Does that make me a duck?

I'm currently sitting in the airport in Auckland, NZ waiting for my flight back to the states. It's hard to believe that 2 months has flown by. What great experiences I had! I spent this last week hanging out at Linda's house. It was a great end to a wonderful trip. I'm so glad that I met Linda and can call her my friend. I hope that she comes back to Isabella Friedman. I'll have to work on convincing them that she needs to come back. So, how am I suppose to end my blog for my trip. What can I say, it was amazing. Looking forward to sharing all my adventures with friends and family back home. I guess I'll have to begin working on my scrapbook. When we were in Taupo, a question was asked to the group that I was hanging out with about your favorite animal. One of the girls said a duck because it can fly, walk, and swim. I got to thinking, I flew from the sky while skydiving (well maybe I fell, but it sure felt like flying), I walked on many hiking trails around the country (even to the tops of mountains and volcanoes), and swam in oceans, rivers, and streams (while scuba diving at Poor Knights Island, swimming with dolphins in Kaikoura, exploring the caves in Waitomo, braving the cold water on the south island, and many more)....
......does that make me a duck?

'til next time New Zealand

My Nose and Taste Buds are on Vacation!

I want to describe the breakfast that I had this morning but before I do this, I’ll start from waking up. The past few days I’ve been staying with Linda in Kohukohu up on the northern part of the north island. As I woke up this morning the blinds in the room that I’m staying in were open. I watched as the sun came over the estuary and hills in front of Linda’s home. I watched as you could see the first glimpses of the orangy-firy glow of the sun until it was well up over the hills. I got up and began cutting up feijoas (it’s a new very yummy fruit that I discovered at Linda’s. They’re green, round, and about 2inches long. She warned me that it’s hard to eat just one and she’s right. Yesterday I was climbing all up in the bushes collecting them. I came away with many worthwhile scars from the adventure.). I was cutting them to make feijoa jelly and dry some of them to bring home. For breakfast I had sourdough bread that Linda made the day before with organic cream cheese from a dairy not too far from here and feijoa jelly that was made the day before from feijoas that I collected from Linda’s trees. Yummy…..my belly was happy. There have also been such wonderful smells with all of the cooking. Every night the meal is packed with locally grown food and baked fruit that leaves the whole house smelling fresh and yummy.

If you think this sounds great, it hasn’t been all fun and games here. I’ve also been working hard (Linda doesn’t work me too hard…I’m actually enjoying it). I’m wwoofing (it’s something that’s international that connects people to organic farms where you exchange work for food and a place to sleep). I collected fruit, moved rocks to create a new garden, shoveled dirt, watered plants, helped organize things inside, and more. My two favorite jobs have been cutting down a banana tree to collect the fruit and babysitting the chickens. Babysitting the chickens is tough. I usually sit up by their pen and read while they’re out. One of them likes to roam down by the house where she’s not allowed to go. I then have to chase her back up to the pen. I’ve also had the task the past few night to put them to bed. The first night it was challenging. I had to chase them around to get them in. I think they know my voice now because I got all seven of them in on the first try…success! I also collected three eggs from their nests.

I’ve really enjoyed spending my last few days in New Zealand with Linda. She taught me to make pickles and jelly (and she’s also fun to be around). I can’t wait to go home and try for myself. She puts me to work but she also feeds me well. I also get time to relax and read. It’s a great end to a wonderful trip!

Back up North

I had plans to do some fruit picking while in New Zealand. If you've been reading the posts, you can see that it didn't happen. Traveling us just too much fun and I wasn't ready to be settled and work. Instead, I decided to go back up north to visit Linda and help her in her garden and orchard. I'm going to do some wwoofing for her. She's going to teach me to make jam. I'm looking forward to spending time with her again before coming home.

Definitely NOT a city girl

Sara and I both woke and early.  We slept in our car in a car park right next to the beach.  We walked onto the beach and sat while we watched the sun rise.  It feels good to be able to just walk out and watch the sun rise.  Another testament to loving the traveling life!  We headed to explore the Coromandel Peninsula. We stopped at the Karangahake Gorge to do a little hike and to see some waterfalls. We thought that we'd stay the night in Thames but when we got there we weren't impressed so we kept on diving. Before we left Thames we stopped at an organic cheese making place for some samples. The lady there gave us a liter of yogurt for free because it would be going back in a week. We couldn't believe it. As soon as we left Thames the scenery completely changed. It was beautiful. The roads were very scary to drive on and I had to be careful not to drive off as I looked at the view. We arrived in Coromandel Town and booked at a lovely place. It was so relaxing there. We even stayed most of the next day just hanging out and reading. I went on an incredible run to the top of a hill. When I got to the top you could see 360 degrees all the way around. Our next destination was Auckland. As soon as we arrived in the city I was ready to leave. I'm not a city girl. I was already having withdrawal from trees. Sara and I spent our last night in Auckland together eating Mexican, going to a movie, and getting bubble tea. I took Sara to the airport and she headed off to Australia. It'll be weird being in New Zealand without her. The next day I went to the synagogue in Auckland and met with the Rabbi about being an outdoor environmental farming program to New Zealand. I stayed around and played with the kids at Sunday school. It was fun to work with them to create Pesach murals and play in the synagogue's garden. I met a friend of my friend Josh named Claudia. She took me around the suburbs of Auckland. It was fun spending an afternoon with her. We spent some time eating ice cream on a beach and talking.

When you're open to it, good things can happen!

My kiwi is better than you're kiwi......

I have to preface this blog with something that I already wrote about. When we were sitting around at the Taupo campsite with Melody, Flo, and Matan, we had arguments about who had met nicer Kiwis. Matan told stories of hitchhiking, then the person inviting then to stay with them and being given lots of beer. Sara and I told them about staying with Heather and Allister. In other countries I've sat around telling stories about being robbed and taken advantage of. It's nice to be able to sit around and talk about how amazing and generous people can be. It's only gotten better...

The night of my skydive, Sara and I went back to the same campsite from the night before. We made a big sushi meal with Melody. Sushi on a backpacking trip...who would have thought! In the middle of our dinner, we were greeted by 2 guys that just came back from a juggling festival and they showed us some tricks. The next day we went to the Taupo Bungy and watched people jump. It was such a beautiful place. You can even choose to go into the water. We convinced this older woman to do it. I decided that 1 crazy adventurous thing a trip was my limit for now. Watching her do it, made it a lot of fun. We headed to Rotorua. Melody told us of a free hot spring and a place to sleep so we headed there. Our site for the night was right on a lake. The next morning we woke up and met this older man, Hughie, that was working in the area. We had conversation and before even asking our names, he invited us over to stay at his place. Sara was just excited for the free shower. We stopped at Kerosene Creek and enjoyed soaking ourselves in the hot springs. It was so deliciously hot. What a treat. My body was loving it. We walked around Rotorua before going to Hughie's. That night Hughie took us out on this boat on this beautiful lake. We stopped at a hot spring that you could only get to by a boat. On the ride back, you could see tons and tons of stars. It lit up the might sky. He taught me how to find south. If I ever get lost in the southern hemisphere on a stary night, I'll be able to find my way. He was so nice and generous to us....kiwis are great! The next day we headed to the Coromandal region. We stayed the night on a beach. While we were cooking dinner on the beach, we began talking to a lady. It only took her 5minutes to invite us to sleep at her house for the night. We decided in the end to just stay on the beach. I think that Sara and I could definetely beat Matan's stories now.

Time to FULLY experience Taupo!

From Napier we traveled about 2 hours to Taupo. Thanks to Sara who drove while took a needed nap! We arrived in Taupo and were immediately greeted by Lake Taupo. We pulled over to enjoy the view and what an incredible view (and little did I know, I would see a very different view of it soon). We hung out by the lake before heading to our sleeping spot for the night. Someone told us about this place by the water called Reid's Farm where there are toilets and you can camp for free (which is always a plus!). We pulled into the place. There were many people there. We drove around a little. There was a guy sitting by this tent that was directing us to an open spot. After a couple of seconds I said, "We know that guy!" It was the Israeli guy Matan and the French guy Flo that we picked up hitchhiking outside of Christchurch on the south island. What a small world...so fun to see people again. We also met Melody from Colorado and 2 Israeli girls. We all cooked a big meal together and sat around and talked. Matan led us in some icebreakers so it was fun getting to know people. One of the questions that was asked was what are 3 things that you want to do in the next year. He said that in saying them, we have to try our hardest to fulfill what we say. I'm also writing mine here so I work hard on fulfilling them. I want to learn spanish and travel in South America, have traveled in all states except Oregon, Hawaii, and Alaska (there are a few I need to visit in the northeast), and learn to play the mandolin.

The next day, I did this: I went skydiving?!?!?!?

Today I went skydiving....I still don't believe that I actually did it! I said that I'd never do it, but I did. I was convinced to do it by our Israeli friends on the Kepler Track. When I get something I want to do in my head, I must do it. I couldn't back out now. I've been thinking about it ever since and getting myself soooo scared (but there was nothing to fear). I arrived at Tandem Taupo Skydive at 10:30 and was greeted by the people there. I had to decide what I wanted to do. I could pick from 12,000 or 15,000 feet and with or without a DVD. I was most scared about the falling so I decided to go with the 12,000 feet and the DVD. Everyone there tried to convince me to go for the 15,000 feet. They said I would regret it if i didn't. I was going with 4 other girls and they all decided to do 15,000. I couldn't be the only one at 12,000 so I decided to go for the 15,000. One of the girls was from Malaysia and her name was Mei See (now I have a friend in visit in Malaysia). I met my tandem partner Alan and he suited me up for the jump. The process happened so fast. As I was getting ready, they took photos. Soon we were off into the plane. The plane was very small and filled with 15 of us. It took about 25minutes to reach 15,000 feet. During that time Alan strapped me in. I asked him how many times had gone down...he replied, that's a personal question. It made me feel even more nervous. I corrected myself and asked how many time he had skydived. He said over 3,000times so I felt very confident in him. We strapped me put and made sure everything was in place. I looked out the window and could see a great distance. The higher I got, the less nervous that I became. The green light went off and it was time to FALL! I was the second one to go. I looked over at the exit camera and Alan flipped us out of the plane. We literally just flip on out. It took a couple of seconds to realize what happened and begin to look around. The day was beautiful with blue skies all around. From the height that I fell, you could see four coast of the island. The scenery was incredible. You could see Lake Taupo with mountains all around it! There was also guy flighting around me taking pictures and a video. I was told that I fell for over 60 seconds before the parachute opened. It didn't even feel like we were falling. It felt more like I was flying. AMAZING...AWESOME...EXCITING...INCREDIBLE...what was I ever scared of. I loved it! So trilling! When the parachute opened, we shot up. I had a good amount of time on the way down to look at the views and talk with Alan. The scariest part of the trip was when Alan had to spin us down in order to get down faster. He did it about 4 times and it made my stomach drop but not to bad. We had a safe landing. I had a hard time standing up at the end. When all 5 of us landed, we were so excited! They had us jump around and act excited to add to the video. We all got to watch to video. I was fun to relive the experience! I can't wait to watch it with everyone when I get home.

Pictures will be posted soon...

Let's Go Hurricanes!

On Friday we took the boat over from Picton to Wellington. We watched 2 movies on the boat ride over. We saw Disney's Cars and a stupid Hillary Diff movie. Cars was sooo cute! You should watch it if you haven't seen it. Straight from the boat we pulled into a car park and tailgated before the Hurricanes rugby game. You might be wondering why we decided to go to a rugby game. We've never seen one and thought it would be fun. We've also heard that if you want to know Kiwis, you have to see them during a rugby game. To tailgate, we got out our stove and cooked pasta while we chatted with the parking attendant. We arrived at the game and found our seats. We felt like we were practically on the field. Luckily, I sat next to this guy named Richard. He's Eniglish and knows all about rugby. I asked him questions about rugby throughout the entire game. I'm practically a rugby expert now. It was a fun game but unfortunately the Hurricanes lost to the Bulls, a team from South Africa. From Wellington, we drove up the east coast towards Napier in the Hawks Bay region. Many of the buildings in Napier are designed in the art deco style of the 20s. I felt like I was transported into a 20s movie. It was a fun town to walk around in. We were both pooped out and found a place with hot pools. We spent a few hours pampering ourselves in the pools. Our lodging (our car) was beach side for the night. We had a wonderful ocean view. The sunset was incredible. The sky was firy pink. On our way out of Napier, we stopped at a wine tasting...what a way to spend a day!