Finding My Fix: Chronicles of a Travel Junkie

This morning I woke up at 7:40am. I tried to swollow, feeling the rocks that had formed where I once had lymph glands. I checked my phone and saw a message from Jency, “Rise and shine. Are you sure we’re still going on this trip in this weather?”

I got up, still asleep, and peeked out the window. It was raining sheets. I wrote back, “I’m not going with my throat like this,” and lay back down. But I only felt worse for missing out. After all those fun things in middle school and high school that’d I’d missed out on because of a stomach ache, a head ache, an ear ache, or a combination thereof, I made the decision I wasn’t going to miss this!

I was ready in 10 minutes, out the door and headed into the rain. I stopped at a cafe to buy breakfast, lunch and a waterbottle, but when I got to campus I realised I had left the bottle on the counter in the cafe. However, the bottle I thought I’d forgotten at home was in my bag.

I was 20 minutes early and because of the rain, our professor was running late, which meant ultimately I was 50 minutes early. But the trip turned out to be quite the adventure. Our first stop was an archaeological site. It was a pa with kumara pits and post-holes for pallisades, and ditches and mounds for defense. It was very windy up on that pa!

Next we went down to Ferry Lake I think it was called, and stopped off at a pub for some lunch. After that we were off to another site, the oldest house in New Zealand. It dates back to the 12thC. We hiked through sheep paddocks, dodging mud and dung to reach it. The sheep ran up a hill, and once a safe distance from us stood bleeting at us loudly. We were fully focused on not stepping on anything that had recently come out of the hind end of an animal and managed to walk right past the house. Peter had to call us back with the Kiwi attention grabber, “OY!” Basically all that is left of the house is the slightly raised wall that outlines it, and the stones arranged in a square for the fire place. It was still pretty sweet.

After we hiked back to the cars, we headed down the road toward the seal colony, and Peter pulled over abruptly to show us stone walls, basically heaps of stones that ran from half-way up the hills down to the sand dunes. I would never have imagined they were archaeological sites. They blended in so well with the rugged terrain. Once I knew what to look for, I saw them all along the coast. I wonder how many sites I have simply walked over, ignorantly.

Our final destination before returning to Wellington was the seal colony. But, in order to get to it, we first had to ford a river that had risen above the danger mark. We had three cars, Peter’s mini-van, a guys car, and a 4WD pick-up. We parked the car off to the side and all climbed into the van and pick-up and made our way safely, though nervously across. Once across we bounced along the dirt road past fat, lazy seals to the end, and parked. The seals put on a show for us, swimming in the water, and bouncing over the rocks. One of them bounced his blubbery self onto a rock and a seal behind him bumped him halfway off, which the first obviously did not appreciate. They stood there each hanging on, barking at each other angrily, until finally the second seal gave the first a good blow to the head, effectively knocking him off and onto the rocks immediately below. Their audience gasped, and commented on how it’s a good thing he had all that fat or he would have really hurt himself. He took a few moments to collect himself and then bounced off towards the water.

We got back in the vehicles, and headed back to the river ford. The van went first and as we reached the halfway point, we hit something. We were able to keep moving, but there was a horrible noise. We felt a second bump, and when we looked back we saw a big rock lying in the middle of the road. We’d dragged it out with us. I have to say I was quite impressed with how the mini-van handled.

It was all quite the adventure! And now I need to go pack for another adventure that begins tomorrow early in the morning when I go catch the ferry on down to the South Island, and take my Abel Tasman walk. More adventures to come!

Yesterday I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time, and I cooked a turkey and stuffing for the first time. It was edible. Among the people at this Thanksgiving in October were 3 Germans, 2 Swedes, 2 Danes, 1 Singaporean, 1 Chinese girl, 1 Kiwi, and another American. I’m upholding the tradition in my family of making Thanksgiving international. It was the first Thanksgiving for all of them except of course the American. They all enjoyed the holiday and most of the food, and after we all finished eating we basically collapsed in the living room area. There was a silence interrupted only by the occassional groan as someone tried to move. In otherwords, it was a success!

Side Note: Camilla and her boyfriend (both Danish) will be visiting DC for almost a week around New Year’s, and they’ll be staying at my house. After that, they go up to New York. I’d love for people to meet them, and for them to meet my American friends and family. SO EXCITED!

Upon finishing this final essay for Maori on pre-European Polynesian navigation about 10 minutes ago, I essentially finished the semester. All I have left is turning in the paper and then four exams, one each on Oct 6, 19, 20 and Nov 4 (none of which require any better than 40%). This is a nice feeling, let me tell ya! I don’t really have academic work again until January! I’m ready to travel! South Island, here I come! Be prepared to hear about some more adventures!

Photos from a 3-hour walk I took on Sunday… Read the rest of this entry »

Camilla caught me saying deliberately with an accent not American, my accent is morphing. Should I help the process along and deliberately adopt Kiwi pronunciations, spellings and vocabulary, or should I resist?

I’m making wonderful progress on a paper that isn’t due for another four days, how unlike me. Tonight was dessert night, and four of us ladies went to Strawberry Fare (or is it Fair?) as usual. Strawberry Fare is a must if you come to Wellington! They have amazing deserts, and we are trying to taste every last one on the menu before we leave. There are only 12 left. My personal favorites so far are Chocolate Madness, and the apple and pumpkin pies (I’m American, how could I not like a good old pumpkin or apple pie?). The ice cream is indescribable so I won’t even try!

I have also discovered that my Swedish friends haven’t had tofu. They are going to have a night where they experiment with tofu. They want to try it plain so they know what it tastes like, but I’ve warned them, that’s not really the preferred way to eat tofu. I’m going to have to find out what other foods (the really good ones) these poor people from relatively homogenous countries have missed out on and cook for them. Ah, the beauty of coming from a country where every culture has come and brought it’s best cooking! See, see people, that’s one of the good things about the US!

I’m going to admit that I’m very mildly homesick at the moment. I’d really like to just go home right now. The fact that I have an essay on Maori navigation due Monday probably isn’t helping much. But for the past three days straight I’ve been in the swing of wanting to go home. I miss all my friends and family. I won’t list who because the list of people I miss is long, and I’m afraid I’ll forget a name as I’m writing. And no offense to anyone, but I miss my doggies the most! I really want to give Daisy a great big hug! And since Molly’s getting on in years, I worry about her. I haven’t gotten to pet any dogs here… only the pugs way back when. I’ve been warding off my puppy addiction by petting cats, but it’s just not the same. Luckily when I go to Christchurch, I’ll get to visit a dog for a couple days as I’ll be staying with a Kiwi my grandma met through ebay. I love New Zealand hospitality! I’m getting excited for the trip, and the trip to Australia, but somehow the going home part has been overshadowing the excitement for the trips. I’m just tired and bored is really all it is. I need to get away from being put down for the dialect of English I speak. And sometimes it gets a little annoying when people put down my culture for everything and anything. It makes me want to rebel. You say it’s rude to eat with just a fork in my right hand instead of a knife to help “guide” the food? Well I say, under my breath, “bloody imperialists!” and outloud I say, “how bout if I use a spoon?” You say my government sucks, well you’re right, it does but I also say have to say, “and yours doesn’t?” You accuse us of being racist… “HAHAHA! What is it that you’re doing to the immigrants in your country, again?” You say, “The US is made up of the rejects of other countries…” I say, “no, actually the US is made up of people who didn’t want to stay in yours.” You say, “aren’t all Americans fat and ugly?” I say, “would you call me fat and ugly?” People need to learn to see the positive in other cultures as well as the negative. I’m sorry folks, but you are not better than anybody else, nor are we. Ok, I’m done complaining about the Europeans I know. I love them despite their… (I’m not sure what word would be appropriate here)… attitudes? Back to missing the US and all its supersizedness. Seven weeks till I land on US soil! Eight weeks till I’m back in EST zone!

From the Wellington Lions v. Southland test which was won 53:12… Unfortunately they’re pretty much all of the Southland team Read the rest of this entry »

Our last day on Beachcomber and our day spent in Nadi in which I managed to lose Stefanie and Jency and get a ride to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant… Read the rest of this entry »

I know most people have stopped reading my travelblog, but I figure I’ll put up pictures I’ve taken that I haven’t posted yet.

Pictures I took on my walk up into Te Aro way back in July… Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday was the first genuinely rainy day I can remember since I got to Wellington. It had always rained at night or just a few showers on and off throughout the day. And yesterday was also Camilla’s birthday so we celebrated with a lot of good food. My 19th is coming up on the 20th of October, keep that in mind.

On Saturday I went to the last Wellington Lions’ home game of the season with Camilla, Tess and Caroline. The stadium was pretty nice. They served wine, tea and coffee in addition to the usual, beer. The crowd was very subdued. The only time there was any noise was when the Lions scored a try, and it was a very reserved noise. The Lions scored quite a few tries and the occasional penalty kick. They won 53:12. They made about a point a minute in the first half, and the score was actually 53:nill till about the last 15 minutes. The game started to get boring because we knew the Lions had won.

It is also worth mentioning just how COLD it was. And that the pee-wee or “junior” rugby leagues got to play their games on the field while the seniors were warming up. And at half time they had a very intense tug of war match. Good fun!

It was also election day. The Labour party got one more seat than National. They won’t actually know who their Prime Minister will be for another two weeks or so.

I would also like the world to know I have finally figured out how to play pool and can occasionally hit some pretty cool shots when I get lucky.