The Other Side of the World

So, I spent a lovely week on a farm just outside of town with lots of apple-canning, raw-milk-guzzling, baby-pig-feeding, blackberry-bush-scratching, home-birth-discussing, music-making, movie-watching, novel-swapping, river-bubbling, windmill-whirring, big-family-dinner-eating, carrot-planting, sunny, warm, happy days.
More pictures later, when technology co-operates.
www.helpexchange.net

Scenes from the ride up to Auckland – 10 hours – with a stop in every tiny nowhere-ville.

And Auckland harbour – taken from the balcony – when I finally arrived and was happily fed with noodles and chicken and smoked oysters.

Day two began in Auckland with Karen and I waking up in this HUGE bed in Tania’s flat overlooking the harbour. I mean literally HUGE – we could barely see each other across the expanse of sheets. Also I got to sleep with about 6 big soft pillows, so I was one happy traveller. Funnily enough, when the bed is too comfortable I like to lie in it revelling in the goodness of it all and it takes ages to fall asleep.
The spire of Sky City rising over Auckland (I believe it’s a casino. . . and possibly some other things. . . and that’s where the bus station is as well).
And then eyebrow threading! When I walked in the first thing the woman said was “oh! are you Indian? You look Indian!”. Huh? The only other people I have gotten that from were my cousins in Vietnam. I love how my ethnicity constantly provokes comment/foils people. Sort of.
Then we began the drive up North. On the way we stopped at Goat Island, a fish reserve, where the water was teeming with bright blue fishes. Unphotogenic ones, unforutnately.
Then we noticed a sign for ‘hot hangi’ by the roadside. Hangi is the traditional Maori dish where meats and root vegetables and pumpkins are buried in a giant pit in the earth and cooked together. This hangi had been transported to the roadside in this little oven-trailer-contraption.
. . . and inside – lamb, kumara, pumpkin, potato & stuffing. . . delicious. Also not very good ‘car food’. I ended up covered in hangi-gravy from head to toe.
As evening hit we drove through Daggarville and stopped into the forest reserve there to see the largest tree in New Zealand (13 metres around). We got a great photo of all of us in front of it, but it’s on Tania’s camera, so it will be posted at a later date. On the other hand, here is a great photo of a kiwi-zone. I didn’t see any. . . but I was in the zone. . .
A shot of the forest. Karen remarked “it looks like something out of Jurassic Park!” and I was inclined to agree. Everything was dripping and ferned and enormous and very awe-inspiring to walk through in the near-dark.
and now I have to RUN because I’m being picked up to go stay on a farm for the rest of the week where they have goats and ducks and sheep and chickens and horses and dogs and cats and lots of people and music. What more could I ask for? . . . oh . . . maybe clean laundry?! Ahhh!

View off the point at Mangonui – a coastal village on the north end of the north island. For the record, it’s only rainy/cloudy here every second hour – the sun just has a personal vendetta against my camera and so disappears when I try to take photos.
a waka - traditional Maori boat. This one is said to be very special. It travels around to all the Pacific islands every year with no modern navigational equipment on board – the crew uses the stars. Also, the day it arrives and the day before it leaves Mangonui harbour, wild dolphins come and swim around it.
Mangonui
View off the porch at the marae (Maori meeting place/village) I stayed at. We hiked barefoot up those mountains, crossed an icy stream, drank from an underground spring and picked watercress for breakfast.
The archetypal Maori village. [as per Whale Rider]
Karen in the kitchen. The house used to be a cow shed and the floors are original and gorgeous.
freshly caught Parore fish from off the pier (Tania & their other housemate from Denmark went fishing at sunset while Karen and I stayed at home, napped and had one of those nice long midwifery themed chats . . . )

My Easter-Holiday-Part-One was amazing.
Just posting one day at a time to avoid overwhelm-ment (of me moreso than you). . .
Looking Southwards to 90 mile beach (where there was reportedly a great white swimming by the other day).
View South from Cape Reinga – the Northernmost tip of New Zealand
If you look straight out at the point on Cape Reinga you can see the meeting of the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. The waves are actually going in opposite directions.
View down from the path we walked barefoot along.
Running down an enormous stretch of secluded dunes
. . . and sliding down them on boogie boards. They were so steep I caught air and shot through the water at the bottom!
Karen my friend from school on the left, and Tania her flatmate on the right. Tania introducing us to the wonders of smoked fish roe (still whole – you scoop it out and spread it on buttered bread with lemon juice, salt, pepper and hot sauce).
The most amazing Bluenose fish & chips with enormous succulent oysters. I would seriously drive the 16 hours for the purpose of having these again (future visitors be warned!).

In honour of my passionate Uncle -

http://www.theage.com.au/news/education-news/a-light-extinguished/2006/04/08/1143916724769.html

The week is simmering along nicely. Essay handed in (and yes as per usual operating standards, it was printed out 3 minutes before class started, and no I could not find a stapler, but red paper clips are very very nice, I think).
Easter holidays loom 3 short hours of class away with lots of explorative adventure contained therein (in the holidays, perhaps not so much in class).
And I realized this afternoon that I’ve had lots of good conversations this week and that has really been important to my psychosocial health (excuse me, the psychology-degree sliver of my brain has been dying to use that word).
My midwifery lecturer stopped by my placement for a long chat over coffee (and when I say coffee I mean she bought me a nice slimy green smoothie). It’s wonderful to be taught by people who are actually interested and invested in your education and well-being (for a change, argh!).
Then this morning, having woken up in an extremely out-of-character happy and energetic mood, I was pleasantly surprised by a phone call from my neighbour (in Canada) who was in New Zealand. It made the world seem smaller and cozier all of a sudden.
And I also had an unexpected conversation with a friend that resolved some lingering concerns I’d been holding onto for a few months.
And yes, that is my newest collage that always hangs over my bed and gets puzzled over by everyone who happens upon it.
Life is good.
Vive la richesse.

This week has been a blur. A satisfying and useful blur, but one all the same. I studied, wrote tests, hacked at bones (dissection lab!), waitressed like crazy and finished my essay. If that’s not getting-stuff-done then I resign myself to a life of inadequacy! Oh, and I also had a few good conversations with friends and a good hair day thrown in there for measure.
So you seen, things are happening, only of the less exciting variety. On the other hand, I have only 2 more days of class and then it’s Easter break and I am hopefully heading up North with a friend. If I ever leave the cocoon of my bed and put my laundry on and do *something* about the massive piles of papers/books on the floor and go out into the rain and pay my bills and buy more whole wheat flour and post some mail AND get a bus ticket to Auckland.
Mmmm, warm bed . . . .

no births.
lots of tiny babies.
lots of being thrown in head first.
lots of bodily fluids. everywhere.

I need lots of sleep.
But, man, that was cool. . . .