well i’m on my way…

My mission Friday morning was to join WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms).  WWOOF is a program where people can work in exchange for a bed and food-usually for a stay of about 2 weeks.  A lot of backpackers do it when they run out of money so they don’t have to change their flights home.  Other backpackers actually travel around WWOOFing from place to place to get a different feel for a place.  This program has farms all over the world.  I’m doing it because I want to give my funds a break (by no means am I running out) and to learn something about organics and farming and different ways of life.  I think it’ll be a good experience for me, or anyone for that matter.  I will probably do this in a few weeks, after traveling the South Island.  Some of the people I met in Paihia are WWOOFing as well, so maybe I’ll do it with them? 

I went to the famous Te Papa museum and could only get through half of it before my brain was on information overload.  The first two floors have excellent exhibits on the flora and fauna of New Zealand including the largest squid ever found, tectonic plates and movement, volcanoes, and a really nice video on the effects of the land on the people.    

I ran into Mathieu and his friend Marion at the hostel and we started making plans for our trip in the South Island.  I know I mentioned Mathieu before, but I feel like I should tell you about him so you don’t get the wrong idea.  One drunken night in Cairns, I went outside to look for a smoker to give me a cigarette.  I found two Frenchmen-one smoking and asked him for one.  Since the man gave me a smoke, I had to hang out and chat, right?  Mathieu was the non-smoker and they thought me how to say ‘Cheers’ in French.  Sante!  On the first day of the Ayers Rock tour, Mathieu came up to me and said loudly in front of everyone “I remember you from Cairns, you were very drunk”.  After I got over my embarassment, I figured out who he was and explained to him that I wasn’t that drunk.  So a few days after that I’m sitting in a hostel in Adelaide eating breakfast and Mathieu walks in the room.  We couldn’t decide who was following who so we left it at that and hung out a bit and promised to keep in touch.  We both knew we would be in New Zealand around the same time, so why not?  We already kind of know eachother, he will drive (I can’t drive at home, so I’m not going to attempt to drive on the other side of the road) and I can help him with his English.  I think it’s a fair exchange.

The next day Mathieu and I went to Te Papa and started at the top of the building and worked our way down.  There was a decent local art exhibit and an interpretive exhibit on the Waitangi Treaty-I’m still trying to understand what happend-but I’m pretty sure the jist of it is that the whites lied to the indigenous for the purchase/stealing of the land.  There was a massive exhibit on the Maori and their culture focusing on their music, dress, and homes.  There was also an exhibit on the immigration of Europeans to New Zealand.  A lot of the exhibits were very interactive and were fun for adults as well as children.  My brain turned off after about 3 hours and I had to leave.  I don’t know how Mathieu coninued through the museum.  I found a massage place down the street from my hostel and decided I deserved a treat (yes, I know, this entire trip is a treat), my back is getting messed up from all the weight I’m carrying and I’m going to be doing some crazy workouts-trekking for days on end, climbing glaciers, and kayaking-to name a few and I wanted to feel refreshed and rejuvinated.  I paid the $100 for the 90 minute massage (a little over $50 USD!!) and when I left I felt so relaxed that in fact, I felt high.  I was so out of it I sat on the bench in front of my hostel and just sat, enjoying the body buzz.  Mathieu came back and we started making real plans like booking things while I sobered up.  We wandered around and found the infamous “beehive” building.  The beehive was not really as beehive-ish as I thought it would, but the Parliament building behind it was beautiful.  On our way back, we saw some crazy acrobatics in an open area on the harbour.  It was really amazing what these people could do with their bodies, and noticing their strength and muslces it made me realize that I’m going to be testing my body’s ability to do a lot of things very soon-and I’ve been treating it like crap.  I haven’t really broken a sweat since before I left home!  I have a feeling that I’m much less fit than I think I am but there’s only one way to find out…

I noticed in our plan making that we would be doing some camping and being exposed to the weather (how I didn’t anticipate this I don’t know).  I don’t have a sleeping bag or a raincoat-two crucial things I’ll need on the South Island.  That was my mission for Sunday.  There are a few outdoors shops within meters of eachother so I didn’t have to run all over town.  I called my sister to find out the specs of my sleeping bag at home, which would have been sufficient here, and tried not to get too upset that I didn’t bring it.  After 3 hours of inquiring and comparing prices, I went with Kathmandu and chose a down sleeping bag warm up to 0 Celcius and a cute pink raincoat.  Both were on sale but I still ended up paying $480 for the two.  It’s a little over half that in my native currency, which made me feel a little better, but I really need to stop converting.  I just hope I can sell the sleeping bag before I leave New Zealand and get most of my money back! 

I met up with Mathieu and we climbed to the top of Mt Victoria-the highest point that overlooks the city and bay areas around it.  It was a really clear day (from my guess unusually clear for Wellington) so we could see all the mountains and water around.  It was beautiful.  Since it was our last night in town, we decided to take advantage of Mathieu’s buy one get one vouchers at his hostel’s bar.  We had 3 beers each and were thinking about leaving when I noticed my Irish friend from Auckland at the bar!  I went up to him, and at the right time, since he bought me a drink-Snakebite is a combination of beer, cider, and a dash of blackcurrant.  It’s a bit too sweet for my liking, but it’s a nice way to disguise the nastyness of the cheap beer in backpackers.  I talked to him for a while, reminiscing about Auckland and the people we left there, and taking about our future plans in New Zealand.  I guess we talked quite a bit, because when I left, I paused outside and a guy instantly tried to pick me up and thought I was Irish!  I have a tendency to pick up words or ways of speaking of the people around me, but I think Irish is the easiest for me…and this wasn’t the first time someone has asked me if I’m Irish!  Yeah, I’m proud of my Irish roots.     

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 8th, 2009 at 3:39 pm and is filed under New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.