oh life...

i really can't get away from Kaikoura.




i'm terribly sorry for keeping the news of my life concealed from you all (i think i know of maybe 4 people who ACTUALLY read this...and that's enough to make updating it worth while!). this was NOT my intention. it seems that since i've left the farm life has picked up with all sorts of activities and with many different faces and personalities from all of the world, whereas sheep are basically always the same. not a whole lot to do with or write about them.


for now i will do my best. though i'm already exhausted with the thought of summing up what has happened in the past month. WOW, it's been over a month since i last updated. i am not very good at this. ok. here we go...

we'll start with today. it's a national holiday called Waitangi Day that celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 by both British representatives and Maoris as the foundation of New Zealand as an independent country. Sweet As! so, today we (my new family of Sunrise Lodge hostel dwellers) spent our time lazing in the warm (blazing hot!) new zealand sun, while listening to some local bands play an outdoor concert of rock, hip hop, and some traditional maori tunes. pretty good.

i imagine at this point you may be wondering who the new members of my family are, and if you're not then you can skip the next 5 paragraphs. :)

firstly there's Nicola. insanely hilarious and caring lass from Sheffield, England who the majority of the time i can't understand because she uses an excessive amount of slang and her accent is just plain strong but great. basically you know she's being genuine when she tells you your cooking is good only if she includes a vulgar term somewhere in the sentence. ex: "those peanutbutter cookies are $#^&ing beautiful!" or "that's bloody good as #$#%!" or "$^@! me they're brilliant!" she worked as a nurse for 5 years in England and decided to take a year long working holiday in new zealand. i worked for 4 months in america and did the same. i'm definitlely the closest with her. she's a dear.

secondly i will tell of Ayumi. Ayumi, like me, works for her accomodation every morning, cleaning and making beds. she's a lovely girl from Japan and sweet as a nut! she's 20 years old and speaks English but it's a little rough around the edges if you know what i mean. i love talking to her about her family and life in Japan and also learning various words and phrases from her. ex: (i cannot write in Japanese on this computer nor by hand so i will sound it out for you.) "a.na.ta.wa wa.ta.shi.no to.mo.da.chi" = you are my friend. yay! i say this to her a lot (when i can remember how to say it) just to make sure she knows it's true! her parents are coming to visit next week and they don't know any english, so it should be a good laugh! and, they want to come to the pub with us one night to play pool...Ayumi had never played pool until we taught her a couple weeks ago and her parents also have never played. she gets very sincerely excited about the smallest things, it's quite endearing.

next there's Mariska. she's from the netherlands and speaks a mixture of Dutch and english in her sleep and sometimes she is very stern and it makes me nervous because she is also very tall. but i know that in waking hours she is very sweet so it's ok. she is an incredible cook and perpared this amazing meal for our family of mussels, homemade bread and garlic butter, battered and fried kumera (sweet potato) with brown sugar, salad, roasted cashews, and some other things that i can't quite recall at the moment. it was really stinkin good. (Nicola used many vulgar terms that evening!) Mariska is just a longterm paying guest (along with Nicola) and she works as a waitress at an organic cafe called Hislops just a 5 minute walk down the road.

which brings me to Pete, the boy. also from England, a town outside of London called Reading (i think that's spelled correctly). Pete also lives at the hostel and is the sous chef at Hislops and quite a talented one. Pete and i became quick friends because he has a car and wants to learn how to surf...so you can imagine that shortly after meeting him i purchased a board and wetsuit and have been taking full advantage of his resources. no, i wouldn't call it "using him" because i offer my surfing expertise in exchange for a ride...in other words i tell him to stay off to the side a bit so as not to piss off any of the locals by becoming a surfing speed bump. i don't think he minds. in fact i know he doesn't, he's really a sweetheart. and we really feel for him sometimes because he's often the only bloke around.


from left to right...me (clearly), Ans (dutch girl who was here for a couple weeks. also very sweet but i didn't know her as well), Ayumi, Nicola, and Pete.



the girls (minus Ayumi) posing for a picture at the top of Johnny's farm when we were quad biking. lovely. Mariska is on the left.


lastly there's the hostel owners, Marc and Osi. they are really grand people. they're originally from Israel (well, Marc is actually from England, but he spent most of his life in Israel) and have been living in New Zealand now for 3 years. they're around 30 years old and expecting a bouncing bundle of joy (a wee boy they MIGHT name Jason...of course i've been calling him Jason since the moment i knew it was an option) at the end of March. their hostel is VERY nice and they are quite hospitable and really take care of all of us. i take joy in helping to keep their hostel clean and tidy and welcoming. Marc is a bit cheeky but all in good fun. they truly are great and i like to remind them of this. thanks to the near arrival of their baby (and a letter i received from April) I decided to take up knitting again (i think i did it last when i was 8) and i'm trying to create a little scarf (do babies wear scarves?) and beanie for little Jason. After starting over about 5 times i've finally completed the scarf and am slowly beginning the hat. i should have enough time to do it...hopefully!

and here we are.


there you have it. my new family. and we really are like a little family...it's quite nice how we were all forced together and are learning to deal with each others good and not so good moments. i have to say, i do miss the farm a bit, and i get to see johnny and the clan occasionally. all the girls actually went for a quadbike tour on the farm last week and it was loads of fun. funny that it was only my second time on a bike and they actually let me ride one of the manual ones (i think they momentarily forgot that i've never driven a manual car. oh well). we had such a blast. really good fun.

in other news, i took a mini vacation to do a 3 day walk with Imke, a girl i met from Denmark. it's called the Tuatapere Hump Ridge track and it's about 55 km of walking over 3 days. it was quite the experience...the first multiple-day tramp i've ever done. and to be honest it wasn't the best experience possibly because we climbed a heck of a distance straight up hill for 8 hours the first day and didn't get very good views. or possibly because the first day i got a parasite or something from drinking "clean" stream water or dehydration from not drinking enough of the "clean" stream water, and felt ill for the next 4 days of my life. let's just say it could have been better and hopefully the next one will be. i was at least thankful to have Imke there with me who has done insane hikes in Greenland and Nepal and God knows where else. She was very helpful and took care of me the best that she could.

this is one of the more joyful moments of the hike.


since then i've been back in Kaikoura now for about a month and, as i said, working for my accomodation at the Sunrise Lodge. I also just scored a weekend job at a Paua shop where they sell all kinds of jewelry and trinkets decorated with Paua. Paua i believe is the same thing as abalone and it's shell is iridescent green, blue, purple, and pink inside. Kiwis (new zealanders) eat the animal and use the shell to make things pretty. i actually found one when nicola, pete, and i went snorkelling yesterday! yes! it took me about 20 minutes to pry the thing off of its rock and clean the animal out of its shell. i did NOT eat it. it kind of looked like an alien. i also have been surfing just 3 times and had some really good waves last week when we had a 2.5 meter swell...the waves weren't very powerful but really good fun. just gotta get used to the stones at the bottom. eek!

ok. my fingers are cramped and i'm going crosseyed from looking at the computer screen for 2 hours now. i will try to be more consistent with updating. maybe if i got some feedback i may be more enthusiastic about writing! you can leave me comments on this thing...long ones even. i'd love to hear about the lives of my loved ones. i'm not the only one with semi-intersting things to tell!

with deep love to all...

danielle