Allo from Sunny Sydney!

So sorry about the delay everyone on the blog, we have been "in transit" for a little longer than I expected. This is Mike Dour, and I will be your Bilbo Bloggins on this post, leading you on a journey with my words...right.

SO, we pick up with our Friday journey to Christchurch. We arrived and assembled in the town square, I guess you would call it, and saw the many vendors, street performers, as well as the beautiful church that was the "centerpiece". After a few hours of people running off and grabbing lunches, souvenirs, we finally got our gear. We shopped for our food supplies for the trek we were about to embark on, as well as got many thermals, and assorted rain gear. All came in handy in the coming days. Friday night, we had a bountiful feast at one of the homestays for our last night party.

Saturday morning was full of goodbyes, and presents from the homestay hosts. We departed and headed off to Queenstown. Now Queenstown, I would compare to Aspen really, a "ski town", tons of outlet stores, fancy restaurants, and an amazing view of the surrounding mountains. Many of the group enjoyed amazing hamburgers at Fergburger, one of the above mentioned restaurants. Now I might have to go into more detail about these hamburgers, but I'll save that for a little later. We unpacked all unnecessary items from our bags that night and loaded up the gear and food. The divide among the food did take some figuring out, but we eventually accomplished this. We stayed at the Black Sheep hostel, which had a hot tub! YAY!, which was inviting, and seemed somewhat..well we decided no on that. Sleep time, we depart tomorrow for the trek!

Sunday morning was an early wakeup, getting all the clothes and assorted items into the storage at the hostel we would be visiting again after our trek. We then headed into town to grab breakfast and afterwards headed to our pickup site. After a short busride with a stop to grab a couple nice camera snaps, we were at the trail.With some nice weather and no rain in sight, we were off. (Start of Trek, Day 1)We started off at a nice pace, and our hike took us through the valley and slightly on the side of the mountains. I'm not talking hiking up huge mountains here, not the Himalayas, the inclines were just enough though to tire the group out. After a couple hours of hiking we arrived at our first cabin, which already had a number of occupants, 8 to be exact. And we were 14..the cabin was not prepared for the amount of people about to be in it. The first night had people sleeping side by side in some larger beds, but not large enough. And that was the first day on the Greenstone trail!

Monday(Trek Day 2) Now this was our longest hiking day here. The time proposed by the trail signs said a hike of 4 & 1/2 to 6 & 1/2 hours...wow. This day will live in infamy...just kidding. Ask around and maybe some will say it will. Despite the rain, which was just a drizzle really, almost everyone had an amazing time that day. We were all geared up in our rain gear and we conquered that path, hiking over metal suspension bridges, through huge expanses of fields, as well as some very very rocky parts. I'm not talking about stepping over rocks, we were on rocks, just rocks. It must have been caused from avalanches from long ago in the area, but it was huge areas of rocks, no ground below your feet for a long ways. Oh, I knew I forgot something, for everyone now worrying about me mentioning avalanches, we did not have any run ins with them, though I've heard they can be a hassle at times. After our long hike, we arrived at our cabin, and relaxed like we've never relaxed before. Hot drinks, a hot fire, we were feeling good after a short time. The couple that rode on the bus to the trail shared the cabin with us that night, and we had some very good conversations with them. The sleeping situation was alot nicer but one last cabin was in our future...

Tuesday(Trek Day 3) So we left this cabin relatively later because this day was one of our shortest days of hiking, headed to the nicest cabin we'd stayed at the whole trek, flush toilets, supplied gas and even lights! *GASP*! This walk was nice, a sunny day after our cloudy and wet day, and we took many a photo at many spots. This day was the first day I also played our newest game introduced to the group, Contact. Basically a hiking game which is a word guessing game. I would go into more details but for the sake of people's reading and me not wanting to cause mass confusion I won't, put it on the list of things to ask about when we all get back. After our short hike and everyone being in good spirits, we arrived at our last hut. Large and with many beds, the above mentioned commodities, we settled in and decided what to do with the rest of our day. Some went on a summit hike, which I was told was breathtaking, a view that you only can see on postcards, few postcards. The warden that was residing at the hut was a friendly man, who had visited the States when he was younger and we exchanged various stories with him. Early sleep in everyone's own bunk (WOW!) that night because of what was to come the next day, an early morning and a kayaking romp on the glorious Milford Sound.

Wednesday(Last & 4th Trek Day) We woke up, well me and the "El Capitan" of the week, Connor, woke up at 5:10 to prepare breakfast. No sun up yet..very early. We left this cabin at around 6:30 to make our pickup time of 8 at the end of the trail. Another short hike, with an early morning view of the surrounding area, which was very...well foggy. Another cloudy day sad to say. We annihilated that trail that morning, we arrived early at the pickup, to say...we trail blazed. We met our driver Rosco, of Rosco's Milford Sound Kayaking. Wow! The namesake of the company has picked us up, I felt somewhat like a VIP! On our drive to the sound, he pointed out many things, mainly avalanche sites, where the "wind blast", the gust of wind that an avalanche generates from coming down, had snapped the trees caught in it like "toothpicks" as he put it. We made one stop to see an amazing rock formation that had been formed by the river running through it and kept on driving. We drove through an avalanche..not that it came down on us, but the road was cleared where it had been. An icy corridor, ice, snow, dirt, rocks, surrounded us on both sides, it was intimidating. A little time passed, and we arrived at the Sound. Now, sadly whilst on the Sound, the rain that was scheduled for that day...started. It still didn't ruin the kayaking. It was breathtaking, surrounded by huge cliffs, waterfalls from the runoff in many places, and we saw penguins! WOO! Everyone loves penguins..or maybe just myself, anyways, so after paddling around in our double kayaks for around 3 hours in the Sound, we headed in to dry off our soaked bottoms, tops, sides, feets...you get the idea. After a thorough drying we were off to Teanu( need some spelling checked on that), a small town that we ran around in while waiting for our bus back to Queenstown. The bus ride, back to Queenstown took us past many nice sights, and finally after 6 hours..or so, we arrived back at the Black Sheep. I finally had my Fergburger and let me tell you, a glorious symphony of meat, and vegetables greeted me. When I say this was an amazing burger, it's an understatement. I now have made a top 5 burger list which this holds a steady numero 3 on. Time for sleep because tomorrow we depart for Sydney!

Thursday, well an early wakeup to get to the airport to wait for our flight, an hour or so, standard airport practices. We flew out of Queenstown to Auckland for a little bit of a layover, which was followed by our flight to Sydney. Another time zone change greeted us, and after a little bit of a wait for our transport( I think this guy had no legs because he was in the parking lot walking to us for about 20 minutes) we were immersed in Sydney! Now how can I say this, this city is unique. Ferrari, Maserati, Lotus, Lamborghini dealerships on one block, which I drooled at, while a plethora of coffee shops and restaurants on all the others, and the random money exchanges dabbled in there. We arrived at our hostel, the Great Aussie Backpackers Hostel, and settled in.

Friday was a full day. We had our Sydney scavenger hunt, a huge all day walk about ( some Aussie slang there, walk about means a hike..I think, check that later). ANYWAYS, this consisted of the group checking out all the historic sites of Sydney, the Mint, the Opera House, the Botanical Gardens, the Art Museum, among other sites of interest. Now some went with groups, others went by themselves. Myself, went alone. I had a grand time, until me and the Botanical Gardens met up. Now, this place is huge, and I mean HUGE. I wish I could say the size of this place, but it's ginormous. After wandering here for a couple hours, and almost being eaten by some very large plants, I stumbled out and headed back. We concluded our scavenger hunt, awarding prizes and such and had an awesome barbecue supplied by the hostel later that night, kangaroo and beef on the barbie. Kangaroo is interesting, very tough meat, but very much like beef.

And that brings us to today! Saturday, the 31st, Halloween! I'm not sure what is planned for the All Hallow's Eve festivities, or who is dressing up as who, but it is sure to be a fun filled night. Sadly, photos from me cannot be supplied at this time..sorry all, hopefully I can update this later today with them.
And now for some fun facts about the Milford Sound! The rainfall here is 6000 mm, 256 inches, and that is alot, more than any place in New Zealand. This was of course solidified by the rain that pelted us on our kayaking. Well that's it for me, Mike Dour, Bilbo Bloggins, signing off for now! Pictures to come!

Joy from South Island!

Faithful blog followers, rejoice, its time for another. Here's the update from the past week...

We began this Sunday with an early, three hour long ferry ride from Wellington to a little town, I can't quite think of the name though. Though it sounds quaint, the ferry was far from that, it was extremely rocky and shook up a couple uneasy stomachs within the group. A lot of green faces. An interesting experience. Stepping onto solid ground was a lovely relief, to say the least. That was followed by a long bus ride, finally ending our day's travel in Christchurch, where we were warmly greeted by a couple of the homestay-arrangers. Helloooo, South Island!

The group then split up (groups of either 3 or 4) for new homestays in Lyttleton, a town about a half hour drive from Christchurch. That evening was spent getting to know our individual homestay families.

Monday morning the group reunited bright and early to begin the environmental conservation work we'd be doing over the next couple days. This day, we had "clippers" to chop down growing Sycamore trees (an invasive species to New Zealand plants, which are currently being revegetated), "herbiciders" to follow them with blue goo, and others who helped chop down real trees with chainsaws. Intense. It was a cold but productive first day! Again, after work we separated to our homestays to relax for the evening.

Tuesday morning was similar, just some different work (mostly planting native New Zealand baby trees). Another lovely, productive day of volunteering. Afterwards, we split again, many taking advantage of the cute little coffee shops on the main street. Later that night, some of us convened to be total Americans and watch the movie "Baby Mama" (props to Katie B for providing it, as quotes from it have been dropped all trip). So funny.

Wednesday, we finished up the work asked of us by planting the rest of the baby trees (which was a lot!). For the most part, this went smoothly, but with some mishaps, like Meghan (who accidentally sat on/brushed against a dried up thornbush--another invasive species by the way--and as a result had thorns stuck to her basically from the neck down, very pokey... Hahaha... Poor thing. We all had a good laugh). Overall, we're quite proud of the work we've done! :)

Then, Thursday (today) was a nice change of pace. Accompanied by Ivette (hopefully I'm spelling her name correctly, if not, apologies! My other guess would be Yvette), a Maori homestay mother, we hiked up the Bridle Trail (in the old days, settlers traveled up this to get to Christchurch, on the other side of the mountain). We spent the majority of the day hiking, soaking up unforgettable sceneries, and listening to Ivette tell many stories, both Maori tales and about New Zealand history. Following the hike, we went down to the dock and almost all of us (minus two wimps who will go unnamed) jumped into the harbour water, carrying on the precedent set by the previous 6 groups. IT WAS ICE COLD. Luckily, the day ended at Ivette's house, where we cozied up with a great meal.

Tomorrow will be spent in Christchurch, shopping and preparing for our upcoming free travel time! Woo! Then in the evening we'll have a goodbye party, as Saturday morning we'll depart to Queenstown.

Overall, its been another fabulous week. I know some of us started to have some homesick-ness spouts recently, so this fun and comfortable homestay experience definitely came at the perfect time. Sickness cured. Thus far, South Island is a wonderful place! Surprisingly, I was able to figure out picture uploading, so you all can check out some shots from New Zealand below! I'm sure there will be more once other cameras are accesible.

Trivia master (and my roomie for the week) Katie V has provided some New Zealand words that are totally different from our typical vocabulary:
dinner=big, hot meal
but supper=post dinner tea with biscuits (=cookies)
tea=a light dinner
pudding=dessert
(obviously it has been difficult getting our meals straight!)
togs=a bathing suit
bench=countertop
bunfight=a party (a fun one)
pram=baby stroller
barbie=grill (but saying "shrimp on the barbie," so cliché , rookie mistake!)
and I'm sure there's many more...

We'll be checking in again asap after tramping near Queenstown!
Hollaaaaa,
Bilbo Bloggins of the week (aka Kathleen)

PS. Please pardon any grammatical/spelling errors (a vast amount, I'm sure) within this blog. There is no spell check. Its been like 5 months since school, its the first time I've had to write correctly, obviously:)

Cheese!

Picture time! Woo! New Zealand thus far...
(PS. Sorry they're all out of order, I lack computer skills.)

Part of the group eating lunch on top of a mountain! This was during our hike today.

The view from the mountain top...

And the view from our homestay family's porch...




Our first glance of Christchurch! Though someone's head was in the way, oops.

At the Marae we visited with local high school students, trying our best "haka" faces. Key word--trying.

The boys' "haka" faces (they were allowed to stick out their tounges, so not fair)


The girls after kayaking at OPC, we all got to experience amazing and relaxing hot springs (basically pool sized hot tubs, heaven).


In Auckland one night, before going to listen to a local singer perform.



During free time in Auckland, a lovely city.

Some of us at Anne's farm (before going to see the glowworms!)

Post-kayak trip at OPC

Our leader Julian hopped into this one!

Hahaha, Brandon pulled off the wet suit the best, by far. (He'll hate me for posting this. Hehe)

On Sunday we left Anne's farm at 9 in the morning and made our way to Outdoor Pursuit Center, or OPC.(they like acronyms there) It was approximately a 6-7 hour shuttle ride but as we approached our destination three enourmous snow capped mountains loomed in the distance, one of which being the infamous "Mt. Doom" from Lord of the Rings. We were given the corporate accomodations on the OPC grounds which was perfect becuase half of our group came down with a stomach parasite and the plush leather couches and fireplace were perfect for recovery. Our first two days there were basic team building activities, things like trust falls and low ropes courses. On the second day our instructor, Julian Malcolm, showed us how to use maps and compasses and gave us a real location within the area to locate. To get to where we needed to go we had to tramp through the bush, which was very diffacult but the end location was a flyingfox, or zipline, and we had a bit of fun to end the day. The next day, Wednesday, we did a kayak trip through a stream and then into a lake which was surrounded in gorgeous dark green mountains. After our journey we got to relax in a nearby natural springs hot pool, which was the perfect relaxer for a tough kayak session in windy, rainy conditions. Before we left we chopped varios vegetables and took them to a hot spring location nearby where we would leave them in the ground to cook in traditional Maori fashion. We had them with our lunch and they were the perfect side to ham sandwiches. Instead of our nightly presentation Julian showed us the basics to belaying and tying figure-8 knots for rock climbing. Thursday was our last full day and in the morning Julian had us do a one hour orienteering race, where we had to use a map and find locations on the map for points within an hour. It was cold and rainy, but extrememly fun and in the end Gordie a and Meghan came out victorious, with myself and James a close second. In the afternoon we hit the high ropes course, so our belaying had to be on point so no one got hurt. We chose three obstacles on the course, the high up sideways skull monkey climbing wall of death, the monkey tails, and the blindfolded draw bridge. All were challenges, and we were all challenged which was the point and we all had a lot of fun. That night we camped out in tents and the next day we headed south to Marton were we would spend last night and today in a Morae with some locals from the village. Today we even learned the Haka, which is the Maori war dance, we got a video of it and although it is a serious dance, the video is hilarious. I am currently using the internet in our hostel in Wellington and tomorrow we are headed to the south island for our final week or so in New Zealand. Also did you know that OPC had New Zealand's first manmade rock climbing wall, wow, I did not know that thank you James Flood, this weeks trivia master. From all of us on the FANZ trip, this is Wyatt Good signing off, another blog next week.

Greetings from the Farm!

Hey all! Greetings from Warkworth, New Zealand!

First off, we wanted to let everyone know that we haven't had much internet access this past week. Don't worry if you haven't recieved any individual emails in the last few days. If you do need to contact any of the students, feel free to email Fanzcarpediem@yahoo.com. Heather and Adam check this as much as possible and will be able to relay the message. Also, from here, we are heading to OPC and most likely wouln't have much internet for another week. Thanks for understanding!

We are currently working and playing on Anne Verdonk's beautiful Organic Farm. We are on the last full day here. The farm is absolutely picturesque- acres of lush green rolling hills, gorgeous skylines, and tons of life. The mornings have been filled with various work. Our major project(completed on Thursday) was the revegitation of a hillside with native New Zealand trees We planted more than 500 baby trees, adding to the mini Carpe Diem forest that has been started by past groups. Other jobs include grubbing thistles, mothering orphaned calves onto suragate mothers, checking and repairing waterlines and fences, and so on. After working we have had down time to relax and enjoy eachothers company. We have been openly welcomed into Anne's family and feel very at home. Getting to know Anne and her relatives has allowed us a taste of life as a WWOFer (Willing workers on organic farms). A few other highlights of our time here include: going to see the glow worms down the road, stargazing after the rain cleared out, learning a Maori song, seeing baby calves(they're extremely cute!) peacocks and an emu.

Trivia:
-Blackberries(which we spent some mornings grubbing out) were originally from England.
-There were no natural land animals in New Zealand, other than birds. The ones that live here were all brought in.

Hope all is well back in the States,
Katie

Pictures

Enjoy some pics of our time in Fiji-
Orientation in Nadi, Fiji:


Hindu Temple in Nadi(the largest on the Viti Levu island:


Buddhist Tree on the grounds of the Hindu Temple (gift from Sri Lanka, women who want to be married tie a yellow string around it):


Nananu Village:




Meaghan, Kathleen, Mike, and Brandon on the last night in the village:


Katie with her Nananu siblings and cousins on Family Day:

View from our first hike around Nananu:


The one and only Fiji Water Plant:


Pine Forrest Hike to a lookout house:



Beachouse on the Coral Coast, it was beautiful!:




There's more to come!
-Katie