The French Connection

No more llamas, but we have found another all you can eat paradise! Now I just have to break out the oatmeal raisin recipe and we’ll really be having a good time.

We’ve landed ourselves in Akaroa, the French Connection. Apparently, this area was first settled by the French, sometime around 1840. They promptly tore down all the natural vegetation, introduced some invasive species in the form of mammals and went to town, or at least built a town. We’re staying in Duvauchelle, on the Duvauchelle Bay, which is part of Akaroa Harbor. Again, we have found another lovely slice of paradise as we are flanked by water and mountains.

Silly updates. The computer shut down, and now I’m stuck trying to rewrite a paragraph that I just wrote. And I saved it too! Grrrr… silly Vista. That’s the problem; it’s a pc, not a mac. So I guess I didn’t actually save it. Flashback to that college paper that got lost because the control key on a pc and the apple key on a mac are not in the same place!

New Zealand is a wonderful case study demonstrating the damage that humans can inflict on the natural world. Nearly all of the native vegetation has been cleared, mammals and birds have been introduced, and native birds have met a nasty fate. Let’s not forget the cat of the light house keeper that drove the Stephans Island Wren to extinction. But all is not lost! There is a movement in New Zealand to try to undo the damage done by European settlers. Not to fix the environment, because is that possible? But to repair the damage done so the environment can go on being what it is; a dynamic, ever changing force that controls our well-being.

This week, we’re staying with people of the help the environment help itself mindset. Along with replanting native vegetation and completing pollen surveys, they have also hosted researchers doing bird surveys, among other things. Their bookshelves contain a library of information on New Zealand conservation efforts with which they are involved. As well as bird and plant books to keep me quite content. Yesterday, I was treated to a hands -on lesson regarding fucia reproductive strategy. By the way, an amazing plant, they are either hermaphrodites, with both stigma and anthers, or females, with stigma and vestigial anthers. No males for this species. I have to do my research to determine the reproductive benefits gained by this gender distribution. There are many possible explanations… but what is the chance that it just happens to be that way? But I think it’s safe to say, everything in nature has a purpose, even pretty flowers.

And pretty flowers are what keep Kate and I occupied all day, or at least all of our working days. In order to feed their conservation passions our hosts, two former vets, also have a peonies operation. They are Peonies suppliers and early summer is prime picking season. In the morning, we go out to collect pretty pink peonies from the rows of plants. But we try to get them before they're pretty! We want to get the plant just before it blooms, so that it can be kept cold and shipped so that it’s in full blossom for the bouquet of flowers that it will join.

Kate and I have the lovely job of holding gigantic bundles of peonies
and then trying to load them onto the trailer to be brought to the house for processing. After 2-3 hours in the fields, we return home for lunch. Then Phase 2 begins. Kate and I make boxes to place the peonies in for shipment. Then we join Waka and John in “The Chiller!” (I feel like this is the name of a D scary movie).

The Chiller is probably what you imagine, a giant refrigerator kept slightly above freezing at 2 C! The Chiller provides the backdrop for the real work. Waka and John sort the flowers by grade (size of the flower) and cut the stems to 60 cm. Then Kate and I have the joy of bundling. We take 5 flowers, make sure all of their stems line up so they can all get a drink of water, then wrap a rubber band around the bottom of the stem and another just below the leaves. The painful snap of a rubber band against your skin confirms that your fingers are still alive with blood coursing through the veins. A good test to make sure you’re not getting frostbite. I prefer to avoid the snaps and find out too late that I have frostbite. So far, we both still have all of our fingers and toes.

After we bundle them, we stick them in crates, separated by grade (like eggs, they’re either AAA, AA, or A). This job is the one that brings your fingers closest to frostbite. The crates are filled with water and packing flowers into a crate doesn’t provide much opportunity for wiggling one fingers. When you go finish packing a crate and return to rubber banding, you tend to get a few more healthy reminders that your fingers, thankfully?, still have blood flowing through them. Your fingers have lost some dexterity, so you’re more likely to snap your fingers, and they’re colder, so it hurts a lot more. While the chiller is a nice escape from the midday heat, when all the bundles are done and you have to wait for more flowers, the midday heat provides a nice escape from the nearly freezing chiller. So you’re happy whether you’re going in or coming out of the chiller!
And that pretty much describes our daily routine!

So what about the not daily routine? Yesterday, Kate and I had a nice surprise. The woofers who like to call themselves “The French Connection” came to visit us in Akaroa, “The French Connection.” Along with a pleasant catch up in the sun, we went to explore Akaroa, famous for Hector Dolphins. These dolphins are small compared to the more common bottle-nosed dolphin, and are endemic to the region. Unfortunately, we got to town too late to take a cruise to see the marine life for which Banks Peninsula is famous. But we did get to see a model Hector dolphin and see the pretty harbor. So it wasn’t a wasted journey!

And sorry, Kate’s asleep, so I can’t get the pictures to document our livelihood. (They really are entertaining!)

Llama Llama... the real post

We left our island paradise on Saturday morning, on a boat filled to the breaking point with puau. Puau that we had neatly stacked in lovely blue crates that very morning. It had been a delightful week… especially when we no longer had to go destroying tawenie.

Kate and I played teacher for our last week on the island, helping to supervise the three children as they completed their lessons from correspondence school. Our afternoons were spent completing a variety of household/childcare activities. My favorite werethe ones involving baking. We made the world’s most delicious oatmeal raisen cookies, if I do say so myself (don’t worry mom, I copied the recipe). We also did a far amount of walking around the beautiful island, swimming, and I got Sarah playing puzzle!

So we were sad to go, but also excited.

It was rainy for our bus ride from Picton to Christchurch, so many of our travel days have been less then sunny. The bus took us along the beautiful Kaikoura coast. In the interest of time, Kate and I had opted to skip staying in that region, it’s amazing how fast three weeks goes!

This was the windiest, hilliest road we have been on yet. It was bad, even by New Zealand standards. But there were rewards for enduring car sickness, again… Lots and lots and lots of seals!! These things are so cute. Especially when they undulate their entire body in an attempt to hop along, or reach their tail forward to scratch behind their whiskers. I never imagined a seal scratching itself!

After arriving in Christchurch on Saturday evening, we hopped a bus to Rangiora to meet our new host, children’s book author, Jane Buxton. She is a woman with many hats. Author and LLAMA/ALPACA farmer! Yup, we spent the last week on a Llama and Alpaca farm. While most of our work involved weeding and aiding some native trees in their fight to become re-established, we did get to spend some time with the animals (not just the dogs and cat).

We got to lead the Llamas for walks. They like to get all close to you. We got kisses from them, Misty was especially affectionate. We got to see a newborn baby, although unfortunately, Jessica decided to give birth before anyone was awake. And we got to practice for our future careers with the discovery channel/animal planet. We got to see how baby llamas are made, twice. Lucky guy. The interesting part was the sound that he made.

The reproductive system of a llama does not work the same way as the reproductive system of a human. Shocking, I know. Llamas have induced ovulation. That lady isn’t wasting any eggs. She only ovulates when the male is around, so he has to make this strange gurgling noise to get the eggs moving.But once he’s got that going for a while, all the ladies are ready. His first mate, was a little difficult, it took some persuasion on his part to get her ready for 350 days of child bearing. That’s right, 11 and a half months to make a baby llama, WOW! The 2nd llama, sunshine, was quite ready to go, having listened to mating noises for about 45 minutes before it was her turn. And she wasn’t the only one, there were a few ladies in that barn ready to try their hand at motherhood. But only two lucky ladies.

Aside from the discovery channel scenario and walking the llamas, we also got to help trim toe nails. So all in all, for not much time with the llamas, we got to do a fair amount. The thing that amazes me about llamas is that they are like no other farm animal. They are highly intelligent and curious, not at all frightened of humans. Also, they respond to verbal directions. Llamas come to you. If you want them, you just call “Llama llama” and they all arrive, eagerly awaiting directions. You don’t need dogs, scary noises, or imposing positions to get them to herd up and switch paddocks or head to the barn, just call them and they come. Amazing.

But, no more llama farm. Kate and I spent the day in Christchurch and we are now at our new home in Akaroa, on Banks Peninsula. A beautiful piece of land that is a bit of a tourist destination. We’ll be here for a week, working with flowers and helping to replant native species (yay for not weeding!). Then we have a big adventure planned for next week! We’re running away from our island on Sunday, to hit up a neighboring island, that’s just a bit bigger. Australia to dive the Great Barrier Reef!! (One week in Australia is going to cost us about as much as our entire time in New Zealand, ouch… but so worth it!)

Llama Llama

Kate's computer is too advanced! I wrote a really awesome blog entery on her computer, but I can't post it, because she has the newest version of Word and this computer doesn't. That silly girl. I'll have to see if I can save the document as an older version, because it was way better than whatever I'm about to write.

We have left our island paradise. Our second week there was awesome. School was back in session, so we no longer had to grub tawenie. Although, I did miss the views of the sounds that we had while working... and the skill that it took to not tumble down the insanely steep hill. For this part of our visit, we spent the mornings supervising the children as they comleted their lessons from correspondence school and the afternoons doing general household/child watching activities.

My favorite parts of afternoons playing house? 1. making the world's best oatmeal raisen cookies (Yes mom, I got the recipe) 2. Using a rainy day to get Sarah addicted to playing puzzle! Yay playing puzzle!

Saturday morning marked the end of our island vacation. Though Kate will tell you, it was far from a vacation, but it was quite fun. We spent the morning packing paua to bring to town. This involved getting them to use their giant muscles to hold onto each other so we could squeeze them nice and tight into some blue bins for the ride to town. Then we packed all of the blue bins into the boat, and I wondered how Mike and three Woofers were going to fit in there. Then we added our bags to the boat, and I really got worried. But about an hour and some dolphin sightings later, we all made it safely to Picton.

Kate and I took a bus down the Kaikoura coast to Christchurch. It was a rainy day to see some beautiful country, as most of our traveling days are. We tried our best to enjoy the passing scenery, we had opted not to stay in this region in the interest of time, who ever would have guessed that three months would not be enough! The road was windy and hilly, even by New Zealand Standards. But I was rewarded for fighting off car sickness (Again) by the beautiful scenery and lots and lots of seals! Some of the rocky beaches were completely covered by these funny organisms. They were quite cute, as they undulated their entire bodies just to hop forward a couple of inches! Or as they curled their tails around so they could scratch behind their whiskers! I never would have imangined that manuever.

We arrived in Christchurch in the early evening and caught a bus to Rangiora to meet our new host. Jane Buxton is a woman with many hats. She is the author of several (several meaning lots and lots and lots) children's books as well as a LLAMA/ALPACA farm. That's right! I got to stay on a llama and alpaca farm.

And I don't feel like rewriting anymore. So I'm going to try and figure out how to get the document I already wrote on the internet, and you'll just have to wait to read about my time among the llamas.

Bye!

Desert Island Books

So what I read on a desert island:

1. The Secret Life of Bees (I had already started this one when I got there)
A terrific book. Well written and a good story, what could be better.

2. High Citadel
This book was left behind by a previous woofer. I understand why they left it. Nothing like a communist ambush in the middle of the Andes.

3. My Enemy the Queen
Also left by another woofer. Who doesn't enjoy a 16th century romance novel. Although, it wasn't so much a romance novel as a bad book.

4. Babysitters Club
Gotta get the 10 year old to read somehow.,

5. Priestess of the White
A Fantasy book that Kate bought in Taupo. Very enjoyable and strange. Gotta love Fantasy.

Desert Island

If you were on a deserted island... what five books would you bring?

Kate and I have officially made it to the South Island after a brief pit stop in Wellington. It was an interesting city, which we enjoyed a lot more during the day with a map then we did the night we got there and walked around lost for an hour.

On Tuesday we made the trip to the South island through Picton, the Gateway to the South Island. We arrived a little late due to less than ideal channel crossing conditions - read: Gale force winds. But we made it in plenty of time to catch the mail boat to our new host.

There aren't many people other than us on the island. Our family has 3 kids under the age of 10, currently on school holiday. They are basically home schooled - attending "correspondence school" from the school room next to the house.

Next week, Kate and I will play teacher, but today we played babysitter. (We did farm work yesterday). The fun part was going for a walk around the island. Our destination: the old whaling station. Not much was left of the station, aside from a platform. But there were plenty of signs detailing the history, and Jacob made up a fun game to display our acrobatic skills.

After the whaling station we spent a relaxing morning combing the small beach for treasure. I found more than my fair share of sea glass, though most of it is brown, and a good number of beautiful rocks... which I will use to weigh down my bag until I realize that toting them around is pointless.

Overall, an enjoyable day in our island paradise... although Kate and I are a little sore from about 50 too many piggy back rides and races.

Denial

The other day in the kitchen, I had to face the facts.

Apparently, I've been living in denial for the past few weeks.

We all know that I was not enjoying the thought of turning 24. So apparently, I just blocked it out. For the last 3 weeks, I have been going around blissfully believing that I am 23. When asked my age, I always replied, without a pause. "23"

However, now I know. I'm 24.

Wow, I'm old.

Free Falling!

I'm not sure if I should write this now. I'm not sure that I have energy to do it justice.

Kate and I have made it to Lake Taupo on the North Island. This region is absolutely beautiful with rolling hills of green green grass, snow covered mountains, and of course, a giant lake.

We have been working at Tuahara Centre, about 8km from the town center since last Sunday. So far it has been enjoyable. Our mornings are spent playing housekeeper or chef while our afternoons are spent wandering the region.

Wednesday was a very special day. We were going to start working an hour early so we could knock off work an hour early. We had very special plans for our afternoon. These plans were the whole reason that we had come to Taupo.

Our first host, Dene, is an avid skydiver. He jumped competitively for years. So we saught his advice in pursuing this endeavor, and he told us the most beautful place to jump, was Taupo. So Kate and I went about setting up a host and making travel arrangments. Then, as soon as we got here, we made our sky diving reservations! Which is what we were supposed to spend our afternoon doing.

So on Wednesday, we were more than happy to wake up and work an hour earlier. We were joined by the Frenchies, Florian and Fabian, who are in hour "unit" and with whom we have the pleasure of sharing a bathroom. They would be jumping with us in the afternoon. (Side note... 7 people and 1 bathroom does keep life interesting). Then we got a nice surprise. Catherine gave us the day off!

First thing we did? Check the weather. We wanted to make sure that everything was perfect for our jump and we feared rain showers in the afternoon. That and Kate wanted to make sure to tell her mom that she loved her, in case the jump was the last thing we ever did. I decided to tell the world that I was jumping. Unfortunately, the weather did not look so favorable. Winds were 10-20 mph. We wondered how this would affect our day. And then we went for a walk.

The walk was windy. We were worried.

At quarter to 1, we called to confirm our flight. The nice girl told me, unfortunately, all flights were on hold because of the wind, and I should call back at quarter to 3. Kate and I fidgeted. Where we going to get to jump? We began hoping that the 3 pm jump would also be called off. But for very different reasons.

Kate was only jumping becuse I was jumping. She was quite nervous about the jump and might not have minded not jumping (of course, this was only because she didn't know how awesome it was yet!). I wanted it to get postponed, because overall, the weather for Thursday just looked better. No clouds and less wind.

We both got our wish. At 2:45 I was told to call back on Thursday at 12:45.

The afternoon passed uneventfully.

THURSDAY: JUMP DAY

The morning isn't really important. All you need to know is that when I called Skydive Taup at 12:35 they said the mission was a go and they would pick us up in 10 minutes. So then Kate and I had the lovely task of trying to get the French boys moving. Andrew was going to drive us to the convenience store down the hill, where the skydive limo would pick us up.

French boys move slow! First it took forever to get them out of our "unit." Then came the real problem. We had agreed to meet Andrew in the kitchen. This happens to be were Stan and crew had just finished preparing lunch. We then had to contend with french boy who like to move slow and like to eat... A LOT. Andrew, Kate, and I were in the car yelling for them to move along, and we nearly left them. But finally there were five in the car and we were headed down the hill.

We arrived at the Acacia Bay Store to find our chariot waiting for us. Yes we were the tools, riding in an old, white limo that has seen better days. But the liscence plate made it all worth it. "JUMPUS" Nice.

We stopped by Backpackers and picked up a German couple on our way to the airport. They were nice, and much calmer than our French boys.

When we arrived at the airport they shuffled us into a movie theatre. There we watched a video of a very excited girl jumping. The video was more fun than informative. The most important thing we learned was that if you get the DVD, they give it a really awesome soundtrack. And I decided that I was not going to be the person videod (Kate and I had decided to split the cost of a DVD). The girl watched the camera a lot and there were a lot of antics for the camera. I did not want to be distracted from the beautyof the jump by having a camera in my face.

So then we got paired up. My tandem was Henk. A Kiwi, who had once been to Manhattan and seen a road sign for Hoboken. So he knew where NJ was.

He set me up in this wicked cool blue jump suit. But better than the suit was the harness. The ever attractive grab you in all the wrong places harness. Then we were given a nice hat, some warm gloves, and goggles. The disposable kind that you wear in an intro chem lab. You can imagine how becoming this outfit is.

Then it was time to sit and wait. And by sit and wait, I mean take pictures, and watch the jump before us come down. We talked a bit with the German couple, only the boy was jumping, we tried to convince the girl to go. I don't think that Kate was very convincing. She didn't seem so sure of the whole jump thing herself. We watched the group before us land. There was a yeller in the group. But it was definitely from happiness. The landings were interesting. Some landed on their feet, some on their butts, some a mixture of the two? Kate and I wanted to know how we would land.

The four jumpers before us walked away from the landing zone with grins on their faces. All of their bones were in tact. And I pointed out to Kate, there was no blood. We were going to be okay.

And then it was our turn.

BRIGHT PINK PLANE!! And very very tiny. There are no seats, just a blue cushiony thing to stradle as our tandems attach our harnesses to them. I get in the plane first. The guy asks me if I'm ready or excited or something... I reply, I better be, because I'm the reason that Kate and the French boys are jumping. If I get cold feet or decide it's lame... well, that's just lame.

And it's lift off. If I was still in the TCI, this would have been the puddle hopper that made me fear for my life. It was held together with duct tape and rubber bands and barely had room for the 8 of us. But, well, we all had men with parachutes strapped to our backs and we were about to jump out of the plane anyway. So if it fell apart... big deal. We were ready for that.

It was a gorgeous flight up. It was a clear day, so we could actually see the snow covered mountains. Kate was getting the DVD, so we all got to look awkward for the video and watch Kate answer questions.

And then, suddently, the altimeter on Henk's wrist read 12. Which gets multiplied by 1000. We were at jumping altitude. 12000 feet!

Slowly, the plane emptied in front of me. First Florian was gone. Then there was no more Fabian. Then I watched as Kate and her tandem slid their way to the wide open door. A wide open door in a plane 12,000 feet in the air and going bloody fast! I was impressed to see Kate was helping to move towards the door. And then she was at the door and her legs were out and then she was out. For all her talk of being nervous and going splat, she seemed to have no problem falling out of that plane (I learned otherwise later).

Then it was my turn!!!! We were next to the cockpit, and then we were next to the door. And then I had my legs curled under the plane and my head tilted back. I had assumed the banana position. There was no looking down! And not because I didn't want to, but because you're not allowed to. You have to look where you want to go, and you do not want to go straight down when you leave the plane.

And then we were out of the plane. And my verticle speed went from 0 mph to 200 mph. And we were spinning and seeing beautiful blue green water and snow capped mountains and lots and lots of green green land. It was absolutely beautiful. I had a bit of trouble keeping the ridiculous grin on my face because when you're moving at 200 mph your cheek muscles wobble all over the place. It's like a very intense face massage. Quite an interesting feeling.

This kept going for about 45 seconds (at least that's how long they told us it would be... I didn't count, I promise). And then he told me it was time to open the parachute. And then there was a giant tug and that really comfortable harness got even more comfortable. And by more comfortable, I mean I found a black and blue on my thigh afterwards! Then came the only slightly unnerving part of the entire jumping experience, Henk told me he was going to make my harness more comfortable. If you're 5000+ feet in the air, do you really want somone making your harness more comfortable? I told him it was fine, so long as I was still attached to him when he was done!

It was a lot more comfortable and I was still sailing safetly above the earth. And then the 5 step lesson plan continued. We had had the opening attention grabber. That would be the free fall and parachute opening. All things were working. He had my attention. Now it was time to deliver new information. While we discussed all the beautiful scenery, Henk also explained to me how to make the parachute do what you want.

During this time, he used his mad steering skills to direct us in Kate's direction. He wanted to make sure we got on her video. But her guy was a meaning and started a quick turning descent right as we began closing in on camera range.

After the intro to new material, it was time for the guided practice. Yes. My skydiving experience involved guided practice. I grabbed the parachute handles. With Henk's hands still there to guide me, I started controlling the parachute. First I pulled down on both at the same time. This motion is like braking, and you slow down. At first, if you do it for long enough you start going faster. Next I learned how to do turns. First we turned to the left. You do this by holding your right hand in the neutral position and pulling down on the left. The longer you hold the turn, the faster you go!! Then we went back to neutral. Then right.

Then it was Independent Practice!!! SOOO AWESOME!!! As far as I know, I was flying that thing. Henk let go of the handles and I was in control. Of course, the entire parachute was still attached to him and he was telling me what to do, but I was pulling the strings! Quite literally. Talk about a high.

It was sooooo AWESOME!! It was quite tiring for the arms. Either that, or I was more nervous about "being in control" then I thought. Either way, I'll say it again. IT WAS AWESOME!!

Then it was time for the closing, when the teacher wraps the whole thing up. Apparently, he didn't trust me for the landing. Henk took back over the whole piloting thing and I prepared to be a passenger again. The landing was the silly part. Every guide does it a little bit different. Some just have to hold your legs straight out going into the groun, and you either land on your butt or they tell you to stand up. My guy apparently doesn't trust people's abs. He had me grab under my knees and tuck them up, so I was curled up in a little ball as we came in, feet well above the ground.

It was a very smooth landing, and I was told to stand up. Not butt landing for us!

That pretty much sums it up. It was awesome. Kate was glad that I made her go. The French boys were glad that we had told them we were going. Everyone had fun, was alive, and would totally do it again... even Kate.

Of course, then Kate confessed (and the DVD confirmed) she screamed the entire way down.