Just Want to do Something Special

Highlights of Coromandel Peninsula Trip (October 9-12, 2009)

1. Playing "Who Am I?" at Anchor Lodge hostel in Coromandel Town. "Who Am I?" is brilliant. All you need are paper, pens, and a troupe of enthusiastic participants. Gamers, continue reading to learn how it's done!

* Distribute one small piece of paper to each player (participant count is unlimited; the more the merrier)
* Players discreetly write down someone famous on their paper slips. (When gaming with an international party, think very, very famous people. Kermit the Frog, for instance. Or perhaps Jesus.)
* Players pass their papers face down to the players on their left.
* Without looking at the name on their slips of paper, gamers pick them up, lick the backs, and stick them to their foreheads.
* One player, randomly selected, begins by asking 'yes/no' questions to the group about the name on their forehead. When the player gets a 'no' response, play progresses to the gamer on the left.
* Play continues until every player has figured out who they are.

2. A hike at Port Jackson.

3. Cooking improvements. Meals to note include successful pasta dinner and omelet breakfast. Also worthy of notation: we continue to be upstaged in the culinary department by other travelers. For instance, a Swede in Coromandel Town fashioned five-star sandwiches out of only lettuce and bread. Perhaps eventually we'll be this good at cooking through a miracle, or osmosis.

4. Waterfall walk in Colville with a German couple. Our merry band trudged through hilly pastures, scaled cliff faces, and waded knee-deep through a river. All the while, we got bits of wilderness knowledge from the pair. Predictably, our favorite tip is animal related. If you ever happen upon an angry cow, know that to ward it off you should raise your arms above your head. Our German farmer friends swear by this trick.

5. Visiting the beach next to New Chum's Beach. New Chum's, renowned for its beauty, is secretly nothing compared to the dazzling splendor that is its neighbor. High tide waits for no lady, not even in New Zealand.

6. Pretending to be the Pevensies at Cathedral Cove (it's a natural wonder and, quite importantly, a filming location from The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian.)

7. And last, but not least, exhibiting our likeness to Amazons by digging a sandpit at Hot Water Beach. Then exhibiting our likeness to sloths by lazing in the tepid water 'til nightfall.

And a short message for our readers...

Thanks for your feedback and patience. Sometimes the opportunity to compose entries are few and far between. This, we'd like to think, can only be good; time spent not posting is time spent acquiring new experiences to share later. We miss you all and love hearing from you.

To anyone who has stumbled upon this blog (or is up late into the night reading and re-reading our posts...who knows? Girls can dream.) but isn't a "follower," you'd be the greatest if you'd just click the "Follow" button under the word "Followers" on the right hand side of the page. It's cool to know who's reading our blog.

Lots of love and (almost) holiday wishes,

Zoë and Alice

We’re Not Just Wild, We’re Trained, Domesticated

By the beginning of October, we had arrived in Thames, gateway to the Coromandel Peninsula, population 7,000: our home for the majority of October. We had arranged a “Wwoof” job with Jennifer Neal, a business-savvy local. We’d work 27 hours a week for her in exchange for bed, more-than-six-minute hot showers, hot water bottles, and foods that were best described as “yum.” We got weekends off, and work was helping Jennifer with her catering business, as well as running her “dairy” (here, that’s a general store.)


The shop – the Kauaeranga Store (“Cow-Ruhnga”) - vends tobacco, “lollies” (in New Zealand, that’s candy) bread, milk, ice creams, and more. Weeks of no work in Auckland meant shop keeping was not only economical for our budgets, but also entertaining. Thames’ residents made work lively; oftentimes the average Kauaraeanga Store patron was a small child eating her weight in sweets.

On October 5th, we found ourselves working 12 to 7 p.m. Through some ironic twist of fate, we had turned into Martha Stewart doppelgangers charged with turning the shop’s porch into a visual masterpiece. Brushes in hand and buckets of fresh paint at our sides, we turned plastic tables purple. Around 3 o’clock, fifteen minutes of sunshine ended when a cloud passed over the sun, and it started to rain. Funky weather is typical of New Zealand, which is sometimes called the place of “all seasons in one day.” As gallons of water tumbled from the sky, we heard kids’ shouts growing steadily louder. Next thing we knew, we were in round-faced company.
Soon enough, ladies of the world and youths were fast friends (this happened perhaps faster than usual because we were accompanied by Genoveva, Jennifer’s eight-year-old daughter, and she’s spunky.) Movies, music, Halloween costumes – if it was fun to talk about, the kids covered it.

“Do you know who Akon is?” shot one.
“What about Beyonce?”
“How about Spiderman?”

Drifting off in pairs, they left, but the afternoon didn’t end without some ukulele sing-alongs, Harry Potter read-alouds, mini-fortress construction, and further cultural sharing.

Outside of work, we spent time getting to know Jennifer, Genoveva, and the other “wwoofers” Jennifer hosted during our time there. Among them was Jack, a British carpenter who was fixing Jennifer’s doors. His interests include Flight of the Conchords, horses, and homemade wines; soon, we were all fast friends.

Read-alouds became a favorite for the Wwwoofers of Thames. We selected kids’ books from the library for Genoveva (who are we kidding? We love children's books as much as the next kid.) We’d come home from that literary haven with J.K. Rowling, Shel Silverstein poems, fairy tale spoofs, and the epic saga of Paddington Bear (of “Darkest Peru” – it turns out that story’s awkwardly outdated.)


In short, daily routine was awake, chow down on muesli, serve customers in the shop (creating small talk a requisite and enjoyable component of the job), clean up the shop, perhaps help Jennifer with catering at the golf club, and then a tasty, family-style dinner with Jennifer, Genoveva, and anyone else who had come to call. Each weekend brought something new: A Fun Run (if you had fun, you won, please don’t ask us what place we came in), Miranda Hot Springs (naturally heated, blissful swimming pools), a hike through an old goldmine (for a few hours, we were intrepid explorers channeling Frodo and Sam), and a weekend trip through the Coromandel Peninsula…

Cooking Beyond Borders 2

Meril’s Chicken Curry

Ingredients:
Small chicken
Chili – 1.5 teaspoons
Black pepper – 1.5 teaspoons
Curry powder – 1.5 teaspoons
1 onion, chopped
1 tomato, diced
½ bell pepper, diced
Salt and curry leaves to taste.

Mix together chili, black pepper, curry powder, salt, and curry leaves. Mix in one cup of water. Add onion, tomato, and bell pepper. Boil for 20 minutes. Boil chicken in hot water. When chicken is soft, serve under curry. Enjoy!

Cooking Beyond Borders 1

Meril’s Sri Lankan Bread

Ingredients:
Flour – 500 g
Dried coconut – 150 g
Butter – 25 g
2 Eggs
3 teaspoons salt

Mix together ingredients for 5-6 minutes. Divide dough into six even pieces. Press into six flat circles. Fry and eat for breakfast.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Left: The King, who graces the living room at our hostel, likes Borders Beyond, too!

Today is Tuesday, September 22nd. Over the past few days, we’ve been adjusting to hostel life in leaps and bounds. For starters, at Borders Beyond fifty cents buys you six minutes of hot water in the shower. You can’t put in more than fifty cents at once, so showering necessitates strategy. The drill is as follows: drop coins in dispenser (located outside shower room), dash inside, disrobe with haste, hurl yourself into the shower, shampoo, condition, and soap with the speed of light.

As everyone in the hostel is living on a tight budget, cooking our own meals is a must. Six o’clock brings whiffs of garlic, curry spices, and other mysterious and delicious home-cooked delights. Six o’clock also brings tussles for coveted clean cooking utensils, pots, and pans. Unknowledgeable newcomers, we were left with the most rickety pans and crusty spatulas. Despite this obstacle, we managed to salvage a four-egg cheddar and tomato omelet, sloppily spooned onto two plastic plates. (see footnote 1)

Dinner is full of international flavor. So far, conversations at meals have involved a Frenchman, a music producer from Fiji (check out www.myspace.com/steviejheatley) a Latvian, a Brazilian, a German, a pair of Swedish brothers (footnote 2), and two Americans (3.) Always open to new ideas, we have seized these meals as opportunities to collect recipes from our newfound friends. Look out for upcoming blog feature, “Cooking Beyond Borders.”

Having thoroughly discussed recipes, talk turns to New Zealand. There’s nothing like hearing someone rave about his or her love of a place to get you psyched about going there. Just a few days into our stay in Auckland, we’ve joined that merry band of people enamored by Kiwis and their country.

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1 Forgive us this obnoxious description; we just really like alliteration.
2 Whom we had previously labeled Germans. Not all leggy blondes are German.
3 As fate would have it, two friends who are WWOOFing for seven months in New Zealand. Sound familiar?

Blogette: Think, think about it.

Here’s the deal, folks. Whenever you see a Flight of the Conchords reference (song lyrics for instance) subtly or not so subtly hidden in one of our posts, make note! What’s in it for you? Well, when you reach twenty such references, email them to us, and if you are the first to do so, we’ll bring you back a special prize from New Zealand (think Lord of the Rings swords type-stuff.) It’s business time; let the games begin!

Dazed and Confused

Just as we awoke from thirteen hours of choppy slumber, our snazzy Qantas plane touched down upon Middle Earth. Next, we braved customs and security in our fragile states, and, hindered only by our forty-pound, unwieldy backpacks, trekked through the airport to the shuttle awaiting us. On the way, we realized we really must be in New Zealand, because only in New Zealand would we see a sign that looks like this:


Our shuttle drier dropped us at our hostel, the highly recommended Borders Beyond - not before imparting us with words of wisdom: don’t walk down scary dark alleys alone at night.

Jetlagged and stubbornly refusing to sleep until a normal Kiwi sleeping time, we explored our new neighborhood. Borders Beyond sits at the foot of Mount Eden in the Ponsonby district, a twenty-five minute walk from Auckland Center. Artists, vintage shops, and kebab-eries abound in here. Reveling in our discoveries, we jubilantly returned home.

When bedtime in New Zealand arrived, we found ourselves chatting with a Scottish twenty-something named Amanda. Three girls cross-legged on bunk bed blankets, we talked about home countries, Kiwiland, and animals. Finding ourselves abruptly animal deprived, we told Amanda of our deep longing for a creature of our own. We jokingly said we should adopt a sheep.

“You could, though," Amanda replied pensively. “Mix together baby formula, pop it in a bottle, go to a field, and lure the lamb. You can drop it off with my boyfriend at the end of the trip. His family has a farm.”

Our sole conversation with sunny, informative Amanda – she left the next morning for adventures in Darwin, Australia – was one of many first-day encounters with sunny, informative people.

Margaret, a local designer working for www.thebigidea.co.nz, and Tom, a New Zealand native who knew local beaches like the back of his hand, where among those helpful spirits. Asking nothing in return, Margaret and Tom spoke with us at length about this country and Kiwis.

Newcomers have no choice; modify your interactions with New Zealanders to match this generous conduct, or come across abrupt. We complied, following that adage, "if you can't beat them, join them." In return, friendly faces cropped up left and right. We liked Middle Earth.

On the Freedom Trail

First, an apology to our readers. We wish we could have posted sooner, but tropical rainstorms, trying to locate Foodtown, kitchen fires, hostel Olympics, and the like have kept us pretty busy. From now on, we vow that wherever Wi-fi can be found, we will be found, dutifully blogging away.

We have no memory of what really happened during our epic journey from Boston, Massachusetts to Auckland, New Zealand. However, we unearthed some notes apparently written by ourselves during that voyage. Here is a transcript of those pages.

Blog Entry 2: On the Freedom Trail

Crazy realizations

1. We are moving with the sun. On our plane. It never gets dark.

Boston to L.A. Flight: observations about fellow passengers

1. Reviewing chem.
2. Actually reading Skymall magazine
3. Books:
1. Divine Justice
2. Winston Churchill biography
3. The Mighty Bluefin
4. The Elegance of the Hedgehog (best)
5. Crazy electronic book of technology
4. Napping
5. Hand-held ping pong game
6. Magazines
1. Ok Magazine: Article: TV Divas
7. Looking at a map of Australia
8. Spying on other passengers
9. Making weird eye contact with people trying to spy on other passengers.

Entertainment supplies we brought along

1. Really teeny deck of cards
2. Wives and Daughters BBC Series
3. Room with a View: the movie

Traveler’s Token: Anything BBC entertainment-wise will suffice.

4. Snacks
1. Trail mix
2. Swedish fish
5. Neck pillow, courtesy of Liz’s mom

Brilliant/Funky Ideas On-Route

1. An ocean, candy-land style, full of Swedish fish, full also of gummy octopus, jellyfish, etc.
2. Why is the music played on airplanes always wrong/uncomfy?
3. Who is this higher power who makes said musical selections?

Listening to: September by Earth, Wind & Fire

Quote of the blog: “I didn’t travel all this way just to leave my uke on some plane in L.A!” – Zoë, said with ‘tude. [No worries, she didn’t.]

Traveler’s Token: It really doesn’t help to be a bossy know-it-all to other travelers when going through security, okay?! ‘Tude and back-sass are never welcome.

Welcome!

Hello dear readers!

Welcome to Alice and Zoë’s Excellent Adventure! We’re so glad that you’ll be joining us! On this blog we will be chronicling our travels for our dear family and friends. (Don’t forget to subscribe, now! The button is over there to the right.)

As you may have heard, we, your New Zealand-bound amigas, are finally about to leave tomorrow on our most excellent journey to the land of the Kiwis. We have been learning a lot about packing for long voyages, as we prepare to depart. For instance, choosing hiking boots over leopard print heels and taking a paper back or two instead of Harry Potter, the complete works.

We have been struggling to wrap our heads around just how long this trip is going to be. In the end, we think it may finally hit us once we are seated on our plane, taking off over the Pacific.

We are also starting to get super excited for what is to come. Here is a list of the 5 most excellent things we are looking forward to…

1. Trekking through Middle Earth, some of the most beautiful landscape in the world.
2. Experiencing some New Zealand quintessentials such as Rugby (once we figure out the rules), kiwi birds, and kiwifruit (basically all the extra opportunities to use the word “kiwi”).
3. Meeting (finding? tracking down?) Bret and Jemaine. This will happen. We are sure.
4. Encountering our first New Zealand sheep (and possibly adopting this sheep in Wallace and Grommet fashion),
5. The new accents! Although, in reality we will be the ones that sound odd…

Probably at the top of our list of things we are not particularly excited about is our amazingly long plane ride to come. Zoë recently raised concerns about what we are going to do to stay entertained for those 20-odd hours. If anyone has any suggestions to offer, we would be much obliged!

That’s all for now, folks! We will be blogging to you next from Auckland, NZ!

Missing you already!

Lots of love,

Alice & Zoë

Listening to: “Leaving On A Jet Plane” By Peter, Paul and Mary

Quote of the blog: “Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes” – Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (another fine adventure for the books)

Today’s travel token: This one courtesy of Zoë’s mom… If you can wrinkle an item of clothing by crumpling it in your hands, it is not backpack material, so don’t pack it!

Welcome and Introduction

Hello, reader!

Welcome to "Foreigners in WWOOFers' Clothing," a blog that will give you insight to my travels abroad. First, the formalities. I'm Zoë, an eighteen-year-old high school graduate (Class of 2009) from Newton, Massachusetts whose interests include reading, anthropology, writing, and singing a cappella.

My friend Alice and I have delayed our college matriculations until fall 2010 in favor of seven months organic farming in New Zealand. Goals for the year include expanding my knowledge of sustainability, gaining practical life skills, furthering my self-understanding, immersing myself in different cultures, and hopefully, coming a little closer to knowing what I want to do after college at Penn (Class of 2014.)

September 17th, 2009 - a week from today - Alice and I will depart for Kiwiland on this Gap Year Adventure. Through the cultural exchange organization World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), we will work on sustainable homesteads, receiving room and board in exchange for thirty-five hours of labor a week.

We've made arrangements with eight hosts and have access to more if need be. Finding the names was easy enough, thanks to our WWOOF book, a 175-page tome chock-filled with New Zealanders seeking working farmers, or "wwoofers." [See the compendium's forest-green cover, quirky pictures, and cheery slogan below.]



Some WWOOF background information: WWOOF New Zealand was started in 1973. As stated in the WWOOF book, its aims are

"- To enable people to learn first hand organic growing techniques.
- To enable town-dwellers to experience living and working on a farm.
- To show alternative ways of life.
- To improve communication within the organic movement.
- To help develop confidence in becoming self-sufficient.
- To meet interesting people and make useful contacts."

In no particular order, Alice and I will be visiting the regions of Northland, Waikato, Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson, and Golden Bay. We will spend two weeks to a month at each farm, allowing room for flexibility. Due to the nature of the trip, we expect to encounter a wide range of tasks, people, experiences, and challenges.

At the moment, Alice and I are in the midst of everything that comes with preparing for a long trip: traveler's checks, neck pillows, health insurance abroad, stuff sacks, and "See you later"'s to friends and family. When I next post, we'll be staying in an Auckland hostel for five days to get acclimated to our new surroundings.

The plane ride to the other side of the world is lengthy to say the least, so some reading on Maori culture and New Zealand slang will be in order. Until then, my limited Maori will have to do. Haere ra (In English that's "Farewell.")

Zoë