You can take the boy out of the city...

The last time I updated the blog I'd just arrived at the Earthship, and now I'm going to tell you a little about it... They're not connected to the national grid, and they generate all of their own electricity (hydroelectric and solar if I recall correctly). They are also not connected to the main water system, and have a tank of water way up a hill. They don't use natural gas, and their heating system consists of several small fires (i.e. if you want a hot shower, you have to light an actual fire and wait for the water to heat up). They keep bees and spread the fresh honeycomb on their morning toast, they grow herbs and use them in their evening meals, and made the walls from clay that they mined themselves, two minutes up the hill.

These were the things that I found pretty cool, but then I went to use the toilet. It was essentially a barrel under a toilet seat. You did your business and turned around to see it sitting proudly on top of a large mound of other peoples' businesses. Instead of flushing you just covered it in sawdust... It seemed to mask the smell, but this may be due to the fact that the smell of the adjacent pig pen was stronger... In fact the general aroma of the place wasn't great, but after a while I suppose my nostrils just got used to it? And then there were the sand flies. No one warns you about the sand flies. If they did, there would probably be a lot fewer tourists in rural New Zealand! They are tiny little flies that bite - relentlessly - and after a week at the Earthship, my calves are in tatters...

Many of the tasks that I was set involved me getting dirty and feeling disgusting... One day, Brian (the man who was hosting me) decided that he wanted to relocate some piglets. This involved him catching them and me transporting them to the new pen. They noise they made can only be likened to the noise made was bone chilling. It sent shivers down my spine and gave me goosebumps. They were also very smelly. Someone once told me that pigs are very clean animals. This is not true! They literally piss and shit in the same place that they eat, and then roll around in it all day. Holding them to my chest was not pleasant, but I feel like I didn't do a bad job of hiding my distaste for the camera...

Another disgusting job involved getting up at the crack of dawn and collecting cow poo from a local farm. Cow poo is sloppy, in case you didn't know, and has a tendency to get everywhere, and stain everything that it touches. I also had to touch it several times in order to carry buckets of it around, which almost made me hurl every time! Never did I think that I would be shoveling shit and mixing it with clay to make plaster for a wall! But that's exactly what happened, and I can still smell it, lingering all over me...

Despite how disgusted I was with running my fingers though the products of a cow's digestive system and holding dirty pigs to my chest, I did have a good week! I'd now like to mention the people who were there on during my stay...

Brian, the guy in charge, was a kind man, almost 60, but still a man who knew his trade, and knew it well. So well that he could do it blind! Unfortunately, about six months ago, he had two strokes which knocked out his vision, and he is now legally blind to the extent that he had to give up his drivers licence and can't distinguish facial features if you're further away than about 2 metres! Despite this, he still manages to do everything for himself - even fiddly things like carving wood which require a large amount of attention to detail!

His wife, Karen, about the same age, was the woman who fed me delicious meals all week and made sure that I was never hungry or thirsty. Their daughter Melissa lived in a smaller house next to the big house with her husband, and they, along with Brian and Karen's son, Wade, were usually around and were alright for a nice chat with people the same age as me. Wade actually got back in April from doing two years of missionary work in the Philippines. It turns out that he'd spent six months in Tagbilaran - the same town that my mum grew up in! We chatted about it for a bit, but the conversation didn't last long because I've not been back there for ten years, and when I was there I had dengue fever so couldn't do much - maybe I'll go back in the not so distant future...

As well as the human company, there were also a few animals at the Earthship. There was the cockatoo, who likes trying to dig out of his cage (this was particularly infuriating on the day that it was raining so I had to stay inside and do chores like sweeping, and five minutes later there would be dirt everywhere because of the bird...); three canaries who didn't like me very much; millions of chickens and three chicks; thirteen pigs (one with enormous balls); and a dog - I never learnt it's name - but we got on well, I took it for walks up the 'mountain' (just a big, jagged hill in reality) and he made me miss Patch (my own dog for those not in the know).

 

I feel like the phrase "You can take the boy out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the boy" really stands true here - I'm not meant to be a farmer! But I think I'm okay with this. The week went quickly, and because I was working so hard every day, I slept a LOT. I probably needed this in preparation for the next chapter of this story, and my brief encounter with CHARLIE AND THE NORWEGIANS!

Thanks for reading, as always :)

On the Road Again

After four months of being in Australia, and the stability of having a roof over my head in Kooloobong, it is now time for me to travel... After a long day of goodbyes and see you laters, I left Wollongong at 9pm on a Saturday night, arriving in Sydney Airport around two hours later. I found a spot to settle for the night, but was soon told to move on because they were closing this section of the airport.. This happened two more times.


One of these times, I'd sat next to a lovely looking French girl. Unfortunately her English wasn't great, so communication was sparse. I tried my hardest to recall my GCSE French skills, but to no avail... I spent five minutes trying to convince her that 'ecouter' meant to study, when of course it means to listen... "I listen in Wollonong!" She must have thought I was mental. Shortly after this we were moved on, and I saved myself the embarrassment of getting lost in translation again by pretending to lose her in the moving crowd of people (shameful, I know, but I was tired and couldn't handle the humiliation!).

Six hours of drifting in and out of sleep passed slowly, and every time I woke up, I was surrounded by a different group of people - disorientating to say the least. By 6am I'd had enough of spooning my rucksack on a cold, hard floor and decided to wait in line to check in... three hours later, and I was on the plane! (I do sometime think how absurd it is for humans to put themselves into long metal tubes thousands of metres in the air...)

I would now like to take a moment to talk about the in-flight entertainment - mainly the film I watched, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II. I had not watched this film before I boarded the plane, and I now WISH I'd gone and seen it on a big screen. After the last fifteen years of my life being dominated by a fictional boy, the series had finally come to an end, and what an end it was! Tears were genuinely streaming down my face at some points (eg, when Prof McGonagall stood up against Snape, and when Neville stood up against Voldemort) - I'm pretty sure the air hostesses were debating asking whether or not I was okay, but I didn't care... Until they decided to switch off the in-flight entertainment system twenty minutes before the end of the film!! I suppose I know what happened anyway, but it would have been nice to see it haha.

Landing in Auckland, I wanted to look outside and see how beautiful it is, but I couldn't, because the man next to me was asleep against the window... Despite this, I still got a great first impression of New Zealand. Everyone I met at the airport gave me a smile. The woman at customs even taught me how to say the words in the address I was heading to (eg, Waingaro = wayne-aerrro, and Ngaruawahia = now-rrrou-ah-wahia... 'ng' is pronounced 'ny' and they roll their r's). This really put me in a good mood, and I felt ready to start my hitch hiking adventure to the Earthship!

I'd heard that the best place to hitch a ride south from Auckland airport was the Shell petrol station just outside. I went to the petrol station just outside and tried there for a while. Everyone I asked seemed to be going north. I was very confused, but then one of the staff came outside and made me realise the error of my ways by pointing me in the direction of another petrol station just down the road (the Shell one...). Shortly after arriving, I got a lift to the start of the highway (about 15 mins from where I was) from an indigenous couple called Naa and Susan. They were telling me about how they met on Cook Island when they were little and have been together ever since (awww). They also kindly offered me a place to stay if I ever find myself back in Auckland again! I'm sure I'll be taking them up on this offer soon.

Naa and Susan

Within fifteen minutes I'd got my next lift from a father and son combo called Jamie (father) and Chaz (son). The window next to where I was sat was jammed open, so the win was rushing into my face (it's like I was skydiving again, but far less exciting). On top of this, they were playing some kind of gangster rap/reggae fusion at full volume. Conversation was limited to lip reading, but I was finding it difficult to keep my eyes open with all the wind blowing in my face! They proceeded to drop me off on the side of a motorway. Crap. First rule of hitching - never hitch on a motorway. I panicked, got out of the car, thanked them, and watched them speed into the distance. I guess all I could do was stand there, and hope someone would be kind enough to pick me up!

An hour and a half had passed, and the only people who payed any attention to me were groups of people in camper vans who waved at me, or groups of Asians on bus tours who took pictures. I thought it was game over. I wondered over to a nearby cow farm to see if I could beg someone for a lift, or even give them some money. They couldn't help, but he did tell me about a better hitching spot on the nearby expressway (different from a motorway, and more importantly, less illegal to hitch from!). I wondered down, and still no one stopped for me. I decided to walk along the road in the hopes of finding a service station to stay the night if the worst came to worst. I walked along the expressway with my thumb out into the traffic in the hope that someone one would stop.

Then, around a corner, I saw a car in the hard shoulder.. 'Surely they didn't stop for me?' I questioned. I got closer, and closer, and like a miracle, one of them signaled for me to get into the car! I ran, got in, and expressed my gratitude in what can only be described as slurred noises.

Once I'd calmed down a little, I found out that the pair were a mother (Kushette, pronounced Kushi) and son (Dylan) who lived in Auckland, but were traveling down to Rotorua to see Kushette's sister and dad. They also revealed that they only picked me up because they thought I was Mediterranean and exotic, and were not expecting a pom (not the first time this has happened... Brings back memories of Bummit 2011). They told me about the relatives they have all over the world (NZ, Australia, Spain, USA, UK) and also mentioned that Kushette's dad works in Rotorua, and would be able to get me and some friends a discount if we went to see the Maori performances there! Excellent! I will definitely have to take her up on that one when the Norwegians arrive!

Kushette and Dylan

When I told them that I was staying in Ngarauwahia, they looked at each other then both said "good luck" to me! Apparently it has a bit of a reputation of being a rough place where lots of "maldis" hang out (probably the NZ equivalent of a chav, or bogan). I believe the phrase "thank God you're only there for a week!" did actually come our of Kushette's mouth!

I could not have been more grateful to Kushette and Dylan, who brought me right to the driveway of the place I was staying. We exchanged numbers and bid each other farewell. My first impressions of the place were not great (tainted by Kushette's words) with broken down cars and rubbish strewn on the sided of the roads, but when I'd walked up the hill to the Earthship, my opinion completely changed! I was greeted by the family, a noisy cockatoo, several chickens, pigs bigger than me, and a barking dog. We all introduced ourselves to each other, and I ate the cold left overs from tea (since I'd arrived a lot later than anticipated). All in all, a great, but long and tiring first day. I will write more about the Earthship in my next post. It's amazing.

Freedom!

As you may know, I have recently had exams, which were not only stressful, but annoying and got largely in the way of the student/hippy/traveller lifestyle I would prefer to be living. They didn't really get in the way of my alcohol consumption though... This was not helped by the presence of a group of Norwegians and a certain backpacking menace.

There are five Norwegian students living in Kooloobong who, like me, are on exchange. Unlike me, they study design and hence have no exams! Because of this, their last 2 weeks have been filled with parties and merriness, and when other people are having parties and being merry, I find it very difficult not to join in! And then there's Mike...

Mike is a boy from England who has spent his last year travelling around Asia and Australia with a garden gnome called Jeff. He once met Debs one night while in England, and decided that this was a good enough reason to come and visit her in Wollongong in the middle of exam season. Obviously Debs didn't want to fail her exams and needed to revise (go on Facebook, Skype, nap, browse the internet), so she practically begged me to take care of Mike for a night, which I did. We watched movies, got to know each other, drank vodka and exchanged travel stories (after a year or backpacking, my tales didn't quite seem to sound so impressive...)

Obviously, since he isn't a student, he had no exams either, so has been spending his time here wondering around meeting people and distracting them from their revision (Facebook, Skype, napping, internet browsing). Despite the fact that he may have caused me to fail an exam, I feel like we have a lot in common, we get along well and that we share a lot of the same ideals, and it is a huge shame that he's moving on and that we won't see each other for a while, but I've told him to expect a visit once we're both back in England, so it's not goodbye forever!

This is a link to the Norwegians' blog - it's written in Norwegian, but Google Translate does a good enough job of deciphering it for it to be understandable, and here is Mike's blog which is written from the perspective of his gnome companion. They're both well worth a read if you have the time to spare!

I'd like to now just take a moment to say that I've had a fantastic time since I got here in July and have loved meeting and spending time with all these new, interesting and kind people, but now, since the semester is over, I am finally free to do what I intended to do on my year abroad...


TRAVEL!!!


Uni here doesn't start again until mid February, so I have three months to see and do as much as I can! On Sunday I will be flying to New Zealand, which is where I will be until December 20th. If you're an avid reader of the blog, you'll know I'll be working on a farm for my first week which I'm really excited for, can't wait to get away from city life. After that, I'll be meeting up with the Norwegians somewhere on the North Island, and I expect I'll be with them until they leave, at which point I'll go to the South Island to do some exploring and self discovery (cliché alert...), and possibly do the highest bungee jump in the southern hemisphere! (I seem to have developed a taste for dangerous activities that involve potential death)

When I get back to Australia, I will be going to Albury to spend Christmas with Flic and her family with some of the other English exchange students, but I've not planned much further than that... There is talk of Sydney for New Year, and the possible purchase of a car after that... Whatever happens, I'll be sure to let you all know and keep you updated!

Missing all of you back home dearly, thanks for reading! Would love to know what you guys are getting up to and how you're surviving without me, so give me an email or Facebook or something :)

A birthday to remember

Twenty one years ago, I escaped the womb and burst into the world. That's right, yesterday was my 21st birthday - and what a birthday it was. What with twenty first birthdays being such a big milestone in the UK (no idea why, probably something we stole from the Yanks) I decided that I had to make it special, and to do that I decided to jump out of a plane at 14,000 feet.

Like most of my plans, I didn't think this would become a reality when I first thought of it, but I asked around and the four Norwegian girls said that they would do it with me (Noor didn't because he said he 'didn't feel like dying yet')! We booked a week in advance and every day before we went I checked the weather forecast. I was terrified that, like almost every other birthday I've had, it would pour down with rain, which the forecast said it would - and that would mean that we wouldn't have been able to do the jump. Fortunately, the sun was shining and there were hardly any clouds in the sky!

The girls came over for a birthday breakfast of pancakes and then we left! We arrived at the office and had to sign several legal forms ... "I understand that I will be in very close proximity to the tandem jumper" ... "Possible outcomes: death, disability, broken bones, etc." - so reassuring! We then put on our harnesses and had a quick tutorial of what to do when we jumped out. Two seconds later we had all forgotten because we were very, very excited!

A short bus ride later we'd arrived at a small airport where the blue and yellow plane was waiting and the eight of us doing the jump crammed ourself into it with our instructors and then we set off. When the plane left the ground that's when it started to get real, and I started to get nervous, but the fear was soon overridden by excitement and admiration of the view we were getting. When we'd finally climbed to 14,000 feet (about 4,200 m) and just like that, the door was open and people were dropping out of the plane. Surprisingly I wasn't scared or nervous at this point - I was just pumped and couldn't wait to get out there! I was the seventh out of the plane and oh my word - what an amazing feeling. Suddenly all my exam stress and other worries were gone and even though the wind was rushing past my ears so fast that I couldn't even hear myself screaming (which I did... a lot) it was kind of peaceful! 

After a while of spinning and tumbling in the air my instructor pulled the chord and the parachute opened. Five minutes later and we'd landed. Flic, Casey, Tash and Mike had come to see us land, and when they asked how it was we just couldn't explain! The only thing we could say was that it was amazing, but none of us could quite put the experience into words, it's something you just have to do (so if you get the chance, then DO IT!!).

Later that evening, my house mate Katy finally had her charity waxing. At the start of the semester, she asked around and got five of the boys who lived in Kooloobong to agree to potentially get their legs waxed - and I was one of them. People would pay money to vote for whoever they wanted this to happen to, and the money would go towards equipment to teach people to swim in the Maldives because they've developed a fear of the ocean.

On the night, it turned out that Hamish had won (or lost) and had his legs waxed, so my legs were safe. Unfortunately for me, I'd agreed to get my chest waxed if Katy could raise at least $50 on the night, and she raised well over that. Once they were finished with H's legs, I was up. The pain was unreal! I finally understand why Steve Carell screamed "KELLY CLARKSON" when he had it done in The 40 Year Old Virgin.

After the waxing, a few of us who either didn't have exams, or whose exams weren't until next week decided that we should celebrate my coming of age. So Flic, Nat, Casey, Mike, my newly smooth chest and I finished a bottle of tequila, and had plenty of goon to wash it down... Instead of going out, we ended up just stopping on a field near our accommodation and sang, danced and drank until the early morning. It was probably the most drunk I've been since I got to Australia... What a great night! Needless to say I was feeling pretty fragile this morning, but a quick dip in the sea solved that one.

Great birthday, thank you for everyone who made it special :)

"Sorry, I'm foreign!"

Today I had my first exam at Wollongong University. I'd revised hard, and felt reasonably prepared, but since the readers of this blog seem to revel in my misfortune, I thought I'd tell you a short story about a recent blunder.

In an exam at Sheffield Uni, you're allowed to sit wherever you want, as long as you have the right question paper in front of you. It's not quite like that over here. Little did I know, each person has a set place, which is listed outside of the exam room. Obviously no one told me, so I just sat in a random place (the question papers hadn't been distributed yet, so I just sat somewhere near some course mates).

A few minutes later, someone came to my desk and said "Excuse me, I think I'm supposed to be sat here?" ... I looked back at them, dazed and confused... "eh?" was my reply. Everyone (including course mates and other people I didn't know) looked at me and started giggling, and eventually Sian told me that you're supposed to sit in an allocated seat. To much embarrassment, I got up, span around a few times looking for an available seat, before heading for the door to look at the list, but before I got there my course mates were shouting "you're behind Ibby! You're behind Ibby!!" like a pantomime show.

As I headed towards my proper place, I felt the need to say very loudly "Sorry! I'm foreign!!" - at which point everyone laughed again and I started sweating profusely. After an unfortunate, but comical start to my first exam, everyone settled down and the exam started. An hour and a half later (and an hour and 45 minutes before the exam was due to end) I was lying on my balcony reflecting on how much of an idiot I am...

Harbourfront, Halloween and Hiking

It has come to the end of the semester. Everyone has finished lectures, and there is a sense of relief in the atmosphere as people get their last assignments handed in. To celebrate, a posh three course meal was organised for the residents of Kooloobong at the harbourfront restaurant last Friday. It was a great chance for everyone to get dressed up and look nice for a change! There was no choice in what meal you had, it was kind of "pot luck"  because the waitresses just put random dishes in front of random people, and if you didn't like it you just had to find someone willing to swap with you. I feel I was lucky with my meals, and had calamari to start, chicken, ham, cheese, mashed potato for my main, and cheesecake for dessert (and also Tora's profiteroles because she wasn't hungry anymore - result!). After the meal, we took the party back to Kooloobong, and partied on until the early hours of Saturday morning.

So... It's that time of year again, where everyone paints their faces and looks like an idiot, but no one minds. There were birds, pumpkins, clowns, catholic school girls and Miss Norway. Halloween is barely ever celebrated in Australia, so we decided to show them how its done (even though it is my least favourite holiday of the year - mainly because I hate wearing face paint)

The boys hosted the party in their new house, and fun was had by all. The night started early (about 3pm for me) and everyone was sat outside to avoid overheating as there was a nice breeze, but this was soon ruined by a downpour of torrential rain and a quick lightning show. The party migrated inside, but we did let it ruin our spirits (or the goon punch). The table was used for beer pong, and in the lounge room, drinking games were being played - there were some decent games for the one of the first times since I got here! It's nice to not play ring of fire for once!

After a quick trip home to Skype my two favourite Stephs, I went back to rejoin the party, but I was so tired from a week of assignments and from the night before that it wasn't long until I passed out on the sofa! I decided it was probably a good idea for me to go home, so I did, but was apparently found a few hours later asleep on Noor's couch - no idea why, and no recollection of this haha

The next night, Halloween was celebrated with some of my course mates at the Outback Steakhouse. It was expensive, but bloody good. I donned my pumpkin outfit again (no face paint this time) and had a great meal with a nice, cold lager. After the meal, we went back to Thom's place (who has a sward, a bow and arrow, a library, and many many more cool things) and played card games into the night, and it was great to not be drunk (for once)!

The next day I made an effort to get up early and actually managed to make it to the top of Mt Keira! It was the first time I'd managed to get up there and the view was amazing. It just seemed magical as blue butterflies danced around my head. On the railings there were padlocks, where people had engraved their names and the names of their loved one. This must be something that happens all over the world, because I saw it in Ljubljana when I went, and there are definitely other places in Europe where this is done. I suppose it represents the never ending love that the two people have for each other, and its all very sweet.

Anyway, once I'd had enough of taking in the view, I was tempted to try and hitch a lift down with someone who'd driven up, but decided that I should just walk. It's a lot harder on the way down than it is on the way up - mainly because I can see how far I'm going to fall if I slip, and I'm not great with heights! I made it down in half the time it took for me to get up, with only a few minor scrapes.

That's all for now! Don't expect too many posts in the next few weeks... Exams will soon be upon us so all my time will be taken up with revision, but I'll try and blog before NZ since I don't think I'll be able to do one over there! x