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 :)

WWOOFing in New Zealand

So... Charlie and I are going to New Zealand in November and want to spend a week on a farm, but we just can't decide which one! So I am going to ask the people (you) what your opinion is. We've got a short list of 6 farms, which I will list below. Please post a comment and let me know which one you think we should go to. Tried to include all the info from their sites. Much appreciated guys!


Cleavedale Farms

Commercial dairy farm milking 250 Jersey cows with home orchard and garden. The farm operates at two locations. Dry stock are run on a 40ha farm adjacent to the Waihou River and Kaimai-Mamaku State Forest Park (trout fishing and hunting). The milking cows are farmed on a 80ha family farm bordering Matamata in the Waikato. We are central to many tourist locations including Rotorua, Taupo, Waitomo and are only 1.5 hours from Auckland.

Isobel and Dick Worley

Te Aroha is at the south end of the Coromandel, beside the Kaimai range. Planted 200 young native trees and shrubs in half acre garden which is at the bottom of Mount Te Aroha. Need help looking after them. Also building steps, grass-cutting, weed-bashing, tree management, and household tasks. We are retired, English, and have wwoofed in NZ ourselves. Non-smokers only. Accomodation in separate converted jail with toilet and shower. Eat with us. Hot pools 3 mins on foot. First contact by email please

KandoiT

Great for Wwoofers who enjoy nature as we back onto the Hakarimata Scenic Reserve with its large Kauri, Rata and Rimu that tower over a canopy of tawa, kohekohe, hinau, rewarewa, mangeao, pukatea and manuka. (Some of the nicest bush in the Waikato). We are in the final stages of building NZ's 1st "Earthship" home (a house built from car tyres and other recycled materials). A remarkable piece of land, (1 hour south of Auckland) with excellent views overlooking the Waikato.

Nga Toka Mapuna

We try to live by environmental principles and are developing a sustainable system on our property. We welcome others who have skills and advice to offer and who can help us with out projects. We have a 8.5 acre block at Waitomo Caves with 2 goats and some chickens. We also have a bach at Kawhia beach.

Woofing activities include looking after animals, tending gardens and some small maintenance activities. Local regional activities include caving, blackwater rafting, rock climbing, fishing, hiking, nature trips. Its a beautiful region. Only 1 hour to the beach and 2 hours to the mountains.

Gorilla Hut

We have here what I hope is a great place for travellors to visit, experience and relax. We have a few projects on the go with organic veges over the summer and a fleet of vans/caravans being renovated, along with other maintenance and hands on jobs.

The Gorilla Hut get's it's name from my son and I's stuffed monkey collection. Set up in the 'Bar' it creates a great friendly environment for people to socialise. I spent over 8yrs travelling myself and the hope of this place was to offer likeminded people a base where on the otherside of the world they may still be able to call it home, as I had the opportunity to do in several countries. We also have a fleet of vans/campers etc which eventually will become a budget rental business, so if you're looking for a vehicle for short term or wanting some advice on purchasing vehicles please feel free to ask. At home I cook most every night (once for 24 people) and over the past year the only complaints we've had is that everyone ends up putting on weight. Many friendships and travel companions have been formed here and my son and I hope that one day we will meet almost everybody that has become part of our family once again. You can view past friends and family via 'the gorilla hut' on facebook. All the best, Damon and Gabriel

Inclover

Hi. I have a 240 cow dairy farm just north of matamata. (hobbiton) near the beautiful kaimai ranges. My location is close to hot pools, great waterfall and nice walkways. I live here with my dog Storm and cat. Accomadation is excellant and I enjoy great fresh food. I have a relaxed approach and think it is important that you enjoy your stay. Spacious rooms, mtb and spa are avail for your use. I am a keen sailor, diver and have a yacht near Waiheke. Jobs are varied and interesting. These may include milking, feeding calves.

I enjoy meeting overseas people and appreciate the help around the farm. . Hopefully you will learn new skills. 15 minutes away is the famous 'Hobbiton' from the Lord of the Rings

Hopefully you can now see why we're having so much trouble deciding! Let us know what you think, cheers guys! x

What a way to make a living

Well, I realise I've been a little quiet on here recently, but I've just had nothing interesting to blog about really! The workload here at The Gong is pretty excessive compared to Sheffield, for example, back at home I would have to do one pre/post lab per week, and last year only three of the post labs were full formal write ups. Out here, I have two or three post labs or assessments due every week, and every post lab is a formal write up. The reason for this is because each subject has its own lab over here (instead of a big lab module back home) and there is no communication between the subjects because people can take whatever combination of classes they want... On top of this, I have mid-session exams coming up this week, which we don't have in Sheffield, so I'm having to revise on top of everything else. All in all, the work required for one semester is...

17 lab reports
2 spectroscopy assignments
1 literature review
1 presentation based on literature review
3 mid-session exams and...
9 hours of lecture content every week

So I've not really been able to experience Australia as I'd like to during term time, but don't worry, I still jump at any chance of getting my groove on and partying. Even managed to go see a band last week called Architecture in Helsinki, so if you haven't heard of them I'd recommend them! They're an Australian band and have been around for a while - no idea if they ever made it to the UK, I thought I'd heard of them but all of their music sounded new to me so who knows :p

In other news, Spring is finally here, and I can definitely feel it getting warmer (especially because of that gaping hole in the ozone layer). Beginning to spend more and more days lazing in the sun and not getting much else done, but I'm completely okay with that (I'm also okay with getting a hefty tan)! I also got round to booking my flights to New Zealand, and I'll be there between the 20th November and 20th December! Getting pretty excited, hoping to do some WWOOFing while I'm over there (Willing Workers on Organic Farms - work on a farm in exchange for food and shelter), so I'm in the process of picking out a farm to do it on!

Summer in the southern hemisphere is going to be awesome, and I can't wait to enjoy every second of it!