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!