Australia

Hello everyone! This is just a quick update to let you all know that I am now in Australia! I'm in Sydney at the moment, and will be going to Adelaide via Canberra today (arriving Friday at 3 PM). I'm really looking forward to this trip. I'm going right up the middle of the continent, then down the east coast to ultimately meet Weston back in Sydney the day after Christmas. So, Canberra today, Adelaide tomorrow, and then countless other 20+ hour bus rides!

As you can no doubt tell, I left Matamata yesterday as well. It was sad to leave, but it was time. I had been there for two months. I got to see most of the North Island while with Scott and Eira. Nicola and I went to a show in Gisborne at the beginning of November and I got to see where Captain Cook first landed in NZ. I also went over to Napier one weekend because Scott and Eira had a Japanese girl down for a few days. Napier was lovely! It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931, so they rebuilt it all in Art Deco and Spanish Mission style.

And the puppies! Scott's dogs had two litters, and Jackie's Welshie had 9 puppies! So I spent most of November playing with puppies. And one Jack puppy, my favorite, was twice the size of all the others in her litter, and she would sleep on top of the others all the time. She's the one they're keeping, and Scott's naming her Warwick Wisconsin after me.

Anyway, I should be updating more now, as I will have access to wireless more frequently. It's miserable trying to update and do all the other things I have to do on dial-up!

In a hole in the ground...

Wow, I've left this for a month. And it's been a busy month, as well, so I hope you'll all excuse my absence!

Since I last updated, I finally moved out of Taupo. Before that, however, I spent a weekend in Wellington with some friends from my first job here. It was a lot of fun. We went to the NZ vs. Aus rugby match, which was interesting for me, seeing as I don't actually know anything about rugby. It's not too hard to pick up, however. And the All Blacks won, so that was good. I didn't get much sleep, though, and it took me about a week to get back up to speed!

On the 28th, I moved to Matamata, which you may know as Hobbiton. Yes, the farm they used as the set for Hobbiton is in this area. No, I have not been yet, and I don't know if I will go. I don't fancy paying $50 to see hills and polystyrene. I now live with Scott and Eira, who currently breed and show Jack Russell Terriers. Most of you probably know that I used to show my own dogs, Oscar and Oliver, in 4-H when I was younger. I've really missed it, so it's been really fun to hang out here and go to shows. They have 9 dogs: 7 Jacks, a cocker spaniel (that's an English cocker to Americans), and a Welsh springer spaniel.

The first weekend of October, I went down to the NZ National Dog Show in Feilding. I spent four nights sleeping in a tent on the ground, in the rain and wind. It was so much fun, though. I went down with Jackie and Nicola, the neighbors. We took two of Scott and Eira's dogs: Flybuys, a 6 mo. Jack Russell, and Sioni, an 8 mo. Welshie. We also had Jackie's Welshie and Nicola's cocker. Everyone did pretty well: both Flybuys and Sioni got puppy of breed. I know a woman from Taupo who's just getting into Scottish deerhounds, and she was down with both of hers for the Wellington Hound show that took place on Thursday, so I went over to help hold her dogs while she was in the ring. Well, of course, since hers were the only two there, they went up against each other for best of breed and she had me take one in for her. Those things are huge. Also, there were about 20 million dachshunds, and they took FOREVER. They split them up by both size and coat here, so you have Miniature Smooth, Long, and Wire, then Standard Smooth, Long, and Wire. I don't like most of the smooths other than Oscar, but I love the longhaired minis. There was also a Paws-to-Music competition Friday night, where people basically "dance" with their dogs. Almost everyone had border collies, of course. There were two Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retrievers, which I was glad to finally see. They have such sweet faces! There was also lure-coursing one of the days, but I sadly missed it. Apparently there were loads of Afghans with all their beautiful, carefully groomed hair crashing through the mud after a possumtail. I feel sorry for the people who had to go clean them up after that! On the way back up, the biggest snowstorm in 25 years hit the Central North Island (in Taupo/National Park), so we had to go around the western coast. It took us 3 extra hours, but we still got home fast than people who went through the middle. They had 20 cm of snow, the roads were closed for 2 days, and hundreds of people were stranded.

Last weekend, we went to a show in Tauranga, where Sioni got puppy in show at the gundog specialty show. I just enjoy watching everything that goes on and listening to people as they talk to their dogs. My favorite was the woman who camped next to us at Nationals. She had clumber spaniels and Newfoundlands. She routinely called them dingbats, and told them, "If you had half a brain, it would be lonely." I also like listening to people discuss their dogs and the dogs in the ring, as well as catching all the doggy gossip. And, as with any activity in any location, there's a lot. I'm learning a lot, especially about conformation, and am really looking forward to getting back into dogs when I go home. I'll have probably met all the Welshies in the North Island by the time I leave (I am only slightly exaggerating), and it's been useful to compare them to each other and to listen to what their people say about them.

What's also really interesting to me is how the NZKC and the AKC are different. Our sporting group is their gundog group, our herding group is their working group, and our working group is their utility group. And that you can show mutts in obedience here. Oh, and all schnauzers are in the utility group here, where only the giant schnauzer is in our working group. The other two varieties are terriers. We also don't recognize Jack Russells, only Parson Russells. And we only split dachshunds up by coat, not by size. Here they do both.

I have also reached a verdict on Pineapple Lumps: delicious!

Hamilton Craft Fair

So I did not get a ride to the craft fair from Sharon's friend. Her car was full, so I took the bus instead. I did, however, get to stay the night with one of Sharon's old school friends, which was fantastic because hey, I saved $20 and got to meet some new people, plus watch the Daily Show for the first time in 3 months!

I went to the craft fair on Saturday morning. I took a class where I knitted a beaded bracelet, then I wandered around to look at the exhibits and go shopping for the rest of the day. It was pretty great. There were two different quilt exhibits, plus one fiber arts exhibit. I am continually impressed (and made jealous!) by the ingenuity of other people. Sadly, none of my pictures turned out very well (and probably violate the spirit, if not the letter, of intellectual property rights), and I can't get Blogger to upload them right now, otherwise I would share them with you.

I will leave you with this: coverage of the Undie 500, a pub crawl in which engineering students drive from Christchurch to Dunedin in modified cars bought for under $500. This year, there were 2 nights of rioting in Dunedin following the event. The police RAN OUT OF PEPPER SPRAY trying to control the situation. Let me repeat that: they RAN OUT OF PEPPER SPRAY. I can't even wrap my mind around it.

Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?

Yesterday, one of the neighbors came over with an orphaned lamb. Its mother had died over the weekend. Lexie promptly named it "Bubbles" and it is her new pet. Today, when she was home from school with a cold, she put a collar and lead on it and dragged it all over the yard. She made it watch me dig out the garden. Even when she didn't have the lead on, it followed her everywhere. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen.

In other news, I may have a ride up to the craft fair in Hamilton with one of Sharon's friends! Also, I have heard from the people I am going to stay with in October. I will get to go to the New Zealand National Dog Show with their friends, and I may even have the opportunity to handle some of their dogs in the ring! Of course, I haven't done so since high school, but the possibility is incredibly exciting. They have a Jack Russell puppy who continually wins over more mature dogs in the show ring, which is almost unheard of. And they're expecting two litters of puppies at the end of October!

Also, the All Blacks are playing South Africa's Springboks in Hamilton this weekend, and apparently some of the Springbok team members have claimed that there is nothing to do in Hamilton. Now, One News is trying to prove them wrong. This is what passes for news in New Zealand. (Incidentally, One News won loads of awards at the recent Qantas Film & TV awards show, including best news. Don't worry, they have ads on about this ALL THE TIME.)

In lieu of a more substantial post, as my life is not that exciting right now, I offer you my two favorite TV ads.

First, NZ's Land Search and Rescue:



Second, Pascall's Pineapple Lumps (which I have not yet tasted):



Sweet as, dude!

An Update

So I'm still in Taupo. And I will still be in Taupo for a little while longer yet. I'm currently doing a farm stay at a kennel a few miles out of town, at the Taupo Pet Lodge. I help out in the kennels in the morning and afternoon and I do odd jobs around the house. I'm really enjoying myself here. I feed the chickens (chooks) and help Lexie, the 6 1/2 year old daughter, with her pony. Steve and Sharon are really nice, and really generous, and I get to play with other people's dogs and cats (though there are way too many people with big dumb dogs--mostly labs and weimaraners--who don't teach them any manners, not to mention all the bratty little fox terriers), so life's pretty good!

I don't have much else to say. I've been looking into library schools and preparing applications for when I get back, but that's been at a snail's pace because I am kind of lazy. I've also been trying to convince Weston to come visit me, but I don't think he thinks this is as cool an idea as I do.

I've apparently neglected my poor little blog for the past few weeks. Sorry!

Two weeks ago, most of my fellow workers and I moved to a different hostel, after a confrontation about holiday pay. Minimum wage in New Zealand is $12.50/hr +8% holiday pay. Our contractor (as well as the owner of the hostel at which we were staying) wasn't paying us the holiday pay, even though the company was paying him our holiday pay. He told us he didn't legally have to do so. So there was a series of explosive meetings, and he ultimately decided to give us the 8% (though he continually told us that he wasn't legally required to, even though we called the Department of Labour and they said he did). That Saturday, we moved. For myself, I didn't want to stay in his hostel because he made it really uncomfortable for me. Our new hostel was much nicer and much cheaper.

We finished up work last Saturday, and afterwards, we had a Maori hangi. Some of the ladies cooked up a massive meal for us and I ate more than I thought possible. It was delicious. Then we had to say goodbye to everyone, and I hugged more people that I don't really know than ever before in my life. Everyone wished us well and seemed sad to see us go. I was actually kind of sorry to leave! Since then, I've just been hanging out, trying to figure out what to do next and saying farewell as everyone takes off. There are still 6 or 7 of us hanging around, so I'm not by myself.

I've signed up with Help Exchange, which is kind of like WWOOF (if you know what that is). It's an organization that helps travellers find people who need help in exchange for food and accommodation. I've contacted a couple who breed dogs, and will hopefully get to stay with them at the end of September or October. Until then, I don't know. I'm hoping to stay with some folks who own a kennel for the rest of August (maybe), then travel the rest of the North Island in September. After that, I want to go to the South Island, then hopefully go to Australia in January or February. We'll see how things work out.

For most of this week so far, I'd felt vaguely sick about being here, because I felt directionless and with no overall plan for how things were to pan out. But now I think I might have things organized a little better, and I'm already a lot happier! But I may be counting my chickens before they hatch...

I've completed my second week of work here in Taupo. We only worked 4 days this week, rather than 6 as expected. While it is nice to have some time off to see the area, I'd rather have the money.

Tuesday, I walked into Taupo to pick up a book. I got Cathedral of the Sea, about the building of the Santa Maria del Mar cathedral in Barcelona (which I'd seen when I was there). I saw this book all over Europe, but never picked it up. When I got back home, I couldn't find it, so I was elated to find it here. After I went to the bookstore, I went to a cafe for the first decent cup of coffee I'd had in weeks. The old man busing the tables came up to me and started talking to me, asking the usual questions: "Where are you from? Why are you here? How do you like it?" Then he asked me what I was reading. I said, "A book about medieval Spain." He immediately responded, "Oh, that'll be about the Cathars then, won't it?" and proceeded to tell me all about the Cathars, a heretical sect mostly in Southern France and Spain in the 13th century. They were the focus of the Albigensian Crusade, called by Pope Innocent III (of course). I wrote a paper on The Song of the Cathar Wars by William of Tudela during my first semester freshman history seminar on Jihad and the Crusades. In fact, the book is set 100 years later, in the catastrophic 14th century. Still, I love the Cathars, so I was quite pleased to hear someone else talk about them (especially in a cafe setting!). Anyway, I love the book, despite its obvious misogyny (which is a punch in the gut every time you come across it--I just want to love something wholeheartedly, but people are always pulling this crap on me), and I'm reading it way too fast.

We had Saturday off as well, so I went up to a hot spring with Shan and a few of the guys. Unfortunately, it wasn't very warm, so we stood around for a while, then went to Huka Falls. It was absolutely gorgeous. Sadly, I left my camera in the room, so you'll have to be content with the picture at the Wikipedia link. Today, I'm making chili with the tomatoes I got at work. I've just realized, however, that the hostel's jar of chili powder is empty, and I really don't want to run to the store AGAIN, so we'll see how it turns out.

The ladies in the nursery. My roommate is the last one on the right. I'm the third from the left.

To the surprise of many, especially my mother, I am not dead. I'm doing very well, actually. I started work on Monday here in Taupo. We're working to clean out greenhouses after the last pepper (capsicum to everyone but Americans, apparently) crop. It's not a bad job at all, once I got used to it. For a while, they had us filling buckets with pumice, which was miserable. I ended up hauling buckets onto pallets for 9 hours straight, and it was too much for me. After that, though, I got to work in the nursery sowing new seeds. They have a machine to do it, but it often misses spots, or will put two seeds in one hole, so they have to have people go double check every single hole. After we finished that, we hauled old buckets out of the greenhouse and swept up. It's hard, dusty work, but I don't mind it. I'm glad I have something to do, and I'm glad to be making money.

I work with a lot of people from the Philippines. All the middle-aged Filipina ladies love me, for some reason. Older women always seem to like me--I think it's because I come across as sweet, innocent, and unassuming to people who don't know me. They watch out for me--I'm pretty sure that's how I ended up working in the nursery when everyone else was still outside shovelling pumice. There are 14 other backpackers working there. We're all staying in the same place. My roommate, Shan, is from Taiwan. I really like her. She's really nice. There are two girls from Uruguay and one from Chile, as well as a couple of guys from England, Scotland, and Ireland, two Finnish guys, a German, a Canadian, and one other American. I think we've got a pretty good group, and I like the folks who own and work at the hostel. So things are going pretty well for me!

I haven't had much time to sight see around Taupo. We leave for work at 6:40 AM so we can start at 7:30. I've heard it only takes about half an hour to get from Taupo to our workplace, but our bus is really slow. It can only do about 80 km/hr, when the speed limit is 100 km/hr. We finish up at 5, get back at almost 6, then I eat and watch TV for the rest of the night. Kiwi TV is really bad. It's absolutely awful. It basically takes the worst of American and British TV and combines them. I'm kind of embarrassed for them. But there's not really anything else to do when you get home at 6 and go to bed by 10, at the latest. Right across the lake, though, is Tongariro National Park, which had the volcano they used for Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings. It's been pretty cloudy, but I finally got to see it yesterday. It was pretty cool. We could also see people skydiving.

I won't be online for much more than once a week, if that, while I'm in Taupo. I only have one day off a week, and wireless access is $12 for 24 hours, which you have to take all at once. So if I'm not around too much, don't worry about me!

Raglan and Rotorua

Black sand beach in Raglan, looking out over the Tasman Sea

Hello again!

I've had very bad internet access lately--it would've been better, except the computers at the hostel in Raglan would only take $2 coins, which I find hard to come by. Anyway, on Friday of last week, I left Auckland for Raglan.

Palm tree on beach in Raglan

Raglan was amazing. It's a little town on the west coast that's known for surfing (even in winter!). I, however, do not surf, though I may have taken the hostel up on its offer of lessons had it been warmer. Since I do not, in fact, surf, and would much rather be next to the water rather than in it, it would seem like Raglan would have little to offer. I loved it anyway. It rained most of the time I was there, so I had the perfect excuse to stay inside and make liberal use of the hostel's book swap. Furthermore, the hostel was quite probably one of the nicest I've stayed in. Sure, there wasn't heat in the room I stayed in, but it had a great living room, a nice courtyard, awesome staff, and a really laid-back atmosphere. I was there 5 nights, and was really sad to leave.

Lake Rotorua

Now I'm in Rotorua, which is a big tourist center, and has been for over 100 years. That's why there's a town here. It's a geothermal hotspot (sorry), so there are hot springs everywhere. It's also right on the shore of Lake Rotorua. I went to the museum this morning, which used to be a bathhouse and sanatorium. I learned about the Mt. Tarawera eruption of 1886, which destroyed one of the big tourist draws of the day: the Pink and White Terraces. Also, over 100 people died and several Maori villages were buried. I also went to Kuirau Park, which has a bunch of mud pools.

Hotspring in Kuirau Park, Rotorua

I can't quite put much of what I've experienced lately into any sort of coherent narrative form, so I'm not going to. What follows is snatchs of my trip thus far.

• I saw the largest dairy factory in the Southern Hemisphere.
• I've seen more cows in one day than I have in my entire life--and I'm from Wisconsin!
• I've seen cows out in pasture with blankets on, like for horses. Who cares enough about a cow's coat to put a blanket on it?
• People here have sheep and cows in their front yards.
• I went to a craft store in Rotorua yesterday, and talked to the shopkeeper for a long time. I also talked to a German girl who was getting yarn to crochet slippers. The shopkeeper wanted us to start traveling together, since she thinks traveling alone is too dangerous. Unfortunately for her schemes, I'm heading south, while the German girl was going east.
• I got a field guide to New Zealand wildlife today, since I'm sick of not knowing what the birds are named. I have since learned that today I saw a pukeko, which is a lovely bird with "rich purple-blue underpants." I can now also identify the Australasian bittern and mallards.
• The scenery here is like nothing I've ever seen. I keep trying to relate it to other places I've been, but I can't. Also, sadly, since I've seen most of it from the bus, I can't show it to you, either.
  

On Saturday, I head south a few miles to Taupo to fill out all the paperwork and get settled in to start work on Monday!

Brought to you by the letter "Z"

So I've arrived safely in Auckland, after a very long flight. I've been here for four days now, and I have to say, I don't like Auckland very much. It's a very bland city. Over a third of all Kiwis live here, though, so there must be some appeal...Actually, the lady who helped me open a bank account said that more people live in Auckland than on the entire South Island! Anyway, I have one more day here, and then I'm headed elsewhere.

I supposed I should tell you what I've been up to. Monday, I got in, found the hostel, and wandered around for a while until my 10:00 orientation. That went pretty well. Then I had to set up my phone, apply for an IRD (tax) number, and open a bank account. It really took all day. Then I tried to find the grocery store, but got lost (and it gets dark here at 5-6:00, so I was wandering around a strange city by myself in the dark...well, it can't be helped), so I just went to Burger King and then read for a little before going to bed.

Tuesday, I began to look for a job. I emailed a bunch of hostels about work-for-accommodation arrangements, and sent out messages about a few paid jobs, as well. I got three responses! Two were work-for-accommodation (and they would have been pretty cool, I think, because they were in really cool locations), and then one to be a general labourer in Taupo, which is in the middle of the North Island. It's right on Lake Taupo (understandably), which is New Zealand's biggest lake. I have to work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week for 4 weeks, and accommodation will be $150/week, but at $12.50, I'll get $3000 ($2400 minus accommodation and not considering taxes, which I don't know about), so that's not too bad...And there are 15 other workers, who I would think are mostly young folks like me, which will be nice.

Tuesday night, I went to a quiz night at a pub with some other people from IEP. It was fun. It was really good to not be alone. One of the staff members told me that Taupo is a really great location and that it's a lot of fun, and also that the hostel at which I'll be staying is a good hostel (yeah. I'll be living in a hostel for 4 weeks. But it's at a discounted rate...). After I got back from that, I ended up talking to a guy from Florida who was flying to Australia the next day. His sister went to Madison, so he asked me if we really say "bubbler" in Wisconsin. I informed him that we do, indeed, use the word "bubbler." We also talked to an Irish guy who was also in the room. He had been living in Australia for 3 years, but his company needed to get rid of people due to the recession, so they told him to take 8 months off and that he'd still have his job when he got back.

Today, I went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. There were dinosaurs. It was awesome. There was also a really interesting exhibit on volcanoes, and there were two rooms dedicated to decorative arts (my favorite!). Also, there's a shrine to Sir Edmund Hillary that contains his pick axe (gifted to the museum by Lady Hillary) and a short film. That's it. Anyway, I enjoyed the museum (even though parts of it were kind of silly), and it's easy to spend a lot of time in a museum by yourself and not feel weird about it... Then I started to plan out some travel stuff. I booked a tour with a bus company, Kiwi Experience, because they were having winter sales and you could get both their North and South island packages for NZ$600 (so, like, $400 or a little less). I thought that was a pretty good deal, and you get to do a lot of stuff with them. I thought I'd take a month starting at the end of October, when it's warmer but not too busy, and go on this tour. They say most people who go are people who are traveling alone, so that'll be good.

I've also made some plans for the next week. I'm going to Raglan for 4 days, which is on the west coast about 2 hours south of Auckland. Then, I'm heading to Rotorua (which is one of the big tourist spots...) for 3 nights, because it's pretty close to Taupo and I have time to kill. But the hostel I've just booked there has a hot spring in it. So I'm pretty excited.

The title of this post refers to the fact that New Zealanders, like the British, pronounce the letter "z" "zed", rather than "zee". I never got used to this when I was in England. I had a guy ask me, in March, after I'd been there for 6+ months, if I had an "A to Zed" of Norwich in my head (because I usually have a really good sense of direction), and I had no idea what he was talking about. Here, since people use "z" more often, I've already adjusted to it.

(Also, I am continually surprised by how little I am phased by people driving on the wrong side of the road. It's much harder to switch back!)

Sorry for such a long post. But now you're all caught up!

Back Again

I am resurrecting my poor, neglected little blog. I recently graduated with a BA in English with a historical perspectives concentration in the Middle Ages. Since I do not yet know what I want to do with myself (and begin to doubt that I ever will), I've decided to go on a working holiday to New Zealand. I'm leaving in two weeks!

More will follow, I promise. For now, I'm just trying to prepare myself!