Where ever you go… There you are.

New Zealand again! I could have sworn I’ve been here before, and yes its true, I have, but last time it was different. I had randomly come here without plan or friends or an idea of a clue of what this place was about, all I knew was that it wasn’t America, and I was game. Coming off the plane and heading straight to waiheke, meeting up with new and old friends and generally being enamored in the lushness and beauty of this beautiful country. I was hooked immediatley extending my visa for six months with little more than enough cash for two. I made it work, woofing at the pottery in Coromandel and later Namois at the rings road herbal dispensary, I made it my home, got settled in and stayed put mainly because of cost and because there was a wood fire kiln I was was meters from.
Little did I know, I was a enigma. A hard working woofer?! Surely kiwis like to work gardening jobs too? No deary, its left for the foreigner who want it and I made it my job to be the bitch of any close by neighbors, whom loved my knowledge of native plants and my ability to kick ass at any task. I guess most foreigner cant tell the difference from a kawa kawa to a wild ginger.. Bring it then, and they did.. in my months in the Coromandel I was busy working when I wasn’t fishing or throwing pots and goodness me I had the most wonderful time and the most wistful memories of that magical place, but I digress…
Fast forward four years later.. really three and some change but who’s counting. I had with all good intentions been planning an adventure to indonesia, but after a night at munks, and a bottle of vodka been coerced into heading to kiwiburn, and doing a little visit before I headed to the much desired archipelago
I remembered how my mates had helped me through a particularly hard time, having travelled across the world to be with a boy who turned out not to be the one… oh well, it hurt at the time as these things do, and being in a similar state, abiet a not similar situation, I agreed it would be a choice idea to let my friends help me through, and its a huge step for me to stop being so damn secretive of my heartbreak and brokeness. So I did it, I came back to New Zealand to heal a broken everything, get back on my feet and find the squirrel that everyone knows and loves. the squirrel who I dont even know if I remember, the one before the boy who turned everything upside down and made me turn away from myself, the boy who was so far broken I only focused on getting him better, trying to find the girl whom I have felt very far from being in the past year especially.
good news is I’m on the way, I’d rather not get depressed about the reason I ended up here again, or the inability for me to heal myself from my own fucked up relationships in the states, but i’ll face it, my mates make it all better and the ability I have now to be free and persue my most loved aspirations make my life really blessed and special to me now. I honestly can say I haven’t felt that way in a long time so goodness me I think its a hallauhha!
thank goodness I made the final break and saw through the bullshit and gained the strength to make it happen. thank goodness I’m here.
more upbeat adventure to come,
i promise
love jessielynn
“squirrel”

Oh dearie me.

Fresh off the paddock I be, got a ride from a lovely fella Rich whom I met in a euroburners camp this year at the Green Man to Wellington where I’ll be catching the 8 am ferry across the cook straight to the south island to help with set up of yet another festival, and a rendevous.. but woah-hey, get back here, can’t forget the freaking magic that occured to me in a seeming disquised paddock in central Northern New Zealand this past week.

Oh yeah some people would call it Kiwiburn.

So the site is in a real rualy place in the central north island, Mangakino. lots of paddocks (fields) with sheep and cows just chomping round us..

Ahhh yes just the blank canvas a Burn deserves, not to mention a lovely lake to go swimming in when the flies and heat get to be too much..

Yes it all happened innocently enough, with the MPW kicking ass day in and day out, We built the city and settled down for a dirty little romp in the paddock.

Thank you JaFAb for the Dirty freaking dubstep and loads of warm ranfurly, and moonshine
Thank you trailer trash for being so damn ghetto, but doing it with such style and cancer-producing vigor
Thank you Green Fairy for the UV chill zone, and yummy homemade absenthe
Thank you Sheep end for chilling with the sheep and rocking tunes only 107 hours of trade me could have provided
Thank you drop out Zone for the Tequila concoction that got the wedding party so damn messy that we Could indeed fit 37 people on Kiwis car
Thank you camp pedro for mandanins and corn fritters and my new desire to join your comunity or at least visit… (ps get better hippie!!)
Thank you Pink Moa, for giving the top of the hill a sparkly and very pink existance, also non-stop tunage..

but hey, gots to thank my own camp, Camp Scrump whom with our ever growing numbers didnt miss a beat and always had some Scrumpy on hand for the masses, (we rock)

So you ask miss squirrel, what is a Taniwha?

I found out about it earlier in the week at kiwiburn, its kind of like a New zealand version of the Loch ness monster, but this one is a guardian of maori tribes, mythical creature that lives in the lakes and rivers of NZ. loving called daves mum, but not so sure dave appreciates that one;)

Now getting on with the magic..

I went on a recovery mission early in the day to bring some peeps out to the lake to help shake the effects of the wedding out of the brain and revitalize the body. After a long, relaxing swim in the calm waters, we sat on the bank overlooking lake, my eyes looked over to see a big swell on the other side.. Hmmmm I quickly scanned the water for any sneaky boats lurking round causing wake but could see none in the glass flat water and directed my attention back to the swell that had now grown to three swells and a bit of white break on the front.

I got the attention of Dak..

Holy Shit its a Taniwha! Do you see that?

Yep.

Its a Taniwha!

after that the swells dissappered in the slick water and a massive bubble surfaced.

TANIWHA!!!

I saw a Taniwha, and let me tell you people it doesnt happen much.. And yes thanks for the dobuts, I wasn’t on acid. Ha!

The really strange thing is I later ran into a lady who had done a cleansing ritual in the lake for the spirit of the Taniwha, due to a request of someone who wanted a certian piece of jewlery (taniwha bone, carved by a murderer or something?) cleansed only an hour before we were there..

Yes trippy, and after that I was buzzing with the happiness of seeing the taniwha, too happy I think so I set down at Bruce’s creation the Merkabah, which was the central art piece of the temple, a “good energy” generator with a swinging chair in the middle and buddhist chanting playing on the CD player.

For moments I swayed and listened to the chanting, my mind floated with the sea creatures and the good energy that was no dobut swirilng round me, immeadiatley I found great calm and would have stayed but wanted others to have a go at the experience.

I hopped down and was completey buzzing, radiating light, and smiling a big shit eating grin. Moving on I thought about the mind and our possibilities of manifistation of our deepest wishes and desires, well I thought really the only thing that would top today, a burn day (really its hard to top a burn day mid-day but I did it. HA!) is a little hangy-hangy swingy-swingy, thinking I’d try to climb the tree next to the saftey shed, I headed over and found Andrea and Jez some lovely Welly folks had hung up the silk arieals and were giving lessons, UM, yea, this is getting a bit weird.

After my very first lesson, I also got to do a trapeeze lesson, Oh dear I am hooked and I bet my scrumpettes in London town would be oh so proud of little squirrely, I really loved it. Something I had always wanted to try but never got the chance, shit I maybe one step closer to joining the circus 🙂

Oh I bet the hippiness of the vibe is getting to you now, so only one more tidbit of the Burn Night

We blew him up, and tried to blow up Dougal too, but he only got a bit wounded.

Next time we should all stand a little farther back.

**Onward carriers of Light to the South Island**

love Squirrel

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