New Plymouth

Beautiful, beautiful place. Situated on a peninsula, surrounded by the ocean, back-dropped by mount Takanaki, I feel so lucky to have landed here!

The farm is a 45 minute walk from town, 20 minute walk from the ocean. It's bigger than the one I was on last week and I'm staying in a caravan instead of the main house. It's great to have my own room, privacy is quite hard to come by when traveling on a budget! I work for four hours in the morning, either weeding or pick up fejoias (that's the name of the little green fruit!). Then I'm free to wander in the afternoons.


Since the town is close I've spent a couple afternoons wandering around and poking around the many cute boutiques along it's main road -- if only my bag wasn't already over-capacity! (Plus I learned from A. at the last WWOOFing place that it cost her 100$ to sent 4kgs back to France! yikes...)

Yesterday there was a wind storm and I decided to go to the beach. The water here is crazy cold after Asia, but the views are incredible!

Discovering farm work

I’ve been WWOOFing for 3 days now! (In case you don’t know: WWOOF = Willing Workers On Organic Farms.) I arrived at G. and K.’s farm and met another WWOOFer A. mid-morning on Monday after my Vipassana retreat. Needless to say I was very excited to see another part of New Zealand. The farm is located just outside of Hamilton on the North Island. It’s a small homestead with about half a dozen chickens, sheep and geese as well as a bunch of white pigeons. Inside there are two cats and a budgie… and I’m happy to report that my cat allergies aren’t acting up too badly yet.

I’ll be staying here until next Monday when I go to another farm near New Plymouth, a city a few hours south of here by bus. I’ve very much enjoyed my time here, getting my hands dirty and working with my fear of animals! So that you can have an idea of what I’ve been up to, here’s my daily routine:

7:30am – Wake up

8:00am – Feed the outdoor animals (I actually fed the pigeons and the sheep out of my hand! Big deal – as most of you know I’m scared of animals!)

8:30am – Feed the indoor animals and myself (Breakfast has been cornflakes with real milk – a great improvement on Asian powdered milk!)

9:00am – Start outdoor work. H. and I have been working in the old vegetable garden, clearing the area by weeding and turning the earth (I got a blister from using the spade even with gloves on! Also, blackberry bushes are very thorny…)

10:30am – Tea time, then back to work outside. Other random outside tasks include picking fruit: feojas and passion fruit so far.

12:30pm – Before lunch duties: let the chickens out of their shack, bring eggs inside, get mail, bring in firewood for the evening.

1:30pm – Lunch clean up and movie time! (I’ve been knitting a pair of socks for G. while watching)

Whenever the movie ends I go for a walk exploring the countryside. It’s really beautiful here and there’s usually a rainbow or two to spot.

6:30pm – Supper time

7:30pm – Supper clean up and then free time. (Note: dial up internet here! That means that most of my free time is computer-free - what a relief!)

Vipassana

A 10-day silent retreat you say?

Well, I survived. It was hard, very hard… but I’m glad that I stayed for the whole time and that I tried very hard to meditate. The silent part of the retreat was actually really easy after the initial feeling of rudeness associated with not saying “hello”, “please”, and “thank you” all day long. I even understood the ban on music, reading, and writing. They would have distracted me and complete boredom was an important factor in actually getting me meditating during the last few days!

The rule banning exercise was actually the hardest one to follow. My whole body was aching from sitting for about 12 hours a day, including three 1 hour meditation sittings without moving. At times it felt like my whole being was screaming for a sun-salutation or a few minutes of pigeon position. At other times I just wanted to run as fast as my feet would let me through the forest of fern trees, just to feel my heart beat and breath come faster. Still, I limited my physical exertions to a few stretches.

Though I was forbidden to bring any writing materials with me, I did write something in my head for each day of the retreat. I thought of it as a poem or as a collection of thoughts, but really it was just a way for me to tune into what my general feeling of the day was like. Here it is:

Day 1
Between motivation
and exhaustion: lost air.
I am surrounded by fern trees.

Day 2
The gong sounds. We walk –
as if condemned
To the hall.
A storm brews overhead.
A possum climbs a tree, at night.

Day 3
Awoke, aggressive.
The fallen tree and I share
the fleeting sunlight.
The hall rings with laughter.

Day 4
Vipassana has begun.
The sun has barely come out
The mood is subdued
My body feels not my own
Sensation-less
Goenka: Please, keep quiet.

Day 5
Little green fruit, what is your name?
Part sweet, part grainy; but juicy all the same
Full of liquid seeds, so not a kiwi
Little green fruit, you’re starting to grow on me!
Imagination has free reign.

Day 6
All this talk
of Samkaras and Misery
Where is the basic goodness?
Open air
Open sky
Yet I’m stuck inside.

Day 7
Rocks and fallen leaves;
Messages left on a bench.
Musty earth smell. Rich.

Day 8
Chilly breeze, shifting clouds.
IMPERMANENCE
Different trees, intriguing forest.

Day 9
Around and around
the carefully pre set-up
Nature’s path we go.
I’m stuck on a bench
when will my fantasies stop?
Laugh. Nobody knows!

Day 10
Noble chattering
Drones out the gong’s sound.
Afternoon rain makes the river
Flow
The storm has begun.

Kiwi land

First sight: out of the airplane window -- green, lush, islands. Blue, clear ocean.

First breath: tastes and smells green.

I think I'll like it here!! I keep having to remind myself that I'm not back in Canada. I keep thinking "I'm on that little bit of land at the bottom of the map!". After South-East Asia, everything is beautifully familiar. Still, my time in Asia has affected me. Yesterday I felt most comfortable while hanging out with two traveling Filipinas! We bonded over being cold. I was wearing my warmest clothing and still shivering while the kiwis were tramping around in shorts, t-shirts and light jackets! Seems that I will have to do some shopping. Unfortunately, I also got used to Asian prices and therefore everything here is incredibly expensive. I have to pay more and a buck or two to eat? WHAT? haha.

Another funny tid-bit: I'm now the one with an accent. When I talk to people, they often ask me to repeat myself and I watch them concentrate while listening to me! People still ask me where I'm from, but not because of my looks... because of my accent! I've never been on that side of the conversation before.

In a few hours I'm off to do a Goenka Vipassana meditation retreat! This means to internet, ipod, reading or even writing for 10 days. I'll see you all on the other side.....!

See ya later SE Asia!

Back in Singapore, in a beautifully luxurious hostel. There are duvets on the beds, two pillows, amazingly comfortable beds, western-style toilets with running water, hot showers, and best of all: drinkable tap water!! This is a great in-between spot to be on my way to Auckland.

Making my way here from Langkawi was not easy. I had really wanted to take a night train, so I decided to make my way all the way down the West coast of Peninsular Malaysia to Singapore. The journey began in Alor Setar where I learned that my first train was three and a half hours late. The train station was simply a platform with a roof and the mosquitoes were more than happy to take advantage of the buffet that was set before them. At 11:15pm the train finally arrived and I was grateful to the bed that awaited me within. 10 hours later I was in Kuala Lumpur.

As irony would have it, I had three hours and twenty minutes to make my connection in Kuala Lumpur... so my first train arrived just minutes after my second train was scheduled to leave. Luckily this second train was also late, departing an hour and a half after schedule! At 10:25am the train left with a very tired Aki on board. We arrived in Singapore around 5:30pm and I was simply exhausted by then. To make all this even worse I had woken up with a cold in Langkawi the morning of departure!!

This morning things look a lot better. Thanks to a bunch of traditional Chinese remedies and a bunch of Western cold medicine I feel almost human again, awaiting my ten hour flight to New Zealand, leaving at 8pm tonight!

Things that I'm looking forward to: good bread, cheese (ANY kind of cheese), yogurt, toilet paper that I don't have to carry around, the thin layer of stickiness due to humidity and heat, salad -- actually vegetables in general that haven't been cooked in oil, drinkable tap water, lack of cockroaches.

Things that I know I'll miss: curry and noodles on every corner, beaches and warm oceans, beautiful warm smiles, good meals for a dollar, mis-mash of religions and cultures, small narrow streets, smells of little India and Chinatown, roti canai.

Langkawi

My final stop in Malaysia! Unfortunately the weather was uncooperative. The beach was beautiful, though not as impressive as Boracay or the Perhentians. To be fair, this might be due to the heavy rain that has been hitting most of Malaysia and Thailand for the past couple of weeks. On my one sunny day I got a picture:


Nevertheless, I had a good time all around. I met a bunch of other travelers; mostly singles, some pairs and we made the most of the bad weather. We played jenga, cards, shared travel stories, and made the most of the island's duty-free status.

During a break in the downpour, I went to visit the 7 wells with two other travelers. We slid down the rapids and enjoyed a great view. Then on the way down the 500-some stairs (not fun on the way up in 100% humidity by the way) we ran into a family of Macaques! Now, these monkeys are known to be somewhat of a pest in South-East Asia and most of the other travelers I've talked to hate them... but it was my first time seeing a family of monkeys in the "wild" so I was very excited!



Now I'm off to Singapore, taking two long trains to get there. I have another 30 some hours there and then off to Auckland!