woops.

Alright. I know it’s been an age and a half, and for this i apologize. It seemed that for quite a while there was nothing to update. I speak with my parents about once a week and they always ask, “what’s new?“ yet, to no avail, there was nothing new to report.

first of all...i attended the wedding of a couple i was working for on the sheep farm. they've been together for 18 years with their son david who is now 13 and they decided to get hitched this year! the wedding was out on a sea bluff of their farm. here are some highlights...







Let’s see, i’ve been crocheting some hats, i believe i’m up to 5 now, and i’ve infected the whole town of kaikoura with a the knitting/crocheting bug. Yes! It’s quite an epidemic, actually, but a good one especially for the quiet winter months. My mother insisted that i get photos of all the hats, but alas i have only one of my new housemate, Jana, and her new favorite hat. :)




Actually i have two. Though this wee one i knitted. First hat ever! For baby jamie.




Jana is from the Czech Republic and she is such a jovial and vonderful darling! I love living with her. Anyway, not much was happening for quite a while...i was just surfing, crocheting, and working at the hostel and Hislops Cafe serving organic coffee, food, and wine...quite nice or “posh“ as nicola would say. I think the most exciting thing that had occurred in a good while was surfing with pete one day as two seals swam by very near to us. Of course i let out a yell that probably sounded quite similar to the noise my brother would have made in excitement (those of you who know him well know exactly what i mean!), and maybe some explatives on the side. I.was.stoked to say the least. It was just slightly incredible.


Additionally, i was just surfing the other day and two hector’s dolphins streamed past quite close...if you get the chance you should definitely look them up because they’re like dwarf dolphins with rounded fins. That was a first, not to mention that as i was surfing i was gazing up at the snow covered mountains just in front of me. I’d be lying if i said it didn’t enhance the entire experience. it’s something special to live somewhere that keeps you in constant awe of your surroundings. I’m extremely lucky! though i still get cut off by my friends here...it's no different really...






Some of you may be wondering what the weather has been like lately...i know my grandmother will anyway...but as the winter season closes in the days have been much shorter and of course the air is getting a bit chillier, although, even on the cold days if the sun is shining it can still feel warm and sometimes hot especially when there’s little or no wind. It’s amazing how strong the sun is here! Due to the dropping temps, my european friends (and a few extras) and i decided that it was beginning to feel a lot like Christmas everywhere we went...
Back in february we had indeed discussed the possibility of having Christmas in April and hope for snow on the mountains...well on April 30th we scheduled a night of Christmas celebrations, and though the past 3 days had been bloody hot, that afternoon the wind switched and we had a big southerly blow through that put loads of snow on the Kaikoura Mnts a couple days later. And Christmas was a blast! We ate heaps of delicious foods including chicken salad, mash (...ed potatos), veg, crisps (chips), potato salad, pigs in blankets, mince pies, japanese pan cakes, garlic bread, apple struedel, pumpkin pie, and peanutbutter cookies. I think that just about covers it all. We had ornaments and decorations all around and a hanging spider plant served as our Christmas tree. There were even gifts for all and santa showed up unannounced...it was madness! I played my mandolin and we all sang carols which included the 12 Days of Christmas in Kaikoura (see the bottom if you care to know what my true love sent to me in Kaikoura). It truly was a lovely evening with much joy and many laughs.





Sometimes when my grandmother writes to me via email, she titles her message “all the news that’s fit to print.“ Well, this next bit that i’ll share was in actuality “fit to print“ and was printed in the local newspaper (Kaikoura Star) a week after it happened...

There’s a small mountain nearby called Mt. Fyffe and it’s about 1600 meters high. It’s one of the lowest of the kaikoura ranges but still a pretty good hike. My friend Pete had been up the mountain twice using the normal route, and he and i had been waiting for a clear day that we both had off of work to take an alternative track and reach the summit. Well, that was back in january that we had discussed doing it and it happened in April that there was a dusting of snow, his friend Steve was visiting from England, and none of us had to work, apart from cleaning the hostel that morning. So five of us foolhardy tourists (me, Pete, Steve, Masako, and Sonoe (two lovely japanese girls also cleaning and living at the Sunrise Lodge) agreed to try and conquer the mountain. It was a Monday, april 21...pete had previously discussed this alternative route with our boss from Hislops cafe. We started walking at about 1:30 in the afternoon, pete, steve, and i in shorts, 3 of us with rain coats, and enough food to have a late lunch at the top. We began on a well established trail and after crossing over a small stream we followed a small, vague track that branched off from the main one. It wasn’t long before we realized we weren’t following much of a trail anymore, but we figured we’d continue on up the ridge and we’d evetually reach the summit anyway. It was a warm day, not a cloud in the sky and a full moon that night, so we couldn’t have picked a more ideal day for the hike. We reached some fairly steep sections where we were climbing up and through thick trees and holding on the tree roots and small shrubs to get up and it was all good fun.




Somewhere around 6pm, when the sun was setting, we realized that it was taking much longer than we had anticipated and we were unsure how far from the summit we were. Well, we knew there was a hut near the top so if need be we could sleep there and hike back down in the morning before we had to clean at the hostel. So we continued on in the clear night and we were able to see the tower at the peak, but unable to decifer how far away it really was. The ridge we were on was quite deceiving and had many dips, so as the crow flies it didn’t seem very far, but as humans walk, it was still a good distance. About 7:30pm, we were in the dark, except for the beautiful moon, and suddenly we came into some very very dense bush.

I think it took us about an hour and half to navigate through maybe 100 meters (if even that) of dark forest and litterally push through stiff branches and shrubs, all the while getting scratches up and down our legs, arms, hands, and faces. That bit was miserable. We weren’t even sure if we were making any progress toward the summit because we couldn’t really tell which direction we were going. Occasionally we came across some VERY large deer tracks (in some snow, mind you!) and were able to follow them through some of the clearings. It was such a relief to finally make it past the trees, and every shrub we trudged through thereafter felt like someone whipping our legs with a stick of fire! Maybe that’s an exagerration, but it’s not far off! We were in some pain and the skin on our legs was completely raw with scrathes and alpine shrubs are not forgiving...they’re all sharp and scratchy and itchy!

Anyway, we continued up and up and up. Now we were walking along the ridge through a little bit of snow and among loose rocks and some shrubs and could once again see the top, though we were still unsure of the distance. At the time we reckoned we were still about 2 hours from the summit. We had now been hiking for about 7.5 hours and pete explained to us that if we reached the top, to go back down the marked route would only take about 2 hours. Joy! We just wanted to get to the top and it felt so close. However, to our extreme dismay, the ridge continue to narrow, and eventually became so narrow that a small rabbit would have risked its life to cross a stretch of it. It was dark except for the moon, and pete began to crawl forward on hands and knees over this “razorback“ ridge. He put one hand forward and immediately rocks tumbled down, down, down, either side and fell for ages. I felt ill after seeing that and we decided it wasn’t worth the risk. DANG IT. We could no longer reach the top safely.

So, it was then 9pm, and we had the choice of attempting to hike back down in the dark through the trees again, back down some very steep slopes in the forest and hope that we could find our way back to the original path, or we could sleep in the forest and attempt to get back down in the morning and not show up for work at the hostel, OR we could cut down the side of the ridge, down some very steep, loose, scree and into a valley and follow the stream there hoping to find where it crossed the path at the beginning of our hike. Down the scree looked like a very quick way, so we made a democratic decision (i think) to slide down it and hopefully make it back to our car very quickly. So, we went surfing down the gravel on the side of the ridge having loads of fun, getting lots of bruises, filling our shoes with rocks, and ripping a giant hole in my shorts that i didn’t discover until later. Eventually the valley became less steep and the rocks became larger and it was a slower hike down, but still very feasible. We were all exhausted, but having a good time, and still in high spirits about making it back in a couple of hours. Though the moon was full and lighting our path, we could only see a limited distance ahead of us. I was in the front at this point with pete close behind and the others filing in slowly after. I could see before me that the valley dropped down very quickly and couldn’t yet see what the path was like to get there. Ultimately i reached the edge of a bluff and the drop was about 25 ft down with a little bit of water trickling over the edge. My first and last thought was “oh shit“ and it came out of my mouth as quickly as it entered my mind. So pete and i scooted up to the edge and looked down and we could see no safe way to get down. The five of us then scrambled up a side of the valley in hopes of finding a more gradual drop but it only became more dangerous the higher we went.

We were stuck. We could not go further and the path was too steep and loose to get back the way we came. At 11:30 pm, the night was still clear, but getting a bit chilly, and i fortunately had my mobile phone with me and had signal. Thus, i called 111...the police. After speaking with several people, the search and rescue folks informed us that it was too dark to send a search party or helicopter so we would have to wait out the night. Maybe not the worst news ever, but not too exciting to hear all the same time. Thanks to pete and his lighter (that he only has because he’s a chef, :) ) we were able to scavenge for some wood and build a small fire.


All was good, but getting colder and around 1am a cloud moved in. We were wet. We were also hungry, cold, and without sleep for the next 14 hours! The cloud never left that night and all of kaikoura remained in a thick fog until 2pm the next afternoon. the boys were restless and ready to attempt to get down the waterfall, but we made the corporate decision to remain where we were knowing that there were people searching for us. We continued to gather wood that was now soaking wet from the cloud and keep the fire going for 13 hours...with our small fire we dried the wood and then threw it in to burn and continued to dry more wood to burn. And at 2pm, we were on our last piece of wood, and the fog began to lift. It was such a joy as you cannot imagine to see the sun again and then we heard a helicopter. They had located us. Hallelujah! Our final branch was burning and very shortly after we were spotted, some search and rescue people were dropped out of the chopper to us with water proof jackets and long pants. They led us up the valley a ways to a more level area where the helicopter was able to hover over the ground as we stepped in to it. Incredible! We were saved! If the fog hadn’t lifted, we would have had to stay the night again and it was supposed to freeze over. We could have been in some serious danger! But verily, we were blessed. And we got a free (well, sort of) helicopter ride down the mountain right to pete’s car.



We were home by 3 that afternoon and around 3:45pm a reporter from the Kaikoura Star showed up the interview us. We all avoided him. After coming to the hostel and going to hislops to search for me, he finally found me a couple days later and i wasn’t to keen on sharing any details with him. I only wanted to be warm and sleep forever and ever, amen.

however, they did indeed print a quite humiliating story about us on the front page of the newspaper...if you wish to see it, go here

http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

and at the top find the date of April 30th 2008.

Now, i suppose you could say this was all slightly traumatic...and on top of it all, the following morning i was told by the hostel owners that they no longer needed my services. Wow. I don’t want to share too much, because it really sucked and hurt a bit on a more personal level...but the next day i moved in to the house of Jana, where i have my own room with a double bed and i’ve lived here for the past 3 weeks. I didn’t have to move out of the hostel, but it was too expensive to stay there any longer. That was the first break of the family...and it was a slightly emotional time for some of us. I think the combination of circumstances was just unfortunate and a little overwhelming.

BUT, all is good now. I’m happy where i am, very happy, and recovered from the trauma. Christmas helped a lot with that. also, i have since climbed the mountain again and made it to the top and back down safely all in the same day.





and in a few days i will meet up with my brother and sister-in-law in sidney. Yippee!

So that’s my tale, and it’s taken quite a while to get it all out, but it’s good now to have a record of all that went down...also for all of you who may be wondering if i’m actually still alive. I apologize again for taking so long to update this. I can’t promise to be more consistant because who knows what will happen next. But please leave a comment if you wish, so i know that you’ve read it and also feel free to update me about your lives! I love and miss you all...truly i do...and i’m so thankful that i got off of that mountain and have hope to see you all again at some point!


All you need is love,

Danielle


Twelve days of christmas in Kaikoura...

Twelve meals of crayfish (In Maori, Kaikoura means “meal of crayfish“)
Eleven games of pool
Ten thieving seagulls
Nine ladies knitting
Eight sheep shaggers
Seven dolphins swimming
Six staff free sandwiches (at Hislops we get free meals on our breaks. Staff free...sandwich, soup, or salad. It’s always exciting to discover which everyone will choose each day)
FIVE IDIOTS STRANDED ON MT. FYFFE!!!
Four stinking seals
Three paua patties
Two spermy whales
And a guinness at the Strawberry Tree (strawberry tree is a local pub.)

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

Christmas is here...

what an adventure it has been so far with still 10 months to go. today is Christmas and tomorrow i will have been in this incredible place for exactly 2 months.

i'm now sitting in a hostel in Christchurch, a German, all women's hostel on Christmas night, one of the only places with available rooms on this night. this evening i took a little stroll around cathedral sq in the middle of the city where almost every shop is closed and people were walking peacefully around with a many smiles. it felt good.

the day has been a pleasant one to say the least as i spent it eating wonderful food in the lovely company of Anita's family. it's warm outside so we had a huge lunch outside under some tents and a huge dessert to follow. i think there were over 20 of us and everyone was so friendly and welcoming. last night for Christmas Eve we had a large dinner with Johnny and Alastair's sister and her family which was also quite nice and warm and cheerful, just as Christmas should be. again i felt very welcome and even got a few Christmas gifts. Santa is quite faithful. I learned from Malin, the sweedish fiance of the brothers' nephew, that Father Christmas delivers gifts in Sweden the night before Christmas Eve, which made a lot of sense seeing as it would be very difficult for Santa to deliver gifts to the entire world in one night. takes the pressure of for him a little. :)

what news? things on the farm have been busy. i've remained on the same sheep farm in Kaikoura for nearly 2 months and have learned heaps and heaps! we've cut the tails off of lambs and drafted them from their mothers to be sent off to the meatworks or to other farms. we've also done some major fence repairs and driven new post and such...and when i say we drove posts, we actually dug old posts out, dug new holes, placed the new ones in, and filled in the holes with dirt and rocks. needless to say my arms were a bit sore after that. johnny also has some 75 cows and a few days ago we ear clipped and tagged the calfs. that was quite a task!

there is a fascinating lady that i've gotten to know a little here and there who comes to help muster sheep and cattle and do the tagging and tailing and such. her name is jenny wards and she breaks horses for a living, as in, she musters wild horses and breaks them and trains them to be ridden. she is quite impressive and incredibly talented in so many ways. she can do anything a man or woman can do! come to find that she and some other horse riders from Kaikoura were extra horsemen in the Lord of the Rings movies. she also helped to train some of the riders and figure out various manouevers (eye dunt noe howw tue spel)for the horses during battle scenes. i've had some awesome conversations with here about this and heard some great stories. i've also watched her work a horse in an effort to rebreak it of some bad habbits. i really wanted to see a mare foaling but they usually do it between 12 and 5am and even after staying up most of the night with jenny waiting for this horse, she didn't foal and i never got to see it. so bummed. hopefully i'll get another opportunity. i'm so fortunate to know this amazing woman!

the weather has been flip flopping all over the place. any time i ask alastair what the weather is supposed to be like he always answers, "it's going to clear up and rain." thus you can see that new zealand weather is always changing and hardly ever predictible. just 3 days ago it was very cold and rainy and today it was blazing hot and sunny. i'm headed tomorrow to Hanmer Springs which is a quaint village with natural thermal springs. i'll spend a few days there, enjoying a short break, and head back to Kaikoura on Saturday. i have yet to get bored with the awesome scenery here and only get excited to eventually move on and explore new places and people!

my internet time is up so i must go. but a very Merry Christmas to all!

alrighty. i'm gonna try to put a link to some photos and hopefully it will work sufficiently. it's a bit troublesome to upload pics on this here thing, so i went with the link option. :)

http://elon.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18854&id=506021509

http://elon.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18854&page=2&id=506021509

http://elon.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18854&page=3&id=506021509

hope these work! let me know if they don't!

peace.

ok. i just discovered it's not working. i'll try to fix things later. you can only see them if you join facebook and become my friend. sorry.

later guys and gals!

lots and lots of sheep.

so much has happened.

i do have a bit of time to write, but i'm currently entertaining 13 year old david (so of farm owners at the same time!) at the same time. he's going on about feeding lambs.

first off...if you want to call me from outside of new zealand this is what you need to do:

dial the code to get out of the country (for the u.s. it's 011)
then dial 64 (new zealand's country code)
then dial 2102653080

this is my cell phone number

from within new zealand (if you happen to be passing through) it's 02102653080.

so there ya have it.

just quickly...

i've traveled from auckland to wellington (south tip of north island) on an 11 hour bus ride and met two older kiwi ladies who had done missionary work in india and bangledesh (sp?) and had met mother teresa. passed by mt. doom (lord of the rings) along the way. beauty everywhere. then i took a 3 hour ferry ride to picton (north tip of south island). took a bus to kaikoura where i've been for the past 4 days. went fishing and caught barracouda, pirch, and crayfish (delicious). saw some albatross (incredible!) and dolphins. also took a walk around the kaikoura penninsula along limestone bluffs and saw and smelled some big fat seals, got attacked by some oyster catchers, and spotted two yellow eyed penguins in a sea cave. the water is incredible and blue and i wish i could describe it to give you an accurate picture. i will try to upload some photos in the future (as i said before) when i get on a faster computer.

i'm in my second day on the sheep far. the farm is amazingly beautiful and about 1600 acres.

i'll write more soon. love to all.

i touched my first sheep today!

already incredible

ok. so many words and so little motivation to write them all. i'll do my best.

i'm still in auckland. plan is to leave tomorrow to head to a sheep farm in kaikoura on the south island. sweet as. i'm pumped!

let's see, the past two days have consisted of...

well saturday i woke up and felt pretty ill and tired. i forgot to take the airborne...blast. so i have myself a little cold. saturday was pretty crappy but i mananged to meet 3 cool peeps in the midst of it all. two americans, sarah and paul, and one austrian, elke (pronounced elka). i spent most of the day sleeping and writing some letters, and then some more sleeping. yesterday i woke up feeling much more refreshed and ready to take on the day. paul left for some obscure island and sarah, elke, and i took off in the morning by ferry to Waiheke Island just off the coast of Auckland. We began along a tramping (hiking) path that looked appealing and expected it to last about 1.5 hours. Turned out we got off track somewhere along Church Bay Rd and traveled the coastline on and off beautiful, sharp, rocks that guarded the land and through less traveled paths where Gorse (gorse?) Bushes attacked us with full force! minimal, prickly, pain. there were some fantastic views along th way. at one point, in one of the MANY little bays we came across we spotted some sea kayakers and asked how much further to our destination, Black Pool. THey told us just around the corner, which we were releaved to hear since we had already been tramping for nearly 2 hours.

well, 6 corners later we reached a little beach and spotted a couple walking their dog. they kindly informed us that Black Pool was in fact, STILL, just around the [stinkin] corner. we asked them for the quickest way to civilization and they showed us a path and told us of a road to follow that should only take about an hour. finding the road, with no sign of cars, we walked for about 15 minutes, straight up hill, and about the time we started downhill we heard a car (hallelujah!) and stuck out our thumbs. they were happy to give us a ride (an older couple) in the back of their wooden truck bed. when they asked where we were headed we said, "lunch!" and they drove on to drop us off at a lovely Fish n Chips shack where i had the biggest meal of my life. 3.5hours of serious hiking and i couldn't even finish half of the chips (fries) in front of me. It was spectacular!

Finding that Waiheke Island has 24 vineyards in the space of about 92 sq km, we got some advice and walked another half hour to a vineyard where i did my first wine tasting. it was definitely fun and interesting, but i am not so much a fan of wine. by the 7th and final wine i was happy to be done. feeling warm and happy, the 3 of us sat outside the beautiful vineyard on a wonderfull grassy nole and took in the view of the bay and surrounding islands, vineyards and sheep farms. wow. i was so happy.

around 4:30pm we headed on another half hour walk back to the warf to sit in a coffee shop and await the next ferry. when we arrived, the only restaurant area was being renovated and wasn't open yet. thus...we talked each other into hitching a ride with the new owner back into town and spent the next 4 hours relaxing and chatting (sans the friendly but older restaurant owner) in a little pub overlooking a lovely bay. it being a sunday night in the off-season, we were the only people for quite some time. a little later a small group of locals made their way in after a long day's work and we hung out and chatted and relaxed a little more. it was nice and interesting and i must say the new zealanders are quite the charmers. i wasn't buying too much of it but i enjoyed a few conversations. i think sarah was a little more excited about the boys than i was...needless to say Elke and I had to talk her out of staying the night on the island. eeek! we walked an additional half hour back down to the warf and caught the 10:15 ferry back to auckland and spent a long, hard night's rest in our hostel room. it was a pretty incredible experience.

i can't wait to get out of this city. i'm sure there is a lot to offer, but i'm ready to be with the sheep and begin to feel settled.

it's so hard to look ahead a year's time and imagine the end...it seems so far away yet i know when it comes it will have felt much to short. i'm excited to see what life has in store on the south island alongside the sheep and cattle and all of their poop. yes! i can't wait to always smell like a sheep. i hope it's as romantic as it seems from afar. i will be finding out very soon!

love abounds for you all. life is swell...or better yet, sweet as!

peace.


ps. unfortunately i can't upload any photos yet...but i'll get to that asap.