They maintain an absolutely massive network of hiking trails, national parks, wildlife conservation efforts, biking, fishing, you name it. Half the reason that outdoor activities are so huge in NZ is because its so accessible. With little-to-no experience you can undertake a rather epic 3-5 day hike in the backcountry, thanks to the very helpful track grading system and backcountry hut network. This one goes to the Kiwis.
6. On Globalization- Kiwis export almost all the food they produce. Most of the stuff on grocery store shelves is from the US. This means short-term profits, but in the long run, makes most of the fresh fruit, vegetables and meat in the country expensive and crappy quality.
7. We're All In This Together- Kiwis are possibly the friendliest, most easygoing, hospitable folks anywhere. Canadians like to think we're so kind and polite but when was the last time you offered a stranger a ride across the country for free?
8. Recycling- ALMOST NO ONE RECYCLES IN NZ. You can't return beer bottles. You throw them away. Ditto cans. Most places have one garbage can: compost, recyclables, trash. This really tarnishes their supposed "green" reputation (as do a LOT of other things, but thats a story for another time...)
9. No Shirt, No Shoes? No worries mate!- Because why in the hell aren't we allowed to go into a store barefoot? Are we spreading that many germs? Are people eating off the floor? Are shoes that much cleaner? Seriously, give me a decent reason. Kiwis take this one.

Well, i could go on, but I shouldn't like to bore you. And at any rate, im fiendin' for some ps3 after 5 months, so thanks for reading! I would have posted more, but as i touched on above, i just really didn't feel like it! Everyone who has followed this irregular blog, i appreciate it. Its been sweet as, bros. Cheers

The Breaking of the Fellowship

Well, well, well. Where to begin?? It has been many moons since i last updated this blog. As some of you may recall, we are currently in New Zealand, a large chain of islands in the South Pacific. There are many sheep. Also, many Germans.

When last you joined us, we were preparing for a month of hard labour in the scenic Central Otago region. This rather sucked. We worked for a company called Vinewise, which was a lot like being an indentured servant for a large plantation owned by an evil Indian man. For 4 weeks we laboured, creating many future bottles of delicious wine. After that we met up with our fellow Canadians; Brian, Stefan, Jess and Sarah. Also Ben. Together we quested our way up the West Coast, seeing glaciers, rainforests, and insanely rough and shitty coastal weather.

The journey was not without its challenges: travelling with a group of ten people is something of a logistical nightmare at times. But the joys outweighed the sorrows. We then arrived in the sunny and ridiculously hot Tasman region. Motueka is our current home.

Split Apple Rock- Our Motueka home beach

We intended to come here to get orchard work, but the amount of dang hippies hanging out here waiting for work definitely outweighs the amount of work available. We've been waiting around here for the season to start for a week and a half already and everywhere is still telling us to wait another two to three weeks. Which brings me to this sad day. We are going to have to part ways.

Steph, Brian, Jess, Sarah and myself are heading back to the North Island next week, hopefully to get work in the Napier/Hastings area. The rest of the party, including the former members of mine and Steph's little NZ family (Matt, Maja and Asta) will be staying here to wait things out. It's a damn shame but this is just the way things have to work out right now. We're a little broke :). On Tuesday-ish we clamber back on the Interislander for our journey back to the North. The South Island has been too good to us and its sad to split up the team.

IM GOING TO MORDOR ALONE SAM!!!

OF COURSE YOU ARE! AND I'M COMING WITH YOU!!!

I will update you all when we get to Napier. Hopefully i'll be telling you about the awesome jobs that we've found!

love

Holidays.

So its been about a month (maybe more?) since I've written anything on this blog, so I thought maybe it was time I broke the long silence, now that we have internet at least until the end of the day... Gee whiz, where to begin.

Well, when last I updated, we were in Christchurch... which when I think about it now seems like a LIFETIME ago. From there we headed to Wanaka for the first time, where we spent just a couple days before scoring a job  working on a vineyard in Bannockburn, just outside of Cromwell. (GO GOOGLE MAPS, GO!) We were there for about three weeks, rubbing buds and lifting wires. Pretty exciting stuff. Basically the equivalent of working in a factory, just outside. In 30+ degree weather. Bannockburn bills itself as "Heart of the Desert" on the sign outside of town, and this place was definitely like a desert in a lot of ways. Hotter than hell during the day, and ice cold at night. One day, we went from pushing 40 degrees in the afternoon to scraping frost off of our windshield the next morning!

After a couple weeks on the vineyard we headed to Te Anau, gateway to Fiordland National Park. Which is probably the most awesome place in the known universe. There, we hiked the Kepler Track, a 3 day alpine crossing in the heart of the park. It was pretty amazing. The weather was also amazing. Amazingly wretched. The ranger at the first hut near the top of the mountain informed us that we had the worst weather he had seen all season on the track. On our second day, we braved ice-cold temperatures, 100 km/h+ winds, driving rain, ice and yes, SNOW! We got at least a small hint of a white Christmas, several thousand miles from home.

Since the end of the hike we've  been relaxing in Wanaka, and that's where the picture was taken. We spent Christmas here and the hostel is really starting to feel like home. We've got a great bunch of people here and we'll be sad to have to leave. On New Year's Eve, we will reunite with our fellow Canadians! Queenstown will not know what hit it. I will try to post again with more entertaining things soon!

love

Riders of Rohan

Well, the last couple days has been quite the whirlwind. In less than three days we've transported ourselves from Napier, down to Wellington, across the ferry to Picton, on the South Island and now to Christchurch. The part of town we're in, New Brighton, is about 15 minutes away from the city centre, and is almost like a Venice Beach of the south Pacific, tonnes of cool little shops, surfers and MASSIVE waves.

The trip from Picton was long, but thankfully uneventful. For the first hour or two we were driving through this barren, almost desert like region of dry, grassy hills. Rohan, for those of y'all who watched Two Towers. And then, out of the complete blue, we come around a corner to THIS.

Not Pictured: my "holy shit, mountains!" face.

This is the beginning of the Kaikoura range, one of the smaller mountain ranges of the South Island.

"Alright let's do our Asian teenager pose"

Needless to say, we were pretty pumped. This is only the beginning. Our final destination tomorrow is Wanaka, sort of a smaller, quieter Queenstown, I'm given to understand. The mountains there are larger. And more numerous. Tomorrow we drive straight from our lil' surfer hostel to the PickNZ office in Alexandra to register for cherry picking and then off to Wanaka for some arrr ennn arrrr. 

And I was always taught that cherry picking was unsportsmanlike. Tee Hee. \

-james

The Ring Goes Southier

Matt, Master of Middle-Earth

We're wrapping up our time here in Hawke's Bay. Today we climbed up another big hill, this one much larger than the first. This picture is from the top of Te Mata Peak, just outside of Havelock North (a few minutes drive from Napier). It was AWESOME. We wandered pretty quickly up to the top and then dawdled our way down past the sheep and the bush. It was really good to get out of the hostel after a couple days of cabin fever coldness and back into the scenery.  We drove the car today for the first time since we bought her. Steph had her first shot at driving in reverse-land and performed admirably.

On Thursday we head south once again. First to Wellington, then across the Cook Strait to the South Island, then the drive down to Christchurch, and finally from Christchurch to Alexandra, near Queenstown. The plan is to get in on cherry pickin' season a way down south for at least a month and make back some of our money. Tomorrow we venture out to Cape Kidnappers for some cliffs of insanity and rare bird watching! :)

-James

Jenny

Yesterday, we bought a car. We have named her Jenny, after a particularly obnoxious kea bird we met at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua. Car ownership is pretty simple here; we paid cash for the car (1500 bucks, pretty good deal) and then went to the post office and paid 9 dollars to register the car under Matt's name. Third-party insurance is about 50 dollars for the year. Pretty exciting stuff!

First thing Monday morning its job hunt time. Now that we've got wheels things get a whole lot simpler. It's apple thinning season here in lovely Hawke's Bay, and jobs seem pretty plentiful. We could have worked yesterday and the day before, a horse farmer was here looking for some help, but we didn't have the car at the time.

Last night we had a campfire on the beach. You can have them whenever you want, and there's all kinds of driftwood to burn so you don't even need to bring anything with you. Ben met up with us yesterday and we all made rather merry. Me and Matt also went halfsies on a $100 guitar today so life is good!!

The Ring Goes South

So it's been a little while since I've made a post. We've been pretty busy! Yesterday we left Auckland and headed south to beautiful Rotorua in the scenic Bay of Plenty! The views along the way were absolutely spectacular. Rotorua smells like rotten eggs constantly because of all the volcanic activity. You can see the steam rising up from places all over the valley it's in. There's also lakes. And mountains. Seriously, this country is ridiculous. It should be illegal to have this much scenery packed into one place.
This picture is from our long hike into a park called The Redwoods, it was awesome. There were large trees, and it felt very Middle-Earth.
Today we rented a car from the hostel owner and toured around the area a bit. Matt took the mantle of driver upon himself, and we got to have the excitement of driving on the wrong side of the road. We survived in style, and went to some awesome places. We went to a place called Hot-Cold River. It's basically exactly what it sounds like: a hot geothermal river meeting a cold river. The hot side feels as hot as a really hot tub, and the cold side is... well, cold like a river. We soaked there for over an hour, and then we went to this conservation park to see some native NZ fauna! The kiwis were really hard to spot, but we got to see one and it was awesome. I was by far the most excited about the kiwis, but I think it was contagious.
Tomorrow we're heading to Napier, on the coast. We were intending to go to Hastings, but when the hostel there was sold out we did some quick replanning. The hostel we're staying in in Napier is literally 50 feet from the ocean. Should be pretty epic.

There were chickens at the park we went to. They were actually awesome. They followed us and the chicks were trying to eat our feet. Maja was terrified.